AAR Columbia, Maine. October 2 & 3, 2010

[TOMINCT]

 Another great Appleseed at the PRFGCA. The weather cooperated fully with it being warm, mostly clear skies and no rain for the weekend. There were a total of 15 shooters that took advantage of it. The shooters were a great bunch with improvement in scores noticed throughout the weekend. After Sat. lunch and the first strike positions and cadence were covered with 3 AQT's fired before the close of the day. These produced 2 Riflemen, Hazen with a 215 and Jacques with a 219. The 2nd and third strikes were told before the end of the day.

  Sunday commenced with AQT's and RFAQT's thru the day, with a break for lunch and KD instruction. Before we fired many AQT's we had another Rifleman, Larry with a 229. This with an open sighted 10/22 BTW. Great shooting! KD instruction was run on 2 ranges with 100 yards for rimfire and 200 yards for the CF shooters. Throughout the weekend the shooters were eager to learn seemed to grasp most of the instruction and have some great progress over the 2 days. Larry, our most recent RM, also took up an range hat. Plus one for the state of Maine!

.There was some serious scrambling undertaken by SeanO and Larry, the club prez and BOTG for the event. I believe there were 5 or 6 cancelations rec'd in the week prior and due to the extra effort by these two we had several last minute sign ups and one walk on. Great job guys, it made the difference!

Special thanks goes out to crak, SeanO and The Old Guide for getting it done. Also, to Pat for her administrative work and Dick for squaring away sight in and other small issues with the rifles. Great job everyone. It looks as though there may be another Appleseed at Pleasant River before the end of the year. There should be photos soon.

[The Old Guide]

The week before the Columbia shoot, SeanO hitchhiked 18 miles to a church sponsored fishing and shooting event. While there he recruited a couple of shooters for Columbia. Then he hitchhiked 18 miles back home. If you don't know SeanO, he's older than dirt and broke his leg in July. He can't drive yet. He was going back down to southern Maine after the Columbia shoot to get his car which he has not driven since July. SeanO was working the line at Columbia. I was born before WWII and SeanO is a lot older than I am.

[SeanO]

Well, I've got to hand it to all you young whippa-snapp-uhs - ya done good.

I think this shoot took the prize for unflagging energy, both from the crew and the shooters.  Even Saturday's almost 11-hour day prompted no complaints.  Everybody was up for whatever we handed out.

Nobody at this shoot would ever have guessed that this was Tom's first as a Shoot Boss.  He's a longtime firearms guy, and it shows.  It's great seeing a young fella step up and do well.

And it's always a pleasure having Crak at a shoot here in the Northeast when he can fit one into his busy schedule out West.  It's a great comfort to know that his 40-plus shoot's worth of experience is readily available.

Young Roger is comin' up through the Instructor ranks in stellar fashion.  Both he and his wife Pat are a terrific addition to the team - she as Administrator, doing the work that Shoot Bosses don't want to do.  And she's a legal citizen!

Gunsmith Dick Hill (who I usually introduce as "my great and good friend, Dave Hall" - it's an Old Guy joke) took care of all the noodgy little firearms problems.  When he's around, instructors are relieved of one of the biggest annoyances on any shoot.  It was only poetic justice that his 15-year-old grandson shot Rifleman.  Hazen's a chip off the Ol' Block....

Larry Balchen, the president of the club at Columbia, is a wonderfully enthusiastic booster of Appleseed.  He's also one of the busiest people I know, so I never thought he'd have time to take part in a shoot.  He surprised me by doing just that, but he didn't surprise me at all when he showed steady improvement over the two days and finally shot a 229, as noted above.  As good as he is with a rifle, he didn't come on like a hotshot.  He gladly took correction, and said that he had learned a lot.  The perfect example of the teachable attitude we hope for in all our Appleseeders.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Best to all,  Sean O'

[oldford]

I was there. I remain a shooter. However, I have ordered a stack of Fred's AQT targets. With practice, I'll be back.
Sincere thanks to the excellent instructors for their patience.

Best Regards, Eric

[Boreas]

Great shoot guys. Thanks for helping me unlearn a lifetime of bad habits in two days. The membership voted to approve the December 4/5 shoot last night. See you there.
-LB