AAR - Calverton Oct. 23-24

[kDan]

I just got back and I'm too tired to report on all our great instructors and wonderful shooters and charming local hosts, but I want to open this up for anybody that has a bit more energy than I do.  I figure some of you must be half as excited as I am on how well this went, and how this STRONG ISLAND is a monster just waking up.  I love you guys.

Can we get rockers that say "Long Island"?  It's kind of like a state - it's like as big as Japan - and who knows some day.  I kid I kid

I'll get some numbers up here soon, and I have some photos too.  

I know b9 also has photos (thanks for coming down, bro) and I know Josey Wales has a ton of information on the center-fire line which he ran by himself for two days!  So good not to have to listen to that Queens accent for at least one week-end.    Can I give this man a Green Hat yet?

I'm not even gonna get started on the rest right now cuz I'd have to spend like two hours and I couldn't do it justice and I wouldn't be asleep.

VietVet did manage to set dates with Harry our humble host - one a month starting in December through like 2019.  My man that VietVet.  We are a go the week-end of April 16-17.  But we've got a lot to do this winter.

Modification - I gotta at least say this...  54 shooters Sat (a NYS AS record I believe)...  44 shooters Sunday...  4 (5?) rifleman... and 3 new IIT's...  and I will mention BigMatt and Dakota, both calling the line with the kind of solid instructor instincts that I have come to recognize in a quality Shoot Boss.

Thanks also to Odin for coming down and joining the land-lubber Calverton Alumni.  I look forward to hearing what you think of us barbarians.  B9 can't stay away, Sgt Rock loves EVERYBODY, Westie's in the middle east or west, Crak is like from here or something, and we all know what Chainsaw thinks of New Yorkers.  

[ramit]

Again, can't thank the crew enough and don't want to leave anyone out, so I'll leave it at that... all Green, Red and Orange hats.
Thanks for asking me to be part of the crew, I hope to be able to up hold and match the fine examples set by the crew that has been making it happen at Calverton.

Matt and Mike did  a GREAT job calling the line as new IITs, and leaving me some tough acts to follow as a new IIT myself...


I have a ton of pix on a local forum, and I'll dump them here too..


Photos, from Saturday Oct 23, from morning checking, through morning instruction, through the day.
I was LSO/ IIT on the right side of the line Saturday.

The a set of photos from Sunday, I was LSO/IIT on the left side of the line.

Click on the pix for a larger view...


Saturday


































Sunday....

[sgtrock]

I wish I could have been there,
I will be there again before too long,,,
2 Lines at Calverton has got to be awesome, Job Well Done Guys
Can't wait for the pictures

And a Special Thanks to Harry, A Friend to Appleseed On The Island,,,

sgtrock

[sgtrock]

Wow that was fast

Nice pictures ramit

What a Great Group of Americans on the range doing what the founders had intended for us to do,,, Enjoy One of Our Freedoms

Nice Job

sgtrock

[bravo juliet mike]

I'm having trouble uploading pics so here's a haiku instead:

Trying to post pics
Photobucket not working
will try tomorrow.

[sgtrock]

I just got back and I'm too tired to report on all our great instructors and wonderful shooters and charming local hosts, but I want to open this up for anybody that has a bit more energy than I do.  I figure some of you must be half as excited as I am on how well this went, and how this STRONG ISLAND is a monster just waking up.  I love you guys.

Can we get rockers that say "Long Island"?  It's kind of like a state - it's like as big as Japan - and who knows some day.  I kid I kid

I'll get some numbers up here soon, and I have some photos too.  

I know b9 also has photos (thanks for coming down, bro) and I know Josey Wales has a ton of information on the center-fire line which he ran by himself for two days!  So good not to have to listen to that Queens accent for at least one week-end.    Can I give this man a Green Hat yet?

I'm not even gonna get started on the rest right now cuz I'd have to spend like two hours and I couldn't do it justice and I wouldn't be asleep.

VietVet did manage to set dates with Harry our humble host - one a month starting in December through like 2019.  My man that VietVet.  We are a go the week-end of April 16, 17.  But we've got a lot to do this winter.

Modification - I gotta at least say this...  54 shooters Sat (a NYS AS record I believe)...  44 shooters Sunday...  4 (5?) rifleman... and 3 new IIT's...  and I will mention BigMatt and Dakota, both calling the line with the kind of solid instructor instincts that I have come to recognize in a quality Shoot Boss.

Thanks also to Odin for coming down and joining the land-lubber Calverton Alumni.  I look forward to hearing what you think of us barbarians.  B9 can't stay away,

Sgt Rock loves EVERYBODY

, Westie's in the middle east or west, Crak is like from here or something, and we all know what Chainsaw thinks of New Yorkers.  

[ramit]

tnx stgrock...

I missed snapping pix of those getting patches and all but one getting an orange hat, my apologies to them.

I was able to snap some candid shots as they happened between duties or during longer courses of fire.

But KDan was on the job and on the ball as always, so he has them coming.

To me, it seemed there was a larger than normal very new shooters on the line, which was great to see they selected an Appleseed event to give shooting a try. Even better to see that they heard of Appleseed.

[B9]

I have the Rifleman patch and IIT hat pictures. Will put them up later tonight.

[VietVet]

Calverton seems to get BIGGER and BETTER with every event.
Congrats and thanks to ALL involved in this Shoot.

The "Calverton Crew" is steadily growing along with the number of shooters at each event.

Special thanks to our Red Hats, kDan, B9, Josey Wales and to all the IIT's involved. Can't remember all we had by days end so just a overall thank you everyone.

Shoot went off very well. If not mistaken this is now the Largest Shoot in New York ever.

The weather was perfect and it showed by the way the shooters progressed as time went on.

Thank you Shooters for making this a success and FUN!!!

I'll jump back in here later and post the photos I have.

[ramit]

I have the Rifleman patch and IIT hat pictures. Will put them up later tonight.

sorry Ed, I saw you running with a camera too, it's all coming back to me now, this weekend was a blur to me last night and still this morning. And I didn't have one drop of beer last night... just some chips and salsa after dinner.

[kDan]

Trying to post pics
Photobucket not working
will try tomorrow.

camera in trunk
car is like two blocks away
clipboard is there too

[Dakota]

Had a great time again, hard work, but all worth it.
Thanks to all the instructors for their support and guidance, and thanks to all the shooters for coming out.
Getting people to show up is a BIG step!
Hopefully I'll get to shoot again once in a while, I want a "Winter Rifleman" patch too!
(I guess I better start rehearsing the history, I'll be up sooner or later.)

See you all in December!

[ramit]

Had a great time again, hard work, but all worth it.
Thanks to all the instructors for their support and guidance, and thanks to all the shooters for coming out.
Getting people to show up is a BIG step!
Hopefully I'll get to shoot again once in a while, I want a "Winter Rifleman" patch too!
(I guess I better start rehearsing the history, I'll be up sooner or later.)

See you all in December!

If I have the "handle / person" right... great working with you, did a great job calling the line for a 1st time, you and Matt gave me a tough act to follow in Dec...

[Josey Wales]

..WOW.. .. What an event..
..The weather was perfect so perfect that on Saturday I could leave a piece of paper on the table and return later to still find it in the same spot = no wind...plenty of sunshine with a touch of clouds to make a nice balance of sun and shade, and NO RAIN!!!!!....
..2 separate lines.. Rim fire and Center fire, I was SBIT(Shoot Boss in training) on the Center fire side, and worked with 14 shooters on Saturday and 12 on Sunday.. 3 Rifleman patches on my side and 2 new(took the Orange Hat) IIT's on my side, one 15 year old who received the Patriot Patch with a good old fashion SgtRock speech attached to it.. Shot groups were good from the start with only fine tuning to do with my side and we did it as a team..
..The Team; Odin was the Line Boss and did an excellent job indeed!  Frankieboy(13year old IIT) and Mike were our RSO's for Saturday they both were diligent! Thanks guys!! and Sunday we had Brad and Frankieboy with some trailing with Curtis our new IIT from this shoot..Great Job Guys and Thank You for all You Do!!!!!
..It felt great to be a SBIT and have the responsibility to put forth this great program, glad to be apart of it all..
..Thanks to kDan for starting this fire, thanks to VietVet for adding tons of wood(and a place to lay our heads at night), thanks to B9 for lots of things but particularly coming to Long Island and working with us!!.  All our good IIT's, I thank you  for you service some seasoned some new it is all good, we work together and we will achieve great things..
..To all our Patron's both seasoned and new thank you for spending your time with us, it is a pleasure to teach and serve you all, with out YOU there is no Appleseed Project......so Thank You........
..............Strength & Honor.......................Josey Wales...................

[B9]

[Altarboy]

great shoot. i had a lot of fun doing my first shoot as an iit congrats  to all new riflemen and the ones that took the hat thank you. i enjoyed telling the story of samuel whittimore and death on a pale horse (cant remember his name) over on the centerfire line. Odin did a great job calling the line. and it was good to work with brad (bravo Juliet mike) , ladder 49, and josey wales. i helped out Eric on Saturday and it was great to see that he got the patch with his AR. on sunday i spent a lot of time telling that one guy Jim with the bolt action .308  GET THAT LEG UP, LOOSE GRIP, DONT DRAG WOOD. and overall a great shoot and i hope everyone enjoyed it.

[Josey Wales]

great shoot. i had a lot of fun doing my first shoot as an iit congrats  to all new riflemen and the ones that took the hat thank you. i enjoyed telling the story of samuel whittimore and death on a pale horse (cant remember his name) over on the centerfire line. Odin did a great job calling the line. and it was good to work with brad (bravo Juliet mike) , ladder 49, and josey wales. i helped out Eric on Saturday and it was great to see that he got the patch with his AR. on sunday i spent a lot of time telling that one guy Jim with the bolt action .308  GET THAT LEG UP, LOOSE GRIP, DONT DRAG WOOD. and overall a great shoot and i hope everyone enjoyed it.

..fastfrank777 you did an outstanding job young man.........Bless.................JW...................
..Death on a Pale Horse is Hezekiah Wyman..

[Odin]

This was my first time at Calverton and I will definetly be back.   This was an experience I won't soon forget:

Lets start with the weather.  Saturday - not too cold, not too warm, dry not even the threat of rain.  Then Sunday a little overcast, maybe a little nippy when the clouds and breeze appeared but otherwise another nice day.  It was just horrible.  Where was the rain or snow?  Where was the freezing rain?  I would settle even for some mist.  I'm kind of getting annoyed, since I've accepted my orange hat the weather at the appleseeds I have attended has continued to improve.  Following this trend the shoot at Burlington Flats coming in March will be clear skies and in the 70s (and yes I'm hoping to invoke a jinx and get a snow storm).

My fellow instructors:  They all treated me like family, and I especially want to thank Josey Wales and Viet Vet who let me stay in their homes.  I was the line boss on the Center fire line on Saturday and Sunday (before I had to leave at least) and let me say that my RSOs (Bravo Juliet Mike, Frank and Mike) did an outstanding job.  B9, always a pleasure and Kdan it was nice to finally meet you, and the same goes to the rest of the instructors that were at Calverton.  I look forward to working with all of you again, and I hope to see a lot of you at the IBC at Burlington Flats that is coming up in January.

Now to the best part of this Appleseed, the shooters.  They all did an amazing job.  I'm happy to see that not only did we get even more riflemen but some new IITs as well.  New York is growing rapidly and we can use all the help we can get.  It was an honor to be apart of the largest New York Appleseed to date.  I expect that we will be seeing even larger shoots down there in the near future.  For those that didn't achieve rifleman this time around, don't give up.  All of you are well on your way.  Practice and the score will come.  Remember a rifleman is persistent.

[VietVet]

Photos already posted pretty much cover this shoot.
We did have this one shooter that tried to make the score ALL day.
He was pretty good but just couldn't get there.

I just can't remember his name.

Can anyone identify him??

He does look familiar.........

[sgtrock]

AAAHHH the double edge sword rears its head huh,,,, Maybe next time brother,,, I like that hair cut though!!!!

[kDan]

He's got a hot dog bun bag in his back pocket so we know he had lunch, hence the belly hangin' out.  I worked with this guy.  He's alright.  Kind of a snob, but you know these New Yorkers.  He shot a 221 on his second aqt after grouping a minute low first time on the slow-fire prone.  See the scope?  He didn't want to make a stink about it.  Plus, you should have seen him picking apart those pumpkin chunks.  Not a bad prone position but he prefers sitting.  Could get that knee up I guess.  Funky cheek weld cuz that scope won't move forward anymore.  Needs an extension on the  stock.  Stoner, you've seen his 25m aqt's with a k98, haven't you?  Let's not talk about KD until he gets that new Burris out of the box and locked down.

Anyway, sorry it took my so long to get back to this but I leave stuff here and there and then my computer doesn't download photos and then I'm blah blah blah.  If you notice in the past, I usually don't get to an AAR until Wednesday anyway, so...  this takes like five hours...  boohoo.

According to my paperwork (which was done by Josey Wales, so we can trust it), we had 55 shooters on Saturday morning.  Josey ran the center-fire line and b9 ran the rim-fire.  I spent most of my time with the rim-fires cuz there were 40 of them and that's where most of the new shooters were.  Big Matt called the rim-fire line on Saturday and ran it like he was born with a clipboard in his hand (that's a funny picture).  Seriously, if you knew how long I've been trying to get a hat on this guy's head, you would understand how satisfying it was to see this happen.   Odin called the center-fire line and every time I went over there, he, JW, Lad62der, and FastFrank made it clear that I was not needed.  I like the way this two line thing is working out.  Even that big pioneer-looking wooden wall is cool, whatever it is.  On Sunday a new shooter set up an AR15 on the rim-fire line - a minor lack of over-sight - and MAN was that an eye opener when I was walking around with my ears off!  I think the big boys get a kick out of having their own line as well.  14 shooters on that line with 4 or 5 instructors is pretty good.

I know it's all I seem to talk about but I am so proud and psyched about how well Long Island is taking off.  We've got the BEST group of shooters, and a solid group of Instructors - a new Red Hat oops I mean SHOOT BOSS! - Josey Wales.  December 11-12 I think we'll have another new Red Hat in VietVet.  We've picked up 10 (TEN!) IIT's at the last two events.  This week-end we added four.  Congratulations and Thanks guys!  FastFrank, Ramit, Big Matt, and Dakota all came back from September's event to prove they were serious.  Dakota came out of nowhere (two events - then a hat) and called the line like a Red Hat on Sunday, and Ramit was on his feet all week-end engaging shooters; he's next with the stop watch in his hand.  FastFrank was on the center-fire line and I was able to watch him for a bit - no worries there, good stuff.  He's confident, capable and very dedicated to becoming this country's youngest Red Hat.  Lad62der proved once again that he's on his way - another excellent Instructor.  Odin made IIT3 and we'll see you in December, brother.  Nice work, Sgtrock bringing him up.  

Our regular crew, VietVet, Bravo Juliet Mike and Calverton Nor' Easter '09 veteran B9 all came through again.  I think VV and BJM have been at every Calverton event.  First as shooters, pretty soon after as IIT's.  BJM brought a grill for hot dogs too.  And VV had the traditional Calverton Zombie pumpkins - thanks.  B9 is hooked.  He'll be back.

Now our shooters.  Wow.  We get about half return shooters and half new shooters at each event.  Many of these returns are multi-event shooters and several of them are Rifleman.  This is nice, but what it's about is getting out there.  It's not about the patch.  I have been pushing hats on some of you, but you can relax a bit, cuz I don't think we're as desperate as we were at the beginning of this season.  We still want you, still need you, but we can concentrate now on tightening up what we've got so far in our Instructor Corps so our shooters can have an even better experience.  That's what it's about - the experience and what you take away from it in your heart.  I can think of at least six other IITs that were not here this week-end but will definitely be back.  A couple of hats are sitting in people's closets but we're not gonna worry about that.  There I go talking about the Instructor Corps again - sorry.  Seriously, the whole group out here at Calverton is like a team.  Instructors and shooters alike are part of a community, similar to some other events I've been too, but there are a lot of us, and we're on Long Island!  Nobody wants to come out here.  It's pretty cool in a way.  Let's go fishing in the spring folks!  I need to know who's got boats.    I make a point of telling our shooters they should make the trip to another AS on the mainland if for no other reason than to shoot KD (known distance).  During my ballistics and long range discussion element, I saw a lot of folks ears perking up when b9 told them that the twenty minutes I had just spent with them translates to two days of shooting if you do it right (Fort Drum).

We get a lot of women at Calverton.  I have already spoken to Savageshootr, Senior Instructor and one of our top "Ladies Only" event coordinators in addition to one of the busiest folks in the program and we have set a tentative date for a May 28-29 All girl event.  That may not be good - it's Memorial Day week-end, but we will re-visit this.  It will mean female Instructors from the North East and a few from other parts of the country will descend upon our humble sand-pits and teach a group of all female shooters for a two day Appleseed.  Let's see if we can't get two lines together for this one.  Stay tuned.

We've got a lot of young people at Calverton.  Not just "kids", but shooters in their 20's who seem pretty happy to have these events to work on their skills.  We need these shooters more than just about any others.  It's one thing to bring your child (please do!), it's another for a young person to leave the party or the facebook or the Halo3 or brunch on Avenue A and get out here to lay around in the dirt with a bunch of ugly old geezers like me and the fellas (TJ wasn't there).  Congratulations to all who make it to Appleseed.  I like to see people and think to myself, "when I was their age, these people wouldn't have even spoken to me."  There is hope.

Some pictures (sorry for repeats):

I'm having to move farther and farther away for this one.  Soon I won't make the sprint.


RIFLEMAN (some repeats, and steven is up top)

Rifleman on Saturday, IIT on Sunday

also a new IIT

NYRattlesnake about to get wet (another new IIT)

Can I suggest a different hat?  ...say, one in orange?


New Hats

Ramit (stepped up in September, worked all week end)

Dakota (same deal)

and of course Big Matt

FastFrank777


Random

B9

Ramit

the Godfather

Nobody get in Josey's way!







Our Liberty Pole




























just too goofy to pass up

[B9]

Great pictures kDan!

You can see the bags under my eyes that the 2 hours at 1 mph on the GWB and Cross Bronx gave me.

[kDan]

I was going to remark on how handsome you looked, but you're right.  You could use a mud peel.

Note to visiting instructors; don't take the cross bronx.

[ramit]

Great pix guys!
tnx.

[RATTLESNAKE]

Yes great pics ..... I am still trying to figure out who was more excited, Big Matt or myself.

[bravo juliet mike]

I still can't get Photobucket to cooperate, but there's plenty of pics up anyway. I had a great time working both the rim-fire and center-fire lines. I really like the two line setup that we have there. As a matter of fact I like just about everything at Calverton. Yeah, it's austere, and some grass and running water would be nice, but there's just something about taking a hole in the ground and turning it into a viable range. Besides if we had a heated/air conditioned clubhouse I think I'd get spoiled.

My friend that came out this weekend had a great time. I didn't see her Saturday morning redcoat but she almost cleaned her Sunday evening one. She dropped one shot on the 300 yard bull and shot a 202 on an AQT. That's one very dangerous cook that will be back in the springtime.

As always, it was a pleasure to work with the Calverton crew and the upstaters that made the trek down here. You guys did a great job and I'm looking forward to seeing you again in December.

[kDan]

I still can't get Photobucket to cooperate, but there's plenty of pics up anyway.

Are you kidding!  You take the best ones Brad.  Post post post.  Look I'm still posting pics.  

These boots are older than FastFrank.  God's truth, they are.

This is Chris trying to figure out how his brother shot a 236 with iron sights.

[bravo juliet mike]

I'm working on it!

[bravo juliet mike]

Victory is mine!

That's a long firing line!


Big Matt throwing down some serious history. Awesome job Matt.


kDan listening to the story, or taking a nap... You decide.


Look at all of those shooters, and that's just the rim-fire side.


King of the hill.


Steve getting his patch.


Shooters impressed with their improvement.


A very dangerous cook.