Better late than......

[therealsteamer]

Not much notice on this but.....  We have a repeat Appleseeder / Rifleman who has asked for assistance with a project...

He has set up a one day outdoors event through his Church's Mens Group.  One of the days events will be an introduction to Firearm Safety and Rifle Marksmanship...  He was expecting around twenty people to sign up and at last count has bloomed to more than FIFTY....   

Due to unexpected circumstances at work I am unable to be free that day to help out...  I've passed on my rifles and other material support, HOWEVER anyone who can make a presence at the event would be most greatly appreciated.  This is big opportunity to 7th step the program and give a little taste of Appleseed to a ready and receptive group....

As I understand it now the organizer (a multiple seeder) expects to have about an hour to an hour and a half with 4 groups of about 15 or less.  He intends to base his safety and instruction on his experience at Appleseed and go from there...

If any Red Hats or IITs are can make it to the Sidney, Ohio area on November 6th from 8am to about 5pm either reply here or PM me and i will pass on contact info...

Thanks,

Steamer

[Gordon]

Wow, huge opportunity! Talk about "Low Hanging Fruit"!

I can do this, with some reshuffling of plans (some of which involves other RWVA people).

PM sent

[snevid]

Guys I appreciate it.  To further explain I have put together a "Man Camp" for my church.  The idea is that the hardy among us will camp out Friday night in some leantos and a tepee.  Early Saturday everyone else less hardy or more smart shows up for a hearty, fire cooked breakfast.  Then at 0900 the sessions begin.  

Various volunteers are teaching primitive firemaking, navigation, archery, wilderness firstaid and RIFLE.  I have been to four Seeds now and with the encouragement (lashings) from Dinky have managed to earn my patch and not be a cook more than once now.  It was my intent to do one of the hour long workshop on the rifle, by hitting the 4 safety rules hard and introducing my guys to the 6 steps.  Obviously this is not near enough time to do the material justice but it would give them a taste and I would invite them all to an Appleseed.  

After picking a time and topics an assistant pastor / friend of mine put together an excellent promotion video showing whimpy men before mancamp and then manly men after having attended, complete with several wives giving rave testimonials.  Then it happened.  We passed out a sign up list and got over fifty people signed up with some of them talking about bringing friends.  I was only expecting 20 at the most.      

I have never put together an activity on this scale and it has been quite a trip trying to organize it.  Thankfully I have had a lot of help and the men are excited.  The latest development was when I spoke to my new friend Steamer who I met at the Lima shoot.  He graciously provided 3 loaner rifles and some promotional material for the cause and said he would see what else he could do for me.  Due to some work obligations he is not able to make it but I have recently found out that Fuzzy Math is available to help.  So, we have reworked the schedule and split the group into two to give him a two and a half hour block with each group of guys.  Most of these guys have either not ever shot or not shot in years and dont have any firearms.  We will have youngsters all the way up to some almost seniors.  I am hoping to scrounge up enough rifles to at least be able to shoot each group in two relays and have been able to come up with 13 including Steamers so we are doing pretty good.  I have no illusions that this is going to go nearly as smoothly as the Appleseeds I have enjoyed but wow, its going to be good to see a red hat get a crack at these guys.  Its more than I had hoped for.  I'm working hard to get the logistics finalized and am thankful for the support and trust demonstrated by Steamer and Fuzzy Math.  It is my hope that though probably not this weekend, we will see some riflemen born down the road from this effort.    

Josh

[MeanStreaker]

Good luck on what sounds like a great event Josh!

[KAH]

Josh:
Sounds like a great event.  Sorry I can't be there to assist, but we're already committed to an AS in Wooster this weekend.  I'll look forward to seeing you on the trail (orange hat??) !!

take care,
Kenric

[Gordon]

... over fifty people signed up with some of them talking about bringing friends.  

...we have reworked the schedule and split the group into two to give [the RWVA] a two and a half hour block with each group of guys.  Most of these guys have either not ever shot or not shot in years and dont have any firearms.  We will have youngsters all the way up to some almost seniors.  I am hoping to scrounge up enough rifles to at least be able to shoot each group in two relays and have been able to come up with 13 including Steamers so we are doing pretty good.  I have no illusions that this is going to go nearly as smoothly as the Appleseeds I have enjoyed but wow, its going to be good to see a red hat get a crack at these guys.  Its more than I had hoped for.  I'm working hard to get the logistics finalized and am thankful for the support and trust demonstrated by Steamer and Fuzzy Math.  It is my hope that though probably not this weekend, we will see some riflemen born down the road from this effort.    

...

I can scarcely imagine a better 7th stepping opportunity. As I see it, it's a group of 50-60 guys eager to come out for a 2.5 hour, hands-on advertizement for Appleseed!

The logistics are significant;  Snevid is going to great lengths to make this happen, and it sounds like he's doing an outstanding job. The shortage of rifles is going to be a problem and we might have to go to squadding.

So what do you do with a 2.5 hour block of time, 18 or so rifles, and 20-25 motivated men of all ages?

I figure, after the saftey briefing, if we can get in a couple of Redcoats (at the start and at the end), a quick, review-grade version of SHF's, 6-steps, and NPOA, plenty of rounds downrange, and some talk about the Terrible Choices in between, then we're doing well. I'll definitely keep notes along the lines of "good, bad, and ugly".

Objective: Each one of these guys show up at an Appleseed at his earliest opportunity, and bring along at least one other person!

[therealsteamer]

It's good to see this working out!!!!!

[snevid]

Wow, that was a trip.  I want to thank Steamer for the rifles and support, Meanstreaker for giving up one of his instructors and most of all Fuzzy Math for what he did for my group and the material he provided.  Its hard to describe our shoot.  It was not an Appleseed and was not meant to be but by all accounts it was a success.  I believe Fuzzy Math will be posting an after action however I would like to briefly post something here as well.  

He came into this situation I'm sure not knowing what to expect.  I met him at about 0530 and we drove for about an hour and a half.  (incidently Ive never met an appleseed instructor who is not a great conversationalist)  When we arrived we set up the target line, the firing line and shortly after got started.  It took a while to get the rifles out and lined up.  Im used to A.S. shoots where everyone brings their own and realized at the last minute that all the rifles that I had begged and borrowed were still locked up in my truck.  Duh.  

Fuzzy Math gave as thorough a safety briefing as I have ever heard at a shoot and the men seemed attentive.  Then we got into the shoot.  I will let him go through the specifics of the program if he would like to.  I will say however that we faced four major challanges that I don't think would be fair to any instructor.  
1.  (Newbies and Youngsters) Many of our shooters had never fired a gun, and many of them were young.  Many had to be told what a bolt was, how to prep a mag and how to load.  
2.  (Equipment) Of those shooters who did have minimal experience none were familiar with the particular rifle they were shooting, many of which were older and some ones grandfather's or uncles that had not been maintained / cleaned in who knows when.  We had multiple ftf's and jams, some of which could not readily be cleared and had to be removed from the line.  (This was my fault and I should have left time to go through them all and prep them.)  Also, each gun only had (for the most part) one mag and each shooter shared ammo from bricks of ammo spaced out on the line.  
3.  (Time)  How to teach the material in less than two and a half hours?  Due to the schedule this was the best we could do.  
4.  (Range help) Lastly, Fuzzy Math didn't have any other red or orange hats to help him.  My son Tristan and I having some prior A.S. experience did our best to fill those shoes.  

Having shared the challenges I still don't think the results couild have been any better.  My guys were thoroughly drilled in the safety rules and we saw no major safety issues.  They were also introdued to some top shelf shooting instruction.  Probably most important they learned about the "third option" and were introduced and invited to the A.S. program.  I had a number of guys tell me how much they enjoyed our little highly modified program and heard no negative feedback.  Again I appreciate the effort Fuzzy Math spent on us and I want to also say thank you to the leadership that allowed this to happen.

Josh (snevid)

[Gordon]

I was already planning to write up a bit of an AAR for this event, and I'm not suprised that Josh (snevid) has beaten me to it, with great thoroughness too.

Josh, my brother, really, you're an RWVA Instructor at heart. You have a keen a sense of the mission of Appleseed, and your knowledge of the course of instruction is substantial. Steady Hold Factors, 6-steps, and NPOA --- both you and Tristan obviously know these foundations really well.

Josh is right about some of those challenges he reports. There was a bit of chaos, especially initially in the morning session. But the bottom line is this: We had a safe event, everyone had fun, everyone got a bit of exposure to RWVA's outstanding course of instruction, everyone got a taste of the profoundly inspiring Appleseed spirit. So it was a great event.

It's hard to describe the amazing job Josh and Chad did in pulling this thing off. I mean not just the rifle sessions, but the whole endeavor. As I said to the shooters, you guys must have one great church, that's able to field a group of men like that and for such an great outing.

Now, I have to completely disagree with Josh's item (4), as being "a major challenge" unfair for any Instructor. The fact is that Josh and Tristan provided enormous help, and very competently. Really, any RWVA Shoot Boss would be pleased and lucky to have such help on a line.

Great Job Guys! I hope you'll do something like that again in the futre. And I hope y'all will come out to Appleseed! Yep, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a lot of folks from your church out on the "Appleseed Trail" in the near future. And hey! guys? bring the women too!  

[despree]

Just an outside perspective, one of my younger brothers was invited to come to this; said it went really well.  =)

[MeanStreaker]

Congratulations snevid and Fuzzy on a great event!

Thank you for inviting Appleseed and I'm glad we got a chance to talk Saturday night, Josh.  Thanks for your hard work in trying to make a difference in others' lives!

[snevid]

Thanks guys.

Despree, what was your brothers name?  John maybe?

I wanted to pass on some feed back I heard.  My pastor and youth pastor both told me that it was the best event our church has held.  (the shooting was the highlight and main event).

I also heard from one of the men who has two young boys.  He said he left them at home because he and his wife were worried that with that many guys running around shooting it could be unsafe and they didnt want the kids around it.  After participating in our shoot ran by Fuzzy Math the man said he was impressed with how safe it was and wished he had brought his boys because he knew it would have been safe for them.  Good stuff.

Josh

[Gordon]

...

I also heard from one of the men who has two young boys.  He said he left them at home because he and his wife were worried that with that many guys running around shooting it could be unsafe and they didnt want the kids around it.  After participating in our shoot ran by Fuzzy Math the man said he was impressed with how safe it was and wished he had brought his boys because he knew it would have been safe for them.  Good stuff.

Good stuff indeed. Hey Josh, point this guy to the www.AppleseedUSA.org, and remind him that his boys and his wife are totally invited, and they attend for free! Actually, I'm quite sure you're already doing that.

-FM / Gordon.