AAR: LEBANON, CT - Mar 26/27, 2011

[CortJestir]

Nice to see the lines filling up again here in the Land of Steady Habits!

A blustery, cold day yesterday on the line at Bozrah Rod and Gun Club, but that didn't stop 21 students from showing up. Nor did it deter The Old Guide and North Country Lady (with a new Blue Hat) who sojourned from Maine to help out at this shoot.

We had a few repeat seeders and familiar faces and a made slew of new friends (including a new Orange Hat!!).

I'll have more details on Day 1 soon (including a few pics), but wanted to get this started for folks who wanted to chime in. TOMINCT will pick it up with Day 2.

Stay tuned...

[fprintf]

So, what I can recall is 1 repeat rifleman on Saturday, Levi, who took the Orange Hat later in the day.

And in a preview of TOMINCT's post, let me say that Sunday was quite productive. Groups shrinking really dramatically. One father remarked that his son's groups went from 4 inches to less than 1/2 an inch from Saturday morning Red Coat to Sunday late-afternoon. But he will be back to try again!

We had 3 Riflemen on Sunday and a shooter with two 209s! But the Redcoats were really remarkable in my opinion, I saw more hands up for the 400 yard shots than I think I've seen in a long time. Such dramatic improvements, and perhaps best of all some really motivated students who want to come back for another try. A couple of students just didn't want to quit and would have kept shooting AQTs late into the evening.

Many many thanks to the students, instructors and visitors who came out this weekend. I can't imagine the mess this event would have been, quite frankly, with 21 shooters, if a couple of our Shoot Bosses and IITs hadn't changed their personal plans this weekend to ensure the highest quality instruction. Huzzah!

[renatus]

Blustery = Bone chilling cold alternating with pleasant warmth at random intervals...

I had a terrific time this weekend!

Suffice it to say going from this on Saturday morning:



To this on Sunday morning:



To this on Sunday afternoon


was a pleasant surprise. I still have lots of fine tuning to do, but it's good to be moving in the proper direction.

Thank you to all the volunteers and the other shooters as well for such an enjoyable weekend.

[CortJestir]

  renatus! Well done! Targets never lie. Looks like we found another candidate for Daniel Morgan. 

[The Log]

My high points:

• Seeing Levi step up and take the Orange Hat. He came to this AS specifically to become an IIT, having qualified at his first AS. I advised him to get as much shooting in as possible, because once that hat goes on, the party is over.
• Having Nicole come back for the full weekend. We we're lucky enough to have her drop by the Colebrook shoot in February, where we practically mugged her and forced her onto the line for Sunday afternoon. As active duty military, she took the teaching very well, and we managed to squeeze an entire Appleseed into four hours. I thought for sure she would walk away from that saying, "Those guys are NUTS!", but she came back and did the whole program at a more relaxed pace. The best score I saw from her was a 208 on Saturday - somebody please tell me we dragged her over the line on Sunday!
• Watching the way the Connecticut (and Maine) Instructor Corps pulled together to keep this shoot safe and productive. Like Stuart said, rearranging things in your "real life" to accommodate a shoot is rarely easy, but somehow it's always worth it.

Speaking of "real life", I need to go off to the day job now. Ho-hum - seems such a drag compared to Appleseeding. I wear no hat of any color there, and nothing seems to be any different at the end of the day than at the beginning, unlike watching Redcoat improvement. It pays the bills, I suppose...

</log>

[CortJestir]

Just wanted to pass on a note I received in my Inbox this AM:

Hi Todd,

Just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you and that I thoroughly enjoyed this weekend's Appleseed Event.  The history lessons coupled with the marksmanship lessons definitely make for a winning combination in my book!  I've been "shooting" for roughly 20 years, off and on, but have never really been a marksman.  I had no idea how much I was missing on my fundamentals.  (By the way, I shot "rifleman" yesterday on my 2nd attempt.)  I believe this course has given me a good, solid foundation to build my skills for future 3-gun events that I'd like to participate in.

I plan on passing along the info for the courses, as well as the skills I've learned and will continue to learn, to those who are interested.  I also plan on participating in future Appleseeds, provided time (and finances) allow.

Andrew D.

[TOMINCT]

 Day 2 . To start we had 3 new IIT's to help the Sunday only SB. Round Trip and mzweatherby made it down from Boston area to help along with dcmdon. And help they did!

We had the same 21 shooters return along with a walk on for an almost full line! I believe the weather was similar throughout the day with some good gusts lifting mats with equipment. The shooters ran with it with nary a complaint. KD went smoothly with an excellent class taught by fprintf and proof shown that what you learn at 25m carries out to 100 yards, the distance we had available. Finished the day off with more AQT's and the final Redcoat.

We had three RM on Sunday, early in the day. Scott, a club member with a 219, followed up by John with a pair of 224's and Andrew with a 221, who did it with an AR. Several folks pushed it into the low 200's. Great shooting! For many of the other shooters reasonable progress was made during the day. Between morning and the afternoon the redcoats showed a 50% improvement on the 200 yard stage and 75% on the 3oo yard stage! There should be more pics to come, stay tuned.

The club has been well pleased with Appleseed and is looking forward to more events.  So for those who find it easy to travel to eastern Ct you can expect to see a few there between Lebanon and Chaplin.

[AndyD]

Howdy all!  I decided to sign up for an account here after constantly refreshing my browser to see the updates for this AAR, LOL. 

(When do the floggings begin?  )

I was one of the guy to earn the RM patch this weekend.  Anyway, just thought I'd pop in, say hello and thank all the instructors and IIT/RSO's for their time this past weekend.  I learned quite a lot and really appreciate what you guys are doing.

Take care,

Andy

[fprintf]

AndyD, renatus and others joining the forum, welcome!  Feel free to share your experiences, including any personal observations of what instruction worked for you and what didn't. Pictures are most definitely wanted!

BTW, I totally know what it is like to hit F5 repeatedly to refresh the page.

A couple of more notes:
- I definitely preferred being out in the field on Day One versus being pushed up against the shelter on Day Two. I know why we did it, to allow Known Distance, but I just really like the openness of being in the field.
- That muzzle brake on the right-most AR (Andy's?) was awesome!  I saw it pushing leaves around all day, but it was particularly noticeable when the shooter immediately next door stopped shooting for a bit. At least 5 feet on both sides of the rifle was blasted clean of leaves!
- Ruger 10/22s are a great teaching rifle but their magazine release is a real problem for a lot of shooters. I don't own one but anytime I have to touch one I find it really fiddly to get the magazine out. I observed just about every 10/22 shooter struggling with it multiple times during both days.
- Need to think about anchoring shooting mats somehow before shooting. The wind was pretty fierce and gusty. Logs and big sticks aren't the safest things. The horseshoes and weighted bags worked great but there weren't enough to go around.
- Our newest IITs did a fantastic job keeping everyone safe and providing hints to the shooters.
- One of our youth shooters on the end of the line got some very personal coaching from mzweatherby throughout the day. I think he improved quite a bit, and he even asked me what he needs to do to become an instructor himself. Thank you mzweatherby for spending some time with him!!

I am sure I'll have more, I usually do!   

[fprintf]

Ok, some more pictures from IIT RoundTrip from Massachusetts. Nice to meet you!

How many instructors does it take to change a young lady's sights?


Good turkey neck and cheek weld


Prep 40 again?!?!?!?


Mzweatherby checks on our youngest shooter, again!!


Bill stands ready to go in Prep


In, out, bang...


C'mon Dwight, get that knee up!


Nicole going for her rifleman, and not quite making it this time...


Scott accepting his patch from fprintf


Andy receiving his patch from fprintf


John scored the exact same on two back-to-back AQTs to receive his Rifleman patch


North Country Lady watching the line, all bundled up against the blustery cold wind


Hugh, a youth Rifleman from a previous event here in Lebanon, decides he needs a challenge and shoots with a boltie


Judging by the shadows, we were nice and toasty warm at this point in the day!  Notice, too many Instructors at one end of the line. Spread out you lot!


Known distance, though it looks the same as any other photos. (I can tell because of where Nicole is shooting from)


Note the leaves in front of Andy's blue tarp. They wouldn't be there long thanks to the muzzle brake!


Bill would get ever so close to a Rifleman patch, with two 209s. He is persisting and we'll see him again!


Derrick, Hugh's father, shooting a semi-auto 22 that has the coolest action I have ever seen


Classic shot in prone, notice how they all have very similar positions. I can spy a little dragging wood from here! 


TOMINCT on the right, explaining a course of fire. Fprintf listening intently, no doubt learning something else!


The Old Guide taking it all in

[AndyD]

AndyD, renatus and others joining the forum, welcome!  Feel free to share your experiences, including any personal observations of what instruction worked for you and what didn't. Pictures are most definitely wanted!

BTW, I totally know what it is like to hit F5 repeatedly to refresh the page.

A couple of more notes:
- I definitely preferred being out in the field on Day One versus being pushed up against the shelter on Day Two. I know why we did it, to allow Known Distance, but I just really like the openness of being in the field.
- That muzzle brake on the right-most AR (Andy's?) was awesome!  I saw it pushing leaves around all day, but it was particularly noticeable when the shooter immediately next door stopped shooting for a bit. At least 5 feet on both sides of the rifle was blasted clean of leaves!
- Ruger 10/22s are a great teaching rifle but their magazine release is a real problem for a lot of shooters. I don't own one but anytime I have to touch one I find it really fiddly to get the magazine out. I observed just about every 10/22 shooter struggling with it multiple times during both days.
- Need to think about anchoring shooting mats somehow before shooting. The wind was pretty fierce and gusty. Logs and big sticks aren't the safest things. The horseshoes and weighted bags worked great but there weren't enough to go around.
- Our newest IITs did a fantastic job keeping everyone safe and providing hints to the shooters.
- One of our youth shooters on the end of the line got some very personal coaching from mzweatherby throughout the day. I think he improved quite a bit, and he even asked me what he needs to do to become an instructor himself. Thank you mzweatherby for spending some time with him!!

I am sure I'll have more, I usually do!   

Yup, that was me, haha!   I've actually had a couple people complain (not at this weekend's AS) about the muzzle blast on it.  I felt bad about it at first, but then realized there's nothing I can do about it because it's permanently pinned - gotta obey the law, and all that.

[CortJestir]

Andy, I have that very same Stag muzzlebreak on my M4gery. Simsbury 2009: I was moved all the way to the left most spot on the line from the middle of the line, because the muzzle blast pushed dust and air across the faces of the 4-5 students to the left and right me. Good times. There's little to no recoil on that thing, though. 

[vernic82]

Great pics guys - looks like a great bunch of shooters who will be off on the Appleseed Trail.

Sorry I missed the parte

Congrats to all the new Riflemen!

Thanks to all who answered the Call for Instructors Needed - many hands do make light work!

[hnpdad]

Hugh and I had another great weekend.
Hugh did earn his Rifleman with a "boltie," but it was a clip magazine. This time he was using one with a tube magazine that holds 20 cartridges. He was shooting stage 2 standing, to eliminate a load/transition cycle. He's getting close to 210, but needs more practice.

The Ranger 101.16/Springfield 87M does have that really cool "click-clack" action, really helps with my happy trigger!

[CaptMac]

Hugh and I had another great weekend.
Hugh did earn his Rifleman with a "boltie," but it was a clip magazine. This time he was using one with a tube magazine that holds 20 cartridges. He was shooting stage 2 standing, to eliminate a load/transition cycle. He's getting close to 210, but needs more practice.

The Ranger 101.16/Springfield 87M does have that really cool "click-clack" action, really helps with my happy trigger!

I will confirm that Hugh earned his rifleman patch shooting a bolt-action rifle.  I think he was shooting a Savage Mark II when he shot his first Rifleman score. 

hnpdad's semi-atuo is very cool.  When it cycles, the bolt stays open until the trigger is released.  So, if the trigger stays back, during happy finger drills, then so does the bolt.  It sounds cool as a it cycles. 

Wish I could have been there, but I have been playing nurse for a recovering patient.  She wasn't leaving bed for much time, nevertheless the house.  Seems to be getting better, rapidly today. 

fprintf, nice hat.  I saw no pics of you in red in the AAR for the last shoot at Colebrook. 

Levi, you look good in orange, but you should be thinking about working your way into red too.  I knew you would take the orange hat from after your first Saturday at an Appleseed.  Glad you stepped up. 

Moreover,  nice work overall to all.  It was good to see this shoot went from understaffed to well-staffed in a short while.  Thanks to all who made that happen.  I wish I could have contributed, but my nursing duties took priority.  Hopefully, we can get that many to the line for April, and I am supposed to be there.