AAR Manchester, TN March 26-27, 2011

[tncolonel]

The intent of this posting is to open the After Action Report for the Manchester, Tennessee Appleseed held on March 26 - 27, 2011 at the General Purpose Range on excellent facilities of the Arnold AFB Rifle Range Complex.  Our host club was Arnold AFB's Highland Rim Shooters Club. This is the first of eight Appleseeds scheduled on this range this year.

Special thanks to MI DonD and RH Grandson of Liberty and all the local IITs who showed up to support this event.  The weather was cool with heavy rain on Saturday.  A lot of red mud was tracked back on the shooting mats.  Rain sometimes destroyed targets before they could be scored, and we had to stay under shelter due to heavy close lightning for a period in the afternoon.  Sunday was rain free, but overcast with heavy winds and temperatures from the low to upper 30s.

On Saturday we only had pre-registered shooters with no walk-ons. We had seven no shows, all free registrations.  The three strikes were well received on Saturday, and marksmanship instruction went quickly.  We were able to run 3 AQTs by Saturday afternoon, although the targets from one washed away in heavy rain when we had to stay under shelter due to lightning.  Although we had several students "knocking on the door" we didn't have any Riflemen, but it certainly wasn't from their lack of trying.

Sunday opened with an overcast sky and cold bitter wind. We had one paid walk on (who had attended Appleseed's before) and five members of the Tennessee Air National Guard (one had attended and shot Rifleman before)  We started with a comprehensive review of Saturday's marksmanship lessons and a ball and dummy drill one with a star target then with a couch and TV target. We were able to complete several AQTs and had three participants qualify as Riflemen.

[Appalacious]

Well done.  If it ain't rainin', we ain't learnin'.    ....or something like that 

[TN_Dadx5]

There are not too many places where you can be learning and having fun at the same time.  An Appleseed event is one of those places. Even with the torrential rain, the students were learning how to be better riflemen (on top of some history many had never heard of before) and I was learning how to be a better instructor.  And even though the rain tried to be a dampener on all this, the participants and our instruction crew persisted.

We did dry-runs (dry-fire) on the transition phases of the AQT before actually doing the AQT.  That really seemed to help the students to prepare for the actual AQT.  There was one young man shooting an old AR-15 that had FTE problems so we let him use a loaner LTR and he did pretty well considering he never shot that rifle before. 

We had just finished one AQT when heavy rain and lightning kept us under cover and couldn't get to the targets.  We had to hunker down for a few minutes, but by the time the storm let up, several of the targets had dissolved and blown down range.  It was a good thing we had poly backers!

Below is a picture of our Rifleman patch earner on Saturday, we had two more on Sunday. 

[SomeGuy]

Even with the rain and bitter cold weather it was great fun. I look forward to seeing another Appleseed again - especially if they can get over closer to Chattanooga.

[BlackSheep]

Yep, it rained on Saturday (but the firing points are roofed) and it was a bit cold on Sunday (had to take my jacket off so I could get the sling on right). The instruction is first rate, that and a top notch venue makes it worth the drive from North Georgia. Rain and cold temperatures are simply something you live with.

My daughter and I had fun and we will be back, after all I still need to find at least 4 more points for Rifleman (still unlearning some bad habits  ), and Kira has Rifleman as her goal as well. You meet the best folks at an Appleseed and we are looking forward to getting back up to Manchester as soon as we can.

Blacksheep