AAR Hartford CT June 04-05, 2011

[fprintf]

A quick start to the After Action Report for Hartford, Connecticut held on June 4-5 2011 at the Hartford Gun Club in Granby, CT. The weather was absolutely beautiful with highs in the low 70s each day, low humidity and a flight path from the airport that didn't go overhead until late Sunday. 

A relatively light turnout, in my opinion, with 3 Red Hat instructors and 1 IIT made for a strong instructor - student ratio.

Here are some pics. More details to come from others and from myself in the near future.
Catching some rays in the morning.




Checking out the targets:


Changing out a Green Coat:


The family the shoots together, stays together. Angie, Abbie and Chad.


A very good start to an AQT, one of the best standing scores I've seen by our Coast Guard marksmanship instructor Chad. Unfortunately the rest of the AQT didn't look as good.


TomInCT telling some history, 2nd and 3rd strikes.


So, Chad is a bit of a ringer as a Coast Guard marksmanship instructor. He knows very much what he is about and ended up shooting quite well enough to score Rifleman.


Chad was very good at the stage by stage AQT, where there was enough prep between stages to unzip from the shooting jacket. Otherwise this thing was so tight someone had to pick up a dropped magazine for him. 


A little bit lighter attendance on Sunday. Everyone practicing their sitting position.


In the foreground is Mike, shortly moving to California. We've let him know that California is a big Appleseed state and he can pick up where he left off when he gets there!


Linda was using a borrowed (mine) 795 and made remarkable improvements all weekend, from shotgun pattern to 6 to 7 MOA. Once she gets used to the sling she'll make further improvements yet.

[The Log]

I seem to be picking up a pattern here: I sign up to instruct a shoot in anticipation of a huge turnout; as the shoot draws near, the numbers stay low; I get bummed out, thinking it'll be a drag; and then I show up at the shoot and find a smallish number of shooters, but then they go and ruin my whole downward spiral by turning out to be the most enthusiastic shooters and the best Americans. That's what happened here, and the result is my typical Monday morning AS afterglow. Great shoot, great shooters, amazing weather, and we have another dozen or so Americans who got off the couch and did something to prove to themselves that the Inner Rifleman is still with us. I'll take a dozen such people like that any day of the week.

The strange thing about this shoot was the bounty of Seventh Stepping opportunities. We handled a bunch of walk-bys from adjacent ranges, handing out dozens of trifolds and talking up the program to enthusiastic folks. I also stumbled upon a goldmine of Seventh Stepping targets - when I went to fetch lunch on Sunday, the little plaza that I was in was crawling with CT Air National Guardsmen in their digital BDUs, getting lunch as well - must have been Guard weekend up at the airport. I wanted to go up to each one, thank them for their service, and hand them a trifold. Alas, the stack of trifolds in my truck had dwindled, so I had to suffice with proselytizing the car-full of Guardsman that parked next to me. I hope I planted some seeds there.

That's all for now. Pix when I get back from the day job  I understand Who_Me? has a somewhat embarrassing shot of  me racked out on the couch at my parents' house after we got back there on Sunday night. Be gentle, sweetie - it's a long walk to the next shoot 

</log>

[TOMINCT]

 Thanks to Fprintf and The Log for getting this running. Typically I'm a slow starter on these. Everything stated earlier was true. Great weekend weather wise, a small but good bunch of extremely safe shooters that took instruction well.

The line had a different mix of gear. Two Savage bolts, 1 10/22 and seven AR platform 22's! The AR rimfires have picked up in popularity to a large degree here.

Chad did it on the second AQT with a 231, outstanding! On Sunday we had a bolt gun shooter, Joe, who hung in for a long time with magazine feeding problems. Fprintf talked him into running his loaner and managed to pump out a 213 in the afternoon. Nice! How many Rifleman with that rifle, 5 now? Must be the rifle!

On both days we had folks that had to leave early for other commitments, aches and pains, etc. This made the redcoat count low but there was improvement across the board.

I'd like to thank the IT crew, The Log, Fprintf and Who_Me? for the work provided. The shoot went without a hitch due to their diligent efforts.

I would also like to thank the Hartford Gun Club for the use of their facilities. They were the first club to host AS, I believe, and we look forward to having more shoots there in the future.

[Double]

The family and I enjoyed the weekend immensely.  Angie will try again depending on our/event schedule, she ordered her own sling today and we changed out her optics to a C-more railway.  The eye relief issues with the scope was causing major confusion (as well as two painful teeth that will be taken care during an emergency appointment in the morning, tough girl for sure to hang as long as she did Saturday

The weather was awesome, one could not have asked for a better day on the range, plenty of sunshine, cool breeze,  a covered firing line, sharp-eyed safety officers and shooters that listened to task direction equals PERFECT!

Ringer... not sure about that, brand new rifle, 11LBS lighter than I'm used to, FAT Iron sights, light sling tension (no free-float tube) and lots of self made pressure to earn my patch on day one (and showing off to my girls).  Additionally I had to bend over to get my stuff, LOL.... I dearly missed my highpower cart with a nice shelf and a gun rack.  Not a horrible group standing offhand, needed some heft in that light little rifle, the targets about a foot higher and they all would have been V's.  (I had to bend my wrist to get lower, felt weird)

Now for the take-a-ways: 

One, I didn't have to teach or run the line, instead I got trigger time! Always a plus 

Two, Angie was ID'd with poor follow-thru, drill conducted, problem gone.

Three, The girls had fun and will more than likely come back, regardless they are dry-firing daily so far. (just need to keep them away from IDPA for a few months, Angie wanted to shoot the AQT with her pistol and could have held her own on the 1 and 2 hundred targets, rifle was new for her)

Four, always over pack, I was happy that I had a spare rifle for the junior shooter on the little end to use to keep him going when his had a malfunction.   (I did find later that the required type of OBI's knock the extractors out of M&P15-22 if the bolt isn't locked to the rear with the bolt stop, BTW, all lost parts recovered, returned and repaired) Extra mags, sunscreen, sight black, data book to record my 25yd zero for next time, 3k rounds of ammo and the biggest trauma kit available that we hope to never need all made the day easy.

Five, wife didn't want to wear a shooting coat!  The $10 spent on elbow pads was worth $500.  Bottom-line, bring and wear elbow pads, you'll be prone for a long time.  GOLD I tell you!

Six, always good to get a refresher on our history and heritage. (correctly at that)

Seven, I want my Combat Arms Team to experience this event.  (Would like to set something up at the Academy when the cadets return, if someone can get with me soon, we'll make it happen, I'm in tight with the weapons officer)

Props to the Shoot Boss and staff, thank you all for volunteering your time and skills.  Events like these don't just come together on their own, its because of dedicated and impassioned folks willing to get off the couch to work.  Again Thank You!!

[The Log]

Double, thanks for all the kind words and excellent feedback. And a grateful nation thanks you for leading your family onto the line. We hope Angie's choppers are feeling better - tough way to go through a long day.

As for bringing your team out to an event - bring it on!! Speaking personally, I'd love to run a shoot at the Academy. I'll PM you my email address to get that ball rolling.

</log>

[The Log]

Now for some pictures:

Good morning, East Granby!


Shooter Mike shares some words of wisdom


Apparently the first AS held in England was on Abbey Road


Rifleman Chad busted a 231 on his second AQT - note the subtle plug for the Coast Guard...


Roy gets busy with his Henry lever-action, with son Roy in the background on the M&P 15-22. They were stalwarts who stuck it out to the end of Day One:


Roy gets his youth patch from CT's only youth Instructor, Who_Me?


"Phased plasma rifle in the 20-watt range?"


An MOA is an MOA is an MOA - 4MOA squares at 25m and 100yds


Adapt, improvise and overcome, TOMINCT style - a 4 MOA mask cut out of a squares target and laid over an NRA target he happened to have. Perfect 4MOA square for KD on Day 2. Note to self - make 4" squares out of construction paper and throw them in your shoot box


Rifleman Joe at the end of Day 2 - he stuck it out and got the patch. He chose the CT-only upside down version

[Double]

LOG, can you email me those pictures, for some reason they won't pull and save correctly without big-time distortion.   (I'm a gun geek not a PC geek)

Thank you in advance!

-Gunner