AAR: Edgewood, NM; 30-31 July 2011; 1st shoot at NM Bighorn Gun Club

[nmmi9100]

This weekend we wrapped up our first shoot at the New Mexico Bighorn Gun Club (http://www.nmbhgc.org) which is located in Torrance County southeast of Edgewood, NM.  The NMBHGC is a gorgeous range located in the rolling hills of northern Torrance County.  No blowing sand to deal with...unlike some other area ranges.  The Bighorn Gun Club graciously donated the range for the shoot.  If needs a place to shoot in the East Mountains, Bighorn is a great place to shoot!  Twelve hardy Americans arrived bright and early on Saturday morning and all brought wonderfully teachable attitudes.  Four instructors, TaosGlock, Tdhop1, Windrider, and Freefyrefly came from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Mountainair, and Las Cruces to teach other common Americans to shoot uncommonly well.  Saturday was a good solid day of marksmanship and heritage with a prompt start at 8:30 and finishing up after 6:00pm.  Bob and Karma, active members of the local Mountain Man Rendezvous, came out in buckskins and graciously gave demonstrations of their flintlock and caplock rifles.  They rather clearly illustrated the importance of following through on a shot!  We had beautiful weather throughout the day with lows in the high 60's and highs in the high 80's.  A few light afternoon thundershowers came through and cooled us off in the afternoon.  Our top Saturday shooter put up back-to-back 185 and 187 scores...and proved yet again that an inexperienced female shooter will often absorb and apply more than much  more experienced shooters...especially men and boys.  Way to go, CORI!  Too bad she couldn't come on Sunday.  Hope to see you at another shoot soon!

Attendees on both days showed marksmanship and heritage are a family affair!  Steve and Lori brought their adult son Nathan and teen daughter Oakley.  Oakley in turn brought her friend Cori, who turned out to be our top Saturday shooter.  Leon, 10, stuck by shooting all day Saturday without complaint and was dutifully watched by his darling mother.  Andrew, a young man headed to the service of our Nation was there both days, accompanied by his father looking on.  And finally, my wife Amy attended the shoot on Saturday as did our two sons on both days, Ethan 12, and Walker 6. 

Sunday morning greeted us with ominous clouds all around but the weather pleasantly held for us until around 3pm when it started to rain buckets.  As dry as we are here in New Mexico, not a complaint was heard about the rain, although the range turned into goopy mess.  Having clay/loam instead of sand has it's downsides as well.  6 hardy souls came back for the second day of the shoot as well as two Sunday-only shooters.  Folks were sore but they all perservered.  We had two more instructors roll in on Sunday, CSHR and Sarducci...Sunday had a particularly awesome instructor ratio!  The day ended with a new Rifleman, and one that shot in particularly harsh conditions of heavy rain.  Bob shot the slowfire prone stage of his Rifleman target in such heavy rain, we handled his target as if it were a museum piece...and kept it from falling apart!  Bob asked to join the brotherhood of the Orange Hat and we are happy to have him!

Overall, we had a great shoot.  I'm seriously looking forward to our upcoming shoot in September.  I hope to see everyone back for that shoot.  Several of you are knocking on the door of the Rifleman score and only need a little time and practice for it to sink in before everything comes together.  Thanks for being such great students!  And thank you so much for my instructor corps that showed up and ran the shoot.  Without you guys, I would've been in a world of hurt!

Shooters to the Line!


It's a rare sort that can't remember sitting NPOA shifts with the "PUPPY WITH WORMS" descriptive memory aid!


Bob and Karma readying the Flintlock.  They added sounds of flintlocks and the sights and smell of black powder to the story of April 19th, 1775!


David, firing the flintlock.  Man, does a flintlock show the need for follow through or WHAT!


A very proud Leon, having earned his Young Patriots patch.  Way to go, Leon!


Bob and Elaine recovering their AQTs shot in HEAVY rain.  Bob's turned out to be a 216, Elaine's was a 190.  190 and 216 are some seriously good scores when you shoot the 4th stage while it's raining snakes and weasels!


Ethan, retrieving his target in the rain.  Run Faster!


Bob is presented his Rifleman Patch.  Good show, Bob!  Good Show!


Bob takes the Orange Hat!  Glad to have you, Bob.


Raining Snakes and Weasels, Woo Hoo!


Thanks for coming, everyone.  Look forward to seeing you next month!

-David
Edgewood, NM

[oladcock]

It's wonderful to see fine American's learning and reliving their heritage. Great job folks, please send some of that rain down here!  ...O.L.

[Jimi]

Awsome Job folks. Thought I saw a couple of "PFD'S" out there Wish we could get a bit of that wet stuff. Invite those folks down for the Mayhill shoot. That way they can rince off in the trout stream after the mud...

And A GREAT BIG Wooo HAAA to BOB 
Glad to have you on board.
Jimi

[WindRider]

What a great shoot!  And somehow, one of the "worst" moments turned out to be one of the best!

Our resident retired sea captain, Sarducci, had eyed the approaching big black cloud and announced that that was the one that would dump on us.  How right he was.  TaosGlock drove the line hard, trying to complete at least one more AQT before the heavy rains arrived.  Bob in particular looked like he was just about to put it all together, having crept up through the 170's to 181 as one little but important shooting detail after another fell into line and smoothed out.   CSHR jumped in during Stage 3 to help him with a magazine problem so that Bob managed to get all his rounds off in time for the Stage.

And then came Stage 4.  Plenty of time, but those tiny targets are a true test of a Rifleman, especially one beset by little equipment issues and discomforts.

Down came the rain, hard, pounding.  TaosGlock matched the intensity of the storm with the intensity of his encouragement, driving the shooters to focus and persevere.  For Bob, what appeared to be the last big trial just helped him become a Rifleman, a focused man with skills and a purpose, doing the job at hand.  He made us all proud.

Thinking about it later, I realized that Bob's Stage 4 experience is what a being a Rifleman is all about, being focused and accurate while the world around you is in chaos.  Just like those sturdy folks on April 19th, 1775.

[TaosGlock]

Note the temporary river in the parking lot below the tree line on the last pic of the OP.

More pics:
This is a beautiful New Mexico range, rolling hills with typical ceders, pinons and yuccca. There are camping sites too!
Here early morning clouds roll in just after dawn.


Students often do reviews on Sun. AM.  "Learn today teach tomorrow". In this case, their tomorrow began here and now!
Ethan, (NMMI's son models seated to near perfection) and Andrew review SHF's for sitting:


sarducci and Freefyrefly review standing:


Ball and Dummy change over as CSHR watches shooters .


Soaked to the bone after that last stage 4 flood. NMMI and TG:


This was a fantastic shoot in a new location for New Mexico. More to follow too!

Thanks to David (NMMI9100) for setting this shoot up and all his 7th step efforts.
We hope to fill both bays next time!

A big thanks to all the shooters who persisted for 2 long days!
And again, a big thanks to all the instructors!