AAR: Durham CT One-day Sept 24, 2011

[The Log]

A soggy start and tropical conditions did not dissuade a dozen great Americans from the inaugural shoot at the New Haven Raccoon Club in Durham CT. Long in the making, I thought for sure this shoot was destined for low attendance due to competition from the Durham Fair on the same weekend - in hindsight, that probably explains the hole the club had in the schedule amidst many, many events in the rest of September! 

Luckily, the facilities at the club were top-notch, befitting our enthusiastic and energetic shooters, but as it turned out the rain moved on and the covered line wasn't needed. We kept the 11 pre-registered shooters - 11 signed up and 11 showed up, BTW - and the one walk-on shooter under the cover, though, and, miraculously, everyone had arrived early enough to let us start the safety briefing 12 minutes ahead of schedule.

We engaged Redcoats at 10:00AM, and made steady progress as we moved the mix of novice and experienced shooters through the magic Appleseed process. We had a fair number of mechanical issues - a few rifles on the line hadn't seen the light of day in many a year, and were a bit temperamental. Despite that, we were able to move quickly through the morning instruction while watching group sizes diminish and shooter confidence increase.

The club were great hosts and cooked up burgers and dogs for lunch, and we relaxed in the shade of their huge picnic pavilion to hear the First Strike of the Match. Back on the range we worked through the afternoon program, got a few AQTs in, and wrapped up the whole day at 6:00PM with smiles and good cheer all around. This is the first Appleseed I can remember in a long time that we didn't lose a single person during the day - someone almost always slips away from fatigue or disinterest, but not this crew.

Breaking up the afternoon with a special activity probably helped - we took the opportunity to retire Glock23's Orange Hat Calverton-style. Twelve shooters, 10 rounds each, one big fat orange target - 'nuff said. 

As for the crew, hats off to AS stalwart Glock23 in his shiny-new Red Hat, my trusty sidekick Who_Me?, and last-minute addition Old Ironsights, working his first AS gig as an Orange Hat. He looked like a pro both on the line and on stage; maybe attending - what, ten? a dozen? - Appleseeds as a shooter in the last year helped with that, eh? Everyone pitched right in, knew what needed to be done, and made it happen.

So thanks to the shooters, the crew, and the Raccoon Club for making the first Durham shoot a rousing success. Feel free to post pictures if you've got 'em - I've got some I'll get posted ASAP.

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[Glock23]

Pics or it didn't happen...