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Watervliet, MI - 10/1-2

Started by TreadCarefully, October 01, 2011, 10:45:52 PM

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TreadCarefully

Awesome first day of the shoot! 22 shooters and two Rifleman with many more to come. The weather was perfect and all of the shooters were very motivated to learn, both the shooting instruction and the history.

Post your comments and pics here!
Spare the tar and feathers, spoil the politician.

"Pain is temporary. Quitting is forever." - Lance Armstrong

"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc."

AlliKat

THANKS TreadCarefully for such a wonderful shoot!!!! Our entire group had a lot of fun and learned ALOT. Hope to see you and the others again at a shoot soon.

AlliKat
aka: Ashlie

Swamp Thing

#2
Best part of this shoot for me has to be the amount of families who came out for this. Father and son teams, father and daughter teams, and a large squadron of 7? family members all together. To quote the world famous Superheat...The family that Appleseeds together....

Another cool thing, with the two line set up, one rated for rimfire only, we ended up with a line consisting of almost all AR platforms. Boom Boom!  :--- we like it loud!

Did I mention that we made 6 riflemen this weekend!  ^:)^

Big congrats to Kevin from the Watervliet Rod & Gun club for an outstanding job with promotions and range prep for this event. Huzzah!  O0

Kris, thank you for accepting the Orange hat and joining in the fun. Too bad you accepted it on Sunday morning and were put to work instead of continuing shooting. Ask me how I know about this.  ;) Haley is next, she is a real trooper and did a fantastic job Saturday. Happy Bday Haley!  ^:)^

Chime in folks and share your experience.

SHOOTERS, YOUR PHOTO POSTING PERIOD BEGINS NOW!

ST

AuntieBellum

It was a pleasure to work with all of you on Saturday.  I met some fantastic people - both shooters and instructors - and truly saw determination as each of you got down on the line.  And who expected that when traveling to another state I'd see some familiar Appleseeders?  Dave and Andy - It was a pleasure to see you both again.  cedartop (I can't remember your "real" name - virtual names are what really matter, anyway, right?  ;D ), a pleasure to meet you as well - I didn't expect to see any INGO members on the line in Michigan!  And Andy and Kris - congratulations to both of you for achieving those Rifleman scores!  I truly enjoyed my experience with all of you and look forward to returning to Michigan.  Appleseed thrives amongst the apple orchards of my northern neighbor.   O0 

I'll post some pictures later tonight.  Thanks again, everyone!
"Nothing is as strong as the heart of a volunteer."
-Lt. Colonel James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, US Army Air Corps, 1942

"You smell like Appleseed." - Rimshot

Hit_Factor

I really enjoyed this past weekend. The history is thought provoking and the marksmanship instruction was fantastic.

I had some preconceived notions of what the instructors could be, so I was prepared for mediocre. What I received in the history lessons and marksmanship instruction was far from mediocre. The range staff was clearly well prepared to deliver history, safety and skills to the attendees of this Appleseed event.

As one of the "old" guys, who has received similar relevant training for almost thirty years, this ranks among the best I have attended.

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible and fellow shooters from the S.W. Michigan area who attended.

Dave Warren

SteelThunder

Thanks to all for a great weekend.  I want to echo Hit_Factor's comments.  Superb instruction and a great group of shooters.

Thanks for the confidence in asking me to take the orange hat.  Also...I grudgingly  ;) took Waveman's name that he christened me with but changed it just a **wee** bit. 

Haley had a superb time...today is her 12th birthday and she took her targets, Young Patriot's patch and challenge coin in to class (gotta love small towns where you can still do that).  By the way, I agree she may have a future in instructing...here's a video she made last year for a school project on how to run an AR15  http://tinypic.com/m/aea9kx/2

Here's a few pix from the weekend  (more here http://tinypic.com/a/2nvnq/2 )












NRA Patron Member, SAF Life Member
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor, RSO
Warlord of the West

Ultima vox civis
"Learning occurs only after repetitive, demoralizing failures." - Pat Rogers
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart." - Tecumseh
"Never attribute to treachery, that which can adequately be explained by incompetence" - Bonaparte, Hanlon, et al

AuntieBellum

A couple more pictures, as promised.

A bird's-eye view of Swamp Thing giving IMC:


Haley gets to work on an AQT:


Saturday's two new Riflemen:
"Nothing is as strong as the heart of a volunteer."
-Lt. Colonel James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, US Army Air Corps, 1942

"You smell like Appleseed." - Rimshot

SteelThunder

Here's a few more pix from the weekend











NRA Patron Member, SAF Life Member
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor, RSO
Warlord of the West

Ultima vox civis
"Learning occurs only after repetitive, demoralizing failures." - Pat Rogers
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart." - Tecumseh
"Never attribute to treachery, that which can adequately be explained by incompetence" - Bonaparte, Hanlon, et al

jollyrogers

Attempted a little "cross-training" when we got home...need to work on my NPOA (3rd row)

SteelThunder

jollyrogers

Congrats on you (and your father) earning Rifleman!  Pleasure meeting you both.
NRA Patron Member, SAF Life Member
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor, RSO
Warlord of the West

Ultima vox civis
"Learning occurs only after repetitive, demoralizing failures." - Pat Rogers
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart." - Tecumseh
"Never attribute to treachery, that which can adequately be explained by incompetence" - Bonaparte, Hanlon, et al

KitKat

Great pictures!!!
   My family and I had an awesome time this weekend.  We learned so much and had a great time doing it!!!
   Thanks so much to Bill Winkle and Grindstone for helping us get our positions right (and all of the wonderful instructors and trainees).  And to all of the wonderful story tellers who recited the story of April 19, 1775.
   I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn these new skills and also the history of our country.

God Bless,
Stephanie.   :)
"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor...  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience."

Swamp Thing

Glad you had such a great time at this event KitKat!  ^:)^

You and your entire group showed fantastic improvement all weekend and you all came with the most important thing you needed to bring....a great teachable attitude. O0

I especially appreciate the fact that you enjoyed the history. We really feel that it is even more important than the marksmanship.

Hope to see you and the whole crew again at another shoot, bring friends.   @@)

P.S. I do believe I saw you and/or your sister with a camera...hint hint.  ;)

ST

Quote from: KitKat on October 04, 2011, 08:10:38 PM
Great pictures!!!
   My family and I had an awesome time this weekend.  We learned so much and had a great time doing it!!!
   Thanks so much to Bill Winkle and Grindstone for helping us get our positions right (and all of the wonderful instructors and trainees).  And to all of the wonderful story tellers who recited the story of April 19, 1775.
   I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn these new skills and also the history of our country.

God Bless,
Stephanie.   :)


Superheat

#12
Wow what a weekend.  Saturday we shot until 7 pm and Haley didn't want to stop.  She's one special girl. 
Austin made huge improvments.  I hope to see you in Bellevue.
Andy nice shooting "rifleman".  Even though he was working with a chin weld.  ;D
Reo keep working on that trigger control.
John and Paul congrats on the father/son rifleman designation, on the same COF.  O0
Julius, keep that body angled and elbow under the rifle.
Nice shooting David, see you can hold the trigger back.  ;)
Thank you all for coming out and learning a truly american skill, MARKSMANSHIP. HUZZAH!   :bow:



















MY FAVORITE, THE VICTORY LAP






jollyrogers

Another awesome weekend.  I know dad and I are really glad we came this weekend to catch what we missed (most of Sunday) on our first shoot...  Besides, we had to finish the history lesson!

Biggest lesson (shooting-wise) for both of us this weekend was all the little things add up.  And special thanks this weekend goes to Swamp Thing, Superheat, and Waveman for helping us with that.



waveman

What can I say that hasn't been said?  At least four families that I counted and one family nearly took up a whole line?!?!  That's awesome  ^:)^  To all the other shooters from the different disciplines and methodologies, thank you for all the kind words.   :bow:  It's high praise when someone who's been there and done that thinks so highly of our program and instructors.   ^:)^  Thunderstealer err I mean Steel Thunder congratulations on making rifleman and taking the orange hat....now   get to work  &)  Hopefully we'll see you on the trail sometime this year still and we can talk about that forum name hehe. ;D

SteelThunder

Awww...come on waveman!  I wanted to honor your "christening" while putting my own spin on it  ;D

Looking forward to working with you guys.

ST
NRA Patron Member, SAF Life Member
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor, RSO
Warlord of the West

Ultima vox civis
"Learning occurs only after repetitive, demoralizing failures." - Pat Rogers
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart." - Tecumseh
"Never attribute to treachery, that which can adequately be explained by incompetence" - Bonaparte, Hanlon, et al

KitKat

Hmmmm...  I can neither confirm nor deny!   ;)
I'll see what I can do about those pics.
I'm working on getting to another sometime relatively soon.  I'll have to keep coming until I get my Rifleman's... and then maybe I'll just keep coming still.   ::) :---
I love that all of the instructors were willing to take time for one to one info and fixing.  It really was an amazing time.

God Bless,
Stephanie.

"Glad you had such a great time at this event KitKat! 
You and your entire group showed fantastic improvement all weekend and you all came with the most important thing you needed to bring....a great teachable attitude.
I especially appreciate the fact that you enjoyed the history. We really feel that it is even more important than the marksmanship.
Hope to see you and the whole crew again at another shoot, bring friends.   
P.S. I do believe I saw you and/or your sister with a camera...hint hint. 

ST"
"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor...  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience."

AlliKat

 $$-0 hahaha.. Sorry... Work, school and dance classes have kept me very busy.. And should KitKat find one to attend, I hope that it will be a time that I can come too. I only have one picture to share (hopefully it comes up, I'm on my phone) but it was Soooo worth taking. I mean, we beat the other team by 7 shots  ^:)^

http://oi54.tinypic.com/1676vmd.jpg


tomahawk

The instructors did a fine job, keeping the line safe, and with expert instruction. It was a pleasure to meet you all. Thank you for your patience and dedication. You really do make riflemen.

There was a fine group of shooters to share the line with. It was great to see some ladies on the line.  They really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The history was informative and intense.

I shot a score of 223 on the last AQT on Sunday.  I am very pleased with that score and am proud of my accomplishment.  It felt like it was finally all coming together.

At the end of the day while walking to my truck, I felt a slight chill. Maybe it was the cool breeze, but in part, I think it was the realization that an incredible event had taken place on that day.

Superheat

Tomahawk,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  It is always good to get feed back from our BOTG.
I know what you mean about the feeling of something special has taken place.  My first appleseed felt that way.   I've lost count how many events I've done yet most of the time I still get that feeling.

Superheat

How many events next year???   ;D

Potshot

this is andy.  i had a great time with you all!!  this was my second appleseed shot and i worried i would like it less.  i had a figurative and literal blast!!   :---lookin forward to my third shoot.  i wonder how many people i can bring to that one.
it was great to see Bill 3 and  Lady Antebellum again. 
i appreciated the instruction from Swamp thing, Super Heat and InTheBurbs.  i think i understand moa a whole lot better, thanks to InTheBurbs.   
i want to say thank you to ALL the red and orange hats that made this weekend possible.  me and mine were very blessed because of you.  thank you.
aNdy
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin