Flash Report: Samuel Whittemore Appleseed

[colonial shooter]

What a glorious day in Montana. Blue skies, little breeze temps that started in the twenties ending in the mid seventies. The newly named Samuel Whittemore Memorial Range was covered in the excitement.As usual the Redcoats showed up and bayoneted all but a few of the participants (15). But after several sets of squares and two Classification Targets, our first QaDAQT produced Three new riflemen (women). The second, produced the fourth for the day. Tomorrow will be about the same weatherwise , hopefully turnout will be as good also.       

[Cav1]

A much wiser man than I once said, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18.) Boy howdy was he right.

I fell into that trap myself big time. Since I made rifleman at my first Appleseed, I was sure I would this go-round as well. In determining to do better this time, I made the fatal flaw of tweaking gear rather than PRACTICING. Spiffy new Scout Scope mount from Fulton on the old M1 Garand, nifty 3X long eye relif scope, six different .30-06 loads accuracy tested, the best groups determined, that recipe loaded up for the Appleseed, zeroed in to shoot one ragged hole at 25 yards.

ALL DONE FROM A REST...DU-OH!!! One minor matter escaped my attention in all that bench shooting and tweaking...from the prone unsupported position I could not look through my fancy new scope and get a cheek weld with the stock. In fact, I could barely get a "chin weld". If I had just gotten down and practiced a bit instead of being proud of my new toys, I would have done much better, as the weapon itself is very capable. It was the human factor that was lacking.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. One thing you can say, you ALWAYS learn something at an Appleseed, and some lessons are more painful than others.

[Old Dog]

Dryfire practice (saves your ammo) but helps you get in some good practice and can teach you a lot. 

I have a similar set up on my M1 (and I love it!) 

Everyone makes mistakes (anyone who says they don't is either lying, or not doing anything).  The important thing is to learn from those mistakes.  Think about what you learned, correct it, and share what you learned with others.  PS.  The little "riser" on my stock is a cheap "AK/SKS" piece of plastic off ebay that attaches to the stock with a couple of phillips screws.  If you don't want to do it to nice M1 stock either get a "range stock" or a ram line synthetic stock like mine.

[Cav1]

Horse gone; barn door closed.
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Cost: 18$ and a big ol' slice of humble pie.

Still can't wait for the next shoot.

[xsabers]

I had a great time guys, even though I had to cut my time down to one day.  Lots of lessons learned or relearned.  Next one I get to I'll either have the 10/22 running at 110% or I'll leave the darn thing home and just stick with the "real" rifle.  The savings in ammo cost by going sub-caliber was out weighed by the lost time and training efficiency caused by constant malfunctions.  At least I know what to work on and HOW to work on it until next time.

[Shootimus Maximus]

As the host of the first annual Samuel Whittemore Boot Camp and Appleseed I would like to extend a sincere thanks to all who assisted in the organizing and to all who attended.  Aside from an occassional frozen hose to the shower, it went off without any major hitches and will only get better as the years go by.

This is a great organization and I am proud to be involved... even if for now it is just as a host, I am doing what I can.

[xsabers]

This is a great organization and I am proud to be involved... even if for now it is just as a host, I am doing what I can.

Don't sell yourself short what you did was quite a bit.  Just providing the space to shoot an Appleseed is a MAJOR contribution in my book.  Thank you again for doing that.  With all the space we have here in MT and the travel time involved if we could get just one land owner, like yourself, in each of the seven regions to donate a little space for range time we could probably draw in more people overall.  What you did and what you plan to do put you way up on the "pullin' your weight" scale.

[Cav1]

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This is what I will look like the next time ya'll see me, and hopefully I will also see you AND those pesky 300-400 yard targets. Doc today sez I need glasses. Tell you the truth, I'm pretty relieved. I was starting to think I'd "lost it" altogether with iron sights and had wasted my money on the 10/22 Tech Sights. Looking forward to the next Appleseed even more now. Not that this means I can slack off on the PRACTICING like this last time, though.

[colonial shooter]

Cav1, Great to meet you. Thanks for adding the military history to my lesson. Keep practicing, when it is easy with the .22, the rest is a piece of cake.

[The Guy]

Well, I got home at 2100 last night, sheesh. I'm still tired.

We had 7 new Riflemen/women this time around.  MT seems to have the highest percentage of AS Riflemen produced per shooters.  One was 11, btw.....

Wish I was still there, that 950 yard 20 inch target is calling my name.....LOL!

Thanks to all who made this one possible, namely Ted and Krissy, our hosts.

[Junior Birdman]

  "We had 7 new Riflemen/women this time around.  MT seems to have the highest percentage of AS Riflemen produced per shooters."

   Nope, not even close. Davilla2 had 88%     JB