News:

We need volunteers in sales, marketing, PR, IT, and general "running of an organization." 
Maximize your Appleseed energy to make this program grow, and help fill the empty spots
on the firing line!  An hour of time spent at this level can have the impact of ten or a
hundred hours on the firing line.  Want to help? Send a PM to Monkey!

Main Menu

Black Creek, VA Appleseed starter (more tonight)

Started by Old Dog, May 25, 2008, 09:31:06 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages1
User actions

Old Dog

May 25, 2008, 09:31:06 AM
We had just over 40 people show up for day one of beautiful sunny skies, cool breezes and no bugs (well, someone said I had a lady bug on me after I got up from the sitting position demonstration).

The usual results from the redcoat.  I think its a real "eye opener" for folks when they see the results of their first targets.  Between no bench, different size targets, and other people firing on both sides of you most folks realize shooting at 25 yards is not as easy as it first seems.

The one inch squares followed.  Some of the groups began to tighten up after a few squares and some sight adjustment began to be made.

There were several different kinds of slings up and down the line.  Some appropriate for the task of learning to hit small targets at longer ranges and some were not.  I saw some of the tacticool slings coming off the rifles and getting put on the "gear/ammo" pile behind the line.  Many folks agreed that the web slings, once they were shown how to use them in either the loop or hasty mode worked very well to help them stabilze the rifle and shrink their groups.

We got in a couple of AQTs by the end of the day and got a rifleman (235 I believe) score at the end of the day.  Some folks were close, others were farther away and still working on a combination of rifle problems and technique issues.

There were quite a few .308 and 30.06 rifles on the line Saturday.  Again, the bulk of the rifles were .22's (some scoped, some not).  Some of the .22's did not have slings or anyway to mount slings.

If the thank you's and handshakes were an indication of success at learning how to shoot their rifles better it must have been a pretty good day for most of the attendees.  That's what makes it worth it.  My feedt and knee are hurting so bad I barely made it through yesterday and don't know if I could make it through a full day today or not. 

Getting ready to head back a little early with the rifle cleaning/maintenance tool box to see if anyone want to tear down their rifle and do some cleaning and lube work prior to the afternoon shooting.

See you at the range!
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

—Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

Old Dog

#1
May 25, 2008, 08:56:12 PM Last Edit: May 25, 2008, 10:42:53 PM by M1A4ME
Well, hope everyone makes it home okay.  We only had about 16 or 18 returning shooters by the end of the day today.  It was another sunny warm day, just a tad warmer with less of a cool breeze. 

We had another rifleman score today.  A 220, shot by a gentleman born in South Africa and educated in England, shooting an AR 15 and on one one of the red coat AQTs, too.  Had some folks close, but no one else broke the 210 mark.

We had scope issues, sight in issues, ammo issues, sling issues and lack of sling issues, folks trying to shoot rifles that just didn't fit them (stocks too long, stocks too short, sights to high off the top of the rifle, etc., etc.

Several folks promised to come back for the second Appleseed at Black Creek in November and some said they were bringing somebody with them.

We had a variety of rifles.  There were more AR15's than anything else, 10/22's next, a few M1A's, an M1, an H&K, a FAL, a mini14 and several other .22 types, bolt action and semi auto.


Edited:

We could not start shooting till 1300 hrs. today.  We told folks to show up around 1100 hrs. this morning and when we got there at 1000 hrs. there were several folks already there and dry firing.  We had an M1/M1A field strip and cleaning and lube session.  This turned into an opportunity to show folks how the trigger/hammer/sear works when holding the trigger back after firing the shot and then releasing the trigger just to the point where the sear/trigger resets.  We also discussed the Appleseed Program and talked to the folks about volunteering to become instructors.  Several people expressed interest.  We'll see.

"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

—Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

FiremanEd

#2
May 26, 2008, 02:40:36 PM
A great weekend! My father-n-law and my first Appleseed and a very good time. Very educational on the proper use of the sling and just plain fun.

VAShooter & M1A4ME did a great job. Thank you to you both for your time and dedication!! That goes to all the RWVA Instructors as well!

My biggest disappointment for the weekend was seeing the number of people who came out Saturday morning and subsequently left. At least 6 left before lunch Saturday, more in the afternoon and only about 1/2 of the starting group from Saturday morning actually finished the 2 days. I know some folks had family commitments that prevented them from coming back on Sunday but I was surprised by the numbers who left mid day.

Sunday morning my FIL switched over to his 17 rimfire bolt gun for the 1st round of shooting and decided that the heavy barrel mini14 was a lot easier to shoot within time constraints. He was successful with that in earning his Rifleman patch.

We did end up with a total of 3 Riflemen for the weekend, the gentleman M1A4ME mentioned above, my FIL with a scoped Mini14 (211 score) and myself with an open sighted AR with a 222 as my high of 3 qualifying scores. What a great weekend!!

I know there were a lot of guys and one Lady who finished the weekend who I'm sure will all make Rifleman if they work on it. The level of improvement for everyone, experienced shooters and inexperienced alike, was incredible. Several guys learned how to sight in their rifles properly and one guy said it very well "I learned how, to learn how to shoot!" I thought he said that very well. I think the goal was met this weekend, of planting that seed of desire. I know many who were there will pursue to improve themselves an pass along what they learned. (If you want to attend the Appleseed at Black Creek in November I'd recommend you sign up now, I think it's gonna fill up early!!)

Be safe, shoot straight & see you in November if not before,

FiremanEd

Are you a Rifleman or a clerk?? 


"Men sleep peacefully at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their part"   George Orwell

VAshooter

#3
May 26, 2008, 03:32:52 PM
FiremanEd,

The one group that left at noon on Saturday was because of a medical problem being aggravated by the heat and sun. They wanted to stay but their problem needed to be resolved.

VAshooter

VAshooter

#4
May 26, 2008, 04:17:07 PM
We had a great weekend and a great Appleseed. The range at Black Creek is good for holding an Appleseed. The grass is cut , the land is flat, The target setup makes it easy to rig for Appleseed and the covered area behind the firing line is a comfortable shady retreat for history lessons, rifle cleaning and target scoring.

The range is convenient to both I64 and I95 so if you like lots of traffic, this is the place to be on a Memorial Day weekend. Thirty nine shooters braved the holiday weekend traffic to shoot with us on Saturday and 22  came back for Sunday. We had no Sunday only shooters so all of our Sunday people were returning after Saturday.

The weather was perfect with sun and temperatures in the high seventies or low eighties all weekend. The shooters were ready to shoot. A couple times I asked if they wanted a break and they wanted to shoot some more. They also seemed to prefer working on technique shooting squares that shooting AQT's. We dry fired an entire AQT with transitions and mag changes and position shifts for NPOA as well. That worked so well I will probably do it again.

I really enjoyed meeting these people. One gentleman brought his four daugthers to learn how to shoot. They all did very well too. We had other wives and kids as well. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The military was represented and I want to offer a special thanks to them for their service and their attending an Appleseed. This had to be the friendliest group of Appleseeders I have met in my time as an instructor.

Four people shot Rifleman scores but one who shot a 234 on Saturday managed to sneak away without my getting his name or giving him a patch.

I hope to see all of you at other Appleseeds. You made my weekend very enjoyable.

VAshooter

FiremanEd

#5
May 26, 2008, 09:28:38 PM
Quote from: VAshooter on May 26, 2008, 03:32:52 PM
FiremanEd,

The one group that left at noon on Saturday was because of a medical problem being aggravated by the heat and sun. They wanted to stay but their problem needed to be resolved.

VAshooter

Thanks for the correction VAshooter, I'm sorry to hear they had an issue forcing them to leave. I didn't mean to sound derogatory above, I was just disappointed to see so many people start such a great event and not finish it.

Thanks again to you and M1A4ME for doing a great job this weekend!!

FiremanEd

Are you a Rifleman or a clerk?? 


"Men sleep peacefully at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their part"   George Orwell

Old Dog

#6
May 26, 2008, 09:47:28 PM
Great!  Four rifleman from the weekend.  That's better.  For some reason I missed two of them.  What was I doing when the target was scored and announced?

Four of almost 40 folks works out to 10% number that seems about normal for the Appleseeds.

FiremanEd, glad you guys showed up.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

—Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

snowball

#7
May 26, 2008, 10:26:50 PM
The weekend was great. Thanks again to the instructors.
I didn't make Rifleman, but Marksman is a good place to work up from on the scoring table.

As a reference so you might know who I was, I was the guy that camped out that night and the guy with his elbows on the ground for the sitting position portion.

A few of the attendees had asked about the elbow pads I was wearing for the event. They are made for use with paintball events, but I thought they worked great for the Appleseed event. The ones I have were bought 7+ years ago and don't seem to be available anymore, but similar ones from the same company can be found here: http://www.redzcomfort.com/home.html.

I just ordered Fred's Guide to becoming a rifleman so I could perfect some skills. If these guides were available at the events I bet they would sell pretty quickly.

I was also thinking about one of the issues that popped up a few times and it was shooters aiming at/shooting targets other then their own. I thought a good solution might be to alternate the target colors that the line has. If the line were setup with the black/gray and red AQT targets maybe the "oops" factor would be reduced?

My girlfriend took some photos on Saturday. If they look good I'll post them here soon.

I hope everyone considers coming back for the November event at the same location. I'll certainly try and "recruit" a few people for it.

Old Dog

#8
May 26, 2008, 11:02:34 PM
Snowball, you're only the second person I've seen who could put their elbows on the ground in the sitting position, so yes, I remember you.

Glad you felt it was worth the time/expense to spend a weekend learning to shoot your rifle better.  This fall should be another good weekend for an Appleseed.  I'll bet it'll be cooler though.

Getting the guide will give you a lot of information you can "digest" and put to work between now and your next Appleseed.  Now that you're on the forum here don't hesitate to post any questions you might have.  There's plenty of folks here who can help answer them.

Any pictures are good pictures as long as they don't show me limping up and down the line (I hear Fred shoots injured pack horses to put them out of their misery).

See you in November, unless you make it down to Black Creek for a mini before then.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

—Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

jlacey

#9
May 27, 2008, 09:54:02 AM
Excellent!  is how I descibed the Appleseed event, instuctors and the people who attended.Thank you all. It was certainly educational in many ways. After the bother of changing sights, then getting rid of the 'tacticool'  [nice new word M14ME ] sling and fitting the web sling and all that involved, it all came together at the right time enabling me to earn the patch, again thank you gentlemen I shall see you in future to further raise those scores ;D
If you are not prepared,  then you are prepared to fail.

VAshooter

#10
May 27, 2008, 10:38:57 AM
Ted posted some pictures on the regional/state section of the website. Excelent shot of Fred's flags.

VAshooter
Print
Go Up Pages1
User actions