Real Men's Event promotion

[9mm4545]

AAR "Real Men's Event", Live Oak, FL, 25 FEB 2012

At the invitation of the event's organizer, I went to a Real Men's Event held on Feb. 25th on a large ranch a few miles outside of Live Oak, Florida, for the purpose of promoting Project Appleseed to the hundreds of men and boys who would be attending the all day affair. I don't know the numbers for the event for this year, but last year they had about 1200 who attended. The Real Men's Event is a project organized by Hibernia Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL and has been an annual event for the past several years. A Christian themed gathering for fathers and sons, the event is held at Skeeter Ranch and has a large assortment of outdoor activities for the participants. From archery, airboats, and air-soft to greased pig wrestling and paint ball, to rifle shooting, turkey shoots, and skeet--the event has something to keep everyone busy and entertained. With music, inspirational speakers, food, various displays of equipment, and even a long zip line to ride, I don't think boredom was possible, fatigue maybe but boredom--not likely.

How this all came about was this: last year we had a member of Hibernia Church (Jon) attend a couple of our Appleseed events in St. Augustine with his kids. He eventually succeeded in shooting the Rifleman score and has become a big supporter of Appleseed. He in turn told the Real Men's Event (RME) coordinator at his church (Phillip) about Appleseed. One thing led to another and I had Phillip come to one of our shoots with his son. Apparently he liked what he saw and arranged to have an Appleseed presence at the RME. I was not at all sure of what to expect other than it might be a place to hand out some brochures and do some seventh stepping.

When I arrived on Friday afternoon there was a beehive of activity with dozens of volunteers setting up for the event. I found out that there would be .22 shooting but not much more than that. As there was a backstop which had been bulldozed I figured on doing a few "Appleseed target challenges" to those who were there to shoot anyway. The event's .22 shoot consisted of shooting a brand new Ruger 10/22 with 5 rounds at a bullseye target 25 meters away from a improvised hay bale "bench". There were five rifles which had been donated and would later be awarded during the end of day prize drawings. My plan was to post some Redcoat targets at one end of the target line and let folks shoot using my loaner rifles. And no, shooting off of the hay bales was not allowed! If anyone cleaned the target (unlikely) they would win a T-shirt. Fortunately, ammo was provided by the event sponsors as it turned out there was a multitude of shooters who wanted to take the challenge. It was a very popular event and there was a line of those waiting to shoot during most of the day. As I expected, there were not too many T-shirts given out but there was a plentiful opportunity to let people know that Project Appleseed teaches marksmanship. There were loads of brochures given out to the shooters after they had retrieved their somewhat less than spectacular targets. Those few who managed to clean the target posted their target on the "bragging wall" and of course were encouraged to wear their T-shirts everywhere--and given extra brochures to hand out!   

Now what I did not anticipate was the sheer numbers that would be wanting to participate. During the day the challenge was altered several times in the interest of time, target, and ammo savings. Five rounds prone into a "star" target, five rounds into the 100 yard Redcoat from standing, five rounds into a 400 yard silhouette from prone, or maybe even five rounds into the 200 yard kneeling target were some of the various challenges offered. Unfortunately, skilled marksmanship was generally lacking even among those who claimed to be "good shots". I managed to recruit a couple of volunteers to assist with managing the numbers (prepping magazines, posting targets, making rifles safe) but in retrospect another couple of experienced instructors would have allowed more time and opportunities for promotion. Although all of the loaner rifles were equipped with slings, actual usage of the slings was rare. A couple of times during the day I did a shooting demonstration--naturally using a sling--and showed proper Rifleman form to those who were interested. Just to make some noise--and bring some folks by to see what the noise was all about--my M1 Garand was the rifle used in the demonstrations. I had four loaner .22 rifles available, three with scopes and one with Tech Sights. The scoped rifles were by far and away the most popular. All four of the Ruger 10/22's were reliable all day despite their diet of unfamiliar ammunition.

Finally towards the end of the day and before the drawing for prizes, I was given 15 minutes on the main stage to give an abbreviated version of the story of April 19th, 1775 and to explain the Appleseed Project. The time went by far too quickly but I do believe there will be a few who show up at future events. There will be a careful tracking of attendees for the upcoming shoots to see if my efforts paid off. While I was at the event, I met the owner of Skeeter Ranch and he seemed interested in possibly having an Appleseed event on his ranch. His location could obviously host a large gathering and there is room for not just a 25 meter shoot but for longer distances as well. This is a connection that will be nurtured. Finally, I would like to thank Jon, who started the ball rolling; Phillip, who invited me to the event; and young Alex, who helped me tremendously during the day and who is a Rifleman in the making. There were many others who also deserve thanks, even though I don't know your names.