Toccoa June 28/29th

[Flathead]

What a great week end!!
  Turn out was lower than I had hoped for, a total of 12 shooters made it to this shoot, and I don't think we could have had a better group of people.
With Dinky Dao, VAshooter, Boltgun71, and myself doing the teaching we had a great ratio of students to shooters. With the Saturday history lesson startd by VA then some shooting of the redcoat targets. We had about the normal amount of hits with 2 of the shooters doing really great (both have already qualified rifleman before). One woman, Valerie,  had never shoot a rifle before Saturday and her husband, Michael, is active duty and are friends with army wife and boltgun by the midlle of day to had some sub 6 moa groups and I am sure she will do better once she has a rifle of her own! Micheal was chasing right behind her with some rifle issues. Buzzstrike did very well this week end, with a little more practise he will be scoring rifle man soon. Daaneil Boome verified his last score by shooting a 213 on sunday and shoot a 174 at the full distance range with a borrowed Garand (mine!) and had never handled one before Saturday!!! All you have to do to make things work is follow the 6 steps and apply the 25 meter practise and know your come ups for the distance you are shooting!
Armywife shoot a 221 full distance score with her husbands AR!!! She has more drive than most American men!! Her attitude was great all week end and even started her IIT at this shoot! She was coaching other shooters and helping out where she could.
Has a man from North Carolina, by the name of Fred , show up and shoot VA's ar with dedicated 22 upper and with a little more work will be leaving the cooks alone in the kicthen.
The club president came by on sunday and watched and listened to what was going on and was impressed as he always has been by the shooters we have at Toccoa.
And if you can believe it we got thru the week end without getting rained on during the day and the temps were only in the lower 90's!!  Malfunctions were minimal, the students all seemed to enjoy the history as well as the shooting, and by Sunday evening I think nearly every one was shot out, those that weren't went to the full distance range and shot at some steel pigs and steel head and shoulders target.

[Troubleshooter]

I just had to post and say thank you for a great weekend. This was my first Appleseed and I really wasn't sure what to expect. Buzzstrike had been talking to me about coming to a shoot for a long while and I finally decided to take the plunge. I am so glad I did 

The instructors were great, and were ready to offer advice and answer all my newbie questions with patience. Instead of making me feel foolish because of my lack of skills (which I had feared might happen) they made me feel welcome and right at home.

Unfortunately I brought a rifle which was not very suitable (sporterized AK with some trigger group problems) but Flathead kindly loaned me a 10/22 for half of Saturday. Sunday I used an SKS on loan from Buzzstrike and had a great time with both rifles.

I learned an incredible amount about shooting, and some fascinating history as well. I am still firmly in the kitchen as far as my scores, but my groups are 1/5th of what they were on Saturday morning. I plan to be out of the kitchen and earning my rifleman at the November event in Toccoa.

With just what I picked up this weekend, I went from being barely on the paper at 25m to feeling elated at hearing that distinctive "bing!" as I repeatedly hit the steel targets at 200m, and that with surplus ammo and a borrowed Garand I had never shot before (borrowed from Buzz). A real accomplishment for me, and all due to the great instruction and the volunteers of this program.

Wish I had some pictures. I brought a camera, but in the excitement of actually learning how to shoot I forgot all about taking pictures. I'm still sore all over (and my elbows are scuffed) but glad for it. Showed me I have some things to work on before next time.

Guess that's enough for a first post 

[VAshooter]

I just wanted to thank everyone who attended the Taccoa Appleseed. All the shooters worked hard to improve their skills and the instructors made the shoot boss's job easy.

I hope to see you all again.

VAshooter

[Buzzstrike]

I'm sorry for taking so long to reply but, after the last few posts, I am quite humbled.

To Flathead, thanks for the vote of confidence.  Like I mentioned at the shoot that was the first time I really put rounds down range like that in almost six months.  No excuse on my part I need to get out and pratice more. 

To Troubleshooter, it was nice to see the look of joy on your face when you were hitting the torso plates at 200yds with my Garand.  That is what an Appleseed is for.  Oh and the ammo you were using was not Mil-surp, I grabbed the wrong can.  You were shooting my reloads(M2 Ball clones).  The reason for the rifle short-stroking is that I failed to properly lube the bolt and op-rod.  Sorry.  By the way  the offer about the SKS still stands.

To Va Shooter.  A deep thank you for taking time out of your weekend and comming down from Va to be the shoot boss.  With out you, I don't think that this Appleseed would have been as informative and a challenge.  You set the bar for alot of us, I just wish that I could have traded in my apron and ladle for a cartridge belt, battle rifle and a riflemans patch. 

I am already making preperations for the Nov. shoot.  I may put off my next rifle aquisition of a AE10-B to build up a LTR or two.  Rumor has it that (as of this time)  my wife may attend and quite possibly my son to be 16 y/o son.  Plus a few members of my wifes' department at work. 

I just can not say enough about this Appleseed.  I just pray that I will get the Rifleman's patch in November. 

Buzz.

[Son of Martha]

221 on the full distance?  I knew she was an overachiever...

Thanks all for coming, and thanks VAshooter, FH, DD, and Boltgun for running the event. Remember November!  Bring someone(s) with you!

Those of you who have made rifleman, concentrate on that Seventh Step...

SoM

[Sherry- RIP CPL MAYNE KIA 23FEB2009 IRAQ]

haha Thanks SOM! Sorry we missed you and your sons in Ramseur!! Yeah I impressed myself at Taccoa that weekend! My 1" squares were pretty damn impressive. Although this wasn't the BEST AS I've been to, but I always walk away learning something new each time. I did start my IIT but felt as though there wasn't much for me to do. I did a little RSO-ing and helped out shooters where and when I could. But didn't feel that I was much help. My next AS I will be concentrating more on IIT-ing than shooting. It's always fun to outshoot the boys though!  

I'm posting some pics of the AS that weekend and will be posting some of the Ramseur AS on that forum also. The shooters we brought with us to Taccoa deffinetly seem intresested in returning, which is good after leaving the AS kinda disappointed and a little more confused than when they showed up. They plan on going gun shopping sometime in the near future to get rifles that fit both of them. She has short arms and he has longer arms so getting them fitted to the right gun will deffinetly give them a better AS experience.

Thanks to everyone who helped out and showed up at this Appleseed! It was deffinetly fun and a learning experience, good and bad! Hope to see you all again soon! And remember, Taccoa isn't the only place to hold Appleseeds so I better see some of you in NC and hopefully soon-to-be SC!!

[Sherry- RIP CPL MAYNE KIA 23FEB2009 IRAQ]

Here's some eye candy for ya... all but the top right square were shot by me. Well, I did put 5 rounds into that square, but so did the person next to me. Accidently of course!

See folks, the AS program DOES work! And the instructors are pretty good too. I'll give them some credit!!