Jericho, VT Appleseed, July 19-20, 2008

[Nickle]

Well, what can I say?

Jericho and Full Distance.

Yup, folks, you missed a good one, for sure.

27 shooters Saturday, 25 Sunday. 2 Riflemen.

We may even have a first for Appleseed. Rapid Fire Full Distance AQT (in the rain). 24 minutes from the first "your prep period begins now" until the final "cease fire, cease fire, cease fire".

We had several interruptions on Sunday, and had to be cold no later than 4:00 (not 4:01, either). We went cold at 3:59. That got everybody through the Full Distance AQT, and the shooters wanted to get it in, so they moved quickly. Remember, Jericho has a fixed set of pits, the shooters move from berm to berm.

9 Instructors, including Scout, who came up from Texas, and just HAD to see this range he keeps hearing about. Y'all ask him about the fine points of shooting an M1 in the rain.  (I'll save the story for him to tell.)  Crak showed everyone about how a Rifleman perseveres, and, again, I'll save the story for him (it's a good one, and shows his determination).

Saturday was pretty hot, Sunday it rained all day. The weather Friday, prior to was, well, remarkable. 70-90 MPH winds 2 towns north of the range, and rumours of a tornado down my way (next town over).

We got 2 Riflemen, BrushHog from survivalforums.com (a local VT guy) shot a 229 Saturday (one day only shooter). A gent from NH (John?) also got it done. I'll edit to get his name right tonight.

[Nickle]

Looks like the Appleseeders were tougher than the reenactors 70 miles sought west of us.

ORWELL -- For the second time in three years, Vermont's often unpredictable weather dropped buckets of rain on the Mount Independence "Soldiers Atop the Mount" event held over the weekend.

The two-day American Revolutionary War re-enactment was set to take place atop Orwell's Mount Independence historic site.

The "mountain" stands roughly 300 feet high on the eastern side of Lake Champlain and played a crucial role in fending off the British brigades during America's break from European control in 1776.

More than 100 actors portraying different members of American, British and German military forces set up camp atop the mountain for the weekend. Several demonstrations illustrating various aspects of military life during the Revolutionary War were planned for the course of the weekend.

But that was before the rain came falling down.

"What a bust. It's a mostly outdoor event, so the weather takes its toll," said Elsa Gilbertson, regional historical site administrator. "But it's better that everyone gets out before the bad stuff really starts."

Intermittent rain began falling on the region by early afternoon Saturday before turning into full-blown thunderstorms later that night. The majority of events were later called off on Sunday morning and actors were told to go home before the weather got any worse.

Even still, Gilbertson said she wished the weather had held off for at least a little while longer.

One of the most important moments of the event every year is a rereading of the Declaration of Independence -- for which Mount Independence is named -- near the mountain's peak.

"You actually get shivers up your spine when you hear it read in this place," she said, adding it was unfortunate many people wouldn't see it this year. "You can only imagine what it must have felt like for the soldiers at the time."

Overall attendance was down this year thanks to the combined efforts of horrid weather and high gas prices, Gilbertson said. By Sunday morning, only a few cars driven by the rain-braving courageous remained in the site's gravel parking lot.

Chrisi Benney, a Concord, N.H., resident, was likely one of the last visiting stragglers. She forged through the Sunday morning rain with her dogs, Wallace and Albus, hoping to make the most out of her trip to Vermont.

"It was actually really, really, beautiful," she said, her hair matted with rain. "We'd come back again when it's not raining."

While most of the actors had left early Sunday morning, a few remained on site and braved the storm through midday.

"We got the order at about eight o'clock this (Sunday) morning that it was going to be a wash," actor Nathan Casey said. "But we're still here, aren't we?"

Casey played the role of a "Red Coat" British major along with Steve Leet. Both men claimed service "in his majesty's court of engineers" and were among the last actors to leave.

They both remained in high spirits as they began packing away their gear and disassembling their tents in the humid morning rain and fog.

"It takes at least five hours for me to get camp down and drive home," Leet, from Andover, Mass., said. "But it's such a great place and it's worth every minute of it."

"One of the reasons we do this is to teach history -- living history," Casey said. "I feel more comfortable in 18th century clothes than I do in 21st century clothes."

Casey, taking a moment to lighten the mood while jabbing at the American opposition who broke camp early, added a little historical humor to sum up the washed-out weekend.

"I want to know what this wetness falling from the heavens is," he said, speaking of the rain pelting his tent. "As far as I knew, only King George was set to reign today."

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080722/NEWS01/807220353/1002/NEWS01

[JMinMaine]

I want to thank everyone for making me feel welcome. A very special thanks to KDAN and SCOUT for patience, constructive criticism and encouragement. I had a lot of fun - even in the rain! I'm getting some new iron sights for my .22 that should improve my scores immensely.
And I was really glad to have the opportunity to go the Full Distance - again special thanks to KDAN for the extra one-on-one coaching when I was shooting the lefty AR.

To all you ladies out there: don't be shy. I wasn't sure what to expect - but it was a very positive experience.

[miklosb]

Thanks to Appleseed for the incredible weekend.
Despite not getting the rifleman patch, I now have a goal to shoot for and I am extremely confident I will get it the next time, and a methodology to continue to shoot until I can no longer hold a rifle in my hands.
The passion and the professionalism of Nickle and the entire Appleseed staff came through loud and clear. It has been a long time since I had a enjoyable shooting weekend and I hope to have many, many more.
The grounds at Jericho were absolutely drop-dead gorgeous!
Every time it rains, I will be thinking of the weekend in Jericho.
Every time I see a red shirt, Jericho.

Until the next shoot.
Miklosb

P.S. Below is my write up on the weekend for a board I am a member of....:
Hey all, this is my account of the three days at the Appleseed event held in Jericho, Vermont. Enjoy.

I always considered myself a fair shooter of small arms. I participated in IPSC matches many years ago, and I was labelled as hardcore. If there was a match in Quebec, I was there. Toronto and all points east, I was there. Vermont, New York state, did the best I could to attend. That was a long time ago and I always have a smile when I go back and think about those times.
But I always wished I had better rifle skills, I only shot off the bench on bags, or bipods. This board sorta-kinda pushed me to take care of that.
Either I learned about Appleseed (http://www.appleseedinfo.org/) from this board, or researching rifle marksmanship courses and I really felt this was the best fit for me. Before continuing, I checked on what paperwork was required for Canadians entering the U.S. with firearms for sporting events and found that a 6NIA from the ATF (http://www.atf.gov/firearms/form6nia/) and a valid reason. Things have changed since my IPSC days. I signed up immediately when I found one was being held about 2 hours away from Montreal, BONUS!
I met up with an old friend, we'll call him Eckhart (his choice), that I haven't seen in years and I told him about this event, his eyes lit up and I asked if he would like to come with me, he said yes before I finished the question. He was there in my IPSC days, we travelled a fair amount together back then, lots of laughs and beer.
Faxed in the flyer from the event, my confirmation and receipt of payment to Appleseed, to the ATF and 5 weeks later, they faxed back the completed paperwork that I would need to present at the border.

Eckhart also started the process and he was planning on bringing in his M1 Gerand. His application was refused because of this rifle was a military issue. He got in touch with the ATF, they told him he would have to fill in another set of papers due to the history of this rifle. At this point, the event was too close to wait another five to six weeks. He was really disappointed. I suggested to him to please get in touch with Appleseed and see if there were any loaners...
Score, they set aside a Gerand! Appleseed do their best to help you.
But now, he still needs to get the 6NIA for the 500 rounds of 30-06! With a few phone calls to the ATF with explanations, they were extremely helpful in getting the release for him in time.

I was lucky enough to have a L1A1 FN FAL set aside for me for this program, took about a week to load up 500 rounds of 308's (single stage press, trimming required, testing loads with my Browning BLR). I still planned on bringing my Ruger 77/22 22 long rifle as my backup and my 308 BLR just in case. I DO NOT WANT TO SHOOT 500 ROUNDS WITH MY BLR! Brought my recoil shoulder pad.
Both of us were getting pumped up to go to Appleseed, like a pair of 6 year olds the night before leaving for Disney World.

All paper work done, ready to go, Friday came, we both took the day off to take of other stuff, double check everything etc...

Friday

I drove over to my friends place, unloaded my stuff into his car, a BMW, 325Xi. A company car, nice car! Like the car! Has AC. My car, a big ass-ed 1993 GMC safari all-wheel drive, some rust, captain seats, no back seats, 7.25 kilometers per liter on highway, air conditioner stopped working a long time ago. To fix it would cost more than a 1000 liters of gas....and that's why I don't have AC! It was going to be a very warm and humid weekend. I had to set aside my morals to allow myself to go in the Beemer, took about 1/10th of a second, if that long.

My double long rifle case didn't fit in his trunk, so in the back seat of the BMW it went, great!
Trunk completely full, big ass double rifle case in the back seat, 1,500 rounds of ammo, we head for the border. In Quebec, this weekend is the start of the two-week 'construction vacation' where pretty much the province shuts down and the highways go crazy with campers, trailers, overloaded station wagons with parents and screaming kids or socially withdrawn IdiotPod-jacked-cyber$hits. Oh, and beer sales usually going through the roof due to said screaming kids. Traffic reports mentioned a 20-minute wait at the border crossing, cool!

We approached the border crossing, traffic reports were bang on, only 2 cars ahead of us in our line.
We get to the U.S. customs officer.
We give him our papers, passports and the 6NIAs.
We thought all would be okay, and the worst would be for them to double check the serial numbers on the rifles and what was listed on the paperwork.

Lets call this particular customs officer...Mr Customs Officer
Mr Customs Officer looked over our papers, we looked at him, checked for body language, a heads-up on what may come.
Mr Customs Officer asked us, "Where are we going and the reason for entering the U.S.?"
We answered him. A marksmanship course....
He asked where is our hunting license.
Ever see cartoons where you see big question and exclamation marks pop above character heads with the look of 'huh?'. You now have a good idea as to how we reacted.
Eckhart responded by saying we don't have hunting licenses, we are not here to hunt, we are to do a marksmanship course, in a very polite manner.
(with an Australian accent)
The nuclear fuel rods are now being pulled out of their lead lined containers, and we are seeing the start of thermal fission at work. We control the amount of fission by how much 'rod' is exposed. The more 'rod', the more heat generated.

We did our homework and I felt we did a pretty good job of scanning and checking ATF web site to make sure we had all we needed. We firmly believed we were in the right.
Judging by the demeanour of Mr Customs Officer, he knew he was right, that we needed a hunting license to enter Vermont with firearms for hunting purposes.
Mr Customs Officer again asked where is our hunting license, of how can we expect him to let us through without a hunting license, of how we determined that we only needed a 6nia form etc...
would you look at that, fission activity is rising as the rods are pulled out of their containment, slowly the temperature rises, the end effect will be super heated steam hitting the turbines and giving us energy!

Ekhart responded by saying that we didn't need a hunting license to enter for the simple reason that the ATF specified we didn't need one, that we are not here for hunting etc...in a polite yet firm manner.

Calmly, I wondered at that point as to what it's like at Guantanamo.

CRIKEY, the steam turbines are really spinning up, look at the power being generated!

I believe that the officer only saw Canadians crossing with firearms with 6NIA's with attached hunting licenses, may not have seen the 'clause' that 'other lawful sporting purposes' may not involve nor require hunting papers. The volleys between Mr Customs Officer and Ekhart went for another two cycles, each time the tone getting a bit...firm (tense? tenser? stiff, unyielding?)
Finally, Mr Customs Officer ended all this, slappedt he papers together and said "okay, you guys go park over there and go inside please".

..and the rods are now slowly let back into their storage containers, temperatures are coming back down. The reactor is now shutting down.

I wondered if they had good food at Guantanamo.

We parked, walked in and sat down in front of the counter. Mr Customs Officer came in behind the counter and handed off our passports, 6NIA's et. al. to another officer that went into another room, sat down at a pc and started typing away.

Do they have T.V. at Guantanamo? How comfortable is it sleeping in a fetal position while sucking one's thumb, day in day out? Is it fashionable wearing orange prison uniform all the time, do they change during the years, do they fade? These questions, to me, are fairly important. It can really determine one's mood for the remainder of their days. Don't you think?

About five minutes later, the officer came out, we got up to the counter, he placed all of our papers on the counter and said the next few words...

"Good to go gentlemen".

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!
We took our papers, got into the BMW 325Xi and off we went. We first hit the army surplus store and picked up some supplies before checking in at the hotel. When we were about to leave the store, it started to rain, HARD!
Ekhart suggested we wait a few minutes, maybe the storm will ease off a bit. The forecast was 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms on Saturday, and 40% on Sunday. A moment past and we just looked at each other and probably we both thought the same thing.
We are a bunch of pu$$ies for being 'concerned' about a little rain.
We bolted for the car, off to the hotel.
Checked in, $hit, showered, shaved. Well no....not shaved, we were on vacation. Headed off to a sporting store, I picked up some tactical boots, and he picked up some soccer shoes, both were on sale. We didn't have a change of shoes in case we were drenched the next two days.
The tactical boots, after this weekend, worked out really well (ahem). Comfortable the entire weekend, no 'new shoe' sores, excellent support and it held the water sooooo efficiently! They had side zippers so easy in/out once you got the laces all nice and tight. Yes, they were not waterproof....didn't care, they were 75$ and they looked cool. Got a case of beer and then went to eat at a steak joint.
Huge Beer, big cow steak, back to hotel, some more beers, watched some t.v. then I went back to my room and crashed. The last time we shared a room was for the IPSC Sharon Open match north of Toronto about 10 years ago. Back then, Ekhart talked in his sleep, he was very upset/angry and I woke up when he said "I will f***in kill you" plus other things. It sounded like he was in a very heated argument. This went on for about 3 minutes. We had our guns with us in the hotel room. I didn't sleep much that night, he's still laughing about that to this day.
Will met up at 7am for breakfast and headed off to the range.

Around 3 am, I woke up. Summertime I get frequent insomnia, it was raining hard again. I guess we will be 100% in the 30% area of showers. About 3:30, a thunder clap hit real close and this nearly let sphincter control....loose control. Lasted about 90 minutes. I fell asleep.

Saturday
7am, we met up, overcast but not threatening skies. We ate breakfast, loaded up the car and headed for the rifle range at the Vermont Army National Guard training site for the scheduled start time of 8:30. Appleseed had little green signs posted at strategic locations to get you to the right area in the huge site. Checked/signed in, signed our release forms, and we prepped our area at the 25m line. The center fire rifles we had reserved were not close by and the director suggested we shoot 22's. Ekhart got a loaner, I used my 77/22, we will use the center fire's on Sunday. We were a little disappointed, but we didn't care, we just wanted to shoot. Looking back over the weekend, I'm happy it was this way. Learn the basics with the 22 and then use the big boys when the time comes. We were happy to be there in the first place, AND have an excuse to shoot 500 rounds and be trained at the same time. Win/win scenario to us.

The air was very humid and still, with mist hanging around. Apart from the automatic fire from the national guard somewhere far from us, and birds doing their singing in the tree line and other 'noises' from inside the tree line, it was very quiet. If a bunch of Sleestacks from the "land of the lost" came running out of the tree line and headed for us with their spears, it would have been real interesting outcome, all 5 seconds of it!
We were about 25 participants, with women and kids, one old dog that was just hanging out back at the pavilion. At minimum, we all had a shooting mat/rug, safety gear and a rifle. Some brought more than one rifle, bolt actions, semi-auto's, good mix of everything. There were lot's of 22's. Spotting scopes were not necessary but nice to have. Don't sweat it if you don't have one.


The Appleseed staff introduced themselves, explained and drilled into us the safety procedures, how things will be run and all that. We started shooting at targets('red coats') to give us a baseline, our starting point. It got us accustomed to the range commands and gave the staff a chance to judge us and see how we stand, and how well we absorbed the safety instructions. At all times, the staff were extremely helpful, correcting our mistakes, ensuring safety and just making sure all was well. There were about 8,9 staff members to our 25 participants.

As the day progressed, it was clearing. By noon, it was sunny and you can feel the heat hitting your neck.

Throughout the day, we shot at the red coat targets, grouping targets, a session to zero our rifles. Shooting times were reduced to introduce stress, to get us to shoot faster, and I guess also to show one of the problems that I suffer from, 'Fussing the shot'. I was shooting my 22 with a scope. I spent too much time on trying to get bulls-eye instead of just getting the black, which was "good enough". We shot AQTs (Army Qualification Targets) frequently with/without the regulation times, to see the improvement (or not) of our skills as the days progressed.

The points drilled into us and then practiced during the course:
Shooting by numbers,
1. SIGHT ALIGNMENT -- Line up the front and rear sights
2. SIGHT PICTURE -- Keeping the sights lined up, bring them onto the target
3. RESPIRATORY PAUSE - Deep breath, exhale partially, hold breath as front sight touches bottom of target
4A. FOCUS YOUR EYE -- Focus your eye on the front sight
4B. FOCUS YOUR MIND -- Keep front sight on target
5. TRIGGER SQUEEZE -- Squeeze straight back while front sight stays on target
6. FOLLOW THROUGH -- Sighting eye open, take mental picture of where sights were when rifle discharged, and follow through with trigger and call the shot
They showed us using large diagrams what a proper sight picture using iron sights should look like.
They explained each step in detail, complete clarification,
Reasons for each step, complete comprehension.

Sling use

They then showed and instructed the use of the sling, why we should use a sling, the types of sling positions etc..."hasty, hasty-hasty, Deliberate sling etc..I decided to use the Deliberate since it can be detached from the rifle if using quick-disconnects and the sling left on the arm.

NPOA

They really drilled and explained why the natural point of aim is so important.

Shooting positions

Standing, kneeling, sitting and prone. The proper way to do all the positions and the why's. I opted for kneeling. Due to my pigeon toed feet/legs, sitting crossed legged is not too comfortable, kneeling was very comfortable for me.

Appleseed

The history and the reason behind Appleseed, of April 19, 1775. Reminding us of things that we may have forgotten from our history classes, things that were not taught in history classes. The staff did not read from notes, they knew by heart and showed their passion for what they were doing and believed in.

Many, many things were shown and taught with handouts and targets given out to take home.

We stopped around 8pm on Saturday. During our cool-down debriefing, one of the guys was sitting and I saw he got nailed with sunburn on his neck. His girlfriend sat down in front of him and leaned on his folded legs, he nearly jumped from the pain, guess he got nailed everywhere.
I was a bit red but I was lucky to put on some 6000 sun block early in the day. Ekhart had his special "magnesium/chalk something" sun block from the naturalist/hippie store and when he first applied it, he mentioned that he may look like Marcel Marceau and wouldn't care. He asked how bad it looked, I said it wasn't' so bad. I didn't have the heart to tell him he did look Marcel Marceau, but more like after they have dug up his body after a few years in the cemetery.
Was I tired, YES, but what a day it was. Could have been worse with the weather, if it was nothing but blue sky, no wind, 100+F etc....may have been more messed up. My shooting did improve. Before this course, I never shot with a sling.
Off to the hotel, shower, food, beer, crash and it was a hard crash. I was tired, burnt, could barely string a few sentences together, my nose was red from slight sunburn and I just wanted to hit the sack. Apparently there was a pretty big storm at 3am again.....I slept through it this time, no insomnia.

Sunday
Ever wake up in the morning, attempted to move you legs and found that they felt like they quadrupled in mass? When you tried to lift your head, you thought your butthead brother duct-taped your head to the bed?
Jumped out of bed(rolled out), showered and quickly packed up everything (like a sloth on a hot humid day).
I can hear the rain. I guess we will really be shooting in the rain today.
We met up, breakfast, packed up car, checked out of hotel, off to the range.
The rain intensified.
Once at the range, I decided on no rain gear, just some super-fast drying light pants and a t-shirt, Ekhart with rain gear. We set up or 10'x12' tarp so that it covered our shooting positions when not shooting, and we just flipped it back when we shot.
We were given our center fire rifles.
I got the FN FAL L1A1, British version.
Ekhart got a M1 Gerand.
LIKE TWO KIDS AT DISNEY WORLD!!!!
I don't know which is more 'cute', a cuddly little kitten with big eyes looking deeply into yours, wanting to be your friend for life, or seeing two forty-year olds clutching their assault rifles they've been pining for months, eyes all lit up and smiles from ear to ear.
Yeah, I agree with you as well, it's the latter.
Still raining, just raining non stop.

We started at the 25m position.
I started to prep the mags for the L1A1, Ekhart commented on the sound of me putting the 308's into the mags, this all reminded me of my HK 91. It's been a while since he's used his FAL, due to Canadian gun laws past a few years ago, his FAL is now on the naughty list and cannot be taken to the club. I sold my HK many years ago. To this day, I still hit my head on a wall for selling that rifle, and today, it is NOT on the naughty list....I love lawmakers, they are just so damned sensible.
We had a moment. No, it wasn't tears, it was the rain, I swear!
We did red coat targets, zero rifle sight session, a review of everything we learned yesterday, did a couple of AQT's and the rain intensified some more. The staff correcting mistakes, malfunctions fixed, sights adjusted some more. More AQT's, scores improved, not improved.
By around 10am, I am 'one' with my tshirt. The recoil pad is one with me. My pants are my skin. My right foot was swimming in water that my boot was siphoning off the grass ever so efficiently, there was no standing water anywhere. I believe during the entire day, it only stopped raining for about 5 minutes. The organizers did say, rain or shine, we shoot!

Before noon, shooting stopped. We were split into two groups.
The first group will go into the pit behind the burn to setup the targets, do the raising/lowering and scoring/patching of the full sized targets.
The second group were to do the entire 40 round course of:
100 meter, standing, 10 shots.
200 meter, start standing then drop to sitting/kneeling, 10 shots.
300 meter, prone 10 shots
400 meter, prone 10 shots.
Once all done the groups would switch.
We broke for lunch (30 minutes) and we drove over to the pavilion, had some bbq dogs, procedures given of the afternoon and had a moment of appreciating the intensity of the rain.
It was a wonderful sight, a BMW 325Xi, silver, with two assault rifles in the back seat and our shooting mats, myself and Ekhart, everything dripping wet, with smiles on our faces...

Lunch over. Group one to the target pits, group two to the 100 meter line.

Myself and Ekhart were in group two, we get to the 100 meter line, set up minimum only. Shooting mat, rifle, ammo, eye/ear protection, that's it. We were going to move fast!
We get set-up. Now my left foot is swimming in water. I DON'T CARE. Come on Mother Nature, bring it on!
We do a 3 round zero sight in. Targets go down, pause, targets come up with orange markers showing our hits. Adjust. Play time over. Time to do the AQT for real.
We get into firing position, ammo loaded, slinged the rifles, targets up, staff about to give the command.
FIRE!
A dozen rifles shot of their rounds, we unload, safety on, chamber flags inserted, targets go down, orange markers, target come up, visual confirmation, targets go down, patched up, targets back up and ready.
Pick up gear, move to 200m
Here's a Kodak moment, a completely drenched 185 pound male, t-shirt fused to his skin, sitting in the passenger seat of a BMW 325Xi , holding onto two assault rifles between his legs that reek of gun oil and burnt gun powder. The driver, heavier (sorry Ekhart, had to put that in, you can beat the crap out of me later), wrapped up like a wet Twinkie, got into the car, windows fogged up, we drove off to the 200m position.
Set up position, load mags, get into firing position, command to fire, rounds headed downrange, unload, safety-chamber flags, get all into car, drive to next position, 300, repeat, 400.
The 400 meter position....Damn those targets look small! But it fit so perfectly on the L1A1 front post!
Command to fire given.
Ekhart was to my left. As we were moving back, the shooting positions got smaller and the shooters were squeezed more and more together. He was about five feet from me, About the 3rd round in, the smoke from his shots was hitting my face, fogging up my glasses and I was feeling a bit of burning sensation/ammonia on my eyes...I managed to shoot off all of my ten with a good follow through/'calling the shot", with a bit of difficulty. He was still shooting, he couldn't see anymore, he glasses was completely fogged in! He did his best.
We have finished our shooting.
We were done.
We were beyond drenched, we didn't care, we had a blast!
Packed it all up, parked on the side and jumped in the pick-up truck and got a lift to the target pits. Ever ride in the back if a pickup truck, in driving rain, with no rain gear, and the driver just goes faster and faster?
Lot's of fun!

Groups switched.
At the pit, we were basically in 6 inches of standing water, what looked like 5x8 foot target holders rigged with a counter balance so it goes up/down with little effort. At least we can stand on the benches under a 12-inch overhang, protected from the rain, like we cared at this point.
But try to patch a wet target, with wet stickers!
We managed. Unfortunately, we were running late, the target sheets we were marking for group 1 were getting wet and the pens were ripping the sheets, we tried the best we could. But we were rushed a bit.
All done by 4pm.
Did I mention it was raining?
Back at the pavilion, gave back the loaner rifles, got our score sheets.
I was happy, I got a good hit percentage at all ranges, but I was really happy at my performance at 400 yards. My friend also was pleased with his performance. Neither of us got our rifleman patches, but we will the next time. We came close by getting near to 190, and we needed 210.
I'm pretty certain, with our own rifles and some more practice we would have done much better. We will get our rifleman patch the next time we do Appleseed!
We gave our thanks to everyone, said our goodbyes and drove off.
We were going back home, but first.
- We have to rearrange/clean up the car a bit. We stopped at a gas station with an overhang since IT RAINED FAT CATS AND DOGS, we took everything out, struggled for about 5 minutes in trying to flip down one of the seats, all back in, gassed up. Ekhart went in to pay, apologized to the woman at the cash, explained what happened. She laughed. No one went postal and blew our heads off while waiting for a pump
- We have to change out of our wet clothing, we took a chance and headed back to the hotel and would beg to use their public bathroom to change. I ran in, told them we were there for the weekend, can we "please please pretty please change here"...she also laughed and said sure. So...what do you think she witnessed? Two guys, walking by her front desk, with bags, dripping wet, shoes/boots squeaking and somewhat muddy pants etc... heading off to the main lobby bathroom. Luckily it was a large bathroom with a stall. We took turn changing in the stalls. Love that sound of throwing a wet sock onto ceramic tile, "SPLAT". All dry, done....next.
- We were damn hungry. Stopped at the cow steak joint and had a good meal. Paid up, on the highway by 7pm, off to the Canadian Border.

We saw two accidents due to the rain, we kept it under 100km/h. By 8pm we were at the border, gave our papers, they verified the guns with the papers and we were off, not even 15 minutes at the border. At Ekhart's by 9pm, transferred stuff to my truck and I got home by 10pm.

While listening on the radio I found out there was a near disaster of unbelievable scope, the consequences would have made the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse seem like the annoying 'political correctness seminar' that some of us are required to participate at work.
Paul, sorry...Sir Paul McCartney was giving a free concert in Quebec City for the 400th anniversary. During rehearsals, someone ordered lunch for him and had ordered chicken. He's a vegetarian, the roadies managed to intercept the offensive food before it reached the intended target. I was so relieved about hearing the successful interception that I slept like a baby that night. There is hope for us all.
I really need to plan my next trip to Appleseed. AND I HOPE IT RAINS EVEN MORE!

A friend emailed me asking how my weekend went...
"Coming close to being thrown into Guantanamo prison for not having all the paperwork (according to a certain customs official) when crossing the border with firearms and 1500 rounds of ammo. 0$
Brand new tactical boots on sale 75$
Hotel, food, entertainment, ~400$
Shooting in overcast yet sunburn conditions for 12 hours, then shoot with a military assault rifle, open sights, in the non-stop pouring rain for 8 hours without rain gear, dropping into the prone position and getting good hits at a ~20" target at 100, 200, 400 yards with open sights, gun smoke from shooter next to you fogging your shooting glasses and getting a burning sensation in the eyes, boots holding more water than your camelback 3 liter bag, and meeting good people with similar interests hoping the weekend would never end, 70$
Hoping the police don't come into the public bathroom and see two men changing from their wet clothing into dry and get arrested for assumed indecent acts.
PRICELESS!

I had a blast!
Would not change a thing!"

[B9]

I guess we can see why VT is the green mountain state. Is the grass really that green? I can not stand the fact I missed it. Nickle, Scout and kDan all together is an Appleseed I won't miss again!

[GMB74]

Looks like Nickle won't need to write up a fresh AAR on this one- miklosb has it covered! I would like to thank all the attendees for coming and persevering like true riflemen. Hopefully they all learned a lot and had a good time. Speaking for the Instructor Staff, I know we did.
Don't forget the seventh step (Recruit! Spread the word about Appleseed!) and hope to see some of you  at Bennington.

[B9]

Whoooa! miklosb thats a heck of a post edit. I nearly missed it. Great story telling there, almost feel like I was in the car with you.
I have met that Mr Customs Officer before also. If he ever asks where you have been while visiting, don't answer Canada.

[miklosb]

Thanks for the compliment. Sorry if it was a bit long winded, but I wanted to get the spirit of the weekend across and try to convince more people to participate in this endeavor.
I may have tipped 'over the edge' some members on the board I originally posted this aaf to. They were thinking of trying it, have now said they will do it. The more the merrier.
Gots to spread the word!

[Francis Marion]

Miklos,
Thoroughly enjoyed your wit and enthusiasm for Liberty.  Welcome aboard.

[Willard]

Yup, it's that green!  Vermont is incredibly lush in the summer, like a jungle.

Looks like a good time was had by all....lol....

Hopefully I'll be able to make the next one, I want to shoot the full distance AQT again.  More pics!

[Redwolf]

Need more pics. Looks good the ones that are here.

[ripersnifle]

It was a pleasure meeting/working with Scout, Kdan and the new IITs.
Good to see Nickle, Crak, GMB74, & Farmer again too.
Sleestacks??? Wow.  It's like I'm watching Sat AM cartoons in my PJs again.  Look out, Holly!

I was very impressed with the shooters.
Around 80% of the line was shooting 8MOA or better by mid-afternoon Saturday.
That meant we were working on the finer points of their shooting because their fundamentals were solid.
The shotgun patterns were scarce at that point.

They "Persisted" through the rain on Sunday too.
Another neat learning experience for me with a great bunch of people.

sk