Celina, Ohio AAR April 20-21

[Corvette]

Well we sure had a great group of 11 hearty Patriots at our Celina, Ohio Shoot this weekend.  The weather was mixed on Saturday with temps starting in the low 30's with an occasional snow shower.  Winds were intermittent but just helped to make it cold that morning.  Several of our IIT's (Guardian419-Cody, Freedom-Brian, and Rouge1-Mike) were anxious for me to declare it Winterseed weather but it really wasn't that bad. (Plus I know that they all really want a Winterseed patch and they would have been dying to join the line instead of instruct).

Saturday started with the normal Welcome, Safety and Safe Rifle instructions and the first Red Coat was shot.  Results were disappointing with only 3 of our 11 with 3 rds in the 100 yard target and not much past that.  Improvement started quickly though with our sighter squares and our green coats. By the Red Coat at the end of Saturday, we had doubled the number of shooters  in every category and we had one shooter,  Michael, who shot a CLEAN* Red Coat.  The star is there because he only fired 12 rounds.  He was shooting it from the bottom up and had a dead center bucket shoot, three tightly grouped in the 400, 300, 200 targets and during his last three shots at the 100, he had a dud round and didn't bother to replace it.  I have no doubt he would have put that dud round right next to the two  he had grouped in the center of the 100 yard target so I made a field decision that this was a clean Red Coat.  Appropriate recognition was given and pictures taken. 

We might have made a little bit of Appleseed history with the first instructor wife swap of the program.  Two IIT's had their wives shooting with us this weekend.  Their shoot boss was not smart enough to put the husbands on the opposite sides of the line.  Well, the ladies took care of that for me when they cut a ".... why don't you take mine and I'll take yours.... " deal and they each banished their husbands to the other end of the line.  Smiles returned to the line, the sun peaked out a little more and we all were reminded about who really runs the world.   Saturday's instructions proceeded.

Much thanks to Louis for doing IMC, to Cody and Brian for helping with the position work and Mike for doing the Six Steps to a Shot.  The day moved on with the First Strike, transition instruction and ended with several Practice AQTs. Day 1 was safe (not a single missed safety and only 1 missed flags and just a couple of minor muzzle wanderings by our youngster shooters on the line which were caught by instructors before they became a real issue. 

Saturday also included  our Memorial Salute to the fallen at Lexington and Concord.  At precisely 4PM we participated in the National Appleseed Salute, reading off the names of thirteen of the fallen from that day and firing one round after each of their names were announced. 

Sunday dawned very cold but sunny and no wind.  (clearly not Winterseed weather, sorry Cody).  We started as always with a Red Coat and Michael confirmed his skill by shooting another clean (thirteen shots this time) Red Coat.  Brian's wife Melissa and Zion joined Daniel Morgan's rangers and Sunday was off and running.  Michael immediately followed his perfect Red Coat with a 229 and a 230 on his first two timed AQT's which was no surprise considering the groups he had been shooting all day Saturday.

Matt pushed his scores into the 190's by the end of the day, one more Appleseed and I bet he will be a rifleman as well.   Michael, we need you to come visit us again so we can put an Orange hat on you, cause "you got serious skills".    It was a pleasure watching you quietly work through our program and shoot so well. Dina and Carol, you both also worked very hard as well to improve your skills as did one of our father/son groups, Jacob and Kaleb. 

The day went by so quick, between AQT's, carding sights, rifleman's cadence drills, KD and Range Estimation,  the second and third strike and before we knew it, it was Sunday Redcoat time.  Sunday was also a very safe day, until Louis and I jinxed us by talking about how good these guys are at making their rifles safe.  Immediately there after we had three straight clears with a missed safety.  Then Terry gave us his once per Appleseed brain cramp, but overall, it was a very safe and fun two days. 

Our final Red Coat had 8 of 11 proficient at 100 yards and improvement at all the other distances.  Pictures will follow as soon as I can recharge my phone and retrieve them. 

[Corvette]

Hello everyone, I  have tried a couple of times to get pictures posted from last week's shoot.  Everything seems ok but they seem to be going to the black hole on the site and not showing up.  I will keep trying and I encourage those of you that took some pictures, pick some good ones and post them in a reply to this AAR.  I will get mine there eventually (I think). 

Again, great weekend and let the pictures roll. 

Corvette

[Corvette]

Another try at posting some pictures..... If you see this, it must have  worked.  Corvette