Some or most of you know that TEXAS played a big role in early Appleseed history, being one of the two "trial" locations when, in 2005, we took Appleseed onto the road to try out the concept.
Which brought us to Mingus in October, 2005.
Here's the long unavailable report of that event, published at the time in Shotgun News - comments in brackets are original to the article, unless preceded by the word "Fred" - it may be interesting to see what your fellow Texans thought of that first AS event, in TX:
Quotes from shooters at the Texas AQT Rifleman Shoot (most are off the web):
...nothing quite lives up to the sight of a firing line of riflemen blasting away while the sweet smell of cordite fills the air. The 40-round rapid-fire drill was pure poetry. 800 rounds of ammo sent downrange in about two minutes. The sound, the smell, the clouds of dust from the berm, the smoke wafting off of 20 severely heated barrels...
If that sight doesn't fill you with awe, nothing will.
Inspiring? Yes. To Riflemen. (And this was on one of the smaller 20-man ranges; imagine what it was on the range with 40+ shooters!)
The Texas AQT Rifleman Shoot is important as an example to set the pattern. The Johnny Appleseed pattern. Learn, then teach. It's a new experience for most, as they've never been on a firing line with 20 other people, everyone firing as rapidly and accurately as possible for two minutes. [Fred: Recall, this was back "in the centerfire days" - it was noisy!]
Yes, it's noisy (which is why we say bring ear plugs AND ear muffs). Yes, it's distracting, the muzzle blast from the guy two feet to your right alternating with the guy two feet to your left (you just hope neither has a muzzle brake). Yes, there is hot brass raining on you from your neighbor's next-door Garand - or the HK91 30 feet to your left.
But it's all part of the Appleseed experience. Of learning to shoot a rifle, like your forebears. Of immersing yourself in the tradition. Of becoming an American again. A tough defender of liberty.
That's the Appleseed approach. To teach people to shoot, to make 'em understand they have to go out and pass the tradition on to others, for if we don't hang together we'll all hang separately.
To make 'em Americans again, people to be feared by anyone who would threaten Liberty:
... the kid next to me...unloaded his M1A at the AQT target in less than two minutes, and every single [one] of the ten silhouettes was perforated. [Fred: Before the QD AQT, we fired the original Stage 4 AQT with 10 rounds on ten silhouettes.]
40 rounds, and not one miss, and that was after some 8 hours of continuous fire drill. To say that I was impressed would be the biggest understatement of my life. Anybody finding himself on the wrong end of that fine young man's rifle is dead before the fight even begins.
Say, don't you wish that could be said of every American? Especially - you?
Someone else also commented:
I feel for any force that comes against those who participate with RWVA clinics.
Americans aren't supposed to be pushovers. Sure, we're stupid, lazy, and self-centered. It usually takes a Pearl Harbor to wake us up and get us mad. But once we wake up, we are implacable as a foe.
And, as riflemen, to the extent we are, we are unbeatable:
In the final fast AQT (40 rds in 2 minutes) the guy next to me and I were putting holes in the same paper (mostly me shooting his target). In 2.5 minutes (or less) we deposited 80 rounds downrange. We killed at least 38 bad guys and wounded another 19-25, scaring the living dogpoop out of the remainder. Given that the estimated international NIPOOMA (number I'm pulling out of my a$$) of rounds expended per kill in recent warfare is something like 100,000, between the two of us we did something like 475,000% better than the average.
Another:
Working with the targets and tactics we were exposed to this weekend, I'd say that even a small group is a formidable force... Couple such excellence in marksmanship with tough as nails men who know not the meaning of 'quit', and you have a force to make any army shiver with terrible fear.
With Johnny Appleseed, we want to scratch that sleeping American, wake him up, and get him started on a trip whose destination is to be where he ought to be. Or as one person listed, under 'lessons learned':
I CAN do my part with my rifle. I CAN still learn.
Hey! Good lesson, good attitude, to take away from an Appleseed event. And here's the flip side of the issue:
[T]he majority of us had damn well better be able to shoot well, cause we're not gonna be able to run very far.
Appleseed is good for the kids, too:
...[my] boy has talked nonstop about everyone he met this past weekend and how much he enjoyed both days! He certainly appreciated the techniques learned and I appreciated how well-structured each event was.
And another shooter:
21 Lessons learned:
1. Fred is a harsh teacher, but his sometimes insulting manner makes the stuff you need to learn stick better. [Gosh, and everyone says Fred was on good behavior, too...]
2. Fred likes it when you talk back with authority (or was that cockiness). [Don't know that 'cocky' is a word you'd use for Fred - a better one would be 'scared' - for the future of the country...]
14. My 3rd world country rifle with it's shot-out barrel still drops bad guys with impressive regularity. [That's rack-grade in action, son.]
16. Targets talk to you. They are usually saying "more elevation, dummy". [Sometimes they say other things, but whatever they say, you listen...]
17. Slings are required for accurate shooting from probable combat positions. I'm glad I learned how to do it. [I'm glad you did, too!]
18. 25 dollars goes a long way at an RWVA clinic. [Sure does, big time!]
And this note, faxed in to Fred:
Dear Fred: First a big THANK YOU to everyone involved in last weekend's Great Texas Shootout! For a beginner like me, who had never shot even 100 yards with open sights, to find himself firing 300 and then 400 yards with open sights was a very empowering experience. [See, 25m training DOES work, just like Fred tells you it does...]... I am already looking forward to next year's Shootout! JK, TX
You know, if it weren't for these participants, there would be no Appleseed project. Give full credit to them, with the idea that participation by them is what keeps the program alive. If we put on a shoot, and no one comes, we as humans become discouraged, and discouraged people give up.
Like Citizens of America, a fine outfit a few years back that specialized in getting gun-rights ads on the air waves, good hard-hitting ones they were, too. We printed a number of 'em here [in Shotgun News] to help get the word out about the COA program.
Even said people should be fighting to get in line and donate.
But the cheapskate mentality won out, contributions dropped off, discouraging the organizers, and they folded the program.
YOU, me, and our country, we were all the big losers.
But maybe you can understand - someone willing to do all the work, all you had to do was part with some pocket change. You don't show your appreciation, you ignore them, and they go away. It was a real shame.
So, if you want to save America, better get ready to get off the duff in '06, and come to a shoot.
'Cause you don't want any program to save your country to be unsuccessful...
Back to the shoot.
The farthest that I've ever driven to shoot has been about three hours, and that was too far. For this one, I had over a six hour drive and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
He [another time, another place, another clinic] was kind of disorganized and just played everything by ear. In contrast, I'd say that your set-up was at the opposite end of the scale. You knew what you were going to do, had folks there to do it and only had to adjust relative to your final numbers on the line. Right fine way to go, even though it takes a lot of planning and a little bit of luck.
Afteraction critiques lead to improvements for next time - each Appleseed shoot is slightly different as we continually refine until all the kinks are out and learning is maximized.
For example, sighting-in is so important and involves such a multitude of skills that we'll devote more time Saturday to it. It won't be boring - we'll start, as we always will, with the classification AQT [Fred: The Redcoat target was still in the future], then on to fundamentals of the prone position, use of the sling, firing the shot, NPOA, followed up by Ball & Dummy, various drills, and trajectory, battlesight zero (big improvements here, too, with new targets to make things clear) and marking your sights for fast return to zero. And finish up with a regular AQT, then a rapid AQT, which everyone loves...
