Ramseur Eight O Eight, otherwise known as

[DragonWood]

The Cushy Bootcamp!

Cushy you ask?! Well, let's see...we had two port-a-pottys (thanks Wildman), two showers (compliments of Ornell and JB), lots of prizes (compliments of Crash) and brandy new dog targets!

JB, Crash and I arrived on Friday to settle in and set up camp. Boot campers started arriving on Saturday. Eleven in all showed up along with the boot camp mascot, Ginger! The weather was good for the first couple of days then went south. We had a couple of days of rain, thunder storms and tornado warnings. In fact JB was playing out in the the KD range range for target detection and ranging while tormado warnings were about! Brave soul that he is!

Yes, you read correctly, PRIZES! They were donated by Crash. History Books, mags, mag light, dvd's and more! We didn't just give them away though. The students had to earn their prize. They were given a "word" of the day. When they heard the word, they had to shout out "eight o eight" and tell us the word. There was also a knowledge check. This was unknown to the shooters. The instructor would ask a predetermined question and the student who answered it, got a prize. Everyone would leave with a prize. There were two top awards given out....
    One for "Most Improved Shooter"  and one for "Perserverance"

Congratulations to John for Most Improved shooter. John was a newbie. John hadn't shot a rifle since he was 12 years at summer camp. John will agree with me that camp was quite a few years ago!
He listened and worked hard. His first AQT was around 116, by the end of boot camp, he was hovering at 206!! Due to a tumble off the back of the range truck, he suffered from some very sore muscles which made the sitting position almost impossible for him to do. If he hadn't tried to invent the "range truck tumble"( ) maybe that sitting stage would have been doable!

Another congratulations to Michael for the "Perserverance" award. This was a hard one to decide for all the shooters perservered but Michael had that something extra. He listened and absorbed all that we coached him on. He also started in the 130's and ended up with a 221!! Yes, a rifleman!

Out of the eleven shooters who attended we produced 7 Riflemen!!

So did we really have a cushy boot camp?! They put in a minimum of 8 hour days with a couple of 10 hour days! And best of all, JB didn't have to have his boot camp snit!

Sunday the first shot did not go off until after 1230 due to local restrictions. The morning was filled with lots of instruction. The shooters were ready to shoot! The red coat was shot and then lunch. The afternoon was filled with more instruction and very tired shooters by the end of the day. Over the next couple of days the shot lots of AQT's and we started producing riflemen!
KD classroom was Wed morning then off to the KD range. We managed to get sighted in at 200 and 300 yards but the rain was heavy and the pasters wouldn't even stick to the targets! We tried marking them with markers which worked until the rain washed away the ink! We had to finish sighting in the next day which ended up taking place in the afternoon due to the fog bank on the KD range that morning!

We got to have a couple of fun shoots too! Tannerite....need I say more?!   The shooters got to shoot a small container of tannerite at the 200 yd line but the best was the instructors vs the shooters at the 25 yard line.  Balloons were set up at 150 yards, clay discs at 100 and a small tannerite target at 25 yards. The instructors managed to pull it off!! The teams of shooters were close behind! Everyone seemed to enjoy it and let off a little a steam!

Mock Appleseed day was Friday. We got the new IIT's prepared for the Appleseed. They did a fantastic job of instructing over the Appleseed weekend. Good job everyone!!

It was a great week!! I must admit though, that I am happy to be back in my bed with dry sheets!!!

See you February!!

DW

[Junior Birdman]

   Cushy in deed!  RBC Ramseur Eight oh Eight was filled with days of sweat, nights of storms and a week of steadily increasing knowledge and skills.

   I haven't yet seen a group progress as well and as smoothly as this RBC did. They all perservered and came out as new Americans, steeped in the Rifleman tradition and heritage.  The prizes were top notch and well earned by the shooters. The showers were the usual superb luxury at days end. The instruction was top notch, and as the attending MI, all I had to do most days was stand around and watch as the SB and her charge of Red Hat(s) made it all look easy. (As stated, JB didn't even have to have his usual snit on day 5 or 6!)

   We harvested a solid crop of new IITs who will take their noble cause to the "trail" and teach other Americans what they've learned. And isn't that what Appleseed is all about?

   Thanks to Wildman for a smoothly run show. You were there and so was everything when we needed it!  Good show, DW! Your first BC could be the standard by which all are judged!  Great job by the Red Hat on the scene, Crash, who was a solid team mate we counted on for any and everything. 

   Can't wait till February!  JB

  PS- NEVER take on the instructors when there's a team "fun shoot"! They know all the best ways to cheat! 

[alex4922]

Pulling in to the range Saturday afternoon I was greeted by two very nice unassuming folk who I initially took to be fellow boot camp attendees.....Little did I know that I had just met the infamous "Dragginwood and her intrepid cohort.."Junior Birdman"!!!!!!!

As Sundays drizzle began to clear, the first shots were echoing downrange..the wonderful smell of smokeless powder drifted by...and then the inevitable call.."SHOOTERS, YOUR PREPARATION PERIOD HAS ENDED...WITH TWO ROUNDS...LOAD!         I loved every minute!!... Even as I cussed my fumbling attempts at reloads...Even as I cussed my rifle malfunctions... Even as I writhed and muttered when Johns hot brass dropped into my elbow pads....I LOVED IT!!!


This was just about the finest week I can remember in a long, long time!

The great instruction and pointed expectation eventually broke down my inneptitude... I finally got my Rifleman patch.  It was a very fine day... It was also a challenge..I'm not going to be able to go to the local range and just plink like I used to do. I find myself lost without a tight sling, without shooting by the numbers, working on the riflemans cadence.


Thanks again to DW, JB and Crash, you guys really made this year special. Hope you don't mind if I bring you as many more students as I can.
                                                                                 

                                                                 Eight O'Eight!!                  Alex             

[crashkid2k]

Lest our "cheating" sound more egregious than it really was, I should point out that the targets were all the same size. The instructor team's clay pigeons may have been squared up perfectly to the firing line, but that just indicates a certain "care" by the people (instructors) setting up the targets.  We won fair and square.

The 200-yd Tannerite fun shoot exceeded all expectations.  A 1 pound jug of Tannerite measures just over 3.5" and has an orange sticker on one side.  Three tiny orange dots were visible from the firing line; this was sub-2 MOA territory.  Two went boom and the third got tossed around, but would live to fight another day (it did not survive the following Appleseed).

Range Boss Wildman kept things running smoothly, and his efforts are appreciated.  Many thanks for his hard work; we couldn't have done it without him.

What a great week!

[TAZDevil]

Eight O eight!

it was a great week, learned a lot and shot a lot under time pressure; better than the practice I can do alone at home.

[Bob Wyre]

Yes, the sudents were in a screened in, pop-up camper late on Thursday evening.
No, there was not one single line of "Old Gray Mare" sung.

[crashkid2k]

That was Bill.  He was there to shoot.