Medical Lake, WA, August 24/25, 2013 AAR

[Prescott]

All of the Appleseed instructors had a very enjoyable weekend in Medical Lake this last weekend.   We had great weather for an AS event and the participants were enjoyable to work with.   The heritage of our country was rekindled in the heart of the participants and the spark of Liberty was renewed.

We had a perfect weekend for an AS event at Lone Pine Ranch.  I would like to thank the ranch host for opening his property up to us for this event.  This is a great venue to promote AS in the Spokane area.

Thanks to all the participants who came out this weekend to perfect their marksmanship skill and listen to the real stories about the start of the Revolutionary War.   Please re-read the Declaration of Independence as a refresher to all of the grievances that the colonist had the rule of King George.

Congratulation to Bob on earning his Rifleman's patch.   Bob shot a couple of AQT with his high score being a 232!  Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!   

Matt, thanks for coming this weekend and supporting the AS mission.  We need all the Liberty loving people in our country to network together and help bail the ship!   I hope your career takes you to the Big House where you can make an impact on the whole country.

Mary and Holly, you both show great promise on you marksmanship skills. Keep practicing the steady hold factors and NPOA shifts at home.  Getting comfortable with the positions and following the six steps to firing a shot while dry fire practicing can make all the difference in the world.   It was a pleasure getting to be able to coach you both.

Erin and Nancie, keep practicing at home as well.   You both have really good form and steady hold factors.  Focus on making good NPOA shifts and your AQT scores will show improvement.

I hope to see everyone out on the AS trail again some day!

[JustBob]

Number One was my grandson, daughter and I all had a very enjoyable time at Appleseed. We would like to take the time to thank Prescott, 06 and Earl. I have been an instructor and understand how taxing it can be to have students that have  such different levels of experience. You all did a great job being positive though out the weekend. I can not stress that enough. You all stayed positive until those of us left were ready for some fun razzing. All of it constructive of course and fun at just the right time. Great job guys. Number two is how much better Erin and my shooting is after the shoot. I suppose it should not be that strange for very strong fundamentals to work so well. Thought I was a pretty good shot before but went into this with an eagerness to be better. You all are right, the most important item to bring is a teachable attitude. My biggest suprise was it took me until Sunday afternoon to figure out where my weaknesses were, again through some fun natured razzing. Again very appropriate when properly applied and in my opinion it was very properly applied. You propably should have been razzing me much earlier. I would love to see one picture, I am sure Prescott knows which one I want, one I will be very proud of. I have never put any decal on my truck window other than my Firefighter/IAFF decal, I didn't really know of another I thought all that highly of. I will proudly display a Rifleman decal as soon I get one in. Thanks again guys, you made it happen.
Bob Hamilton
Coeur d' Alene Fire Department
Engineer/Paramedic

[Earl]

I do love being an elder instructor (read 'determined' olde man - the dangerous is long gone but not forgotten) and what I like is working with shooters to make them achieve their rifle's potential. I wrote a blog post about tiring out this fine weekend http://earl-earlsview.blogspot.com/2013/08/home-happy-but-so-tired.html.

I didn't take as many pictures as I have in the past, seems like camera shy has new meaning for many and three instructors have plenty to do catching the little things to advise the shooters to work on.... only six steps in making the shot? four or five of them are all at once!

But I did catch a couple I will share here so Bob can copy it for his memory jog...

I expect, that all those that were shooting on Sunday, except Prescott and 06en, will be back to earn their Riflewoman patch, since Bob was the only male shooter left. Erin is solid, Nancie hits the targets well, although she would score better if it were always her own. Chris took notes! real notes and recorded the Dangerous Old Men stories, hope Death on a Pale horse sounds as well as it deserves, she is on the correct path for that patch, with more study of the notes, practice, practice and more dry practice - it will come together.
Holly and Mary, this isn't as critical as many things you have done in your life, relax and don't fret over the last shot that you aren't happy about. Holly has the tightest group for a Stage 1 - that I have ever scored. Now if Mary would just stop wishing that all her bullets were in the same hole, she could probably shoot them there... she might check her body orientation  while building her position, I always felt she was a bit too behind her rifle on the prone, and asked her about her standing position. But, she will work it all out.

Y'all must have impressed me, since I remember your names. Very proud, humbly of course, to have assisted you in your journey on the Appleseed trail.

[Prescott]

Here a few pictures that I took this weekend.  Sorry if I did not get a picture of everyone, I am not a great camerabug.   Earl will have to post the picture of Bob's receiving his rifleman patch.

[JustBob]

Thanks for the pictures. This was a really memorable event for myself and I am sure many of the others. Erin is already planning on being at the September 14-15 event at Fernan in Coeur d' Alene and her husband wants to be there after hearing her talk about the great time we had. She is also very driven for her patch as well. She has a rifle with her now for the first time and is dry fire practicing already. I need to tune it up just a little so she doesn't have any misfeeds and I am sure the next patch will be hers. Now I need more practice so I can keep my scores higher than her, I fear she will quickly out shoot me, maybe not a bad thing.
Again thank you so much all three of you for your time and patience.