Manchester, TN 5-6 April 2014

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This past weekend, we started the Appleseed season at Manchester, TN!  We were blessed with beautiful weather - brisk on Saturday and absolutely perfect on Sunday.  26 shooters arrived bright and early to learn the quintessential American skill of precision marksmanship and hear the story of Liberty!

Our host, the Highland Rim Shooters Club, shares a range with the Tennessee National Guard.  We were treated to an exciting backdrop of machine gun fire for most of the weekend! 

After the welcome by TnColonel, the First Strike by Tellico, and safety brief, we moved rifles to the line.  Yours truly served as line boss we listened to Jay share the the story of Captain Daniel Morgan.  Our shooters then set out to see if they would be cooks or Riflemen!  We had robust instructor crew for this event and they focused on lots of one-on-one coaching with shooters.

Our shooters worked through several drills and gained skills and confidence with each string of fire.  Shooters established some good habits and tossed old bad habits to the side.  During our lunch break, your narrator shared the Second Strike.  After lunch, we moved back to the line and continued the instruction, learning how our targets talk to us (and sometimes tattle on us!) and Inches-Minutes-Clicks.  There were lots of great groups by the end of the day and we closed out shooting an AQT.  Our final Redcoat target was interrupted because of a fire on an adjacent range.  We called cease fire to let them put out the blaze.  Saturday wrapped up with Ramblinwreck sharing the Third Strike and everyone heard about farmers and blacksmiths forcing the Redcoats to retreat to Boston.

Our intrepid shooters arrived Sunday morning ready for a challenge.  At 8:30, we began our review of yesterday's instruction and answered lots of great questions.  The shooters eagerly moved down to the range and we started with a Redcoat target.  By late morning, shooters were ready to begin the AQT grind.  As the qualification tests started, we had three men shoot Rifleman scores!  Huzzah to

Andrew - 219!!
(your author's son) Jacob - 214!
Jim - 213! 

All of you did an OUTSTANDING job and we hope to see you back on the line soon.

Everyone on the line really applied themselves, and because we had good instructor coverage on Sunday... the Shoot Boss prodded the instructors to get down and knock out an AQT - both for practice and to shoot alongside our students.  Lunch came and we listened to inspiring stories of Dangerous Old Men, not all of whom were old or men.  Ramblinwreck shared about Known Distance shooting.

A special mention to Laura and Greg from the Mid Tennessee Preppers who encouraged many of there group to attend our Patriot's Day Remembrance shoot!  It was a joy to have the MTP folks on the line and we hope you come back again soon!

To each and every participant:  Thank you for the honor of serving you this weekend.  We hope you had a good time.  But more importantly, we hope that you learned more about our extraordinary heritage and go out and share that message of Liberty to those in your lives.

in Liberty,
Rusty

P.S.  Please feel free to add your comments and pictures!!!  I'll add a few pictures below (I shoot better with a rifle than a camera!).  If you want any of the full-sized versions of them, please send me a message. 

[crankybones]

Well said Rusty, and a BIG Huzzah! to all the shooters.
You all did an excellent job on the line and I saw marked improvement between Saturday AM and Sunday afternoon. Keep at it, follow the six steps, practice your trigger sqeeeeeze and you will all be sporting those nifty Rifleman patches.
Laura and Greg, good to see you again and thanks for helping to fill the line.
I hope to see you all at another shoot soon.

Aut agere aut mori,
Barclay/CrankyBones

[tnjay]

I would like to thank everyone for coming out.  It was really a pleasure to work with such a good group.  Congrats to Andrew, Jim and Jacob for qualifying.  For those who didn't, its OK!  Riflemen persist.  Dry fire practice at home and come back, we'd love to see you again.

Thanks also to fellow instructors.  Looking forward to next event.  Jay

[Ramblin' Wreck]

It was a great weekend with fellow Patriots. Congratulations to the new Riflemen and remember a Rifleman persists. I hope to see all of you on the line again soon.

Here are a few of the pictures I took. Once you get to the PhotoBucket album you can scroll the ones that don't appear here.

Ramblinwreck


The right side of the line.


Jacob gets his rifleman patch from his dad with grandpa looking on.


Applecore volunteer Josie tying to ring the steel at 230 yards. First time shooting a center fire. She did it.


Volley fire is very effective. Not sure if this is the right or left side of the line.


Would you PLEASE just take the danged picture! My face is going to freeze like this.

[LauraT]

I'd just like to say thank you to all of you for a wonderful weekend.  Sharing this Appleseed with my friends was a very special time.  Everyone really enjoyed it, and some have already said they will be coming back.

I know a tremendous amount of effort goes into making these events happen long before they ever do, and I thank you for all your hard work.   

Tellico - Thank you for loaning me such an awesome rifle & please thank your wife for me as well.  It was wonderful to finally be able to see the targets.  :-)

Rusty & Ben - A rifleman persists...you've both proven that by your persistence in working with me!      Thank you to you and to all of the instructors.  You are an amazing group of men. 

Jacob & Rusty - It was such a privilege to see three generations of your family standing there together - something that was once commonplace, but is exceptional these days.  Congratulations Jacob, on shooting Rifleman!

Greg & Cheryl - When are we going back?   

[Big Country]

Was great working with such outstanding an instructor team as well as with so many eager to learn shooters.  Everyone did a great job and it was truly a pleasure to spend my weekend with everyone.
Laura and Greg, keep that persistence up.  You'll make it.
I hope to see everyone on the line again soon.

[Duane160]

Just a quick note to say how impressed I was with the Appleseed event in Manchester TN.  I attended with a large group of friends and we all enjoyed ourselves.  The message is a Great one to remind ALL Americans of who we are and why and how we became the Greatest Nation on earth.  It is especially important to teach this message to our young people because they don't get it in school anymore.
The rifle marksmanship training was fantastic.  I rank it up there with what you get in a much longer training period in the Army.  It is better training than what the Army provides for using the sling for support and precision shooting.  I learned I needed to correct 25 years of bad habits and allowed my family to learn to shoot the right way at a young age.  I will be back, and will participate in this program for years/ generations to come.
Great job to all the instructors especially Skydog and Jay for the instruction given to my family, Crankybones for not being to cranky when I borrowed your site tool overnight:-).  Rusty, TNCol, Rambling Rick for running a great event.

God Bless
Duane160

[Harmonica]

Congrats to Jim and Jacob! Jim and I shoot a lot at our local gun club and he got me motivated to come on out to an Appleseed. I was glad to be there to see him not only score Rifleman, but do it with a bolt action and at his first Appleseed, too! Nice shooting, pal! 

Thanks to all the instructors and other helpers who donated their weekend to help us learn how to shoot and tell us about our history.

So is anybody going to do the KD in May? I will try to make it if I can get the money together.

Good luck to everybody at future events. Maybe I'll see you there. 

[Ramblin' Wreck]

Hey Harmonica, instructors shoot free at the KD.   

Congrats to Jim and Jacob! Jim and I shoot a lot at our local gun club and he got me motivated to come on out to an Appleseed. I was glad to be there to see him not only score Rifleman, but do it with a bolt action and at his first Appleseed, too! Nice shooting, pal! 

Thanks to all the instructors and other helpers who donated their weekend to help us learn how to shoot and tell us about our history.

So is anybody going to do the KD in May? I will try to make it if I can get the money together.

Good luck to everybody at future events. Maybe I'll see you there. 

[Harmonica]

Hey Harmonica, instructors shoot free at the KD.   

Congrats to Jim and Jacob! Jim and I shoot a lot at our local gun club and he got me motivated to come on out to an Appleseed. I was glad to be there to see him not only score Rifleman, but do it with a bolt action and at his first Appleseed, too! Nice shooting, pal! 

Thanks to all the instructors and other helpers who donated their weekend to help us learn how to shoot and tell us about our history.

So is anybody going to do the KD in May? I will try to make it if I can get the money together.

Good luck to everybody at future events. Maybe I'll see you there. 

I've got a long way to go before that happens. Years, probably. Right now, I would enjoy it more as a regular participant.

If I can be of any help in that role, let me know.

Good seeing you again!

[SureShotSpartan]

It appears to have been another EPIC weekend! Great job!

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The next series of pictures are compliments of our awesome Applecore support, TejasLady!

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Thank you, TejasLady!   

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These are a few of my snapshots...

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