AAR - Piru, CA: April 19th / 20th, 2014

[gonejohnny]

A beautiful way to spend a weekend the 239th anniversary of April 19th over Easter weekend! Our unusually green Piru range saw 11 brave American's find their way to some marksmanship, history & heritage.

Returnee John brought his wife Renee out for the first time behind a rifle. Unsure of what to expect, we all saw the smile on her face upon the 3rd run at the sighter squares for a fist-sized group. She might not have been expecting that, but WE WERE! Not that she's run safely and got a little experience behind her, we very much hope to see her again very soon!

Returnee Glen was only able to make Saturday. Man, he is so close to that patch I'll bet he can taste it. Getting it all to come together on the same AQT is a hurdle that, once crossed... will soon be a thing of the past. Countless times, we've seen shooters just keep hitting the bubble... and when they break through, the response has typically been "wow... that wasn't so hard after all". Keep at it, man. Dry practice!!!

First-timer Doug showed tremendous heart all weekend, digesting what he could from the firehose we'd turned on all weekend. Please stick with it. The vast majority of initial steps towards shooting these positions really do not apply to anything but themselves specifically. They will come to seem more natural over time.

Colin was such a trooper. Definitely interested in hearing about how his experiences in other marksmanship classes compares to a full weekend of Appleseed!

Instructor G_Fresh brought out wife LeeWhay again for some more time in the dirt. One seated position away from a Rifleman's score surely. He also brought out friend Sri for a first experience behind a rifle. Taking to it with great spirit, groups appeared... shrunk and hopefully inspired. We look forward to seeing him again very soon!

April 19th in Piru also saw a wonderful cameo by none other than Johnny Appleseed himself, to get down on our lines as a shooter and make our founders proud by celebrating a decent amount of accurately placed .30-caliber lead downrange! This program will never truly be able to thank him enough for all the effort he has put in over the years and the countless people he has brought with him to our ranges! I personally owe that man a great deal of gratitude!

Our liberty volley was loud & ferocious to say the least. F-Stop, myself, Bob210, Ventura-Steve, Johnny Appleseed all .30-cal offhand at a steel redcoat 100-yards out... right alongside our students on the line, one round at a time... name by name, in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice 239-years ago to the day for us all.

Thank you to fellow instructors: Gratefuldog, Ventura-Steve, Paul, F-Stop, Bob210 & G_Fresh for allowing me the privilege of yet another wonderful way to spend a weekend.

Until next time...
Hold hard & Favor center,
GoneJohnny

[G_fresh]

What a really awesome time we had...

John, keep at it. I think you'll be there soon!

Renee, I'm glad you made a go at it and hope you had fun with us!

Glen, hopefully I'll see you and your students at the Santa Barbara event. Keep practicing and I'm sure you'll make it!

Doug, try to master both rifles. It is a good learning experience!

Colin, had fun hanging out as well as shooting.

LeeWhay, I have one word for you - scope!

Sri, next time, full weekend for you so you can get the full experience...

Paul, as always, great to talk to you and hope to see you at the Santa Barbara Appleseed.

It was good to meet some Appleseed stalwarts: f-stop, JohnnyAppleseed, and Ducky!

Hope to see you all out there again...