Gurley, AL; May 3-4, 2014

[Maximum Ordinate]

On Saturday May 3rd, fifteen shooters filled the line at Haven Farm in Gurley, Alabama.  We were blessed with the two nicest days of the year so far.  A group of happy and motivated shooters arrived bright and early to learn the quintessential American skill of precision marksmanship and hear the story of how Liberty was established in our Republic.

After the welcome, the First Strike by SureShot Spartan, and safety brief, we moved rifles to the line.  SureShotSpartan served as line boss and we listened to Living Hand 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, including our lovely and talented Applecore support.  The instructor team focused on lots of one-on-one coaching with shooters.

Our shooters worked through a number of drills and gained skills and confidence with each string of fire.  Shooters established some good habits and tossed old bad habits to the side.  Our first group of five rounds resulted in some great groups - the shooters were clearly paying attention.  During our lunch break, Jay shared the story of Concord and the North Bridge in the Second Strike.  After lunch, we moved back to the line and continued the instruction, learning about carding the sights, Inches-Minutes-Clicks, and magazine change drills.  There were lots of great groups by the end of the day and we closed out shooting an AQT and a final Redcoat target.  The improvement between the morning and afternoon Redcoat targets was dramatic!  Saturday wrapped up with Living Hand sharing the Third Strike and everyone heard about farmers and blacksmiths forcing the Redcoats to flee 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 knocked out their first AQT of the day. 

Lunch came and Ramblinwreck shared about Known Distance shooting.  We then heard inspiring stories about Dangerous Old Men, not all of whom were old or men!  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. 

A special congratulations to Eddie, who scored Rifleman before lunch and followed it up with another qualifying score.  He's a man who knows what he's about!

To each and every shooter:  Remember those two things I promised you Saturday morning?  I hope we lived up to those expectations.  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. 

To all my fellow instructors:  Thank you for coming out and making this a fantastic event.  Y'all are so awesome that you can even make a guy like me look good.   

in Liberty,
Rusty

P.S.  Please feel free to add your comments and pictures!!!

[SureShotSpartan]

As Rusty stated, this was an excellent weekend! Thanks to all that joined us on the line and thanks for helping us strike a blow for Liberty! Now go forth and multiply!

BEAUTIFUL weather!



Morning Brief


Down range instruction on the proper use of the knife hand 



Focus your eye.....


Morning (R) to Evening (L) improvement!

[SureShotSpartan]

Defenders of Liberty


Wreck and Amy


Rusty and Eddie


gtengineer and Sugey


Rifleman Eddie



Young Patriot Katy


Our LIVELY group


Event volunteers

[Rcknvj]

Rusty, and all the other instructors,
Thanks so much for being willing to come out and teach. I don't remember a whole lot from my first AppleSeed two years ago, but I will definitely remember the skills and lessons taught to me this last weekend. The pain inflicted upon me is nothing compared to the injuries sustained by the Redcoats and colonists, or what I would have received if I hadn't learned how to shoot properly and safely. Plus, it's for the amazing cause of Liberty. Thanks to Jay for helping me step by step on Sunday, allowing drastically changing my AQT the next time around. Thanks also to Jacob for pretty much being my personal instructor on Saturday.
I enjoyed this past weekend so much. I hope to plan to come back in October with my dad, and hopefully brother, and even a girlfriend who is super interested (already!).
Thanks a lot, y'all!
Katy

[SureShotSpartan]

Huzzah Katy! Thanks for 7th Stepping!

[Crockett]

Just wanted to follow up for this past weekend's Gurley Appleseed shoot 3-4 May 14.

I would HIGHLY recommend this event to anyone that is even slightly interested in becoming a better shooter.

I've been shooting for a while now both on my own and in the military and I learned a lot about my own abilities (and inabilities, for that matter) over the course of 2 days.

It really was a great time, Rusty and his crew put together a top notch event, and the instruction was extremely helpful as well as professional.

I honestly don't think there's a better value in fundamentals instruction. As long as you pay attention and go with a good attitude, you'll learn quite a bit and be GTG.

I did not get my rifleman patch over the course of two days but that's not what the experience is about.

However, I did greatly improve between day 1 and day 2. Top scores between the two days for me where 187, 197, 201, 203.

Rusty was generous enough to let me use one of his loaner 10/22's with the recommended Tec site system, and adjustable OD web sling.

I recommend doing it at least once without optics. The intent is to learn/relearn the fundamentals of marksmanship.

It never hurts to go back to the old school method once and a while.

Dave,

[GTEngineer]

I would also like to give my congratulations to Eddie for his rifleman score!  Huzzah!  We hope to see you again at future events to hone your skills.  I learn something new at each event.

Sugey and Juan, you guys are doing great, just keep practing the steady hold factors (SHF) and NPOA, as you saw with your 3 shot cloverleaf hole, SHF and NPOA really works!  A rifleman persists!

Katy, it was a pleasure having you and your father sacrifice your weekend to join us to learn about Liberty and rifle marksmanship, you guys are doing great, keep practicing!  The greatest complement you can give us is to return with a friend.

Dave, as demonstrated by your scores, you are doing very well, it is not easy to achieve rifleman.  But keep in mind, a rifleman persists!  We hope to see you again at future events!

Living Hand, TNJay, SureShotSpartan, RamblinWreck, inSANEmom, Jacob, and Rusty, it was a pleasure working with you all and I am looking forward to seeing you again at the next event!  HUZZAH!

[Surveyor1653]

That's a good looking Redcoat and group of shooters overall.  I grew up not too awfully far from Gurley. Cool seeing it in the feed.  Congrats to Bama's latest Rifleman!

[EddieB]

A friend of mine attended a Project Appleseed weekend several years ago and loved it.  I jumped at the chance when I heard Rusty speak about the May 3&4 clinic.  It was a weekend well spent.  The history of the birth of America was presented in a way that made it easy to picture.  Great storytelling skills! The marksmanship training was excellent and made me realize how many bad habits I've been carrying around.  Thanks for giving me the guidance to improve.  My son and I are registered for the Appleseed event in Guntersville this August, and I hope to see you all there.  -Eddie

[tnjay]

A big thank you to everyone - shooters and instructors - for coming out for a productive and fun weekend. 

What struck me most was hearing Raf and Duane share their feedback on the weekend.  The spirit of liberty is contagious, and the most satisfying aspect of Appleseed for me is seeing that spirit in others.  So thank you both for sharing.

To everyone else - it was a pleasure to work with you.  I look forward to seeing you again and spreading the message of freedom.

Jay