AAR: Watervliet, MI, May 17-18, 2014

[SteelThunder]

Another great one in the books at a great supporting club, Watervliet Rod and Gun. 14 hearty Americans almost got a WINTERSEED as temps were 31 deg F on Saturday morning. After a few showers, the sun broke through at noon on Saturday and Sunday turned into a glorious spring day in Michigan with sunny skies and low 60 degrees.

In between hearing stories of our forefathers in the 3 Strikes and several Dangerous Old Men,  we got to shoot. We had a mix of shooters from "have only touched a rifle once before" to returning riflemen. All of the instructors were astonished at the rapidly improving groups of our shooters. We were able to finish 2 AQTs on Saturday and go to the KD range on Sunday to test our drops at 100 of our 22s and then ring some steel with with an AR10, Garand and a couple of ARs.

We finished the weekend with a fun shoot using a dueling tree, 4 teams of 4 each battling in "bracket" play and a run n gun course of fire. It was students against instructors and the students prevailed!  Congrats Paul, Matt, Joe and Joseph for the win!

And the shooters?  Lemme tell you about them. Kevin, Paul and Denise proved they remembered the skills of a Rifleman by requalifying. Denise got to taste the waters of the North Bridge with her 210. Matt and Leon broke through and earned their patches. And little Hannah, who always had a smile on her face and was the first to the target line, she went from been nearly brand new to shooting, to scoring a 63 on her first AQT, to consistently scoring in the high 160s. Wow!  You go girl!  Joe and Joseph are absolutely pounding on the door with 200s.

Jim, Moss, Julie, Jeff, Haley, Kris you guys were awesome and a real pleasure to have in class. You all improved remarkably and I hope to see you on the line in the future!

A big happy birthday to our own Oz and thanks to his wife Dee for bringing cake to Sunday lunch to celebrate.  Also thanks to the many shooters who stayed afterwards to help tear down.

Pictures?  I was having too much fun instructing and didn't take them...post em if you got OK I lied...found some on my phone

Saturday AM prone instruction


Rocking along in the prone position


Note to self...do not let teen-aged IIT girls make your nametag


.22s at 100 and steel at 200 on the KD line


Run n Gun during the fun shoot


Our winning student team in the Rifleman Dueling Tree Challenge

[Rascal21]

Full set of my photos are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.529690143807826.1073741850.240556109387899&type=1&l=15e6cb4778

Some previews:





























Instructors








Shooting Line



One of my favorite shots:



Our shooters:

[SteelThunder]

Oz sent me this one...me likey

Almost...epic...

[Oz]

It was a great weekend with a fantastic group of students.  I wish I had a highlights reel.  Comments and a few more pics to follow after work but here is Denise's introduction to the waters of the North Bridge, suitable for framing.

[SteelThunder]

Yeah...also, I'd like to add that a certain new IIT seemed to have forgot that a 210 means the waters of the North Bridge go on the SHOOTER!  not on the SHOOT BOSS!  Pre-crime exhibit A evidence is noted above!

Not sayin' who, but his initials are T.O.M. R.E.D.M.A.N.

[Zazzles]

Very fun shoot!!! You all did fabulous  I'm new on the picture front so here is the only one I have

[SuedePflow]

Ringing steel at 200 yards was a blast.  I really want to shoot a full distance Appleseed next.


Thanks again to all of the instructors for putting on another safe and fun Appleseed in Watervliet!

[Oz]

Oz sent me this one...me likey

Almost...epic...

The thing is, I couldn't take a photo of the shoot boss that did not look epic somehow.  Like, this one, he was looking out on our awesome group of students...I understand this:



But this one, I am absolutely certain we were inside a restaurant and he was eating a cheeseburger.  Explain this!

[Oz]

Here is the start of the finals of the fun shoot.

Two student teams...I am sure I see strategy being discussed:



Ready...set...

[SteelThunder]

But this one, I am absolutely certain we were inside a restaurant and he was eating a cheeseburger.  Explain this!

The cheeseburger certainly explains my rather large backside.

But it was a blue cheese and bacon stuffed burger with sweet potato fries at The Buck.  Because....YUM!  And
Murica!

[Oz]

First strike


Second strike


Our young instructors


SQUIRREL!!!

[tomahawk]

I had a great time. The instructors were great, reminding me when I needed to get my chicken wing up, or other assorted suggestions for improvement. I was also glad to se so many young instructors present.

I am satisfied with my shooting performance, but am unhappy with myself that I was called back to the matt twice for safety issues.

I always meet the nicest people at Appleseeds and this one continued that trend.

Regretfully I had to leave for most of Sunday afternoon to attend a pistol shooting event with my son and some friends. I had a great time at the pistol shoot, but it looks like I missed a good time at the Appleseed as well. I wish I could do it all. The KD and Run and Gun Fun Shoot looked like they would be an incredible good time.

Thank you for sharing the photos. It is my opinion that the photos of Steelthunder seem to make him appear larger than life, because the photos appear  to be taken from a lower perspective. This causes Steelthunder to seem to be taller than he actually is. However I do know Steelthunder very well, and and can attest to the fact that is really is genuinely a larger than life person.

[SteelThunder]

It is my opinion that the photos of Steelthunder seem to make him appear larger than life, because the photos appear  to be taken from a lower perspective. This causes Steelthunder to seem to be taller than he actually is.

DANG IT, you gave away our optical trick. Now everyone will know how short I am.

Good to see you Kevin and thanks for your continued support of the program.