Corona, CA Appleseed Oct. 18-19, 2008

[bob 210]

  Another great Appleseed here in CA, and I was happy to see such a great turnout. This was the first time we had tow simultaneous Appleseeds in CA on the same weekend (see the AAR for the Piru Appleseed). We were joined in Corona by Troop #235 of the Boy Scout's of America and it was wonderful to meet them. 19 Boy Scouts and one parent were actually shooting and we had 4 Boy Scout Masters and 1 Merit Councilor helping us with overseeing the event...thank you gentlemen. Working with these young men was excellent and it was great to see them progress all day. 18 of them qualified for their Rifle Merit Badge and I hope this is the beginning of a long and productive relationship with Boy Scout's of America and the RWVA/Appleseed Program. We also saw 31 shooters on the main firing line and managed a Rifleman on Sunday. Congratulations Dan and thank you for stepping up to become an IIT!
  I would like to thank all who attended and am looking forward to hearing your comments on your experience at the Appleseed. A special thanks to Mike Raahauge for hosting this event and his continuous support.

[socalserf]

Yes Sir! We had another wonderful Corona event at Mike Raahauge's beautiflul range.
It was very well attend, and we need to use all three bays.
The Boy Scouts of America, Troop #235, brought their finest to be trained by Appleseed.
I was very impressed by the conduct of the young gentlemen and their leaders.
The Scouts were respectful, thoughtful, and brought a great enthusiasm for learning.
Like Bob210 said, 18 0f the 19 Scouts were able to quilify for their Merit Badge.
A couple of Scouts on my line were shooting like true Riflemen at the end of the weekend.


The Scout Masters were simply awesome.
They let us do our job and supported us completely.
Behind the ready line they ensured the well being of their youngsters.
High quality people with a high quality program.(Kind of reminds me of Appleseed.)
It was a personal honor for me to work with these folks.


I would like to comment on more, but as I was on one of the smaller bays working with the scouts
I did not see much more than my little line.
Layla worked with us as Instructor In Training and did an exceptional job.
Her skill at teaching was readily apparent.

I'll post more as soon as I get more time.

[phoneprone]

Thank you SoCal! 
I had a great time with the small group of boys SoCal and I were instructing. They were extremely respectful and ready to learn, eager might be a better word. Those boys were excited to handle the rifles even though a few could barely hold them up 
They listened carefully and were truely excellent at reminding each other of the safety rules on and off the line. It was a pleasure working with them and the always supportive Boy Scout Masters. We appreciate all you are doing with these fine young men.
Congrats to DAN O. for reaching his score on the AQT and joining the ranks, he is great!
Congratulations to all the boys (more to "my boys" though, I'm bias, I know)  who obtained their merit badges, and I know P. will make it the next time he gets out to a range.
I encourage all the boys to bring their families up to the next Corona shoot in Dec., their mothers will shoot for free and siblings may be able to as well, can't pass up that offer!
I hope everyone had the same great time I had, thanks again to SoCal for being my Red Hat (appreciate that A LOT!).

[mycrstuff]

I want to thank everyone who helped me make rifleman. After attending a couple Appleseeds the third time is the charm. I was close the first day but was showed up by two Boy Scouts who made rifleman. On Sunday my scores were going down until I realized I was canting the sight and it was putting my shots high and to the left. On the next AQT I corrected the way I was holding the rifle and shot rifleman with a 215 score. I really appreciate the help from all of the instructors and the support of the other shooters. I look forward to seeing everyone again at the December shoot.

Thanks,

Dan O.

[LayloPro]

Phone.....you were just happy you didn't have to work with "Drill Instructor Laylopro"........

Someone (Fred?) said there are no "bad" Appleseeds', but this was one of the better ones....(Good grief, they've -all- been great!! How does it keep getting better & better??)

As said, we had the AS's 1st contingent (that we have ever heard about) of Boy Scouts of America there to shoot, earn merit badges (they were also camping on site, so I heard there were "badges" in some of that as well...), and to hear some history. We gave 'em the fire hose, & watched 'em learn.

The BSA qualifications were -very- similar to the AS 1" square sighter boards, & after a protracted safety & rifle orientation, we set them on the path of the 1" square......did they ever shoot squares!! One lad commented Sunday that he had had some "bad dreams" that night about the squares, & I told him that they had been known to make grown men cry.......but a Rifleman persists......and presses forward regardless.... We did a final AQT, and while my original thought had been to let them fire it prone thru out, to act as not only an AQT, but as the last redcoat of Sunday, my ever vigilant SC told me it would not count for a Riflemans' patch if done strictly in prone. "Very well, we'll put it to a vote".....Gather 'round!!  "Men, here's how this is....you may shoot this for fun, and as your final redcoat target, to measure your personal progress for this weekend's training.....OR, you may fire it as a 3 stance, 4 stage Riflemans' patch qualifier....What say you, men??!" Yep, unanimous....they were gonna go for another patch!! I thought they were tired already.... They persisted....  

Since my idea muse tapped me on the way home Saturday about a "special treat" for them being a fine bunch of young cats, I decided to bring in my Garand, & a bandoleer of ball, to let them try out the "big guys' gun"....Sunday AM, ran it past Bob210 & KoolAid (SB), and they looked at each other, & Bob said, "I have 2 more Garands & a box of ammo in my truck.....let's do it."
You should have seen the boys eyes light up when they thought they were putting away stuff on the line, & the Garands came out of the cases......"What are those? Are those real rifles? What size bullets do they shoot? (Hold up an en bloc....."Whhooooooaaaa!!") Can we shoot these?" We started off by having two of the Scout masters fire a clip off, so the boys could judge for themselves how much recoil was generated....then, we began bringing -very- eager volunteers to the line, 3 @ a time.....rifle orientation, "watch your thumbs here!" How the slings worked "just like on the .22's".  How the "pocket" was now of primary importance ("we don't want your Mom asking who beat you up this weekend!")
I hung a single QDAQT up, with an 8.5" Shoot 'n See across the second stage, & let 'em rip.....you would have thought Mr. Rourke was there...."Smiles, everyone!! Smiles!"
And, because they had spent the weekend listening, absorbing, learning, then seeing how it worked "for them", they -tore up- that target!! Yet another threshold of manhood crossed.....appropriately....
When we had our benediction, I had the Scoutmaster Kevin (Great guy, BTW...beyond helpful & responsible...we need guys like him!!) come up to acknowledge the kids that qualified for their merit badges in front of the whole group (18 out of 19, not too shabby, eh?) and also to present him with his "older team's" target, suitable for framing & hanging in the clubhouse.......maybe even get the lads to autograph & date it, to hang as a "challenge of sorts" to those who will follow after them......

I've always heard about how the youth are our future....and sometimes that might seem like a pretty bleak future....(my Dad still reminds me what a disappointment most of the 50's/60's kids were to the WWII generation). I left Sunday beat up tired, but happy knowing that we had impacted some young cats there that weekend, & they were going to be better for it......at a critical juncture in their lives, they had seen themselves quickly get better at something, when maybe they thought they weren't going to be "that good"......I can only offer this personal observation....If I had been able to shoot as well as these fellows did on Sunday afternoon when I was 16, I would have been able to do so much more during that time.....

And the ScoutMasters ..... talk about a bunch of genuine, honest, men of their word guys! Kevin, Jim, Rick, all of you that I had a chance to chat with while instructing & watching, please consider this my invite to come back to our events -anytime-.....And bring the wife & kids too!! You guys are my kinda people!!
They handled any potential problem with the lads, before it got even noisy enough to become a problem...with dignity & grace... Outstanding! 

We had to modify some of the POI/COF to handle the Scout's requirements, but we still train Riflemen, so that's the slant we took Saturday....Lots of squares, & training.....Sunday was about polish, review, some "new targets", & more squares.....
Considering the "variety" of rifles we were working with, there were targets turned in that were absolutely phenomenal....I'm really starting to enjoy training "new" shooters, because they don't have all the hangups that we "older shooters" carry with us as "baggage"....
I really can't say enough about how much fun & different it was working with the BSA.....Oh, and on the heritage & skill set, they see the value that AS is bringing to the American people....and it dovetails so nicely with their credo's as well.... Talk about a great future working relationship......

I'm sad to say the 4 of us (SoCal, PhoneProne, MrBill & I) did not get the chance to work the main line during the weekend....that was handled Sat by KoolAid, Bob210, & SoR....running hard to keep it all together....Sunday, they got reinforcements from HollywoodMarine, & our new IIT, LtDang....helped with the individual instruction quite a bit.....

Saturday's 3 strikes were exemplary, & the group really was glad to be able to hear about what our heritage is truly about.....it seemed like everywhere I looked, I would see someone's face show that moment where they realized the type of folks they were sitting amongst, and also realized there needs be no apologies for being American......or being proud of what their country is about......

Sunday, we had the stories of our Dangerous Old Men, and Phone did two stories of the "Dangerous Women" as well....well done for a 1st time speaking! Somehow, (KA) I got tagged to close out the lunchtime, so after "riffing" for a few moments....(tried tugging my beard....it didn't help... )decided to just talk about America, and what was happening then, and for them to look at what is happening now.....I usually try to discuss things rationally & logically, but I can get a tad "intense" about certain things....and America is one of them.....Decided then & there I need to keep at least the last two paragraphs of Patrick Henry's North Church speech ready in my binder....that would have been awesome to close with!

To close out our weekend, we gathered everyone up for the 7th step & benediction.....I had asked KoolAid to let me do the 7th step, since Funfaler had given me an idea for it that I call "Doer, or doofus?" It worked pretty well, still needs a bit more tuning, but I think it'll help in our folks coming on board....

Dan O. was able to join us again...(Welcome back, Dan!!) and even though he felt he was fading fast on Sunday after lunch, managed to knock out his rifleman's score at last....CONGRATULATIONS!! (Told you a power nap would help!)
And, once again, we were short on orange hats to give out, so I donated mine...again.....Dan has been doing 7th step for awhile, and more than happy to step up even more. Congrats, & GOOD MAN!!

Then somebody snagged my boonie off my head from behind me (I think it was Kool Aid... ) & Bob210 gave me a red hat..... YAY!!!.... talk about unexpected.....

They said something about more work now, higher "pay grade", whatever .....but, as I was driving home, it hit me.....I first set foot on an Appleseed range 4/19/08.....and on 10/19/08, I'm a dual hat wearing instructor (I refuse to give up my boonie...)....6 months to the day, and six months from the day I -will- be Shoot Bossing one of the 13 (or more) Cali Appleseeds......I do not believe that to be coincidence......

Anyway, that was the portion of our weekend....here's some pictures I got (as an instructor, and after -very- recent shoulder surgery, I don't get to shoot as much as I like....so I bring my camera......I'm gonna shoot something!!)
How was your weekend?
Laylopro

[rock-chucker]

Man, what a shoot you guys had down there!

Congratulations, Dan O; and kudos on stepping up and into being an IIT.  Welcome!  Looking forward to meeting and working with you.

Congratulations Laylo on your promotion to Red Hat!  You da man.  Woulda liked to have heard your 7th step bennediction. 

It warms my heart hearing about all the scouts down there, and the great scout leaders.  Hats off to all of you scout leaders for stepping up, and volunteering yourselves to bring out the greatness in Americas next generation of men.  As much as I enjoyed our shoot in Piru this weekend, I have to admit a sense of loss for not being there to meet you all.  I hope to have another shot at it!   

As much as I love the shooting, the instructing, and all of that; I have to say that my favorite part about being in Appleseed is coming together with the what I consider to be the finest individuals on the planet.  Not only does Appleseed attract the finest people, it brings out the best in everyone.  What's not to like about THAT?

R-C

[Fred]

    Guess it's no secret by now that almost everyone in this program loves it. What other program puts you in touch with fellow Americans of such quality you wish every American was like them - not simply one out of one hundred, or one thousand.

    What a sea of red hats on that range! Prob none of us has seen something like that - our "red hats" are supposed to make us easily visible to the shooters!

     And that instructor "team" photo puts me in mind of reminding you "orange hat" people that you are only "borrowing them" - that you need to plug away at getting your "red hat", because there's people coming behind you you need to pass that orange hat to - suitably inscribed with your name and dates (first issued, and date passed on) on the inside headband, so you can pass the good karma on...

     Let's rope those scouts and leaders into the program, and get AS moving thru the scout organization. If we could teach every scout how to shoot, and immerse him in his heritage and history, we'd be a giant step forward in this program.

     Another good Appleseed! Wish I coulda been there!!!

[SavageShootr]

It sounds like a great weekend out there at Corona. I remember being on that line myself, just a few short months ago. (Has it been seven months since the first California Appleseed? WOW!)

Thanks to the Boy Scouts for coming out. I sure am thinking we are secure as a Nation with young men like these.

Congratulations to the Riflemen out there in Corona!! Way to persist.

Thank You Dan for stepping up to be an IIT. Welcome to the ranks. It will be an honor to work the line with you.

Laylpro, Congratulations on becoming a Red Hat! I am only sorry I missed that presentation. Way to go!! 

Phoneprone, It sounds like you did a great job this weekend. Welcome to the ranks!! Awesome to have you here.
You too Lt. Dang. 

Congratulations to all of the CA. Instructor corps down there helping out for the weekend. Kool-Aid, Bob210, Socalserf, Laylopro, SonofTheRepublic, MrBill, Phoneprone, HollywoodMarine, and Lt.Dang. Quite a good showing of the California Team. I think we had most of the rest of the Instructor Team out there at Piru. 

Thanks to all of you for stepping up and giving of yourself for a program that you obviously believe in. 

Thanks also for posting pics.

~SS

[socalserf]

Coongratulations to MyCRstuff!
And, thanks for accepting the Orange hat of destiny.