AAR Marion, Ohio August 16 & 17, 2014

[Corvette]

Well, we had another great shoot at Meeker Sportsmand Center in Marion, Ohio.  Saturday dawned with perfect weather and the range was ready. The line was up, the flags were hung and before we knew it, shooters were arriving for the start of what turned out to be a great weekend of Shooting and Heritage.

After the welcome and the safety briefing, we had 11 willing Patriots on the line shooting their first Red Coat. We got off to a great start with almost half of our shooters competent at 100 yds and a third at 200.  Instructions followed on steady hold factors and the six steps followed by trigger control drills and drills on position. 

NPOA drills followed along with IMC and before we knew it, it was lunch time and the presentation of the first strike. As is common when trying to "drink from the firehose" of information, some shooters improved and some struggled with all the new concepts.  One in particuar, who now has the name TrainWreck as we will explain later, struggled with the fact that his groups were getting worse, not better. We talked about how this happens when we have to unlearn bad habits and learn new ones.

The first strike was delivered at lunch and seated and off-hand instructions were covered, followed by the Second Strike at our afternoon break. Shep did a great job with his presentation. 

Back on the line we moved to a practice AQT, and a real AQT.  It was during the practice AQT that TrainWreck earned his nick name.  (TR, you know I love you but this is just too good to hold back).  It started when while calling the line during off-hand drill, just before giving the load command, I look over to to see TR holding half of his rifle in each hand.  He was using a Ruger take-down and he wanted to tighten the locking ring before he shot the string and had broken the rifle into two parts to do that quickly before the start of the string. The sight of that rifle in two pieces, threw me for a total loop and I totally screwed up the next line command and had to reset the whole line. 

On the following string, TR burned himself on the hot barrel and lets say he lost his focus for a second and left his rifle in less than a totally Appleseed safe condition. The mag was out and bolt was locked back but the flag was out, the safety was off and because of the hot sun, he had put a towel over the rifle to try to keep it cool so we couldn't see the rifle to clear it. 

When my RSO got to the rifle, he jokingly said, oh my gosh, this is a "TrainWreck".  Well, the nick-name stuck and we all had a good laugh.  TR did a great job the rest of the weekend, fighting through his Saturday frustrations, having the skies open Sunday morning during our NPOA drills and finally, during the final Red Coat on Sunday, shooting a 212 and earning his Rifleman's patch.  TR. 

The end of day Red Coat was then shot.  MASSIVE progress was shown in the final Red Coat.  9 of 11 shooters were proficient at 100, 7 of 11 at 200 and 4 Daniel Morgan qualifiers.  Steph, who I am sure will shoot Riflewomen at her next AS, came within one shot of clearing the afternoon Red Coat.

The day ended with the third strike and line breakdown.

Sunday dawned overcast but it didn't really look like rain so we got started with a rested and recharged group. After several NPOA drills, we embarked on our AQT grind.  On the first AQT, Bill stepped up with a solid 219 to be our first Rifleman of the weekend (TR was the last AQT on Sunday).  Bill followed it with a 221 and a 220 earning the moniker of "most consistent". 

The G-family (Joe, Heidi, Joeseph, and Thomas) and the rest of the line were all working hard and showing progress. KD was presented at lunch and additional AQTs were shot. The final Red Coat was shot prior to the afternoon break as we have to take down the line before we can shoot KD at Marion. 

More progress was evidenced in the final Red Coat and Joseph showed that he was by far the most improved for the weekend shooting 190 on his last AQT and coming within one shot of clearing the final Red Coat.  One more Appleseed and I am sure Joseph will be our next Ohio Rifleman.

DOMs were presented during the afternoon break and we moved to a presentation on the M1 and DCM followed by distance shooting.  The weekend came to a close with everyone excited by the events of the last two days and excitement for the next Appleseed. 

Huzzah to all the shooters, you guys were great.  Nothing but learning attitudes and hard work all weekend.  I am so proud of all of you.  You all did great, what a great weekend. 

Corvette.

[Corvette]

Come on guys, lets get some pictures posted. 

Corvette

[TrainWreck]

Well, this is the only one I got.

[Corvette]

Well TR, it may only be one, but it sure is a good one.   Again, great progress this weekend and congratulations on your Rifleman score.   

[topper]

Looking down the left side of the line

[topper]

Our future

[topper]

Way to go Bill

[topper]

Checking targets

[topper]

338 Lapua/7mm wildcat cartridge and rifle that belonged to a club member.

[topper]

Great weekend for the students and instructors.

Learning attitude was brought by all the students. Tremendous improvement was made by all.

One student had trouble getting 3 shots on paper @100 yards before Saturday, by Sunday afternoon he was able to put 14/15 shots on paper @ 200 yards.  Huzzah!

Again, great weekend!

[hunter273]

Thanks Topper......and thanks for your help! I had a blast!

[Shep]

I just wanted to say what a pleasure it was working with everyone last weekend, such a great group of people.
As everyone works on their skills at home, try to remember to get the elbow under the rifle and relaxed the support hand; the positions will become much more comfortable and stable with practice.
Shep