What a wonderful weekend!!!! The September Appleseed Event held at the SaraSpa Rod and Gun Club was held on a pretty nice fall weekend in the Southern Adirondack Region of New York State. The SaraSpa Club does an awesome job of both promoting and hosting these events. Without their kindness there would be no Appleseed. We thank them greatly and urge everyone to support them in every way possible.
The weekend started out on the cool side but the heat from the students rifle barrels soon had the temperatures soaring! There was a good mix of experienced students and inexperienced students that were attending their first Appleseed Event. There were younger and older RIFLEMEN, all standing shoulder to shoulder; on the deck of the Saratoga rifle range gathered to remember the historic Battle of Saratoga that was the turning point of the American Revolutionary War.
There was a good mix of family groups that can together for this weekend. We had fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives; grandparents and grandchildren, friends and neighbors, all come together as one. They may well have begun the weekend as strangers but they ended the weekend joined together by a shared bond that shall last forever.
From even before the opening Redcoat the students were assaulted with a barrage of nonstop information and instruction that may have seemed overwhelming at times. All the way thru a blur of Redcoats, Squares, AQT's, KD's, ASAP's, Prep, Load, Up, Down, Top Right, Bottom Left, 3rd from the left and the 8th one down, 2 2 3 3, Stage What?, and on and on.
A Young Patriot came with his father for one day on Saturday and then guess what, he brought his father back on Sunday morning. We a student that had never fired on a KD range that made her Grandfather proud when she overcame equipment problems to nail her 100 yard and 200 yard targets with a .22 rimfire!!! Another wonderful lady spent all day on Sunday running a centerfire rifle thru a series of targets from 25m out to 200 yards!!! Another fantastic woman drilled RIFLEMAN level AQT's all day on Sunday with a high of 247!!!! Yes, 247 out of a possible 250!!!!
Yes, we had lots of equipment problems! We had ammo jams, dirty chambers, dry bolts, blistered thumbs, lots of bloody elbows and yes, some very sore muscles. The Medical Officer reminded everyone to drink throut the weekend. We had no serious mishaps. BUT, we did have one student that had to have his foam ear plugs removed from his ears with an Instructors using a LEATHERMAN TOOL!!! Good thing that it worked because the cleaning rod from one ear to the other was next!!!
YOU ALL DID A FANTASTIC JOB!!!!!
Below you shall find the pictures of the journey thru the Saratoga Appleseed Event: