AAR Glen Helen 9-27/ 9-28 2014

[rrhartley]

It is a brisk Saturday morning 9/27/14 8:30am and we have two men ready to experience an Appleseed. As it turns out David Robinson has been to an event before and he talked his friend Aaron into coming along.  We do the customary introduction and the safety briefing and the COF for the Red Coats. The first Red Coat was impressive, David shot three in the 100 yards and Aaron shot 400 yards and the Head Shot, awesome! We moved on to sling use and SHF Prone and went to the line for the first square. The groups were pretty good. With a little more instruction and a few more squares we were working on sight adjustments. With David and Aaron comfortable with the groups we shot our first AQT. Both made sharpshooter but the second stage got them both. Now that they have something to think about we broke for lunch. Being the only Red Hat I started lunch with a little back ground about the times and quizzed the guys about what they knew about Paul Revere and The Boston tea party. Next I brought to light the real story on April 19th, 1775 by telling them the three strikes. Then we talked a little about the sacrifices they made and how we need to make sure it was not in vain. After lunch we started an AQT grind and quickly Aaron, with his scoped Ruger 10-22, posted a score of 212. David was having a difficult time with the scoped rifle he was using. I felt the scope was not very good and that was probably where he was having the problem. When I looked through his scope the cross hairs and the target were very blurry. David persisted but the Riflemen score wasn't going to be obtained today. The final red coat was not improved upon.  David had 100 yards again and Aaron had 300 yards and the head shot. After a few words of encouragement we bid them a good evening.

It is Sunday, a little warmer, and David and Aaron are back with a few aches and pains they didn't expect. After a little reminiscing about the day before we went through the safety briefing and shot the first Red Coat. Both decided today would be a new day using Iron sights. Aaron had the new Ruger 10-22 that they just came out with. It has aperture sights and a rail for a scope so all he did was take the scope off. David shot a 100 and Aaron shot 200 yards. After a quick review of the lesson from yesterday we shot the first square. Another quick review and a second square, the sighting process begins. The sights on the new Ruger were a bit confusing but we made progress and finally we were at 4 MOA. David's rifle had open sights but the adjustments were good. He had a screw to adjust the rear sight. Now that we have them both happy with their groups we shoot the first AQT of the day. Lunch time! We share some of the stories of the dangerous old men and brave women as we nourish our bodies. The shade of the trees over the picnic tables was very inviting. We had a little Q & A time before we went back to the AQT grind. David is getting better scores than yesterday with the scope but not able to get to the 200 mark. He is doing really well in the first three stages but cannot get it all together on the fourth stage. Aaron was having problems of his own. His groups were starting to get larger and off target. He asked me to fire his rifle and it did not look good for me either. I suggested we swap the rear sight for one I had in my spare parts kit with more precise adjustments. So when he went to take his sights off the problem was obvious, the sights were loose. We tightened the sights up and shot squares again to get them aligned.  We did find time to give Nigel the Redcoat a few holes using demon eyes for sighting. They shot the last Red Coat with scores of 300 yards. We all had a great time and Aaron realized iron sights take a little more effort. After a few quotes from our fore fathers I expressed the need to get involved with our elected officials and let our voices be heard. Rick Hartley (rrhartley)

PS I will post some pictures tomorrow.

[rrhartley]

Here are some cool pictures.

[rrhartley]

More pictures.

[rrhartley]

Pictures.