AAR: Sacramento, CA 13-14 May 2017

[Libertarian777]

We had just about the best weather you could hope for in Sacramento in May, breezy and high 60's, for our 18 or so shooters, who dove right in to tales of American marksmanship, and then tried to duplicate the skills of the Murphy brothers for the rest of the weekend. We had a couple young snipers among us, one of whom even managed with a tube and a speed loader. We had another ambitious shooter that had a tube fed lever rifle - great rifle, but pretty tough for Appleseed. There were various other equipment issues, from bullpups, to uneven front and back sights. Some were solved quickly, and some perplexed us for longer, but eventually everyone was squared away and drinking from the fire hose.

Great stories were told at lunch from 1100 in England up to the shot heard round the world, and beyond. Much like the colonists, we waited till the afternoon for the events at Meriam's Corner and to call ourselves Americans, reinforced by our successful defense against the advancing British redcoat line from 100-400 yards out.

Sunday was Mother's Day. So when Matt was working everyone through the continuous flow from steady hold factors to checking NPOA to the 6 steps of firing the shot to cadence and rifleman's bubble and dance, and paused at one point to ask "so right now, what am I thinking about?", Natalie's response of "Mom!" was a good laugh. That was seconded by the laughter over Bob's groans followed by shouted audience encouragement of "Yeah, Go Bob!" as he levered himself into a very tightly wound but also very stable seated position.

We had an engaged and committed group of shooters. Cole and Jared stuck it out as long as they could, despite rifles as tall as they were, pretty heavy, and with mechanical complications that they just managed to deal with. They received well earned Luther Blanchard patches, as did Ryan.

Colin finally took home a Rifleman's patch. He's been steadily working at it, and things came together on Sunday after he relaxed and got into the zen state of his Rifleman's bubble. Congratulations to Colin who shot a 213, followed by a 219 for high score of the weekend.

It's a lot of information to take in in one weekend. For the rest of the shooters, we hope to see you back again. Every shoot is similar, but always with some differences too. Practice your steady hold factors at home and come back for the next one.

Please post your pictures and comments below.

Your instructors for the weekend, and their forum names:

Hans - Libertarian777 (Shoot Boss)
Bob - BobS
Matt - Just.A.Guy
Mike - Edheler
Ron - TheHorse

[Libertarian777]

Here is a chart showing the progression of the shooter's effective range as measured by the Red Coat targets over the weekend. We want to see a lump develop and steadily move to the right, indicating that everyone's effective range is increasing as a group. We also like to see some nice percentages out at a simulated 400 yards. For the most part that is exactly what we see, except it seems that shooters were getting tired by the end on Sunday.

[The Horse]

I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend! There is a saying among Appleseed Instructors that you get more out of the program than you put in. I am sure this saying is true because of the people that attend Appleseed. You guys were-are great!

It was an honor to meet Shoot Boss Pat at this event. I was a little rusty on some of the instruction but Pat was there to help fill in the loose ends. Much appreciated! Nice shooting on clearing the Red Coat Target too.

Congrats Colins on shooting your Rifleman score!

Keep practicing and it can be done. Remember, a rifleman percists.

[NorCal22Gal]

Pat....Pat...who is this mythical Pat...He's been rumored to be in the area, but few have seen him.... Hi Nukechaser! Hope you drop by at some more of our shoots...

[Nashville Stage]

Here is a chart showing the progression of the shooter's effective range as measured by the Red Coat targets over the weekend.

Congrats everyone.

Nice idea for the graph!