Lapeer, Mi Nov 19 AAR

[Caliper]

Well, I've tried to get an event on the Lapeer rifle range running several times now...  Once, no takers, second time one prereg, this time I just had to get out and run that event, even if I had to recruit a batch of instructors to shoot!

The weather was cold, and windy, with some snow mixed in here and there...  Temps hovered right at freezing all day and without any shelter this was definitely winterseed territory! Our one shooter (who, after registering, but before this event, has taken an orange hat!) requalified while shooting his first centerfire Appleseed. The rest of our instructors requalified as well.  Somehow the Shoot Boss failed at this task, but I decided to take my first swing at doing it with a centerfire bolt action so am still happy with my results.  While our range can't support full distance being only 200yd, everyone was able to get experience with distance and get their feet wet with what it would take to shoot at a full distance event. With everyone having a hat, we were also able to focus on more advanced topics and had a nice discussion about scopes as related to KD shooting. In the end, we were able to get in 4 AQT's after getting zeroes and comeups and before the winter daylight ran out. In the end, all learned and had a great time! Oh, and earned the much coveted winterseed patch!

[T. WOLF]

I had been looking forward to this event for the better part of the past six months.  I signed up prior to earning my rifleman's patch at the rimfire 25yrd line, but I had been knocking on the door of 210 for a few 'seeds - I knew I was going to get there. And as Caliper said, this was all before I made the decision to don the orange hat. As a new instructor, I was pretty disappointed that we didn't see a rush of students looking to shoot KD. I thought it was an amazing opportunity, and the pessimist in me wants to say 'your loss, dumbasses'. But the orange hat in me wonders what we can do differently to promote the next event. Do we have contact information from previous Riflemen who qualified at 25yd with a rimfire? If so, we should be aggressively encouraging them to come out with their centerfire rifles and take their experience to the next level.

That's exactly what this event was for me: Next Level Appleseed.  I badly needed to spend a day shooting .223 in the freezing cold with a group of highly intelligent, highly responsible marksmen.  At a minimum I needed to establish a personal relationship with my rifle, and I feel like that was accomplished.  I had zero expectations of leaving Lapeer with a patch, much less one with icicles on it.  I'm super proud, and at the same time totally humbled by the fellow AS instructors who chose to spend their Sunday out in the freezing snow squalls hanging and shooting targets with me. I'll never forget what it felt like when Trooper and I had a rifleman's cadence going on the 150yd target... that was a year's worth of Appleseed instruction coming together for me in real time - a beautiful thing.

This one was special for me. Thank you to everyone who came out. It was nice to see Mr. Surplus and Caliper exchanging boss duties to give the other a chance to shoot - I love that. Onward and upward! Huzzah!

[T. WOLF]

PS - I sure hope Fidget doesn't take offense to my repeated use of the word 'Riflemen'.  It was an honor to shoot at your side, Fidget. I was impressed by your fastidious note-taking - I look forward to learning from you.