AAR: Skowhegan, ME ~ July 21-22, 2018

[2ndMile]

Another wonderful weekend at Skowhegan Sportsman Club. This club always welcomes us and has folks on hand to take care of all of our needs. It also has quite a few Riflemen among the ranks.

Saturday we started with 17 shooters on the line. The redcoat numbers were encouraging and we got to work. The day progressed nicely with SHF Prone, IMC, and NPOA before lunch. Strikes One (Devil_Dog95) and Two (The Old Guide) were shared during lunch with Strike Three (The Old Guide) shared halfway through the afternoon. Along with more instruction and drills, 2 AQTs were shot and we had two requalifications by Blake (our youngest Orange Hat in Maine) and Jake (a returning Rifleman). The day finished with a Red Coat. The sun beat down on us all day but we were not beaten!

Then we moved the line... When we started having shoots at Skowhegan, we used their 300 yard berm as our backstop. A couple years ago they
built a beautiful pavilion over their firing line. We have always set up in the same place from tradition/habit/having a ten foot berm. With rain threatening on Sunday, we decided to give the pavilion a shot. WHOA! We will be back there from now on. We modified the target backers to lower the targets so that all shots would be going into a 25 yard berm and angled the shooters so if anyone shot high they would hit the 100 yard berm. Since the shooting pavilion is raised this worked really well. Now we were under cover from the elements.

Sunday dawned with most of the shooter returning to the line for more instruction and then the AQT grind. The redcoats showed that everyone was a little sore but that everyone was paying attention the day before. After some squares to reconfirm zero and a trigger drill and NPOA drill, the grind began. We ended up with two new Riflemen. Dan persevered using a CZ bolt-action with a peep sight (IT CAN BE DONE!) and scoring a 212! The first thing he said to me was, "Good. Now I am going to do it with a scope!" Great job Dan! The second was Hunter who lived up to his name scoring a 232!!!! Oh yeah, Hunter is 12 years old. He had some great cheerleaders behind him both days. His grandpa and great-grandpa were both on hand to offer encouragement and his safety glasses, which he forgot to take to the line more than once when prep started.

Another standout of the weekend was a 14-year-old young lady named Nora. She overcame equipment issues without skipping a beat. I was so impressed by her attitude, with a willingness to listen, and her ability to implement the lessons taught her that I know she will score Rifleman at her next event. In fact, I was floored she didn't do it this time. She sat out one AQT and I looked over toward the centerfires to see her knocking hot brass off of peoples' back so they could continue their Course of Fire undistracted. What a servant's heart. Her dad Steve was beside her all day and as I told him at the end of the day, he is doing one heck of a job raising that young lady. This is what Appleseed is all about for me!

We officially added 2 more orange hats (Trakker and SEERAD64). Thank to our great team of Orange Hats and for The Old Guide for keeping us on the straight and narrow.

Everyone else walked away with improvement and homework. They all said they would be back and I look forward to seeing them. Huzzah!!!

[2ndMile]

Proof it happened

[TOMINCT]

 looks like you had  a good event with weather, attendees, IT's, etc.

  Great job everyone! 

[Smallchange]

Dan here,
It was a grind but a great weekend looking forward to the next one.

Put a scope on the cz yesterday and had time for four rounds before the clouds opened up on me.  Had it zeroed in three shots.  Going to start grinding the fundamentals and hope for a repeat come September. 

[2ndMile]

Dan here,
It was a grind but a great weekend looking forward to the next one.

Put a scope on the cz yesterday and had time for four rounds before the clouds opened up on me.  Had it zeroed in three shots.  Going to start grinding the fundamentals and hope for a repeat come September.

Dan. It was great to meet you and we look forward to seeing your tack driving CZ on the line again. Three shots, huh? I guess you were paying attention. 

All the best brother.