AAR New Philly, Ohio Sept 8&9, 2018

[Corvette]

I just spent the weekend with 13 great Patriots.  The weather forecast for the weekend was both Bad and Correct.  It rained from setup Friday night to teardown Sunday afternoon.  And even with this awful forecast, all of the shooters showed up on time Sat morning ready to get to work.  We were blessed that the main range at Tusco Rifle Club in New Philadelphia, Ohio has a covered shooting line with an adjacent covered pavilion where we could do instructions and other activities out of the rain.  The event was very much a couples weekend out.  We had three husband/wife pairs on the line along with a husband/wife/daughter team as well.  Much more to talk about, but this is just a placeholder for now to allow folks to start loading pictures and comments.  More to follow tonight. 



Corvette

[Charles McKinley]

Thank you TUSCO!  The club members and facilities are wonderful.

The shooters that turned our were friendly and persistent, a great group of people to work with.

[Birdman]

A wonderful event at Tusco....again. Thanks to all the shooters that braved the really crappy weather. What perseverance! Especially Sunday. We would not have felt toooooo bad if you had all stayed home the second day, but every one of you came back. Awesome!
Thanks also to Corvette, Chuck, Sam, and Erin for an awesome job.
And yes, I found my barbeque sauce.....it had rolled under the seat, just like Corvette's hammer.

[JustaShooter]

A hearty THANK YOU to the cadre of instructors who braved the elements along with the shooters!  We couldn't have asked for a more well-run shoot, from the Shoot Boss on down through the IITs.  Huzzah!

Personally, I think "really crappy weather" and "rained from setup Friday night to teardown Sunday afternoon" doesn't do justice to the conditions.  I feel like we deserve a "Monsoonseed" patch for this one.  And to the instructor who will remain nameless, no, we didn't "need more wind" for it to qualify!  Just ask the 10 out of 13 shooters whose soggy targets all ended up sideways, upside down, inside out or all of the above during the practice AQT! LOL

Finally, I'd like to give a personal shout out to my wife, Mrs. Justashooter (AKA Susan) who, after hearing me talk about Appleseed for the past several years, finally came and participated in one herself. (Yes Corvette, I owe you big time!  ) "Participated" doesn't go far enough to describe it, though - she qualified not once, not twice, but THREE times as Rifleman and cleared a Redcoat besides!  I couldn't ask for a better woman to have at my back - or side - or providing cover fire... (Frankly, I'm not sure if I may have made a grave error in bringing her, though - as was pointed out on Sunday there is no way I can run fast enough to get out of range now that she knows well what she is about!)

Love you, babe! 

[Birdman]

Justashooter, you went and did it now....more guns, more ammo!

[Corvette]

Our shoot started in a steady rain with the usual introduction, safety brief and Red Coat target.  Results of the Sat AM Red Coat showed that we had skills on the line.  Of 13 shooters, we had 7 put their rounds on target at both 100 and 200 yds. We had 3 at 300 and 400 and 5 (almost half) joined Daniel Morgan.  And, we had TWO clear their morning Red Coat. 

We moved through the POI's of Steady Hold in prone, the Six Steps and IMC and shot related drills.  The pace was a little slow as we dealt with various equipment issues with a number of the shooters.  But everyone persisted and we pressed on.  After lunch we covered NPOA, steady hold in seated and standing with related drills and we ended Saturday with a Red Coat.  Improvement was evident.  We had 10 of 13 at 100, 8 of 13 at 200, 7 of 13 at 300, and 4 at 400.  We had 5 people join Daniel Morgan and an impressive 3 cleared Red Coats.  Wow. 

Tammy struggled all day to get good groups out of her AR and even Birdman (the current CMP Senior National Champion in the Rimfire Sporter class) couldn't make the rifle group. Cyndy also struggled all day with her tube fed Marlin. Carl also struggeled with stuck cases in his Ruger thoughout the day.  Between the rain and the equipment problems, we had a challenging day.  But, we had a great lunch provided by Tusco Rifle Club and we had great attitudes up and down the line.

I presented the First Strike at Lunch, the Second Strike was provided by Chuck at the afternoon break and I presented the Third Strike and a call to action at the end of the day.  We broke down the line and all the shooters headed home for a hot shower and a good night's sleep.

Sunday dawned with heavier rain than we had on Saturday.  To the shooter's credit, everyone returned for Sunday.  HUZZAH! After the safety review and POI review, we headed to the line for the Sunday morning Red Coat.  The usual decline in Sunday morning results did NOT occur.  We had 10 of 13 at 100 yds, 7 of 13 at 200, 6 of 13 at 300 and 4 of 13 at 400.  We had 8 shooters join Daniel Morgan (wow) and 2 people cleared their Red Coat.

After a trigger drill, we moved on to the AQT.  We had to push the shooting of the AQT's to try to save the targets from the rain.  We spent the rest of Sunday trying to time the slacking of the rain to get in as many AQT's as we could.  And, we had great results in spite of the conditions.

We had 10 qualifying scores. 

John:  220, 225, and 219 (Requalifications)
Dave: 231, and 227 (Requalifications)
Susan (Dave's wife at her first Appleseed):  225, 218, and 216
Frank: 213 (Requalification)

During the heaviest rain, we presented the Dangerous Old Men and when it slacked off we shot the Sunday afternoon Red Coat.  Results were outstanding.  10 at 100, 8 at 200, 7 at 300, 3 at 400, and 10 joined Daniel Morgan.  Wow, great job team.

We broke down the line and go figure, once we had everything packed, the rain finally stopped.  But, it didn't matter, we had a great event in spite of the conditions. 

Corvette

[Cmdr of Flying Saucer X-2]

The usual decline in Sunday morning results did NOT occur.

What would be the general consensus on why there usually is a Sunday decline?

[BamaFan7]

Great shooting everyone and way to work through mother nature's fury. Well done!

[Corvette]

Cmdr of Flying Saucer X,

Usually, everyone is stiff and sore in unusual spots from Sat and Sunday morning, shooting cold with no warm up, there is usually a decline in results.  This is just a general observation from all the shoots I have run in the past.  It is not a hard and fast rule but just something I have noticed over the years. 

Corvette

[Corvette]

Frank,

You have a bunch of photos from this past weekend.  If you can find time, I would love to get them posted here. 

Corvette

[Charles McKinley]

The usual decline in Sunday morning results did NOT occur.

What would be the general consensus on why there usually is a Sunday decline?

Fatigue.  By Sunday afternoons most people are wrung out physically and mentally.  We don't call it drinking from the firehose for nothing.

[Coffee]

Thank you to all the great instructors this weekend! Being my first time at an Appleseed I wasn't sure what to expect, but I had a great time and learned SO much! Special thanks to Birdman- everyone needs a project! Thanks for letting me use your scope, now I need to save up for one so I can come back and get that rifleman patch!
I also loved the history, some of which I knew but much that I didn't! So very interesting and sometimes it literally gave me goosebumps! This really is a great group!
I will be back for that patch!
   

Coffee

[Corvette]

Coffee,

Glad you enjoyed your weekend with us. Please come back soon. We have other shoots yet this year. Hope to see you at one of them.

Corvette

[luckyguy]

Thanks everyone for a great weekend. The shooting was great, the heritage was awesome and the ribs were delicious.

Thanks for helping Cyndi and Angela out with their rifle issues and for loaning them slings and guns. It turns out that the ejector lifter spring on Cyndi's Marlin was about 1/8" out of alignment, so thats fixed. But, she's also already purchased a 10/22 anyway.

We're all going to practice and come back in warmer weather for another weekend with, hopefully, less equipment issues.

[Corvette]

Luckyguy,

Not a problem, an Appleseed weekend will test your equipment and sometimes that equipment fails the  test.  Be it an extractor spring in your case or bad mags, or something else. It is a rare Appleseed that something doesn't go wrong with someone's rifle and that is why all the Instructors always bring loaners.  It happens pretty regularly.  But, now you know what the issue was and next time will be better. 

See you all again on the trial soon.

Corvette

[Ironman762]

Pics are coming soon.  Sorry about being late to the party.

[Corvette]

It took a while but her are pics from the event.  (Finally)

Corvette

[sleepy]

Sounds like an awesome way to spend a rainy weekend! If only I were just a tiny bit closer....

Seriously. One of my best learning weekends was my second Appleseed, in Roswell NM. A very full line, all downpour, no overhead cover (except in the outhouse, with the black widows), all mud with no concrete, and a great time had by all! It's weekends like this which push the rifleman and his equipment, both teaching and testing.

And guess what? We had the range all to ourselves.

Lesson #1...pack everything in ziplock baggies....motel decor was interesting that night, with EVERYTHING hung out to dry.

A rifleman learns, keeps his powder dry, and perseveres!

If only I were just a tiny bit closer to Ohio....

[JustaShooter]

That's my girl right there! 

[Ironman762]

Thanks for posting the pictures.

I just have to add that, Lisa my wife, cleared 3 redcoats for the weekend.  That includes the very first redcoat of the day on Saturday.  I hope to be able to do that some day.

[Charles McKinley]

It would have been ALL 4 if you hadn't hidden her first magazine on the last one so she couldn't shoot the 100 yard target.