Redmond, WA Interlake Sporting Association AAR June 8/9 2019

[GTEngineer]

What a great weekend it was for rifle marksmanship and colonial American history!  We started out the day with  17 shooters.  Everyone from grandfathers to grandsons, fathers to sons and daughters, and friends.  For many this was their first Appleseed event, everyone came well prepared and were eager to learn about rifle marksmanship with the help of Earl, HUBBLE, and GTEngineer.

We started the day's redcoat target as a starting baseline, no one cleared the target, 2 got the shingle shot, and no one was able to place 3 deliberate shots into the 400 yard target; however with perseverance and great teachable attitudes, by Sunday afternoon we had 3 people clear the target, 8 got the shingle shot, and 3 were able to place 3 deliberate shots into the 400 yard target! Wow what an improvement! 

Even with the sun bearing down on us all weekend, everyone worked hard, persisted, and your scores really showed.  We ended Saturday with AQTs in the low/mid 100s, but soon after when we got back into the rhythm of the instruction on Sunday everyone's AQT seemed to be jumping up by ~20-30 points with EACH AQT!  We peaked with multiple people in the high 100s and low 200s.

We had so many people knocking on the door of that rifleman's patch with scores like 207, 208, and 209!  Don't get discouraged by any of this!  Remember a Rifleman persists!

The link below contains the photos taken by me and HUBBLE.  If you have taken any photos that you'd like to share, please feel free to add them to the post!  I'll keep the link activated for 1 month to give everyone the opportunity to save their favorite images, after that I'll deactivate the link to protect your privacy.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1At58XS2JKDCvApmqj46hXBHoOShcApXA?usp=sharing

It was truly an honor and a privilege to work with each one of you this weekend, it was such a pleasure to see everyone improving with each target.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sharing your precious weekend with us.  I hope the message of Liberty, the sacrifices those before us made for us, and the duty for us to protect and preserve these Liberties for our posterity, has made as much of a lasting impact in your hearts has it made in mine.

[Earl]

  It was great to get back on the Appleseed trail this beautiful weekend in Redmond, WA. Three instructors and nineteen shooters. I was very happy.   So we got organized, introduced ourselves and Andy talked about our mission and the prehistory before 1775. Safety, and possible challenges, then rifles made safe and on the line with the first RedCoat targets. The shooting day began. Everyone got most of the instruction as it was presented, some had to see its effects first to believe. But they kept trying.  I had the First Strike of the Match at lunch, a question raised about militia that I promised to answer later. Lunch on day two, I showed a couple of my books about Minutemen and the military history of the period. Trying to encourage more visits to the local libraries. We taught carding the sights, all the shooting positions, NPOA, IMC, and six steps for making the shot. Day one didn't have the effect we would have liked, so the instructors huddled up and talked about what to work on the second day.
  Second day, gets started about 8:30. Everyone has returned and we start reviewing the instruction with a bit more participation from the shooters. I was on the line in the morning and line boss again later, I told Hezikiah Wyman and enjoyed the story telling. The AQTs started and some improvements were noted, the groups started to shrink and shooters settled into their NPOA, started believing in it and trusting it. Scoring was interesting, we double checked many targets looking for more points as the shots kept hitting the paper on top of each other, fun! It was a rapid clean up with everyone pitching in after the rifles were cased. Smooth operation and the final Redcoat had proved how much had been learned. Dry practice, get flexible, find those shooting positions during breaks from digital media madness and hope to see everyone on the trail later.
 

[HUBBLE]

What a great A.S.!
The improvement shown on Sunday afternoon was exceptional.
Many of the shooters were returning Seeders which I love to see.
One of my favorite things is all of the encouragement between fellow shooters to reach that Riflemen 210. At least half of the group was right on the cusp.
Congratulations Scott on your patch. Well earned.
I hope to see ALL of you again. Huzzah!

[Scott1985]

This was my first Appleseed event. I've heard so many people recommend it online that I have been wanting to do one for the past couple of years. Finally, I found one I could make time for and signed myself and Eric up. Eric never shoots and most of my experience is pistols. I've never had instructions on firing a rifle accurately, so I wanted to learn as much as I could.

Andy, Matt, and Earl were a great team and all three were very eager to help us all and encourage us. I really appreciated the encouragement given to some shooter(s) to get over their mental blocks. The scores and improvements on the red coat target over the weekend is a testiment to the quality instruction given.

I think the relatively small group on Sunday helped everyone get the one on one attention they needed. All of the participants were fun to shoot with and seemed like great people.

I think my pistol experience helped with my breathing and trigger control. But I still have a plenty of opportunity for improvement. Learning the NPA, especially while prone, helped me dial in that rifleman's cadence in my shooting. My scores reflected getting more comfortable while standing and kneeling. I struggled in both of those positions, but I know the basics now and have a great foundation to build upon. I'm not quite sure why, but when I dryfired after emptying my magazine (losing track of my round count, or just making sure I was empty), I sometimes noticed a distinct dip of my from sights from anticipating my shotor jerking the trigger... both of which seem like a great area to improve with some dry-fire practice.

Thank you to ISA for the location. It was great to talk to the club leadership and see some of their facility. I hope to be out for an ASI or IDPA match soon. And most definately another Project Appleseed so I can keep improving. I've already followed step 7 and told a few people how great the event (both the shooting instruction and the history lessons) was and have at least one intrigued enough where he may get out to one with his wife. Hopefully I'll persuade some more soon.

Thanks again,

Scott

[SPaikmos]

Congrats Scott!  It was a pleasure meeting you and the rest of the participants last weekend.  I'm sure that many of the IDPA skills transfer over, and it's a sweet accomplishment to make rifleman on the first try.  Of course, there's plenty of work to refine the skills, and this is a great start!  We had a good group of shooters and I hope Appleseed continues to grow at ISA because i know there are plenty of people that would like to go.

Step 7 is the most important one.  I brought my two kids and they are begging for more range time now.  I clearly started them too late (they're 11 and 13 now) and need to get my youngest (9) started immediately.

Thanks to Andy, Earl, and Matt for taking time out of their weekend to make this event happen, and I look forward to meeting you all again at future events!

-Steve