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AAR Utica (Yankton), South Dakota September 7-8, 2019 Two-Day Clinic

Started by sleepy, September 10, 2019, 10:17:56 PM

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sleepy

Small shoot & great shoot, both!

Credit for making this happen goes to TheBob. He set this up from A-Z, and marketed it.

Big thanks to Yankton Sharpshooters! This is one of the greatest little ranges you'll ever see on a postage-stamp sized piece of ground.
There's a 200yd range with pits and counter-weighted target frames, a 50yd range for pistol, and the 100yd range we used. The entire firing line is covered, with plenty of comfortable chairs and tables available for classroom use. The rains gave us a chance to appreciate the good drainage, out in the grass, where we did 98% of our shooting. And the board was most supportive, both trying to market us and joining us for the shoot.

The days couldn't have been nicer. The heat (80s) took a break, and it stayed below 70 both days, cool and overcast with some rain. Lightening on Saturday had us shuffling some classes around and playing catch-up; the time-monkey claimed his.

Four hard-charging amphibious monsters braved the weather and shot thru all but the lightening.

Coming the farthest were Abe and his son, Jonathan. Abe is an old Appleseed hand and previous Rifleman. His son, thirteen, was a first-time Appleseeder.

Stan, an Army and Air Force retiree, came from just a bit closer.

Carol, VP for the range, is local.

TheBob handled most of the classes on Saturday, besides running the line. He went a long ways towards earning his IIT3. Ames was kind enough to handle most of the history, which the shooters got an early taste of due to the lightening.

Somehow, we made it to the first AQT, which Abe re-qualified as Rifleman.

Sunday morning was more of the same, less the lightening. We were joined by the range President, George, on the line.

We did a good review of Saturday's material, re-zeroed some and initial-zeroed some new rifles. We got in two AQTs before lunch, and one after. These had Abe re-qualling, George (initial Rifleman patch) qualifying as distinguished with a 239 (irons), and Jonathan earned his first Rifleman patch.

Stan and Carol, both experienced shooters, came close to a Rifleman score but were hampered by equipment issues.

After lunch, we started learning long-range. This being a new requirement, the lazy shoot boss hadn't prepared a new class yet. Flip side, he demonstrated with expertise why we don't read out lectures verbatim, after lunch. Flip side, the shooters and instructors had a nice nap.

We then marched out and shot a single Rimfire KD at 100yds (& 75m, 50m, and 25m)…Oooops! Your intrepid, but somewhat ADHD shoot boss had ASSUMED after teaching KD, that we'd shoot it, too. WRONG!!!!!

So despite missing out on a chance to shoot a bunch more AQTs or wrap up before midnight, a silver side did show itself. George again qualified, scoring a 214 (out of a min 200).

We had a parent inquire about hosting us for a shoot for her local homeschoolers, which we will be following up on.

We packed up our bags, handed out our patches, and after the benediction, skedaddled. Two orange hats were offered. Abe declined for the time-being, citing work commitments. The regard for the seriousness of accepting a hat was much appreciated by myself. George was similarly concerned, but ended up accepting, saying he'd do what he could.

Ames and TheBob are both responsible for the high regard in which the wearer of an Appleseed instructor's hat is held, and make the thought of accepting one daunting. They make my life heck holding that bar up so high, but make my job as shoot boss easy.

South Dakota's program is growing, thanks to the efforts of pioneers and border-raiders like PineRidgePuma, colonialshooter, and TheBob.

Ames

I'm already looking forward to returning to the Yankton Sharpshooters range; I hope next year.  What a neat range facility!  Hearty thanks to the range members for letting us use their range for the weekend.

I also offer my congratulations to Jonathon (son of Abram) for qualifying on the AQT.  Outstanding!  Kudos to Abram for requalifying twice.  And George showed us what a lifetime of persistent rifle marksmanship looks like -- AQT and Rimfire KD qualifiers.

All shooters demonstrated great improvement.  Keeping it up and persist!

Great job from the Bob.  He did all of the presentations as an IIT2.  That is a great example of hard work, dedication and determination.

And thanks to Sleepy for traveling so far and sharing his love of liberty with us and running our shoot.

Attached are some photos I took.

Cort

Mercedes

GREAT Shoot!

Captain

I didn't even know there was such a thing a grass firing line. How do you get the proper amount of grit in your rifle with all that grass around? Looks like a fantastic shoot!
There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

sleepy

With all of the drizzle & rain creating rust and mud, grit was a redundancy.