Wow, so many great things to say about this event! I'm not sure what my expectations were coming out to an Appleseed "in a pasture in rural Iowa" but this event completely blew me away! First a HUGE THANKS to Steve and Anne for being such incredible hosts and for really making this event so successful. It was truly a beautiful venue in the lush rolling green farmland and woods of NE Iowa. Even the weather (which was forecast to be horrible) cooperated and we enjoyed a sunny and cool Saturday with only some heavy mist on Sunday. It was a fantastic experience for me to watch and learn from Rex who really has his shoot bossing down to an art. Thanks again Rex!
When I left the house on Thursday, there were 5 or 6 preregistered shooters and a tough weather forecast, which sometimes causes some to back out at the last minute. Instead, out in Iowa, all the preregistered shooters showed up . . . and then there were walk-ons to more than double the line expected! Between the entire line being covered with pop-ups and a heated classroom / break area, I am definitely a little spoiled! I think Rex already mentioned coffee, hot chocolate and donuts!!
The shooters really took advantage of their time shooting this weekend. Rex already mentioned our requals and our new Rifleman (and future Orange Hat!). All the participants also received a pocket Declaration of Independence/Constitution from Eric - very cool. In addition to his shooting, he was already helping Conner on the line . . . definitely going to be a good instructor! Our young "minutemen" shooters really showed rifleman's persistence and stuck to it all weekend. Connor was really working his lever gun like a pro by Sunday afternoon. We also had a budding Army-Air Force rivalry with Tom and Zach battling each other for Rifleman glory
. There was also some kind of sisters rivalry happening on Sunday from a couple of champion shooters James brought out! (BTW - I know for sure I beat Trista in clearing the line at least once on Sunday!! . . . plus I think my side had more rifles . . . ) Steve also brought his son Jacob out on Sunday. Even though he missed a good bit of the instruction on Saturday, he quickly caught up with the others by the end of the day - nicely done! Bruce had a couple of big groups starting out Saturday and then went on to show us he was just messing with us; after a couple of scope adjustments, his groups quickly shrunk down to quarter-size. He won't ever be mistaken for an "alarm-lister" as he did every course of fire and position all weekend from beginning to end. One of our hosts, Anne, in addition to doing all the work to host the event also managed to spend the entire weekend shooting! Whenever my wife felt like calling it a day, Anne would be preping more mags which kept motivating Jasmine to shoot until the last Redcoat. It was also nice to see those groups starting to come together on Sunday afternoon in spite of the frustrations of operating a right-handed rifle left handed.
Anyway, it was a super fun and productive event and it was obvious the shooters and instructor crew in Iowa definitely "know very well what they are about." My wife and I are so glad we were able to participate and hope we can make it back again! I can't wait to see the pictures . . .
