AAR: Bonfield, IL Oct. 5 & 6

[Cadence]

A special weekend at the Illinois State Rifle Association outside of Bonfield, IL. The weather was perfect and the 16 shooters who showed up for this event were attentive and chomping at the bit.

Special because this was my inaugural foray into the world of Appleseed Shoot Boss. As my first, I was a little nervous on how everything would go. My fears were quickly set aside after meeting the group of Illinois instructors and ITT's that would be assisting me during the weekend. I could not have asked for a better group of dedicated individuals.

We started Saturday morning with the normal welcome, introductions and moved to the safety briefing. Rifles were brought to the line and the Saturday morning Red Coat was shot.  Results showed we had a great bunch of shooters. We had 12 shooters good at 100, 5 at 200, 4 at 300, 3 at 400, and 3 joined Daniel Morgan.  We also had 2 cleared Red Coats Congrats to Terry and Quinn.

We moved on to the steady hold factors in prone, followed by the six steps and NPOA instructions.  Related drills were shot in between the points of instruction and groups began to shrink. We had an excellent IMC presentation by Shooter 30-06 on how to adjust sights and then broke for lunch and the First Strike
.
After lunch we shot confirming groups and moved on to the steady hold factors in seated and standing which were followed by related drills. The Second Strike was presented by AK at the afternoon break.

This was followed by a practice AQT and the afternoon Red Coat. The Saturday afternoon Red Coat had results which showed improvement over the morning effort.  Of the 16 shooters, we had 13 at 100, 8 at 200, 2 at 300, 4 at 400 and 4 joined Daniel Morgan. We also had 1 cleared Redcoat. Quinn proved that he had skills by clearing both Redcoats on Saturday. Congrats Quinn

This was followed by the Third Strike and the Saturday call to Action. We could have possibly gotten in an actual AQT for record, but an approaching rain front forced us to forgo that and shoot our Redcoat and call it a day.

The cold front passed during the night and Sunday dawned bright and beautiful. We started the day with a review of the safety rules and the POI's from Saturday. Rifles were brought to the line and the Sunday morning Red Coat was shot.  It was very encouraging.  Usually there is a little drop on Sunday morning but this group knew very well what they were about. We had 12 of 15 at 100, 6 at 200, 4 at 300, 3 at 400, and 5 joined Daniel Morgan. We had 1 cleared Red Coat by Tom (Quinn's dad).

We confirmed zero's from the day before, performed some NPOA drills and then started the AQT grind. We got in 2 AQT's before our lunch break. Shooter30-06 did an outstanding job in his "Spirit of 76" presentation. For those who have not heard it, it is a summary of David Hacker Fischer's book "Washington's Crossing"

We continued the with the AQT grind with Tom re-qualifying with scores of 234, and 230. We added a new rifleman, Joe, who shot a 223 with his 223, but we were not done yet. Quinn scored a 211 on the last AQT of the day, avoiding being baptized with the North Bridge water. He also made dad very proud.

The day ended with the Sunday afternoon Redcoat.  We had 13 of 14 at 100, 7 at 200, 3 at 300, 2 at 400, and 3 joined Daniel Morgan.

We had a number of youth shooters on the line.  All of whom had been to previous Appleseeds. They were focused, safe, polite and respectful of all the adults at the event. My sincere admiration goes to their parents for raising such a great group of young Americans.

A special shout out to Terry who re-qualified several times and I failed to get his scores, but definitely knows what he is about.

I want to thank the Illinois State Rifle Association for allowing Appleseed access to their fabulous facility. Also, I have to thank my instructors Shooter 30-06 and AK and my ITT's for the event, Stevieray and ChuckA. You made my task so much easier by your effort and professionalism. I hope I can work another event with you again.

[Cadence]

My pictures of the event. I know there are others out there, so please post.

[ChuckA]

Thanks Cadence for making the trek, and to everyone who made it out. I had a great first weekend as an IIT and am looking forward to more.

I don't take many pictures, but did send this one to my brother and got the reply "So much freedom" 

[Laredo]

Cadence - Looks like a great shoot.  Thanks so much for stepping up and helping us out!

[AK]

First of all, many thanks to Cadence for making the trip over from Ohio to be our Shoot Boss. He was great to work with. I would gladly do it again. We did have a great bunch of shooters. All were very safe, receptive and eager for instruction. Congratulations to Joe and Quinn on shooting expert and earning their Rifleman patches. Thanks to my fellow instructors, Shooter 30-06, Stevieray, and ChuckA. Hope to see every one of these shooters and instructors again on the Appleseed trail. Having trouble getting my pictures to post, but will keep trying.

[AK]

Here are some of my pictures.

[AK]

A few more.

[Corvette]

Looks like a great event.  Wish I was there.  Great to make a couple of Riflemen and it looks like from the pics that all had a great time.  Huzzah.

Corvette, Ohio SC

[Captain]

Candace, looks like you had a great event out there in Illinois. I especially like that shingle target . . . scary!  I would love the details of the "team event" do you did with it? Looks fun!

[Cadence]

We had 15 shooters on the line so, I just divided them up into 5 teams of three. Unfortunately the winning team had an advantage because at the end of the right side of the line we had 1 rifleman who had re-qualified, 1 newly minted rifleman, and a future rifleman. (We shot our last AQT after the fun shoot). It was a Dad and son on the end of the line and the new rifleman next to them.

The target is from the story of 2 brothers who put on a shooting exhibition during one of Daniel Morgan's qualification shoots in a town. Reportedly, they took turns of holding a shingle between their knees while the other brother fires his musket at about 80 yards. I wouldn't trust my brothers to do that! 

I think I found that target somewhere on the forum.

[Shooter30-06]

As everyone is reporting, this was a very nice weekend.  First I would thank Cadance for coming to Illinois from Ohio to be Shoot Boss.  You did a very nice job!  I would also commend my fellow instructors for a safe shoot with good instruction to the shooters.  I would specially commend ChuckA who did a very nice job on his first shoot as an IIT.  You are going to do well.

Most of all, I would commend the shooters.  You were engaged, friendly, and very safe.  Congratulations to our two new Rifleman.  All of the shooters worked hard though and should be proud of themselves.