Liberty Center Winterseed Jan 25 & 26

[Cadence]

Another Appleseed Winterseed at the Henry County Sportsmen's Association outside of Liberty Center, Ohio is in the books. The weather co-operated for a Winterseed with cold rain and wet snow on Saturday followed by light flurries of wet snow on Sunday. The 3 shooters and 5 instructors who showed up for this event were ready to go to try and earn the coveted blue Winterseed patch.

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 6 shooters on the line with 6 good at 100, 3 at 200, 2 at 300, 3 at 400, and 2 joined Daniel Morgan.  We also had 1 cleared Red Coat target thanks to our Blue hat, Meadow.

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 IMC presentation with how to adjust the sights and then broke for lunch and the First Strike.
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After lunch, we shot confirming groups and also shot a NPOA drill target before moving on to the steady hold factors in seated and standing which were followed by related drills. The Second Strike was presented by Little Buddy 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 6 shooters, we had 4 at 100, 4 at 200, 3 at 300, 3 at 400 and 2 joined Daniel Morgan. We also had 1 cleared Redcoat by Little Buddy.

This was followed by the Third Strike and the Saturday call to Action.

Sunday mimicked Saturday with temps in the low to mid 30's with light flurries. 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.  We had 4 of 6 at 100, 3 at 200, 3 at 300, 2 at 400, and 3 joined Daniel Morgan. We had 1 cleared Red Coat.

We confirmed zero's from the day before and then started the AQT grind. We got in 2 AQT's before our lunch break. Our newest Blue hat Meadow, earned his Winterseed Patch on the first AQT with a score of 217. Meadow backed up his scores with a 218, 216, 220, 210, and a 216. He shot a rifleman score on every AQT.

Other instructors requalified with Little Buddy shooting a 226, Charley a 214, and I requalified with a 226. Our Orange hat Topper shot a 230, and 234 but then really showed he knew what he was about by shooting a 241 and earning his Distinguished rocker! Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!

We continued the with the AQT grind with Justin getting so close with a high AQT score of 207, but we just couldn't drag him across the finish line. Justin did entertain me on Saturday by shooting an AR with no flash hider and producing what I called Thunder & Lightning! Please come back because I know there is a rifleman's patch with your name on it.

We added a new rifleman, Evan, who earned the trifecta of patches (Rifleman, Winterseed, and Ohio) by shooting a score of 234. He backed that score up with scores of 220, 212, and 223. Congratulations Evan!

The day ended with the Sunday afternoon Redcoat.  We had 4 of 4 at 100, 4 at 200, 2 at 300, 2 at 400, and 1 joined Daniel Morgan.

Thanks to all the instructors who showed up, Charley, Little Buddy, Yankee, Topper and Bailey to make this a safe and enjoyable shoot.

[Cadence]

A few pictures from this weekend.

[topper]

Winter threw everything she could at us this weekend but could not slow down this group of shooters and instructors.


Everyone pressed on with determination toward the goal of shooting safely and more accurately. There was no grumbling or complaining about the weather conditions. When the shooters were asked if they wanted to take a break or shoot another AQT the answer was always "lets Shoot".


Meadow, Justin and Evan it was a pleasure to meet you all for the first time. Good shooting from the three of you.


Cadence, Charley, Little Buddy and Yankee good to see you all again.

[HammBone]

Sounds like a really good weekend. Special congrats to Meadow. He went very quickly from his all-weekend struggle to shoot the score at Marengo (and finally managing it late Sunday) to an unbroken string for the weekend. This stuff works folks!

And a big hats off to Topper with the DR tab!