Redmond, WA AAR - Feb. 8-9, 2020

[Maximum Ordinate]

Seventeen Patriots came out in the rain and the wind at the Interlake Sporting Association last weekend in Redmond, Washington.  The shooters were a determined bunch and everyone got better throughout the weekend.

My thanks to Interlake Sporting Association for sharing their beautiful range with us.  Gratitude to the instructor crew for their continued dedication, especially Flipper who very worked hard for her SBIT1.

I'm proud of the progress everyone made.  Congrats to the following Riflemen:  Daniel (223, 218), Chris (221, 216), and BrianK (222, 210).

And the weekend got nothing but better... as the Redmond crew has three new Orange Hats.  Welcome to Cornhskr, Doc Sporseen, and Brian Keith!  Huzzah!!!!

On behalf of the instructors, thank you for the opportunity to serve you at Interlake.  I hope you'll take that 7th Step and tell your friends about your experience!

in Liberty,
MO

The Instructor Crew!


BrianK getting a patch and a hat!


Daniel requalifying... hope to see an orange hat on your head one day, sir!


And another Rifleman, Chris.


Ball & Dummy




Shooters under Earl's watchful eye


Cornhskr showing us how it's done with his suppressed AR15


Two new orange hats in the misty morning


Shooters gathered up


The target line made up of construction fencing (Andy has a great setup.  It worked VERY well)

[Doc Sporseen]

Thanks for coming all the way out to our lovely (If damp) state.  I'm looking forward to the IBC next month!

[GTEngineer]

It was a great weekend even with the liquid sunshine most of the day Saturday.  It is always a good day to be on the range with fellow Americans learning about fundamental rifle marksmanship and our shared history and heritage.  Thank you all for taking the time to join us and I hope that everyone left the weekend with a renewed sense of urgency step up to defend Liberty and that everyone learned something about themselves and their equipment.  Obtaining a Rifleman's patch is not an easy thing to do, it takes a lot of practice and persistence.  A lot of you came extremely close, I have no doubt that with additional dry practice, and reading over in detail the booklet that was given to each of you, you will all achieve your Rifleman's patch in no time.  Coming to a first Appleseed event without any prior exposure to how we teach the fundamentals is like drinking from a firehose, take your time, go over that booklet and give each section time to be digested and practiced before moving onto the next section.

Make absolutely sure that you have no ammunition anywhere near you when you dry practice, double/triple check your rifle to make sure it is devoid of any ammunition.  Then dry practice, dry practice, dry practice.

I hope to see you all again at another Project Appleseed event in the near future.  There is a special LadySeed (women only) event in May, if you are interested or know someone who may be interested, please reach out to me on the forum for additional information on how to sign up.

Lastly, thank you Cornhskr, Doc Sporseen, and Brian Keith for stepping up to join the instructor in training corp and help us spread the message of Liberty!  Also, thank you JayB and CTorg for stepping up as your first event as an IIT!

[JayB]

As always, a great location for freedom and a great bunch of prospective riflemen.
Everyone was so enthusiastic all weekend, and it showed with the groups and scores getting better all the way to the end.
Thanks to all the shooters for making the instructors weekend so enjoyable, and for putting up with the crowd of us new IIT's!

With practice and patience, next Appleseed you'll all have that patch!

[cornhskr]

It was great to have Maximum Ordinate out here in the Pacific NW.  The Appleseed crew put on another great and safe event and spread the message of Liberty. 

I love the event and the message so much, I accepted an Orange Hat from Maximum Ordinate.  Can't wait for IBC next month!

[Moy]

This appleseed was awesome.  Everyone, both instructors and shooters, were very nice and welcoming.  The history lessons were interesting.  People were surprisingly upbeat while lying in puddles.  The instructors were all very patient, even with novice questions, and explanations were all very thorough.

The constant focus on NPoA was probably the most useful part of the rifle training.  Probably doesn't need elaboration.  Ball & dummy I think was the second best part of the rifle training.  It was really illuminating to see someone else up close doing things, and be able to make a mental note of how you yourself were doing those things wrong haha.  Just much easier to tell when looking at someone else.

The booklet y'all gave us is also really good.  Is there a PDF of that if (no, when) I lose/destroy it?

We have a lot of pistol courses in the area, but as far as I've found there's zero basic rifle instruction besides Appleseed.  I know I read this somewhere online but I'll start telling others with gusto - any shooter, especially new shooters, should get a semi auto 22 and take an appleseed.  Earlier the better.

--

One detraction I think from an otherwise excellent weekend: I think the NPoA drill with the eyes closed was too dangerous to do in a city/suburban range like this.  By the fifth shot I was halfway up the berm, too close to letting a round escape.  I understand ultimately it's my responsibility for staying safe, so probably I should have stopped myself earlier.  I don't know what the resolution here is: maybe just do two shots, reset and do it again; don't let bolt action shooters do it at all; maybe do it with two rounds plus three rounds dryfire (does that work with semi auto? probably no?); or maybe just don't do it at all if there isn't copious space behind the targets?  I definitely learned a *lot* from the first shot of the drill, namely my NPoA is still way off.  But it seemed very counter-intuitive to the safety rule of finger off the trigger until sights are on the target.

[Earl]

I wouldn't do that as a drill, since the idea was to show you that you can get your relaxed body on the target and engage the same target a second and third time without shifting your body. So find your natural point of aim, open your eyes find yourself on target, squeeze the trigger - breath in, breath out find yourself on target squeeze again - breath in, breath out find yourself on the target again, squeeze again.  But most that don't lock themselves into position will have to learn more about relaxing into their most stable NPOA - which will be best learned by dry practice.

  The most difficult portion is lying to yourself about being really relaxed on target. From above the shooters I find all kinds of failures to follow through, slow reset of the trigger and many thoughtless shifts for comfort that shooters aren't paying attention to, all of which move the strike of the bullet from the original NPOA. In the end the Rifleman's Dance, or the observation of where the bullet strikes is the best correction for movements you aren't making deliberately. I don't work with a coach often, but I do set up a camera to digitally record my shooting technique, live fire on the range, or dry fire practice at home.

Steady hold factors in each position, and six steps for making your shot on each dry practice round, finishing talk yourself through each step in making your firearm safe. Everytime.