Pittsburg, KS March 7-8 AAR - The little 'seed that could!

[Lomshek]

We went for quality over quantity with this shoot at Bone Creek Gun Club near Pittsburg, KS.

4 shooters showed up for a great weekend of marksmanship and American Heritage.  Both mornings started in the 30's and hit the low 60's with respectable winds both days.  Saturday winds topped out at under 30 while Sunday got us up to 40 mph winds. 

Our range is sheltered from the wind by berms and trees so we were spared the worst of it but still had enough Sunday to flip rifles off of mats.

Out of our 4 shooters we had 3 repeat shooters with two of those having already earned Rifleman badges.  When it was all over we had one new Rifleman (Riflelady) and two distinguished Riflemen with our 4th shooter being oh so close to making Rifleman. 

Our instructor group consisted of myself, OGHFM and KSDiver from the Kansas cadre and Captain, who drove from Colorado to work with the best shoot boss in Kansas (a hard fought 3 way contest between me, myself and I).

Here are a few pics of the weekend.  Captain has photos of the crew and shooters together and will have those uploaded soon.

Captain giving our safety briefing with KSDiver doing a very good Vanna impression with his great poster size rules.  Great idea and very helpful!



The firing line.  Bone Creek is a great facility for 'seeds with a covered concrete firing line.



My son (and distinguished Rifleman) Saturday morning.  Things started off pretty chilly.



KSDiver giving us a great 2nd Strike during lunch. 



We got into Ball & Dummy Saturday afternoon using Prescott's stellar dummies!



OGHFM gave a great IMC presentation and 3rd Strike.



After lunch we quickly moved into standing and seated positions with some Greencoat drills before we hit a single Saturday AQT.


Other drills we hit were reloads, NPOA, carding the sights, trigger control and calling the shots.  The small number of shooters let us work one on one with them for some really good in depth drilling.

Even with multiple drills and refreshers we managed to get 10 AQt's on Sunday without racing or grinding and ended up firing close to 700 rounds total.  If it had been a bigger group of shooters the round count would have gone down but the shooters were polled and wanted to do a few more AQT's.

[Captain]

Fantastic shoot out on the Kansas-Missouri border at the Bone Creek Gun Club. We showed up to a range which looked like it had been set up for Appleseed, which turned out to be no surprise since the shoot boss is a member there. We only had four shooters on the line but what a group of shooters! Two distinguished, a new Rifleman, and a first-timer working up to the 200's . . . on a borrowed 10/22 shooting irons! All the instructors even had time to bring a rifle to the line and knock some rust off. It was a lot of fun spending the day with folks enjoying our American heritage and working on marksmanship.

I'm posting a couple of pictures I took. You can click on them to see them at a larger size and then click again to shrink down. 

Nice group photo with a couple of Distinguished Riflemen

[Captain]

Getting out to the range on a beautiful spring day.

Sunrise on Day 1	Perfect location for an Appleseed	#1 Shoot Boss in Kansas!!
Easel of 2 x 6's!	Learning some IMC	The "Second Strike"

More to come . . .

[Lomshek]

Red hat kansashwy1 had the guys in his shop build this wind resistant easel out of pressure treated 2X6 studs and 1/2" grade 8 bolts!  We joked about a slight bit of overkill but it's going to take more than 40 mph winds to blow it over!

[Captain]

"Third Strike"	Prone on iron sights	More prone
		Instruction at the targets
The "wave"	Expert demo for sling use	Accept the wobble

[Captain]

Okay, this is the last batch . . .

Too far from the rear sight?	A Riflewoman in action!	Another Rifleman
Day 2, the moon setting before dawn	Instructors "walking the walk"	Shooter up on the sights now
Working on 240!		Another 240! Congrats!

[Lomshek]

Thanks for all the great photos!

[Thrasher]

Thank you all for a fun experience. Lomshek, OGHFM, KSDiver, and Captain put on a great Appleseed. I had read it would be like drinking from a fire hydrant, and that was right. But the instructions, lessons, and breaks to learn about the Three Strikes were well thought out and it always seemed manageable.

Now it's a matter of soaking in the lessons learned, getting some dry fire and position practice in, and practicing the seven steps. With only a handful of attendees, I got plenty of help and great instruction, which was certainly necessary. Looking forward to ingraining the steps so I can put everything together. And definitely looking forward to picking up my first 10/22.

[Lomshek]

Thank you all for a fun experience. Lomshek, OGHFM, KSDiver, and Captain put on a great Appleseed. I had read it would be like drinking from a fire hydrant, and that was right. But the instructions, lessons, and breaks to learn about the Three Strikes were well thought out and it always seemed manageable.

Now it's a matter of soaking in the lessons learned, getting some dry fire and position practice in, and practicing the seven steps. With only a handful of attendees, I got plenty of help and great instruction, which was certainly necessary. Looking forward to ingraining the steps so I can put everything together. And definitely looking forward to picking up my first 10/22.

You were a pleasure to work with!  Look forward to handing you that badge next time!