Chapel Hill, TN AAR - May 23-24, 2020

[Google]

It was a great weekend for an Appleseed at Strategic Edge Gun Range in Chapel Hill, TN.  Tony Shankle, owner of Strategic Edge, has welcomed Project Appleseed to his range for several years and we are always grateful for the use of the fine facility. 

Fifteen shooters, including 6 youth, gathered at the firing line on Saturday morning to get started with the first strike of the match, told by Nashville Stage, and our opening red coat target.  Scores on the red coat showed some experienced shooters among us, but also room for improvement.  We spent the morning learning prone position, six steps of firing a shot, and NPOA, then practicing them all in dry fire exercises before moving to live fire on squares targets.  Booney Stomper shared the second strike of the match at lunch and even brought out his reconditioned Brown Bess musket for show and tell.  After lunch the shot groups continued to improve and we used IMC to zero on to the squares.  We finished the day with the seated and standing positions as well as a stirring third strike by Living Hand.  The afternoon red coat showed much improvement -- 3 shooters cleared the target!

On Sunday morning we started with a review of Saturday's instruction and warmed up with another red coat.  We knew it was going to be a good day when 5, yes 5, shooters cleared the target!  It didn't take us long to get to an AQT and find 3 men among us who knew very well what they were about:
Steve:  216
Jeff:  218
Don:  226

Each of these guys qualified again during the day.  Don qualified on every AQT of the weekend, including a distinguished score of 240 with his .22lr.  Then he brought out his centerfire rifle and qualified again using holdovers to accommodate for the 50 yard zero on his rifle. 

All of the others on the line showed improvement and several were knocking on the door of rifleman scores.  Continue to practice and work on your skills with dry fire.

We are always happy to have youth shooters and ours set the bar high for the weekend. Landon, Logan, and Noelle were brand new youth shooters who showed great improvement.  James made the transition from shotgun to rifle seamlessly and always had cheerful comments for the crowd.  Bren, a left handed shooter, ran a bolt rifle all day that was almost as big as he was and put up some impressive groups.  Mason, also a left handed shooter, tried using the sling both days and ended up running his bolt rifle from a bag and scored a 213, for which he earned a Junior Rifleman certificate.  If these young people are any indication, our posterity is headed in the right direction.

Thank you again for sharing your weekend with us celebrating liberty and learning about our heritage. 

Your instructor crew,
Google, Nashville Stage, Booney Stomper, Living Hand, ArmyVet, Tejaslady, and Maximum Ordinate

Here are some pictures:

Nashville Stage and Living Hand teaching prone


Booney Stomper and ArmyVet teaching their group


Left side of the line


Right side


James


Mike


Bren


Noelle


Jonathan


Chris


Justin


Rifleman Steve (I think he's happy about it, too)


Rifleman Jeff


Distinguished Rifleman Don


Junior Rifleman Mason

[Rustygun]

Wow! Looks like a lot of good shooting there. Nice to see all the youth on the line.

[Captain]

Looks like a really successful event on all fronts. I especially like that last picture - that's someone having a good time!

[Texas T]

Sounds like a great event. And it sounds like everyone had a great time. Congrats to our newest Riflemen. 

[playback]

Thank you all for another wonderful Appleseed weekend. It was amazing to hang out with wonderful people and see our young exposed to such rich and important history the way that it is shared at Appleseed. I hope to continue to attend and bring as many with me as I can in the future.

My goals before my next event are to work on my standing and sitting positions, and to make sure a few more of my friends get on the wagon and come along with me

Thank you again volunteers, your passion and efforts are not falling to the wayside!

Jeff

[happydad]

This was the fourth appleseed that I attended and the third one at which I was a shooter. And Yes, I was ecstatic to shoot rifleman. Thank you all for your time and your consideration and care of all of the shooters on a couple of very hot days.

â€"steve

[Living Hand]

Thank you shooters, instructors - and weather - for a lovely, Memorial Day weekend.

[Mixed Metaphor]

This AAR made my day!  Seeing the smiles.....  I can feel the joy! 

Congratulations to all of the Shooters and a big HUZZAH to the new Riflemen!

All my love and respect to the Instructor crew.

[Nashville Stage]

Any day spent with Liberty-loving people is a good day, and this weekend was full of them!


Congrats to all of our students who persevered through a hot & sweaty weekend. You all made great improvements in your skills and abilities. If you enjoyed what you heard & experienced this weekend, please spread the word to your friends and consider attending another event. Appleseeds are kinda like potato chips... it's hard to stop at just one.