Shelby, IN, AAR April 17-18, 2021 Patriot's Day

[Oz]

What a fantastic Patriot's Day weekend at the Izaak Walton League of America, Diana Chapter, in Shelby, Indiana!  Our instructor crew was privileged to join 23 dedicated and enthusiastic students and partake of a full weekend of heritage and marksmanship.  The weather and the hospitality could not have been improved on. 

And what a weekend for earning Rifleman patches!  Cesar and Victoria kicked us off on Saturday, each shooting a 219 on our first AQT!  On Sunday, the floodgates of marksmanship opened further; Victoria repeated with a 217, Bryan shot a 216, father and son Tim and Trent with 215 and 211, repeat rifleman Ryan earning a cooldown from the waters of the North Bridge with a 210, father and son Clint and Jace with a 222 and 212, and repeat rifleman Nick working to put on his own clinic with a 215, 218, 234, and 239!  Yes, that's a total of 9 Riflemen!

We were also so happy to have a significant youth contingent.  Libby, Kiley, Ashlynn, Blaire, Logan, Jace, Kaylyn, and Conner, it was great to meet you and work with each of you.  I hope we will see you back in the future to keep working on your skills!

Ken, Jacob, Tina, Gina, Mike, Mark, Mark--you were each great to work with, and persistent, and I hope to get the chance to work with you again. 

In addition, Victoria stepped up and took a blue hat, joining AppleCore!  Huzzah, and welcome!  We look forward to working with you!

I know there are photographs out there.  Lots of pictures, lots of smiles. Let's see them! 

Thank you all again for spending your Patriot's Day weekend with us!

Oz

[Oz]

OP updated

[Dagny]

This Patriot Weekend shoot was the fifth event held in Shelby, and our first Patriot's Day event.  Celebrating this historic day with a Rifleman Clinic will hopefully become an annual event for us. 

Ray and I can not thank all of you instructors for your time, talents, and efforts that created the highest number of earned Riflemen and women from Shelby so far.  Yes Oz, fantastic describes the weekend well!  Two days of expert marksmanship instruction and history that was enjoyed by all.  Many, many of the shooters are planning to attend our September event and are asking for more weekends to be scheduled!

Thank you so very much to: Oz, Steel Thunder, Captain America, Fidgit, Pepper Spray and Star-Lord

[Fidget]

It was great working with all of you! A few fun mentions:
Kiley - Great job! You are getting it keep practicing and you will get your rifleman!
Blaire, Ashlynn & Jacob - Keep practicing prone, prone is worth 3/5 of the rifleman points!
Gina - Glad the ammo issue was figured out, hope to see you back!
Bryon - Yay!!! Scoring rifleman using Tech Sights! Great Job!
Mark & Liberty - Awesome clothing! It was great working with you on Saturday!
Cesar - Great job on the Rifleman! See you around the forums! Next event I look forward to your questions to keep me on my toes!
Logan - You are so close, keep up the good practice and I look forward to seeing you get rifleman!
Trent - You pulled it together to get the last Patriot's Day Rifleman patch! Great job!

(More) Images are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/p4bHJ1FJYPQhWWSr8

Few of my favorites:

[Hasty Sling]

Thank you, Fidget, for posting your pictures. And thank you to the entire instructor corps this weekend. In Shelby, Indiana and all across the country you made Patriots' Day an absolutely special event! Just look at all those AARs!

It was a pleasure to spend a day (but sadly only Day 1) with Steel Thunder, the Great and Powerful Oz, Captain America, Fidget, Pepper Spray, and the Starlord. You guys were awesome. Even when you were not coaching me directly I always kept an ear open for what you were telling the shooters to my left and right.

The biggest piece of advice I overheard was a unique way to position my trigger finger and thumb for those of us with short, stubby fingers (from the mouth of Steel Thunder). Tried it and it felt perfectly right. And personally I think it had an effect on every shot after that. Gonna drill that into my shooting routine from now on. But that was just one little tidbit out of many, many others.

Fidget, Pepper Spray, and Captain America - you guys were down by my end of the line so I got to chat you up more than the other instructors. I enjoyed meeting and jibber jabbering with you throughout the day. Steel Thunder and Oz, I knew of you by reputation from this AS forum. It was an honor to have you guys border raiding down in Indiana. Starlord, you were by the other end of the line so we didn't interact much. Nevertheless, don't worry, when you said "Cease Fire!" I DID!!!

Lastly, I wrote about my path to this weekend in Rimfirecentral.com - a more general forum for recreational and competition shooters. I didn't think it would have been appropriate to put the whole post here. But for anyone interested in reading it see the link below (I hope it takes you there). Suffice it to say, my Rifleman's score was two years, two Appleseeds, eight CMP Rimfire Sporter matches, and countless hours dry firing in the making.

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1221479

Take care, and see you all down the line sometime,

Cesar A. Cruz - "Hasty Sling"
Noblesville, Indiana

[Fidget]

Hasty Sling, thank you for the nice review. Sometimes the road to rifleman is longer then we plan but perseverance and knowing what you are about lead to success! Great job this weekend! Here is a picture I thought you might like

[Captain]

Thanks for taking the time to make that writeup over on Rimfire Central. That kind of things brings more people out to shoot!

[Star Lord]

Hello shooters! It was a great privilege to work with you at Shelby. What a wonderful group. Your increasing skill level really inspired me. Now I can't wait to get behind a rifle. We had great weather, a fantastic club range, (Thanks Beth and Ray!) and some of the best instructors I have met. I learned a lot and I hope you had as much fun as I did! This is my first post. I have been trying to post these pictures for two days. hope it works this time or I will have to get some instruction from the great and powerful OZ!

[Captain]

Nice photos there Star Lord 

[SteelThunder]

Cesar - great write up on RFC.  I'm going to steal your takeaways...they all ring true

More importantly has been what I have learned in the process. The top gains coming from the following lessons:
1. Shooting in cadence. For me this includes several variations - regular, slow, and quick - all depending on the situation.
2. Mastering all four shooting positions. "Mastering" is too strong a word, but you know what I mean. Regardless, I use all four positions in my CMP matches.
3. You have more time in rapid fire stages than you think. No need to blast way. The stage is not as stressful as we make it. Basically, I have the time to move smoothly and efficiently into position, take one solid breath, get my sight picture, and then shoot in a quick cadence. Just...slow down when you can, and go fast when you have to.
4. Mindfulness. Concentrate on this one shot, this one string, this one stage. Don't waste time thinking about the last stage, that one crummy shot, or the stage after this one, or the fact that I just cross fired on my own targets (that was a bad day!). No mater how well or poorly you did in the last stage, or what's coming up later...just...blot all that stuff out and concentrate on this one shot, this one string, this one stage. This has paid dividends in every single match.

[Oz]

Just like I remember it.  Everyone come back next time so we can get a group photo with all of you, OK?