Spencer, TN - Apr 9-11, 2021

Maximum Ordinate · April 16, 2021, 12:00:18 PM

A group of ten Patriots returned to the Tennessee Valley for the third AppleParty. Our shooters attended from as far away as New Mexico and Maryland! It was a great group of dedicated Appleseeders!

This was a 3 day event featuring Rimfire KD, Pistol, and Known Distance shooting. It was a privledge to share the leadership of this event with Mixed Metaphor who led Pistol and Ramblin' Wreck who led the Known Distance. I certainly appreciated the excellent history shared throughout the weekend, including the War of Regulation, the Story of Sam & Sam, and King's Mountain.

We gathered on Friday we met in at the range for 200 yard Rimfire KD. The day was certainly a challenge for shooters and instructors alike! With variable and shifting winds, sometimes up to 15-20 miles per hour, it was a great opportunity to experiment with wind. Both Bill and Ross qualified in spite of the challenging conditions! Well done, guys! We had a number of folks knocking on the door, so persist! You'll get there!

As you might recall, last year's AppleParty was a bust. I think we made up for it this year.

Friday was pretty pleasant, despite the wind. But Saturday? It was rainy... but that's something AppleParty has gotten used to.

I'll let Mixed Metaphor tell Saturday's story!

Quote from: Mixed MetaphorAppleParty 2021! I believe this was the first Pistol event at an AppleParty.
I need to thank the Shooters first and foremost. I truly enjoyed the day. I hope to see you all again.
We started the day with introduction and safety in the classroom, then down to the range we went. After reviewing safety, we brought pistols to the line. Our first 13 rounds was a Hits Count/ Red Coat target. On the range we learned about proper grip of the pistol, chamber checking, Isosceles stances, low ready centerline index and natural point of aim. We practiced what was taught using the Small DOTS target. We worked practical exercises for the instruction using dry fire and live fire. We worked through some issues and the improvement across the line was awesome.
At lunch we heard the story of Sam (Colt) and Sam (Walker).
After lunch, we proceeded to the PQTs. McAlligator requalified Pistoleer™ and Ross qualified!
Ross is now an Appleseed Pistol Instructor!
I can't thank MO enough for allowing the entire group to run several rounds through the finest pistol that I've ever shot.
I love Appleseed.

The instructors were invited to join the shooters Saturday night for dinner. It was a special treat... enhiladas, smoked cheese, and many other goodies brought from New Mexico. Thanks to Lora Lee and Scott and everyone else who worked hard on the meal!

Ramblin' Wreck is awesome... he'll tell about Sunday better than me.

Quote from: Ramblin' WreckLast weekend I had the pleasure of running the third leg of the Appleseed trifecta comprised of a rimfire KD on Friday, pistol event on Saturday and a centerfire event Sunday. We were hosted by the very friendly folks at Dead Zero Shooting Park in Spencer, Tennessee about 30 minutes west of Chattanooga. Shooters could stretch out to 1000 yards on electronic targets and steel and they took advantage of both.

This was not the usual KD course of fire event. After about an hour of classroom instruction on trajectory, pro tips on shooting further than 500 yards and the usual safety brief we moved to the line on the 1,000 yard range. We began with a range estimation exercise to teach shooters how to range like a rifleman using only what's on the rifle.

The first live fire shots of the day were on Morgan's Shingle at 250 yards. This was the only patch opportunity of the day and we ended up with two additions to Morgan's rifle company and a passel of cooks.

After a break to eat at noon, we call that dinner in the south, and the telling of the battle of King's Mountain by the old Wreck, each shooter got to decide what they wanted to shoot and the data gathering began. Most everyone took advantage of the fantastic shot marker electronic targets to validate data tables they had brought from the pre-shoot homework assignment. By the end of the day we experienced some amazing results. Three of our four ladies on the line, two of them instructors (Google and CorgiMom) were ringing 36" steel plates at 1000 yards with a 6.5 Creedmoor AR platform rifle. They did this despite a full value crosswind that required a 3+ MOA adjustment. Huzzah ladies. Orange hat McAlligator was dialed in well enough to run five 1,000 yard steel targets left to right without missing with a 6.5CM bolt gun. Huzzah McG!

This was a great 3 days and I recommend doing more of these if you have the venue to support.

My thanks to the instructor crew and to the ranges at Mountain Top and Dead Zero!

Liberty, yo!
MO

P.S. Most of the pics in this post were from other instructors. I didn't get many this weekend. If you have some, please post away!

Captain · April 16, 2021, 12:50:14 PM

Wow, this sounds like it was a pretty spectacular event with lots of skills to work on! Nice job Tennessee!

Old Navy Doc · April 16, 2021, 01:55:41 PM

This was indeed an incredible weekend to be a part of. The students were capable, knowledgeable, happy, and progressed well. Being undercover for the Monsoon Memorial Pistol Clinic at Dead Zero was a Godsend that made the class rewarding and successful for everyone. I wholeheartedly recommend the Appleparty concept.