Evansville IN April 17/18 2021 AAR (Patriots Day Celebration)

[sur+rifle]

An amazing Patriots Day was celebrated at Red Brush Rifle Range this past weekend!  The eleven Appleseeders and six instructors were eager to take advantage of the abatement of pandemic related restrictions and beautiful weather in Indiana.

There were so many highlights it is hard to choose among them.  First, the improvement on marksmanship shown throughout Saturday portended strong AQTs on Sunday.  And this definitely proved out with most shooters having 30-to-40 points improvements and 4 cracking the 210-level earning the special Patriots Day rifleman patch.   And this does not include the several annual requalifications by the instructor corps.  But which were the most memorable?  It is hard to choose as each was so special:  Eric striking first with a 219…Waylon adding another rifleman to the family with a 227…Derek busting through into the 230s… Tundra Badger showing how it is done with another one in the 240s…Tom hitting exactly 210 and getting the traditional bath!  All wonderful moments.  Congratulations to all the new riflemen and all the other shooters who showed such excellent improvement.  I have a feeling that all of you will be earning a patch in the near future.

Of course, being our Patriots Day celebration, it was also a weekend for history.  Big John gave a rousing rendition of the three strikes.  Darkfoot presented Dangerous Old Men for the first time and did a commendable job.   We discussed the ‘Bloody Butchery' broadsheet, and each family received a copy to display at home.  Our two youth also heard the story of the Drummers and Fifers and received their patches to remember to keep the beat alive.  Of course, the emotional highlight was the memorial volley where we not only honored the Patriots of that day but demonstrated the power of teamwork.  Thanks to everyone for the insightful contributions to the discussion.

It also proved a terrific opportunity for the instructors.  While some of us concentrated on getting the rust off after last year's string of cancelled events, others focused on advancing their skills.  HikerMatt joined us from Kentucky and proved his command of the RSO and Line Boss duties.  WilderMars confirmed her rifleman score and traded in her blue hat for an orange one!  I know her dad is proud.

We hope to see all of you at future Appleseed events including for Known Distance in October.

Pictures to follow!

[Shooter30-06]

It looks like Team Evansville had an amazing Patriot's Day event!  We had a good one at Bonfield, Illinois.  Mark myself and AK down for the KD in October.  Congratulations to all of you!

[Big John]

It was a very good shoot. The weather cooperated nicely, and 11 shooters walked in on Sat morning and 11 shooters returned Sun morning and left that afternoon fulfilled, educated, and hopefully happy and not too tired. The instruction was well absorbed and showed results with 4 riflemen certifications. Hopefully many will return for future attempts at the patch, and for the KD in the fall. Private bay at Redbrush Rifle Range; nothing better.

Pictures attached.

If they come up in the right order:
1-3 TundraBadger and Sur+rifle instruct the 6 steps.
4. Darkfoot instructs IMC
5. Firing line, left side, prone
6. One on one instruction
7. Line safety check
8. More firing line prone, from the left
9. Mr. Waylon showing great kneeling position.
10. Firing line right, prone, now on Sunday
11. Kneeling position review on Sunday with Darkfoot.
12. More firing line on Sunday
13. TundraBadger does real time target evaluation with binocs.
14-16. WilderMars shoots rifleman again, qualifies as IIT, gets hat from her dad Darkfoot.
17. Patriots' Volley
18. Sur+rifle shouts names of Patriots.
19. New IIT RSOs Patriots' Volley.
20. Patriots' Volley redcoats receiving the volley.

There should be plenty more pictures coming. I was not the designated Rifleman Patching photographer, so there are definitely those coming additionally.

[Darkfoot]

More pictures