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Boulder, CO - AAR - Apr 24-25, 2021

Started by Captain, April 25, 2021, 10:55:15 PM

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Captain

What a great weekend at the fantastic Boulder Rifle Club. We had a total of 6 shooters come out to embrace their heritage of American Marksmanship and Liberty. After a week of snow, our weekend weather was beautiful and the range was dry. We once again shared the stories of April 19th 1775 and, in Appleseed tradition, took a moment to commemorate the 40 who would be the first to fall in the American War for Independence! Huzzah!

We had several shooters earn the Limited Edition Rifleman Patch, and one shooter shot a 243 to earn his distinguished! Nice shooting Chris. Our other Rifleman was Cort, who claimed to have attended his last Appleseed in 2011! Welcome back. Issac was one of our newest shooters for the weekend and kept progressing and shrinking his groups all weekend. Our own Scoped It Our was on the line and worked hard all weekend until she hurt her elbow towards the end of the event. Ray was finally able to attend for a full weekend and was throwing up score after score in the 200's but was unable to break the 210 mark. And if that wasn't heart wrenching enough, Curtis came out and shot 3 209s!!! I've never seen anyone do that and he finally ran out of steam before he could get over the line. I know there would have been three more Rifleman's Patches this weekend if there were a little more gas in the tank! Overall, one of the best group of shooters I've seen on the line. I look forward to shooting with you all again.

I'll work on posting the pictures I was able to take. You can click on them to see the full size photo and click again to shrink down. I'd also encourage any of the participants to post and thoughts, photos or comments into the thread. Registering for the forum is free and it also provides the ability to be notified when there is a post to the Colorado Appleseed thread, so you'll be the first to know when new events are planned or posted in Colorado (or nearby in New Mexico/Wyoming).

And for those who were asking, our next event with available slots is a Rimfire Known Distance up in Boulder on May 22, 2021. This is a one day event where we'll work on mastering our rimfire rifles out past 25 meters. Sign up today! :) We also just added our first half day Appleseed events and the first Pistol of 2021 for Memorial Day Weekend. Come join us!


Group photo on Day 1 (sorry we missed you Cort!)


"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour."
― Sir Winston Churchill


I will post more pictures as I catch up.
There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

Captain

Our host for the weekend was the Boulder Rifle Club (BRC). This club always comes come through for Appleseed and was one of the first ranges to help the program get underway again during the COVID restrictions. Over the last several years, this club has hosted events having the highest attendance in the State! We also have a club member who is a Red Hat Instructor with Appleseed - Mellow Yellow and it's quite common to have club members participate as shooters as we did this weekend. Thank you BRC for your awesome support!
There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

Captain

We had a great instructor crew! Flux and Zuke started us off with the safety rules we'd follow for the weekend.

       

After the safety rules were explained, we shot the Hits Count target (aka "The Redcoat") to see what kind of shooters had shown up on the line. Wow! Every single shooter was already on at least the 100 yard target and we had two shooters clear the first "Redcoat"! This was going to be a "shooter's weekend". Half the line would eventually clear a Redcoat, many of them, multiple times!


      
   Scoped It Out and Chris
   
      
   Ray earns his coin!
   

They all earned the Saratoga Quarter depicting British General John Burgoyne surrendering his sword to General Horatio Gates of the Continental Army at Saratoga, New York - which renewed hope for American independence and secured support from France. This was some nice shooting!


The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."― Edmund Burke.

There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

Captain

The morning was a time to learn the fundamentals of precision marksmanship - position, firing the shot and natural point of aim. And after each block of instruction, we all did some shooting to put the fundamentals into practice.


At lunch time, in addition to hearing about the start of the American War for Independence, we heard from Mellow Yellow whose family escaped from Castro's Cuba. Hearing a firsthand account about how liberty can be lost was very impactful. We also had a shooter from China who was able to add in another account of life under a form of government where individual liberty and economic freedom were not enshrined in the very fabric of the nation's foundation.


If we should lose liberty in America, there won't be any free place left to escape to. ~ Mellow Yellow
There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

Captain

As the first day continued, we learned to apply the fundamentals in three different positions: prone, sitting/kneeling and standing.







"Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty." - Samual Adams
There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

Captain

On the afternoon of the first day, we started working on the Appleseed Qualification Test or AQT.

       

Chris scored expert (218) on the very first AQT of the weekend and followed it up with a 236 in case there was any question about the first target!


Sunday, Cort added his name to the list of Rifleman and Chris answered by scoring Distinguished with a score of 243! Congratulations to you both!!

       

As I already mentioned, everyone made great progress and there were three other shooters right on the verge of making 210. It was a privilege to be on the line with all of you this weekend and I hope you'll continue that Rifleman's journey at another Appleseed event soon.

Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it - John Adams
This group definitely "made good use" of their freedom this weekend!
There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

zuke

Congrats to all the Rifleman and especially Chris for scoring Distinguished.

sleepy