AAR - 2-day Rifle Clinic in Annapolis, MD May 21-22, 2022

[Catch-10-22]

Another excellent event hosted by Anne Arundel Fish and Game (AAFG) in Annapolis, MD saw 14 shooters brave unseasonably hot weather (in the 90s, breaking record highs in our area) for a full weekend celebrating history and marksmanship!

Saturday's first Red Coat target showed that shooters that had some skill coming into the event - while no one cleaned the target, we did have 6 hits on the Shingle. But through a series of squares targets, shooters built increasing confidence in their zeros and trust in their rifles. At lunch, we covered the first strike of the match before practicing seated and standing positions. Once shooters seemed comfortable and ready, we did our first AQT of the weekend. Three shooters qualified right out of the gate: Mark M with a 219 (re-qualifying with his bolt action CZ), Benjamin R (first time Rifleman) with a 216, and Josh S (first time Appleseeder!) with a 214 - HUZZAH! Mark and Ben would follow-up those performances on the Saturday afternoon Red Coat by both cleaning the target to earn their Immortal 400 patches and our shooters continued to pound that shingle with 6 more hits in the afternoon. Due to the heat, shooters (and instructors) were exhausted and we hoped a good nights sleep and lots of water would set us up for success the next day.

Sunday morning's Red Coat also started strong with Josh adding his name to the rolls of the Immortal 400; Mark and Ben also cleaned the target right of the gate. Through an abundance of Instructors and RSOs, we were then able to do an AQT with one relay while doing Carding the Sights and NPOA drills using laser rifles with the other relay. The student really enjoyed the one-on-one instruction and feedback off the line and NPOA finally "clicked" for more than one participant. That would be reflected in increasing scores as the day continued, with several shooter seeing 40-50 point improvements! Second and Third Strike were presented during lunch with strong engagement from students answering questions presented by the Shoot Boss. As we got back to the AQT grind, Mark, Josh, and Ben qualified several more times each to show they know what they are about. Matt G jumped into the mix on Saturday with 3 qualifying scores and the high score of the weekend at 231 (just edging first timer Josh's 229). Mark and Josh continued their dominance of the Red Coat target by cleaning the final target of the weekend. We finished with our benediction and clean-up ahead of bad thunderstorms that hit later in the evening.

I can't thank our participants enough for their perseverance through sweltering weather, their dedication to safety, and their engagement in the history. For those of you that asked about how you can further support the program, we really appreciate it and hope to see you at a future event as a student or a volunteer.

And speaking of volunteers, this was a great weekend for our instructors as well. Agent711 dropped by and we had a ceremony to present him his 25-shoot pin. Off_paper was awarded his Red Hat and officially retired his Orange Hat. Kniwolf started his SBiT journey toward Green Hat. And ProgressNotPerfection was awarded her Blue Hat (mainly because we had couldn't find one for her first shoot) and gave excellent support to the event. I had a number of shooters pull me aside to talk about the excellence of the instruction for the weekend and even our most experienced shooters told me about specific advice and tips provided by instructors that made a difference to them.

Pictures will be posted (soon) to our Maryland Appleseed Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Project-Appleseed-Maryland-264406060313831/  but are also available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/88g8diBFeP4FtRPW9


Hope to see everyone on the line at a future event!

[Agent711]

I salute each and every one of you for demonstrating your commitment to Liberty on that VERY hot weekend. Outstanding job everyone!