Kerrville, TX November 12-13, 2022 - AAR

[GenX Minuteman]

  You just have to love the Texas weather!!!!  Friday, the high was 85°F with a possibility of rain later in the evening.  Then a lovely winter front moves through and drops the temps to a daily high of 45°!!!!!!  Well, this is a bit too much of a swap from warm to cold for a few individuals.  We had a number of students who signed up then elected to let this event pass them by.  Luckily, the ones who showed up were gung-ho and ready for the Appleseed experience.

  We dove head first into our Red Coat targets at the beginning of our lovely November weekend.  With 9 students out of 14 able to hit the 100 yard mark for performance, it was certainly a good start to the day.  Only 2 of these 9 were able to make their skills last to the 300 yard target so there was certainly room for improvement.  As always, our resident Marine, Rodger Glenn, was able to clean the Red Coat Target without warming up.  Thank you Rodger for always setting an early stellar example of true marksmanship ability!!!
After the Red Coat Target, we opened up the firehose of Appleseed Instruction!  Ron (A-Lister) did a great job of getting all the students dialed-in on the Prone Position.  We let the firehose go full throttle, wide-open and showed them the concept of Natural Point of Aim.  Improvement in grouping began to show up!!!  A few rifles had to be changed out due to difficult set-ups, but better to eliminate all unnecessary difficulties than beating a dead horse for the rest of the weekend!

  By the time high-noon struck, our students were well on their way to embracing the teaching.  The students looked a bit hungry at this point - not in an enthusiastic educational sense, but rather needing food input.  As kind instructors we turned off the firehose for a bit took a break for lunch.  Ron was able to give a very clear, rousing rendition of the "First Strike of the Match" while our students tried to warm up and fuel themselves for the remainder of the day.

  I ran through I.M.C. (Inches, Minutes, and Clicks) with the students after lunch and jumped us into getting everyone's rifles zeroed.  There were some difficulties with some student's sighting systems, but they were quickly resolved.  It was amazing to see how well most of the students were already doing at this point.  This is where the Appleseed teaching method kicked-in for most students!  Steve and his son Samuel were absolutely nailing the target center with every round!!!!  Sol also started putting rounds right where it counted!!!

  Now with the student's sighted-in, it was now time to throw something new at them.  We threw them right into new positional shooting and everyone experienced something unexpected - Larger Groups!  We got some more practice in and reinforced the importance of the fundamentals.  The added practice gave the students enough confidence to address the first AQT of the weekend.  Of course, before we faced this challenge, Ron gave an inspiring presentation of "The Second Strike of the Match" to give the students a base of courage. 
Ron's speech certainly got the students on the right footing because we saw some great scores right out of the box!  Keaton nailed a 199 on his first AQT!  We didn't get any Rifleman scores at this point, but there were plenty of AQTs left for later in the weekend.

  The improvement in everyone's ability was staggering to say the least.  We had 13 shooters out of 14 able to hit the 100 yrd mark on the Saturday evening Red Coat Target.  Three shooters were able to push their skills to 400 yrd mark.  This gave us 3 students who actually Cleaned the Red Coat target.
We wrapped up the day and gave the students some advice on personal care and rifle care in preparation for the next day's events.  The Texas sun was setting quickly, and the temperature was dropping fast, so we all made plans for a bit of grub in town and invited the students to join us.

  The next day started out with potential for a rare opportunity, a possibility of a Winterseed Rifleman Patch!!!!  The temperature at the start of the morning was 31°F, but warming quickly.  We tried our best to take advantage of the opportunity, but the sun had different plans.  We couldn't quite make this happen, but it was certainly fun to try!
As usual, we jumped all of the students into a series of AQT rounds, slowly improving on technique and ironing out problems.  The students responded in turn by producing the first Rifleman's score of the day - Sol with a solid 222!!!  This was Sol's first time seriously shooting a rifle!  He listened and put all of the instruction into practice instantly!  Way to Go Sol!!!!!
Then, right after lunch Samuel was able to rock a 210 - on the dot - with a bolt action!  Way to go sir!  Shortly thereafter, his father Steve was able to also make it into the Rifleman Ranks with a score of 215!

  We took a break from AQTs and did a few NPOA drills to help some of the shooters really focus on this critical marksmanship skill.  In order to emphasis this, we played a game of "Bet on Your Skill Level - Red Coat Drill".  Five rounds, five targets!  100 yrd target is 1 point, 200 yrd target is 2 points …  Morgan's shingle is 5 points.  If you miss any target your total score is 0 points.

  Once again, our local Marine, Rodger, nailed the challenge with 5 rounds in the shingle target making a perfect score of 25!!!!  Way to go sir!
Rodger graciously declined the prize for winning the challenge and deferred it to the next highest student.  Well, wouldn't you know it, Steve and his son Samuel both got a score of 15 points!!!  So we did the drill again as a tie-breaker!  Sadly Steve accidentally prepped his magazine with 6 rounds and put all 6 on paper.  This softly disqualified him, allowing Samuel to take home the prize - an Appleseed Challenge Coin!

  The afternoon continued to increase our student's proficiency and yielded a few surprises along the way.  Toward the end of the event, Joseph (already an impressive shooter and marked Rifleman) was able to put together a very impressive performance of 240 earning him a Distinguished patch!  Way to Go Joseph!
One student, Brad, brought his son Tristan out to the Appleseed event as a birthday present.  While Tristan did improve throughout the day, he wasn't quite able to make the 210 mark.  Brad on the other hand, made it happen on one of the last AQTs of the day!!!  Way to go Brad for making Rifleman as well as helping to spread the word of Freedom on to further generations of Americans!  Thank you sir!

  We wrapped up the day with a heartfelt story about Dr. Joseph Warren and what it means to "Act Worthy of Yourself"  Taking this sentiment personally, all of the students addressed the Final Red Coat Target of the Weekend.  While the numbers didn't show a massive improvement over the morning's results, this was after a hard day of shooting and learning.  They all did an amazing job!
This was probably one of my most exciting Appleseed events I have had a chance to host.  I have to say a big Thank You to Ron (A-Lister), Mark (El Tejano), Jerry (Twinkle Toes) and Bill (TX Will) for helping make this an easy event!  Also a ulta-special Thank You to Ron's wife Jae-Lynn and my wife Amy for helping so much with the registration process!  And a huge "Thank You" to everyone for attending!!!!

Chad Stovell - GenX Minuteman

[GenX Minuteman]

[A-lister]

What a great weekend to spread Liberty Heritage and marksmanship!    Its always enjoyable to spend a weekend with such fine instructors and shooters. Steven one of the shooters gave us an encouraging thanks for the hard work of Appleseed instructors. It feels good knowing that we have made a difference in peoples lives. Like Chad said it was a bit cold but everyone tuffed it out for a great weekend. 3 new Riflemen and 3 requals! And a huge welcome back to Jeremy who brought his son Wesson. Jeremy jumped right in and helped with some of the instruction.  Jeremy was a red hat from our old Fredericksburg days. Part of our old cadre'! Once again what a great weekend. Looking forward to the December shoot!

[Two Wolves]

Great job Chad. Really nice to see Amy out and about. I'm all worked up about building another new "appleseed specific" rifle. Don't know if I'll have it done in time for the Dec. event but we'll see. Thanks to all --instructors and participants for making this a great event. Ya'll come back now, hear. LOL Regards, Rodger.