Racine, WI AAR - Dec 11, 2022

[Theokestral]

It was a good day for marksmanship, history, and heritage at Racine County Line Rifle Club in Wisconsin.

12 students showed up ready to learn.

The weather hovered around freezing all day, so I declared it a Winterseed. It's often colder by the shore of Lake Michigan in Racine with all the wind that happens there. Oddly enough, it did warm up during the last Hits-Count target at the end of the day.

Some retired instructors showed up to shoot. It was excellent to have them present and on the firing line. Some current volunteers also got an opportunity to requalify on the AQT in Winter weather.

Speaking of AQTs, we had 5 people earn their Rifleman patch!
Chris got a 226 on the first AQT of the day, with a borrowed rifle.
Mike earned a 223 on his AQT.
Juan requalified with a 221 on a bolt-action rifle. Well done.
One of our Instructors in Training, Buck9, requalified with a 219 on a bolt-action 308 Winchester (Steyr Scout)!  Neat-o! Colonel Jeff Cooper might be smiling down.
Last but not least, Jesse earned a 215.

Congratulations all around. 

Chris answered the call and took his orange hat to become an Instructor in Training. Welcome aboard sir. 

Thank you to all the instructors who made this a wonderful event: Buck9, RedWing, FireStick, Red Momma Bear, and IronMike.

[Theokestral]

[Theokestral]

[Theokestral]

[Red Wing]

What fun! Buck9 did a marathon's worth of blocks of instruction; much respect to him! I modeled, and managed to remember to remove hat and earmuffs to more clearly demonstrate the turkey neck/cheek weld. And I told the Second Strike in just a hair over 10 minutes--with .69 caliber balls as a teaching aid. Pretty proud of that.

After the first AQT, I was invited to join the line (along with Buck9 and Firestick). I had just the day before zeroed in my brand new fixed iron sights (not flip-ups) the day before, and was eager to see how well I could do with them. All of my previous qualifications (Rifleman & Distinguished, and Known Distance) were with glass, and with my eyes such as they are, I thought my days on irons were behind me.

To my satisfaction, and concern, I scored a 195 on the first AQT, but noticed immediately on Stage 4 that I was having trouble maintaining a point of reference on the target when I focused on the front sight. You can see how it devolved. I'm confident Stages 1-3 will be fine going forward, and now I have something new to work on!