Columbia Falls, MT March 18-19 2023

[lumberjack55]

A beautiful spring weekend in Montana and a great crowd of shooters resulted in a successful event for all.
A word of warning to our friends and colleges in littler latitudes, just because there was a foot or two of snow on the ground and morning temps below freezing, these Montana shooters pretty well all agreed conditions with the sun shining and blue skies were just too pleasant to call this a Winterseed...not nearly enough suffering or adversity for such a thing...downright balmy; we were stripping down to t-shirts by midafternoon!

First off, thanks to Sean who drove up from Missoula to shoot but also willingly helped keep and eye on the line, and successfully re-qualified on Saturday. Second, thanks to Josh, long time friend of Appleseed who keeps bringing out new friends and family to introduce to Appleseed, and also requalified on Saturday. Thanks to Mike, who brought out his son, and was also a big help coaching those around him as an experienced Appleseed attendee.  Oh, and thanks to Cameron and Tanya for sharing their anniversary weekend with us! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Congratulations to Joel, who not only qualified as Rifleman, but proved it wasn't a coincidence by doing it a second time. And congratulations to Scott, who shot Rifleman with a bolt action, and then proceeded to clean his last Redcoat target! Huzzah! Huzzah! We are happy he accepted the offer of an Orange Hat and look forward to sharing many more firing lines with him as an instructor in training.

Congratulations to all the shooters, who demonstrated such profound improvement in their skills and comfort with the rifle, and my personal thanks to you for your engagement and appreciation of the history and the heritage.

We even got a change to break out the old Pennsylvania long rifle flintlock and get a chance to see how the old timers did it, taking turns with the .50 black powder!

please feel free to add pics below.

[lumberjack55]

add more below...

[NoPaineNoGain]

It was a great time! I didn't expect that on my second Appleseed I'd have an even better time than the first. Thanks to our wonderful shoot boss for his patience, engaging instruction, and of course for bringing the history alive.

[HezekiahQ]

As mentioned, we had crisp morning conditions and balmy afternoons here in NW Montana. This is my son, Joel Roesner, receiving his Rifleman Badge for his successful AQT on Sunday morning. He clinched it a second time in the afternoon. I've never seen anybody do that before… well done!

[lumberjack55]

flintlock!

[Sleddintrash]

Great times, great people, and Jared is a wealth of knowledge and instruction.  The weather was perfect, and the time spent with fellow shooters, priceless!  Thanks to all who attended, and a special thanks to Jared for all his hard work through the years!  Would love to see a seeley lake Appleseed shoot sometime. 

[laxgolf]

Thank you Jared, and fellow shooters, for a great day on Saturday.  Sorry to my fellow shooters for not showing on Sunday.  Tired body, sunburnt face, and sore from one particular thing I'll mention.

I told Jared I wanted to shoot as shooter for the first time in probably 5-6 Appleseeds past in Missoula.  I've been wondering about how I'd see it again.  I took away two important lessons from Saturday.

1) No matter whether you're at your first Appleseed, or have done many; no matter whether you already have earned Rifleman; and I'll venture to say even if you've already earned Distinguished, this will apply:

Slow down.  Don't let the clock, or your mind's idea about the passage of time, be at the front of your attention.  Don't try to race through what you need to do.  Don't try to be "faster."  It is, as with all points emphasized in Appleseed, about your fundamentals.  If you aren't clearing Stages 2 and 3 of the AQT most times you try them, it's not because you're not trying hard enough.  Not because you're not trying hard enough to be fast.  It's because your fundamental movements aren't solid yet.

When you try to speed up, your fundamentals will fall apart and whatever old/bad habits you had pre-Appleseed, they will creep back in.  Now you have things to un-learn, in addition to what you learned at Appleseed. 

Keep it simple.  If you practice anything at home, practice building your NPOA.  Practice first in prone, as that's easiest.  Then practice your seated or kneeling position.  Then the standing position.  And remember to practice moving your NPOA from one target to another, as you would in the AQT.  You can make your own mock-up of the AQT with circle dot stickers and plain paper.  Aim smaller, miss smaller.  Or you can buy AQTs from the Appleseed store.

If you focus on smoothly and efficiently building each fundamental skill, the speed will take care of itself and you will be faster without trying to "go faster."

(2) Comfort is critical to efficiency.  Discomfort not only tires the muscles/joints that are saying "I'm uncomfortable" to you, it also distracts you from your marksmanship fundamentals. 

I keep 2 sets of keys in my left front pocket.  When I dropped to prone from standing, they jabbed me in the upper leg.  Jabbed me good.  In fact, I have a baseball sized bruise from it!  During that stage, I shot terribly because I was distracted by the keys and the pain/discomfort.  "Why did I leave my keys in my pocket knowing I was going into prone position!  Idiot!  And that sure does hurt, am I going to have a knot there?  Wait, I'm supposed to be shooting Stage 3 of the AQT here.  Get to work, bucko!"

Did I remove the keys from that front pocket after that first time?  No sir; no ma'am.  Every time I got into prone on Saturday, discomfort.  My AQT reflected it.  I began rushing my shots to get past the uncomfortable key jabs.

Make yourself comfortable, so you can relax into the rifle and build a strong shooting position.  If you have discomfort, don't think it's better to tough it out than it is to fix the problem.  Fix the problem!  Be comfortable, so you can focus on the task at hand.  Tell the instructors.  It's not a sign of weakness, it's only a sign some adjustments need to be made.

Thank you all for being a great bunch.  Scott, that's nice work doing Rifleman with that bolt gun.  Congratulations.  Joel, congratulations to you on your Rifleman as well.