AAR San Angelo, TX - March, 16th and 17th 2024

[GenX Minuteman]

West Texas Grit

    This March, we were lucky enough to be invited back to the San Angelo Gun Club in lovely San Angelo, Texas.  The facilities lend themselves to making an Appleseed Event much easier to handle than other locations for certain.  Well, since nothing ever comes easy for free, lovely Mother Nature decided to throw us a few curve balls.  Instead of simply raining, the West Texas precipitation gods decided to provide us with a continuous light drizzle coupled with a crip 10 mph wind.  This had the unfortunate effect of not being able to keep from getting wet.  The lovely overhead cover provided by San Angelo Gun Club was defeated by this airborne moisture.
   
    Luckily, our group of students for this event was even more tenacious than the weather which was thrown our way.  We had multiple groups of students who traveled 5+ hours to come to the event.  Even when the forecast showed less than ideal conditions, they all showed up undeterred from the challenge at hand!  Interestingly, all of the students at this event were first-time Appleseed attendees.  Speaking for all of the Instructors, it was inspiring to see such a strong level of commitment from new shooters!
   
    Starting the morning with our "Hits Count" target showed our students had a fair amount of room for improvement.  Only four of the eight students were able to prove themselves "Field Effective" at a maximum of 100 yrds.  The good news was, all of the students began to absorb our Points of Instruction with a high level of attention.  As Colin (Apprentice Carpenter) and Marshall (Don'tFix1776) worked their way through the fine points of Prone shooting, the students were learning and taking vigorous notes. 
   
    As usual, we had to work through a few ill-fitting rifle issues and a number of loaner rifle evaluations before everyone settled into a grove.  Right before we were able to dive into teaching our students needed a bit of a break, so we stopped for lunch and allowed Colin to give us a great overview of the political conditions the colonists were facing on April 19th, 1775.  He did a great job of introducing our students to the idea of what our true Founding Fathers were fighting for.
   
    Marshall helped get our new shooters' sighting systems dialed in by expertly describing the concept of "Zeroing a Rifle" using Inches/Minutes/Clicks (IMC) methodology.  It took a few sighter squares for everyone to feel comfortable with their new found level of accuracy and precision.  We springboarded from teaching IMC straight into teaching a new shooting position, Seated!  Everyone's knees and backs were a little immobile due to the cooler weather, but our students obliged our request and found themselves shooting from a new position.  We did a few practice targets in seated position and then moved on to teaching the Standing position. 
   
    At this point our shooters had been putting in a strong effort and needed a bit of a break.  Marshall was able to provide them with a great accounting of "The Second Strike of the Match" while our students rested for a bit.  Marshall made it know what sacrifices were made by individuals such as Captain Isaac Davis on April 19th, 1775 to stand up to tyrannical overreach and bullying.  Excellent job Marshall.  Thank you sir!

    The West Texas sun had been fully obscured by the clouds and moisture all day, but it was easy to discern our first day of the Appleseed Event was nearing its close.  We ended the day with five students showing "Field Effectiveness" at 100 yrds. as well as one of those students extending their skill to be effective at 200 yrds.  It was great to see a marked change in the majority of the shooters abilities with only one day of Appleseed instruction.
   
    And just like magic, with 16 hours of rest and reflection resulted in now seven of our eight attending shooters being "Field Effective" at 100yrds.  Of those seven shooters, there were five which proved to be effective now at the 200 yrd. target.  Heck, more impressively, one of those shooters was even able to hit a homerun by nailing the 300 yrd. target, the 400 yrd. target and even Captain Morgan Shingle  -  he cleared the Red Coat Target!!!!!!!   Way to go Reagan!!!!
   
    We jumped into the second day of instruction and practice with excitement.  Once everyone proved their rifles had held accuracy overnight, we moved on to testing everyone's current skill level with giving our hand at the Appleseed Qualifying Test (AQT).  We rocked through a number of AQTs while our expert Instructors helped provide skill building steps and coaching.  Noontime came much sooner than expected and we all took the opportunity for a break, some food and a chance to hear how the day of rebellion ended on April 19th, 1775 with telling of the "Third Strike of the Match" history story. 
   
    We completed another AQT after lunch break when we had a number of our students suggest they had reached an end to their weekend.  A few had very long trips home and were eager to make a safe long distance trip before the sun set.  A few had met their own personal challenge and felt comfortable with their progress and decided to leave early.  This left us with four students on the line for the remainder of the afternoon.  We proceeded to offer them as many AQT opportunities as they saw fit to address.  Our students finished their AQT voyage with a final target series shot in "Rapid AQT" style.  Most of our students progressed in their scores, but none were yet able to reach the Rifleman status, yet. 
   
    The final four students wrapped up the day with our last Red Coat Target of the weekend.  Interestingly, we had almost the same results on the second day's final Red Coat Target as the first day's target.  This is usually explained by added fatigue, dehydration (even in wet conditions, hahaha) and increased environmental challenges.  As always, it was amazing to see how new shooters improve at a meteoric rate within only one weekend's worth of instruction at an Appleseed event.
 
    I hope all our students enjoyed the event as much as we enjoyed seeing everyone grow as marksmen.  We look forward to seeing everyone return for our additional events in 2024!

Chad Stovell – GenX Minuteman

[GenX Minuteman]