After Action Report for San Angelo, TX May 17, 18 - 2025

[GenX Minuteman]

Experts Only!

    The May event in San Angelo, TX was a very memorable event for our students and all Appleseed volunteers involved.  Our West Texas events are ones which we have had a hard time getting students to attend due to several competing factors.  We had only four students signed up for this event just two weeks before the event date.  Luckily, some more students from our Instructor cadre decided to join up as participants.  At the last moment, our only "Appleseed Newbie" on the student list notified me he was not able to make it to the event.  This meant, all six of the remaining students were Appleseed veterans, each having attended an event at least a minimum of four times.  With such a seasoned group of shooters on the line, we veered from our usual instructional process and decide to make the event into more of a Rifleman Workshop.  Only two of the students in the course did not already have their Rifleman status (if not also the other shooters actually being Distinguished Rifleman).  We dedicated this weekend to improving everyone's skill as much as possible.

    We dove quickly into a bit of prone position steady-hold factor review and a primer on Six-Steps of firing the shot, including Natural Point of Aim.  With the necessary basics reviewed, we posted up AQT targets right around 11:00 am on the first day of the event.  Our students quickly ran through all stages of this first AQT to finish up right near lunch time.  All of our Distinguished Rifleman were able to put up some impressive initial scores.  The two remaining students, Florence and Joshua, were also able to make some great initial scores – not quite Rifleman scores yet, but still very good.

    Once lunchtime rolled around, we stopped and had a quick informal history discussion center around the actions pertaining to the First Strike of the Match.  We offered a bit of a back-and-forth dialogue amongst the Instructors and the students which resulted in a very insightful conversation for most. 

    After posting up another AQT target, our students now had their "Serious" faces on and were ready to do some exceptional shooting.  Once the final Stage of the 2nd AQT was finished it was clear we were going to see some high scores.  Nathaniel had once again established his ranking as a Distinguished Rifleman by making a score of 243 with a bolt action rifle.  Way to go Nathaniel!!!!  Also, Bill was able to requalify as a Distinguished Rifleman by putting up an impressive score of 230 with iron sights!!!!  Even more impressive was to see Florence bring her previous score of 200 up to 212 so quickly to earn her Rifleman status!!!!  Way to go Florence!!!!!  She has been coming to Appleseed events with her father Bill and her brother Joshua since she was 8 years old!!!  She is now setting out on adulthood as a Rifleman with solid confidence!!!!
    Our first day of the weekend had to be wrapped up early due to a scheduling overlap with the range, so this limited our students to one more AQT before wrapping things up.  We squeezed in one more AQT and a quick Second Strike of the Match discussion before wrapping up the day with a Red Coat target, of which 4 out of our 6 students cleared. 

    The second day of our event once again offered opportunities for our students to excel and sharpen their skills!  With her new found Rifleman skills in-hand, Florence, started the day off swinging for the fences by clearing the morning Red Coat target!  Way to go Florence!!!!  The usual suspects, Dan, Nathaniel and Bill also did the same!  We ran through a gauntlet of AQTs, done in standard fashion and one also done as a Rapid AQT for fun.  The final high scores were wonderful to see.  Florence increased her score up to a high of 226!  Her brother Joshua was able to reach a high score of 199, using Iron Sights!!!  Very good job sir!!!!  Bill was able to make a high score of 237 with Iron Sights.  Dan kept knocking at the Distinguished mark all day long with a high score of 238.  The impressive thing about Dan's performance was his continued grit of getting into and out of position with an sore/stiff back.  Way to never quit Dan!!!!  Becky, who was only able to attend the second day, put up a great score of 220!  Way to go ma'am!  Nathaniel put up a seriously high score of 247 – with a bolt action, as always!  His shooting skill level is truly impressive to see.  Way to go Nathaniel!!!!!

    While this weekend was a bit of an unconventional Appleseed event, it was a riotous time for everyone who attended.  The West Texas heat and sun were of no concern to our serious shooters.  Their intent for the weekend was clear – shoot well and have fun!!!  Luckily enough, I can say this is exactly what we did.  Thank you to everyone for making this such a fun event.

Chad Stovell – GenX Minuteman

Event Cadre:
Chad Stovell – GenX Minuteman (Shoot Boss)
Colin – ApprenticeCarpenter (SBIT-2)
Mike – Gus (Instructor)

[GenX Minuteman]

[TX Will]

Thank you Chad! We appreciate all your time and effort and that of the other instructors to make these events happen.

[scuzzy]

Thank you sir!! San Angelo is a really nice range. I see you had Nathaniel out. He was out in Temple this last weekend with Gus.

Great young man and he sure can make that bolt gun rock n' roll. And of course with good instruction in  San Angelo just the week before he smoked the KD in Temple and bought home the patch.

[Danoman]

Thanks again Chad I love the program and will reiterate that this was truly my favorite event due to the awesome discussions and participation of everyone with Awsome insight and camaraderie of everyone.   

[Gus]

It was a great weekend.

The San Angelo facility is top notch and I loved the covered firing line!

All the shooters were quite experienced and it was a very smooth two days on the line spending time with the shooters.

It was good to work with Colin who came down from Lubbock (on his Harley!) and as always I learn a lot from Chad at these clinics.

I'll be taking a bit of a break from Texas Project Appleseed. My wife and I are about to embark on a 7-week motorcycle trip. Along the way there will be an Appleseed event in the mid to late June timeframe that I might get in on: either in Pennsylvania or Indiana.  I'll contact the folks up there and see if I can work with them a day or two.

A big highlight of the trip will be in spending a couple days in the Lexington and Concord area. Can't wait to feel the history along Battle Road.

In Liberty,

Gus