Stockton, Illinois 21-22Jun2025

[IXOYE]

Twelve patriots turned out in Stockton to learn about our heritage from April 19th along with basic rifle marksmanship skills. One of our slogans is "A rifleman persists", and these people took that to heart and endured two grueling days of temperatures in the 90's and steady winds like I've never seen before. The wind never let up. They were so strong they collapsed three 2" diameter poles on my overhead tarp leaving us without any shade. They also snapped three of our target backer supports in half along with the supports for one of my road signs.

Despite the high winds and hot temperatures we saw some great targets, with everyone showing measurable improvement throughout the weekend. Mark re-qualified as a rifleman with a score of 215 using a 10/22 with iron sights. Gage, a first time attender, shot a 209 on Sunday. I'm confident he would have scored rifleman on his last AQT of the day if he hadn't had a couple malfunctions during stages two and three. But he showed he knows how to shoot by hitting the steel target at 500 yards at the end of our KD lesson. Other scores of note are (Kailey 202), (Kody 156), (Kaisy 168), (Mark 202), (Chris 187), (Connor 186).

Many thanks to Tom for sharing his place with us and for having the range all spruced up and ready to go. It's a joy to know we have faithful supporters like him who treasure liberty and the freedoms we enjoy in our great country.

I also need to thank Geek, Jayshoneybunny, Windrunner, and Mogwai for all their help running the shoot. They all did a fantastic job and it was a real joy to serve along side them.

Here are some pictures from our event. If you click on them they will expand. Click on them again and they will shrink back down.

Here is about half our group on Saturday.

Geek presenting the 3rd strike	Shooting green target on Saturday	More prone shooting
Kneeling for stage two	Steady against the wind	Optics on the right, Irons on the left
Ball and Dummy exercise	More Ball and Dummy	Our three youth shooters

Shooting squares

Mogwai clearing the line

Windrunner and JaysHoneyBunny

More prone shooting

[Geek]

What a very dedicated group!  The wind was brutal.  The heat was definitely a factor too.  These patriots persevered and did well shooting and hydrating.  This event was mostly first-time attendees.  The scores they were seeing is evidence that our system works.  They asked good questions during both POIs and history.  I was a pleasure to spend a weekend with each one.

I look forward to seeing them on the road another day.