River Falls, WI AAR - October 4-5, 2025

[miara]

October 4-5, 2025, at River Falls Sportsmen's Club in River Falls, WI was a typical weekend of crazy weather.  Saturday was hot (upper 80's), humid and hot wind.  Sunday was cooler (upper 60s), with a bit of sun & then rain & wind on & off for even cooler temps.  Luckily the firing line / equipment line are under cover, so we mostly stayed dried on Sunday.  Even so, everyone kept going, had fun and made huge improvements. 

We had 8 participants on Saturday & all returned on Sunday who aged from 12 to 74 with various levels of experience.  Out of the 8 participants, 4 of them were first timers.  It was also a family affair: the two instructors are brothers (Curmudgeon Mindset & Fire Beard) & the one participant was a nephew of them (Cooper) & their brother-in-law (Luke) who was there with his 2 sons (Liam & Will).  We also had a mother & son (Maren & Mike). 

We had 2 new riflemen: Luke who initially got 214 then scored rifleman 2 more times with a high score of 225 & Cooper who is a first time Appleseeder got 215.  Will, who was the youngest, had the biggest improvements by struggling with the rifle on the first red coat and then going from 133 to 211 on the AQT.  He just focused on prone position with sandbags the whole time and was able to get a good understanding of the basics of not only the steady hold factors and 6 steps of firing a shot, but also safe rifle and overall firearm safety, which he really struggled with at first.  He is excited to return and try out standing & seated!  Mike (194), Tony (202) & Liam (204) are close to scoring rifleman!  Maren had rifle problems but kept on trying and persevered to the end.  So, proud of them all & know they have the heart & mindset of rifleman & will score rifleman at some point!

Cannot thank Curmudgeon Mindset & Fire Beard for all of their help this weekend to make it a great & smooth-running event.  Also, thanks to Blisterpack for being the liaison between River Falls Sportsman's Club & myself in getting the event scheduled, opening & closing the gates and getting someone out there to open the club house.  It truly takes a team to make an event happen!  Many congratulations to Fire Beard for completing his IIT2 – he is on his way to becoming an amazing instructor.  Curmudgeon Mindset is starting to think like a shoot boss, and I know he will make a great shoot boss at some point in the future.  We all made a great team, and it is always a pleasure to work with these fine gentlemen!

Finally, not enough thanks can be given to the River Falls Sportsmen's Club for allowing us to use the range and for all their support for Project Appleseed. 

There is an Appleseed November 1-2 in Ripon, WI & another in Racine December 7th.  For more information on these or to monitor for other events in WI go to: https://appleseedinfo.org/schedule/?qstate=WI&state=Wisconsin. 

Pictures coming soon!                               

[Taylor]

 

[miara]

Our youngest participants: Liam (14) & Will (12), both brothers!

[miara]

Cleared the Red Coat (Luke)

[miara]

Luke got rifleman with 214 and then another 2 times with a high of 225.  Luke is Curmudgeon Mindset & Fire Beard's brother-in-law!

[miara]

Will struggled with his rifle, so we had him in prone with sandbags to help him focus and he got a 211 on the AQT & wanted to recognize him for huge improvements!

[miara]

1st time Appleseeder, Cooper, got rifleman with a score of 215!  Curmudgeon Mindset & Fire Beard are his uncles!

[miara]

Fun shoot time: as many rounds as possible safely in 2 minutes (we love the North Bridge)!  Take out technology and the distractions and focus on liberty & get involved!  They all did great!