Ripon, WI, AAR, 25m, Nov. 1-2, 2025

[Red Momma Bear]

Instructors were excited to teach a 25m Appleseed at a new range! Ripon, Wisconsin is a gem hidden in the woods....so much so the GPS had trouble finding it! Five of our seven students that registered showed up ready to learn. One student "7th Stepped" and brought two others with him and another 13 year old boy, and veteran of Trail Life Appleseed, brought his Dad. We had a bit of a time monkey issue as one student was running late but that didn't hold us back from getting set up on the new range in the brisk chilly temperature morning. With the unusual activity of both an sBIT and an IIT3, our official SB, IronMike had plenty to keep him hopping!  Our first Hits Count of the day showed us that we had plenty of work to do, with our group effective range being 100yds. We got right into instructions of the basics, pushed lunch off to keep working on our skills and hear some tear-jerking and moving history and shot an AQT before lunch. Sam scored a 216 with irons and bolt action to requalify. Sam would go on to requal six more times (at every AQT)! Can't wait to put an orange hat on him! On Sunday two of our hats were able to shoot an AQT and also requaled. We shot seven AQT's and are happy to report everyone improved! We were very proud of our group of students as they took safety very seriously. They listened attentively to the history. When it was mentioned in Saturday's Benediction how nice it would be to have an Appleseed Rifleman POTUS someday, they came back on Sunday with the great idea to invite our current VPOTUS to a future Appleseed...and even Secret Service! Now that's some good thinkin'!    Effective range on our final Hits Count target showed significant improvement, moving out to 300 yards and a shingle!  We gave a copy of Paul Revere's Ride to that 13 y/o and he was excited and asked the Instructors to sign it. Another young man I will be happy to hang a hat on someday! Both our IIT and sBIT were given promotions...making it a very wonderful weekend all around.
I am extremely grateful for the two Shoot Bosses who shared their COF's with me as well as their wisdom and expertise. I appreciate that they pushed me and expected more from me. Thank you Tom, aka Theokestral for making the trip to Ripon! Thank you Michael (Ironmike) for being a great role model and my rock, and for putting a rifle in my hands (for the first time) in August of 2018! You men are true Patriots!

[Red Momma Bear]

A few photos

[Red Momma Bear]

A few more pics

[Red Momma Bear]

And a few more

[Red Momma Bear]

Great seed!

[Red Momma Bear]

Awesome students!

[Theokestral]

Standing stage.

[Theokestral]

Red Momma Bear's promotion to Shoot Boss, and receiving her Green Hat.



Instructors



Group

[Theokestral]

Prone shooting.

[Theokestral]

Bolt-action with iron sights. Great work Sam!



Clearing the Hits-Count target.

[Red Momma Bear]

Happy girl!

[JustKim]

VERY NICE!

CONGRATS on the new green hat!!!

Sounds like a very successful event with lots of progress and requals!!

[Reckless Rick]

Congrats Red Momma Bear!!!

Well done Mike...another safe shoot that had promotion's