Sherburne Louisiana May 23-25 AAR

[alonso1]

The Great State of Louisiana is on the Appleseed map!

Thanks to good people like ULshop, Rhodes, Aus5tin, Don and many others this first Appleseed was a hit.

On Saturday we started with 23 shooters on line.  The only instructors at the shoot were Respiratory Pop and I.  With 23 shooters, I guess you can say we were "swamped"

The line had older shooters, younger shooters and everything between.  For the second weekend in a row, Respiratory Pop was worked into the ground because I asked him to assist with the younger shooters and he did a fantastic job.

Our lucky break was my friend Fig.  His one and only Appleseed was well over a year ago.  Fig had sustained a serious injury and had not been able to attend any Appleseeds since his first one.

I allowed Fig to help with the line and even assist with basic marksmanship when a shooter needed some one on one assistance.  One 11 year old, Katie was very grateful for his help.  For a good period of time, Katie was not hitting the paper and we could not see where she was shooting.  With some help from Fig, not only was she hitting the paper, she was hitting the silhouette!

By the end of the first day we had not fired an AQT, but we were getting close.

On Sunday, we started with fewer shooters but everyone seemed to be learning and enjoying the program.  Once we began to hammer out some AQT's, something happened...we had a Rifleman! David a Louisiana resident, scored a 219.

All throughout the afternoon, we had many shooters knocking on the door with scores in the 180's 190's and even 200's.

By the end of the shoot on Sunday, David expressed that he wanted to be a part of Appleseed as an instructor

When Monday came around, we had Travis, his two son's Ezra and Noah, another David(Pop's kin),ULshop, Mark, Rhodes, Brian, Aus5tin and Steven on the line. 

All these guys were knocking on the Riflemen door.  Steven topped out with a 206!  Almost there Steven, keep it up!

Travis was an interesting story. He came to Appleseed with knowing a lot of the fundamentals.  When I asked him where he learned his marksmanship skills, Travis stated he had been watching the Appleseed video's on youtube   Whoever's posting the vids, good job Keep posting!

So we finally wrapped things up with one Rifleman, several others knocking on the door, and a bunch of good people wanting to have another Louisiana Appleseed.

If you decide to go to Louisiana for an Appleseed, I suggest you stop at any gas station and try a bag of their world famous Boudin Balls 

Until next time, keep those actions clear and I'll see you on the beach.

                                                                             Mark

[Scout]

Mark, you are an Appleseed ROCK, you and Pop both. Thanks to you both for your continued leadership and dedication. The shoot sounds like it went great. Ywo instructors for 23 folks is tight but definitely doable.

I am glad it went that way also because I am hoping it went a good way toward sucking Fig into the program.

Thanks for the hard work and I will see you guys soon, Pop I will see you in Corpus for the record breaking shoot we will have there at the June shoot. Mark I will see you here soon.

Thanks to you both and tell Fig thanks and that if he reads the Appleseed fine print, he will see that once you have instructed at an Appleseed, you have, by virtue of action and deeds, signed a defacto contract for continued Appleseed instructing.
God bless you both
Scout 

[Oneshot]

Many thanks to both instructors Alonso and Pops, and Fig, he was a pretty good instructor too.  Thank you very much for your time and effort.  My wife and I had a very good time.  I only regret I did not make Sun/Mon.  It was like cutting a big juicy steak and not eating it.  I will be back.  I would like to set up a shoot in Lake Charles, it is closer for me and there are a great bunch of 4H shooting sports kids that shoot and there parents are shooters too (we just helped with regional and La state 4H competition in Lake Charles). 

I sent an email to national, but if you see this first let me know how to get things set up in Lake Charles.  I know a bunch of AR/M1A shooters that would love to attend.  I have told everybody I know and only one person had heard of Appleseed.

[Bama]

Feels good to get your state on the map doesn't it? 

My mom's side of the family is from the Lafayette area. When will the next LA Shoot be? I can bring some of my coon-ars cousins and eat like a king for awhile.

Congrats on the event. Let's get Dixie properly represented in the program!

In Liberty, I am
Bama

[Oneshot]

We might be in a race with Lafayette, but I intend to get one setup in Lake Charles.   We had a great time at Sherburne.  Cajuns enjoy shootin almost as much as gumbo (so should be catching on soon).  I am looking forward to attending and helping with next event.  I have lived in Monroe and Shreveport.  Those towns have lots of patriots and am sure that those areas will be coming along soon enough.  I would like to go back to both, so hope that we can get things rolling in LA. 

[Scout]

Can you guys start sending me your local radio stations contact info? I would really like to get us on air there in order to get you guys some more help and get the word out faster in LA.

Thanks to all of you guys who came and gave your weekend and I am hoping just like Bama I can make it just so I can fill up on some good food when I am there.

God bless you all,
Scout

[ulshop]

Our first shoot was a success and the state of Louisiana has more to come. A big thanks to Mark for running the show, Fig for his tireless dedication to instructing and keeping us safe and especially Pop and his family.. Pop on his own is a force of nature but with his family and grandkids around, watch out! When they weren't training on the line they were helping out in every way possible. Thanks also to Funfaler for guiding us through the process of getting this off the ground.

What started as one person handing out flyers/targets quickly turned to two (special thanks to Rhodes) and with shooters coming from the New Orleans area, across the state to Lake Charles and everywhere in between... getting the word out, promoting and filling the line will become second nature around here. With all the positive responses from those that attended this first event, I have no doubt that the program will continue to grow and thrive here in Louisiana.

I have already been in contact with Wildlife/Fisheries about scheduling more shoots for this year. The people there think Appleseed is something worthy of support, they have ranges around the state and want to do what they can to promote the program. If anyone would like to send a note of thanks to WLF, let me know and I'll pass on the contact info.

Thanks to all the shooters who came out in the sun, rain and humidity to participate... I look forward to seeing you all at future events.

Oneshot.. if there is anything I can do to help get something going in Lake Charles, let me know.

[Rhodes]

Great weekend looking forward to next one I can make and help out on. Thanks to everyone making this possible and I greatly appreciate this program. Now I have to find out if its possible to qualify standing lol. Time will tell.