Pelham, NH 30-31 May 2009

[MaverickNH]

Great weekend! (Just to get the comments rolling).

My first Appleseed - of many future expected.

My first impression:

I saw what appeared to be a coherent, planned and well prepared schedule of instruction, with instructors taking turns on the tradition/history and marksmanship course. Then I heard them chatting as many of them met for the first time.

To know that the program can pull together "strangers" in a coherent course of instruction (in marksmanship and tradition/history), without having assembled as a well-rehersed team, speaks volumes about the integration of the instructors' corps, as well as the dedication of each individual. No doubt there is far more behind the scenes that I know of...

Thanks for a great introduction to RWVA/Appleseed!

[Mark D]

Thank you MaverickNH.  It's really a joy to read your post!  As Appleseed instructors we take significant efforts to produce a fun, safe, educational and coherent event for our attendees.  You are quite right in that there is a fair amount of study and preparation that goes into each shoot and that is what permits instructors, who at times may be meeting each other for the first time, to work together in an organized way.

Let me take this opportunity to address anyone who may be reading this post that is considering attending a local event but hasn't yet taken that final step and registered.  Appleseed's all-volunteer corps of instructors are passionate about what we do.  I think that I can speak for every one of us when I say...Please, come attend an event.  You're going learn a lot about riflery, about America, and possibly about yourself too.

[smithy]

It was excellent event. The best I have seen. Although most of participants were new to serious rifle shooting I did not see any waste of time when instructors are helping several newbies and the rest of the line "fails to slip" waiting for next commend. I do not know if the instructors were so communicative, or there were in sufficient number (five instructors on the firing line), or presentation and theoretical training was so good, any way, I did not see anybody having usual problems.
What amazed me most was the pace of training. While I was busy with rifles, I had chance to see how shooters were improving hour by hour. Eventually everybody tighten their groups by at least fifty percent.
Sunday I did not expect I will have anything to do (smithing) after lunch (wrongly) and wanted to get my rifleman award joining the shooters. Well, it was not as quiet by my portable bench as I supposed, so I could not really continue courses of fire. Coming to the line and going back to bench was not the way to make my goal, but what is fascinating is that I could not make it within time (I am not so new to guns). Shooters slow by slow got during the two days of training to such proficiency that they were to fast (time for course of fire) for me. Well, I will have my day some time in the future...
I can conclude as an outside observer, the training was efficient, well organized, very much involving, attractive and successful.
Just my two cents about it.
smithy

[Chainsaw]

It was excellent event. The best I have seen.
I can conclude as an outside observer, the training was efficient, well organized, very much involving, attractive and successful.
Just my two cents about it.
smithy

Smithy!  Do not underestimate your contribution to the program!  What a treat it is to not have to worry about all of the usual equipment problems.  On behalf of the instructors, we are very grateful.  Thank you sir!

... and thank you for reminding me of two Polish heroes of the revolution, Casimir Pulaski and Thaddeus Kosciuszko!

It was a pleasure meeting you,

-Tom
-Chainsaw

[Thor]

My thanks to all who attended and to those who have posted reviews.  I apologize for the delay in my posting, but my day job keeps interfering with my Appleseeding.  It really was a great weekend.  My first shoot in the Northeast, and I was very impressed both with the attendees and the Instructor crew.

Another VERY important thank you to Pelham Fish and Game Club.  This Club is all about fully supporting Appleseed events, and with some good planning and enough Instructors could well be one the biggest venues for an April 19th shoot next year.
I don't have the numbers in front of me at the moment, so I'll fill in details later, but a few of the particulars are:

One Rifleman on Saturday, one more on Sunday, and a first for me (maybe for Appleseed) two Whittemores in attendance.  Thats right, actual descendents of old Samuel himself.  I have to think he was smiling down as some of his own were steeped in the Tradition.

I'll add more to this just as soon as I can, but for now thanks again to all, it was an honor to spend time with each of you.

Thor

[Redchrome]

Hi everyone,
Sorry about my delay in getting involved in this board; but I put off moving house for a week in order to go to this shoot, and my life is still in boxes.

I was the one who made Rifleman on Saturday. Barely scraped by with a 212; I was really surprised that I did it, because I mashed the trigger pretty badly on some of the offhand shots and they went way low. This was my first Appleseed shoot, and while I knew a couple of people who were involved with it; I was really surprised at how well-organized it all was. It wasn't just a shoestring operation; they had good teaching material and a plethora of experience getting things running smoothly. I was surprised at how many people come to these things multiple times.

When I got my rifleman patch, John asked me to be an instructor. I accepted, and took the orange hat.
I think the red hats are much more stylish tho; so I better get working on this stuff.

Thanks again to Smithy for installing sights and fixing up rifles. I've been a teacher for other things (computer administration); and I know how much hardware problems really disrupt class. Having a gunsmith on hand was a tremendous smoother, even if I never needed his services myself.

I borrowed a rifle from a friend for this class; and the 10/22 carbine with a 4x scope was great. I admit that the scope really did help a lot with seeing the target; but some of my scores later in the class were close to 230; so I'd like to think I could have done it even without the scope. My experience going to other shooting classes taught me the value of using your equipment and learning it beforehand; so I put several hundred rounds through the rifle in the weeks before the shoot, making sure it was reliable (i.e. finding the right ammo) and fitted to me.

Now I need to get my own Liberty Training Rifle, and set it up with a good sling (the 1" Boyt's 1907-type I used was ok; but I'd prefer a nice Turner synthetic, or maybe try one of the web slings). Once I demonstrate to my own satisfaction that I can pass the rifleman test with that; then I want to learn to do it with a bolt gun...

Thanks much to all the hard-working instructors; especially for inspiring us to just deal with the rain.