AAR - Annapolis - August 15, 2020
We were spared what looked like a day of pouring rain and instead got a glorious cloudy day in the high 70s - perfect shooting weather!
We had 7 motivated shooters on the line, 5 of whom were beginners, who showed great progress throughout the weekend.
We, of course, started with the Red Coat target and got a good baseline for our students. Then we launched into the firehose of instruction and practice with the squares targets and the bottom rows of greens in prone. With worn out elbows, the class was certainly glad when lunch time came.
Appleseed is proud of its Three Strikes but there are times when students can seem disengaged - well not this group! With Catch-10-22 and BillP_556 tag teaming, we got lots of questions, comments, things they had learned in school - the works! And then when we asked the questions at the end, two of our young shooters nailed when the three non-trick questions - HUZZAH! We awarded an RWVA Issac Davis patch for the North Bridge answer and a Protest Stripes/Sons of Liberty patch for Meriam's Corner and who fired the first shots at Lexington. Made the shoot boss very proud.
After lunch we practicing seated and standing positions, as well as magazine changes.
It was then time for the AQT. The AQT certainly had bright spots but fatigue and the crush of new concepts took its toll and we didn't have any new Rifleman. And, as everyone knows, a few mental mistakes (miscounting/losing track of progress, putting rounds on the wrong target, rushing under time pressure, and muscling the rifle rather than changing NPOA) can be deadly in terms of scores.
Our two adults didn't quite get there despite real bright spots throughout the day. Tim had the high score of the event at 160 and scored a 45 and a 38 on the first two stages before struggling in prone. That is DEFINITELY something to build on toward Rifleman. Gary got hurt by extra rounds on target in Stage 1 and lost 3 scores of 5 - nothing more disheartening. Even then, he was showing good groups all weekend and we hope he comes back.
For our youth shooters, all fell short of Rifleman, but considering most had never fired a rifle they all had something to be proud of in earning their William Diamond patches. Garrett nailed at 42 in standing on the AQT - well done! Ryker got a 9 out of 15 on the final target of Stage 4 - do that all the time and you will be a Rifleman. Minuet's best stage of the AQT was Stage 3 - proving that despite sore elbows she could excel at Prone. Sammy showed real improvement in Standing and Prone - if only her Seated had been like her practice rounds, her scores would have been higher.
With a threat of pouring rain (and arriving parents), we then wrapped up with the final Redcoat of the day. The group showed improvement, but those pesky redcoats and shingles could not be vanquished despite a rousing speech from BillP_556 to think of the patriots at the North Bridge. Our tireless leader BeSwift covered Dangerous Old Men as we wound down and wrapped up.
Thanks to Virginia border raider BillP_556 for leading critical components of the instruction. Special thanks to Orange Hat Agent711 and his Blue Hat son Liberty Boy for stepping up as well - we really appreciated having you on the line and look forward to Agent711 doing his strikes at his next event on the way to his Red Hat!
Thank you to AAFG for being wonderful hosts.
I hope all of our students remember the 7th Step to firing a shot and bring a friend, family member, or coworker. I also hope that all of our beginners find opportunities for dry fire practice of everything we learned. The Appleseed booklets we handed out have all of the instruction from the day summarized. The skills of a Rifleman are honed not just at the range, but safely and quietly in basements, family rooms, and garages around the country. And, of course, we definitely want you to come back to a future Appleseed. One-day courses are a great introduction but it nearly always takes multiple classes and sometimes a two day course to break through and have that "ah ha!" moment with NPOA in the various positions. A Rifleman Persists!
Pictures are available on our Maryland Appleseed Facebook page.
But a couple here as well:
We were spared what looked like a day of pouring rain and instead got a glorious cloudy day in the high 70s - perfect shooting weather!
We had 7 motivated shooters on the line, 5 of whom were beginners, who showed great progress throughout the weekend.
We, of course, started with the Red Coat target and got a good baseline for our students. Then we launched into the firehose of instruction and practice with the squares targets and the bottom rows of greens in prone. With worn out elbows, the class was certainly glad when lunch time came.
Appleseed is proud of its Three Strikes but there are times when students can seem disengaged - well not this group! With Catch-10-22 and BillP_556 tag teaming, we got lots of questions, comments, things they had learned in school - the works! And then when we asked the questions at the end, two of our young shooters nailed when the three non-trick questions - HUZZAH! We awarded an RWVA Issac Davis patch for the North Bridge answer and a Protest Stripes/Sons of Liberty patch for Meriam's Corner and who fired the first shots at Lexington. Made the shoot boss very proud.
After lunch we practicing seated and standing positions, as well as magazine changes.
It was then time for the AQT. The AQT certainly had bright spots but fatigue and the crush of new concepts took its toll and we didn't have any new Rifleman. And, as everyone knows, a few mental mistakes (miscounting/losing track of progress, putting rounds on the wrong target, rushing under time pressure, and muscling the rifle rather than changing NPOA) can be deadly in terms of scores.
Our two adults didn't quite get there despite real bright spots throughout the day. Tim had the high score of the event at 160 and scored a 45 and a 38 on the first two stages before struggling in prone. That is DEFINITELY something to build on toward Rifleman. Gary got hurt by extra rounds on target in Stage 1 and lost 3 scores of 5 - nothing more disheartening. Even then, he was showing good groups all weekend and we hope he comes back.
For our youth shooters, all fell short of Rifleman, but considering most had never fired a rifle they all had something to be proud of in earning their William Diamond patches. Garrett nailed at 42 in standing on the AQT - well done! Ryker got a 9 out of 15 on the final target of Stage 4 - do that all the time and you will be a Rifleman. Minuet's best stage of the AQT was Stage 3 - proving that despite sore elbows she could excel at Prone. Sammy showed real improvement in Standing and Prone - if only her Seated had been like her practice rounds, her scores would have been higher.
With a threat of pouring rain (and arriving parents), we then wrapped up with the final Redcoat of the day. The group showed improvement, but those pesky redcoats and shingles could not be vanquished despite a rousing speech from BillP_556 to think of the patriots at the North Bridge. Our tireless leader BeSwift covered Dangerous Old Men as we wound down and wrapped up.
Thanks to Virginia border raider BillP_556 for leading critical components of the instruction. Special thanks to Orange Hat Agent711 and his Blue Hat son Liberty Boy for stepping up as well - we really appreciated having you on the line and look forward to Agent711 doing his strikes at his next event on the way to his Red Hat!
Thank you to AAFG for being wonderful hosts.
I hope all of our students remember the 7th Step to firing a shot and bring a friend, family member, or coworker. I also hope that all of our beginners find opportunities for dry fire practice of everything we learned. The Appleseed booklets we handed out have all of the instruction from the day summarized. The skills of a Rifleman are honed not just at the range, but safely and quietly in basements, family rooms, and garages around the country. And, of course, we definitely want you to come back to a future Appleseed. One-day courses are a great introduction but it nearly always takes multiple classes and sometimes a two day course to break through and have that "ah ha!" moment with NPOA in the various positions. A Rifleman Persists!
Pictures are available on our Maryland Appleseed Facebook page.
But a couple here as well: