Athol, MA Appleseed Feb 7th & 8th

[matt]

Nice shootin' Snapshot!

 

[kevin9]

I'd hoped to make it out today, but having been gone most of the week on travel there's too much to do here today. I'll try for April.

 

[dixidawg]

Just got in and settled after the Appleseed. Had a GREAT time this weekend.

The instructors did a fabulous job. Mrs Twigg fed us all with some wonderful home cooking. I got to meet a bunch of new folks and put some faces to screen names that I "knew" from NES, but never met before in person.

I think everyone improved in just 2 short days. Some made some small steps and others made some giant leaps. I know I found out that I had some lifelong bad habits that I need to fix. Hopefully others will be along shortly to tell of their stories.


If you have any sort of inkling that you would like to shoot a rifle better, you owe it to yourself to get to an Appleseed. You WILL learn how to become a better shooter. You will also learn a bit of what happened in 1775, and how riflemen made this country what it is today. You might even come home with a rifleman patch


Many thanks go to DWARVEN1, Crak, Mr Twigg, and Firewall99 for their awesome instruction. To Mrs Twigg for some wonderful lunches. And to anyone else I may have missed... THANK YOU!!!

And to everyone here that will pick up a rifle any time in the future,,,,, GO sign up for an Appleseed!!!!! You won't be disappointed!











(Ross, how am I doing on #7?)

 

[Kaos116]

What a great weekend! I learned alot about taking a shot. I also learned I need alot more practice.

Big thanks to Crak, Drawven1, Mr Twigg, and Firewall99 for making this happen. The wealth of information you guys pass on in just two days is amazing.

I got home today and had dinner with the wife. We sat and talked about the weekend. Long story short, me, my wife and daughter will be attending an Appleseed some time soon. (I got step 7 down, now if I could get 1-6 right....)

 

[dwarven1]

Looking good so far, Bob... Now... sign up for another shoot and there will be an Orange Instructor In Training hat in your future!

I'd be absolutely thrilled to see that all four of my new Riflemen continue on their course - this is all part of the Plan To Save America.

I'd like to say that I think ALL of the shooters did a fantastic job - EVERY ONE OF THEM improved over the course of two days - some by an incredible margin. One shooter, here on NES, had a high score on Saturday of 125 on his AQT. On Sunday, he shot a 228, and if that weren't enough, he CLEANED the Redcoat target - he hit all 5 targets - THE ONLY ONE TO DO SO ALL WEEKEND. That is our own "Reptile"... and he tells me that when he came to Athol on Saturday morning, he didn't even know how to zero a rifle. He knows now, along with 17 other shooters, how to zero the rifle, the six steps to firing a shot, how to shoot standing, sitting or prone, the steady hold factors... and they all know the story of how our Revolution got kicked off.

The shooters braved temperatures down to NINE DEGREES (I have a picture of the outdoor thermometer!) and a snow-covered range (we're talking over a foot of snow, with a 2 inch thick crust of ice on top of it) to get off that couch, come out and start learning how to bail out the sinking ship that is our country. They learned to shoot better, and they learned the inspiring story of the Concord and Lexington... AND where the first shot in our Revolution was fired.* They did an awesome job.

18 shooters on Saturday, 13 on Sunday. FOUR new Riflemen... one of them FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. He drove up with his father from Putnam County, NY - about a THREE HOUR DRIVE (Are you listening, Milsurps4Me???). His brother and sister were signed up, too... and bailed. Bet little brother and little sister are, right about now, hearing young Jonathan talk about his weekend, and seeing his new Rifleman patch.

About 220 rounds shot on Saturday, 471 on Sunday - nearly SEVEN HUNDRED rounds put off.

These shooters are as fine a crew of Americans as you could hope to find, and it was my privilege, along with Firewall99, MrTwigg and Crak, to be their instructors. Far as I'm concerned, these 18 Americans have some serious bragging rights. And they have a job to do, too - they need to continue shooting and practicing, and they need to do step 7 - Recruit. They'll be getting their families, friends, and coworkers to come to an Appleseed. They'll be spreading the word, waking up all the sleeping Americans - the ones who've forgotten, if they ever learned, what price Isaac Davis, Robert Munroe, Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Jr, Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, John Brown and Ashahel Porter paid.**

*No, it wasn't in Lexington OR Concord. If you want to know... we have several shoots all across the country coming up on Patriots' Day weekend, April 18th & 19th

**Don't know who they were? You should... and if you come to a shoot on Patriots' Day, you'll find out.

 

[Reptile]

Dwarven1, Firewall99, MrTwigg and Crak...


You all were great instructors. I learned so much from you about how to shoot a rifle accurately. I also learned about the important beginnings of out nation and the sacrifices made by our founding fathers.

Like Dwarven1 said, before yesterday, I had no idea how to even adjust the tech sites on my 10/22. After learning how to use my site tool to zero it in, I was able to shoot very small targets accurately from 25 meters. Before today, I never hit anything from that far away in my life!

The "rifleman's cadence"- which are the steps to shooting well - was slowly ingrained into my memory by lots of practice over the past 2 days. This class taught us all to learn by doing and the instructors were great to give us tips on how to improve our skills.

I have overcome my deficiencies such as eyeglasses and lack of flexibility by never giving up. Rifleman adapt and overcome.

The range and all of us were kept safe by repeatedly instilling proper safety procedures in all of us. The instructors were very helpful and met the individual needs of all the students. The home cooked meals provided by Mrs. Twigg were delicious x 2. I would highly recommend that all people on NES and any other people who want to learn about the price of freedom attend these events.

Thanks to instructors, Dwarven1, Firewall99, MrTwigg and Crak for doing such a great job. Thanks to Fred, the founder of Appleseed.

This weekend was a great success and I can not wait to attend more Appleseed events.

In the mean time I will be recruiting others.

 

[Ninsho]

First off, my obligatory thank yous for yet another fine job done by the instructors for this weekend.

But more importantly GRRRR!

5 points off.

I'm going to sulk for a while. I'll be back next time with much practiced skills and a slew of people in tow.

But for now sleep, because this exhausting has been weekend.

 

[dwarven1]

But more importantly GRRRR!

5 points off.

I'm going to sulk for a while. I'll be back next time with much practiced skills and a slew of people in tow.

But for now sleep, because this exhausting has been weekend.

A Rifleman persists, Ninsho - you WILL get that 5 points. Had your last round not have been a dud, you would have done it this weekend.

This, BTW, was a very important lesson, that I think I will mention to folks going forward - bring an extra mag, above the 40 rounds needed... just because you don't know when you'll get a misfire or a jam, and having the extra rounds prepped and ready to go will make a difference when you're firing under a time constraint.

 

[jonathans]

new shooter here, been lurking the appleseed forum (username jonathans there, too) and starting to get involved. this was my first organized shoot of any kind ever. i like to throw the kitchen sink at myself when i start out; i want to know how much can possibly go wrong and to what extent.

well, i did that. i hauled excess equipment down to the range. i gave away my extra rug, and after i had finally sighted it in, my LTR, to keep others shooting. even though i wasn't sure if i'd have enough .223 to finish the weekend, i dug out my AR with a messed up zero (read: none whatsoever) and only shot a 70 on the AQT -- didn't really have it sighted correctly until the following afternoon. kicked my toes into the snow all day saturday without that extra pair of cotton socks on top. the boots spent the night upside down on top of a heater.

of course, the redcoats tell the story the best, the very first one, and the very last one. the first redcoat was covered in fliers and written guesses at sight adjustments. the 200yd target on my last redcoat had a 2 MOA group on it. by the time i was done, i had shot a 164, but more importantly i knew what i was doing wrong, and why, when i looked it over.

yes, the snow did have a little to do with it -- it's hard to adjust NPOA under time pressure while prone when your leg has been digging a perfect ditch for exactly one shooting position all day -- but that's no excuse, just something to note for the future (always use my prep time to lift my mat and stomp the snow FLAT, prep mags before prep time, prep more mags than needed, don't overcharge mags).

many thanks to the instructors!

and also thanks to the guys with the SKSs and the WASR-10: i'll never again forget to put my ear protection on early, nor to get that sweet position down at the right end of the line.

see you in april.

 

[Twigg]

Now that I've finally warmed up a bit I'd like to say a few words.

You shooters impressed the heck out of me.

I knew we'd get a few folks to show up but I'm blown away by how many Patriots turned out.
Your passion and perseverance demonstrates the spirit of April 19th 1775 lives on.
It was a pleasure to stand out on the firing line in the bitter cold and call the line for you.

Thanks and a Tip O'the Stetson™ to every one of you.

 

[crak]

Great job everybody. We're all a little nuts, and we missed the real cold stuff by only a couple of days. Maybe we'll hit it next year (this'll be an annual event for sure)

 

[namedpipes]

Hey, this picture was taken at the February shoot at Athol, right?

Some of those guys might want to see the range in warm weather (at the June 20/21 Appleseed)!

Yes, we're back at Athol in June! On Bunker Hill Day!

Even better, we're back in Februrary too.

Here's what the range looks like in February:

There is less snow in June, I'd imagine, if that's important to you.

Online registration link will be up in the morning most likely.

 

[Rockrivr1]

Hey, this picture was taken at the February shoot at Athol, right?

Some of those guys might want to see the range in warm weather (at the June 20/21 Appleseed)!

That was me in the pic doing the sitting position. All I can say about that day is it was a great time. Very cold, but a great time. Just missed Rifleman by 10 points that day. Made it in Harvard last month! At this time I think I'm going to be back at Athol in June! Should be a pretty big difference.