I went to my first Appleseed Shoot today. While I did not shine, at least I did not completely disgrace myself.
The range was on a fairly pronounced slope, with the targets upslope from the firing line.
I feel like I spent the entire day standing, sitting, or lying on a hillside. In other words, it feels like a team of angry midgets have worked me over with tee-ball bats from about kidney level on down.
More in a little bit.
Cook or Rifleman?
ReplyDeleteI'd cook, but I could burn orange juice.
ReplyDeleteNo disgrace at all. You shot head and shoulders above most of the shooters there. I had to stay on my toes to keep up with you. BTW, thanks for the brass.
ReplyDeleteIf one's stated intention is to introduce people to the pleasures of an often ill-understood activity, todays effort seems less-than-well thought out to me. Shooting at differential altitude is a skill one should master, of course, but I'm not convinced it should consist of the day's entire course of fire.
ReplyDeletePerhaps your brief post left out vital details. More to follow post-hot bath?
Keith,
ReplyDeleteAw shucks. It was a learning experience. Next time I'll make sure the carbine is more than just bore-sighted to start. I'll probably at least use a hasty sling, too.
Will,
Since we were shooting at 1/4 scale, I'm guessing the slope effects were probably minimized?
If you are in agony, then you had the Full Appleseed Experience (R). Congratulations. Use optics next time and shoot rifleman on the first go around, then spend the rest of the day in a camp chair sipping designer water and talking trash about POTUS.
ReplyDeleteI was out with my Appleseed Buddy (TM) today hunting jackapiti (a cross between Wapiti and Jackrabbit: very fierce, but delicious in stews), and we managed to reach the same conclusion about Appleseed: never, ever again. If a day of shooting isn't fun, you're doing it wrong.
Ahh, the glories of the Ching Sling. Ya gotta know how to work it, but it's well worth it. Not quite as good, accuracy wise, as the old US Army/Marine version, but a hell of a lot quicker.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opticsplanet.net/galco-rs8-ching-sling-rs8b.html
Yeah, the pain is part of it. I never knew I could center my elbow in front of my chest.
ReplyDeleteWent last year, me and a buddy, we both shot Rifleman. This year, we drug 4 other guys along, and none of us shot worth a damn. I think they asked for our patches back....
Been to 2 Appleseeds myself. It was in Ohio, where everything was flat. (We had vultures circling, looking at all the prone bodies...)
ReplyDeleteAlmost got rifleman the second time.
Did you like the stories they told in between the shooting sessions?
I went to one last year.
ReplyDeleteShot poorly. Had a minor medical issue. Still had fun.
Even though I'd read a fair amount about the American Revolution, I learned some things about the start of it all too.
Unhhh, I shoot NRA High Power at least once a month, with at least one practice session in between. No aches or pains, though I've been doing 4 position smallbore or High Power since Kennedy was POTUS. Started in Boy Scouts at age 13.
ReplyDeleteI'm not bad with a 1911, but isn't the purpose of a pistol to keep you alive until you can get to the rifle you never should have left in the first place?
I don't have more than a paper aquaintance with the Appleseed program.
I imagine I approve, as probably a majority of the people I see at public ranges couldn't hit a Buick at 200 yaeds unless they were firing off a rest. And then they'd need sighters.
Someone educate me. Do the Appleseed folks teach all the usual military style shooting, with sling adjustments and whatnot, and fire over something like the National Match course?
If so, again, I approve. But every NRA club I know runs clinics for new shooters and is looking for people to compete in DCM/OCM sanctioned matches.
Join a club, do it regularly, and you get caught up in the camraderie and competitive spirit. You also get very good at shooting a rifle if you stop by for a practice smallbore session and a postal match one or two evenings a week.
And, you get to buy M-1 rifles, M-1 carbines, 03 Springfields, and whatever else the Camp Perry folks have available this month, at really good prices.
Tell me you're good on game, just not good on paper, and I'll call you a liar. If you can't at least keep them all in the black at 100 yards offhand you don't belong in the woods.
My youngest daughter's first High Power Match score was a 354 out of 500, during winter, wearing wet sneakers, so it's not that difficult. And she'd never held an AR before.
You just have to find a club (easy) and actually do it. It's usually cheaper than golf, and you meet some great people.
I love Appleseed, and am working hard at becoming better at Instructing and running one - the Historical Heritage is important but Tam already knows it cold. For the two day course it is brief but filling, without any knowledge or real total attention and getting rid of bad habits most people don't do Rifleman right off - but some do.
ReplyDeleteNot being a real joiner, although I am a Life Member of the NRA - I have never had the opportunity to shoot with them anywhere - although I have used their targets, what I like most about my work with the RWVA in the Appleseeds is all the new shooters I can bring into the gun culture. If the NRA were working as hard there wouldn't be and anti-gun bunch out there (wishful thinking, sorry).
Just a real hot bath or shower, good night's sleep and horse liniment in the morning and Tam would be ready for Rifleman on day two, easily. I highly recommend Appleseeds, and once you have your Rifleman, going and shooting the distance and enjoying an additional shooting sport.
Ed: The appleseed program concentrates on the 25 meter ACT, and will take the better shooters out to a 400 meter range if one is available.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit more advanced than the basic rifleman course, including position shooting ( the source of most of the "this hurts" complaints, I imagine ) and includes NPOA and some breath control stuff, as well as some other bits that you have to get from the more advance marksmanship courses in the .mil.
I suggest bringing an AR with glass to one, as well as a good ground pad and kneepads, and make sure you have the rifle sighted in at 25 meters.
I shot a scoped FAL at the last one I attended, and did well.
What did you shoot?
ReplyDelete"If a day of shooting isn't fun, you're doing it wrong".
ReplyDeleteTRUTH.
Hitting the x ring from standing, sitting, and prone position consistently is fun.
ReplyDeleteThis takes quite a bit of effort, especially if all of you shooting is from a bench.
We finally got out club to allow position shooting after an R.O. eval. of the shooter.
Appleseed is fun, and HURTS... Those two are very much not mutually exclusive... in so many fields of human endeavor.
ReplyDeleteYou only went one day? WIMP!
ReplyDelete:)
(Four Appleseeds so far, and 2nd place in both highpower matches this weekend because of them.)
It took me three tries over two years to break 210. I finally did it with a 10/22 but still haven't with a centerfire.
At my Appleseeds (instructor here, wife is working on her instructor hat) we strongly encourage hydration and some kind of OTC analgesic on Saturday night and Sunday morning. For the instructors too. A day shooting positions when you've never really done it before leads to sore spots on the rib cage, hip bone, elbows, knees... and don't forget thumb blisters from feeding magazines all day long. :)
ReplyDeleteI find my enthusiasm for the whole Appleseed project going in waves, but that's another story entirely.
(Chris is right: sore can be fun.)
Congrats on the Appleseed. It wouldn't be as much fun if it weren't for the reminder the next day of what you did. You can do it with irons, you can do it with glass. Just keep doing it.
ReplyDeleteVelcro8ball
"it feels like a team of angry midgets have worked me over"
ReplyDeleteYou should try yoga . . . but I say that for every malady.
Move pain away.
Shootin' Buddy
Tam,
ReplyDeleteAppleseed will get easier if you keep it up and practice positions and sling work at home, dry fire is very worthwhile.
Ed,
The pain is from combining the USMC "Snapping In Week", "Range Week" and "Qualification" all into one weekend, with lots of trips back and forth 25 meters each way at a time AND LOTS of up and down as you get to the sustained fire portions (AKA rapid fire in NRA High Power - same deal sitting from standing, prone from standing and adding, I am fairly sure, kneeling from standing also).
This old fatboy will make it again IF I can get everything all working at one time again.
Used to shoot the ORPA DCM Clinic way back when and got my temp score book to get my Garand during the old "600 sold a year days" and loved to go to the SAFS - Rifle (since I live 1 hour 20 min. from Camp Perry, OH) and Appleseed is more of the same for people you would NEVER manage to drag to a formal High Power Match.
I need to shoot it once or twice so I can go for instructor, all read have it with the NRA, Boy Scouts and a couple of other ways.
Very worthwhile program.
Buckshot