What to expect? <- Great Question!
A brief synopsis of my first Appleseed:
I showed up with a line of cars and guys & gals with red hats checked me in and handed me a packet with training info and targets. I pulled into a parking area and was asked to leave the rifles in the car until the safety briefing was over. In the meanwhile, I hung out with a bunch of shooters I had never met before talking about gun geek stuff.
Soon enough, we were huddled together for a brief safety meeting and then told to get our stuff to the line. So I slogged my gear and a rifle to the line (which was up a big hill). Thankfully, some nice guy saw me dragging my heavy ammo box and tossed it on an ATV and saved me some sweat (turned out to be the landowner).
Once we all got places on the line which was simply a line drawn in grass, and we got our mats placed, we got together in a big huddle and heard talk about the time just preceeding the opening skirmishes of the Revolutionary War. (The history was done well and tory telling compelling).
Then we fired the first target to see how good we were. People were surprised in many directions. I was better than I feared, worse than I bragged.
Then came a series of practices mixed with breaks for stories about the first two days of the War. We learned about zeroing a rifle with one five round targetting set. Then we learned about shooting positions (prone, standing, sitting, alternate sitting for fat shooters like me, kneeling). Sling use was taught. All the time we shot sets to implement what we had learned. And over and over we heard more snippits of what was happening on that first day to our ancestors.
Then we took a lunch for an hour which ticked me off because I travelled three hours to satisfy my love of shooting. I could satisfy my love of eating well enough at home!
After lunch we did more shooting and more history. The typical round of shooting includes 4 strings. The first is done standing, the second you have to start standing and transition into sitting, the third you have to transition from standing to prone, and the last is just prone. Magazine changes and time limits were involved.
At every part instructors walked the line giving individual help and encouragement. Oh, and more history from that first day.
That night we camped over and had great conversations around the fire. however, we also got hit by a torrential rain with wind that broke one guys tent and made my life interesting. But a "rifleman" endures (or at least an ex-boyscout does).
The next day had more shooting and less training. But plenty of history about the second day of the war which you have to hear in person.
The goal of the day was to achieve "rifleman" by shooting 210 on the AQT. I did not get there, but neither did the guy next to me who was at his third shoot so I felt better. On the other hand the lady who was shooting with her husband for the FIRST FRIGGIN TIME shot 215 and proved that either (1) God hates husbands, or (2) experienced shooters cannot listen to instructions. More likely she was better because she lacked the need to overcome a beer belly in the sitting position...
Anyways, at the end of the day my only complaint was that we stopped shooting. The collective, "Awww mannnn...." from the line was palpable.
As for my best memories of the event? The history, the sounds of 50 rifles firing at once, good instructions, people helping each other, and a great excuse to burn up 350 rounds of .223 in one weekend.