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11-15-2011
| #1 (permalink) | |
| Plinker  Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Southern Indiana
Posts: 18
  | Appleseed AAR “We do this for posterity” is how Mudcat (Greg Harris) ended my first Appleseed event. Mudcat told me about Appleseed after a Combat Focus Shooting course I was teaching and invited me to attend. Appleseed is a rifle marksmanship course sponsored by the Revolutionary War Veterans Administration. The course covered the same rifle marksmanship used by the Marine Corps and some of the history of April 19, 1775. The history was very surprising to me as I had never been exposed to many of the details (neither in high school nor college) that the instructors shared with us throughout the two day course. I learned when the war actually started; who played pivotal roles and whose seemingly simple decisions shaped the things to come. One of the more surprising things for me personally was that an old cantankerous man of mixed ethnicity had a house and lived among the colonist and when the time came he took action. It’s funny what you never consider. When all is said and done though, this was a shooting course. Rifles of all types were represented. I used an AR-15 built by XDman (Greg Harris 2). We were taught the 6 Steps, how to use the sling, Natural Point of Aim (NPOA), Minute of Angle and the different shooting positions. I began to learn how to interpret my target for errors in my fundamentals and probably more than I can think of at this moment. It was very different than what I had been doing recently. I struggled a lot in the beginning with NPOA, breathing rhythm and trigger reset. But after awhile it all became very Zen. At one point I shot a very tight five round group. The problem was that I was supposed to shoot two five round groups. As Mudcat looked at my target a big smile came across his face. He said, “I know what you did here. You went for accuracy. What’s that thing you teach….The Balance of Speed and Precision.” So as we both laughed, I had to start giving up some accuracy to finish the course of fire. That concept was brought out a couple times to others in class which really illustrates how much personal attention each student was receiving during this instruction. There were even times when the instructors would lay down next to you and watch you shoot & offer guidance. In addition to Mudcat, the course was instructed by XDman (Greg Harris 2), Redfox24 (Kelly), MtnHickorynut (James), Hawkhaven (Ed) and Biogranny (Donna). All of them were top notch. They were friendly, approachable and eager to make sure everyone from the youngest to the oldest was learning and improving. They kept the pace of the instruction moving so you were not dwelling on past mistakes and then accelerated the pace so you would just shoot. Fundamentals started to fall into place and focus was placed where it was most needed. My best score was 195. I was just 15 away from the illusive Rifleman patch. That is the goal of Appleseed, to bring the Rifleman back to a nation that is not learning its own history. This not for profit instruction honors men who sacrificed for a future they would never see. They created generations of free citizens who live without ever having to resort to violence to effect change. What a great reminder to write your politicians and get up and vote for whatever you believe. Could marksmanship be the new old civic duty? In two days, about 15 of us went through 400 rounds each. My average was in the 170s so I still have a ways to go. But even if I had made Rifleman you will still see me at upcoming Appleseed events. I am learning what I am about.
__________________ Certified Combat Focus Shooting & NRA Instructor - Quote:
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11-15-2011
| #2 (permalink) |
| Marksman   Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 528
   | SpiralTragedy, Welcome to Appleseed! Glad to see you enjoyed the weekend and making plans for more. Sorry I couldn't make it back on Sunday, understand a little wind was blowing... HH
__________________ Hawkhavn RWVA Instructor Appleseed Northwest Regional Coordinator Find us at: www.appleseedinfo.org |
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11-16-2011
| #3 (permalink) | |
| L. Conquistador   Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Crawfordsville
Posts: 13,003
 | That's a great AAR right there. You really captured what Appleseed is all about. Sounds like it was another great weekend at Red Brush. 
__________________ http://www.appleseedusa.org/ Say no to drugs.  Say yes to bacon!  Quote:
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11-30-2011
| #5 (permalink) |
| Custom Kydex Solutions   Join Date: May 2009 Location: hamilton county
Posts: 2,813
 | good review sir. I'm going to bump this back up as my wife and I attended one a couple weekends ago. she has never fired a rifle before. at the start of the event she was doing horrible. at the end of the first day she was grouping well and putting shots on target. she was finding her NPOA and using it well. by the end of the second day she was hitting all targets well with great groups. she just needed a bit more time for the first couple and she would be good to go. mudcat and all the trainers really spent a lot of time with her and it was awesome. they are a great group filled with a lot of knowledge for sure. also on a side note my wife is a history teacher and we both really enjoyed the lessons/stories they told. I definitely recommend that anyone trying to up their marksmanship skills take a appleseed coarse. definitely a great time. I got lucky myself and shot rifleman on sunday and got my patch hopefully we are both going to attend the one day coarse coming up in indy but we're still trying to see if we can swing it.mudcat is the man though just in case i forgot to mention that. thanks greg and all the other hard working appleseed instructors and trainers for giving up your weekends to teach folks the only true sport of our founding fathers
__________________ If your in need of some local custom kydex holsters or sheaths give me a shout. here is a link to some of our work http://s967.photobucket.com/albums/ae158/gruntsoldier2/ |
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