I first heard of Project Appleseed about 3 years ago, right here on INGO. A couple of my fellow INGO Moderators were involved in the program, and so I had a basic idea of the program. Or so I thought.
For more information on the Appleseed program, please visit the following links.
Project Appleseed Home
Appleseed - INGunOwners
About a year and a half ago my Father lovemywoods attended his first Appleseed. He came back excited about what he had learned, and told me all about it. I still didn't quite get it.
If you've ever come across an Appleseed instructor, whether they're a Green Hat (Shoot Boss), an Orange Hat (Instructor-in-Training), a Red Hat (Line Boss), or a Blue Hat (support staff), you know they're highly passionate about the program, and can't wait to get you on the line with a rifle in your hands. I know many such folks and its like that with every one of them. So this year I included the Appleseed program in my list of training goals, and this was my first course with them.
What follows is a very brief overview of what occurred over the past 2 days. It would take me another 2 days of writing to record every detail and lesson learned over the weekend, so I'm going to stick to the highlights of the class.
For me this course was unique as I played part-host and part-student. It was held at lovemywoods' private range in Brown County Indiana, near Morgantown. The original idea was the brainchild of INGO Mod and Orange Hat Que. He pitched it to lovemywoods, lovemywoods asked me to co-host, and we all looked forward to a fantastic weekend of learning, shooting, eating, and fellowshipping.
In attendance:
techres - Shoot Boss
ATM - Line Boss
Brown - Instructor-in-Training
philagothon - Instructor-in-Training
Que - Instructor-in-Training
Amanda - Support
lovemywoods - Host/Cook
Mrs. lovemywoods - Host/Photographer/Food prep
Kr_Treefrog - Host/Food prep
Students
esrice
OneBadV8
DaKruiser
HotPocket
MontereyC6
jblomenberg16
HamsterStyle
jrainw
Kristy (Mrs. jrainw)
Rayne
Slow Hand
OEF5
Tiffany ('lil OEF5)
Cpt Caveman
TheJoker
Courtney R.
Brice R.
The weekend started bright and early (8:30am) on Saturday morning. After registration, we all gathered up near the house and kicked things off with a safety briefing and some background on Project Appleseed.
We were then instructed to load our gear in the ATV cart, leaving our bagged rifles for a later trip down to the range.
Walking down the big hill to the range folks were greeted with this setup.
Everyone also noticed an array of Bobcat Steel targets set up across the lake for a 200-yard Known Distance shoot scheduled for Sunday.
Now down at the range, everyone got settled into their place on the firing line. Some brought shooting mats, some brought carpet squares, some brought yoga mats.
Once mats were down, rifles were brought out, properly safe'd and cleared.
Each day begins and ends shooting a standard called a Red Coat. This gave everyone an idea of their progress and improvement from day-to-day.
After the Red Coats were shot, everyone scored and marked their hits, so they could be compared at the end of the day when we shot them again.
After discussing the importance of the Red Coats, the Instructors then dove right in to the instruction portion of the day, often giving detailed explanations and precise demonstrations. Topics covered included sight alignment, sight picture, respiratory pause, trigger reset, natural point of aim, sling usage, shooting positions, zeroing, holdover, MOA calculations, and range finding (among others).
We then began to learn about the AQT course-of-fire, which we would run 5 or 6 times throughout the weekend, always looking to score as a Rifleman (anything over 210 out of a possible 250 points). This shoot-evaluate-learn-shoot-apply formula was then applied over and over again throughout the 2 days.
At lunchtime, while everyone refueled and hydrated, we gathered under the shade of a large tree while we heard accounts of April 19th, 1775. Every instructor told their part of this awesome history in a way that stuck in your head, pulled at your heart, and ignited your patriotic spirit.
On Sunday, two things stood out that weren't available on Saturday.
First, we were treated to some Known Distance shooting at 200 yards. While the AQT uses reduced-sized targets to simulate longer distances while shot from 25m, it helps to bring everything together while engaging actual targets at actual distance.
So it was time to head up to the dam and form a firing line.
The second thing that stood out on Sunday was the inclusion of a new shooter-- OEF5's 15-year-old daughter Tiffany. Tiffany's familiarity with guns had stopped with air rifles. For this course she shot a borrowed rifle, amongst a group of grown strangers, on the second day of a 2-day event, leaving her to catch up. I'm not that brave.
In a move that can only be described as selfless, ATM handed over his Line Boss responsibilities so that he could work with Tiffany one-on-one and bring her up to speed with the rest of the students. As much of a character ATM often is here on INGO, his dedication to the Appleseed program and to young shooters in general was personally humbling. His patience and knowledge combined with Tiffany's persistence and positive mindset combined to produce one young lady that can ring a 10" steel plate at 200 yards on demand with iron sights.
At the end of the day Tiffany was awarded a patch specifically for those shooters under 21 that come out and give 100% effort throughout the day. I've never seen a Daddy more proud than OEF5 was at that moment.
Other patches were awarded over the weekend for those scoring as Rifleman with a score of 210 or above (out of a possible 250). Including:
Slow Hand
jrainw
Rayne
OneBadV8
One INGOer squeaked by with a score of 210. With such a circumstance, there is a special ceremony. I will let techres explain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnPhFxCz_ms
Congrats MontereyC6!
As I like to do with AARs, here are a few bullet points of my personal lessons learned, in no particular order.
- Project Appleseed far exceeded my expectations. I'm now convinced that its the best value in training considering its low cost.
- The weather, although initially predicted as HOT, was much nicer than expected. For that I'm grateful.
- Not scoring as Rifleman was frustrating. I was consistently scoring just under the 210 mark. But using what I learned during the course has allowed me to identify my weaknesses, which means I know what I need to work on.
- For the course I shot lovemywoods' Ruger 10/22 with Hogue stock, Tactical Solutions barrrel, Volquartsen guts, Huntertown Arms suppressor, Vortex 1.5-4X scope, and CCI sub-sonic ammo. The equipment ran superbly and allowed me to own my failures as the shooter.
- Dinner on Saturday was awesome. From the smoked chicken to the corn casserole to the salt potatoes-- yum! A special thanks to lovemywoods, Mrs. lovemywoods, and Kr_Treefrog2 for putting it all together (even when it wasn't planned originally).
- This type of rifle marksmanship is a departure from my experience with defensive carbines. Some things felt really different and awkward at times. But I took it all in and feel I'm better prepared because of it.
- Thank you to all the Instructors and their families for taking their weekend to help improve the shooting skills of a few INGOers.
- Thank you to my fellow students for maintaining a range that was safe and clean the entire weekend.
- My elbows are sore.
- Despite my efforts to constantly hydrate, I felt the effects of dehydration late in the afternoon on Sunday. This made both my vision and mental acuity take a dive, which greatly affected my shooting on the last 2 AQTs.
- As tired as I was on Sunday evening, I didn't want the weekend to end.
