North Vernon Sept. 1-2

[spitfire51]

So did Bedford sell out before you could get signed up? Maybe you couldn't attend that weekend for whatever reason? Well don't despair because there's several other great ranges in that area that would love to have you come to their Appleseed. In fact a great opportunity is coming up September 1-2 at North Vernon. This is a wonderful facility run by some great people. Come on by for some fantastic marksmanship instruction and learn a little bit more about American history and our heritage.

2012 North Vernon, IN Appleseed Information
North Mt. Vernon, IN Appleseed - Sept 1-2, 2012 - Eventbrite

 

[grunt soldier]

they serve a mean lunch at north vernon. and are some very great people to boot. definitely worth checking out!

 

[Rayne]

I'm signed up and bringing two boys with me. One had never shot a rifle before last week, when I had him come over and we went through the safety rules and learning the parts of the gun. I then let him bench shoot. His second shot was a bullseye. The boys and I are getting excited about this appleseed.

 

[Rayne]

Looks like Hurricane Issac might get us a little wet on Saturday? Is there be any type of shelter there? I understand appleseeds go on during rain, but I'm more concerned about lightning than anything.

 

[AuntieBellum]

There is shelter in case of lightening, so no worries. We go in all sorts of weather...except lightening. It'll be a good opportunity for a history break.

 

[jve153]

I will be there, cannot wait. A weekend of camping, learning and shooting, what could be better?
I have found that rifles tend to like weather the shooters do not. People tend to shoot better in adverse conditions, from what i have seen. I have done some of my personal best shooting when i picked up my rifle and dumped the water out before loading it.

 

[Rayne]

That's good to hear, I can use all the help I can get. I'm looking forward to the appleseed, the rain not so much, but it doesn't look like we have a choice. I will be there rain or shine.

 

[Rayne]

Ok quick question. Got an email reminder this morning and notice that it says the event starts at 8:30 MDT... Is that Mountain Time? Which would make the start time at 10:30 Eastern time.

Could someone clarify the starting time? Thanks

 

[AuntieBellum]

Sometimes Eventbrite does really silly things. It will start at 8:30 sharp EASTERN. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[AuntieBellum]

And don't forget to bring rain gear. We shoot in a pasture, so make sure you're ready for a little mud.

 

[jve153]

AB, i believe you have my stapler...

 

[AuntieBellum]

I do! It's in my SUV. If I don't remember, make sure you ask me!

 

[yellowhousejake]

The only difference between rain and a shower is soap. I understand Dennis is making us Chili.

YHJ

 

[Rayne]

All loaded up and headed to bed early, hope the boys aren't as excited as me or they won't be getting much sleep tonight either.

 

[Rayne]

What a day, it couldn't decide if it wanted to be hot and muggy, cool and cloudy or pour down rain. We had it all. What a wonderful day. The boys were quiet all day, but chattered nonstop on the way home. Big smiles all around. They both said they were going to shower and go straight to bed when they got home. Looking forward to seeing them improve even more tomorrow.

1st Lessoned learned this Appleseed...don't give up on an AQT even if someone cross shoots onto your target. I didn't think I had shot well enough to continue after one of my bottom line targets was shot by someone else. Came home and scored it myself and it scored a 211. I didn't think it was worth calling those shots to YHJ and then shooting my own. Dummy!

 

[Rayne]

What a fun WET weekend. I had done my first Appleseed back in June and before it was over I knew two young men that would love to go to one. So I approached their parents and asked if they would allow me to take them to an Appleseed. Timothy is our Pastor’s son and Robbie is the son of a family friend.

Timothy had never shot a rifle until a couple weeks before the Appleseed. I had him come over and we went through safe rifle handling, the parts of the gun, and then I let him bench shoot the rifle he would be using this weekend.
Look at that form!

Robbie had shot before and had hunter’s education too. He mainly shoots clays with a 20 guage shotgun. He's cross dominate and struggles with that some. But he's looking good here!

Both boys were quiet the first day. They almost looked unhappy to be there at times. I hope the instructor’s didn’t think so, because we hadn’t gone 30 feet in the car going home the first night and they’re saying, “that was so cool, can’t wait to come back tomorrow.” They seemed to always save their excitement for when YHJ ( YellowHouseJake )wasn’t looking.

We started off dry in the morning and then got soaking wet in the afternoon. Thankfully we had come prepared. Rain gear and dry clothes to change into before the hour drive home.


On the second day it was raining hard in the morning and then off and on rain in the afternoon. Nothing like picking up your rifle and pouring the water out of it before you load it. The great thing about this weather was it wasn’t cold, so even if you were wet you weren’t chilled. The other thing was that often your glasses and or scope would fog up and you had to trust your NPOA (natural point of aim) because you couldn’t see very clearly. Dennis and I shot our best rifleman’s scores that morning in the pouring down rain and wind.


We did have trouble with some of our ammo. It got too wet on Saturday and wouldn’t fire Sunday. Thankfully we had spare ammo and JV153 even had a bunch we could have used. The instructor’s were so prepared; there wasn’t anything we needed that they didn’t have.

For those of you who have done an Appleseed and thought you didn’t need to go back a second time cause you got the concept of marksmanship shooting, think again. I thought I got it too. I had three key things that helped me in my first Appleseed and found two more things in my second Appleseed.


In my first Appleseed, I recognized my sling wasn’t going to work and borrowed one from ATM. I realized my sitting position wasn’t right the first day and changed it, and when we carded the sights I finally grasped the concept of NPOA.


In my second Appleseed, I learned a valuable lesson on the first day. We were shooting our first AQT and my target was shot by the young man beside me. (Only one of the bottom targets) I asked YellowHouseJake what I should do. He looked through a scoped rifle and asked me to zoom my scoop in and identify which holes were not mine. I did and then he asked me if I had already achieved rifleman, I had. He said it’s not like this could make or break my chances of making rifleman, so I stopped shooting. I thought I hadn’t done very well on the top part so I gave up. Later that night I scored that target and low and behold it may have been my best rifleman score had I finished the target with my own last three shots. So lesson number one learned this weekend. Never give up on an AQT no matter how bad you thought you have done.


Lesson number two was to trust the instructor and do what they ask of you. Techres had told all of us at my first Appleseed to turn down our scopes to the lowest possible setting. I didn’t do it because I didn’t feel like I could see the target well enough. Older eyes have trouble focusing things as clearly as you would like. You don’t have to, if you trust your NPOA. Part of trusting your NPOA too is not to fuss with it too much. YHJ called me a fusser and he was right. When I had the scope zoomed up I fussed with my NPOA a lot trying to get it perfect. When I turned the scope down and he reminded me to quit fussing I settled down into my natural position. It felt so good to get into my position and not constantly be scooting and wiggling. I could relax more.


You truly have to go in with an open mind and try what the instructors say. What’s it going to hurt to do it their way for a day or two? Nothing at all.

The other advantage of not having your scope zoomed in is that in my standing position it didn’t look like I was all over the target. I also changed my standing position from my first Appleseed. I found that if I scooted my support hand back as far on the stock as I could, I could rest my elbow against my chest giving me a very solid shooting position. One problem with this position is that my hand bumped the extended mag release and I didn’t realize the mag wasn’t fully seated. It took me a bit to figure out what I had done.


Before we shot our last AQT of the day we took a break and did a fun shoot. YHJ brought out the zombie garden gnomes.

I wish I had a picture of the boy’s faces. This was the highlight of their day. They had both been making steady improvements all day. They just needed to slow down and not rush through their shots. The metal of the weapons was worth 20 points, eyes worth 10, mushrooms and flamingo’s 5. As you can see I went after the big points. I did have to zoom my scope in because I couldn’t tell what the weapon was and what the background was. I then forgot to zoom my scope back out for my AQT and boy could I tell a difference. Who would have thought it…. YHJ was right!


The highlight for me came at the end. YHJ was telling us about the Civilian Marksmanship Program and the M1 Garand rifle.

It’s that a Beauty. This one belongs to JV153 who offered to let anyone shot it if they wanted to. I got a silly grin on my face and said, “Yes, Please”. YHJ also had his and Wayne shot it. The boys thought they wanted to try it, but after hearing and feeling the percussion from them, they decided not to. After my first shot I had trouble with my check weld because I was grinning so big. We shot classification targets and I was very very please with mine.

One last thing. We’ve heard the term talking targets…figure out what your target is telling you about how you’re shooting? Well my targets really talked. Every time I’d have a bad shot you could tell because you would hear either Awck or Good Golly!!!

The boys chattered excitedly all the way home and one of the first things they did when they saw their parents was ask if they could go again. I’d say that made it a GREAT weekend!

Thank you YellowHouseJake, AuntieBellium and JV153 for being our instructors this weekend. We were a small group and we really appreciate your time. Also Anita and Dennis, you all are great host. Thank you so much for opening up MCR to host appleseeds. The setting is beautiful.

 

[jve153]

It was a pleasure to work with you and your boys this weekend, i look forward to seeing you folks on the line again. I had a great time this weekend. I love helping and watching new and experienced shooters learn, as I have a lot to learn myself. I am glad you guys had a great time, I know I did.