Here is my after-action report, though my action was incomplete and I need an attitude adjustment. This report is embarrassing for me, given the skillset, character and experience of the members here, but I am a new shooter and am learning.
Yesterday (Sat, April 18th) was a pretty big snow day here in Colorado. The range is 50 miles from my house with the last 5 miles down what is a really muddy, greasy, country road. Given yesterday's weather ( we got 18 inches of snow), I chose not to go due to driving conditions, not because I am afraid of getting wet. The event went off as scheduled however, with 9 of the 42 commited participants attending.
I did attend the second-day this AM. I was able to navigate the road in question with my wife's SUV, but only barely. I arrived, did introductions and myself along with several other started on the first day's activities after a safety briefing. Unfortunately, day 2 builds a lot on day 1 and someone with my skillset should definately attend day 1 first.
For rifles, I brought my Ruger 10/22 which I have not used a whole lot, my AKMS which does work well, and an M4-style rifle that I just built and am not sure if it actually works until I shoot it. Due to mud, we picked one rifle along with some accessories and hiked to the shooting berms after our safety class instead of driving.
My later arrival found me at the end of the shooting line in the mud that everyone walked in the day before. I had access to a tarp and rug, but those quickly soaked through onto me, but the weather was warm enought that is was tolerable. I know soldiers here have been through far worse thousands of times.
My first incident was when I placed the Ruger down after the first round of shots and dropped the end of the barrel in the mud. My day went pretty much downhill from there.
Appleseed is very big on using the sling to steady the rifle. I bought an M1 sling onsite and worked on trying to use the first of the three sling holds to shoot prone. I need more practice with this but I like the idea. It looks pretty easy demonstrated, but practice makes perfect I guess.
The sighting in of the rifles happened the day before and I was having a hard time with my sights. For some reason I was shooting really high. I scored an embarrassing 0 out of 250 when we did the test. I am a lot better with my AK (honest), but am still a new shooter.
After each round of shots the group would go to the targets and the instructors would look at your grouping and attempt to decipher it and give assistance. When they came to me one of them asked if my rifle was broken because there were no shots on the 11x17 paper from 75 feet.
The targets were called Army Qualification Targets and were sized in such a way to simulate 100 yard, 200, 300 and 100 yards. A couple of the attendees scored what was called "rifleman" which was the best I think. I heard a lot of talk of progress made of the attendees from day 1 to day 2.
The program also seems to talk a lot of history about the revolutionary war and the militia at the time. The instructors are very enthusiastic about the need for skilled marksmen in this country.
I was not able to attend the afternoon session due to family commitments but everyone was to take a centerfire rifle to the 600 yard range and attempt some 500 yard shots using iron sights.
I may or may not do this event again. I will however take some of the lessons and apply them when at the range.
Should anyone be interested in an appleseed, learn from my mistakes
- I used the stock sights on the 10/22. This evening I ordered some peep sights from Tech-sights.com
- Go to both sessions, or at least the first one.
- Get 1-1/4 swivels for the rifle and get one of the M1 slings, or similar. I used Uncle Mikes swivels
- Get a waterproof mat, not one you think is waterproof.
- Search for rifle sling videos on youtube and get an idea of what is going to happen and what will be asked..
- Bring a bore-snake or similar with you. (I had one and needed it)
- Don't assume that if your rifle is new from Wal-Mart, that it is sighted in enough for the class.
) start hitting 10 ring and they're so ecstatic after performing a feat they thought was impossible (iron sight, can't see well the miniscule blurry target, etc). I told them they're the ones who pull the trigger. They should take all the credit and be proud of that.
Hybrid Mode
