Surly and I attended an Appleseed shoot over the weekend. The Appleseed Project combines Revolutionary War history and rifle marksmanship training. Kind of an odd combination but the extremely short version of the Revolutionary War Veterans Association is that our country's founders decided to break free from the tyranny of English rule and the ensuing War of Independence required good marksmen. Their mission is to remember the sacrifices of our founders and to teach the average citizen to be a decent rifleman.
I was at the bridge where the "shot heard round the world" was fired a couple of years ago and got a chance to see the statue of the Minute Man. At that time I figured I could use some brushing up on my American history and since I would like to be able to call myself a rifleman, why not give it a go. I did have some reservations about the whole affair, however. I didn't want to show up at some deal where it was a bunch of militia types or some similar group of nut jobs. I'm not good with any group that seems to be at all fanatical whether it's guns, trains, cars, or needlework.
It turns out that everyone there were real nice people. The folks running the show were helpful and very knowledgeable with their history and the marksmanship techniques. Firearm safety was stressed and the show was run smoothly. I went through almost 500 rounds of .22lr over the course of the two days, so you'll get lots of shooting if you attend one. The participants seemed to be a bunch of "Regular Joes". Several people brought their kids and I met some nice folks. The meets are relatively cheap to attend. Not much to sign up and if you shoot a .22, not much for ammo.
As for the shooting, I didn't realize to qualify for Rifleman, you had to shoot a timed test. The bolt action rifle I started with is a little bit of a handicap. If you were a real good shooter, you could do it, in fact, a guy did. He was a real good shooter. I switched over to a semi-auto later on Sunday. I had a few equipment issues and a few duds but the real handicap was me. I'm a little too shaky still. I think if I practice a little, adjust a few things with the equipment and with the training I received, I should be able to qualify with both guns in the future. Surly fell just short of qualifying with a score of 200 and you need 210. So he's right there. If the wind hadn't have been blowing so hard, he might have made it this time. Now we both know what to expect and if we do it again, we should have a couple of Riflemen in the family.
4 comments:
Sounds like fun, Bro. Maybe we can do it next year.
They said they were planning on having one in February. That should be a test of your marksmanship. I'm going to tune up the semi-auto and I should be good to go next time.
February? Sounds cold.
Might be a little tough to hit the bullseye when your teeth are chattering. One in Florida would be nice.
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