Finally!  


Beginning of Day 2.  Notice all the rain gear as it looked REAL ugly in the morning.  RWVA instructor has to do the safety orientation again since some shooters only attend one day of the weekend.  There were ~ 62 registered 2-day entrants with a few extra one day only entrants.  My advice is to do whatever it takes to ATTEND BOTH DAYS!!!!








I need some of these boots to match my boonie!  




Listening to stories of Revolutionary War Heroes.  "Dangerous Old Men", a story of some older men who were "too old" to join the Militia but were quite capable of killing many, many Redcoats.  After the aforementioned Old Farts had shot all of their Officers the 6 Grenadiers accompanying them dropped their rifles into a lake and ran like scared girls only to surrender to an unarmed 62 year old woman who was so poor she was out in a field picking weeds to eat.  The History of RWVA will be fun to read & learn.


Instructor "Greybeard" scoring my "Zombie target", explained later.  


Instructor "taking one for the team" by continuing to wear his rain gear as our Immunity Talisman.



God likes Appleseed events. The day that started out looking really gloomy turned into an excellently nice day.  I have the sunburn to prove it.



Gee Dad, this story is boring.  When can we shoot again?  



CHOW TIME!!!  Race ya to the burgers.  Obviously I was already there.  






A couple St Louis guys getting an early start headed back home at lunch.


BRAINS!!!!  I want BRAINS!!



Pioneer clubhouse.  Not only is there indoor plumbing, but they have showers!  



Spark #3 story of how and what started the Revolutionary War.  Gee, why didn't they teach us this stuff back in school?  Hmmmm, I wonder.




The lifeguard is caught slacking.  His pay will be docked accordingly.



Pioneer Gun Club senior member "just checking".  



Guy in green hat is the on-site caretaker, an accomplished benchrest shooter, who reportedly (by others) can shoot "a gnats eye at 200 yards".    


My rifle for Day 2.  Believe it or not, the scope is not an advantage.  Who knew?  




And now for the guns of Appleseed and the people behind them.    I was getting really hot & tired and sat out a couple AQT rounds to recuperate and take some pics of folks shooting.




This guy scored Rifleman with a bolt-action .22.  NOT an easy feat and he has my respect.  Then he tried it with his trusty '03 and almost made it with that rifle too.











Senior and Junior, side by side.  








This Lady instructor takes guff from NO one, not even a smartass Arfcom Mod.







Remember that NPOA thing ARinKCMO wrote about earlier?  Yeah, well apparently I ain't got it.    The exercise was to get into your prone position and get your sights on-target.  Then close your eyes and fire on your breathing cadence.  If everything is right, and your Natural Point Of Aim is there, your 5 shots should all be there too.  Perhaps not in a tight group, but hopefully still on the 8.5x11" sheet of paper at 25m.  Mine weren't.    My lame excuse is as follows: Sweat makes Hogue stocks slippery and things were slipping around.









Series of 8 pics as fast as my camera could take 'em.  Notice the clip in midair.  This was the Stage 3 Standing To Prone 10rd stage and he used a 2rd clip followed by an 8 round clip.









Series of 10 pics as fast as I could click 'em.











My Redcoat targets for Day 2.


Zombie Target.  Half the shots, twice the value, as well as twice the penalty for dropped shots.  I scored Rifleman on this one too including calling the high/left flier on the 300yd target.  


Two of my Day 2 AQT targets, both scoring Rifleman.    On the first one I IMMEDIATELY knew I had dropped the low shot into the 3-zone on the "100yd standing" target" (top, largest silhouette).  I even yelled out "DANG!" as I did it because I knew exactly what I had just done even before the sights settled back onto the target.    Both times on Stage 3 (Standing to Prone) I failed to get off shot #10 in the allotted time so it's not all roses in E1CM land.



In summation, I HIGHLY recommend EVERYONE who would like to be a real, capable Rifleman to attend an Appleseed event.  Appleseedinfo.org has their schedule and match info.  Shooting is a highly perishable skill and constant practice is needed to maintain peak performance.

On a personal note, I did suffer some injuries on the training field today.  In addition to the wicked bad hangnail that developed on my left index finger, I suffered some horrendous rug burn on my elbows and knees and quite a lovely "farmer's" sunburn.  Also, I'd like to thank the AR15 shooter to my left for constantly pelting me with his hot brass.  I especially enjoyed the Stage 4 Prone time when it kept landing on, and sticking to my exposed right calf as I was wearing my Tactical Jorts.  I'd promptly remove my finger from prepping the trigger, shake the hot brass off my calf with a muffled "oww wow wow wow", and then immediately lay my leg right down onto that same piece of still-hot brass, several times in a row.  Pics of grotesque burn injury to come later.  However, to his credit, he did manage to sail a few rounds of spent brass right into my pocket and we all know how hard brass is to come by these days so, BONUS!!  Please pray for my rapid recovery, my Arfcom brothers and sisters.

Now, where's that dang ibuprofen bottle so I can actually get out of bed in the morning.  

I am Le'Tired.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

I've GOT to make it to one of these.

A few random thoughts as I creak & groan through my day-after.

OH MY GOD do my hips hurt!  My legs, back and neck are fine and my shoulder feels the normal amount of abuse/miscomfort.  But OH MY GOD do my hips hurt from the sitting position.  Gawd I am out of shape.    And believe me, I was seriously pre-medicating with ibuprofen beginning Saturday morning before the event ever started and I continued taking it through the day, into the evening, all day Sunday and again this morning.  I shudder to think what sort of condition I would be in without the miracle of modern pharmaceutical chemistry to soothe my aches.

Knee & elbow pads are not a suggestion.  You want the soft foam style ones as the hard "bicycle" style will have your elbows slipping around all over your mat.  Affordable foam knee pads can be found in the gardening section of your favorite home store as long as you don't mind the color green.  I found some "football" soft foam Bike brand elbow pads at Dick's Sporting Goods for $10.

Getting into and out of the various contorted shooting positions, several weeks in advance of the event, to help stretch yourself out, is not a suggestion.

Chicken-wings are encouraged while shooting in the standing position.

Sunblock.  Get one of the two bottles you brought with you out of the freaking bag and PUT IT ON!!  

Wear heavy duty water resistant leather work-style boots.  Walmart sells decent ones for ~$25/pair.  Not tennis shoes, not sandals and not the nylon hiking boots that are just uprated tennis shoes.

Sight your rifle in ahead of the event with one type of ammo and bring lots of that ammo.  This is not a suggestion.  Expect to shoot 500-600 rounds over the two days.  I shot >500 rounds even sitting out a couple of the 40rd AQT strings.  It sucks to spend all day trying to adjust your sights instead of learning to be a better shooter as you paid to do.

If you buy Tech Sights iron sights for your .22, and I HIGHLY recommend that you do so, purchase the extended (taller) front sight post or you will likely never get the rifle zeroed at 25m.

Be prepared for your POI to change from when you sighted it in on a bench to when you sling-up.  It can be several inches at 25m.

Black rifles left laying in the sun get REALLY hot.  I mean OUCH! hot.  So do black shooting mats.    Luckily my WallyWorld $20 carpet didn't get scalding hot.  

Be prepared for all weather and ground conditions.  Bring a roll of large heavy duty trash bags.  they make excellent makeshift tarps, gear covers, rain ponchos, etc.  Bring large gallon-size heavy duty ziploc bags in case it really pours down to keep your wallet, camera, keys and ammo dry.  Better to have them and not need them than the other way around.

Be prepared to carry all of that gear several hundred yards to & from the shooting line.  Mental note, remember small 6-pack cooler so you (I) can actually bring some water with me to the shooting line.  That cooler full of ~50 bottles of ice-cold water does you absolutely no good whatsoever way back there in the car.

Bring a couple old bath towels.  They absorb sweat, they offer shade to your neck, they can be soaked in cooler water and put on your neck to cool you down, they can cover your black solar-collecting rifle and they make decent makeshift elbow and knee pads.  They're probably good for a few other things too.

Buy a G.I. nylon rifle sling from the Appleseed website for ~$12 (along with a pad of the AQT targets for home), and some QD 1 1/4" steel sling swivels from Midway/Brownells/etc.  For those who say "get leather, nylon stretches" I say that you'll bend your stock in half before you EVER stretch that sling.  Also, a G.I. sling, once properly set up utilizing QD steel swivels, can very quickly transition from "carry" to "hasty" to "looped".  Hands down the best $12 that I have EVER spent on a rifle!

Listen to the instructors.

Follow the safety rules.

Ask questions.

Ask for help.

Shoot often.

Know when to say when and don't let fatigue start degrading your shooting.  Recognize the fatigue and do not despair because suddenly your groups are increasing.

More as I think of them.

Quote yourself often?  

Tell me about it.  I was shooting a suppressed .22lr between two .223 AR15s.

BOOM, BOOM, pffff.  BOOM, BOOM, pfff.  

I still shot a good AQT target despite that fiery rain of brass upon my bare flesh.

As promised here is the pic of my horrendous burn injury.



If you squint real hard, you can see the extractor groove on the right end, and a "blank" spot on the left end where the shoulder of the hot case didn't quite make full contact with my man meat, and then a spot where the neck did cook my bacon flesh.  The other mark is another burn.

Pray for my recovery my Missouri Brothers.  It will not be an easy road.

No, but I did go see the Employee Health nurse about it.  

Here's a fun pic, sorta.  The piece of .223 brass was from my neighboring shooter and is one that I found in my pocket after a string of fire.



Amazingly, even .22lr brass can be hot enough to burn skin too.

I'm leaning the other direction.  Now I want to see if I can qualify again but with my retro A1 skinny-barrel clone, and then try it with my HK91 clone in .308.  

Not that one.    I thought about doing that but figured I'd get a mass beatdown in short order.  I'm talking about using just a regular rifle with a normal flash hider.

I can tell you from experience that the Hogue stock gets REAL slippery when wet with sweat.  I am going to replace mine as soon as I can find a suitable fiberglass/kevlar/whatever stock that has adult proportions, is affordable (less than $200) and is not as flexible as the Hogue stock.  

In your case I would consider the cheap option and buy an extended recoil pad for that Carbine stock from Midway or Brownells.

The LOP of the Hogue stock is nicely adult-sized and the pistol grip and the width of the fore end fel nice too.  I just want something different, better, less sproingy.

Make darn sure your rifle and/or conversion kit runs 100%.  One jam and you're hosed on the timed courses of fire.

Uhh, which one?  The kit or the hallway?

One more pic that warms my heart.  A whole line of Americans.  

Yup, way on down at the other end.

No idea.  I was the only one to earn the patch on Sat and 5 others earned it on Sun.  But, he was there learning so he is worlds ahead of a lot of folks.

ETA: BTW, the guy wearing the green jacket and blue oven mitt (bottom, right) is a fidgety kicker.  Every damn time I was ready to break a shot he would kick me.  I would move away from him a bit, and then he'd kick me again. I know it wasn't nearly as distracting as incoming fire, but I earned the patch, while being kicked, just to spite him.  

Also, that pic was taken on Sunday.  I know 'cuz of the rifle I'm shooting and the kicker isn't next to me.  As luck would have it I ended up on the right side of a lefty on Sunday as well.  I shall call the Sunday guy Mr Hot Brass Thrower On Me Guy.  The only position where his hot brass wasn't raining down on me was while standing.  It was kind of funny being in the sitting position and having his empties bounce off of my back.  However the branding-hot ones that landed on and under my leg while prone weren't nearly as funny.

I'm thinking that "Enemies Foriegn or Domestic" really don't want to mess with that lady in the orange shirt.

Do you know her?