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I just picked this up last weekend

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/8831/riflemanpatch.jpg

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Good job. That's not an easy prize.

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Thanks!  It was tough!  I had a good time at my first A.S.  with my only complaint was so much talking.  But I understand - there were a bunch of kids and new shooters.

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Instruction is good.
I attended a shoot about a month ago... had been shooting "Rifleman" scores in practice consistently with multiple rifles, scopes, irons, bulk ammo, etc.
Shot "Rifleman" on the first AQT that day - 217 score with no scope, no sling, bulk ammo, no mods to the rifle.

I listened closely and picked up some pointers... two pointers from instructors who did not shoot as high of scores as I did that weekend.

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Heh, the history is their primary goal, not the marksmanship.  The first one I went to I really didn't pay any attention to the history but the second one I went to I got a ton from this history. I could pay probably pay more attention to it after knowing I could shoot a tad bit better at the second.  

As far as things to bring, keep it simple.  Their list will get you 99% of the way there.  I bring candy for when its later and I need a quick pick me up.  Lots of people either don't bring enough water or don't drink enough and you can tell at the end of a day its wearing on them.  If you keep water next to your ammo and drink every time you reload you wont' have this problem.  If you have a backup rifle bring that just in case but again, they usually have loaners and your primary probably won't break.  

If you want to start ahead of the game, get a decent sizing set up on your sling.  If you have a web sling pencil the sling locations onto the sling.  This will allow it to erase off but that way when you get to the Appleseed you can try it out, and if the instruction has lead you to use a different style you can erase it but if you like it, you're that far ahead of the game and you can just permanent marker the proper position.  

Be prepared to have a ton of fun and learn a bunch.  They're a great group of people.

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A few points:



Appleseed was and is an American Heritage program with a pretty good shooting program attached.    



As to the talking and new shooters.  This is an ongoing thing with AS.  I have to agree with a focus on new shooters.  Sorry, but it is better to have one or two experienced shooters bothered by the slow process than to turn off 10 new shooters by going to fast.  If the speed of instruction and/or heritage bothers you that much skip saturday after your first one and go sunday only.



I have been to two saturday only.  The first one I got a little bored in that I all ready knew the history part (though watching peoples reactions is interesting) and learned how to use a sling a long time ago.  But I still learned or refreshed my memory on stuff.  The second shoot I wound up not shooting and helped the instructors with gofer stuff as there were a ton of new shooters and I did not want to take away from their experience and enjoyment.



The only way to safe guard the second amendment is to grow the number of people not only into shooting but who understand its role in our heritage.  This is why I donate to the 4H shooting sports and support appleseed.

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Get to the range beforehand and work the bugs out of your rifle.  Make sure that it is sighted-in, make sure that the ammo that you have feeds well and is accurate enough.  Bring an extra magazine or two.

Appleseed changed my perception of 'acceptable accuracy'.

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Ding, ding, ding!  Winnah!  

What's your real agenda? We seek to do three things: teach marksmanship & respect for the tradition of the American rifleman, and preserve the knowledge of our Revolutionary War history.

Friday, March 7, 2008
Part One: Starting Out
Courtesy of Fred's M14 Stocks (www.fredsm14stocks.com)

We begin today our series on becoming a Rifleman:

Every new year, it’s time to take stock, and time to make resolutions. To resolve to do important things you need to do.

But how do you know what you need to be doing?

You need an anchor –– a framework, a perspective –– to judge what is happening about you, what you want to accomplish, and the effectiveness of your actions.

If you get back to basics, to what this country is all about - freedom, individual liberty - and look about you today, you'll soon terrify yourself with what you see.

It could be the beginning of your wake-up. Like the guy in "The Matrix", waking up in that artificial womb, controlled by the machines - or like that frog in that rapidly-heating pan of water – you’ll be facing a new world, a world where you realize the wake-up by itself is not enough. You need to get busy if you are going to protect freedom, especially if you’re going to make sure it’s passed on to your kids.

Now is when you can set a goal, something to aim for, to work towards and achieve. Sort of a personal AQT - what the AQT targets and Guide do for your shooting, your firm grounding in the American tradition of liberty can do for your life.

That goal is to strengthen Liberty.

You’ll soon realize that there is a ‘soft’ war raging in America today. You’ll see how the mainstream media lies and distorts – whether it’s the exploding pickup trucks that needed a little "help" from the news crew, the "semi-automatic" rifle fired on full auto to please the anti-gun cable news producers, or the phony memo used by a certain "respected anchorman" last year to try and throw a Presidential election.

If you stand for liberty and the American tradition, you’ll see how everything you stand for is under attack by the liberals, using the mainstream media, the entertainment industry, the "public school" educational system, and arrogant lifetime-tenured judges, along with local, state, and Federal government - when they control it.

Despite their recent electoral setback, the liberals are still in the cultural and political driver’s seat. They have successfully convinced most Americans that the environment is more important than freedom, that it's a fair trade to surrender personal freedoms and rights for a little more security, and that while we are all equal before the law, some people are more equal than others.

Now, in the New Year, with the year barely started, there’s an opportunity for you to add your shoulder to the wheel, to do your part in strengthening American freedom and the American tradition of marksmanship.

Now is the time to think about serious things - about being a citizen, and what it means.

It's actually long past time to become a citizen, rather than a parasite. It's time to stop being someone who sits back and lives off the efforts of the founders while liberals busily undermine this country and its greatness.

It means becoming a man, not that gelding laughed about so much around the dinner table by George III and his boys, as well as their modern statist descendants.

It means that you value freedom over promises of "safety", as Ben Franklin warned you to do.

It means that you recognize the Bill of Rights not as some historical out-of-date tommyrot written by dead white slaveholders, but the firm and unalterable present-day shield of personal liberty against the state. As JPFO says, "What is needed today is a ‘Bill of Rights Culture’" – see www.jpfo.org.

It means that you understand your role in protecting all of the American traditions of personal liberty and responsibility. You know that you, your family, and your friends are the ‘ultimate check-and-balance’ in a system built on checks and balances.

It means that you will provide the sword to defend the shield created by the Bill of Rights.

It means that you recognize that the time to fight is now, in the ‘soft’ war, through the existing political system– and that only fools would choose to wait until the war against tyranny turns ‘hard’.

It means that you understand that the fight is a team fight, that you do not fight alone, that you fight with fellow Americans by your side. You realize that divided amongst ourselves, we will fall, but united, we are unbeatable.

It means that you are willing to work – and work hard – to bring back the days where "a man’s home is his castle", where you are a citizen, not a tax-paying serf.

But as you shake off your slumber, look where we stand in the battle for freedom in this country. Even the concept - the notion - of a battle for freedom is alien to the dumbed-down, barely conscious American public. Don’t forget –– that ‘public’ is your friends, your family, your co-workers. You’ll need persistence and courage to take the message of Liberty to the "sleepers" – count on it.

But the "sleepers" can become part of the solution, if you persist. Their resistance makes all the more important the duty laid on you, in your chosen role of freedom fighter.

How do you start protecting freedom? Step one is to learn to shoot well, to qualify as a Rifleman, so as to become proficient in the means of protection for yourself, your family, and your country. Even more importantly, the skills that you develop in becoming a Rifleman – perseverance, discipline, and patience – will serve you well, both in helping others to become Riflemen and in fighting the ‘soft’ political war.

Next step is to awaken fellow Americans to the dangers posed by the liberals and their plan of creeping socialism. In the ‘soft war’, you’ll need more than just your one vote to make a difference. You’ll need a team of educated voters who know the American traditions of liberty and are willing to work to restore those ideals.

After that, you and your team continue by waking up your politicians and educating them...and if they won't be educated, then work together to replace them.

Liberty. It’s a tradition. You keep it alive only if you pass it along. You need to be thinking about how you do it, not only for yourself, but to make up for all those others who are asleep at the switch. It’s your duty to cover for those who will not help to pass Liberty along to the next generation.

You begin at the personal level. You educate others - your family, friends, co-workers - to wake them up, to get them out of the cooking pan, and into protecting and saving freedom. It’ll be discouraging –– most of them will just look at you and accuse you of being paranoid. Others will scoff and ask you for your tinfoil hat - but that's why you have to wake them up.

Just remember how many good men have died to give you what you have today. Don't give up!

And never last, and never least, you get someone down to the range, shooting.

You’ll bring someone just like you, some who is hoping for the best, but planning for the worst.

Both of you will want get to the range, soon, and finally learn how to shoot.

Learn how to shoot – true and fast –– like an American rifleman.