Quote:
Originally Posted by mac66
And in the mean time we are waiting for ICE DEEP to come back and tell us how he did. Sorry for hijacking your thread.
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No worries about "hijacking" as they call it. I am just glad to see people were interested in how I did, and what I thought/think of the program.
Day 2:
(My memory isn't so good because I basically went to bed as soon as I could on the 2nd day from being so tired from such a long weekend and yesterday was house work stuff I missed on the weekend).
We started off the day with another round of redcoats, and then we spent a good amount of time working on POA such as shooting redcoats sideways to make us really move our POA, as well as practicing cadence shooting in time together through the instructors breathing pattern.
We shoot a few ATQ's and I must say they really are tougher than I gave them credit for. The standing portion isn't to bad but I can tell I need to practice my ability to stabilize the weapon.
The transitioning from standing to sitting was very tough with the time limit allowed, especially with a magazine change and on the first ATQ I messed up mainly due after shooting the first target I reloaded the next mag and forgot which shoots went were and put 3 in one and 7 in the other because I was focusing on doing everything else and my mind slipped.
The transitioning from standing to prone was also tough and I didnt get all rounds fired.
I did alright on the prone but I still have the "first round wild" which I honestly don't think it's due to my shooting I think it's from being in such I hurry I don't rack the slide as I normally do. I know it's not the weapon because it's not 100%, and while shooting without time pressures I don't have this issue accept once every 10 magazines. While shooting ATQ's every first shoot seemed to be this way and it's very discouraging when you are trying to do your best.
None the less with all these issues I was still in the 150's range and then 170's which I know I will improve on with a month or two of practice at the range.
The Shoot Boss allowed some of us with centerfire rifles (I was shooting my Ruger Target, but had brought my Sig Sauer 556) to go to the long distance range and try that. I had recently put a scope on the rifle as the iron sights on very poor for anything accept close quarters combat and it wasn't dialed in at all especially for that distance. Though at 200 yards I was able to get a number of targets on paper and I am curious how I would have done if I actually had a sling.
The other 2 people who went to the long distance range were doing very well. They didn't have super tight groups but one guy with his M1A was able to get 5/5 on the target all in the black. The guys actually through I was hitting center mass with my 2nd round and one of the instructors was impressed but it seems they didn't see properly through the spoting scope (60X, looked very nice). I was actually a 6 inches out of the black on the left.
After that we were given a choice either hang with the regular group and continue to do as they were doing with some changes (along with shooting ATQ's, shoot cookies, more red coats, more ATQs and they were going to give away some flags) or go with one of the Red Hats and one instructor and go through ATQ after ATQ. I thought I needed more of a chance to dial in my Sig so I did that but after seeing I wasn't going to dial it in as I liked doing that I switched back to my Ruger. The 2nd to last ATQ is were I got 170 something (target isn't with me) but on the last ATQ I saw a those 2 flyers from the first shoot and mag change and I knew I was burnt out and just needed to take a break from shooting for the rest of the day. We had several people who were right on the verge of getting rifleman one guy shoot 208 not once, but twice! Another was in the just about 200 range.
We ended up having the range owner come in and shoot with a bolt action (sorry can't remember what it was, but it was a centerfire) and qualify on his 3rd ATQ, we also had a instructor re-qualify and get another rifleman badge (which I didn't know you could do).
I know we had a lot of impressed people and I would say about 1/2 the group stayed to clean up the brass and everything else and we left the range as good/better than when we found it. I also enjoyed chatting with some of the people there as one of the instructors (the one who qualified a 2nd time and is a young man I would say in the 17yo range) about the ruger and some of the modifications I have done, and another instructor (actually his father) who told me about a gunsmith I could get a nice and cheap (35 bucks!) trigger job he said would be helpful.
One thing I wanted to comment on is you could tell one person (I won't embarrass him/her by saying who) while doing the stories would get rather emotional and that the revolution and what was given up was very close to their heart. They would have a quivering lip and that voice change while giving some of the stories and it really make you feel it a bit yourself.
I didn't find there was a "sale-mans pitch" for anything, not the RWVA, or the ROC card or anything. It was mentioned once or twice and the real pitch is all about making sure people understand that what we have today in this country isn't just something that fell out of the sky for us but people stood, fought, and died for it and we need to appreciate that. And if we appreciate it maybe we will make different decisions, or put more effort into keeping what we have.
Overall I would say that I learned a few things most especially that will help me in the end.
1. Use of a sling... I was as clueless as a newborn on how to use a sling for anything other than carrying my rifle. I never used one before and now I think I have it pretty well down both the arm sling, as well as the hasty sling (and even the hasty, hasty sling which I didn't practice but is rather simple).
2. Positions... I knew how to hold a gun so I could shoot fairly well, but I must say I saw a vast improvement in rifle stabability using the positions that are thought there.
3. POA... I have gotten a bit better at POA, even before the weekend I was practicing the POA and doing the "put gun on target, close eyes, check POA, adjust" but now I know how to do that other than just sitting on a bench.
4. Cadence/Breathing... I was doing it all wrong and I think this is what messed me up the most especially with ATQs. I have been practicing "holding breath" not "releasing breath" but the instructors gave us a good example of why shooting during the pause while your breaths are empty is the best. For one you can't know if your lungs are full or not the same as the last shoot, and two if your using bone support and not muscle support (As I was) you will be more relaxed. I do think the way I was doing it (lungs full) helps with your trying to muscle the rifle, but I think it's not the best way to be accurate. The only reason I say that is because of the fact that when you hold your breath it helps your muscles keep tension. But even with that said I will be working very hard to correct myself in this area and do the relaxed, pause between breathing shooting from now on.
5. Trigger pull... I noticed after a instuctor told me hold to put my trigger on the trigger properly I was able to get near perfect shoots at times (right at POA, center mass) which made me a believer in a hurry.
If I had one negative thing to say about Appleseed it would be the following...
I am a very, ummm shall I say OCD, or anal person? I like doing things exactly as they should be done and this helps me in some ways but I basically had to ignore the windage/MOA training they did because they say "it's good enough" which I understand there training people specifically to shoot out to 500 yards/meters and not beyond. The training is made to make it easy for people to do those corrections. Not saying I know a ton about windage/MOA but I could tell they were teaching "sorta right" things and not "exactly right things" in this area. Thus I didn't want to learn something that is "sorta right" with the way I learn I prefer to learn exactly right even if it means study on my own without help.
Besides that and the fact I am sore and hurting a bit from all the hard work I can't say one bad thing about the program (and honestly being sore isn't anything anyone can fix and it's a small price to pay for the instruction, I don't think I am that bad of shape for a guy in my 30's either). Good people who you can tell care, good instruction which is better than any non-official instructions I have had. I am very sure than in the next appleseed or two I will get my badge and because I signed up for RWVA before going, and now have my ROC I will continue to make the effort to every AS until then and maybe, just maybe I will look into taking a orange hat at that point I know they need more in my area. The Green hat and red hat were both from out of my state so I really appreciate them making the trip to allow that to happen. I think we only have a handful of orange hats in our state sadly.
Hopefully people think I have been fair, and I can't comment on what the bigger group did while we were at the long distance range or the ATQ "grind" hehehe. But I can say every day I enjoyed, every ache and pain was worth it.
Thanks!