Another thumbs-up for Appleseed

[DaveT]

I attended an Appleseed over the weekend (May 18-19), and I just wanted to post that it was really a great two days of training.

It was held at the Tusco Rifle Range just outside New Philadelphia. Shoot Boss was Mike, ably assisted by Joseph, Dan and Linda. There were only four students for our session, three men and Linda's daughter, who was on her fourth Appleseed. The low student turnout was their loss, and it means those of us who were there got some really outstanding personal attention.

Here's how good the people running the class were: I ended up being one of those pathetically underprepared people who shows up at class -- and they were able to really help sort out all my problems. I had had plans to get help from a friend to get my new Nodak Spud adjustable sights and sling mounts on my Ruger 10/22, but we could never get a night to do it scheduled. So two nights before the class, I was frantically searching the Internet for tutorials on how to remove the factory front sight. After more than an hour of messing with it, I finally resorted to what everyone on the Internet was telling me was the last resort - Dremel tool. But it worked eventually, with only a couple nicks on the rifle, and I mounted the sites and called it an early morning.

They helped me attach my front sling swivel to the barrel band, and for the rear mount, it was zip ties. Oh - and the sling mounts I had bought were too small - luckily Mike was like a walking Midway outlet store, and he sold me (at his cost) the wider sling buckles i needed.

After the introductory instruction, we shot at some targets to just see where we stood on skills. I could hardly get a round on paper. Then I got lots of help adjusting the sights - and found that even with windage drifted all the way to the left, it was pretty far off. I was starting to really feel down - then between the two of them, Joseph and Dan figured out I had found a way to mount the front sight skewed. They got it mounted flush and flat, and then I started getting some hits. Then, after several strings of fire, I found I was overcompensating to hold my eye level with the sights for a good sight alignment - so out came the pipe insulation and vet wrap/coban, and after a little experimentation, I had a solid cheek weld and again, my groups got smaller.

I've read about the Appleseed shoots, and things like "natural point of aim" make theoretical sense when I read them, but in practice it took a while to get all these moving parts to work together - or relax together. I improved a ton with all the instructors' help. For a while there, I really thought I was going to walk out of the weekend with my Rifleman's Patch - but I couldn't pull all of it together in a single AQT...so I know I'll be back to another one.

The whole weekend was incredibly enjoyable, and that's due to this great group of volunteers who run these events. It was a great price for two days of instruction, and I'm looking forward to getting my kids to one, and maybe find a "non gun person" or two who could really be helped by getting some firsthand experience ledge about firearms.

Thanks again to the instructors

Dave

[Jake]

Congrats on finding one of the nation's Best Kept Secrets.

Appleseed was a blessing to me. Inspiring in many ways.
Please feel free to come to another...and another!

My local club is hosting a weekend in July.
If you're close enough, c'mon down!
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