From the senior instructor at the Chugiak, Alaska event:
Mid-afternoon on Saturday, the temps warmed up (briefly), as ThaiFighter
described the retreat of the Regulars from Lexington back to Boston:
Clarissa
shows off her left-handed seated position. Being right handed, but
left eye dominant is a perpetual struggle for some, but she took to
shooting left-handed like a fish in water!:
Heather demonstrates the proper kneeling position:
One of our youngest shooters demonstrates the prone (supported) position:
Another shot of ThaiFighter presenting the Third Strike, to a rapt audience:
On
Sunday afternoon, our shooters enjoyed a much-deserved break from the
action, while learning about differences (and similarities) of shooting
out to 500 yards:
These
youngsters earned the respect of every adult on the line, through their
determination and persistence; their attentiveness and willingness to
tough it out were rewarded with the Project Appleseed Young Patriot
Patch, and a hearty round of applause:
The
Appleseed Qualification Test (AQT) is a rigorous, demanding course of
fire; designed to test the shooter on every aspect of the instruction
that we teach. A passing grade is a 210 out of a possible 250 points.
To say it's tough is an understatement of epic proportions.
"MountainGoat1980" last attended an Appleseed event back in 2012;
stymied by car troubles on his way to our last event in October, he's
been practicing through the long Alaskan winter. His practice paid off,
with a by-the-skin-of-his-teeth score of 211/250 on the last AQT of the
day. Here we catch our newest rifleman by surprise, waiting until the
event was over to let him know he had made the score:
(blurry) pic of new Rifleman receiving his much-deserved WinterSeed patch:
Having
surmounted the challenge of the AQT, MountainGoat1980 accepted the next
challenge placed in front of him, and graciously accepted the Orange
Hat of Instructor-In-Training (with only minimal arm-twisting, I might
add):
I'd
like to reiterate my thanks to all who attended this event. Were it
not for you, we instructors would have simply spent the weekend at the
range. Your enthusiasm for not only the marksmanship instruction, but
also the history and heritage, gives us hope, and makes all of our own
personal sacrifices worth it.
For those who didn't shoot quite
as well as you'd hoped, don't despair- you've nothing to be ashamed of,
unless you quit. Everyone starts somewhere, and making an expert score
isn't easy. It'll take time, persistence, perseverance, and a
never-say-die attitude, but I know that each of you can do it; after
all, you're Americans.
If you took pictures this weekend,
please feel free to post them up here. If you'd like a copy of one of
the pictures I've posted, drop me a note with your email, and I'll send
you the original. We love to hear from our students, both good and bad,
so please feel free to post those too!
In Liberty,
-ItsanSKS
5 comments:
VERY COOL!
And in the snow, yet.
Kudos to all participants!
gfa
Do you instruct or did you just attend? I used to instruct down here until life got in the way. I need to get back into it but I'm not ready yet.
Groundhog, neither - this time. My oldest daughter is the female "orange hat" in several of the pictures. For now, I'm just the Proud Papa.
AWESOME!
Thank you for the report - she's doing great! :)
You're welcome, Jenny. Re: Daughter's progress, she'll be promoted to Level 2 after the June shoot, in which she'll serve as line boss. Bustin' my buttons, up here.
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