AFTER ACTION REPORT
After Action Report
Saturday was beautiful, after a night of balmy rain, Saturday morning there was a slight chill as I set up targets and prepared for what was to be an exciting day of instruction/fellowship.
Around 8:15 am shooters started arriving and when we were all assembled, we discussed the purpose and idea of the Appleseed Shoot and the Rifleman. Although I am no where near as eloquent as I'd like to be, I related some simple information about April 19, 1775 and the way a rag tag bunch of Rifleman made a very large contribution to history. Call it the first 2nd amendment stand.
The purpose of the Appleseed project is to promote and teach proper rifle shooting technique, so that, like that April day in 1775 or following a natural disaster like Katrina, if riflemen were needed to protect and defend they could be ready at a moments notice.
The training is such that a rifleman can be handed any rifle rack grade service rifle and ball ammunition and be able to properly and succesfully defend his life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Anyway, once 9:00 am. rolled around the real fun began and shooters took the line for a 20 round qualifyier. 2 minutes later, as the smoke cleared, we could see that shooting is a perishable skill that must be maintained.
One shooter drove all the way from Pensecola Florida for the shoot. He was "new" to the program and spent much of his life shooting, but always from a bench. The Appleseed qualifier was a MAJOR WAKE-UP for him. Shooting from a bench is fine for Bench-Rest competitors, but riflemen need to shoot from the positions they will likely face in the field. Standing/offhand..kneeling...sitting...prone...
WE slogged throough the day scores imporving steadily, until just before lunch. At that point we broke out the head shot targets for honors...and lunch. The head shot target is a simple 1" square box. It can be shot from any position
at 25 METERS (not feet). For those of you saying "no big deal" imagine looking over the sights of an old Enfield P17 (30-06) at a 1" square from 25 meters...try it sometime....you have a twop minute time limit and 1 round to accomplish the task. One shooter, notso, earned honors and lunch for his efforts.
After lunch we continued through ball and dummy and position drills until the time arrived for the real deal-Army Qualification Test. 4 stages, 50 rounds, 25 minutes and 50 seconds....
Stage 1: 10 rounds offhand/standing 8 inch target....2 minutes
Stage 2: 10 rounds stadning to sitting fire 2-reload-fire 8 at (2) 6"targets.....50 seconds
Stage 3: 10 rounds standing to prone fire 2-reload-fire 8 at (3) 4" targets....60 seconds
Stage 4: 20 rounds prone 2 rounds per target 2" targets.....22 mnutes
Qualifying score 210.
Below is the 400 yard simulation target (Stage 4)
http://www.iguanasoft.com/~jeffersonian/aqt4xs.gif
Remeber our shooter from Pensecola? He didn't make rifleman this day, but after the training was done, he took an interest in the fellow shooting the Enfield P17. We cleared the range and went hot. He fired the P17, first time ever shooting ANY surplus gun and put all five shots in the bull from prone....The program works.
He wants to host an Appleseed in Pensecola, Fla.
