I also got to attend the Carrollton shoot this weekend, and was able to bring along my 15 yo Brother-In-Law who had never really been shooting. There were a lot of great things about this weekend but I think the best part was the 5 hour ride home listening to him excitedly go over everything we had done that weekend and talk about how he wants to come to another one and bring some of his friends. As a matter of fact we are planning to have a small shoot at my house for the young men of our church in 3-4 weeks to get more of them invovled.
The instruction this weekend was top notch and the instructors were unbelieveably patient and understanding. I was actually amazed at what a great group of people were assembled as instructors. Their enthusiasm, sense of humor, and knowledge made the class not only profitable but enjoyable. And did I mention that they are all volunteers? Damon and Lucky Man worked with me quite a bit on Sunday, and I appreciate The Guy spending a lot of time with my bro-in-law on sunday as well. He went from not even being on paper for some of the targets to hitting "redcoats" and 100-200-300 yards by the end of Sunday! Quite an improvement.
Another thing that impressed me was the lack of "posing" and egos at this event. I truthfully expected to see a lot more of this and was surprised by how little of it there was. The people I was lined up beside on both days were helpful, friendly, and everyone just wanted to see those around them improve.
Folks if you have never been to an Appleseed shoot I highly encourage you to go. Even if you are already a great shooter I believe it would be worth going to just to meet the people and see what kind of mission this group called "Appleseed" has. From what I saw there is no pretention, no profit, no goal other than to try to pass on one of our most important American Heritages.
If you were like me and had a strong interest in doing the same thing but didnt know where to start I would encourage you to visit
www.rwva.org and join up. I signed up the day after we got back and I am fired up about getting things going in my area.
Thanks again to Funfaler for hosting this event on his farm and to all the folks who worked to make this happen.
:banghead: But I will try to attend this one.