I don’t know about the “very, very” part, but anything which draws civilians to at least a functional capability of marksmanship is a very, very good thing.
some of their doctrine is totally obsolete.
Totally agree here, and not just the marksmanship techniques and equipment are outdated. I know some groups hosting Appleseeds are worse than others, and I understand that the group I first attended was in the “worse” category, but the opportunity for politically charged indoctrination being included in the marksmanship education turns me off. I can only describe my first experience with Appleseed as observing instructors which did not understand the difference between historical education and anarchist incitement. Returning to another group a couple years later, the experience was much improved, but there remains the connection with political history which isn’t terribly pertinent to marksmanship.
The focus on just aperture iron sights only in a world of (extremely dependable) red dots and LPVO magnified optics is outdated at best.
Totally agree here too - and I do think there may be some issue with some of their groups trying to decide what they’re doing. In both groups I shot under, I asked what to bring to shoot, and was told “any rifle is fine,” so in my first outing I took a scoped 10/22, and they frowned on the scope (I don’t recall, but it seems like I wasn’t allowed to have my score counted?), so at the second group, again asking what rifle they preferred for me to bring, they said “any rifle is fine,” but I knew the iron sight deal, so I took an iron sighted M4 Hbar with A2 sights, which was frowned upon when I got there because it’s a loud centerfire, so then I had to move to the end of the firing line and we spent a bunch of time kinda moving some of the younger kids away from my blast. That group was ok, so I went back to another few of their events, but in the second, I took a Marlin 60, because it was my only iron sighted 22, which was ALSO frowned upon because of the tube mag, and how it has to be pointed and how the hand has to move near the muzzle when loading…Argh… ok… but if EITHER of them would have said upfront, “bring an iron sighted 22LR, and NOT a tube mag,” I would have avoided all 3 instances of frustration.
I think their deal is better known now so folks would know to take a 22, and their instructors would say to bring an iron sighted 22 without a tube mag, if that’s what they’re choosing to enforce - but it made me lose interest pretty quickly. There seemed to be a lot of inconsistency from one group to the next around the country at the time, enough that I haven’t sustained interest in going back.
After hearing the antiestablishmentarianistic nut jobs at the first event I attended, it took a LOT of discussion with other local shooters to convince me to go to the other group’s event. I’m glad to learn that my first experience isn’t common, but I still don’t see the relevance of the blended platform. Teach folks to shoot, build marksmanship as a culture, and leave the Killdozer mentality to other venues.
But it is great that Appleseed has a regularly recurring opportunity for marksmanship instruction, at low cost and low barrier for entry. Every other shooting sport evolves into an arms race, and even base/factory/production/limited classes either still take a lot of expensive ammo to practice, or are still an arms race with an entry level title only… Appleseed doesn’t seem to have that affliction, maybe because it’s a bit of a zebra who can’t decide if it’s black with white stripes or white with black stripes - is Appleseed historical education, political indoctrination, marksmanship instruction, or shooting competition, or pleasure plinking? The handful of events I attended didn’t seem to be very clear on which…
