ByAnyMeans
Member
Advanced warning: long post but sorry, I'm excited. The best part of my story will be first. Below is my experience at an Appleseed shoot with my fiance. The best part is my fiance asked me to take her to it as her birthday present. She wanted nothing else unless it was in addition to the shoot. She was quite excited to tell her friends and family and posted the ticket on facebook.
So this weekend me and my fiance went to the Appleseed shoot in Hallstead PA. It was fantastic and there is nothing I can say bad except I should of gone sooner. The instructors were fantastic and it was quite apparent that any accuracy I had when shooting bench rested with a bag did not translate to standing, sitting, prone positions.
We only had a Marlin 795 and a Marlin 60 but figured it was better to go know than wait to save for another 795 and magazines. The instructors were great guys and allowed us a loaner Ruger 10/22 and when we shot the AQT's which require four magazines they loaded a mag for me every time to allow me to continue since I only had three.
We really were impressed with our improvement. My fiance was shooting 125 scores towards the end. This is good considering the first couple of "where your skills levels are" shoots in the beginning had here hitting the paper once in a thirteen round string and then when we were firing four or five round strings at paper with five black boxes on it. I would say her improvement was great and she's pumped to go to the range with the AQT's and practice so she can "get my patch".
I really could not keep score for myself due to rifle issues. I consistently improved the tightness of my groups especially Sunday morning when we were fresh but my groups were consistently high and to the right. My sights were as adjusted as far as they could be and when I went to Kentucky windage it the groups really opened up. Dan, the head instructor told me he agreed that the groups improved nicely and that a set of techsights would be a necessary. He also said to wait till my shooting was down cold before attempting to also learn Kentucky windage.
Lessons learned: Promote this to everyone. The group we were with was great as were the instructors. answered all questions, gave great group instruction and also individual as needed. Even had the head instructor checking with the others to trouble shoot all equipment and shooting issues and the same thing was explained by all the instructors. The first two who tried to help my fiance were great but she didn't "get it". The third one used a different metaphor and description and it just clicked for her.
We need to get a second Marlin 795 with techsights and five magazines for each. We will put the Marlin60 we have into a scoped 22lr. We figure were gonna try to make at least two shoots a year. Seventy for me and a donation of thirty for her since woman are free. You can't beat two days of rifle training for that cost so a second Marlin is necessary.
Take their advice on what to bring from a shooting map to sunscreen. If we were not prepared this could have been horrible in the heat.
So this weekend me and my fiance went to the Appleseed shoot in Hallstead PA. It was fantastic and there is nothing I can say bad except I should of gone sooner. The instructors were fantastic and it was quite apparent that any accuracy I had when shooting bench rested with a bag did not translate to standing, sitting, prone positions.
We only had a Marlin 795 and a Marlin 60 but figured it was better to go know than wait to save for another 795 and magazines. The instructors were great guys and allowed us a loaner Ruger 10/22 and when we shot the AQT's which require four magazines they loaded a mag for me every time to allow me to continue since I only had three.
We really were impressed with our improvement. My fiance was shooting 125 scores towards the end. This is good considering the first couple of "where your skills levels are" shoots in the beginning had here hitting the paper once in a thirteen round string and then when we were firing four or five round strings at paper with five black boxes on it. I would say her improvement was great and she's pumped to go to the range with the AQT's and practice so she can "get my patch".
I really could not keep score for myself due to rifle issues. I consistently improved the tightness of my groups especially Sunday morning when we were fresh but my groups were consistently high and to the right. My sights were as adjusted as far as they could be and when I went to Kentucky windage it the groups really opened up. Dan, the head instructor told me he agreed that the groups improved nicely and that a set of techsights would be a necessary. He also said to wait till my shooting was down cold before attempting to also learn Kentucky windage.
Lessons learned: Promote this to everyone. The group we were with was great as were the instructors. answered all questions, gave great group instruction and also individual as needed. Even had the head instructor checking with the others to trouble shoot all equipment and shooting issues and the same thing was explained by all the instructors. The first two who tried to help my fiance were great but she didn't "get it". The third one used a different metaphor and description and it just clicked for her.
We need to get a second Marlin 795 with techsights and five magazines for each. We will put the Marlin60 we have into a scoped 22lr. We figure were gonna try to make at least two shoots a year. Seventy for me and a donation of thirty for her since woman are free. You can't beat two days of rifle training for that cost so a second Marlin is necessary.
Take their advice on what to bring from a shooting map to sunscreen. If we were not prepared this could have been horrible in the heat.
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