Appleseed rifle training... any range or shooters available

[Rip Van Winkle]

Alright, I admit it, I'm a Highpower snob. I've gotten this way by observing some of the defuses who come out to the range and would be lucky to put a bullet into the backstop if they had to, God forbid, shoot from position.

I do have one regret from the above post. It was not my intention to call anyones manhood into question. If I had my post to post over I'd find a different way to word it.

Magnum Wheel Man, No I wouldn't really laugh at you or anyone else. In fairness, your training at Appleseed makes you more of a "rifleman" than 80-90% of the folks I see at the range who think they're God's gift to marksmanship.

[BRIT_in_the_weeds]

Does'nt Fred's M14 Stocks write quite abit about the Appleseed program in Shotgun News?

[Pat Cannon]

I assume it was argued to death about 40 years ago why the .223 poodle shooter round gets to be called high power.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

concerning doing an indoor range... this is the P.M. I got from IOWA-MARK from Appleseed...

Hello MWM!

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, it's been a hectic week and I have been off line until now.

I also don't see why a indoor range would not work. I've considered it often. In fact just this morning when I was thinking how that acreage I didn't buy, the one with the 40x80 post frame building with the big slider doors facing the hillside, would have been great, but that was before appleseed existed.
You experienced the program, if we could do the instruction and have room for shooters is all we need.
It would be a great wintertime seed.

Find a range and we will come.-mark

[Steelheart]

I attended the Appleseed shoot in Searsboro back in April and loved it. No, I didn't qualify either but I knocked quite a bit of rust off my rifle skills that had grown in the years since BCT.

Fred of Fred's M14 Stocks is the head guy for the Appleseed Project. But they've got quite a few instructors available and more being trained all the time.

From what I've gathered wandering around the Appleseed forum they'd prefer 150'+ width of range available. Shooting in relays can work but its a pain as thats what we did back in April due to having 2 ranges flooded out (didn't you guys in June have about the same thing to deal with?).

Rip, I take it by your posts that you were born a rifle shooter and never had to take any training or other instruction? Thats what Appleseed is, Basic Rifle Marksmanship training. I saw everything from boys who might have been 10 or 11 years old to gray haired old men to teenage girls on the line shooting. And everything from 10/22's to AR's to M1A's in use.

If you manage to set up a shoot I'll be there, especially since I drove 4+ hrs for the April shoot and felt it was worth it. I just couldn't fit the June shoot into my work schedule.

Steelheart

[Rip Van Winkle]

Rip, I take it by your posts that you were born a rifle shooter and never had to take any training or other instruction? Thats what Appleseed is, Basic Rifle Marksmanship training. I saw everything from boys who might have been 10 or 11 years old to gray haired old men to teenage girls on the line shooting. And everything from 10/22's to AR's to M1A's in use.

Steelheart

I've been a lot of things in my life, but marksmanship was instilled in me at an early age by my dear Ol' Dad.

What I find interesting is you guys would rather drive 4+ hours to these Appleseed shoots than seek out a local club which has a CMP program.

[Steelheart]

For me, a 4 hour drive got me to Searsboro but that same drive would have gotten me to Duluth (and I could have carried the whole way). From the people I talked to my drive was about average. There was a gentleman with his 2 teenage daughters up from Missouri, a gentleman from SW Mn (I don't recall the town and didn't catch his name but he "lives in the red house by the lake"), a father and daughter from Illinois, another gentleman from Kansas, a grandfather from SD who brought one of his sons and 3 of his grandsons (and a pile of rifles), not to mention a couple more guys who also came alone from Illinois but by the end were planning on getting together to train (all had M1A's). Now I'm not saying that everyone drove 4+ hours but these are the ones I talked with.

One of the main ideas for Appleseed is to be able to take a Rack Grade rifle using surplus ball ammo and be able to hit a man sized target at a few hundred yards. Having an expensive, highly accurate rifle would help but thats not the idea. Its being able to get a cheap M1 from CMP and be able to run it effectively.

The course is also designed to allow it to be used with 22 rifles for cheap ammo and to be able to use shorter distances (25M) to be able to effectively practice. No, you don't get to learn out to deal with recoil of the more powerful cartridges nor how to deal with wind but its a starting point not an advanced course.

I'll admit that I didn't search much but I don't recall ever hearing about a similar course locally.

Steelheart

[hammAR]

Rip, then why don't you create rather than critique:

a) put the link http://post435gunclub.org in your sig so it is obvious in every post, and

b) set up an open 1 day beginners course for folks that want to learn or want their kids to learn, and

c) set up an open 1 day refresher course for folks that want to remember.................

You will glean from this board that there are basically two classes of active shooters/participants, except for the lurkers, trolls, and drive by posters, those that are already involved in competitions and those that want to go out and learn to be better and who someday may or may not compete.

It looks and smells like an opportunity to me......................but what do I know



.

[David]

I've driven/flown from Minnesota to Arizona, Tennessee, and West Virginia to take courses. Four hours is nothing, really, if the class is valuable to you.

[hammAR]

I've driven/flown from Minnesota to Arizona, Tennessee, and West Virginia to take courses. Four hours is nothing, really, if the class is valuable to you.

Yep, add in North Carolina, Virginia, Viet Nam, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Honduras, Panama, and other exotic locals and shooting gallerys......yep.........4 hours is nothing.....


.

[David]

I suspect you "paid" a lot more for those "courses" too!

[hammAR]

I suspect you "paid" a lot more for those "courses" too!

........and I didn't wear a name tag.......

[Rip Van Winkle]

Rip, then why don't you create rather than critique:

a) put the link http://post435gunclub.org in your sig so it is obvious in every post, and

b) set up an open 1 day beginners course for folks that want to learn or want their kids to learn, and

c) set up an open 1 day refresher course for folks that want to remember.................

You will glean from this board that there are basically two classes of active shooters/participants, except for the lurkers, trolls, and drive by posters, those that are already involved in competitions and those that want to go out and learn to be better and who someday may or may not compete.

It looks and smells like an opportunity to me......................but what do I know



.

You mean like this? http://www.mnguntalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2866
Also posted on the other fourm. http://www.twincitiescarry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8230

I've run the Post 435 CMP program for the last 3 years, every year, the second Saturday in June, we have a new shooter Service Rifle Clinic. This year we had our best showing yet, 14 shooters. My invitation to anyone interested in coming out to the club on Tuesday nights and seeing what we do is still open.

I also know Elk River and Gopher R&R have Tuesday night shooting.

Here's a link to the CMP website listing all CMP affiliated clubs in the state.http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/clubSearchSubmit.cgi?clubMembership=OPEN&state=MN
The First Shot CMP online Magazine. http://www.odcmp.org/0608/default.asp

[hammAR]

Rip, thanks for the info (and pointers to the other links that I obviously missed)......

.

[Rip Van Winkle]

One more link I just remembered.

This is a handout I wrote for our clinic participants. It's a brief overview of what we teach in our clinic. Some here might find it of some use.
Clinic Primer(pdf 474 kb)