Monday, June 21, 2010

Appleseed Project

Well the weekend arrived: time to do Appleseed. The program is rifle shooting and history of the American concept of the "Rifleman". Much good information was dispenced and my shooting did improve. I cannot reccommend Appleseed more highly. Listen to the instructors. Follow the instructions. Learn the concept of "Natural Point of Aim". Learn the proper use of the rifle sling. Watch your targets get better. Spend 2 days with great people, make new friends. We went as a family, wife, son and self. Wife is ready to go again, there will be another one in a few months. Son had a litany of ongoing equipment issues. We provided him with the wrong rifle and the "spares" had loose scopes and other problems. Moral of the story, be sure your equipment is ready for a tough couple of days. Wife's rifle scope came loose also to the detriment of her scores. Even on a .22LR rifle the vibration is significant after 300 rounds or so. I, against suggestion from the instructors, used a bolt action rifle, my new CZ452FS in .22WMR. It does not shoot as fast as an auto loader but the action is smooth and the accuracy was impressive. With it, I regularly hit my targets and kept my groups small. A couple of folks were using ARs in 5.56mm, one gentleman was using a M1A in 7.62mm (loud) and one other was shooting a bolt gun in .22-250. Most used .22LR to keep costs down. 300-350 rounds of .22LR can cost as little as $11.00- $12.00 using bulk from Wally World. My .22WMR cost probably $30.00 or so to feed. The ARs had to cost more. Stick with cheap rimfire. The lessons translate well to heavier arms.

After the shoot we applied several lessons to our shooting. We added a cheekpeice to both my rifle and the Mossberg that the wife is using. Ordered several milspec rifle slings, tuned the scopes for correct eye relief and trued the point of aim. Both her rifle and mine shoot better than they did. The cheekpeice makes a reproducible shooting position easier. Both are now cranking out ragged quarter sized holes with great consistency. Wife has plans for that "Rifleman" patch next time. I think she will be getting one her skill and equipment seem to be ready.

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