Maryland Project Appleseed 2019

Upcoming Clinics

We have our final Appleseed clinic for November coming up next weekend: a two day rimfire-only clinic at Anne Arundel Fish and Game Conservation Association in Annapolis, MD - November 09-10, 2019

After that we push into December and potential Winterseed territory with two events on the same weekend to round out the year!

A one day rimfire-only clinic at Anne Arundel Fish and Game Conservation Association in Annapolis, MD - December 7, 2019

A two day centerfire and rimfire clinic at Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore (AGC) in Marriottsville, MD - December 7-8, 2019

We have our new 2020 dates for AAFG and are working up the schedule at our other ranges - we will be posting that in a new 2020 thread.

Hope to see you on the line!

AAR - Annapolis AAFG - November 9-10 2019

A wonderful shoot this weekend in Annapolis Maryland with 5 shooters braving a cold Veteran's Day weekend to learn marksmanship and celebrate our heritage.

I hate to complain about cold weather when compared to winter Appleseeds in other states, but this was our coldest weekend of the year and Saturday was the AQT stage 4 of days: start cold and stay cold!

We had a range of participants from age 12 to 48, with skills ranging from absolute beginnere to pretty darned good. All shooters showed immediate and steady progress throughout Saturday and the afternoon Red Coat showed significant improvement despite frozen hands and feet.

Sunday brought all of our shooters back and after the morning Red Coat and squares, we jumped into AQTs.

Kevin M set the standard with a 213 to requalify as Rifleman - Huzzah!

All of the shooters kept gaining ground and nearly all achieved Sharpshooter:

Maddy M was oh so close on her first AQT with a 201 - and that was mostly because of a miscount on targets which was heartbreaking to score. Maddy was bitten by the malfunction bug as the day continued and kept keeping rounds on the upper AQT stages due to a series of stovepipes, failures to feed, and failures to eject. We hosed down the action with Hornady OneShot to get through stage 4 (where she scored an 84 out of 100 - wow!) and the Red Coat but the damage was done. Maddy, I hope you return because I am sure you can make Rifleman if you can put it all together on the same target and keep the rifle running right.

Olivia B, starting Saturday never having handled a rifle, ended up with back-to-back scores of 175. Thanks for making the long drive both ways each day from Philadelphia - we really hope you can attend a future event and bring a friend!

Olivia K, who was shooting her first AQTs after attending only part of a prior Appleseed, kept marching up the ladder through the 180s and ended up with a high of 186 - that is just fantastic! We can't wait to have you back as well.

Devlin M, a young but experienced Appleseeder, showed the whole group how it was done - getting into proper positions, shifting his belt buckle, making the transitions, and NEARLY clearing his final Red Coat of Sunday - all but the shingle. This young man knows what he is about.

Best of all, at the insistence of his son Devlin, Kevin M took an orange hat, having attended several Appleseeds and qualified as Rifleman many times. We are excited to have you on the team!

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better Veteran's Day weekend. The attendees were very attentive and engaged on the history and I hope everyone took away the importance of preserving the rights and freedoms won for us through the sacrifice of those who fought on April 19th.

Special thanks to fellow instructor Etervigila who persevered through a cold weekend to provide fine instruction and coaching. And thanks to AAFG for hosting us - we couldn't ask for a better rimfire range in Maryland.

Hope to see you on the line next time!

Pictures are posted at the Maryland Appleseed Facebook page.

A couple are included here:

Upcoming Clinics on December 7

We have TWO upcoming Appleseed Clinics to wrap up the year in early December with spots available:

A one-day rimfire-only event at AAFG on December 7

A two-day centerfire and rimfire event at Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore (AGC) in Marriottsville, MD on December 7-8

Hard to forecast whether these will be Winterseed events. Hope to see you on the line!

Alright, we are one week away from our final TWO Appleseed Clinics to wrap up 2019 in style!

There are still spots available for:

A one-day rimfire-only event at AAFG on December 7

A two-day centerfire and rimfire event at Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore (AGC) in Marriottsville, MD on December 7-8

As always, don't let gear stop you from signing up. We have loaner gear - up to and including quality rifles and ammunition...and handwarmers - available for free. Just bring a good attitude and appropriate attire and we'll get you trained up. So if you have been waiting to give Appleseed a try, tis the season for more than just shopping.

It doesn't currently look like these will be Winterseed events - it is looking to be about 40 degrees on both days, which is chilly for sure, but not Winterseed territory. In fact, looking back through the past few years, we have awarded fewer Winterseed patches than Distinguished! So if you want one of those coveted patches, I suggest you sign up for the January and February shoots we already have on the schedule for 2020. We will start the 2020 thread soon after a 2019 wrap-up.

Hope to see you on the line!

The registration page is down. Just an FYI. Its been down for at least a few days.

That’s weird - I just went there and it worked for me. Which one were you trying to register for?

Trying to see if I could make the AGC event.

My son and I are signed up for the AGC event. Looking forward to our 3rd Appleseed.

fogman said:

My son and I are signed up for the AGC event. Looking forward to our 3rd Appleseed.

Click to expand...

That’s great! Brian, our most experienced and senior instructor, will be the Shoot Boss there. I know you both will enjoy it.

We had 8 folks on the line for a cold, but not Winterseed-worthy, December clinic at AAFG in Annapolis.

This was our first clinic in a while that was all adults and while all were well versed in operating their specific firearm, all realized the challenge of Appleseed on the first Red Coat. This was also one of the first Appleseeds I have been to where irons and 1x red dots (prismatic, holographic, etc.) dominated the line - only 2 scopes in the whole crew.

You know it is going to be a great event when you get someone in period-dress and with a great store of historical knowledge. Mark was also a committed shooter with his stock Ruger iron sights and was able to score in the 170s on his first AQT ever using Kentucky windage. That is very impressive shooting. Mark was scouting out Project Appleseed for a potential private event. Hope you come back with the whole crew next year!

We had one Rifleman - Kirby scored a 217- Huzzah! Glad to have you back at an event after several years away. Obviously not too much rust.

But everyone else showed great improvement and all AQT scores were in the 170-190 range. Every person had their best and worst stages - some folks were experienced standing shooters and were nearly perfect in that stage, but would then drop a bunch of shots later. Others were the exact opposite. A few folks commented that they had not shot prone since they were kids.

We recommend a lot of dry fire practice to truly get a feel for the positions and your interface with the rifle. 100 dry fire "rounds" for every live fire round. Most importantly, practice your six steps and NPOA establishment and adjustment during dry fire. Next time, you will probably break through!

There were very few equipment issues but we are always available for questions on sling attachment points and sight upgrades here on the forums.

Thanks to red hat ABCgarand for his individual coaching and demonstrations - an honor to work with our most experienced red hat.

Pictures will be available at our Maryland Appleseed Facebook page soon: https://www.facebook.com/Project-Appleseed-Maryland-264406060313831/

You were all a joy to work with and I really hope to see folks at at a future Maryland Appleseed - events for 2020 are already posted here: https://appleseedinfo.org/schedule/?qstate=MD&state=Maryland

We had a home run group at AGC in Marriottsville this past weekend: 9 students, 5 Riflemen! Including 2 distinguished!

COLD temps usually mean the students really want to be there and this class was no exception. Saturday morning started c o l d at 29F but everyone progressed nicely and 2 AQT's were shot. 4 students achieved Rifleman on Saturday, which is very unusual!

Sunday morning kicked off at an even colder 25F, but all students returned and powered thru the Riflemans grind. In the end, we added more Rifleman and the remaining students showing SOLID progress..most maxing around the 200 point mark!

We would like to highlight 5 time student DeeDee. At each of the four prior events, she consistently shot between 200 and 205. Saturday she FINALLY broke through to 214 and a great celebration was in order.

But DeeDee wasn't done yet. On Sunday she went on to clean the Redcoat, and post scores of 215, 223, 230 and 240, earning her DISTINGUISHED rocker. Not a woman to be trifled with! A true rock star of a shooter that showed persistence, gumption, and true spirit of the Rifleman! Huzzah to DeeDee!!!!

Photos are available on our Maryland Appleseed Facebook Page. A few are posted below.

This wraps up the 2019 Appleseed season. We will post a year-in-review article to close out the year very soon and we already have events for AGC, AAFG, and SLSC on our 2020 calendar: https://appleseedinfo.org/schedule/?qstate=MD&state=Maryland

Hope to see you on the line next year!

Maryland Appleseed 2019 Year-End Summary

Maryland had a very successful year bailing the ship! Thanks to all the students, instructors, and volunteers that made the year a success.

Some statistics to put 2019 in context:

• 20 shoots held with 5 events sold-out and 5 more nearly so, a 50% rate! Always sign-up early for the shoots you want to attend.
• Nearly 200 student attendees (about 10 per event)
• 69 qualified as Rifleman out of those 200 students, for an unheard of rate of 35% – huzzah! To put this in perspective, our average from 2014-2019 was 19% and never exceeded 23%.
• To go along with the superb Rifleman rate, we had 14 shooters score Distinguished scores with Iron Sights or Scopes, for a rate of 20% of all of our Rifleman (typically more like 6% in past years).
• We added a new Perfect 250 to our Maryland Cadre – 1 of only 4 people to do it in the history of the Maryland program.
• Unfortunately (or fortunately from your perspective) we had no Winterseed qualifying events in 2019. Looking back historically, it looks like we have only had about 5 Winterseed events total. So if you want that beautiful Winterseed patch, you will need to sign up for one of our Winter events and pray for inclement weather – we shoot rain, shine, sleet, or snow.
• 3 long-range/known-distance patch qualifying events (200-yards) - two rimfire, one centerfire - with 15 qualifying rifleman/women, including at least two qualifying using iron sights on 22s at 200 yards!
• 53 cleared Red Coats; we often emphasize that it is harder to clear a Red Coat than to earn Rifleman and the data shows that this year. If Morgan’s Shingle is your nemesis, make it a point next year to show you belong with Timothy Murphy rather than the cooks

The very high Rifleman and Distinguished rates are a testament to the quality of the instruction AND students that we attract to our clinics. Even if you know how to shoot, you will learn something new and can prove to yourself that you “know what you are about”. We did have a lot of returning students - and we certainly want you back next year as well! Shooting is a perishable skill, one that requires a lot of dry fire and live fire practice.

Thanks to our dedicated volunteers and instructors this year. We had a few folks from 2018 move away and the rest of the cadre stepped up in a big way! We were able to maintain our 3 students per instructor average across all our events due to dedicated instructor participation, which allowed for substantial attention to safety and quality of training.

We also grew the Maryland cadre of instructors and volunteers:

• 1 new Shoot Boss (Catch-10-22)
• 1 new Red Hat Instructor (Etervigila)
• 3 new Orange Hat Instructors in Training (Agent711, X All Out, Powder Monkey)
• Several instructors coming back the program after absences (welcome back!)

Finally, throughout the year we try to provide some other content in addition to our announcements and AARs to both promote the program and help folks on their journey to Rifleman and beyond through MDShooters and the Appleseed Forums :

How Much Does a Rifleman Patch Cost?

200-yard Rimfire Iron Sights Challenge

North Carolina Known Distance Event AAR

Tippmann M4-22 Review

CZ 455 Scout Review

BRN16A1 with CMMG conversion kit review

A huge thank you to all of the ranges that hosted us this year!

• Anne Arundel Fish and Game Conservation Association (AAFG) in Annapolis
• Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore (AGC) in Mariottsville
• Sanner's Lake Sportmans Club (SLSC) in Lexington Park
• Delmarva Sportsman Association in Suddlersville

These ranges not only offer fantastic facilities for shooters of all kinds, but their commitment to Project Appleseed reflects their commitment to expand and enhance the community of shooters and actively engaged citizens - we can't thank them enough for the support.

We are always hoping to add new ranges - both indoor and outdoor - and re-introduce ourselves to clubs where we have previously been active. If your club is interested in hosting an event, we can make it happen!

We are always looking for new ways to enhance the experience of our students and instructors as well as to bring new people into our community. If you have questions, comments, or feedback, we are absolutely open to suggestions.

If you know anyone who could benefit from Appleseed, please suggest our program to them – we want to continue to grow the shooting community in Maryland while also helping folks understand the value of their rights and responsibilities.

We also hope to roll-out some cool new concepts in 2020, so please subscribe to the upcoming 2020 thread as well.

Hope to see you on the line!