Maryland Project Appleseed 2022 Thread

[Cold Warrior]

I knew this was coming as much as I knew I'd miss it. This is a goal of mine but I'm horribly wishywashy making "go" decisions. I'm not that far away. Have two boxes of 22 lr and a rifle with GI strap. Though the 3-9 scope has me hesitant. It seems I only have two chances a year at this. Sooner or later I will do it. Maybe next spring.

Kagetsu - Ammo prices coming down! I expect our next WV event will be 22-23 April, 2023. Hope to see you there!

 

[mikeasu]

Just signed up my two boys and myself for the December session at Marriottsville - looking forward to it!

 

[Catch-10-22]

A PERFECT weekend for shooting at Anne Arundel Fish and Game in Annapolis, MD saw a great group of shooters come out to learn pistol marksmanship and American History. It was a sold out shoot, twice expanded to accommodate friends and rescheduled folks, with a great mix of shooter experience. While mornings started a little cool, by mid day weather was sunny and in the 70s.

The first red coat of Saturday showed that folks came with some skill - not only did Matt G clean it on his first try, earning his Immortal 400 patch (again), but half the shooters got all 4 hits at 60-100 yards. We then started work on stance and grip, the 6 steps, trigger control, and several drills focused on making precise shots without time pressure through a mix of dry and live fire exercises. Everyone showed improvement and talked about breakthroughs in specific aspects of the instruction. At lunch time, Lycos presented the first strike and gave folks a much needed break. We then worked through smooth reloads, controlled pairs, rapid fire, and target transitions before kicking off our first two PQTs of the weekend.

Chris re-qualified twice and set a very high standard for the weekend with a 238! Chris scored Pistoleer on every single PQT but one due to some malfunctions, but was consistently in the 220s and 230s. HUZZAH!!! Jeff also finally broke through at his second Pistol Clinic to score a 217 - he would back that up with a 211 on day two. Congrats! We then posted the final Red Coat of the day and while some were close, there were no perfect targets. But never fear, dear readers, this was only the FIRST day of action.

Mark started his perfect Sunday by cleaning the Red Coat with the cold bore button challenge as well (hit it with your first shot and clean it). But that was only the beginning. This is Mark's 3rd pistol clinic and he has been frustratingly close at both events, topping out at 205 so many times he wanted to have hats made for "Mr. 205." Thanks goodness he didn't because he broke through on the first PQT of the day with a 219 - HUZZAH! With that monkey off his back, he requalified at lest 4 more times for the weekend, topping out at 226.

Rob made a LONG drive to find a Pistol Clinic to attend and has been waiting a LONG time (and had one cancelled on him) but he showed he knew what he was about. He was in the high 190s and low 200s on Saturday but struggled through equipment issues and slower reloads that would blow certain stages. But on the second to last PQT of the weekend he put it altogether and clocked a 219 to earn his Pistoleer patch.

While other folks did not qualify, everyone was putting together great groups at different times. Some can tantalizingly close - Matt G had a 203 and a 205 and there were a lot of 180s and 190s out there as well. We talked a lot about dry and live fire practice and I know folks are excited to try again and continue to improve. This course is tough but that is what makes earning Pistoleer so special!

The final Red Coat of the weekend was the strongest, with 3 folks cleaning the target - Lycos did it for the first time in his Appleseed career (rifle or pistol), Chris cleaned it with the button as his first hit, and Mark had a perfect target as well.

We had interspersed the Onion of Self Defense, Second and Third Strikes by Off_paper, Sam & Sam, and the holster demo throughout the day to break up the PQT grind so we wrapped up at a good time and with all of our participants helping with clean-up. After the benediction, we said farewell for now but hope to see everyone again at a future clinic. Thank you to MDShooter, Off_paper, Lycos, and Phoebe for all your work this weekend and dedication to the cause of liberty. We couldn't do it without you. And thank again to AAFG for being such a great host.

 

[Catch-10-22]

AAR - 1-day 200 yd Rimfire KD in Sudlersville, MD Oct 29 2022​

A long sold-out and highly anticipated 200yd rimfire KD started with perfect fall weather - sunny but cool - with 8 very experienced prior Rifleman (including a large number of distinguished and 250 shooters) taking on the RKD challenge.

Zeroing at 50 yards showed that this group had some skills and went very quickly. After covering the core instruction of target identification, ranging, and compensation factors for longer range shots (gravity, atmospheric conditions, wind, etc.) we started to build DOPE on rifles at increasing distances. This started with the vertical squares target, to confirm tracking and sufficient elevation out to 200 yards. With that completed, we shifted to confirming zero at actual ranges with un-timed positional practice moving back toward the 200 yard line.

With zeros confirmed we posted our first RKD AQT target of the day, starting at the 200 yard line in slow fire prone and working toward the targets with a moving firing line. We had some impressive scores at 200 with 5 shooters shooting 15/20 or better. The final 3 stages also saw some impressive performances, with 4 shooters clocking scores of 29-30/30. In the end, we had 5 qualifiers on the first target!

But we were just getting started - on the second RKD AQT target, working from 50 back to 200, every single one of those shooters re-qualified. Huzzah!

• Ian scored a 46 on the first target and then a perfect 50 on the second!
• Chris scored a 40 on the first target and then a 48 on the second.
• Tom scored a 48 on the first target with an AR conversion and then switched to a bolt action Springfield Model 1922 with iron sights to score a 44 on the second. That is the highest score I have seen at the 200-yard rimfire event with a bolt action with irons.
• Bill came back with a basic 10/22 with tech sights and scored a 46 on the first target and a 41 on the second - way to go! We did a write up last year on how much practice and preparation he did to make this happen and it was amazing to see him break through with the highest iron sights score I have seen yet at one of these 200 yard events.
• Matt scored a 46 on the first target and a 41 on the second and was very excited to earn his Rocker.

Only a few folks took part in a late-day 3rd RKD AQT and no one was able to break through. However, we did have a lot of folks that were very close, with scores in the mid-to-high 30s. Jim, I hope you figure out what the issue at 200 is, because your 50-150 targets were very good. John, I am sorry you only noticed your loose scope rings on the last target, but that explains why things really opened up after a strong first target. Paul, you were crushing it at 50-150 and I hope you come back to nail that 200 yard target next time.

Tucked into this great day of shooting was the 125 yard Morgan's Shingle cold bore challenge. We had 10 folks try it (2 instructors wanted a chance) and we had THREE people hit the target. Tom nailed it with his AR, Bill hit the edge with his Tech Sights 10/22 (the sun hit the target just right and he made the shot!), and Shoot Boss Catch-10-22 pulled out his CZ 455 with iron sights, slid the rear ladder sight to 125, and hit it with his only shot of the day.

This isn't to say that the event was all shooting - the students enjoyed the history, including the unique "Tale of Two Rifleman" segment we only do at this event. We wrapped with the benediction, discussion of other event types (pistol, centerfire KD, etc.) after a very long day and packed up as the sun was getting low on the horizon.

Thanks to MDshooter, Agent711, Liberty Boy, and BeSwift for the hard work on the line all day. And thanks to Delmarva Sportsman Association for hosting - it could not be a better range for this event.

Pictures are posted to the Maryland Appleseed Facebook page.

Hope to see you on the line at a future event!

 

[joppaj]

Any link yet for shoot dates in 2023?

 

[Catch-10-22]

Any link yet for shoot dates in 2023?

We are getting a lot of shoots on the calendar for 2023 already, but more to come soon!

schedule | Project Appleseed

appleseedinfo.org

 

[joppaj]

We are getting a lot of shoots on the calendar for 2023 already, but more to come soon!

schedule | Project Appleseed

appleseedinfo.org

Excellent, thank you!

 

[Catch-10-22]

Great day on the line for yet another outstanding event at AAFG in Annapolis, MD this past Sunday. This was a private event for members of their Junior Rifle program. A small, but productive class where everyone there gave it their all and things moved at a blistering pace. All instruction and zeroing of rifles was completed by 11.30 so that left the rest of the day, for history, and THREE AQT's.That's almost unheard of, for a 1 day class! 4 of the 5 students earned rifleman (most multiple times), for an 80% success rate. A number of folks earned their Immortal 400 patches as well! Thank you to all the students and instructors for an outstanding, if a bit chilly, shoot!

Pictures are available on the Maryland Appleseed Facebook page.

We have ONE spot open for next weekend's (previously sold out) rimfire pistol clinic at AAFG - so if you are interested in signing up, do so quickly here: https://appleseedinfo.org/location/?locationid=9&eventid=8788

 

[Catch-10-22]

Seven dedicated students braved unseasonably cold and blustery an Appleseed pistol clinic in Annapolis, Maryland this weekend. Only a week or two after we had weather in the 70s, shooters faced windchills in the 20s, particularly with sustained cold winds on Sunday! We even had a few flurries on Sunday...but there is no Winterseed patch for Pistoleers (yet...).

Saturday began with the Red Coat target and Sharif K took the coldest bore button challenge (shooting the button first before the rest of the target) and cleaned the target to earn his Immortal 400 patch and a bonus Sons of Liberty patch from the shoot boss. All of the shooters qualified at some distance with 4 hits in one of their targets - so we knew we had a great group to work with. We kicked off the core instruction and went through a series of drills to build competency and confidence in skills. Before the day ended we were able to get in two PQTs and got TWO Pistoleers immediately. Sharif K knocked out a 241 on his FIRST PQT (and re-qualed with a 230 on the second), and Eric M put up a 226 as well - congrats to you both! Michael K (who was unable to attend Sunday) came oh so close with a 208 - we hope to see you at a future event to get over that line. Sharif cleaned the red coat again to wrap up a nearly perfect day shooting.

Sunday brought back 5 shooters as the temperature dropped further and sustained winds made frequent history and instructional breaks in the heated club house very welcome. A couple of dropped shots on the Red Coat thwarted ambitions, but that was ok as we immediately got into shooting drills and PQTs. Eric M tied Sharif for the best score of the weekend with a 241. Sharif was on the road toward a higher score a few times (99 on Part one) but just couldn't beat that first stellar score (240, 239, 238, among others). The final Red Coat showed a lot of tired and cold shooters.

Deon was one of our most consistent shooters despite not qualifying - he was consistently in the mid-180s all weekend but we be hampered by a bad stage or a malfunction. He has all the skills to earn that patch next time. Bruce topped out at 175 - but he hit the button 3 times; I know you were frustrated and left wondering about your pistol so we hope to see you back soon. Seth was using a new pistol and showed significant improvement on Saturday. Mark was also using a new pistol and was showing major improvement in rapid fire, target transitions - and despite being a righty, shot lights out left handed. I know he will continue to practice and build proficiency toward a future event.

Overall it was great working with such a great group of students. I would also like to thank the instructors for gutting out a shoot in less than ideal conditions - Kniwolf tag teamed the core instruction, demos, and key segments (onion, draw, holster) with me and I appreciated the opportunity to do the 3 Strikes and Sam & Sam. Mike was great as our club rep and LSO - he helped work out conflicts with some other club events on Saturday that allowed the event to happen - Huzzah!!!! But it was really their one-on-one engagement and coaching of individual shooters that made the event such a success. You have my thanks and admiration

Pictures are posted to a Google photos album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/83p4XPFi1xAiJNng6 and our Maryland Appleseed Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064405762810

Thanks again to Anne Arundel Fish and Game for hosting us in their action bays. And we hope to see everyone on the line at a future pistol or rifle event!

 

[Catch-10-22]

Last Events of 2022
We are in the home stretch of the 2022 Project Appleseed season, with THREE shoots left before year-end with spots available.

We have 3 spots on the line open for our centerfire and rimfire RIFLE clinic at AGC in Marriottsville on December 3-4.

We also have 3 spots open for our centerfire and rimfire PISTOL clinic in Thurmont on December 10-11.

Finally, we have a whole bunch of spots on the line for our one-day rimfire rifle clinic at AAFG in Annapolis on December 18.

If we get a continued cold snap like this past weekend's weather, the Marriottsville and Annapolis events could be Winterseed qualifiers. Winterseed events and patches are quite rare - we have only had 9 qualifying Winterseed events in the past 8 years and only 26 patches awarded (compared to 53 Distinguished rockers, for instance). So it's certainly a patch you want to earn!

We are currently getting dates for 2023 approved but already have some active pistol and rifle clinics on the calendar - so stay tuned for that. We will also do our end-of-year wrap up post after that last December event and celebrate another excellent year for the Maryland program.

Hope to see you on the line!

 

[dontpanic]

Seven dedicated students braved unseasonably cold and blustery an Appleseed pistol clinic in Annapolis, Maryland this weekend. Only a week or two after we had weather in the 70s, shooters faced windchills in the 20s, particularly with sustained cold winds on Sunday! We even had a few flurries on Sunday...but there is no Winterseed patch for Pistoleers (yet...).

Saturday began with the Red Coat target and Sharif K took the coldest bore button challenge (shooting the button first before the rest of the target) and cleaned the target to earn his Immortal 400 patch and a bonus Sons of Liberty patch from the shoot boss. All of the shooters qualified at some distance with 4 hits in one of their targets - so we knew we had a great group to work with. We kicked off the core instruction and went through a series of drills to build competency and confidence in skills. Before the day ended we were able to get in two PQTs and got TWO Pistoleers immediately. Sharif K knocked out a 241 on his FIRST PQT (and re-qualed with a 230 on the second), and Eric M put up a 226 as well - congrats to you both! Michael K (who was unable to attend Sunday) came oh so close with a 208 - we hope to see you at a future event to get over that line. Sharif cleaned the red coat again to wrap up a nearly perfect day shooting.

Sunday brought back 5 shooters as the temperature dropped further and sustained winds made frequent history and instructional breaks in the heated club house very welcome. A couple of dropped shots on the Red Coat thwarted ambitions, but that was ok as we immediately got into shooting drills and PQTs. Eric M tied Sharif for the best score of the weekend with a 241. Sharif was on the road toward a higher score a few times (99 on Part one) but just couldn't beat that first stellar score (240, 239, 238, among others). The final Red Coat showed a lot of tired and cold shooters.

Deon was one of our most consistent shooters despite not qualifying - he was consistently in the mid-180s all weekend but we be hampered by a bad stage or a malfunction. He has all the skills to earn that patch next time. Bruce topped out at 175 - but he hit the button 3 times; I know you were frustrated and left wondering about your pistol so we hope to see you back soon. Seth was using a new pistol and showed significant improvement on Saturday. Mark was also using a new pistol and was showing major improvement in rapid fire, target transitions - and despite being a righty, shot lights out left handed. I know he will continue to practice and build proficiency toward a future event.

Overall it was great working with such a great group of students. I would also like to thank the instructors for gutting out a shoot in less than ideal conditions - Kniwolf tag teamed the core instruction, demos, and key segments (onion, draw, holster) with me and I appreciated the opportunity to do the 3 Strikes and Sam & Sam. Mike was great as our club rep and LSO - he helped work out conflicts with some other club events on Saturday that allowed the event to happen - Huzzah!!!! But it was really their one-on-one engagement and coaching of individual shooters that made the event such a success. You have my thanks and admiration

Pictures are posted to a Google photos album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/83p4XPFi1xAiJNng6 and our Maryland Appleseed Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064405762810

Thanks again to Anne Arundel Fish and Game for hosting us in their action bays. And we hope to see everyone on the line at a future pistol or rifle event!

Thank you for running the shoot, I had a great time.

 

[Catch-10-22]

After our final clinic of 2022 in Annapolis this past Sunday (thank you to Agent711 and Liberty Boy!) it is time to take stock of an extremely rewarding year.

We wanted to continue to grow the number of clinics we were hosting in 2022 and we achieved that goal, with 35 clinics conducted in the region (MD, Southern PA, and West Virginia – up from 34 last year) and 31 in Maryland alone (up from 29 last year). Our total number of students was just about the same as well (only 4 fewer shooters than 2021).

We continued to improve our instructor ratio achieving 2.4 students per instructor over the course of the year! That is an amazing rate of shoots (about 3 per month) and students for a relatively small cadre and we cannot thank you enough for your dedication of time and energy to the program!

It looks like 2023 is going to be even bigger with as many as 40 shoots at 10 different area ranges with as many as 550 students of capacity. We will also host our first Ladyseed clinic in several years at Annapolis on September 23-24. We’re going to need a bigger bailing bucket!

Driving the increase in the number of shoots was the full roll-out of the Appleseed Pistol Clinics this year, with 8 events in 2022 following our first event in November 2021. The Pistol Clinics target a higher student-to-instructor ratio that limits capacity but still accounted for nearly a quarter of all of our students for the year and had a utilization rate of 85%!

Our shooters were outstanding in 2022 as well, earning boatloads of patches. Our Rifleman ratio was up by 10% (40% of students scoring Rifleman at events – the highest in Maryland ever by 5%!), 15 Distinguished shooters, 11 Rimfire KD qualifiers, 5 cold bore KD Morgan’s Shingle patches earned, 5 Winterseed patches, and 3 250 patches awarded (at the same event).

Of the 73 students that attended Pistol clinics, 33% of them earned their Pistoleer patch at the event – considering how new the program is and how hard it is to qualify, that is a real compliment to our Pistol instructors and volunteers (including the volunteers that earned their Pistoleer patches). We expect to do even better next year with our first in-state Pistol Instructor Boot Camp scheduled for April 1-2 in Annapolis and as many as 10 pistol clinics throughout the year.

We had so many Immortal 400 patches earned (112 Red Coat targets cleaned in 2023, over 2x any other year we tracked) that we had to order another big batch to refresh our inventory!

Some of these folks are returning shooters but they see the value in continuing to improve their marksmanship skills, “seventh stepping” to bring friends and family, and broadening their skill sets from rifle to pistol to KD. So thank you to our returning shooters – your commitment to the program warms our hearts. And thank you to our instructors for making every shoot matter and worthy of our best effort – the results are a testament to your efforts.

We grew our cadre in 2022 and it has been a family affair with husband and wife teams have been leading the way. New Shoot Boss (and qualified pistol shoot boss) Kniwolf and IIT ProgressNotPerfection have been leading a ton of our Pistol expansion efforts into the range at Thurmont. Instructor Lycos and IIT Phoebe have also helped us expand Pistol clinics at AGC. Father-Son team Agent711 and Liberty Boy have been steadfast in supporting our rifle clinics in Annapolis.

It’s been great to have our consistent border raiders such as Double A Ron and BBQ_Bandit making long drives to deliver a message of liberty. And we certainly want to acknowledge Off_paper, CatGravity, Mdshooter, and all the other instructors (24 in total) that supported events in Maryland in 2022. Special thanks to State Coordinator BeSwift for your continued great leadership of the Maryland program – we are still working on the design for that statue in Washington DC for you.

We are hosting our first in-state Rifle Instructor Boot Camp in many years on March 4-5 in Annapolis, led by Maximum Ordinate, the Appleseed National Coordinator! This will be a great opportunity to hone your skills, refresh on the latest lessons learned from across the nation, and have a great weekend of camaraderie as well. If you have ever been interested in volunteering to take a hat, 2023 would be an excellent year to step up!

A huge thank you to the TEN local ranges that hosted us this year!

• Anne Arundel Fish and Game Conservation Association (AAFG) in Annapolis, MD

• Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore (AGC) in Mariottsville, MD

• Thurmont Conservation and Sportsman's Club in Thurmont, MD

• Sanner's Lake Sportmans Club (SLSC) in Lexington Park, MD

• Delmarva Sportsman Association in Sudlersville, MD

• Berwyn Rod & Gun Club in Bowie, MD

• Gunpowder Military Reservation in Baltimore, MD (Milseed with the National Guard)

• Leetown Gun Club in Kearneysville, WV

• Our hosts on private land in Parsons, WV

• York Adams Game and Fish in Abbottstown, PA


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

We are always hoping to add new ranges - we are especially interested in finding ranges that would accommodate Pistol and Known Distance (100-400 yard) clinics. If your club is interested in hosting an event, we can make it happen! If you know anyone who could benefit from Appleseed or a LibertySeed (a history focused event to a church, youth group, etc.), please suggest our program to them – we want to continue to grow the shooting community in Maryland while also helping folks understand the value and perishability of their rights.

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.

Hope to see you on the line in 2023!