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I just got to the point of relaxing after spending 2 full days on Douglas Ridge rifle range participating in the RWVA appleseed course. I wanted to spend a little bit of time getting my thoughts on paper while they were still fresh. I'll be walking through I how I got to the point of firing my first range round yesterday.

TL:DR @Joe Link made me shoot, made me get a rifle, made me spend a bunch of money, and I'm thankful for it.

I apologize how much worthless info there will be in my post... OK here goes.

Approximately 1 year ago @Joe Link attended the appleseed event. He came home extolling the virtues of the class and told me I had to join him for the next one. He was like a tenderfoot trying to get his 1st merit badge. He was adamant about wanting to get his rifleman patch.

We began talking about how he was going to build a 10/22 to shoot with the next time so he would do better. Eventually I caught the bug and decided that I wanted to get a simple low cost 10/22 so I could go to the range with him and practice. Joe sent me a link to a bi-mart ad for a standard 10/22 with an extra mag and I decided to buy it.

Unfortunately... I also made a trip to Cabelas and a forum member's house that same night...

Day 1 I ended up with a stock 10/22, a magpul x-22 hunter stock, a tactical solutions extended magazine release, a tactical solutions picatinny rail, and a tactical solutions x-ring barrel. I put all the pieces together and put a Burris XTR 3-12x50 scope and bi-pod on it and thought I would be done with the rifle.

Joey managed to find a deal somewhere for a similar rifle with a green mountain barrel. We were set to begin our journey into bar tar heroin... I mean ruger 10/22's. Using these 2 tools we made numerous trips to ranges. Genuinely having fun trying to shoot smaller and smaller groups.

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Novemberish 2016:
At this point he began trying to convince me to do the appleseed. I saw how much better he was shooting than me and I decided he was probably right. I agreed to sign up and thought it would be fun to invite my dad to join us. That turned into Joe inviting his dad and brother.

As our excitement grew we decided to invite an anti-gun friend our ours. We promised him we'd "sponsor" him with a rifle, ammo, and his range fee. He agree, but now we needed another rifle...
(unfortunately he ended up not being able to make it so we had to find another friend to go)

Since I had built my setup I had a bunch of take off parts. I thought it would be easy to find another receiver and trigger. That proved to be a costly ($$$$$) mistake.
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I decided that I wanted some Kidd parts to for my gun so I ordered up a Kidd receiver, Kidd bolt, Kidd trigger, and some various other random Kidd pieces (guide rod, screw in trigger pins, kidd bolt buffer).

I was able to put all the "stock parts" back onto the loaner rifle and that should have finished everything. I threw a cheap 1x4-24 scope on it and it was set.
IMG_4819.JPG

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My anal retentive nature got the best of me and it bothered me to have an 80% kidd gun... So I bought a Kidd barrel to complete the setup. I didn't want to use the full size scope on it so I picked up a 1-4x24 vortex scope and SSALT mount. I figured it would be lighter weight and more usable for the 25m shoot.

I was really happy with the rifle, except the bolt hand some drag on the bolt. It cycled fine and I figured it would break in before appleseed (forboding words).

IMG_4818.JPG
IMG_4817.JPG
(the cheek riser looks like it's a different color in the picture, it's not)((the book is "cabin porn"))

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For some stupid reason I was looking on gunbroker.com and found another 10/22 that I bought. Completely unneeded and impulsive buy.

The rifle came with a Stage 1 brimstone tactical (based out of Camas washington) trigger, 20" kidd barrel, old school metal trigger housing, 4-12x50 Hawke scope, magpul x-22 stock, chinesium bi-pod.

My honest plan for this gun was to take the 20" kidd barrel & brimstone trigger off, throw a cheap KSA barrel and stock trigger pack on it and sell the whole thing. THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN (To the displeasure of my wallet and my Fiance)((Speaking of my fiance she has been very supportive through this whole process))

I have wanted to try out Sig Sauer's optics for a while now so I decided this rifle would be a great host for one of their graphite colored scopes... So I picked up a Sig whiskey3 3-9x50 scope for a crazy good price, bought a x-22 grey stock, a warne x-skel grey mount and a volquartsen bolt upgrade kit. Essentially I wanted a grey build.

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Ok so here's my actual appleseed stuff.

On day one of the shoot I was having a problem on the Kidd gun where my bolt was dragging when being racked. It would catch about halfway through the battery process. This was causing jams where the spent round would eject, but the bolt wouldn't cycle far enough back to insert the next round. Needless to say this introduced an added variable that was very frustrating.

The course was still a lot of fun for me and I feel I shot fairly well considering my 20+ years of bad habits. Despite my rifle issues, I scored better than I expected and I looked forward to the next day.

I heard about "story time" before going and I honestly expected it to be a non-stop bombardment of extreme right wing teaparty radical extremism. I expected all the instructors yelling at me from a soapbox extolling the reasons why I'm going to hell for having tried kale on a salad once back in 2003.

I was pleasantly amazed that it was historical and poignant for the topic at hand. It was a memorable experience that I really enjoyed. Essentially I felt that I could bring my non-gun friends to the course and not feel like they would be off-put by the experience.

Exhaustion set in by the time I made it home and I passed out after dinner. I only cleaned the 2 used gun by brushing the bores and lubing the actions. I wish I would have done a full takedown cleaning. I took some aleve and went to bed.

I woke up on day 2 excited to improve my scores and learn more. I picked my dad up and we headed to the range early. The morning session was decent for me. I improved on my day one score by 45 points. I was only 9 points away from qualifying, the goal was in my sights... nothing would stop me.

As we began shooting a qualifier my bolt problem got worse. My gun was jamming after almost every shot. When it didn't jam I was paranoid it did. Consequently my thoughts were on my equipment and my technique. I began to regress and get frustrated. At around 1pm I resolved myself to the fact that I wouldn't be passing and decided to try and help my dad improve his scores more.

By the time the final qualified arrived I said screw the kidd gun and pulled out the grey gun. It wasn't set up for a sling and the scope hadn't been fully dialed in. After shooting the last AQT I was actually impressed with how I did with the handicaps. I figure I scored around 170.

I feel that the instructors genuinely care for the students and the subject matter. They garnered our respect and really set us all up to succeed. A+ to them all

If I could change one thing it would be to a little downtime without stories to meet the other shooters and hear what they were experiencing. I think it would be great to know what everyone else was going through.

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Kind of disjointed I know... but I wanted to get my thoughts down tonight!

The following pictures are how the rifles look right after the shoot (picture 1), after cleaning (picture 2) and the final one... the grey build with my sig legion P299 for our instructor (Signess).

A+ course A+ instucters A+ people F- @Joe Link for making me spend all this money just to fail at qualifying.

Ohh, so he's my review of all my components... Better gear doesn't make you a better shooter, I didn't expect my tools to make me better, I just wanted to have no and pretty things.

IMG_4824.JPG IMG_4835.JPG
IMG_4836.JPG
 
I was pleasantly amazed that it was historical and poignant for the topic at hand. It was a memorable experience that I really enjoyed. Essentially I felt that I could bring my non-gun friends to the course and not feel like they would be off-put by the experience.

Exactly how I felt about it. I'm hoping I can do another one of these in the future and drag someone else along to share the experience with.
 
I had build a 10/22 for this same reason to do an appleseed. for some dumb reason i bailed at the last miniute this weekend. now i regret it because i know my rifle would have shot the crap out of it and I could have really used to refreasher on the important stuff. I would love to go with someone else or a group, its really unfortunate that I have no friends who shoot, only person I have to shoot with is my mom who bless her heart EDC's a full size beretta 92 in her purse! lol. If anyones going to the next event and wouldnt mind a straggler I would love to come along!
 
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Wow. Great post. I love appleseed too. I was with my son over on the far left ( a place I swear I have never been in my life!). He did all the shooting.

Fundamentals are really difficult and that is what Appleseed teaches.

I do have to say though with your "problem" that like Trump being better off without a Twitter account, you might be best advised to stay off gun broker ...

BTW we shoot the course with a $179 bimart special a cheap scope and a GI sling. You don't need to spend a fortune to learn if you don't want to.

Also Appleseed has loaners if you have guests that don't own.

Glad you made it out.
 
I had build a 10/22 for this same reason to do an appleseed. for some dumb reason i bailed at the last miniute this weekend. now i regret it because i know my rifle would have shot the crap out of it and I could have really used to refreasher on the important stuff. I would love to go with someone else or a group, its really unfortunate that I have no friends who shoot, only person I have to shoot with is my mom who bless her heart EDC's a full size beretta 92 inox in her purse! lol. If anyones going to the next event and wouldnt mind a straggler I would love to come along!

We should post and get a group together. There's the Carver Cafe in Carver on the way to the range. Good breakfast and place to meet up.
 
One of these days I want to do Appleseed. I'd like to see if I can get my wife and daughter to attend. I've got 2 of the 3 rifles we would need, in fact @Velzey did some work for me last year to add some nice sights and to add a new trigger to an old Marlin 7000, in anticipation of that rifle making an Appleseed event some day. Thanks for the range report.
 
Wow. Great post. I love appleseed too. I was with my son over on the far left ( a place I swear I have never been in my life!). He did all the shooting.

It was awesome seeing you guys out there. My dad actually commented something like "I wish I would have brought you to something like this when you were his age".

I'm sure your son will treasure the experience!

What was his impression of the course?
 
He had been before. I think he is on the bottom margin of maturity where he would be able to like it. He is 10 but looks older. Physically it is hard for him to do all the up and down for a full day. Also he is at the age where he is learning to accept instruction better. That is why Appleseed is so good. Ben and Earl and Kenjo and Whit and Flipper come around and give advice and instruction and he listens to them. He still has target fixation though and will lock on to hitting something rather than trying to do all the fundamentals.

This is a product of him, (and me sadly) and his age. I believe exposure and repetition will work. We are planning another in the late summer with some of his friends. Their parents are excited too so it is going to be interesting and a great way to expose them to shooting in a REALLY safe and sane manner.

We are at TriCounty and I have about 4000 AQTs printed up so we can just shoot those every week and he'll get better.

Technically Aedan finds the rifle a little heavy still and that will change with time. He is going to the gym with me and we are working delicately with weights to improve strength. He has some joint issues he got from his mom so I am not going to push the transitions as much as the shooting positions. Fundamentals can always stay with you. I know some Operator type people that look down their nose and I watch them spray bullets out there at the range, but few of them can hit a target at 100 standing over and over.

The difference in the world between craftsmen and production workers. I want my kid to be a craftsman if he wants to be and a production worker if he has to be.
 
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So, the more I hear about these events the more it makes me wonder if I could bring my wife and daughter. Especially with the talk of being exhausted, doing a lot of up and down, I don't think my wife's knees could take that. Not sure if my daughter would be up to a long day of it.

Is there an option for folks to attend strictly as spectators? That could hear the talks, but not participate in the shooting (but be able to watch it)? How long are the days?
 
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So, the more I hear about these events the more it makes me wonder if I could bring my wife and daughter. Especially with the talk of bed no exhausted, doing a lot of up and down, I don't think my wife's knees could take that. Not sure if my daughter would be up to a long day of it.

Is there an option for folks to attend strictly as spectators? That could hear the talks, but not participate in the shooting (but be able to watch it)? How long are the days?

I can't speak to the spectating rules, but I can say that shooters are allowed to sit out drills if the need/want a break. Additionally if you have problems getting into the prone position you can shoot from sitting or standing.

The days are long, 8:30 to 5-6pm I think. A handful of people from our session stepped out early so I'm pretty sure you could stick around until your daughter wanted to head out.
 
So, the more I hear about these events the more it makes me wonder if I could bring my wife and daughter. Especially with the talk of bed no exhausted, doing a lot of up and down, I don't think my wife's knees could take that. Not sure if my daughter would be up to a long day of it.

Is there an option for folks to attend strictly as spectators? That could hear the talks, but not participate in the shooting (but be able to watch it)? How long are the days?

I can't speak for KimberCustom. But they have always allowed people to do what they need to do to get the most for themselves during the event. I did for a day and a half with the ups and downs, the first time I did it. Now I do some of the transitions, to get the idea of them, then I just wait in position. I have a personal rule though when I don't do the transitions to wait till I hear the first shot so that I don't get a big time advantage for having not done the transition.

I am pretty sure that if her knees were bad, she could avoid whatever parts of the day that bothered her. MUCH more important to get her out and trained and involved than force her up and down all day.
 
I can't speak to the spectating rules, but I can say that shooters are allowed to sit out drills if the need/want a break. Additionally if you have problems getting into the prone position you can shoot from sitting or standing.

The days are long, 8:30 to 5-6pm I think. A handful of people from our session stepped out early so I'm pretty sure you could stick around until your daughter wanted to head out.

I can't speak for KimberCustom. But they have always allowed people to do what they need to do to get the most for themselves during the event. I did for a day and a half with the ups and downs, the first time I did it. Now I do some of the transitions, to get the idea of them, then I just wait in position. I have a personal rule though when I don't do the transitions to wait till I hear the first shot so that I don't get a big time advantage for having not done the transition.

I am pretty sure that if her knees were bad, she could avoid whatever parts of the day that bothered her. MUCH more important to get her out and trained and involved than force her up and down all day.

Good to know! Thanks to both for that feedback.
 
"On day one of the shoot I was having a problem on the Kidd gun where my bolt was dragging when being racked. It would catch about halfway through the battery process. This was causing jams where the spent round would eject, but the bolt wouldn't cycle far enough back to insert the next round. Needless to say this introduced an added variable that was very frustrating.

As we began shooting a qualifier my bolt problem got worse. My gun was jamming after almost every shot. When it didn't jam I was paranoid it did. Consequently my thoughts were on my equipment and my technique. I began to regress and get frustrated. At around 1pm I resolved myself to the fact that I wouldn't be passing and decided to try and help my dad improve his scores more.
"

Our 10/22 has been doing that for some time now. It will run decent for a couple mags and then just gum up and start misbehaving.
On the other hand, out M&P 15/22 has been flawless after probably 2000 rounds or more. Every once in a while we get a bad round, but it is quickly ejected with a pull of the charging handle and back to business. I want to love my 10/22 since I have taken such good care of it, but maybe it is just past it's prime.

Sounds like you all had fun though. I was next door keeping the Red Head's magazines full of 9mm
 
I'm glad we met or exceeded your expectations and thanks for sharing your experience.

This was possibly my favorite Patriots Day event. A full line, plenty of center fire, 12 new riflemen and reasonable weather - what more could one ask for.

We welcome observers, the only caveat is we ask you to sign a liability waiver and expect someone to try and coax you into shooting by offering up a rifle and gear.

We are very accommodating for physical limitations. If you can't get up and down - don't. If you can't shoot prone - don't. If you want to use a support - go for it. As long as you are within the confines of safety we want you there.

Hope to see you all on the line later this year.
 
I've done 2 Appleseeds, the first one a 2 day event. I was pretty much mentally exhausted by the time the weekend was over, but it was well worth it. I'd never been able to practice like that before. Good targets at longer ranges. Add to that the very helpful Appleseed shooting instructors and it's an event that I can't recommend highly enough.
I haven't been for a couple of years, but I'll be back.
 
I think on the range kimbercustom can officiate. Just get hitched between AQTs.

Appleseed celebrates the rebellious acts of brave men fighting to maintain their rights and freedoms... I don't think that falls in line with the normal views of marriage ;)

I'd be down for it though, but I'll let you guys convince my fiancé.
 

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