Now that I have some time to sit down and think I'll relay my experience with Appleseed. I attended the one day class on 18 October over at Sharpshooters. The facilities at Sharpshooters are extremely well kept and decidedly upscale for a range/gun store. They had a really nice waiting area with a TV and a good view of the shooting range with some comfortable chairs and couches. I wish I lived closer as it is really a very nice range. Even the bathrooms were VERY clean; none of that rolled up skin mag in the throne room typical range stuff. I digress...
The guys who did the training for Appleseed are all volunteers and of the highest caliber. They really knew their stuff and were more than willing to take the time to explain ANYTHING to you. I really couldn't ask for more patient guys; they even dealt with my stubbornness on certain shooting positions a helluva lot better than I would have. It seemed as though we had the gambit of experience levels there from novice kids in their early teens to advanced shooters and they took the time to help everyone. This was a one day class so things were compressed quite a bit but we still managed to get everything in and even a little extra shooting at the end of the day. Afterall, time behind the sights is what it's all about....
Speaking of shooting, you will do a lot of it. I like went through 400 rounds of .30-06 in one day. You will have to day some fairly fast magazine changes, or in my case some FAST enbloc changes to make time in some of the courses of fire. You can pretty much bring whatever you want to shoot; there were a lot of .22s, my Mini G, a SCAR in .308, an AR, and a Saiga .223 when I was there. I felt bad bringing the Mini G with the muzzle brake on it but that is my go to rifle so I want to train with it. If you happen to forget some gear there is likely someone there that has an extra and is more than happy to loan it to you. I had to borrow a shooting mat and Freedom was more than willing to help out.
This was my first Appleseed event and it certainly won't be my last. My pride and elbows hurt at the end of the day but I learned a lot. My shooting will definitely improve after this and LOTS of practice. If you come there with an open mind you can really benefit from the instruction and watch yourself get better as the day goes on.
Interspersed in the day they make a very good presentation about what really happened on that fateful 19th day of April in 1775. They go into some fairly good detail about all the little skirmishes that became known as the Battles of Lexington and Concord as well as some of the marksmanship exploits at Saratoga. It really fired you up and afterwards you go shoot targets that just happen to have red silhouettes...hmmm.
Overall I really can't recommend you go to an Appleseed highly enough. For the money I just don't see how you could get better training. Everybody can learn something. I got lucky and one of the instructors was a dyed-in-the-wool Garand guy that showed me several new ways of holding the rifle. More than anything there is an underlying sense of brother(or sister)hood there as everyone there is a big fan of Liberty and the great American pastime of being a rifleman. Go to an Appleseed, take you family to an Appleseed, take your friends. It is WELL worth it!
Here's a link to a thread on the Appleseed forums with pics:
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=43147.0
The guys who did the training for Appleseed are all volunteers and of the highest caliber. They really knew their stuff and were more than willing to take the time to explain ANYTHING to you. I really couldn't ask for more patient guys; they even dealt with my stubbornness on certain shooting positions a helluva lot better than I would have. It seemed as though we had the gambit of experience levels there from novice kids in their early teens to advanced shooters and they took the time to help everyone. This was a one day class so things were compressed quite a bit but we still managed to get everything in and even a little extra shooting at the end of the day. Afterall, time behind the sights is what it's all about....
Speaking of shooting, you will do a lot of it. I like went through 400 rounds of .30-06 in one day. You will have to day some fairly fast magazine changes, or in my case some FAST enbloc changes to make time in some of the courses of fire. You can pretty much bring whatever you want to shoot; there were a lot of .22s, my Mini G, a SCAR in .308, an AR, and a Saiga .223 when I was there. I felt bad bringing the Mini G with the muzzle brake on it but that is my go to rifle so I want to train with it. If you happen to forget some gear there is likely someone there that has an extra and is more than happy to loan it to you. I had to borrow a shooting mat and Freedom was more than willing to help out.
This was my first Appleseed event and it certainly won't be my last. My pride and elbows hurt at the end of the day but I learned a lot. My shooting will definitely improve after this and LOTS of practice. If you come there with an open mind you can really benefit from the instruction and watch yourself get better as the day goes on.
Interspersed in the day they make a very good presentation about what really happened on that fateful 19th day of April in 1775. They go into some fairly good detail about all the little skirmishes that became known as the Battles of Lexington and Concord as well as some of the marksmanship exploits at Saratoga. It really fired you up and afterwards you go shoot targets that just happen to have red silhouettes...hmmm.
Overall I really can't recommend you go to an Appleseed highly enough. For the money I just don't see how you could get better training. Everybody can learn something. I got lucky and one of the instructors was a dyed-in-the-wool Garand guy that showed me several new ways of holding the rifle. More than anything there is an underlying sense of brother(or sister)hood there as everyone there is a big fan of Liberty and the great American pastime of being a rifleman. Go to an Appleseed, take you family to an Appleseed, take your friends. It is WELL worth it!
Here's a link to a thread on the Appleseed forums with pics:
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=43147.0
