Wisconsin Appleseed

[maidendeth13]

Kind of a rambling review below, but shot my first appleseed event yesterday and figured I'd share.

The last few years I've been shooting my bow a lot and I was shooting pistols a bit before Covid (and the boating accident).

After shooting a rifle for the first time in awhile prior to a hunt it became evident that I needed to get back to practicing a bit more. I could shoot fine to 350 prone w/ bipod but couldn't hit a paper plate offhand at 100 yards. (I ended up getting to 50 yards on the elk but never got a shot through the brush )

Doing some reading on rokslide revealed a "test" put together by one of the members. I printed the targets and shot it at home for fun.



10/20 revealed that as expected I needed some work.


A quick search online revealed that there was a 1 day appleseed nearby. Any outdoor event in Wisconsin is suspect in December but against my better judgement I signed up and e-mailed the shoot-boss for a loaner rifle (anyone have a 10-22 they want to sell??).

Little bit of a late start yesterday but turned out to be a great day. Temps started in the low 20s and made it to mid 30s. Light snow on/off throughout the day kept it interesting. One guy quit at lunch because he was too cold and many others looked on the verge of freezing. I stuffed my pockets with hand warmers and also got the ones that go in the boots and made it through okay. I'm fortunate that I have a closet full of cold weather hunting gear though and that I looked at the weather forecast and grabbed waterproof layers.

Around 9:15AM we finally huddled up and the shoot boss ran through the safety rules, what the day would look like, line commands, etc.
From there we shot a target to establish a baseline/starting point.
After each course of fire we'd round up, get something to work on, and shoot another string.
In approximate order the day went as follows
Shoot to establish a baseline
Work on prone position
Cover zeroing a rifle and making adjustment to people who needed it. Quick lesson on Inches/MOA/Clicks.
Shoot a few groups and make those adjustments
Work on offhand shooting
Work on sitting or kneeling
Work on transitioning from standing to sitting/kneeling/prone
Shoot the AQT (2x)
Shoot the same course of fire from the morning to see how you improved.

Some of the courses of fire involved reloads, time, etc. The focus is mainly on positioning and establishing a natural point of aim which is exactly what I was needing help with. Not a lot of focus on reloading techniques, etc. but that's fine. As a whole there was major improvement across the class from the mornings baseline target to the one at the end of the day. I shot 12/13 on both but was able to shoot the end of the day from a much more comfortable position vs how I shot the morning.

At the end of the class they hand out patches to those who shoot "rifleman" or 210/250 on the AQT. My target was handed back to me with a 209 on it...

While the shoot boss was recapping the day and what people should focus on going forward (both on shooting and with an interest in maintaining our liberty) I did a quick count and noticed one round hadn't been scored. An instructor took a look and determined I had actually shot a 213. Just enough to qualify. (Side note, my 2nd AQT would've also been a 209 had I not put 3 rounds on the bottom left target instead of 2!!! Really glad I double checked the score. Another guy received a penalty like I did but it dropped him to below 210. Ouch). Going into the day I didn't think I cared about the patch, but by the end of the day I was in full competition with myself. Fun way to add some challenge to the day. Not an impossible test by any means and probably easy for many of the shooters on this forum, but I thought it was a fair standard.




I've shot more than what's probably average for people but would never consider myself a great shot and am always looking to improve. I've taken courses in TX from some great instructors that cost much more than this one and I still learned a lot of good info. $60 is a bargain for a round count of about 250 and a chance to shoot and get instruction. I'm fortunate enough to be able to shoot at the place I'm living now and plan to re-shoot the first test this weekend and continue to work on improving the fundamentals. The sling use doesn't all transition directly to a hunting rifle, but much of the positioning, breathing, etc. does.

Cheers.