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Fred's
Articles
Feb 19th Marksmanship Clinic Report
On a nice winter day, sun out, temp in low 50s, 33 shooters came from Alabama, Missouri, Indiana, New York and Virginia to mingle with North Carolina shooters and learn how to shoot a rifle.
M1s, M1As, FALs, and G3s shot beside at least one bolt-action scoped hunting rifle and an FN49, taking on the AQT with gusto...The 9-yr getting started early on being a rifleman fired a .22 rimfire (yes sir, he shot free - so next time YOU bring someone under 20, and we'll get 'em started on the right path in life).
Some terrific scores were turned in, the highest being 238, but most people typically came in short of the 210 needed to be a rifleman. Well, what do you expect? That's why they were there - to learn how to do it.
We shot the AQT twice more, with plenty of marksmanship instruction, and then went up to the 500 yard range, and the popups. And the shooters went crazy, knocking down popups at 200 and 300 yards like there was no tomorrow. Fred's chest swelled with pride. Nice, being around some real Americans who know how to shoot! (And maybe his earlier instruction DID help!)
As a special treat (as if another was needed), we quickly formed into 3-man teams and fired the Counterattackscenario, the teams clearing the 2- and 300 popups, then getting up and advancing downrange, clearing more popups as they appeared, finally winding up on top of the 100 yard berm to knock out all the popups again! It was a new experience - shooting and moving - a sample of what the March 5 and April 16 shoots will offer - and shooters quickly found out the faster they moved downrange, the slower and less accurately they shot, for all the huffing and puffing. Interesting, to say the least!
YOU should have been there.
You would have taken home far more than memories of a fun day of shooting. You would have taken home a bushel basket of skill, earned the hard way, on the firing line, and a head-full of marksmanship info which over the coming months will percolate into even more shooting skills.
Maybe you would now be a Johnny Appleseed, taking that much-needed information to get that much-needed skill back to your part of the country, and passing it out to the locals. So another apple tree gets planted, for future generations....
Pics of the day should be up on at www.rwva.org in a day or two - they'll look good, because the marksmanship clinic was good! See you at the next one on March 19. |
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