“Keep your booger hook off the bang switch!”

My brother visited last weekend and we had the most fun EVER.  Who knew laying in a rock pit for eight hours could be so exciting.

It was.

I don’t know if any of you have heard of the Appleseed Project.  It’s a marksmanship clinic put on by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association.  They teach traditional marksmanship skills as well as American history in an effort to create more responsible, better informed citizens who take their liberties seriously.  They also go out of their way to involve women and children.  Really the nicest group of people you could ever hope to hang out with in a gravel pile.

This is the first Appleseed I have been able to go to.  The last two I were eyeing were either too cold, too far, or I was too pregnant.  This time Reuben and I decided to just go for it.  We left Grandma with the teething infant, packed a lunch-box full of Twix, and made our escape.

Having not shot a rifle since who knows when, I kept on jabbing Reuben on the mat next to me asking, “What do I do with this?  What’s wrong with this thing?”  To which he would reply something helpful like, “The pointy end goes that way.”

And yes, I did wear a dress.  I would have considered wearing pants on this occasion, but I don’t have any.  Not a pair.  So I picked a dress with a nice full skirt that I could sit cross-legged in and called it good.  And really, if you can’t do something in a dress then it’s just not worth doing.

Here are my groups.  The totally random holes are from the first round where they told us to shoot, but didn’t specify at what.  So I shot at them all, just to be safe.  🙂

The point is to have nice tight groups.  Then you can find an average and adjust your sights accordingly.  The elevation on mine needed to go down some.  Reuben and I shot identical groups on the first three rounds.  The instructor came by and commented, “The family that shoots together, stays together.”  I can’t wait until Gideon and Jehu are a little older.  Kids shoot for free and the instructors seemed more than happy to have them on the line.  The only problem is that I seem to be in need of an extra five or so guns…  Thanks to Idgi and Geoff for letting me borrow theirs.  Actually, Reuben borrowed it and then let me use it because it was nicer.  I think he may have regretted this later when his scope practically fell off during the timed AQT rounds.  I was happy to qualify for Marksman, a.k.a. one step above “terrible.”  Hooray!

We finished off the day with a cozy evening at home cleaning guns in our jammies.  You can see more pictures of the shoot here.  It was easily the most enjoyable thing I have done in years, I can’t really explain it.  I think it’s just satisfying to know that you can hit what you aim at…as well as which way the pointy end goes.  🙂  I want to do another one next summer and look forward to when we can go as a whole family.  Be sure to keep an eye on the Appleseed website for the schedule for the upcoming season.

While there I handed out a few more stickers.  It seemed like an appropriate occasion.  And thanks to Reuben for driving seven hours to escort me to the shoot.  Who could ask for a nicer, more well-armed brother?