Project Appleseed at the Jamestown range...

Andrew and I got up bright and early (5:30ish) Saturday morning

and headed for the Jamestown range to get set up for the shoot. 

It was a pretty drive out to the range, seeing the dam and everything...

 

 That's the range way down there...

 We had 6 shooters on the line (including myself)...

 Mrs. O. brought her 3 young people and they all shot... 

(She also took most of the pictures of the shoot---"Thanks again, Myra!")

 Mr. H. and his son shot both days too...

 ALEX WAS OUR SHOOT BOSS!!!  :) 
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may recall Alex being at many of our other shoots (including our very first one about 5 years ago), coming all the way from Iowa to volunteer his time and knowledge/skills.  He now lives closer, so we hope he can come again in September!  He has a very nice way with people and is an excellent teacher.

My brother, Andrew did a lot of the instructing; most of the history; and Alex had him make a lot of the decisions about which course of fire we were going to do next, as Andrew's in "Shoot boss training" now.  :)

Brandon O, making his rifle safe...

Filling mags...

Checking targets down-range...

Getting the sitting position figured out...

"Fire!"

Bill came from the western part of the state to help run the line too.  He took an orange hat after the June Appleseed here, so it was really good to see him again and to have his help!  He's demonstrating how to properly use a hasty sling for standing...

Myra---taking more pictures.  :)

Saturday was a beautiful day (although it was pretty windy, which added a challenge to shooting straight), and several of us went away with sunburns

Andrew designed the target-holders you see pictured here.  They blew over a few times in the strong wind-gusts until he tacked them down to the ground.



 

...

Shooting in the prone position is still my favorite, although I'm getting better at the others finally.  :)

Some of the new shooters thought it was funny I was wearing a jacket still when it was so hot, but when I explained about hot brass from a neighbor-shooter rolling over and hitting bare arms and how that doesn't feel so nice, one of them put a sweatshirt back on...  The others just said "Ouch".

It's really great seeing young people learning these skills early in life

 (before learning bad habits that will later need to be changed)!

If shooters are pretty young, they shoot the whole time in the prone position and may use sand-bags or something similar for support. They can NOT earn a Rifleman badge this way, but they get to learn many skills anyway.

Yes, I was very happy to make the "Rifleman" score again!  Now to move onto harder things---shooting with tech sites instead of a scope!  The September shoot could be interesting....

I LOVE N.D. skies when they look like this!

After going out to supper at the Pizza Ranch with Alex and Bill, Andrew and I went and found the campground that Myra's family had so generously taken their camper to so we could stay there!   It was a cozy camper and we slept pretty well (even with the sounds of the races still going on at the race-track nearby) and got to bed early for a change (at 10:00).  We were up the next morning at 6:45, so felt a bit refreshed.  :)

Oh!  But, before we went to sleep, we went for a bike ride!!  :)  The trail wound around the river, and Andrew got some neat pictures of God's wondrous creation:  

Isn't that just gorgeous?

We found an old pump at the top of one of the trails. 

 I pumped it for quite some time, but all to no avail...

We went up and down and around and up and down some more........covering about 3 miles of trail.  

We rode our grandparents' very old Schwinn bicycles.  :) 

(I was going to get a picture of Andrew on his, but he wanted to keep moving instead.)

 

Actually, if you look at the following 3 pictures, you may think we went back in time, because of the old bike...

...the old gentleman fishing down by the old bridge...

...and the old car that drove by!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Sunday was COLD and misty...

Everybody stuck it out pretty well though and there was definite improvement seen in the shooting!  Yay!  Praise be to God for keeping everyone safe and for keeping the rain showers away this time!

 

Before we all headed in our separate directions, Mrs. O. took a picture of all of us:

 

L to R: Bill, Me, Brandon, Travis, Breanna, Alex, Sam, Tyler, and Andrew

After loading up everything and saying our goodbyes, we headed for home.  After fueling up in Steele, I took this picture of the hotel that's being built where the Lone Steer used to stand....

We got home just in time for a late supper and then Andrew and I did the evening chores.  Andrew taught this little heifer how to drink from a bucket, as she choked all the time when drinking from a bottle.   She is a very vocal calf come feeding time!

 

All of the shooters at the Jamestown event said that they hope to come to the September shoot, so maybe we'll get the range filled up again!!  :)  There are already 3 people preregistered.  Yay!!! 

 Oh, and we have a Shoot Boss coming from Georgia this time!