Go to an Appleseed!

If anybody here has an interest in improving their rifle shooting, go to an Appleseed. Project Appleseed puts on two-day, weekend marksmanship clinics. Generally, Saturday at an Appleseed involves oral instruction on the basics of shooting a rifle. Instruction covers the positions, prone, standing/offhand, and seated/kneeling, whatever postions one can use. Sundays involve some repetition of the instruction and a heck of a lot of shooting. If you attend one in the Northeast, you are probably going to shoot more than 700 rounds over the two days. I heard that one Appleseed in Nebraska, I believe, run by an instructor from Massachusetts, set a new record of over 1300 rounds.

For more info, see: http://www.appleseedinfo.org/

In addition to rifle instruction and shooting, An Appleseed involves the teaching of history and heritage. This concentrates on the real story of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775.

The rifle of choice at an Appleseed is the Ruger 10/22, prefrebly with a couple modifications,notably aperture sights, and a quickly detachable military-style sling. Search for information on the "Liberty Training Rifle" for all the details. If you do not have and do not wish to buy a 10/22, then either bring whatever rifle you have or ask to borrow one. Whatever rifle you have will be good enough.

All of the instructors at an Appleseed are volunteers, many will bring 10/22s with them to loan them out to shooters. If you go to the Appleseed website, under "RWVA links" on the top menu, you will find a link to the "RWVA forum." You might be able to find out who to contact ahead of time to borrow a rifle.

If you do go to one, you are likely to learn much and have more fun. If you already are anexpert with rifle, go, shoot a bit and you will be asked to become an insructor.

i would read the articles the seeder's have in the Shotgun News first and decide if they are the right group for you.

There can be a "political" bent to comments made by some there. An Appleseed is going to tend to attract a pro-2nd Amendment, anti-gun-control, libertarian crowd. If you disagree with such views, you could choose to not go, or go and listen while saying nothing, or try and disagree vocally. Except for the last option, I doubt it is going change the quality of the instruction. I also doubt most of the instructors would change how they instructed even if one disagreed vocally.

The only issue I've seen specifically supported by instructors is the against gun control. Not a big surprise at a rifle event.

I was given something at an Appleseed, from a participant - not an instructor, that I found almost, if not, offensive.