A couple months back, Dan asked me to write up a brief thread on how to get involved with
The Appleseed Project. I?ve been busy with my wedding and getting my property on the market, but no longer.
So here we go. As an instructor with Appleseed, I can tell you it's the most cost-efficient ($70 for 2 jam-packed days of instruction at the range ? plus women, <21, and active military shoot FREE!) American heritage and marksmanship program you'll find. Every instructor is a volunteer and our mission is simple: Saving Our Country. We believe this can be done by teaching the heritage of our country's founding and telling people the stories of the great men and women who pledged their lives, treasures, and sacred honor so that we would have the freedom that so many take for granted today - plus we've got a really fun marksmanship program. We?ll teach you the skills that will allow you to use just your rifle and sling (no bench, no sandbags, and no bipod) to hold 20? groups at 500 yds.
I wrote some about the marksmanship program in another thread, so I won?t get into that here. This thread is about how you can get involved in Appleseed here in Nebraska.
Nebraska has started a bit late into the Appleseed program, but so did Colorado ? where we grew from 1 shoot and 1 range in 2007 to 9 shoots and 5 ranges in 2009. It?s just a matter of how hard the volunteers want to work in each state. Fortunately,
Matt Gibbs has stepped up and volunteered to take on the responsibility of the NE State Coordinator, which is the first step to a successful state program.
I'd like to start seeing regular Appleseed shoots throughout NE next year. So I?m looking to talk to anyone who is a member of a club, or who has open farm land, where we can safely set up a 25 meter range. Send me a PM if you think you have a cooperative club or a suitable range site and we can start on the paperwork to get a shoot (or several) organized for next year. Note that Appleseed brings our own instructors and our own insurance, we just need the range. And shooters who want to learn about their heritage and wake up that sleeping American they have inside.
Generally, ranges tend to like Appleseed and invite us back because we draw new people to the range (remember women and under 21 attend free) who otherwise may not choose to spend their entire weekend listening to Revolutionary War stories and throwing 400 rounds downrange.
So what do you say? This sound good and you want to know what you can do to help grow Appleseed in NE? First thing we need to do is find locations to hold shoots, so
email Matt Gibbs or PM me if you?ve got a lead on a location we can set up a 25 meter range. Then, once we have a couple shoots set up, we?ll post the details here on NFOA so you can sign up and sign your family and friends up to come shoot. If you have fun at the shoot and like the program, then you can sign up to become an instructor so we can start having even more shoots across the state and reacquainting more Americans with their heritage. To become an instructor you?ll need to shoot a 210+ score on the Army Qualification Target to qualify Rifleman (all explained at your first Appleseed). Then, just choose to start down the Appleseed trail as an Instructor in Training and begin progressing toward a full Instructor and then a Shoot Boss.
Let me know if you have questions. Nebraskans, we need to get moving on this; Spring is right around the corner!
Zombie
