(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
Understand that applications are on you
Appleseed events are threading a needle. They need to say that they are not fomenting rebellion or any illegal use of force. They have to say this because they are pointing to our American heritage of marksmanship…without which our rebellion against the brits would have failed. You don’t need to be a lawyer to see the tension. The only way you can survive that tension is by erring on the side of liability protection. They are not teaching hunting. They are not teaching self defense. They are not organizing a paramilitary movement. They are teaching our heritage of marksmanship using a traditional and clearly sporting (rather than practical) method. And they are teaching our shared history. And no more.
Since I’m not affiliated with Appleseed, I can discuss application with you but even I, as a private citizen, have to be careful. I have to be careful largely because there are crazy people who will misinterpret what I am saying to fit their warped views. A hard fact is that some people are on the wrong side of that line between preparedness and paranoia. I find that impressive because there’s such a large acceptable area to draw that line. But some people will always go too far.
A fundamental and inescapable fact is that the legal system exists. We should never ignore that fact. I highly recommend Massad Ayoob’s book “In Gravest Extreme” to get a bearing on what the legal ice we’re talking about is like. It’s all thin ice and as he puts it: “I’ll teach you to walk where it’s thickest”. Yes, yes, “better to be judged by 12 than buried by 6”. What that saying doesn’t mention is that you’re looking at 100,000-300,000 dollars to defend yourself against a criminal charge (at least that’s what I was taught at Gunsite’s 250 [1]. And that’s regardless of outcome; lawyers get paid regardless of trial outcome. The social cost on your family will also be paid. You’ll always be “the guy who shot someone” and you may lose friendships and opportunities as a result. The fact that you were justified in the eyes of the law won’t matter to some. And if you lose the legal fight, then the costs get worse. Your kids will grow up without you. Your wife will be without you. Your parents may die while you’re in lockup. There will be the stigma of being an ex-con if you get out. Do not lightly hold the possibility of use of force. Do not discount the social cost of it.
That leaves you with a balance to strike. We all acknowledge that use of force is at times morally and legally acceptable, perhaps even required. We also acknowledge that a use of force that you truly believed was morally and legally justified can destroy your life. It’s a hard balance but a necessary one. You must not become so bogged down that you cannot act correctly. You also cannot hold it lightly.
The skills that Appleseed teaches are enough to let you be “master of a quarter mile” is what they say. If you can hold 4 MOA, you can hit any 20-inch circle out to 500 yards. The most likely application of this would be in hunting or long-range competitive shooting. In big game hunting, you’re generally advised to keep your shots within an 8-inch circle, so an Appleseed standard would be adequate out to 200 yards which is good enough for almost all but our friends out west. A C zone for a standard USPSA target is approximately 12×18, call it 12 in circle, and you’d be good out to 300 yards if you can keep the Appleseed standard. If you learn what they have to teach you should be able to tighten that up and reach significantly higher.
The logic I saw passed around was that the 4 MOA standard is low enough that all the variation of gun and ammo should fall within it. Whether you’re using an old Mauser or a new AR, if you’re outside that 4 MOA standard, then that’s on you. I imagine that for modern rifles, it’s actually much tighter than that but it’s a good reminder that most of us aren’t outshooting our equipment. If you can’t shoot marksman, it’s on you. Any applications you use that skill are likewise on you. As are the legal and moral consequences.
Fair Criticisms
One of the biggest dings to what Appleseed teaches is that in hunting and long-range competitions most shooters are not using slings for marksmanship. Most of them are using bipods, monopods (i.e. resting on the magazine of an AR-15), backpacks, shooting sticks, and shooting bags when they’re not using improvised rests. The only “practical” sling shooters I know of are biathlon athletes.
The positions Appleseed teaches are also open to criticism. The prone position which uses the knee to take the belly off the ground, is not suitable when shooting more powerful rounds. More “practical” courses like Warrior Poet [2] teach a centered prone position to aggressively control recoil. The standing position likewise is fine for a .22 rimfire and surprisingly stable but I would be very hesitant to shoot a full-size cartridge from that position. The mixture of acceptable sitting/kneeling positions means they tend to be a weakness because there’s too much variation.
In sum, I think it’s a fair criticism to say that the skills that Appleseed teaches are flat out not applicable to either close-range legal self-defense or the type of modern fast-paced warfare we’re observing in Ukraine or the Middle East. They do dig a good foundation for pursuing long-range riflemanship, but you won’t walk away (even with a rifleman patch) able to function as a designated marksman or sniper.
Ignored Pros
The traditional method of marksmanship will not harm you, regardless of what type of shooting you are pursuing. Pat Mac makes this point explicitly, and it is why he advocates practicing at long ranges (50 yards) with a pisto [3]l. Precision shooting (pistol or rifle) punishes you for the slightest failure and gets rid of the “eh, it’s good enough” that you can so easily get when blasting away at 10 yards. Similarly, the instructors at Gunsite taught me that it’s easier to add speed to precision than vice versa.
The ideas of shooting cadence and Natural Point of Aim (NPOA) that Appleseed teaches are always applicable skills. It takes a lot of effort to get used to NPOA and it initially seems of little value. If you get used to it you’ll be surprised how much better a marksman you will become. Practicing getting in and out of position in a way that your NPOA is already where you want it to be is really useful. Marrying that to a shooting cadence of 1 shot per breath cycle is also useful. Pushing that two shots per breath is also a good place to grow.
Avoid common mistakes
Show up with their sling, not a sling you think is close enough. Their curriculum is standardized on that sling, not the one you bought. Plan ahead and never trust shipping to arrive on time. I would just buy it from Project Appleseed directly.
Show up already zeroed and have something you can adjust zero with, conveniently. The range rules are strict, there isn’t enough time to get you zeroed and fix your positions and follow their plan for the day. They only give you 5 groups to get zeroed and the range rules mean that you might lose one of those groups zeroing your gun. You’re not allowed to touch the gun unless the line is firing so if you can’t adjust with some clicks quickly you’re going to have a bad time. Red dot or scope is already the norm. You don’t need to break the bank but I wouldn’t trust anything under 50 bucks. In between 60-100 for this application, red dot or scope is personal preference for the .22
Bring a semiautomatic with detachable magazines. For maximum compatibility, you might as well make it a Ruger 10/22. The curriculum requires reloads and if your rifle does not take detachable magazines that is going to be a complication, how well it’s handled will vary Appleseed to Appleseed. Manual actions are similar in that they will be slower at best and a lever action may not even work in a prone position. So bring a semi-auto that takes detachable mags.
Be familiar with reloading your rifle. The curriculum requires reloads while you’re on the clock. Fumbling to remember where the mag drop is won’t help you.
I recommend having easily-distinguishable magazines. Some courses of fire require a certain number of rounds in magazine “A” and a different number in magazine “B”. Trying to remember which is which can be annoying if they’re the same size. The range rules require that the magazines must be brought to the firing line while the rifle is left there unloaded. If you take a Ruger 10/22, a 15-rounder will be easier to shoot in prone than a 25-rounder and will be easier to change than the standard 10-rounders. Having a single 25-round mag and a 15-rounder would be ideal.
General gear suggestion: Upgrade to electronic ear protection if you haven’t yet. Yes, any hearing protection (foamies or construction muffs) will work but electronic hearing protection lets you listen while shooting. It’s worth the jump in cost.
Winter-specific gear: Bring handwarmers and have extra layers with you. What’s comfortable the first hour may not be cutting it 5 hours into the shoot. I should have brought an extra layer. Similarly, while empty hands are good for actual shooting you’ll want to warm those back up. The main thing I’d change is the handwarmers.
Summary
We are nearing the 250th anniversary of our national birth, I have a hard time imagining a better time to hear the story of our founding again. Meeting others who value marksmanship and history is likewise a good thing. And any time I get to send rounds downrange is a good day for me.
If you’re confident you’ve mastered all that Appleseed has to teach then I suggest you go to a winterseed and test your equipment against the environment. I found that a worthwhile way to get a cooler patch and test myself against a slightly harder environment.
If you know what applications you are focused on, go to a qualified trainer who specializes in that skill and go there. If you are focused on speed and “practical” applications then focus on that (I suggest Warrior Poet Society or Gunsite). The better your fundamentals, the more you will be able to take from those courses. The only other organization I’m aware of teaching the fundamentals of marksmanship in a similar way is the CMP in their small arms firing schools. It’s a similar price point but more competition-oriented.
I will also add that I when I competed in Precision .22, I focused on the kneeling position. Yes, my scores would have improved more if I used those rounds on standing but my logic was and is: “of the positions for target shooting, kneeling is the fastest to get into and out of, shrinks my target profile, and allows a better shot than standing”. NRA Precision Smallbore doesn’t lend itself to practicalities but I took the most practical thing and focused there. That is solid advice for the appleseed. Take it, then take the most practical thing and focus on that. Then grow in the direction you think you should grow.
Building on that, you need to understand that growth is done on your own time. If you show up knowing nothing, then you will be dragged along faster than you can run. However. If you take the information on building your position (prone, sitting, and standing), marry that to the concept of NPOA and Shooting cadence, and then apply that to scored targets over time you will become a better marksman. The foundation will be good and you can build whatever you want on top of that.
Will I go to another Appleseed? Probably. It would be a “known distance” where instead of simulating 300-yard targets, you actually engage targets at 300 yards and consider trajectory and wind call. The other possibility is the pistol Appleseed, not because I’m a beginning pistol shooter but because I want to see how they teach it.
Will I take my children to get their rifleman’s patch? That is likely. I will take them to the range and teach them the positions and fundamentals myself first. But after I’ve taught them they will need things to test themselves against and this is one of the few arenas I know of where the prize is both attainable and means something.