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The Appleseed Program is designed to take you from being a simple rifle owner to being a true rifleman. All throughout American history, the rifleman has been defined as a marksman capable of hitting a man-sized target from 500 yards away — no ifs, ands or buts about it. This 500-yard range is traditionally known as "the rifleman's quarter-mile;" a rifleman can hit just about any target he can see. This skill was particulary evident in the birth of our country, and was the difference in winning the Revolutionary War.

After reading about Appleseed for years, I finally made it out to an Appleseed weekend event in Davilla, TX earlier this month.

Appleseed was worth the trip. They have skilled instructors, a challenging course of fire, and the weather (rain) made things interesting. I'd never shot in heavy rain and mud before. It was actually pretty fun.

The opening course of fire was against "the redcoats". Redcoats are scaled targets simulating British Redcoats at ranges of 100 to 400 yards. This is a test to see where your skills are at before marksmanship instruction begins.

Firing from prone, I center punched the 300 and 400 yard targets with my AR-15... but overshot the 250 yard head.

During the weekend we got practice using standing and sitting positions as well as prone. I needed the practice pretty bad. I'm in much better shape with both standing and sitting positions now. Also learned to use the sling to aid my accuracy. Seemed to be helpful in shrinking my groups.

Appleseed was pretty fast moving. One of the big challenges was time. You have to move pretty fast on some of the stages.

The primary goal of the training is to score well on the AQT. The AQT is an extremely challenging course of fire that involves shooting challenging targets from the standing, sitting, and prone positions under tight time constraints.

If you score well (200-210+), you earn the coveted "Rifleman patch"

Learned to shoot a lot quicker during the weekend. Unfortunately not quick enough to get my "Rifleman" patch (this time).

Plan on going back next year



More info here:

http://www.appleseedinfo.org/

So I take it that the course is weighted toward semi-auto rifles like the AR15 and rapidly changing combat scenarios?

I ask, because the term "rifleman" has always had two connotations for me. One is the above — that of a combat infrantryman with a rifle. The other connotation is of the lone rifleman on a good bolt action rifle, who can hit anything he can see out to 1000 yards.

At Davilla, there are two gun-ranges. The first day's shooting is all on a 25 meter range. The second day, qualified folks with center-fire rifles can shoot on the 400 yard range at full scale targets.

The most common rifle in my class was a Ruger 10/22. And 22 was by far the most common caliber.

I'm certain bolt action guns would put you at a disadvantage during some stages, but there were both lever and bolt action(i.e. Mosin-nagant) rifles present in class. Some of the stages involve mag changes and strings of up to 13 rounds... which also puts certain rifles at a disadvantage.

The most precise marksmanship needed at Appleseed is on the 250 yard head target. It's slightly tougher than the 500 yard shot.

I'd add that the founder of Appleseed is a big fan of the M14/M1A rifle.

Sounds like the USMC KD-course (Known-distance).

I plan on attending one, and recommend others to do the same.

Would the Appleseed courses be appropriate for well-behaved and experienced 9 or 10 years olds, firing bolt action Marlin-type .22 rifles?

There is alot of info on the site and a forum that will answer all your questions. They have a lot of stickies. I haven't been yet, but I haven't read an age minimum, but did read that the preferred rifle would be an semi - auto. But they say they are there to help and teach and if thats all you got then bring it.

I think your children would be fine. I hope to take mine with they get a little more mature for that.

I totally missed the FAQ and forums (I didn't realize the links up top were actually pull down menus) Thanks for the pointer!

TheArmedFarmer wrote:Would the Appleseed courses be appropriate for well-behaved and experienced 9 or 10 years olds, firing bolt action Marlin-type .22 rifles?

Absolutely! Women and kids shoot free.

There were several well-behaved youngin's at the October event.

Appleseed is definitely on my list of things to do in the near future. I really need to get a suitable rifle first, though.

While my Marlin 60 is semi-auto and high-cap enough (18 rounds), it is tube-fed and not possible to reload in an expedient fashion, particularly in odd positions. All the rest are bolt-action.

I just need to figure out which one.

I like the idea of Appleseed as a way of increasing civilian (and militia) marksmanship and rifle skills. I don't really care for Fred's definition of a "true rifleman" being one who hits targets at 600 yards using an M1A with iron sights. I also don't like military-style range commands. I understood the need when I was training en masse with dozens of idiots who had never touched a firearm before, but since I promoted to PFC a loooong time ago, I absolutely refuse to submit to some USMC DI-wannabe strutting around barking orders.

I hope not all Appleseed shoots are conducted that way, but the reports I've read indicate they do tend to lean that direction.

Shooting man-sized targets with standard rifles (no scope_ at ranges further than 200m (yard) is not practical in war zone. The engagement distance is around 50-70m max.
Sniper shots are exempted.

NcongruNt wrote:Appleseed is definitely on my list of things to do in the near future. I really need to get a suitable rifle first, though.

While my Marlin 60 is semi-auto and high-cap enough (18 rounds), it is tube-fed and not possible to reload in an expedient fashion, particularly in odd positions. All the rest are bolt-action.

I just need to figure out which one.

There are magazine changes for mag fed rifles, but they have simulations worked out for folks with tube fed rifles.Take the 60.
All of the shooting scenarios are timed. So, someone using a bolt gun, and expecting to get "rifleman" better be fast. I did see a shooter using a bolt, but he is a regular rifle competitor.

Purplehood wrote:Sounds like the USMC KD-course (Known-distance).

Yep, those that make "rifleman" get to try the KD shooting, instead of the down sized targets from the 25 yard line.

That almost piqued my interest enough to look into this...a challenge.