more appleseed questions
- Thread starter horatioo
- Start date
Not out of place
No, a 50 year old man is not out of place there, as I am 55 and just completed the course. The instructors will teach kids, ladies and old fat men like me! Look for my post titled Appleseed was great. Go and enjoy yourself while you learn what you don't know. Larry.
No, a 50 year old man is not out of place there, as I am 55 and just completed the course. The instructors will teach kids, ladies and old fat men like me! Look for my post titled Appleseed was great. Go and enjoy yourself while you learn what you don't know. Larry.
azredhawk44
Moderator
2)
Appleseed is a project of the RWVA (Revolutionary War Veterans Association). RWVA is an affiliated club recognized by the CMP that makes you eligible for purchase of a surplus rifle through their program.
To buy thru CMP, you have to:
1. Be affiliated with "a" club. This can be a NRA Hi-Power league in your area, many other shooting clubs (the list is extensive), or RWVA itself. RWVA membership is $20.
2. Participate in a sanctioned shooting event and pass a safety approval by the folks running that shooting event. An RWVA Appleseed instructor will give you a certificate at the end of the event to take care of this requirement (assuming you meet the safety requirements
).
Come join us!
If you're open to coming with the best tools for the job, and being a more inexperienced shooter, may I suggest that you attend with a .22LR rimfire autoloading rifle? I'd suggest either a Ruger 10/22 or a Marlin 795, and a total of 4 10rd magazines.
You'll also want a GI style cotton sling, and 1.25" sling swivels on your rifle to fit that sling.
Finally, you'll want decent sights on the rifle. TechSights (http://www.tech-sights.com) make some great inexpensive sights for these rifles that simulate the aperture style sights of M14/M1/AR rifles. They are also adjustable to a vastly superior degree than the stock sights... which are less than ideal to say the least.
Total cost with a Marlin 795, 4 mags, a couple bricks of cheap ammo, techsights, sling and swivels should come out to around $250 or so. A Ruger 10/22 will cost a bit more and it won't come equipped with last shot bolt-hold-open like the Marlin has.
Appleseed is a project of the RWVA (Revolutionary War Veterans Association). RWVA is an affiliated club recognized by the CMP that makes you eligible for purchase of a surplus rifle through their program.
To buy thru CMP, you have to:
1. Be affiliated with "a" club. This can be a NRA Hi-Power league in your area, many other shooting clubs (the list is extensive), or RWVA itself. RWVA membership is $20.
2. Participate in a sanctioned shooting event and pass a safety approval by the folks running that shooting event. An RWVA Appleseed instructor will give you a certificate at the end of the event to take care of this requirement (assuming you meet the safety requirements
).Come join us!
If you're open to coming with the best tools for the job, and being a more inexperienced shooter, may I suggest that you attend with a .22LR rimfire autoloading rifle? I'd suggest either a Ruger 10/22 or a Marlin 795, and a total of 4 10rd magazines.
You'll also want a GI style cotton sling, and 1.25" sling swivels on your rifle to fit that sling.
Finally, you'll want decent sights on the rifle. TechSights (http://www.tech-sights.com) make some great inexpensive sights for these rifles that simulate the aperture style sights of M14/M1/AR rifles. They are also adjustable to a vastly superior degree than the stock sights... which are less than ideal to say the least.
Total cost with a Marlin 795, 4 mags, a couple bricks of cheap ammo, techsights, sling and swivels should come out to around $250 or so. A Ruger 10/22 will cost a bit more and it won't come equipped with last shot bolt-hold-open like the Marlin has.
azredhawk44
Moderator
Shooting a Rifleman's score has been done with an SKS... but it's hard. You'll be doing extremely well if you break a 175 with that particular rifle, IMO. (250 is a perfect score on the AQT, and 210 is a minimum Rifleman's score).
Are you prepared to put 400+ rounds through it? Costwise and endurance-wise?
If so, then have at it! There are tech-sights available for the SKS, by the way. They increase sight radius and make adjustments MUCH easier.
It'd be a lot cheaper and probably more beneficial to your skills to do the course with your Marlin 60. Those tech-sights will install on a Marlin 60 as well.
If you intend on using the 60, you might also want to look into a spee-d-loader.
http://www.spee-d-loader.net/
A lot of the courses of fire are timed at an Appleseed. Having magazines helps with reloading, but a Marlin 60 is a PITA to load one cartridge at a time by hand when trying to reload that tube. The spee-d-loader should help with that quite a bit, especially during a "sound of liberty" salvo of 40 rounds.
(No, I don't work with or have any affiliation with TechSights. It's just an inexpensive product that works well on rifles with less-than-superior sight systems on them.)
Are you prepared to put 400+ rounds through it? Costwise and endurance-wise?
If so, then have at it! There are tech-sights available for the SKS, by the way. They increase sight radius and make adjustments MUCH easier.
It'd be a lot cheaper and probably more beneficial to your skills to do the course with your Marlin 60. Those tech-sights will install on a Marlin 60 as well.
If you intend on using the 60, you might also want to look into a spee-d-loader.
http://www.spee-d-loader.net/
A lot of the courses of fire are timed at an Appleseed. Having magazines helps with reloading, but a Marlin 60 is a PITA to load one cartridge at a time by hand when trying to reload that tube. The spee-d-loader should help with that quite a bit, especially during a "sound of liberty" salvo of 40 rounds.
(No, I don't work with or have any affiliation with TechSights. It's just an inexpensive product that works well on rifles with less-than-superior sight systems on them.)
I was 69 yrs. old when I went to the very first "Rifleman's Boot Camp" at the RWVA Range. It was a lot of work,a lot of rds. fired and left me very tired out.
I was loading up my truck with camping stuff for the #2 Camp when I started having chestpains and decided I had better not go. Good thing I didn't as I wound up in the hospital.
At the first camp( before .22 LR was popular) I used a Fed. Ord. M14A and put many rds. through it that week. I did get my "Rifleman's Badge that week.
Be sure if you attend the Boot Camp to camp out as you will get much more from the experience and meet some of the best people on the planet.
I was loading up my truck with camping stuff for the #2 Camp when I started having chestpains and decided I had better not go. Good thing I didn't as I wound up in the hospital.
At the first camp( before .22 LR was popular) I used a Fed. Ord. M14A and put many rds. through it that week. I did get my "Rifleman's Badge that week.
Be sure if you attend the Boot Camp to camp out as you will get much more from the experience and meet some of the best people on the planet.
chris in va
New member
No. You need four detachable magazines of 10rds each.
A Ruger 10/22 with rear peep sight would be ideal.
You have to do drills standing, sitting and prone, all with a sling firmly attached to your arm and some in sequence for the same drill. Up down, up down.
I brought my Saiga and CZ carbine as a backup (all I own), had a *heck* of a time hitting anything with those iron sights. The sun got in my eyes and I couldn't see squat, then the instructors would be 20 yards down the other end and I couldn't hear what the heck they were trying to say.
BTW, save yourself some grief and SIGHT YOUR GUN IN ahead of time. Trust me.
And about those TechSights, they're wonderful but you're right, an investment just to use them for the course. Don't bring your Marlin 60. When you factor in the expenses...cost for decent 22 to use, ammo (some people were using 308!), sling, cost of the course, travel expenses (hotel, gas, food), elbow/knee pads etc it can REALLY add up.
I figured my cost came to about $450 as I had to use 7.62x39. And that was two years ago.
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azredhawk44
Moderator
Yes, but the sights you have on that Marlin (or the stock ones on just about any .22) are insufficient to the tasks presented in an Appleseed course of instruction.
Instructors will work with you to a certain point, but when an obvious hardware limitation has been reached they will focus their energies on other students.
Tech Sights are much less expensive than either Williams sights or a scope-based solution, but provide an accurate, repeatable sight picture that can be adjusted to mate your Point of Aim with your Point of Impact in a rational, scientific manner that you will learn in the first 1/2 day of an Appleseed.
You will end up using the same procedure and logic to adjust sights on an M1 Garand, an M14, an AR-15 or a scoped rifle. Once you learn to do it that way you will never again want to touch the type of sights that come on most plinker .22's.
Regarding the SKS:
I disagree, Chris. As long as he can do the reload stages with x39 stripper clips then an SKS would work. It still has the same limitations as the Marlin with regard to sights, however. Windage adjustment is extremely limited and difficult with stock SKS sights.
http://www.surplusrifle.com/sks/sights/hs.asp
Frankly, to take full advantage of the knowledge presented at the course, you're best served equipping one of your rifles with quality aperture style sights.
Horatioo: Do you truly mean a "boot camp," or do you just mean one of the 2-day weekend shoots? They are very different creatures.
chris in va
New member
I suppose that could work. Our instructor was pretty strict about having 4 mags though as we would shoot 3 rounds, reload, 5 more, reload etc etc.
You will laugh about this thread after you go. The appleseed people taght my youthful self how to shoot like a marksman- I have no doubt I can hit a head-sized target out to 250 yards 9/10 times with my RR ar15. I remember seeing little kids with .22s and much older men there. The diversity is amazing... you won't be out of place.