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444 · January 15, 2018, 11:45 AM

My piece of advice is to not spend a lot of time obsessing over your equipment. I realize this is an internet gun forum and as such, we enjoy discussing guns and related equipment.
However, over the years I have read posts like: "I am going to attend an Appleseed after I get done building a rifle for it.........." and things like that. Don't do that. Just go, no matter what you take.

My advice is to bring whatever you have. You say you have a 10/22, great. That is a good thing because that is what most people will be using. You absolutely need to be able to use a sling. So figure that out: mount sling attachment points on your stock or buy an aftermarket stock that has sling attachment points. Personally, I use Hogue over-molded stocks; they have sling attachment points on them, the 10/22 barreled action drops right into them, and they are not very expensive.

Sling: my advice is to use the standard USGI sling. Again, this is what almost everyone, if not everyone will be using. You can get one here: http://store.rwvaappleseed.com/page13.html

Use whatever sights are on the gun: don't worry about it. One thing though is that if you decide to use your scope get down in prone and make sure you have the correct eye relief to have a clear/full sight picture. Most people never shoot their rifle in prone: they shoot from a bench; and the scope needs to be at the correct distance from your eye for shooting from prone. In prone your eye will be closer to the scope. Fiddle around a little bit with getting into prone, sitting, standing to make sure your scope is at the right distance from your eye; at home, before you get to the Appleseed event.

You are going to need at least two magazines. Having a few more may be nice. You don't need any aftermarket magazines, the standard 10 round Ruger magazine is what you want. Having an extended magazine release is a very nice thing to have. You are going to be making magazine changes on the clock. The easier it is for you to change magazines, the better. Which brings us to another point about magazines. I have a whole bunch of factory Ruger 10/22 magazines. With some of them, I actuate the mag release and the magazines fall free. Other ones don't. Obviously the ones that fall free are the ones I use at Appleseed. I honestly can't tell you why some of them fall free: it might be slight dimensional differences from the manufacturing process, it might be wear on the magazine body............... I don't know. But, you might want to play around with your magazines to try to find ones that drop free.

Lastly, ammo. Obviously the first thing you want is ammo that functions reliably in your rifle. Malfunctions tend to rattle the shooter and result in poor performance.
Accuracy: in Appleseed, you are trying to achieve a minimum of 4 MOA accuracy. Most people think this is a joke. They will tell you about how their rifle will shoot half MOA............... And this might be true, however they are not shooting half MOA from positions. They are shooting half MOA from a benchrest. The philosophy of the 4 MOA thing is that Appleseed believes that you should be able to shoot a Rifleman score using a rack grade rifle and standard ball ammunition. Early on when I was first shooting Appleseed, I used Walmart bulk ammo. I practiced diligently and as I got better, and was shooting much tighter groups I realized that I was getting fliers. I knew I had executed all the steps of firing the shot and follow through and that shot should not have went where it did. I ended up trying different ammo and realized that by using the cheapest possible ammo, that I was leaving points on the table from fliers when it should have been a good shot. Don't get all hung up on ammo. Don't go overboard. But, I found that CCI Standard Velocity made a difference. Maybe a 10 point difference on an AQT over bulk ammo.

January 15, 2018, 11:45 AM	#10
444 Senior Member Join Date: November 20, 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 3,968	My piece of advice is to not spend a lot of time obsessing over your equipment. I realize this is an internet gun forum and as such, we enjoy discussing guns and related equipment. However, over the years I have read posts like: "I am going to attend an Appleseed after I get done building a rifle for it.........." and things like that. Don't do that. Just go, no matter what you take. My advice is to bring whatever you have. You say you have a 10/22, great. That is a good thing because that is what most people will be using. You absolutely need to be able to use a sling. So figure that out: mount sling attachment points on your stock or buy an aftermarket stock that has sling attachment points. Personally, I use Hogue over-molded stocks; they have sling attachment points on them, the 10/22 barreled action drops right into them, and they are not very expensive. Sling: my advice is to use the standard USGI sling. Again, this is what almost everyone, if not everyone will be using. You can get one here: http://store.rwvaappleseed.com/page13.html Use whatever sights are on the gun: don't worry about it. One thing though is that if you decide to use your scope get down in prone and make sure you have the correct eye relief to have a clear/full sight picture. Most people never shoot their rifle in prone: they shoot from a bench; and the scope needs to be at the correct distance from your eye for shooting from prone. In prone your eye will be closer to the scope. Fiddle around a little bit with getting into prone, sitting, standing to make sure your scope is at the right distance from your eye; at home, before you get to the Appleseed event. You are going to need at least two magazines. Having a few more may be nice. You don't need any aftermarket magazines, the standard 10 round Ruger magazine is what you want. Having an extended magazine release is a very nice thing to have. You are going to be making magazine changes on the clock. The easier it is for you to change magazines, the better. Which brings us to another point about magazines. I have a whole bunch of factory Ruger 10/22 magazines. With some of them, I actuate the mag release and the magazines fall free. Other ones don't. Obviously the ones that fall free are the ones I use at Appleseed. I honestly can't tell you why some of them fall free: it might be slight dimensional differences from the manufacturing process, it might be wear on the magazine body............... I don't know. But, you might want to play around with your magazines to try to find ones that drop free. Lastly, ammo. Obviously the first thing you want is ammo that functions reliably in your rifle. Malfunctions tend to rattle the shooter and result in poor performance. Accuracy: in Appleseed, you are trying to achieve a minimum of 4 MOA accuracy. Most people think this is a joke. They will tell you about how their rifle will shoot half MOA............... And this might be true, however they are not shooting half MOA from positions. They are shooting half MOA from a benchrest. The philosophy of the 4 MOA thing is that Appleseed believes that you should be able to shoot a Rifleman score using a rack grade rifle and standard ball ammunition. Early on when I was first shooting Appleseed, I used Walmart bulk ammo. I practiced diligently and as I got better, and was shooting much tighter groups I realized that I was getting fliers. I knew I had executed all the steps of firing the shot and follow through and that shot should not have went where it did. I ended up trying different ammo and realized that by using the cheapest possible ammo, that I was leaving points on the table from fliers when it should have been a good shot. Don't get all hung up on ammo. Don't go overboard. But, I found that CCI Standard Velocity made a difference. Maybe a 10 point difference on an AQT over bulk ammo. __________________ You know the rest. In the books you have read How the British Regulars fired and fled, How the farmers gave them ball for ball, From behind each fence and farmyard wall, Chasing the redcoats down the lane, Then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load.