RIGHT ON TARGET
January 2009
We had a GREAT turnout for the annual meeting held on the 24th of this month, 2009. I never did a head count, but there were in excess of 50 people including spouses, girlfriends and daughters. As usual, we had people who hadn’t let me know in advance, but also there were one or two no shows, but still, I was worried if we had enough food. We did, but just barely!
I will give a brief rundown of items covered at the meeting. I am sure Dan will have a copy of the minutes ready in a few days and anyone that’s interested can contact Dan for a copy of the minutes and or a financial report.
The smallbore range is coming along, but a bit slowly. We applied for another Friends of the NRA grant to finish work there. Dana Terlecky announced that we were approved for the grant so we have much work in front of us to finish. We are going to build a stem wall around the firing line mound to prevent erosion and provide a nice level shooting surface. We also need to build the target lines and target frames and acquire targets. With luck, we might shoot us a smallbore prone match the end of September or maybe the first of October.
There was discussion and a presentation by Jack Schuster of the Lincoln County Regulators about letting that group hold their matches (Cowboy Action) in the pits in the event that the range they are located on was closed by the National Forest Service due to fire danger. This action was approved by the club.
We had a lengthy discussion about lead on the range. Ron Zerr was appointed last year to research the subject. His recommendation was to develop a plan via guidelines he has found and to proceed. The club is very lucky in having a PHD (piled higher and deeper) in geology as a member of the club. As it turns out, Ginger has a little time and graduate students who need something to do. We may have a group of scientist on the range in the near future taking samples and readings to determine, just where we are, and if necessary what course of action may be needed to stave off……………….bullshit.
We talked about our very active schedule this upcoming year. Please check the website for all events listed. Of note, there will be a police sniper school held on our range the first week of August. The All Guard Team has reserved a block of time the end of August for practice and training. The regional for this year was moved to the second weekend of September due to Perry running so late this year.
I would like to point out range rules numbers 8 and 11 of our published range rules. CLEAN UP YOUR DAMN MESS!! Recently we have found pallets used for target supports in the pits and in front of the sight in berm. While we don’t have a problem with the plinkers in the club doing that, they need to clean up their mess when they are done. I have spent way too much time out there cleaning up this kind of thing and we are to the point that if you can’t clean up after yourself, you are not welcome to come back! This means target material, target support material as well as brass and shotgun hulls!!!!!! PLEASE CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR SHOOTING SESSIONS!!
We have a new water well!! Rick Usrey of Usrey Drilling is a member of our club and graciously donated drilling of the well to our club. It only cost us the cost of the casing. We have a well that is 75’ deep, pumps 30 gpm, is sealed, is sweet and ready to be used. If you run into Rick, let him know how much you appreciate his generous gesture.
We have scheduled work days. Please come help. I or the club will furnish the beer if it will help attendance!! We have a lot of shovel work to do before we get kicked off and there is a work day scheduled for April 19 to do just that. If there are those who would like to get a head start because there is so much to do, just let me know, we can do it.
We are doing a bulk powder and primer order thru the club and my license again this year. As you may well know, these items are tight! I ordered powder for my store last month and didn’t really have a problem with finding one pound containers, but the 8 pounders were problem. Federal primers are a problem and all the others are come and go. We may enter an order and a back order and wind up paying several hazmats and shipping charges, but I don’t see where there is a choice. Get your want list into me and in a few weeks I will start trying to find and order what I can get. Your price will be as good as I can get but due to the unstable condition of the market and inventories, well, you will be treated as good as possible. I may not even be able to give you a firm price until the items arrive due to what exactly ships, but you have an idea of what area it should be, if not give me a call and I think I can give you a ball parks number.
Get ready to shoot, hi power starts in February this year at Roswell!!
Hold hard and favor center,
Bill Rodolph, President
Capitan Hi Power Shooting Club, Inc.