November 2014 Meeting
The summer and fall seasons are over and, we have started up the monthly meeting again. The November meeting was a review of what improvements at the range and the different activities during the warmer months.
A quick recap. In the spring, we had the Wabasso HS and Echo Charter HS shooting Trap, and Hunter Education Firearm Safety class. Then through the summer we had the Tuesday night trap league, 4H Shooting Sports, a couple of concealed carry classes, defensive handgun classes, Ladies night (first Wednesday of the month), two Rimfire Sporter matches, and Echo Charter HS shooting trap again this fall. We have no way of telling how many members (a lot) have visited the range other than the amount of traffic we have seen and hearing lots of shooting going on.
Range improvements included new and additional steel on the pistol range, road maintenance, berm maintenance, and the archery range.
One of the big questions of the night is what can be done to get more members out to the range to participate in different shooting activities. After all, Shooting is Fun, and who doesn’t want to have more fun. River Valley Arms and Ammo is continuing to sponsor Ladies Night. This was a very popular event and Heather looks forward to expanding program.
We are looking forward to seeing an expanded HS Trap program. Echo and Wabasso are returning in the spring. Who knows maybe Redwood HS might show up. We would like to invite the parents of these athletes to try their hand at shooting trap. The State of MN is providing grants to improve trap facilities. We applied and will receive a matching grant. Next year the plan is to install audio controlled releases on the two trap fields and lights on one.
The CMP Rimfire Sporter Match is a fun match and can be fired with just about any .22 repeating rifle. We are planning on running at least two of the matches next year. Additional matches are possible if there are volunteers to assist in running the matches. Then there is the rimfire sporters big brothers: M1 Garand, Vintage Bolt, and Modern Military matches. These matches are fired at 200 yards. Five sighters, ten shots slow fire prone in a time period of ten minutes, ten shots rapid fire prone in a time period of 80 seconds, and ten shots slow fire standing in a time period of 10 minutes. Currently there are no matches schedule or planned. However, if there is an interest something can be scheduled.
There was some discussion on exploding targets and whether they should be banned. At the moment there does not appear to be a problem, as long as some common sense is used. Placing the target as far downrange as possible is one. The real big item is no large amounts. A one pound target is OK. When you get larger than that, it starts to rattle the neighbors plates, etc. That could put our conditional use permit in jeopardy. However, not using them at all and using the savings to buy more ammo makes better sense.
A question if the club has any apparel with the Redwood Falls Sportsmen’s Club logo. At the present time we do not. Is anyone interested in getting a T-shirt, sweatshirt, or hat?
The next meeting is Tuesday 9 Dec at the Redwood Falls American Legion. Come out and join the discussions. Till then be safe and keep that muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!