Colorado Rifle Club

NEWSLETTER

January 2003

THE MAIN EVENT

The CRC Annual Dinner bash, and meeting/election of directors is coming February 15th at Captain Bligh's Restaurant located in the Denver West Travelodge on Simms/Union Street north of 6th Avenue, opposite the Denver Federal Center. If you're coming from 6th Avenue, exit onto northbound Simms, then take the next immediate right onto the frontage road for 6th Avenue. Turn into the parking lot for the motel, keep to the right, and head into the lower parking lot area. The restaurant is at the end of the lower lot below one of the motel buildings. It's the same place we have used for the past several years, and this year they promise better table service and a working sound system. For your cholesterol fix the menu includes roast prime rib of beef with all the usual trimmings. If you're still holding strong to your new year resolutions there is baked chicken or halibut. PLEASE SEND THE ENCLOSED COUPON with your check - to arrive NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 8, or if you prefer, call or e-mail your reservation to Martin Everitt at 303 425-4450 or email at mever46144@aol.com, and pay at the door. This will be as much a social event as a meeting, but we do need to talk about the work bond situation as well as our priorities for development of the ranges. Where should we be headed from here? Jot down your ideas on the enclosed form and send them in so that we can compile some ideas before the meeting. Your involvement makes this your club. We look forward to seeing you February 15th!

DUES REMINDER

Your 2003 dues notice is included with this mailing. Thanks for your patience. We did not send them on January 1st, in order to save about $250 in postage. To all those who called, many thanks for your concern. The new membership cards will be printed about a week or so after the database manager gets the list corrected, removing those who dropped out last year. The lock combination will not be changed until April 1.

2003 CALENDAR

Also included in this mailing is schedule of events for the coming year. Looking ahead into next year, CRC is pleased to announce we will host the NBRSA 1000 Yard Bench Rest National Championships, September 25th - 28th.

Shooters from all over the country will be here and we need to give them a good experience and show our facility at its best. We hope the grass will be a little greener than it was in 2002. This will be a great opportunity to see some really interesting equipment and some very good shooters in action. Jim Brummerstedt will need help with targets, scoring, statistics, and maybe assistance for handicapped shooters. To get in on the fun, call Jim Brummerstedt at 303-772-5145.

The shotgun shooters might want to note that the first Sporting Clays round will start at 9:00am, Sunday, February 16th. Call Steve Kingcade at 303 644-3523 for information.

Fire!

Saturday December 7th dawned brignt and sunny with only a little wind - a perfect day to burn a house to the ground! About fifteen fire men and women from Byers and Strasburg, along with 3 tanker engines, an ambulance and a host of other equipment, came to CRC to burn the old house on the Sporting Clay Range, as well as a huge heap of old lumber and trash we'd been "accumulating". The day began with about a dozen CRC members helping to gather up rotting wood and pile it up around the old house and add to the already large pile of trash. The fire companies showed up shortly thereafter, and after laying out an impressive array of equipment, they began conducting various training drills. They practiced rescue techniques, ways of attacking fire, and keeping it confined to one room in a house. Perhaphs most important, they observed how fire develops, it's smoke patterns, and watched how heat and flames spread through a room. The instructor explained the signs of an impending flareup so they could learn how to avoid getting trapped by a fire that may ignite behind them. This kind of training would be impossible in a real fire fight, where they are trying to put it out as quick as possible. Several crew members stopped to thank us for giving them this opportunity and said they had learned a lot.

Finally at about 2:30 in the afternoon they let the fire go, and most of them went back to town to prepare for an evening holiday parade in Byers. After the roofing material was gone, the remainder of the house burned fast and without noticeable smoke, which showed just how old and dry it was. Two or three crew members stayed until it had pretty well burned out, then they filled in hole that was the basement crawl-space and covered it all with earth. We will put a picnic shelter, storage shed for the traps, and a permanent toilet on the site next spring. Until then the practice traps will not be accessible for members, because we have no secure place to put them, so remember if you want to practice clay birds this winter, bring your own trap.

We were a little sad to see the house go and had originally hoped we could save it. But it was built in 1918 and had seen a lot of hot dry summers and cold icy winters, and was found to be beyond feasible repair. The drill was a good solution for the fire fighters and for us. They got life saving training, and we got a major rubbish disposal problem solved. Thanks to our members who came out and helped pile up the wood trash from the barn area. Most of you stayed and went to work on the south fence project afterwards, and that was a great help too. Let's hope that's the last fire we see on our range this year! Ask Martin Everitt to see some more pictures - it was a heck of a show!

BOY SCOUT MERIT BADGES

CRC has invited a local Boy Scout troop to the range to teach the scouts how to shoot safely, and to allow them to complete their riflery merit badge. The scouts have finished the classroom requirements for the merit badge and now have to shoot a specified course of fire at the range. There will be about fifteen scouts for the session that is tentatively scheduled for February 22nd. The Club would like to provide some instructors to assist the scouts. Anyone interested should call Dennis Reul at 303-238-5696.

Broad Horizions

CRC is proud of two of its members who recently competed in a new and different type of shooting event. Norm Butterfield and Victor Oleksijew participated in their first Biathelon event at Snow Mountain Ranch near Grandby in December. We haven't heard the results yet, but we are sure that they upheld the honor of CRC and we are pleased to see our members trying new types of shooting competitions. We hope that they had a good experience and will try it again!

WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM...

CRC Member Larry Higgins invites you to try a new kind of hunting. Heartrock Bison offers you the chance to go on a buffalo hunt. Your quarry are bison cows over 3 years of age, and running anywhere from 950 pounds up. You can keep everything from head to tail, and they provide butchering assistance. Prices begin at just $650.00. Call Larry Higgins at 719-763-2439 for more information.

WORK BOND OPPORTUNITIES

Want to get your 2003 work day out of the way early this year? We will need 20 to 30 people to help plant the 350 shrubs required for our participation in the CHIP program. This should take place around mid to the end of April. Please call Jim Brummerstedt at 303-772-5145. Sunday to Tuesday call anytime. Wednesday to Saturday, please call AFTER 8:00pm. Thanks!

NEWSLETTER ON THE WEB

CRC is making plans to post the newsletter on the club web site, www.crci.org. Included in your dues notice is a check-off box if you would prefer the option of reading the newsletter as posted on the web site instead of receiving the hard copy in the mail. This of course saves mailing costs and also gives you the opportunity to view the publication on the Internet.

IN REMEMBRANCE

PAT TULLIS

Patricia Tullis, wife of longtime member Bob Tullis passed away on December 9 after a long and truly inspiring battle with cancer. There was an informal memorial at the Tullis home on December 14th. We all extend our deepest sympathy to the family, and the club has made a memorial contribution to the Denver Botanic Gardens in Pat's memory.

JIM RAYMER & JOHN RAYMER

Jim Raymer, a smallbore shooter and Director of the club from 1974 through 1980 passed away this December, in Kansas, of Alzheimer's disease. He and his wife Betty were active shooters who were much involved in the management of the club at a very critical time. Jim's job later took them out of Colorado to Wichita, Kansas. His brother John, a gunsmith in Prescott, Arizona made shooting accessories and was the builder of many of the little windmills that smallbore shooters are still using. John had been the manager of the Western Wildcats Match. John died earlier in 2002 of the same disease. They both will be missed.