Colorado Rifle Club

NEWSLETTER

April 2004

The Colorado Rifle Club is happy to announce that club member Dave Paananen has volunteered to fill the position of Workbond Coordinator. If you have any questions relating to the workbond from ideas for projects, to supply requests, to special circumstances for release, call Dave. He can be reached evenings at (303) 673-0106, or by email at dpaananen@netzero.net. This is a huge job, but Dave’s energy make him more than equal to the task. Below, Dave has outlined his strategy for making the CRC workbond program a smooth running operation. Welcome aboard Dave!

Workbond Update

The Colorado Rifle Club has an excellent facility. Keeping it in top condition requires ongoing maintenance. Improving it takes even more effort. Keeping dues at an affordable level is only possible if there is a large volunteer workforce. While there are several members that devote a great deal of time and energy to the club, it is not enough to get everything accomplished. The club relies on the Workbond system to fill the gap. In this way, we all contribute to keeping the range a first class place for shooting.

My name is Dave Paananen. I have volunteered to be the workbond coordinator to smooth out some of the bumps in the workbond system. I am a fairly new member, and am still learning about the various aspects of the Club. From my current perspective, I see my role as:

• Collect information from club members on the task items that need completion.
• Distribute the information to the club membership.
• Arrange for a technical leader for each of the tasks.
• Make the necessary materials and equipment available.
• Arrange for any special training required.
• Facilitate the completion of the workbond tasks.
• Help resolve any problems in completing workbond tasks.

I will continue the systems that are currently in place for communication to the membership. I will have inputs into every newsletter, with upcoming special topics as well as reminders about upcoming matches. The CRC website has a workbond section, and I will keep a rolling log of jobs to be done there as well. The club has maintained a list of one person, or mid-week type jobs in the stat office. That list was recently updated and will continue to be maintained.

You may not be aware of one community related activity that the CRC is involved in. The club has worked with local wildlife and soil officials, on wildlife and habitat restoration projects. The extremely dry weather in recent years has caused many of the plantings to die. Watering these plants is a great opportunity for members, who come out to the range on a fairly regular basis throughout the summer, to have an impact on the success of the WHIP and CHIP projects. This work can be done on the same day as you come out to shoot - it doesn’t require a special trip. Please contact myself, Bastiaan Cornelissen (303) 987-2836 or Jim Brummerstedt (303) 772-5145 if this sounds like a good match for you. Another opportunity for members who want to satisfy their workbond by adding to the day they come out for shooting, is to adopt one of the large tractors, or a group of the small mowers and trimmers. These items need regular preventive maintenance so they are available for the volunteers who do the mowing. Gas, oil, batteries, etc. need to be checked regularly. Contact me or one of the directors if this sounds like a good way for you to help the club and satisfy your workbond. Also, below you will find a list of upcoming matches that need support. Contact the Match Director for information. Be sure to bring your workbond completion card, and send it in when it is completed.

As I mentioned, I am new to the club and new to shooting. I ask for your advice on how to improve the workbond system, and what jobs you think we should add to the list. You may reach me at home in the evenings at 303-673-0106, or by email at dpaananen@netzero.net

Upcoming Shooting events that need volunteers

WILD TURKEYS NEWEST CRC MEMBERS

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Saturday, March 13 CRC welcomed a flock of new members to our ranks wild turkeys! Jim Brummerstedt has been working with the Colo. Division of Wildlife (DOW) and the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) for a couple of years to get some birds released on the property. Finally, it all came to pass. On Friday Jim went with the DOW folks out near Brush where a bunch of turkeys were trapped. Then on Saturday, about a hundred folks gathered near our archery targets for the release. The date coincided with the 20th anniversary of the local branch of the NWTF, so a number of their State and local officers, families, and a bunch of school kids turned out to make the event a real celebration. There were short speeches by the NWTF folks, the head of the DOW and then about 27 individuals were each invited to release a bird, which had been transported and delivered in cardboard boxes. Those were some grumpy turkeys! Some of the kids had a real tussle with their birds. Since Jim worked so hard to bring this event about, he got to release a turkey too (see the picture at left.) There was a nice write-up of the event in the March 17th Denver Post sports section. So we now have about 27 turkeys that will hopefully stay and share the property with us. These birds like shooting sportspeople have suffered the encroachments of modern society and lost a great deal of their natural habitat all across the nation. We are proud that we can offer them sanctuary, and hope that they will survive and thrive along with us! Please honor their presence and what it means to the club and above all REMEMBER NO HUNTING!

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TRAILER

Many thanks to Bob Taylor for building and donating a two wheel trailer for the portable welder. The welder is up on it and ready to go anywhere on the range. We still need a two axle trailer to carry the 300 gallon water tank donated last year by Steve Valente. If someone has a wheel and axle set, maybe we can get someone else to build a trailer on it.

TABLE SAW STAND MISSING

The stand for the Delta table saw in the old barn is missing. If you’ve liberated that stand for whatever reason please return it to its rightful place in the barn. We need it back! Thanks.

FIRE!

On March 31, Bill Stark and Tom Funk were doing some work at the silhouette range when one of them noticed that the old 1974 Ford range truck was on fire! We don’t know the cause a combo of gremlins and bad luck perhaps. Anyhow, this made for an exciting afternoon (to say the least) since the grass is long and the wind was brisk. Thankfully they managed to keep a grass fire from getting out of hand, but by then the truck was pretty well fried, at least the front half. So now the silhouette shooters are without a truck to haul the targets out to the stands and the shooters out to set them up after they knock them down! If anybody has an old pickup, preferably 4WD, which runs, but not so well that they would not consider giving it away, we would appreciate a donation. Additionally, since the ruined truck was not burned behind the cab, someone could cut the rear half of it off and build a trailer to haul our 300 gallon water tank. The wreck has been moved up by the barn if you want to see what a fire does to a lot of plastic in a pretty short time.

More seriously, Bill and Tom found that they could NOT GET 911 from the range on a cell phone! They finally did raise the local fire department on another kind of portable phone. After the fire was out, they did some testing and calls to Byers. Apparently the antenna is not set up to receive 911 calls from cell phones for whatever mystical reason. One can call the Byers, or other emergency services on cell phones using their 10 digit numbers, and we will post those around the range as soon as we can get some signs printed. PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS:

SHERIFF 303 622-9798
BYERS AMBULANCE 822-5353

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SAFETY VIOLATIONS REPORTED!

Two serious safety violations were reported recently. Both occurred on the Schuetzen In one case a shooter was seen to be chambering a round in an SKS rifle while the muzzle was pointed along the firing line rather than down range. This is terrible carelessness and could result in a serious injury or death! In the other, a 50 BMG was seen on the firing line. 50 BMG rifles are strictly prohibited from all our ranges because if a bullet misses the backstop, or bounces, it can get off the property, where it could cause damage and get CRC shut down! PLEASE DON'T DO IT!!! There are clubs in the area that can accommodate 50 BMGs. Call the CSSA at 720 283-1376 for information.

GREAT NEWS -NEW TRACTOR HERE!

At the Board of Directors meeting after the annual meeting, the purchase of a new tractor and mower was authorized. It’s here, and was in fact in time for the recent March 20 and 21 work days. The new rig is a Case National 55 HP 4WD tractor with an 8 ft. diameter rotary mower and a front end loader. It replaces the old John Deere machine which had become a maintenance nightmare. In addition, we bought a new 5 ft. diameter mower to fit the Massey Ferguson tractor bought two years ago, and sold the old 5 ft. mower which was pretty well worn out. These should solve our mowing problems for a long time to come. Now all we need is some rain through the summer. Anybody who wants to use the tractors should check out with Dave John, Jerry Davidson, or Larry Kelley to be sure they do it correctly. We want to be out of the tractor repair business for a while.

Many thanks to Gary Prebyl who did most of the leg work of finding the right kind of machine and the best available deal, as well as handling the sale of the old equipment. Donated effort by individuals such as Gary and Bob Taylor are about the only way a club like ours can grow, and we are grateful!

Metallic Silhouette News

Many improvements have been made to the silhouette range this past year by a few dedicated CRC members. These include four new rifle racks, new numbers on the target banks, several donated equipment tables, new paper target boards, new target rails, and many other not-so-noticeable improvements. This is the first range that one comes upon when entering CRC property. It sees plenty of use besides metallic silhouette shooting.

We have concrete tables for bench rest shooting at either paper targets or at the metal swinger plates which are set up at various distances on the range. You may also bring your own gongs or metal targets to practice on. Many members also use this range to checkout their rifles before hunting season.

This range was specifically designed for shooting at paper or proper metal targets only. Recently a member reported that someone had left behind the shot-up remains of a cordless drill, a large desktop calculator and a cast iron frying pan. Not far from this mess was a pile of 100 or so spent shotgun shells. No one is allowed to shoot at trash on ANY range at our facility at any time. All shooters should pick up their brass and discard it properly. We are a shooting range not a landfill site. This is your range. Please enjoy it and do your part to help keep it looking great.

And Speaking of Silhouette

Silhouette Pistol Fun Matches

This year we’re excited to hold several Silhouette Pistol Fun Matches. They will be 500 meter and 22 1/5 scale shoots. For the 500 meters: Any handgun may be used, and the targets will be set as follows: Chickens 200 m; Pigs 300 m; Turkeys 385 m; Rams 500m.

For the 22 1/5 scale, IHMSA equipment is used, and the distances are: Chickens 25 yards; Pigs 50 yards; Turkeys 75 yards; and Rams 100 yards. All levels and classification levels are welcome, and in the fun matches 70% of all entry fees will be returned as prizes to shooters. Fun Match dates are April 25, May 23, June 27. There will also be a Championship Match, Friday Saturday August 27-28th Come out and enjoy this fun and challenging sport! Call Tom Funk at (303) 690-5219 or Bill Stark at (303) 771-4593 for more details.

Lowell & Alice’s Corner