Saturday April 4th was the Clean-Up Day for the rifle ranges – the pistol group had a work session a couple of weeks ago to get their facilities ready for the upcoming season and today was our turn.
The weather was threatening – every forecast predicted that we would have a rainout, but we had a goodly number of folks show up and there were enough hands available to make light work of the tasks we could get to on a wet soggy day. Aside from a very light sprinkle about 8:00, we had dry – if not clear weather for the morning’s work.
Electronic target frames were repaired and firing point markers on the 200 and 300-yard firing lines were moved about 2-feet north to give a bit more room on the low end of the 200-yard line and to move the impact points in the bunker. Horizontal support rails for the 25 and 50-yard target frames had the bent nails installed. After we walked around in the mud from the recent rains, an impromptu drainage project was undertaken – adding a drain channel on the high side of the bench rest firing points to maybe keep mud from overrunning the concrete.
Grown-ups digging ditches and playing in the mud like a bunch of kids…
Gravel was hauled around to fill the washouts in the road going down to the pistol pits – more involved roadway repair will be done as things dry out a bit. A couple of brave souls took a ladder and cleaned out the gutters on the east side of the clubhouse – there were some interesting things growing in there!
A crew went to the high power pits and dug out one of the counterweight tubes to repair a broken target frame cable that was making a target sit cock-eyed in its frame. That target will cycle up and down much smoother now.
Sticks were hauled off – the major job of trimming bushes back will have to wait – it was just too wet to get back and forth to the burn pile today.
And – last but not least – a crew of our Juniors took it as a task to do a spring cleaning of the clubhouse. They cleaned the dead critters out of the window tracks, vacuumed up the dead spiders and their webs and swept up all of the winter crud that had been tracked into the building. And – to top it off; they washed the windows and now you can actually see through them again.
They really do know how to go clean a room!
After the work closed out, it was time for pizza – Old Folks and Juniors as well did a job on the pizza. It was a good day. I am not going to try to name everyone who came out – but Thank You. It is this sort of inglorious, unglamorous work that makes our range such a great place to shoot – one of the premier ranges in northeast Indiana.
Feeding the poor, starving children
The Old Coots didn’t miss out on their meal, either
And, oh-by-the-way. We finished just in time. Literally as the gate was locked behind the last person – a torrential downpour set in!
I just have to comment on this. Someone thought they needed to drive across the soft ground to put up targets at the 50-yard target frame. These ruts will be there for years!