44.   A total of 22 skids were delivered which included many orange dome for trap and a wide variety of styles, sizes and colors for the Sporting Clays group. A great group of volunteers showed up to help with the offload and subsequent stowing away of targets inside the clay target building.

43.   While trying to reposition the trailer the truck driver got stuck with his front tires down over the side of the road. French and Pete Tucker had him out in no time using two pickups.

42.   After our clay target delivery was put away, I set about installing our existing 3 pat traps while French tackled the installation of our new Trap. This included connecting up all the wiring, and one trap was raised by 2" with a C-channel ring that I drilled out and bolted in place.

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40.   June 3rd. Another project I took on this year was to replace the rotted out plywood on bottom of the highway sign at the club with new 5/8" tongue and groove plywood.

39.   The sign was just over 6' high and just over 9' wide so I used the two off cuts from the height and glued on another tongue to finish the installation later on site.

38.   Fifteen or so years of mother nature's abuse took its toll on the lower part of the sign which was pretty well flapping in the wind.

37.   The new plywood was 5/8 tongue and groove glued together and bolted in place. New plastic strips were attached for sliding in changeable message letters.

36.   Bassan and I tidied up the Target garage by sheeting up the section of wall between the overhead door and man door. Next we installed a new shelving unit which will safely store batteries and chargers used by the clays group. Above this shelf we mounted a lockable cabinet to house spare parts for the Pat Trap machines and voice release systems. Sheeting up the wall also gave me a place to mount log books for Clay Target and ATV usage.

35.   I installed a similar cabinet in the generator room to store maintenance items for the Kubota Generator including oil, filters, fuel filters, fan belts etc. These cabinets keep everything organized so that if there is a breakdown of a piece of equipment there is a good chance it can be repaired quickly.

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33.   Registration for the annual Newfoundland Sportsman Shoot on June 12th went very well with a record number of 67 shooters attending on this beautiful sunny day at the club.

32.   The day consisted of Trap and Sporting Clays shooting running concurrently to meet the demand of a large crowd.

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29.   Prizes were awarded to T. Coldwell for  high overall with lots of additional prizes distributed in a raffle to those who participated.

28.   July 21st. Another evening at the club and I had the grass all cut and ready for the upcoming Youth Day event.

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26.   July 23rd. This year the SJRGC partnered once again with the department of Wildlife to put off our one day Youth shooting skills event.

25.   Over 40 youth aged 12-18 registered for the event which was comprised of four stations: Rifle, Archery, Shotgun and Outdoor Survival.

24.   The day ran very well under sunny skies and everyone had a great time. I hope to see this continue as we still see a lot of first time shooters attending and its a great way to properly and safely introduce youth to the shooting & hunting sports.

23.   August 4th. With some of the annual club events out of the way a small but dedicated crew began some repairs and renovations to the clubhouse and grounds in anticipation for the upcoming Atlantic Trap Championships. The Trap office was gutted and reorganized with new shelving built by Bassan with keeps club paperwork much more organized.

22.   A small gun rack was built for shoot organizers to securely store their shotguns between rounds as they are out performing duties running the shoot. We also modified the desk setting it at barstool height and installed electrical plugs for powering laptops & printers used for big shoots.

21.   August 11th. The stairs at the parking lot end of the patio were completely rotted out so Bassan and I replaced them with new pressure treated lumber.

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19.   The threshold at the front door was in rough shape. Constant rainwater over the years rotted out the tread, part of the floor, and sill plate. To get at this the ramp had to be moved only to find it was in deplorable shape and will eventually be replaced.

18.   Surprisingly the 55 year old Creosote soaked main floor beams were in remarkably good shape!

17.   We took the big, very heavy door off its hinges and cut out all of the rotten lumber.

16.   The floor was built from 1" rough sawn lumber and 1/2" plywood, the rotten section was replaced with a 1.5" thick piece of pressure treated 2x10 for a perfect fit. The rest of the sill and door tread was also replaced with pressure treated lumber.

15.   The new door tread was sloped to allow water to drain outside away from the door. To re-secure the logs of the wall/door opening multiple cedar shims were coated in PL Premium construction adhesive and hammered in place to make everything tight. 4" screws were used to permanently attach the wall to the new sill plate.

14. We had Joe the painter on site to do a bunch of paint work so we had him coat our repaired threshold and refinish the clubhouse exterior doors a complimentary brown to break up the vast expanse of Red stain. Joe also painted all the trap houses, all the trap field walkways, the patio, and trap office floor.

13.   During these weeks of long evenings and busy weekends our dedicated crew also performed a maintenance on all the Pat Traps, level and repair deck boards on the patio, remove all weeds from the stone between the 16 yard line & trap houses, plus many more tasks I'm probably forgetting.

12.   August 21st Annual Memorial shoot.

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7.   Final preparations for the Atlantics came the week prior with a good crew on hand to finish weeding on the trap field, while OMB raked up piles of loose stones.

6.   Inside, the clubhouse was scrubbed literally top to bottom, the kitchen and bathrooms scrubbed to "like new" status, and a full reorganization of all the club trophies permanently hanging them inside the clubhouse.

5.   While the guys were weeding and cleaning  I took on a few projects in the target garage. First for the day was an oil change & inspection on the Generator.

4.   Next I preformed the first maintenance on the Club ATV which included an oil/filter change and general check over of all bolts and cables to ensure everything was tight and adjusted properly.

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2.   The last garage project was the installation of 5lb steel weights on each of our 20 voice release microphones. This should help prevent them from tipping over in strong winds, especially while they are being moved around for handicap shoots.

1.   Although it was a super busy summer for Trap, the new (last year) Archery group is also doing well. Each of the weekly Monday night shoots were very well attended and the group hosted two sponsored Saturday events, one with Coastal Outdoors and the second with OP Fishing and Hunting. The group is doing very well and put off great, well organized events.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith