St. John's Rod & Gun Club Trap 2013: (39 Photos)

 

39.   2013 was another busy and successful year at the St. John's Rod and Gun Club. Personally, I managed to get out to many more events than I have in past years, participating in just about every registered trap shoot throughout the season, and many more trap & sporting clays events as well.

 

38.   Our Trap Shooting season began the first weekend of April when we serviced and reinstalled the electric throwers into their respective bunkers on the trap field. The machines are taken out and stored in the target garage over the winter months as the trap bunkers have flooded in the past damaging the equipment.

 

37.   The following weekend we received a tractor trailer load of clay targets which we unloaded and stacked by hand into our new storage garage.

 

36.   We moved approximately 12 pallets of White Flyer Clay Targets which will be used by the Trap and Sporting Clays groups in the coming months.

 

35.   This was the easiest year yet for unloading targets. Late last Fall a contractor broke the top beam of our main entrance gate to the club with an excavator. This beam previously prevented tractor trailers from being able to enter the club grounds so we would have to unload at the highway into a pickup truck and then unload them again into the storage building! This year was a breeze!

 

34.   Many hands make light work,

 

33.   and as (should be) the case with any trip to the club, the day ends shooting as many rounds as possible before dark!

 

32.   In early May we held a spring cleanup day at the club. A lot of volunteers showed up and we got quite a bit of work done around the club grounds.

 

31.   The youth group did a magnificent maintenance job on the rifle range hand picking four tandem dump truck loads of rock from the range floor and berms. This is important as rocks are not only a trip hazard, but a ricochet hazard as well. The rifle range was fitted out with new steel/concrete collars fro the target stand posts which will make target stand rebuilding much easier in the future.

 

30.   We also performed oil changes on the lister diesel generators, installed a new tensioning cable for the main entrance gate, removed dead fall timber, and changed the cables/pulleys on the clubhouse flag pole.

 

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27.   In June we held a very special surprise birthday party for fellow trap shooter Paul Bailey (OMB). This was his 80th birthday and was held at the end of one of our ordinary Sunday shoots. Without drawing suspicion, Paul's family arrived and the club house was decorated the clubhouse while OMB was distracted shooting a few extra rounds of trap.

 

26.   We cooked a fantastic dinner with all the trimmings and Lobsters fresh out of Conception Bay that morning. He was completely surprised and we all had a wonderful time!

 

25.   June also included the 2013 Newfoundland Sportsman Shoot which saw over 50 participants shoot 50 Trap Targets in the morning, and 50 Sporting Clays targets in the afternoon.

 

24.   This is an annual shoot sponsored by the Newfoundland Sportsman Magazine and is always a great time.

 

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21.   The month of August was very busy at the club. In between our regular Sunday trap shoots and the annual Memorial Shoot, we were busy getting the clubhouse and grounds ready for the upcoming Atlantics Trap Championships which was to be hosted at our facility on Labour Day Weekend. Grass was mowed, stands painted, the rickety old club house chairs replaced with new folding chairs, and the entire building was cleaned top to bottom.

 

20.   Mark French and I picked up materials and made 2 more gun racks for the trap field to replace two old ratty, rickety, worn out racks before they blew over full of expensive shotguns!

 

19.   These new racks were modeled after the two good racks on the trap field which are a nice sturdy design.

 

18.   We made our frames from pressure treated lumber so that they will last a long time, the tops were made from Cedar. Each of the barrel notches are offset from the opposite side so barrels will not touch.

 

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15.   Another project completed before the atlantics was the installation of a shotgun patterning board. The unit is made of steel and about 4' square and can fold down when not in use. This allows shotguners to pattern their gun so they can make fitment adjustments

 

14.   Another project we completed at this time was a cleaning up of the trap fields between the firing line & the traphouses.

 

13.   We hired a contractor to excavate about 12" material and replace it with maintenance grade road gravel.

 

12.   This is not only aesthetically pleasing, but most importantly removes the trip hazard that existed on club grounds due to our sandy soil & beach rocks which was a constant problem for sporting clays users who constantly walk in this area, and for people setting trap targets & reloading trap machines.

 

11.   The Labour Day long weekend arrived and with it the 2013 Atlantic Provinces Trap Championships. The event began with meet and greet/practice shoot at the club Thursday afternoon, meanwhile a bunch of us scrambled to install a loaner trap machine graciously lent to up by the Upper Humber Rod and Gun Club to replace our defective unit in Trap A. The weather Thursday was absolutely beautiful which is when all these pictures were taken.

 

10.   Friday arrived and brought with it torrential rain and high winds for the Atlantics Preliminary Day Shoot! Although the weather was not ideal, shooters & scorekeepers headed to the trap fields in their assigned squads undiscouraged and enjoyed some very challenging targets! 50 shooters from Atlantic Canada, Ontario, and the United States registered partook in the weekend events. Preliminary Day targets consisted of 100 singles in the morning, followed by 100 handicap and 100 doubles in the afternoon.

 

9.   The shoot continued Saturday, still in the rain, with the Singles Championship - a total of 200 targets. Saturday evening our club hosted the Shooter's Social Banquet at the Elk's Club on Carpasian Road. We enjoyed a fantastic steak dinner which was followed by an awards presentation for the preliminary day shoot, and concluded with a Calcutta Auction for Sunday's Handicap Championship.

The weather finally broke for our final day of competition on Sunday as we shot under sunny skies and high winds. The day started with 100 doubles in the morning and finished with 100 Handicap targets in the afternoon to conclude the event. The awards presentation and the APTA annual general meeting brought the event to a close around supper time. This was my first time participating in a big trap shoot and I had an excellent time. It was fun to participate, a lot of hard work to help run the event, but definitely worth the effort as everyone had a great time, even with the less then ideal weather!

 

8.   Our next big event of the year was our annual Turkey Shoot/Hunter's Challenge. Each year we unofficially end the Trap & Sporting Clay shooting season with this event where we shoot Trap and Sporting Clays targets and end the day with a full on Turkey Dinner. This year was no different and even though the forecast called for rain, the shoot went off under clear skies with over 40 participants and even more for the Turkey Dinner. Four Turkeys were cooked in outdoor deep fryers, while Monty, our crew and one of the staff from his restaurant prepared a meal of the finest quality! Big thanks to O.P. Hunting for sponsoring the event and providing many prizes, and to Monty & Monty's Place for all of the hard work in preparing an excellent meal!

 

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6.   As the year rolls on, the days get shorter and colder, but that doesn't stop a few of us hardcore shooters from turning up for a Sunday shoot.

 

5.   Many cold, late November/early December weekends found Troy, Valerie, Andrea, Monty, Ronald, French and I at the club spending the day alternating between shooting & warming up!

 

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2.   Finally, on the second weekend in December with a major blizzard in the forecast, we removed the throwers from the bunkers, winterized the club house and called the trap shooting season closed until next year.

 

1.   It was another fantastic year, and I cant wait until next year to do it all over again.

Cheers, MIKE

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Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith