St. John's Rod & Gun Club Trap 2015: (28 Photos)

 

 

28.   Well if 2014 was busy at the SJRGC, 2015 was promising to be even crazier! At our annual general meeting in February I was voted in as club president for my 2nd term. Plans at the club this year will see the replacement of our diesel generators, the start of a new Archery Group and new archery 3D range in addition to the events we already operate.

 

 

27.   Heavy snowfall and water penetration into the trap houses is the reason we don't shoot trap in the winter. Short days coupled with extra time to shovel firing line & trap house doors & fixing machinery doesn't leave much time to shoot.

 

 

26.   This year the snow melted early enough that we could reinstall the trap machines on April 26th.

 

 

25.   On May 2nd we had a full tractor trailer load of White Flyer clay targets arrive at the club. Our order consisted of our standard Orange Domes plus a large assortment of specialty targets (different colors, different hardness, different size) for the sporting clays group.

 

24.   Many hands make light work, even unloading a pallet in the trailer and restacking them inside the doorway went pretty smooth with a full compliment of volunteers.

 

 

23.   Literally full to the rafters!

 

 

22.   Finally on May 3rd with most of the setup done for the upcoming year we loaded the trap machines and had our first Trap Shoot for 2015.

 

 

21.   Meanwhile, back at my garage work continued on a couple projects for Trap at the club. First was the building of 4 new gun racks for the trap field, the ones we built a couple years ago were needed for our recently expanded Sporting Clays range.

 

 

20.   My second project for the year was the fabrication of 4 steel carts to store and move all 4 of our automatic voice release systems from the storage garage to the trap field. This makes setup of the field much faster and keeps everything much more organized.

 

 

19.   Regular fun shoots and ATA registered shoots continued throughout the summer and were well attended, even attracting some new first time trap shooters.

 

 

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17.   Although I participated in some shoots, most of my time in June was taken up with the installation of our new 15kw Generator. We had to build the room to house it, install ventilation ducts & fans, fabricate exhaust, wire in a new transfer switch, connect to existing wiring to Club House & Trap Fields, move the water pump for the well and commission the unit. The work was all done through the volunteer efforts of club members with the exception of the fuel system & tank which we hired a licensed contractor for.

 

 

16.   On June 6th the SJRGC once again partnered with the Newfoundland Wildlife Division to put off a one day youth seminar. 46 youth aged 12-17 participated in a full day of activities including small caliber rifle, Clay target shooting, Archery (and some 3D archery assisted by our new archery group) and a seminar on outdoor survival presented by Rovers Search & Rescue.

 

15.   Even Minister Dan Cromell stopped by in the afternoon and presented the club with a plaque of appreciation for our work in hosting the event. Minister Cromell also toured our facility.

 

14.   The following day we hosted out annual Newfoundland Sportsman shoot which is a combination of Trap Shooting and Sporting Clays, as sponsored by the Newfoundland Sportsman Magazine.

 

13.   49 Shooters participated, the day started with sunny skies but quickly deteriorated into heavy rain in the afternoon. Most people were not swayed by the weather and the event continued. (I was not one of those people. lol)

 

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11.   The next major event on the schedule was the Newfoundland Provincial Championships which were held at the club July 11 & 12th.

 

10.   Our annual memorial shoot was held on August 9th and brought with it beautiful weather and agreat turn out of shooters. I even managed to shoot my first 50 straight in singles.

 

9.   Labour Day weekend, September 4th - 6th found 8 SJRGC shooters travel to Nova Scotia for the annual Atlantic Provinces Trap Championships which were held at the Dartmouth Clay Target Association, Cole Harbour, NS. Our crew shot very well taking many of the top trophies at the shoot. For full results please visit the Atlantic Provinces Trapshooting Association webpage.

 

8.   With the weather turning cooler each weekend, we held our last official shoot of the year, the annual turkey shoot on November 1st. This event had Trap, Sporting Clay & Archery events all running simultaneously. The event was very well attended and ran well with a huge effort of a large number of volunteers. The shooting day ended with our legendary Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings.

 

7.   This poor pumpkin was wounded by the Archery Shooters, but it took our Shotgunners to finally finish the job.

 

6.   As snow appears on the hills, the end of the 2015 trapshooting season looms not to far away.

 

5.   Mother nature could wait no longer and unleashed the first major snowfall of the year in early December

 

4.   This guy^^^

 

3.   On December 6th we had our last & shortest trapshoot of the year then set about taking out the 4 trap machines for winter storage.

 

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1.   So ends another fantastic year of trapshooting at the club. 2016 will also be a busy year, in addition to our regular schedule, the SJRGC will be hosting the Atlantic Provinces Trapshooting Championships.

Cheers, MIKE

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