St. John's Rod and Gun Club 2019 (59 Photos)

59.   Another year has quickly come and gone here at the SJRGC. I was quite busy in 2019 with work, tile work, club duties and many other projects including rebuilding my 1989 Argo 6x6 so I am actually writing this long after the 2019 shooting season concluded. In 2019 I took on another year as president of the club and we had another awesome executive voted in at our annual general meeting in February.

58.  On May 4th we held our annual clean-up day out at the club.  We had a decent turnout of volunteers who picked up garbage strewn about by winter storms, raked rocks (ricochet hazards) off the back berms and completed many other tasks around our facility.

57.    One of the many tasks I took on was re-painting the message board on our highway sign.

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55.   Next up was cleaning out our regular dumpster which accumulates quite a bit of loose garbage over the year.

54.   Meanwhile Bassan and a group of Trap and Sporting Clays Shooters unloaded a full tractor trailer load (22 pallets) of clay targets fresh from White Flyer. They have to be unloaded by hand due to inaccessibility by forklift and fragile nature of the cases of targets.

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52.   With the Ranges shut down for cleanup day I walked out the NL Hydro service trail and installed an additional sign below Hydro's no access sign. This is meant to keep hikers and ATV riders exploring country along the hydro line from going in this trail which crosses our range safety area.

51.   Rare shot from behind Ranges A & C while ranges shut down for cleanup day.

50.  The following day Bassan and crew began work on repairing leaky trap house D which is the oldest of our 4 trap houses. It was originally built in 1972 with hand mixed concrete by a very dedicated group of club volunteers.

49.   The original plan was to excavate, inspect, parge, waterproof and backfill the trap house.

48.   However upon inspection we found the 40 year old concrete extremely deteriorated below ground and very fragile. It was decided to completely demolish the unsafe structure and rebuild new.

47.   Wayne Healey made short work of the task with his trusty backhoe.

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42.   The new trap house was built onsite by volunteer labor with the exception of the forming crew hired to form the walls. It was more cost effective to hire them as opposed to purchasing materials to form the walls ourselves. The new trap house came out great. It was built about 12" deeper than the old which makes re-loading targets in the machine much easier.

41.  On June 11th the SJRGC was proud to host an event at the club for Delta Waterfowl and Wildlife Habitat Canada as a part of their annual board meetings. Chef Andrew Rochon, Outreach Coordinator with WHC, prepared an amazing 4 course meal at the club. At the same time Chris Baldwin prepared Turrs and a mini jigs dinner which was served as an appetizer before the main event.

40.   Club volunteers set out a course of sporting clays for our guests to enjoy while supper was prepared. It was an awesome event that was well received by what turned out to be mostly new shooters. Thanks to volunteers from SJRGC and NL Wildlife division for making the shoot a success.

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36.  On June 15th we held our annual Newfoundland Sportsman shoot which saw over 40 shooters take part in Sporting Clays in the morning followed by Trap in the afternoon. It was another awesome annual event!

35.   On July 27th we held our annual Youth Shooting Skills event in partnership with NL Wildlife Division. This year we had an extra station added to the roster for a total of 5 events. Rifle, Shotgun and Archery shooting was complimented by an outdoor survival basics session with Rovers Search & Rescue and finally a fly fishing/casting station which was new this year.

34.  Forty youth participants were divided into 5 groups and rotated stations throughout the day.

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25.   This is always one of my most favorite events of the year. It's open to the general public via pre-registration on our website and introduces 30+ brand new outdoor enthusiasts to awesome outdoor activities in a safe and controlled environment. Huge thanks to the many club volunteers that organized the event, ran stations and prepared lunch for a huge number of participants, parents and volunteers; thanks to NL Rovers Search and Rescue, NL Wildlife Division and event sponsor Delta Waterfowl.