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

59.   Another year has come and gone all too quick 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. At our AGM in February I took on my 6th term as President of the club and we had another awesome executive voted in for the upcoming year.

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 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 that the garbage collectors can't handle.

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 hiked out the NL Hydro service path and installed an additional sign below Hydro's no access sign. This is meant to keep hikers and ATV riders travelling along the hydro line from taking this trail which crosses right through our range safety zone.

51.   Rare view from behind Ranges A & C while the ranges were 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 using hand mixed concrete, the work was completed 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. As club members have to be inside the house working on and re-loading the machine 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 a forming crew hired to form the walls. It was cheaper to hire them as opposed to purchasing materials to form the walls ourselves. The new walls came out great. The house was built approximately 12" deeper than the old one which will be much better for re-loading targets in the machine.

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, the Outreach Coordinator for WHC, prepared an amazing four 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 setup 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 event 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 Archery, outdoor survival with Rovers Search & Rescue and finally a fly fishing/casting station which was new this year.

34.  The 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+ first time outdoor enthusiasts to our 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.