With snow long since melted and temperatures on the rise, we are slowly resuming regular activities at the St. John's Rod and Gun Club. At our Annual General Meeting in April I was re-elected for my 9th term as President of the Club. The worst of Covid seems (for now) to be behind us so we are looking forward to a close to normal schedule of regular weekly and some specialty events in the coming months.

One of the first projects undertaken was Johnny Tucker's tribute to Old Man Bailey. Johnny custom trimmed a granite boulder to countersink a custom engraved stone tribute plaque to our late shooting buddy Paul Bailey.

A matching plaque will be custom mounted and placed on the banks of the Lomond River later this summer. The Lomond River which is on the west coast of our province was another fond destination for Paul's second passion, salmon fishing.

In early June we held our annual cleanup day at the club were we shut down all ranges and had club volunteers come out to clean up damage incurred over the winter. Work includes repairing broken target stands, cutting up blown down trees, clearing ricochet hazards and more.

Our club secretary Glenn took on a project of repairing the lattice noise break on Clays station G. He reset one post and replaced the other which doubles as a flag pole on this station.

I loaded up the back of my truck with all of the damaged rifle & pistol range target stand boards & chloroplast while another crew set about installing fresh lumber and chloroplast.

The dumpster we ordered never did arrive for cleanup day so alternate arrangements were made with another contractor on site for the trap field work. If your looking for a temporary garbage dumpster, I can tell you who not to call.

Next on my to do list was clearing up winter blow downs, especially along the entrance road from the highway. My trusty Husqvarna 550xp chainsaw ran great all afternoon taking down and later junking up the blow downs which were stored in the firewood bin alongside the Longbranch.

Finally I put Project Foreman to work pulling up and removing overgrown alders near trap field D which really cleaned it up nice.

The Archery trail is in great shape, the Archery group had already been in to remove wind fallen trees blocking this pathway used for the 3D range.

The Sporting Clays group was busy repairing shooting stands on the 5-stand course.

Fees collected from lunches at the OFCL winter league were donated back to the club in the form of new park benches for the sporting clays range.

Finally they fabricated and installed new covers for some semi-permanently installed target throwers out on the sporting clays course repurposing large plastic totes.

This year the Trap committee took on the final stage of a multi-year plan that saw the rehabilitation of walkways and bunkers on the Trap Range. Trap Field D was the last and final set of walkways to finish out this project.

Aside from a piece of heavy equipment hired to complete excavation work, the entirety of the project was completed with volunteer labour. Fortunately we have a wide variety of trades represented in our club membership, and even more fortunate they willingly volunteered their time and tools over the last four years to bring this huge project to conclusion.

Another fantastic help was that Bassan secured grant funding from the Armature Trapshooting Association's Gun Club Fund each year to put towards our materials expense which was a huge help to the club.

Over the summer I made many trips to the club to cut the grass with my trusty garden tractor. Having the alder bushes near Trap D removed and resulting holes patched certainly makes this job a lot easier.

At the end of June the club partnered once again with Newfoundland Wildlife Division for our annual Youth Outdoor Skills event. This event saw 30 youth aged 12-17, (most of whom are new to shooting) take part in outdoor skill instruction including Rifle, Shotgun, Archery, and Fly Fishing.

In July, Bassan, Troy and I set to installing new custom built park benches on the trap field. We have been continuously replacing picnic tables on the Trap range over the years, these aluminum framed pressure treated board topped benches should last a long time and be easily repaired.

Troy did a great job with fabrication & welding of the metal bench frames at his home garage. Today we fastened the frames to concrete pads poured a few weeks ago using proper concrete anchors.

The following day Bassan and I were back at the club to cut and install pressure treated 2x6 boards to finish out the benches.

The shelf on the back is a place for shooters to lay their shooting bags and extra shells while they are shooting.

Finally, the last job for the trap field rehabilitation project was painting yardage markers on the new walkways. Singles and Doubles are shot from the 16 yard marker, while the Handicap discipline is shot from the 18-27 yard markers based on shooter skill/classification.

In August our Kubota generator was due for service,  something I've been looking after since it we installed it back in 2015. This service included fresh oil, filter, fuel filters and general inspection.

This same evening I took on cutting the grass while a crew of volunteers took on various  other tasks including cleaning and organizing the clubhouse as we get ready for the Atlantic Provinces Trapshooting Championships Labour Day weekend. I missed out this and most shooting events again this year but hope to get back into the swing of shooting one of these days.

Another item checked off our bucket list was replacing the very old and tired (and leaking gas) Garland commercial range and replacing it with a standard residential off grid range.

Just for Comparison, here are a couple photos of the Trap Field from 1999:

And one from 2010:

In August moose hunting preparations were well underway which included a couple trips to the range  to check my rifle and to practice shooting for our rapidly approaching big game season. My Browning BAR 30.06 was dead on and I continued practice using my .223 and demo Fierce Carbon Fury 6.5, shooting from standing just as I likely will be doing in the woods.

I believe this is one of the most important and often overlooked practises by big game hunters, shooting practice will definitely make you a better shot in the woods.

The last Trap Shoot of the season was held November 6th. It was well attended and was followed up with a sampling of homemade Newfoundland delicacies including my own moose sausages, fish stew, and Bassan's pan fried moose roast.

All in all it was a very busy year at the club. Although I still haven't gotten back to Trapshooting it was still a pleasure to assist running the club alongside a stellar executive, and making many trips to the club solely for work, repairs and maintenance.

In December we were presented with a very unique and absolutely outstanding opportunity for SJRGC and all firearms owners. We were asked to partake in and be the host facility for a roundtable discussion on Firearm Ownership, Shooting Sports, Hunting and the effects of the ungodly Bill C-21 with Federal Conservative party leader, the Honourable Pierre Poilievre!

As many of you know Bill C-21 has already made prohibited over 1500 long guns, has prohibited the sale and transfer of handguns and with the most recent amendments is poised to prohibit nearly all semi automatic hunting shotguns and rifles! All with no input from any policing services, the firearms industry, firearms community, shooting sports or hunters.

Mr. Poilievre's Newfoundland election team did a great job selecting attendees representing all gun clubs, shop owners, representatives from all shooting sports/groups and hunters from across the province. Mr. Poilievre made a fantastic speech and spent time talking one on one with attendees lending an ear to Canadians directly affected by this disastrous bill.

The event went very well with all concerns heard & noted, Mr. Poilievre was well received by all in attendance. Pierre has vowed that if elected, he will repeal Bill C-21 in its entirely and revisit the issue of firearms related violence in a fair manner taking into account the needs and standpoints of both victims of violence and reasonable law abiding firearms owners alike.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith