Well today’s workbee was very successful – with only 6 of us present we managed to get all of the railway tie walls removed and the site cleaned up all by 14:00 hrs. A very special thanks to Dave and Linda, Marko T., Ron Edward and Dang for coming out to help with this project. Things sure look different. There is gravel coming Tuesday morning to fill in between the concrete pads and fill some low spots as well (gravel pits were closed today).
The ties were oringially installed to protect the main clubhouse from the firing line in case of errant shots. This was done according to the range template. The installation had the negative affect of reducing the number of shooting positions by half, as you could not use the brass for support/barricade shooting. Only the drop down posts could be used for this. This meant that CSC and other user groups who needed barriers for shooting could only have half as many shooters on the line at one time.
Now that the big lock-block wall is up, the rotted and falling over railway tie wall is no longer needed. The ties also seemed to encourage people to shoot from forward of the actual red shooting line, and as such were constantly having to be told to step back.
The removal of the ties has been discussed at meetings for the last year off and on, no complaints were ever heard about their upcoming removal.
If members can come forward with a plan for their replacement that doesn’t interfere with the use of the beams for barricade shooting, we would welcome them. Alternately members can shoot handguns and smaller calibers on the other ranges if they find the larger rifles on range 2 disruptive.
The ties are available if anyone wants them come and get them.
Ray Boulton
President AFGC
