PARKSVILLE-QUALICUM FISH & GAME ASSOCIATION

Transcription

1 PARKSVILLE-QUALICUM FISH & GAME ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER DORMAN RANGE OCTOBER RON CARD GREETINGS: Hello Everybody. We haven t had a newsletter for 6 months so it is time to catch up on all the things that have happened at the Dorman Range over the summer (and now Fall). Things have remained busy throughout the summer. And now, it is back to wet, miserable weather. I have added a few different topics; I hope that you will enjoy them. My computer crashed early on and I lost just about everything that I had been saving for the newsletter. Fortunately, our good member, Don Thiessen, resurrected the computer for me. I had lost all the photos but, fortunately, I still had them on my camera. A request to our Club members our Treasurer, Tina Wilson, is stepping down after about 22 years. We need an accounting type of person to take over her role. Tina will provide guidance to a new person. As well as Tina stepping down, her husband, Don, who has also contributed a great deal of effort over the years, will be taking a holiday over the Christmas period. Don usually runs the turkey boards for the Club and this has been a significant fund raiser. (It is efforts like these that help to keep our membership fees at the lowest level on the Island.) Andy Lemmon has volunteered to run the turkey boards thanks Andy. So if you want to try to win a turkey for $2, see Andy. Boards will be at various locations including the Dorman Range. And finally, my term as a Director for the overall Club, representing the Dorman Range, will expire shortly. We will need somebody to volunteer to represent the Dorman Range on the Club Executive. Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss League records were destroyed in a fire and so we ll never know for whom the Tells bowled. A man rushed into a busy doctor's surgery and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient." Did you know that health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital dying of nothing.

2 In addition to our regular shoots on Sundays and even-dated Wednesdays, I am highlighting some of the special events that have occurred; All Round Shoot on May 27: The All Round shoot on May 27 replaced our standard sporting clays shoot. It was set up to fund the BCWF Action Fund. The Action Fund supplies funds for the BCWF for court costs that are instigated to fight actions that affect the sporting fraternity, such as road blocks. This was a fun event. It was comprised of 25 birds at 22 yards handicap, 25 birds on wobble, 25 birds on skeet, and 50 birds on sporting clays. We had great weather and had a record 72 shooters shoot the ALL ROUND with an additional 9 shooting Sporting Clays only Congratulations to Ron Stubbings for his fine win of 118 out of 125 birds and to all the other shooters who won their class or had a personal best score. Thanks also to all the helpers, Rod Wiebe, Brian Quinn and the ladies from the Oceanside Stroke Recovery Assn. who prepared and served another extraordinary lunch!!!! Thanks also go to Lefty s for the pies; Phil Charlebois and Joe Ringwald for registration with scoring help from Karen from the OSRA; John O Regan, Ron Card, and others for set up and take down. Thanks to Mike Fall for scorekeeping and finally a big THANK YOU to the shooters who supported this event. We enjoyed putting it on and the result was a $2988 donation to the BCWF Action Fund. Thanks everyone!!!!! Photo 1 Carts that we bought with part of the $15,000 mobility/handicap grant. The carts provide transportation around the site for those people that have difficulty walking the distance. Photo 2 The kickoff talk at the start of the All Round. Photo 3 Shooters at the 22 yard handicap. Photo 1 Shooters at the wobble Photos 2 & 3 Shooters at the skeet field

3 Some useless information: Why is someone who is feeling great on cloud nine? Because types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares. Photo 1 Shooters at the skeet field Photos 2 & 3 - Shooters at Sporting Clays stations in the woods A man rushed into a busy doctor's surgery and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient." Diane Upper s retirement lunch, June 6, honouring her for her 20 plus years for being involved and looking after us at the Dorman Range. We had a cake and a small party at the range to show our gratitude to Diane but we arranged a lunch for her at the Arrowsmith Golf Club on June 6. The following photos show the people that attended the lunch. We will miss you Diane. Photo 1 Photo collage of Diane s past years activities Photos of Diane s well-wishers A great lunch and great company.

4 Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the internet and they won t bother you for weeks, months, maybe years. Cremation is my last chance to have a smoking, hot body. The ever-gracious lady is greeting all her well-wishers. Photo 2 Diane s husband, Dave, talking of her many years of dedicated service. Photo Diane talking to our oldest Club member, Bob Urquhart Dorman Range Resident The photos below show our regular range resident. She doesn t mind the shooting and will often browse as we shoot over her head and she seems to enjoy the nearby company. These photos were taken shortly after she put the run on my little dog. The dog loves to chase anything on 4 legs but he has learned that he doesn t mess with this doe (or her fawn).

5 Jack Gilmour s passing: Jack Gilmour was a member of the Nanaimo Club. He did a lot of work for that Club. He was a legend with his shooting and he was known to most of the shooting fraternity. Some of his successes were: He was a 5 time champion at the 27yd line, he had straights, straights, straights, and straights in doubles. Jack had pancreatic cancer. Sidewalk using the handicap grant: In the latter part of June, a work party was put together to build better access to the ranges, using funds from our $15,000 handicap grant. We extended the sidewalk which will help those people that have to use wheel chairs, walkers or even just canes. The intention is to extend this sidewalk right to the skeet field. While we were at it, we decided to also build a shelter that would provide cover for spectators and picnic tables. This shelter has been one of the most worthwhile projects that we have undertaken, as it has provided shelter in both high heat/sunshine and in heavy rains. A great thank you goes to those people that built both the sidewalk and the shelter; your efforts have added great value to the Dorman Range facilities. The work party consisted of Andy Lemmon, Jim Cholin, Dave Vaton, John O Regan, Rigger, Bob Marr, Keith Thompson, Reg Ross and myself. Once again thanks guys for your fantastic efforts. We invite all Club members to drop around and check out these facilities. Photo 1 Formwork and wire mesh placed for the concrete sidewalk Photo 2 After the concrete was poured Photo 3 Bob Marr and Keith Thompson using a table saw to cut the shelter timber to scale. All the timber came from our property, and was milled using Stan Ziolkowski s portable sawmill.

6 All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism. Photos of marina construction Outdoor facilities construction is always interesting. Here are some photos of the renovation/expansion of the Beachcomber Marina. Several of our Dorman Range members have boats moored here, so they had a great interest in both the construction schedule and how the construction would be carried out. Ian Barnes has spent a great deal of time in recent years trying to get all the necessary approvals for the modernization, lining up contractors, getting materials ordered, and finally, trying to accommodate all the boaters while the construction was carried out. He has done an excellent job but I am sure that he has already had a lifetime of frustrations. Photo 1 The crane that was used to unload trucks and transfer piling and materials to the pile driver. Photo 2 What the docks looked like before construction started. Photo 3 The pile driver working with existing docks being juggled. Photo 1 Some of the new docks in place with some of the boats already transferred from the old docks to the new docks. Photo 2 Part of the new dock getting acquainted with the bounties of the sea (Dungeness crabs and a small Spring salmon) Sporting Clays June 24 Sporting Clays in June was attended by 47 shooters. The scores were not as good as normal. The high score was by Brandon Sutton with an 81. Bill McNeilly shot a 79 and Don Buchner shot a 78. There was a total of 7 shooters that scored in the 70 s. The average score for the lower 5 stations was The average score for the upper 5 was 30.6.

7 Photo 1 Shooters at Station 3 Photos 2 & 3 - Shooters at the sand pit Photo 1 Thanks to Ed Bowater and his son Mark for helping with the tear down Some miscellaneous activities done by our shotgunners: Photo 1 & 2 - Andy Lemmon and friend at Zebellos, in early July. Andy has a 35 pounder and his friend has a 25 pounder Photo 3 A remarkable event - A mudshark in a crab trap that had been set off Rathtrevor Beach. How he got through the opening is amazing, and he was large enough that he had to curl in the trap to fit in. Sporting Clays for July and August were cancelled due to the extremely dry conditions in the woods. Sporting Clays September 23 Sporting Clays in September was attended by 66 shooters (36 of these were from other Clubs). James Wicks was the high man with 89, followed by Dominic Corrado and Stan Ziolkowski with 87. There were 19 shooters that shot in the 80 s including our own Mark Bottomly, Darren Perrens, Dave Upper, Joe Ringwald. Phil Charlebois and Steve MacDonald.

8 The overall average was The average for the lower 5 stations was 33.0 and the average for the upper 5 stations was (Thanks to Mike Fall for keeping the scores.) More useless information: Why do men s clothing have buttons on the right while women s clothing have buttons on the left? When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it was easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid s right! And that s where women s buttons have remained since. Photo 1 Introductory speech Photo 2 Bob Urquhart making use of our cart Photo 3 Shooters at Station 2 Photos 1 & 2 Shooters at Station 3. The incomer always looks easy but it is actually quite difficult. Shell order during August we put a shell order together for 450 cases (4500 single boxes). They were delivered in September. We had a wide range of specifications, getting 12 and 20 gauge, #7.5 and #8 size shot, 7/8oz, 1 oz & 1 1/8oz loads, and speeds from 1100 fps up to 1300 fps. Members from other Clubs participated in the order Alberni, Nanaimo, Courtenay, Galiano Island & Saltspring Island. It is great when we can help others in the shooting fraternity. Our next Sporting Clays is this Saturday, October 28. See you there. Our next project: Besides extending the sidewalk, we are planning to install nets at the trap fields to catch the unbroken clay pigeons. We had obtained old power poles quite awhile ago and we are now using some of these to install posts to support the nets. Catching the unbroken birds can be a good revenue provider. (When the previous nets were intact, we were able to generate $1,800 per year.) John O Regan has done a lot of work getting these post installed. The electrical firm, Addy Power, offered to augur holes for us, and this has now been done. A big thank you to Addy Power.

9 Photo 1 The photo shows Field #3, with the trap house and in the distance, the poles that are to be used for the nets. It is hard to see it but the nets are piled in the centre of the photo, at the brush line. Photo 2 shows a close up photo of the net poles and the nets piled at the brush line. Photo 3 shows the poles that have been installed for Field #2. And to finish off this report, I am highlighting another activity that our shotgunners do: Some of our shotgun members that are also proficient with rifles. Jim Walters, Dave Upper, and George Klimek And to use up some paper space, some thoughts to ponder: -Death is the number 1 killer in the world. -Life is sexually transmitted. -Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. And, as someone recently said to me, don t worry about old age; it doesn t last that long.