May - Naperville Sportsman`s Club

The Naperville Trapshooter
The Official Newsletter of the Naperville Sportsman’s Club
-
May 2010
The Fred Section
President’s Message
Members’ Meeting and Board Meeting – Different Location!
There will be a members’ meeting followed by a board meeting
on Tuesday, May11th at the “Barn” Recreation Center, Room C.
(due to maintenance at the clubhouse) Directions to the barn
from the Sportsman’s entrance on West street: Go ½ blocks
North to Martin Ave; go ½ blocks East to the Barn. All
members are invited and requested to attend both meetings. The
first meeting starts at 7:30 PM, doors open at 7:00 PM.
Safety
Safety is job one at Sportsman’s Park. It is everyone’s
responsibility to practice safe firearm and ammunition handling.
If you witness any unsafe practices please don’t be shy about
saying something to the offender. Let’s do everything we can to
maintain our unblemished record of safety.
Annual Dinner and Raffle
The Annual Dinner will be held June 26th. Please mark your
calendars now. It is always a great time. Raffle Tickets are
selling quickly. As in years past the tickets are ten dollars.
May Members Meeting
The May Members and Board Meetings will be held at the Barn
recreation facility on May 11th. The Park District will be doing
floor maintenance at the Clubhouse.
Club to Purchase Shotguns
The Club is in the market to purchase a couple of shotguns to be
used in our training classes. If you have a shotgun that you are
selling please contact me or Fred Turek to discuss.
No Parking on Grass
If the parking lot is full, only use the very edge for parking. We
do not want to damage the grass in wet conditions.
Upcoming Events
We are planning an Open House for September 19 (we will need
lots of volunteers). ATA shoots will be held on June 27 th and
August 29th. Trap Fundamentals classes are scheduled for July
7th, September 12th and November 14th. The Hunter Safety class
is scheduled for May 19th, 22nd and 23rd.
New Member Orientation
The next three new member orientations (informal history and
workings of the club) will be at the club on Sunday June 13 th,
Sunday July 11th and Sunday August 8th at 10:00 AM. Please
RSVP to myself at 630-842-0391. The Range Volunteer clinic
will begin at 11:00 AM on those days. Everyone interested in
learning how the machines work should attend.
Mark Your Calendars
Our annual dinner is an event for your whole family, a dinner
and picnic combined, and our largest social event for the year.
Mark your calendar for June 26th!
...Fred Turek
Secretary
Dates to Remember
th
May 11 (Tues) - Members’ & Board Meetings
th
June 13 (Sun) – New Member & Volunteer Clinics
th
June 26 (Sat) – 2010 Annual Dinner
th
July 11 (Sun) - New Member & Volunteer Clinics
th
August 8 (Sun) - New Member & Volunteer Clinics
th
Sept 19 (Sun) – Open House
…Jim Monk
President
-2-
Sportsman’s Club shooters travel to the ATA Southwestern Grand
Left to right: Mike Moore, Scott Calhoun, Ray Wieser
Mike Moore, Ray Wieser, and Scott Calhoun travelled to the National
Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas in early April to participate
in the Amateur Trapshooting Association Southwestern Grand
tournament. The Southwestern Grand is contested over nine days, and
features 24 events that total 2,500 targets. The tournament started on
Saturday, April 10 and featured two “warm-up” days with three 100target events (16-yard singles, handicap, and doubles) each day.
Monday, April 12 began two days of preliminary events, also with
three 100-target events each day. The high overall competition began
on Wednesday, April 14 and ran thru Sunday, April 18. The HOA
consists of 12 events and 1,300 targets, including the three
championship events on the final weekend.
The Southwestern Grand attracts shooters from across the United States
and Canada. There were shooters from as far away as Alaska, shooters
from the Canadian provinces including Nova Scotia, as well as a
shooter or two from Great Britain. The Southwestern Grand is known
as a premier shoot and attracts shooters with a terrific facility, lots of
vendors, great food on-site, and plenty of RV spots for those that travel
to shoots in their RV. They also stage the largest number of events of
any of the satellite grand tournaments, and provide the largest number
of trophies. They also throw a Texas-style BBQ for all shooters and
their guests on Saturday night at no charge, and have give-aways
during the dinner that includes cases of shells and certificates for
gunsmithing services at many of the on-site vendors at the facility.
You can normally count on great weather in south Texas during early
April, although this year turned out to be an exception.
This is my sixth year attending the Southwestern Grand, and the second
for Ray Wieser. I convinced Mike Moore to join us this year. Mike
and I carpooled to San Antonio, while Ray headed down on his own.
Ray has family in San Antonio so he split his time between shooting
and spending time with his family. It’s quite a trek to San Antonio
from Naperville, about 1,200 miles each way. Flying is certainly an
option, but considering all the gear you need for a week of shooting
there’s a definite advantage to driving and being able to take all of your
gear with you. Mike and I left Naperville Friday morning around 6 am
and by 7:30 pm were within spitting distance of Dallas, so we called it
a day. We rolled into San Antonio on Saturday around 12:30 pm. We
didn’t shoot on Saturday; we spent the afternoon getting classified and
paying our entry fees, and then just relaxed and recharged our batteries
in preparation for shooting on Sunday. Ray left later on Friday and got
into town Sunday morning and began shooting on Monday.
Left to Right: Mike Moore, Scott Calhoun
Mike and I began shooting on Sunday, and we both had success on the
first day. Mike recorded a 96 from the 27-yard line in the afternoon
Handicap event, which put him in a two-way tie for the top spot. It
took 50 shoot-off targets to settle things, but Mike came out on top to
take the champions trophy. My 93 in the final event of the day,
doubles, was good enough to take the A class trophy.
While the weather on Sunday was warm and sunny, the rest of the
week was not typical weather for Texas in April. Monday brought a
low-pressure system into south Texas and the thing just would not
leave. Temperatures for the rest of the week were not bad, high 60’s
and low 70’s, but we shot all week under a constant overcast and the
threat of rain. Although we took the line in rain gear more times than I
care to remember, we escaped anything worse than a light shower on
Monday thru Wednesday.
I managed to snag another doubles trophy during the Monday events,
with a 94 leading the A class shooters. My 98 in singles was good for a
tie for the A class trophy, but I lost the carryover the next day.
Ray joined us on Monday and shot with us thru Friday. A friend of
mine from Las Vegas came into town on Monday afternoon, and a
friend of his from Dallas joined us on Thursday.
Left to Right: Scott Calhoun, Bob McDonald (Las Vegas), Mike
Moore, John Spangler (Dallas)
-3-
Southwestern Grand continued…
Mike posted another 96 on Wednesday in the handicap event, but there
were a couple of 99’s from long-yardage that kept Mike from bring
home another trophy.
Thursday was the second worst weather day of the trip. We got thru
the morning singles event wearing rain gear but only suffering a few
sprinkles, however the handicap event was a whole other matter. It
started with a moderate rain as the handicap event began, and while we
were on the line we shot in moderate to heavy showers. The rain gear
kept us dry, but the guns required a full field stripping after the
handicap event. Mike and I found a big tree with a large canopy and
worked under cover of his rear door to avoid the rain. I removed the
trigger group from my Kolar and it wasn’t just wet, water actually ran
out of the trigger. A can of compressed air and some spray Rem oil
allowed us get everything dried out and re-lubed. The rain stopped
mid-afternoon, right before the doubles, so we were able to shoot the
doubles without needing to re-clean the guns when we were finished.
Saturday was the worst weather I’ve ever encountered while at a
trapshoot. It started pouring rain in San Antonio sometime around 5
am, and by the time Mike and I left the hotel and headed for the gun
club around 8:30 am some of the roads in the area had become partially
flooded. We arrived at the gun club to find some of the trap fields with
six inches of standing water. Trap houses were flooded; the sump
pumps could not keep up with the rain. They received 4-5 inches of
rain on Saturday morning, with the rain stopping around 10:30 am. At
11 am they postponed the event for the day, the championship singles,
until Sunday. By the time the rain stopped a couple of the trap fields
had over eight inches of water on them.
We have a larger contingent of Naperville shooters planning to attend
the ATA Great Lakes Grand in Michigan in late May. Hopefully we
can put a few Naperville names on the winners list at that shoot.
….Scott Calhoun
Arturo in the House
Left to Right: Jay Spitz, Art Jablonski, Bob Ash, Rich Kelly
Former Club director, Art Jablonski, on assignment in
Southeast Asia, was in town recently and paid a visit to
Sportsman’s Park. Many take our ability to shoot for granted.
Unless one can get government approval (papers) and can
acquire membership to a local club, there are no shooting sports
opportunities like we enjoy here in the States.
No visit with fellow Sportsman’s Club members could have
been complete without some good food and libation – so Bob
Ash, Rich Kelly and I took Arturo out for lunch at one of
Naperville’s finest establishments – The Lantern.
Sunday was the final day of the shoot. The original program was the
championship doubles followed by the championship handicap, but due
to the rain the prior day the singles championship was reduced to 100
targets and slotted after the doubles, and the start time for the day was
moved up to 8 am. At least the weather on Sunday was good, sunny
skies and temps in the low 70’s. I managed a 94 in the championship
singles, which was good for a tie for the runner-up trophy in the 27yard group, but we didn’t stay around long enough to shoot off. We
had a lot of ground to cover to get back to Naperville. We left San
Antonio around 2:30 pm and stopped for the night in Moore,
Oklahoma, in the Oklahoma City area. We made it back to Naperville
around 6:30 pm on Monday.
For the trip Mike and I each shot 2,100 targets and brought home three
trophies. We drove 2,665 miles and used 163 gallons of gas. As Art
Jablonski always says, that Sequoia with the V-8 will pass everything
but a gas station! The gas mileage on the way back was a little better,
as we had about 600 pounds less ammo than on the way down.
It was hard to believe, after a couple hours of conversation, that
Art had been gone for four months, but that still leaves 20
months on his India/Singapore deal… hopefully he can continue
to return for some intermittent shotgunning and upland bird
hunting with us later in the year.
It is expected that Art will become our expert in International
Trap upon his permanent return to the U.S…
Jay Spitz
Membership
-4-
Membership Notes
Shooter Accomplishments
Full Membership
The Membership Committee is pleased to announce the recent
induction of three probationary members to the rank of “full”
members into the Naperville Sportsman’s Club family. The
inductions took place at the Club’s monthly Board meeting, held
at Sportsman’s Park on April 13th.
Ray Courney, Wayne Willson and Ray Wieser were
unanimously conferred as “full” members, by the Club’s Board
of Directors. All three completed the requirements of their
probationary membership during 2009-10.
Naperville Sportsman’s Club
3/28/10
Bob Seetin
Sunday Dove Tie
3/28/10
Steve Pfister
Sunday Dove Tie
4/01/10
Steve Pfister
25 @ 16 Yd
4/01/10
Joe Kuhn
25 @ 16 Yd
4/08/10
Judy Novotny
25 @ 16 Yd
4/15/10
Bob Ash
Dove Winner
4/15/10
Steve Pfister
25 @ 16 Yd
…Tom Coleman
We offer our hearty congratulations to Ray, Wayne and Ray for
making and meeting the commitments required of full
membership!
Club Information
Probationary Membership
The membership committee is also pleased to welcome our
newest probationary members. George Bialkowski and Kirk
Tsirigotakis have been visiting Sportsman’s Park over the past
few months and have chosen to make the commitment of
membership.
www.NapervilleSportsmansClub.org
When you see George or Kirk on the line or about the
Clubhouse, please take a moment to introduce yourself and
welcome them both into the Club. George and Kirk are being
sponsored by Life Member Jay Spitz.
NMO sessions
New Member Orientation sessions hosted by Club President
Jim Monk, are mandatory for our probationary members and
open to any member who wants a refresher on range operations
and equipment. Upcoming dates for NMO sessions are
tentatively scheduled for June 13th, July 11th and August 8th.
There is no NMO scheduled for May due to Mothers’ Day.
Special Dates
Remember to mark your calendar… the range is closed on May
9th for Mothers’ Day.
Work Requirement
Members who shoot and ALL probationary members are
required to meet a work requirement as stipulated by the
policies and by-laws of the Club. Regardless of whether or not
you receive a postcard, it is the responsibility of the member to
meet his/her work obligations.
To confirm your work hour status, NMO dates and to RSVP
your NMO attendance or catch up on needed work hours,
contact Club President Jim Monk at (630) 842-0391 or by email
at [email protected] . Scheduling of
work hours is handled by Club Director Ron Tanski. If you
can’t make your scheduled date, contact Ron at
[email protected] .
If any member has personal information about a fellow member
you can share, please take a moment to contact the Club with
your news.
…Jay Spitz
Membership Committee
The Naperville Sportsman’s Club
PO Box 27
Naperville, IL 60566
Board/Member Meetings: 7:30 PM, 2nd Tuesday
Range Information
Sportsman’s Park Trap Range
735 S. West Street
Naperville, IL 60540
Clubhouse phone: 630-848-2124
Hours of Operation:
Thursdays: 6:00 – 10:00 PM
Sundays: 12:00 – 6:00 PM. Final Signup at 4:00 PM
Hours are subject to weather and attendance, holidays, and
community events
Open year round
Officers and Board Members
President: Jim Monk
Vice President: Michael Moore
Secretary: Fred Turek
Treasurer: Tom Coleman
Ed Heasley: Director ’10
Jim Chakour: Director ’10
Bob Beyer: Director ’11
Steve Pfister: Director ’11
Ron Tanski: Director ’12
Charlie Tlapa: Director ’12
Park District Liaison: Brad Wilson
Newsletter Editor/Publisher: Tom Coleman
May 2010
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
5
Club Open
6
7
8
13
14
15
20
21
22
27
28
29
Club Open
9
10
Club Closed
11
12
NSC Board &
Member Meeting –
7:30 PM
**Mother’s Day**
16
17
Club Open
18
19
Club Open
Club Open
23
24
25
26
Club Open
Club Open
30
Club Open
31
Memorial Day
June 2010
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
1
Thu
2
Fri
Sat
3
4
51
10
11
12
17
18
19
24
25
26
Club Open
6
7
Club Open
8
9
NSC Board &
Member Meeting –
7:30 PM
13
14
15
Club Open
16
Club Open
Club Open
New member
Orientation
20
21
22
23
Club Open
Club Open
**Annual Picnic**
27
Club Open
***ATA Targets***
28
29
30
Naperville Sportsman’s Club
P.O. Box 27
Naperville, IL 60566
www.napervillesportsmansclub.org