Well, despite less snow than usual this last winter it was difficult to keep the range open on the scheduled practice days through the winter due to wet, cold or snowy road conditions on the range access road and on the range itself.  However, it looks as if springtime has finally settled in with warm days forecasted ahead of us and hopefully the “post Easter season” will bode well for us in scheduling and having more access to the range for member practice days.  We now have more certified range safety officers to assist with managing the range on open practice days so if the weather cooperates, we should be able to have a lot more days this year that the range is open compared to last year.  Kicking off our spring season this year will be our first official event on April 16, a “Ham shoot” fundraiser for the skate board park in Williams.  It’s nice to be able to support our local youth and we are hoping for a good turnout.  All profits from the event will go towards improvements at the park. 

Thanks to Jay Redfeather and Ryan Williams, we kicked off the 2011 with a new Logo for the club.  It looks great and really adds some color and “pizzazz” to the club!  Thanks to some recent donations of steel pipe this year, we are also hoping to begin construction of some steel shade structures for the range shooting bays.  This is a big project so if you have some welding skills and/or equipment and would be interested in helping out on this project, please contact me or any of the board members listed on the “contact” tab of the home page.  Eventually we hope to have a shade and rain protection structure for all shooting bays, a really nice addition to the range! 

Once again this year, the ACSA’s Railhead event will herald in hundreds of shooters and their families during this July event over the Holiday 4^th weekend.  Single action colts, double barreled and model 97 shotguns, vintage lever action rifles, period western dress and numerous vendors make this a fun and exciting event just to come out to watch.  In addition to the sanctioned SASS event, Railhead will also have a “Wild Bunch” side match adding some fast action with 1911 handguns, pump action ‘97’s and more.   Other events are in the planning stages for later in the year as well, including another Arizona action pistol club that we may host over the summer so stay tuned for more on this.  If you have an idea for another type of event or a specific shooting discipline and would like to see it happen, again, contact a board member with your idea.

We currently have an opening on the board and an open position for a Chief Range Safety Officer as well, so if you have any interest in either of these positions, please contact a board member.  When using the range this year, please help us keep the range road in top condition by keeping your speed down to 15MPH, thanks, and hope to see ya on the range!

Mike