FTSC
2007
Sporting Clays Committee Report
Dave
Bell, Rob Burtt, Phil Hughes, Al Robichaud,
Planning: At previous AGM’s, the FTSC Sporting Clays committee was mandated to provide Fredericton Trap & Skeet with a strategy for the development of Sporting Clays at FTSC. This plan was to outline the establishment of a weekly Sporting Clays night, and to look forward to establishing a compact sporting or “5-Stand” field at the club.
An integrated plan was presented that addressed the SC Committee’s goals plus provided a projection of trap acquisitions and improvements for the next several years. The plan as accepted by the board had a stated goal of FTSC being able to host a 100 target event plus maintain “5-stand” operation without the use of human trappers. This plan was accompanied with proposals to have alternate fundraising channels to augment funding for course development.
Weekly Shooting: The Sporting clays season kicked off in May with year two of “Tuesday Night Sporting Clays”. Again this has been very well attended with between 15 and 30 people participating each week. The SC trap orientation session we held in the spring was of great help. More members became familiar with the safe and proper opening and closing of the course, this spread the work around making the operation of Tuesday nights so much better. Thanks to all the members who make Tuesdays a great night of shooting.
Monthly Shoots: In addition
to these other tasks, the committee, with assistance from a number of other
club members, oversaw the construction of stations for our traditional “monthly
shoots. All events this year were very
successful with attendance maintained at great levels. For the first time in my memory we were able
to hold a 100 target event without climbing the hill. The addition of new and
resurrected stations down the
Course Improvements: The past year saw FTSC continue the process of automating our Sporting Clays setup with the purchase of two regular carousel machines. Club money augmented with alternative financing in the form of SC sign sponsorship made this possible, many thanks to the course sponsors who paid for the signage on the gun racks. These acquisitions made our Tuesday night shoots even better with little or no human trapping. We were able to have some simo pairs that made our course even more interesting and challenging. Our sporting clays designs are safer, more reliable, and more fun with less work. The use of the auto traps for the shoot offs at the Browning made this a real spectator event. We continue to learn about the correct and best ways to use these machines and we believe that they will continue to be vital to the development of sporting clays at FTSC. To make our course safer and easier to get around we started a process of trail widening and gravelling. For a small investment in gravel and the renting of a skid steer, added to a heap of membership sweat, the trails are much improved. Hand carts can now be easily pushed around the course. We intend to continue to improve the quality and accessibility of our trails for SC shooters of all ages and mobility. Many new shooting station stands and gun racks were added this year, many thanks to George for the cedar, and Eldon for the great design and carpentry.
Looking Forward: The competition for the non-member SC dollar is intense. There are 18 SC events this summer in Atlantic Canada, not including the 5 planned events here. We depend on the influx of money from these events to fund the growth of all our shooting disciplines, and to keep our members’ costs from escalating. FTSC is arguably the SC leader in Atlantic Canada; we need to keep this position by constantly delivering a top quality SC experience. For our members we need to continue the theme “more fun….less work”.
Compact Sporting sometimes known as ‘5 stand’ is ready to go. Rob has been working diligently at rounding up the parts needed to do this while keeping cost low, reliability and in house fix ability high. The demo set-up is ready to shoot. As we go forward it will be improved upon. Tuesday night sporting should begin early in May with the RGS shoot following later in the month. The 4 other scheduled events are the BBQ Blast, Beretta, Browning, and Fall Classic. All hands will be needed to put on these events, we are very fortunate as a club to have an army of volunteers; this was in great evidence at the fall clean up day. The entire SC course was put to bed for the winter in just 2 hours! We’ll be calling on you again in the spring for deployment, and for help with refereeing, target hauling, grass cutting and all the numerous tasks that make our events the best in Atlantic Canada. It is truly a complete club effort.
On behalf of the committee I move the continuation of the long term strategy mentioned at the opening of this report. Included is:
1- The purchase of 2 automatic carousel machines, one to be a dedicated ‘Teal’ machine. Time line for delivery to be mid to late April, in time for the SC season. Cost not to exceed $7,000 for both.
2- Trail and course improvements to increase safety, quality and customer satisfaction.
Respectfully Submitted;
Dave Bell