OOPS...didn't know that I couldn't edit a poll so yes you can vote for more than one date if there's only a couple dates that you'd be available.

Ok let's kick some ideas around here and if you have any questions or input on how we can make this Shoot run more smoothly than the last two please respond...I'll try not to take it personally!

DATES:

--This is all preliminary and will have to get my partners schedules out as well, but I'm thinking of the Shoot being held the 29th of April (Saturday) with an alternate day being the 15th.  Reasoning behind the later part of April is the weather (warmer and "less" chance of rain) and school graduations the first part of May that people will have to attend and there's a gunshow at the Fairgrounds the weekend of the 21st-23rd of April, with the warm winter we've been having this winter the 8th of April might be an option as well.  Saturday the 6th of May is possible but would have to find out from you guys if that would conflict with any school graduations as I know the following weekend should be full of them.  Also when you start getting into May there's the chance that farmers will be getting into their fields, whether anyone farms or not I don't know.  If possible I'd like to have a "fudge factor" of at least a week in case of rain so we can schedule it for the following Saturday which I guess would eliminate the 6th of May except as a rain-date.

--Would you guys rather have the rain-date the following day (Sunday) or the following Saturday.  I really don't want to conflict with church but if it's easier for a person to make it due to work scheduling, or whatever, then we should discuss it.

RANGE:

--This would once again be held at Bays Branch Range and start around 0900...I will make it a point to pack earlier that night so I'm not up so late packing the ambulance thus getting there later than I had planned.  It was brought up last year about cooking something for lunch but due to lack of planning we never got around to discussing it.  Personally I think sack lunches are the way to go for lunch during the day as people can eat when they're hungry and the range stays "hot" for more shooting.  Now if we wanted to cook some burgers/hot dogs once we're done shooting and cleaned up the range I don't see why that would be a problem and would be kind of fun...weather permitting as if it's cold my wife will be wanting to go "NOW" once the range is cleaned up and everything packed up.  This is something that can be talked about at a later time as we've still got about 3 months.  If somebody(s) would like to bring a grill (or two) and had the room say so that way we have that area taken care of if we decide to grill.  Actually whoever brings the grill can stay and grill afterwards if they want and anyone else can stay too since it will be a BYO meat and fixings kind of affair.  That took care of that!

--The setup will be similar to the Shoot in October as we'll have the machineguns on the far left side of the shooting area for safety reasons (less foot traffic and grass/weeds/trees on one side).  We're going to try and have a trailer of our own set up to shoot one of the belt-fed machineguns off of like at the last Shoot and will either shoot the MG-42 off the AA tripod like last time or sit behind it on an actual MG-42 tripod, I doubt we'll have two separate MG-42's there set up(?)  It was brought to my attention that there were machinegunners "hogging" the shooting benches so others couldn't use them...I don't remember any sustained use of the benches by our machineguns but we were pretty busy and I could be wrong.  Although there was our Bren that was sitting on a bench for a little while which is where the complaint could've came from, if I remember right the Bren was up there with its bipod because it was too heavy for our table (and too big) and this can easily be taken care of at the next Shoot.  By the way...feel free to ask us questions or make suggestions during the Shoot as we could've easily moved the Bren once it was done being shot.  I will also try to get some "Police Line Do Not Cross" tape and we can put that down in the grass so we have a specific line for people not to cross when the range is hot and for shooters to know where to step up to and shoot from and not 5' behind the others.  I don't know if flying brass from the machineguns was a problem with anyone before but we can take a tarp and hang it from the canapy we have to block the brass...only problem is that it cuts down on visibility on us seeing out and others looking in.  If it wasn't a problem then I won't worry about it and if it was maybe I can find some heavy clear plastic.

--The berm is something Coltgunner and I have talked about and he is going to see if the County can widen the berm in the name of "safety" or "enhanced" user use which would work out great for all shooters involved whenever they used it.  Another area of concern that was brought up was that "those machinegunners" shot up all the targets that the other shooters took the time to setup very quickly and then had to wait for the range to go cold so they could go downrange and setup more targets only to have the process repeated again.  I can see where they're coming from and don't blame them a bit but when this happened if you would've come up to me and stated your concern we could've tried to do something about it.  If we don't get the berm widened then I'd propose a "shooting lane" for those shooting the machineguns to fire down and only shoot the targets that are in that lane including that section of the berm.  With novice shooters of course there will be some "incursions" of friendly targets but it would help keep it to a minimum I believe.  This can be discussed once we know whether the County will widen the berm or if the County will allow someone else to widen the berm, thus not using County funds or manpower.  If WE can widen the berm we'll be asking to see if anyone knows someone in that local area that has access to an endloader or something to just widen the berm off to the right (as you're looking at the berm) per County specifications.

Well that is about all I can think of for now and gives everybody a little something to think about and comment on when you're ready.

*** Notice ***
We (Corporation members) have not had a chance to get together and "hash out" what all we'll be doing similar to last year and what we'll be doing differently so please be patient.  A couple of the points we'll be discussing are what machineguns we'll be bringing and how we're going to handle ammo for them this time.  I'd appreciate it if you could take the time to read the following below.

Machineguns:
We'll sit down and determine what was popular to shoot last fall and which ones are too finicky and result in too much down time for maintenance compared to time spent shooting.  We kept pretty busy non-stop last fall and when one of the machineguns went down for maintenance everything came to a screaching halt.  One of the problem childs we had was the MG-42 but we think we can minimize that now with a little more training on how to properly fire the weapon...jerk back on the trigger and NOT squeeze the trigger.  By squeezing the trigger you cause premature wear/breakage on the parts and can cause a "runaway gun" which is not good with a MG-42 and 250 round belt!  The other problem with the MG-42 will be discussed below and how we feel we can control it.  We'll be sure to let everyone know what we'll be bringing with plenty of time before the Shoot.

Ammo:
Other than buying ammo for your personal firearms, please hold off trying to buy ammo in anticipation of what machineguns we'll be bringing as we're going to try and stay away from one of the problems we had with them last fall.  Ammo sensitivity is a key item with machineguns and after a lot of trial and error over the years our President has a good idea on what works and what doesn't with our machineguns.  On the beltfeds last year we let people either exchange ammo that they brought for our linked/belted ammo or let them shoot the belts they had loaded with the ammo they brought.  The MG-42 and Browning 1919 became finicky and a little problematic with some of the ammo that was brought by others to shoot, now the ammo is perfectly fine in a Mauser or other bolt action style firearms but just wasn't what the beltfeds liked and if you were there last year the problem with ammo (combined with feathering the triggers on the beltfeds) caused a lot of down time on the range.  We had ammo for sale last Fall for people to buy that either had ran out, or decided to shoot something in a caliber that they hadn't planned on shooting, at a very reasonable rate that we know works in our machineguns.  Due to the time consumption and logistics of trying to reload belts at the range we'll probably be bringing out all our belts pre-loaded again and just sell the ammo by the belt like we did last year which seemed to be quite popular and everyone felt the price was more than fair as we buy ammo in bulk and not just a box here and there.  What is unknown right now is what other machineguns (if any) we'll also just sell the ammo by the magazine as we'd then know what ammo is being shot thru the machineguns and that is of a known reliability.  

 Fat fingers

In the words of Pink Floyd, "Hello...is there anybody out there?"

Hope to have the date set in the next 1-2 weeks...I also have to take time off and turn it in well in advance as I work weekends.