Harvard [ HSC ] Cowboy Shoot!

[BIG GUN]

I know that everyone suscribes to GOAL and recieves the Outdoor Message, but in case you missed it, Page 15, we are having a three day Cowboy shoot this weekend. 6/5,6, &7 Over 150 people have signed up and it will be a great time to check out the club as well as seeing the cowboy's in action.
It will be a great take for the whole family.

 

[gerrycaruso]

Just a heads up, most of the ranges at Harvard are closed today due to matches and classes. The machinegun (not the sub gun) range, the 100 yard range and the shotgun range are open. I think every other out door range and the plate racks are closed.

 

[01SVTvert]

Hope the safety meeting is still at 1000 AM on Sunday. I forgot to call to double check the time.

 

[2/1Marine]

it is at 10 tomorrow. WeedWhacker called to confirm and he just told me, safety brief at 10am tomorrow.

 

[FalArAk]

Just a heads up, most of the ranges at Harvard are closed today due to matches and classes. The machinegun (not the sub gun) range, the 100 yard range and the shotgun range are open. I think every other out door range and the plate racks are closed.

This is a great thing.

HSC has now turned itself into a business.

300 yard range is closed so the cowboys have a place to park,and the powers that be scheduled 2 things that closed down the 50 and the sub gun plates.

I mean I can only shoot on weekends,and who gives a damn if the range is basically closed down ? It's not like I pay money every year to be a member.As long as the club makes money,why should they give a damn.

 

[BIG GUN]

This is a great thing.

HSC has now turned itself into a business.

300 yard range is closed so the cowboys have a place to park,and the powers that be scheduled 2 things that closed down the 50 and the sub gun plates.

I mean I can only shoot on weekends,and who gives a damn if the range is basically closed down ? It's not like I pay money every year to be a member.As long as the club makes money,why should they give a damn.

This is a business. We have to make money in order to maintain the club. The due's and initiation fee's had to be raised because every time there was a planned work party day, the club would be empty, so now we have to use outside contractors or pay people to complete many projects. There are some dedicated groups that put many hours into making things work. One of those is the SASS folks, they put weeks into making this weekend great!

 

[FalArAk]

the club would be empty, so now we have to use outside contractors or pay people to complete many projects.

Really ?

What outside vendors has the club hired to do work party details or clean the club grounds?

I'm really looking forward to your answer.

I never knew HSC was a business to make money at the detriment of it's paying members.

 

[BenDover]

The 7,25,50 and 100 yard ranges were not what I would call crowded today. In fact the 100 yard range was empty when I went there at 1PM and the 7 yard range had no more than one person on it from 9AM to 2PM. Last weekend was basically a ghost town all weekend.

I have shot every weekend at HSC since Nov 08 and there has never been a time when I could not get a decent day of shooting in.

This is a great thing.

HSC has now turned itself into a business.

300 yard range is closed so the cowboys have a place to park,and the powers that be scheduled 2 things that closed down the 50 and the sub gun plates.

I mean I can only shoot on weekends,and who gives a damn if the range is basically closed down ? It's not like I pay money every year to be a member.As long as the club makes money,why should they give a damn.

 

[BenDover]

I'm pretty sure the big new section of blacktop at the gate and the road smoothing work that was recently completed was done by an outside firm. Their roller is still parked near the entrance to the action pits....

Really ?

What outside vendors has the club hired to do work party details or clean the club grounds?

I'm really looking forward to your answer.

I never knew HSC was a business to make money at the detriment of it's paying members.

 

[FalArAk]

I'm pretty sure the big new section of blacktop at the gate and the road smoothing work that was recently completed was done by an outside firm. Their roller is still parked near the entrance to the action pits....

Yes,but this expense was not because people didn't sign up for work parties like big gun suggested.If someone would have said sign up for a work party and operate heavy equipment like some sort of hard labor fantasy camp,I would have been the first person to sign up.

I have no problem with any events,but to schedule 3 events on a Saturday,effectively closing off 90% of the club is where my problem lies.

The 7,25,50 and 100 yard ranges were not what I would call crowded today.

Were you there yesterday ?

I have shot every weekend at HSC since Nov 08 and there has never been a time when I could not get a decent day of shooting in.

Being as this is your first Summer shooting at Harvard,it's no wonder you haven't run into multiple closed ranges on an event day where more than one event was sheduled.if you were a member for a significant amount of time,you would know that this isn't the first time this has happened.One year during the cowboy regionals,they shut down the entire range..

 

[BenDover]

I am still pretty new and pretty much schedule around the club calendar. Personally I see no problem having events that close parts of the club provided I can plan around it. I would have more of a problem if the events took up all the ranges both Sat and Sun or if the events were not on the calendar. This weekend Saturday was maxed out but today was fine.

As my first summer as an HSC member goes by, maybe I will have a different opinion....as it stands now I cant complain.

 

[Dan Hurley]

Greg is absolutely correct. This was a very tough weekend for the typical member and we certainly didn't want it to be this way. Sometimes you can just get run over when trying to accommodate all the demands. All of these events were posted on the club calendar, but we realize that the pre-notice doesn't make anybody feel better when they show up and are looking for a place to have some fun.

We need to understand that all of the functions were hosted and run by club members. We weren't just closing ranges for the benefit of non-members and trying to make money as a business.

In fact, the club donated the range time and clubhouse time to AWARE for the benefit of new women shooters. AWARE is the group that was using the close-quarters subgun range. Also, the 3-Position Rimfire match at the 25/50 on Saturday was donated time to the Massachusetts State Championship. The event is a huge benefit for the Massachusetts Junior shooters who are the future of our sport.

The Cowboy event is a once-a-year Tri-State Championship that was hosted and attended by numerous HSC members. As Greg mentioned, this match once closed all of the ranges at the club, but that doesn't happen now. However, the parking at the 300 yard range helps to assure that there is adequate parking for club members at the other ranges when there are over 170 competitors plus staff on hand.

As I mentioned, this was definitely not our ideal situation, still, on Saturday the 100 yard range and Flak Alley (the Class III range) were available to almost any type of firearm including handguns, rifles, and machine guns. The Shotgun Range was also available. On Sunday, the 25/50, the 100, Flak Alley, and the Subgun range were available.

Please understand that we will definitely do our best to assure that we don't book the club so heavily in the future. These events are important and great fun, but we'll certainly be working to spread them out and keep your club available to the greatest extent possible.

And guys, when somebody has a complaint about how things are going, don't jump on them. All opinions and criticism are important to keeping HSC the kind of place where you want to spend your weekends. I welcome the input.

 

[Lugnut]

Harvard hosts tons of great activities. Some of us engage in these activities, some don't. Consider that quite often- there are MANY of us that attend other activities at OTHER clubs as well! Many of "our" guests also host things for us.

All in all HSC is well run, well maintained and has tons of shooting areas that are usually open most of the time. I don't do Cowboy stuff but as a member- I don't have many issues with them using as much as they do once a year.

 

[Gammon]

The Cowboys shut the action pistol ranges down for a whole week. I have a problem with that. They turned the 300 yd rifle range into a trailer park, I also have a problem with that. There should be a policy of assuring that some of the action pistol ranges be reserved for the general membership on a permanent basis. I would also be willing to apy more dues to insure that I could find a place to shoot when I needed it.

Please don't take this as crticism of the members that donate their time to manage our facilities. I just think that scheduling should be done with the interests of the general membership in mind and that some of the special interest groups should be persuaded to leave a few ranges open for the rest of us.

 

[Cabin Fever]

I showed up to shoot at the 7 yard line on Saturday (testing a new .22 conversion kit), but there was a group of smallbore shooters who had closed both the 7 and the 25/50 lines, and they were not even using the 7 yard line. There was no info about this on the website. I understand that there will be events (like the cowboy thing), but it helps if they are listed on the site (like the cowboy thing was). I found out that I couldn't make it on Sunday, so Saturday was the only day that I could shoot this week.

I ended up at the Class 3 range/Flak Alley and ran into a great group of other shooters. Harvard's finest members, in my opinion! I also saw a lot of cowboys.

 

[FalArAk]

Thanks for taking the time to address my concerns Dan.

At least now I know someone on the BOD is aware of this and hopefully this scheduling of multiple events on the same day won't happen again.

Again I want to reiterate that I have no problem with any group of shooters..If they want to dress up and shoot I could care less as long as they are having fun.I didn't even have a problem with them closing the 300,it was better than having all the cars parked in every nook and cranny on the range.

I'm still waiting for Biggun to tell me what outside vendors were hired to do work party details.

 

[Dan Hurley]

I showed up to shoot at the 7 yard line on Saturday (testing a new .22 conversion kit), but there was a group of smallbore shooters who had closed both the 7 and the 25/50 lines, and they were not even using the 7 yard line. There was no info about this on the website. I understand that there will be events (like the cowboy thing), but it helps if they are listed on the site (like the cowboy thing was). I found out that I couldn't make it on Sunday, so Saturday was the only day that I could shoot this week.

I ended up at the Class 3 range/Flak Alley and ran into a great group of other shooters. Harvard's finest members, in my opinion! I also saw a lot of cowboys.

It's great to hear that you found the folks shooting at the Class 3 range. They are indeed great guys and a ton of fun to shoot with. You'll often find them at the 50 on weekend afternoons also.

We aren't perfect, but the smallbore match has been posted on the HSC website/forum calendar for several months including notice that the 7/25/50 range would be closed. It's true that they weren't using the 7 yard range, but their particular discipline requires uncommon concentration, so the match director requested closing the firing line.

 

[Dan Hurley]

The Cowboys shut the action pistol ranges down for a whole week. I have a problem with that. They turned the 300 yd rifle range into a trailer park, I also have a problem with that. There should be a policy of assuring that some of the action pistol ranges be reserved for the general membership on a permanent basis. I would also be willing to apy more dues to insure that I could find a place to shoot when I needed it.

Please don't take this as crticism of the members that donate their time to manage our facilities. I just think that scheduling should be done with the interests of the general membership in mind and that some of the special interest groups should be persuaded to leave a few ranges open for the rest of us.

You're correct that we need to try and keep as many of the Action pits open as possible and we'll keep doing our best. The large main pit (opposite the trailers) and the plate rack pit were open through Wednesday evening. The Cowboys set-up those two pits on Thursday, and then started shooting on Thursday/Friday. Next time, we'll also try to keep the 65 Yard range open later during the week.

Whenever we have a major Action Shooting match, we have a need to build an awful lot "structures" to create the stages. This will also happen during the major IPSC/USPSA matches and IDPA matches. And I know that you've had fun at a lot of USPSA events over the years.

We often allow access to pits even after the stages have been built, as long as folks don't shoot-up the walls and props. We work to keep everything as open as possible while still providing for the major events that most everyone likes to see happen.

I encourage any other thoughts and ideas about how we can host these great events while still meeting the needs of our club members.

 

[Cabin Fever]

It's great to hear that you found the folks shooting at the Class 3 range. They are indeed great guys and a ton of fun to shoot with. You'll often find them at the 50 on weekend afternoons also.

We aren't perfect, but the smallbore match has been posted on the HSC website/forum calendar for several months including notice that the 7/25/50 range would be closed. It's true that they weren't using the 7 yard range, but their particular discipline requires uncommon concentration, so the match director requested closing the firing line.

I shoot NRA high power, so I understand the concentration part. I don't want to be "that guy" who turns a match because a shooter missed an x.

Still, I must have missed it on the forum calendar. I do feel better knowing that it was posted somewhere.

 

[Gammon]

You're correct that we need to try and keep as many of the Action pits open as possible and we'll keep doing our best. The large main pit (opposite the trailers) and the plate rack pit were open through Wednesday evening. The Cowboys set-up those two pits on Thursday, and then started shooting on Thursday/Friday. Next time, we'll also try to keep the 65 Yard range open later during the week.

Whenever we have a major Action Shooting match, we have a need to build an awful lot "structures" to create the stages. This will also happen during the major IPSC/USPSA matches and IDPA matches. And I know that you've had fun at a lot of USPSA events over the years.

We often allow access to pits even after the stages have been built, as long as folks don't shoot-up the walls and props. We work to keep everything as open as possible while still providing for the major events that most everyone likes to see happen.

I encourage any other thoughts and ideas about how we can host these great events while still meeting the needs of our club members.

When I arrived at the range on Sunday afternoon 5/31 I found that ALL of the Action Shooting pits were either closed or occupied with the exception of the plate range. The Cowboys had shut down all of the ranges with the exception of the plate range and the big range that was being used for an IPSC clinic.

I spoke to one of the Cowboy people who seemed to be in a position of authority and got his grudging permission to use one of the ranges that had been set up. This was a PITA because I could only use a small corner of the pit to avoid shooting the props. During the course of our conversation the Cowboy person told me in no uncertain terms that ALL of the Action Shooting pits would be closed until the match ended the following Sunday. Now I find out that I might have been able to use a pit at least until Wednesday. This BS has to stop. We need better communication and a few pits should be declared off limits to the special interest groups; set aside for the members use permanently. Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I joined Harvard to shoot.

 

[gerrycaruso]

HSC is growing rapidly. We have over 1000 members. We've gained 99 new members since the 1st of the year. This means we have more people shooting and the board tries to keep everyone happy. The club is constantly improving due to the efforts of lots of dedicated members. There is talk of building a rimfire range which would eliminate the need to shut down the 50 yard range for shoots. Speaking of the 50 yard range, I don't see the need to shut down the 7 yard range just because people are shooting at the 50. Shooting is a noisey sport( for most of us Matt). If someone requires everyone to be quiet while he makes his shot, maybe he should trade his rifle for a golf club.

 

[reks]

I swung by on Sunday to shoot some clays and it really wasn't that busy at the shotgun or 50 yard range. I also walked over to watch some of the cowboy stuff and I have to say it looked pretty fun. Sure was entertaining to watch.