I’m not much for writing for writing’s sake. I think of it like talking to hear myself talk - not that I talk to myself :)  But in keeping with my previous post about getting back into a good habit I will ramble for a bit…

I’ve been prepping for the camp out (is it campout or camp out?) this weekend, and came to the realization that there is a LOT of gear needed to run an NRA pistol course. Of course there are the firearms and ammo, but also the instructor’s course guide, dummy rounds, student packs, eyes, ears, cleaning kit, air pistol for the first shots lesson, pellet catcher, pellet backstop, range flag, etc. etc. Then there is my camping gear - okay, so that’s only one backpack for me and a duffel for Phil. But still. I’ve spend most of the evenings this week getting everything prepped.

What else has been going on? I get to run the first NCAC BB Gun RSO course in a week. That in and of itself is not a big deal. The big deal is that I wrote the course. While I’ve been teaching BSA courses for a while, this is the first one I wrote. I started with a version from another council, modified it a fair amount based on the NRA Rifle Instructor materials and my own experiences running BB ranges for Cub Scouts. Its been reviewed by other instructors on the Shooting Sports Committee, with only small changes. We’ll see how well its received next week.

On the OA front, the new officers are gelling together pretty well. They have a pretty good handle on communicating with each other. Still working on getting a officer training weekend set up. Next up is Service weekend. After that its a day of Goshen bus loading and then a break pretty much till Fall Ordeal. Which reminds me I need to check on dates!

More later!

Well, the ankle held up okay this past weekend. We got 7 new Crew and Adults through pistol class. We had one Crew not show, maybe we can get them involved next time. I’ll transcribe my journal notes soon (yeah, I know I’ve been saying that for a while…)

…and the fundraiser went okay. Actually, that’s a bit misleading. The two day event went very well. We met lots of cool friendly folks who loved to talk about their sport/hobby/pastime. Our Crew had a good time. The fundraising effort was a bit disappointing though. We did not bring in as much as we had thought we would, we’re short of breaking even. But if we can go back and go more of these, then we’ll be in good shape. One really cool thing that came out of it is FRGC is allowing us to pick up their spent brass to recycle. That will give us some reloading stock and the rest will get recycled for some extra cash.

Brass is very heavy by the way. The bag we collected everything in almost broke open in the bed of my truck. We’re talking about a milk crate full, so you can imagine the mess (and noise!) that could have made.

We are off to hold our first Crew fundraiser this weekend. The FRGC invited us to sell coffee and donut concessions the morning of Saturday and Sunday during one of their matches. Actually, its a match hosted by the Cast Bullet Association. Should be a fun day - the weather looks to be good, we get to see a match, and then we’ll spend some time at the pistol range. Need to work on breaking in my Glock - it seems to be shooting a bit low.

Well, we staffed our first shooting event as a Crew this past weekend. We thought we were going to just be crowd control, but we wound up running one of the BB ranges. The crew did a great job. I expect they will call on us again.

Now its off to get ready for IOLS this weekend. Now if I could just get my wife to come.