BEARDSLEE TRAINING SITE
 RANGE MAINTENANCE 2012
While Open Range does not cost anything to attend twice a month, occasionally there comes a
project that makes up for all that free shooting.

On May 6, such a project presented itself in the form of Range Maintenance Day, 2012.

At BTS, we had not had a range maintenance day for a couple years, and we were over due.

Before that fateful day, equipment and supplies started arriving at the range. Equipment
included a Bobcat, provided by Will Dudley; a venerable 1947 Ford tractor, with box blade and
bush-hog, provided by Mike Soellner;

Also delivered to the range was a load of railroad ties, donated by  George White, Mid American
Tie and Timber of Scott City; and a load a fill dirt, which I paid for myself.

Labor for this project included, Mike Soellner, Gregg Boyd, Dan McMichael, Randy Babb, Lynn
McBride, Justin Wooten, me (in my presently reduced physical capability) and my wife Janice,
who bribed everyone with Dexter Ribs and the trimmings, and strawberry short cake. All of
these folks are regular shooters at Open Range (except for Janice, who is scary enough without
a gun).

Work completed included general range clean up, replacement of ties at the butts, layout of a
live-fire entry room, the death of lots of poison ivy, reclaiming area adjacent to the actual flat
range, fill and leveling of the area at the north end of the range. Many trips were made to the
burn pile, and I even got control of the target shed and Santa's workshop, where new target
frames are born after the old ones are shot to pieces by those not familiar with the front sights
on their guns.
 

Here, Gregg Boyd prays to the spirit of Henry Ford (some say he actually knew Henry) to give Mike Soellner the
wisdom and strength to use his 1947 Ford tractor to pull the Bobcat out of the sand, where Gregg has gotten it
stuck. Mike seems to be enjoying the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you can't drag it out one way, try a different approach. Once the old Ford found its feet, and we got hooked on to the right end of the Bobcat, it came right out. Good thing, too, Gregg wasn't making much progress with that shovel.

 

 WOW, there really was concrete under all that trash that had accumulated in the corner of the range over the past ten years. Future site of the live-fire entry room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here comes a load of ties to replace the ones shot up by all those other folks who do not know what their front sight is for. The picture at right, looks like a government operation, with one guy working and three guys watching. Rumor has it the working guy had to go sit down after he moved several ties. Come on, Dan, that's only 250 pounds.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lots of work involved in getting the ties set. This must have been while Dan was resting. Notice that Tom is behind the camera, there by avoiding any serious work. THANKS to everyone who made this a very productive day, and helped to keep the range in the condition it needs to be to provide us all many hours of entertainment, training  and practice.