The club's annual picnic was held on Saturday, 7/18/2015, together with the annual shooting competition. The weather was pretty good, considering the high temperatures earlier in the week, when the shooting started at 8:00 AM, although it got hot as the clean-up was going on in the mid-afternoon. The final total was 105 door prize tickets (one per attendee) at the picnic, but we think there were a few people who arrived at lunch and did not get a ticket.
The lunch is always a high point at the picnic, and this year picnic chairman Ed Grautski continued his make-over process with the picnic to get more people involved, and to make it more like a family affair. Ed had requested that attendees bring a dish to share with others, and quite a few members responded with side dishes of salads and desserts which definitely added flavor and variety to the meal. Hugh and Bert Boyle supplied 5 gallons of baked beans, and there was little left over at the end of the meal. The meat was pulled pork and tri-tip beef which was cooked by Ebner's Meats in Canby. There was also bread, corn on the cob, chips, sandwich condiments, water, soda, and barley pop. There was plenty of food for everyone, including second helpings if desired. Leftovers were packaged and sold to members who were still there for the clean-up work after the picnic.
Raffle prizes included a Remington 700 SPSS in 300 Remington Ultra Mag, 2 pairs of tickets in the VIP seats at the Canby Rodeo, a $50 coupon for meat at Ebner’s, and a bottle of Crown Royal bourbon. Door prizes included targets, cleaning patches, Viper bore snakes, cleaning rods, knives, and vacuum flasks.
About 20% of the cost of the picnic was paid by bottle and can returns collected at the clubhouse over the year from on-site sales, and members dropping off their returns to be recycled. Another 20% of the cost was paid from sales of raffle tickets, so about half of the cost came from the club's general fund. Our bottle and can returns were down a little this past year, and we'll see if we can increase the amount of cost offset for the 2016 picnic.
The shooting competitions, as usual, paid the top three shooters in each discipline, and, this year, the top three shooters overall. Each competition was structured such that the winning shooter would receive 10 points, with the points awarded as 10 to first place in that event, 8 to second, 6 to third, 4 to fourth, and 2 to fifth. There were 4 events (archery, handgun, rifle, shotgun) so the maximum aggregate score was 40 points. The archery competition used CRGC's bows and arrows shooting at paper targets. The pistol competition was for center-fire pistols and revolvers, and was 10 shots at 10 steel plates at varying distances from 8 to 25 yards. The highest number of hits won, and in case of ties, the lowest time to shoot the 10 targets was the winner. The rifle competition was 10 shots shooting offhand at the NRA SR-1 target from 100 yards using any deer-legal caliber rifle. The trap shooting was 25 targets each from the 16 and 24 yard lines.
The winners in the "Top Shot" and the four shooting disciplines were:
| Class | Position | Shooter | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top Shots | 1 | Brandon Ayres | 28 |
| Top Shots | 2 | Tim Hulse | 20 |
| Top Shots | 3 | Ted Troutman | 16 |
| Senior Men | 1 | Tim Hulse | 20 |
| Senior Men | 2 | Red Knox | 6 |
| Men | 1 | Brandon Ayres | 28 |
| Men | 2 | Ted Troutman | 16 |
| Men | 3 | Eric Van Zandt | 10 |
| Women | 1 | Stacy Taft | 4 |
| Junior | 1 | Clay Ayres | 10 |
| Archery | 1 | Brandon Ayres | 8 |
| Pistol | 1 | Eric Van Zandt | 10, fastest time |
| Pistol | 2 | Tim Hulse | 10 |
| Rifle | 1 | Clay Ayres | 10 |
| Trap | 1 | Brandon Ayres | 10 |
Some shooters expressed a desire to go back to the old competition format, with separate shoots for each discipline, and in particular to go to the old style of rifle competition. Most of the people who commented thought there (1) there weren’t enough people interested in a “top shot” format, and its consequent diminution of winning an individual event; and (2) CRGC does not have enough multi-discipline shooters to even make a “top shot” a meaningful competition. Most members are hunters, and tend to emphasize a particular type of hunting, rather than being competitors who spend time and money in several disciplines. The discussion continued at the July board meeting, and it was agreed to go back to individual discipline competitions, although we might still do an overall winner if enough people are interested.
As always, the success of the picnic is due to the people who provide the time and effort to put it on. The following people assisted at the picnic, for preparation, set-up, operation, and clean-up: Brandon Ayres, Mike Cubbage, Steve Day, Gabe Dickson, Bob Gent, Cindy Gonzales, Ed and Judy Grautski, Winone Hutchins, Bob Kacalek, Mike Palmer, L.C. Parshall, Richard Phaneuf, Bob Ray, Ron Rohde, Paul Shuey, Homes Tupper, Steve Turner, and Eric Van Zandt. Please thank these members for their help when you see them.