The Satuit Nimrod
The Newsletter of the Scituate Rod & Gun Club
April 2023 — V30N04
News Around the Club
The big news around the club is the upcoming Kids Fishing Derby on Saturday, May 6th followed by the Vocational Life Skills Fishing Derby the following Tuesday, May 9th. We'll need helpers on both days to bait hooks, untangle snarls and retrieve tackle from trees and bushes.
We've been battling a Filamentous Algae bloom in the pond this year but thanks to the efforts of Jeff Patterson, "Commodore" Terry Maree (in the skiff below) and many others who raked the sludge from the pond, it's looking quite good again.
Scituate Harbor Yacht Club has donated a metal gangway they were retiring which will replace our existing wooden gangway to the float in the pond. The buoyancy of the float has been increased thanks to the efforts of Kenny Crowell and his gang of helpers. The float will be rotated 90° from it's previous position once it is returned to the pond so that a long side is towards the center of the pond. All the heavy lifting in this effort is thanks to Dave (We Pick Things Up and Put Them Down) Glancy and his crane.
Pond Area Cleanup
We had a good clean up around the pond on Saturday, April 22nd with 11-12 members turning out to help cut brush at the water's edge, trim the vegetation on the banks, etc. Lunch was provided by Jersey Mike's courtesy of member Matt West who owns several of these sub shops.
Pistol
The Pistol Committee held an Easter Fun Shoot on Saturday, April 8th. The course of fire was shot twice with 10 shooters in the first round and eight in the second. For the first round the top three were Paul Figueiredo, Brody Beresford (junior guest) and Richard Martin. In the second round the top three were Brody Beresford, Richard Martin and Sue Lennon.
The Easter Bunny did not fare too well in this shoot with most competitors sending him to Bunny Heaven instead of just piercing his ears.
The next Pistol event is planned for Saturday, May 13th, starting at 2:00pm and will be an, ever popular, MOMA (Miss and You're Out!) match. For June expect an "If It Moves, Shoot It!" match which will mix a variety of targets that move.
Skeet and Trap
Skeet activity is starting to pickup now that warmer weather is here and sunsets are later.
Trap has added two Tuesday evening dates in May; the 9th and 23rd. Expect a full complement of Tuesday nights to be on the shooting roster for June and the next few months.
Cowboy Action Shooting
The Cowboy Committee hosted our first Wild Bunch match on Saturday April 29th from 9 AM to 12:30 PM. The match consisted of five separate shooting scenarios. The pistol used was a .45 cal. model 1911, a lever action rifle pistol caliber and a pump shotgun. The rounds expended were 112 pistols, 44 rifle and 24 shotgun. There were 45 separate steel targets used.
Instead of the usual two categories: Traditional and Modern we added an Unlimited category for those who did not have the exact required equipment.
Seven folks competed and Ed Hunnefeld helped out in target resetting and spotting.
I want to all who participated and helped out in returning all the targets and props into storage.
Ron Rice
Knock-down Steel Targets
The 50-yard range has a row of knock-down (KD) steel targets in the first bay for the members to use. SRGC recommends that only lead, frangible, polymer coated or plated bullets be used when shooting at these targets.
SRGC does not recommend the use of jacketed bullets as this type of ammunition has a greater propensity to bounce back and cause an injury from the flattened jacket, which is razor sharp.
Also, the minimum recommended distance for shooting at the KD targets is 30 feet. Conveniently, one of the support poles on the left side that is 30 feet from the KD targets has been marked with a square of white paint.
You can read more about each type of bullet mentioned above at these links:
Lead https://ammo.com/bullet-type/lead-flat-nose
Frangible https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/what-is-frangible-ammo/
Polymer Coated https://pc-ammo.com/
Plated https://evergreenballistics.com/product-category/plated-bullets/
Full Metal Jacket https://ammo.com/bullet-type/full-metal-jacket-truncated-cone-fmj-tc
Western Swing
by Ron Rice
No, not the country music, but the SRGC members’ trek west to the Single Shooting Action Society World Championship in Phoenix known as "End of Trail". Jean and I were joined by Paul and Connie Carter who traveled from their home in Savannah. "End of Trail" had 726 shooters sign up for the three day main match competition.
Three of us were able to win Top Ten buckles in our shooting categories. Jean 4th place in Lady Silver Senior Frontier Cartridge, Paul 8th in Elder Statesman Gunfighter and I (with a horrific 9 misses) a 6th place in Elder Statesman Frontier Cartridge.
After Phoenix, the journey headed east to Florida for the SASS State Championship known as "Ides of March" with 200 registered shooters. The four of us were joined by Phil and Sue Lennon.
In this match, we all fared well in our respective categories: Phil 5th in Elder Statesman, Sue 2nd in Lady Duelist, Jean 2nd in Lady Frontier Cartridge, Connie 2nd in Grand Dame, Paul in Senior Gunfighter and I took 1st place in Frontier Cartridge.
All in all, the shoots were a lot of fun and we were able to shoot with a numbers of other New England cowboy shooters.
Next on the agenda we are preparing to put on the MA, CT & RI SASS State Championships known as "Hellfire at Barrister’s Junction" on June 2, 3 & 4, 2023 at the Harvard Sportsman’s Club.
Hope to see you on the range!
Quotes of the Month
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.”
– Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbs comic strip cartoonist.
”The right is absolute. In a free nation, government has no authority to forbid me from speaking because I might shout "fire" in a crowded theater. Government has no authority to forbid me from using my fist to defend myself because I might also use it to strike your nose. And government has no authority to forbid me from owning a firearm because I might shoot an innocent victim. Government is there to assure that the full force of the law can be brought against me if I discharge that right in a manner that threatens the rights of others. It does not have the authority to deny me those very rights for fear I might misuse them.”
— CA State Senator (R) Tom McClintock, 2001
"Liberalizing concealed carry laws won't lead to a return to the Wild West- though it wouldn't be bad if it did… in 19th century cattle towns, homicide was confined to transient males who shot each other in saloon disturbances. The per capita robbery rate was 7% of modern New York City's. The burglary rate was 1%. Rape was unknown."
— David Kopel, author
ATF Director Can’t Define a Firearm Type He Wants to Ban
by Garrett O'Leary, Associate Editor, NRA America's 1st Freedom, posted on April 22, 2023
Proponents of gun control routinely call for “assault weapons” to be banned, most notably, and probably most frequently, President Joe Biden (D). So when Steve Dettelbach, who Biden nominated to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), was asked to define what, exactly, an “assault weapon” is, you’d think his response would at least be informed.
When appearing before a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee, Dettelbach was asked by Rep. Jake Ellzey (R), “in 15 seconds, would you define an ‘assault weapon’ for me?”
“I’ll go shorter than that, because honestly, if Congress wishes to take that up, I think Congress would have to do the work, but we would be there to provide technical assistance. I, unlike you, am not a firearms expert to the same extent as you may be, but we have people at the ATF who can talk about velocity of firearms, what damage different kinds of firearms cause, so that whatever determination you chose to make would be an informed one,” said Dettelbach.
So Dettelbach is not, by his own admission, an “expert” on guns, and he is leading the ATF? Moreover, his word salad non-answer further shows that the term “assault weapon” is an ambiguous, politically malleable term used by gun controllers like Biden and, interestingly enough, Dettelbach himself.
During his campaign to be attorney general of Ohio in 2018, Dettelbach called for bans on “assault weapons,” which was brought up during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year. Amazingly, he couldn’t define what an “assault weapon” was then either, yet he wanted to ban them.
When asked by Sen. Tom Cotton (R) to define the term “assault weapon,” Dettelbach said, “Senator, when I was a candidate for office, I did talk about restrictions on assault weapons; I did not define the term and I have not gone through the process of defining the term.”
“So, you’re running for public office and you called for a ban on assault weapons, but you don’t have a definition on ‘assault weapons?’” said Cotton in response. “I think it’s very telling that you’re nominated to lead the ATF and you don’t have a definition of ‘assault weapon,’” said Cotton after some more back and forth.
Dettelbach, predictably, secured an endorsement in this race for Ohio AG from the Michael Bloomberg-funded gun-control group Everytown, though he ultimately lost to NRA-endorsed Dave Yost (R).
He was, however, confirmed to head the ATF after this hearing last year, despite his inability to define something that he and Biden seek to ban.
Club Calendar
KIDS FISHING DERBY
Saturday, May 6th – 10:00 am until 2:00 pm (Helpers needed to bait hooks, etc.)
VOCATIONAL LIFE SKILLS FISHING DERBY
Tuesday, May 9th – 10:00 am until 1:00 pm (Helpers needed to bait hooks, etc.)
MONTHLY MEETING
Monday, May 1st – 8:00 pm
Monday, June 5st – 8:00 pm
SKEET
Sundays: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Wednesdays: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
TRAP
Saturdays: 10:00 am– 12:00 pm
PISTOL
MAYO (Miss And You're Out!) match — Saturday, May 13th, starting at noon.
COWBOY
Wild Bunch Shoot – Saturday, April 29th – 9:00 am.
SAFETY COURSE
Tuesday, May 2nd – 7:00 pm & Thursday May 4th – 7:00 pm Register here.
Tuesday, June 6th – 7:00 pm & Thursday June 8th – 7:00 pm Register here.
RANGE ORIENTATION
Saturday, May 7th – 9:00 am Register here.
…And Finally
