Herding Cats: A study in How to organize! a Tidewater/Richmond VA TFL Shoot.

Navy joe

New member
Okay, Looking for VA's finest here, it seems that the "yankytrash" among us wants to get a shoot on at his place sometime. I am instucted to bring the beer, and will probably bring a few guns as well. On Yanky's part he has the land and has promised that none of the odd neighbors will open fire on us and similarly if they do he will not return fire. I'm thinking a good date would be Monday, Jan 21 as its a holiday for lots of folks, no not MLK Jr. Day, here in VA's odd wisdom its Lee/Jackson/King day. Any suggestions? And whose coming? This maybe within the realm of possibility for you NoVa peoples too.
 

yankytrash

New member
Sounds like a plan, but the date's all wrong for me. I'm working up in Manassas for the next month or so, so weekdays are out, even the 'holiday' (no rest for the wicked). I'll be home for all the weekends that I can foresee though.

Kinda funny actually. I'm working at the Izaak Walton shootin range up there building a new archery building, which is taking away from my shootin time!:D

I'm up for any weekend. If we do this, y'all gotta give me some advice here. I don't know much about 'proffesional' shootin ranges, and my range is geared more toward two shooters at a time at the most. I can get back there with my chainsaw and rope and make more tables/room for more if needed. It's no problem, I just gotta know what we would need.

When a buncha guys get together like this, do they all shoot at once? How many targets should I have at 25/100/150/200 yards at a time?

Word of warning - this a personal range - ie, no target pullers. It's a lot of walkin back and forth unless you got a four wheeler.
 

yankytrash

New member
Here's the Yahoo map of where the range is:
Farnham, Va

2 1/2hrs south of DC on 95 to 17 to 360 to 3.
45min/1hr north of Richmond on 360 to 3.
1 1/2-2hrs northwest of Norfolk/Hampton on 64 to 33 to 17 to 3? (somethin like that)

Of course, we can meet at an easier location and y'all can follow me to the range.

Hope this happens.
 

David Park

New member
This sounds like a good idea, and I'll try to attend. Lee-Jackson-King weekend is probably no good for me either, though.

yanky, I've been to two outdoor ranges. One was a commercial range used for the TFL meet in PA. There they have shooting benches for the rifle range and (I think) tables for the pistol range. I'm not a big fan of benches though, since they seem to be in short supply out in the field. ;) There everyone walked to change targets, even to the 400-yard targets. The other was a private 25-yard range used for the LFI class in Richmond. That was basically a berm with plywood target stands, and tables at the other end for range bags. The instructors would pace off the distance, then everyone would stand in a line and shoot. Based on that experience, have some spare wood and a hammer in case someone shoots the target stand to pieces.

Usually everyone shoots at once, then they pause and go change targets or whatever. As long as the firing line is clearly marked and everyone stays behind it, and nobody touches a weapon during target changes, this seems to be perfectly safe. I don't know how many target stands you'll need, but several for the 25 yard range and maybe two (depending on how big the stands are, and how many targets they hold) for each of the longer ranges should be plenty. People can bring their own tables if they so desire; I'll be bringing one anyway as part of my CR-V.

Herding cats is an appropriate title. Based on past experience, expect no more than 2/3 of the people who say they'll attend to actually show up.
 

yankytrash

New member
Navy joe got to PMing each other here and we may try to shoot on the Saturday of LJK weekend anyway. I got a couple rifles to re-sight in, so I figure it's a good as any. I haven't heard back from him yet, so that's not a definite yet.

Is that Saturday good for you?
 
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