A little over a year ago we had the Electric Coop change out several old electric poles. At the same time we added some new poles, with LED Yard Lights. The Light Pole that went to the Multi-Purpose Range was a small Duplex Line that was only good for around 30 Amps, and only 120 Volts. The pole was positioned about 50 feet from she Benchrest Line. The plan was to run UF wire underground to the Benchrest Line. We are now installing Primary Electric to the Multi Purpose Range for RV Hook-up's. The two new poles installed last year are being replaced with taller poles. We are repositioning one of the poles to be replaced, centered behind the Shooting Line. It will have the LED Yard Light mounted to it as well as a 60A Panel.
I am glad that I was dragging my feet wiring the shooting line. With the new Power Pole centered on the back of the Line, this will change how I will run the light circuits. I have a new 60A 240Volt 6 Circuit Panel ready to be installed probably later this week. I installed the Circuit for the LED Flood Lights, so that all we will need to do is "pole top mount" them and connect the wiring. A Pair of LED Floods with Bull Horns are close to $2K so they will be on hold for probably another year. We just put up Four new LED Flood Lights on each Trap Range. They work very well. With the LED Flood Lights we could add a night time 50 Yard 22 Benchrest Match. The new plan is to have RED "Line Down" Lights, as well as White Lights to see better under the cover. I also plan to install Duplex Outlets between the Bench's. On the Hi Power Range I originally only installed Five Outlets. I ended up coming back and added Five more so that we now have an outlet between each pair of Bench's. The 600 F Class Match has Electronic Targets. They are plugging in the Tablets to 120V so they do not have issues keeping the batteries hot through a match. I am sure that Duplex Outlets will be used on the Multi Purpose Range with all the devices with battery changers in this day and age.
We also have 12 new concrete Bench Tops on order for this Multi-Purpose Range. Several years ago we got 20 used concrete Bench Top from the St Louis Benchrest Club when they changed theirs out. They went on our Hi Power Range. After a year or so we replaced them with New Concrete Bench Tops, and Twelve of the Used Tops were moved to the Multi-Purpose Range when we built it. Over the last couple years we have poured a new Concrete Pad under the Multi-Purpose Line. When we moved the Bench's back on the new concrete pad we replaced any concrete blocks that were not in good shape. When we install the new Bench Tops the plan is to fill the blocks with concrete as we set them.
For those who have not seen this Range. The cover over the Bench's is constructed using Three 20x18 Heavy Duty Car Port's racked up end to end, making a 60 foot long by 18 feet deep covered shooting line. The Car ports are anchored down with concrete anchors. It is very nice if I say so myself.
In the last few months we have added Four New Picnic Tables to the Multi-Purpose Range placed on the back side under the roof line. This makes a nice place to set as well as placing your gear. I have eaten lunch setting on the new picnic tables just admiring the Range Improvements.
We have also added Wind Flags. We put up Two Poles with 1/2 Size Official Wind Flags like we leave up on the Hi Power Range. They are down Range at 100 and 150 yards. They were not as much help as I had hoped for. About half of the Range has tall trees on each side (East & West Sides). The trees really block East/West Wind from the 100 yard Berm to the 200 Yard Berm. Note: This Range Faces South. The trees block a lot of the wind. We also added a couple simple Wind Flags that just use Marking Ribbon at 50 yards. We have a couple more of these made up and ready to install. The simple Ribbon Flags are more help from the Shooting Line to the 100 Yard Target Berm.
We have some movable Target Frames and Silhouette Frames for close in shooting. We keep the Twelve 50 yard Bench Rest Targets which are also used by 4H Cabled Up so that they are not totaled out when we go to use them.
At the 100 Yard Berm we have Four 4x4 Target Frames with a Steel Plate Swinger between them.
The 150 Yard Berm which was mainly built for Black Powder Cartridges new 22 Rimfire Silhouette Match has Two 4x4 Target Frames with a Steel Plate Swinger between them. The 150 Berm is not used for the Short Course Match, so Two 4x4 Target Frames were all that is needed at this time.
The 200 yard Berm again has Four 4x4 Target Frames with a Steel Plate Swinger between them.
I think that the Short Course Match will start gaining attendance over the next Six Months. By April we should start to see some improvements in weather. If the participation picks up as anticipated, we will need to recruit some additional help with Scoring Targets and Registration. We will probably need to start running the Targets to the Score Shed for Scoring also. The Score Shed has Great Lighting, Heat & Air along with Scoring Tables with Magnifiers so that we can do an even better job Scoring Targets as this Match gets more serious.
I hope to see a few of you at the Match.
Bob R
