Just wanted to chime in and than everyone for a really wonderful time out in the desert again this summer. No one got hurt, no one was kicked off for being unsafe, no one even ND'd into the dirt or anything.
Super special thanks go to Firmwarez, ShortGrl, AST, and Joe for being awesome about all the support and bringing kickass toys. I'm also missing some folk in that list (names left off intentionally) but i'll say thank you as always for the cannon, for the nearly unlimited supply of 50 BMG fun, and to all the fucking wonderful folk who were Orange Vest RSOs and Yellow Vest Staff.
The rentals went well again this year (save for the one tent we put way up high on the hill which didn't get used... i thought some folk would want it for filming and general over watch view) and the rental company was happy with us.
As mentioned during the closing, due to the addition of Wednesday (which was the fucking BOMB by the way!) we took in enough from lane rentals and shooter reg to more than cover the cost of the tents this time. That means that next year i'm changing the price structure... $15 for shooters, $10 for un-frees, and only $5 for military. On site reg will be allowed again next year, but at a $20 price for anyone who shows up without pre-reg.
Lanes will likely still be $20 per session, but i may opt to do a package price if you want to double up. If you want a lane for two back-to-back sessions (a whole day) it will maybe only be $30 total for you. I haven't settled on that number yet... let me re-run the whole spreadsheet from this year using the new pricing to see how we would fare under those numbers.
I didn't sell ammo on site and that was fine with me. We did seem to have a shortage, however, of some calibers... so maybe a group ammo run the day before wouldn't be the worst idea.
Transportation seemed to work out well, save for some folk who didn't know where people were meeting and how to get there. If you read the DC Shoot info page beforehand, i really can't imagine how you wouldn't find the site... but some people still seemed confused.
I was out at the site way late and super early, so i couldn't be part of the official caravan. Maybe we need to nominate someone for that next year.
The camping overnight plan is going to be fucking AWESOME next time. I had no idea it would get THAT beautiful in the night time where we were.
I plan to embed spikes or stakes in the ground downrange to designate lanes a little more clearly in the target zone, to help reduce people shooting things they shouldn't.
We had plenty of water due to donations (thank you!) and my huge ice cooler worked great... it stayed frosty the entire day. Things i want more of next time will be trash bags and tables. We had some "rear" tables, but i want even more.
Parking worked out well (when the cannon wasn't setting off car alarms!) and everyone was very respectful of people's cars, etc. Thanks to the TOOOL members from France who got that one fellow's vehicle open when he locked his keys inside!
I will say that i want to invest in some spinner and flipper targets. Stuff that can auto-reset and not have to be messed with. Targets have historically always been a problem at the shoot. I need to buy Re-Bar or something and have chicken wire or string for people to clip up their own things... but mostly when people bought dollar store shaving cream or were popping off at bottles of colored water that was quite fun.
Also, i loved that there were some shotgun clays that had soft-landed way up on the mountain. I loved shooting them. (and i loved impressing the bystanders who saw me hitting them, heh... i've got some game, even if i don't get much trigger time on the line) ... i'd love to try to see if we can intentionally get a lot of them to land up on the mountain like that before the shoot starts.
Those are the bulk of my thoughts for now... i'm sure there will be more to think about when our brains get chatting about this.
Super special thanks go to Firmwarez, ShortGrl, AST, and Joe for being awesome about all the support and bringing kickass toys. I'm also missing some folk in that list (names left off intentionally) but i'll say thank you as always for the cannon, for the nearly unlimited supply of 50 BMG fun, and to all the fucking wonderful folk who were Orange Vest RSOs and Yellow Vest Staff.
The rentals went well again this year (save for the one tent we put way up high on the hill which didn't get used... i thought some folk would want it for filming and general over watch view) and the rental company was happy with us.
As mentioned during the closing, due to the addition of Wednesday (which was the fucking BOMB by the way!) we took in enough from lane rentals and shooter reg to more than cover the cost of the tents this time. That means that next year i'm changing the price structure... $15 for shooters, $10 for un-frees, and only $5 for military. On site reg will be allowed again next year, but at a $20 price for anyone who shows up without pre-reg.
Lanes will likely still be $20 per session, but i may opt to do a package price if you want to double up. If you want a lane for two back-to-back sessions (a whole day) it will maybe only be $30 total for you. I haven't settled on that number yet... let me re-run the whole spreadsheet from this year using the new pricing to see how we would fare under those numbers.
I didn't sell ammo on site and that was fine with me. We did seem to have a shortage, however, of some calibers... so maybe a group ammo run the day before wouldn't be the worst idea.
Transportation seemed to work out well, save for some folk who didn't know where people were meeting and how to get there. If you read the DC Shoot info page beforehand, i really can't imagine how you wouldn't find the site... but some people still seemed confused.
I was out at the site way late and super early, so i couldn't be part of the official caravan. Maybe we need to nominate someone for that next year.
The camping overnight plan is going to be fucking AWESOME next time. I had no idea it would get THAT beautiful in the night time where we were.
I plan to embed spikes or stakes in the ground downrange to designate lanes a little more clearly in the target zone, to help reduce people shooting things they shouldn't.
We had plenty of water due to donations (thank you!) and my huge ice cooler worked great... it stayed frosty the entire day. Things i want more of next time will be trash bags and tables. We had some "rear" tables, but i want even more.
Parking worked out well (when the cannon wasn't setting off car alarms!) and everyone was very respectful of people's cars, etc. Thanks to the TOOOL members from France who got that one fellow's vehicle open when he locked his keys inside!
I will say that i want to invest in some spinner and flipper targets. Stuff that can auto-reset and not have to be messed with. Targets have historically always been a problem at the shoot. I need to buy Re-Bar or something and have chicken wire or string for people to clip up their own things... but mostly when people bought dollar store shaving cream or were popping off at bottles of colored water that was quite fun.
Also, i loved that there were some shotgun clays that had soft-landed way up on the mountain. I loved shooting them. (and i loved impressing the bystanders who saw me hitting them, heh... i've got some game, even if i don't get much trigger time on the line) ... i'd love to try to see if we can intentionally get a lot of them to land up on the mountain like that before the shoot starts.
Those are the bulk of my thoughts for now... i'm sure there will be more to think about when our brains get chatting about this.
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