Randolph Fish & Game Club 2017 Newsletter From the President Jeff Sprague Randolph Fish & Game Club Members, The potential for our club is endless! With all of us working together, we can achieve all goals that we set for the club. We should be proud; we had a very successful year in 2016. Together we can achieve that success again this year, with the potential to do even better. Our club is the oldest continuously active club of it s kind in the state. What a wonderful reason to be proud of being a part of our club! We have many activities throughout the year. We have archery shoots; trap shooting every week, late spring into fall, and rabbit grounds for running your beagles (rabbit ground members only). We also have a wonderful indoor 22 long rifle range with many new improvements. Please take time and come up and take advantage of all the great things our club has to offer. As you all know every year we have a gun raffle. This is our biggest fundraiser each year. The club would like to really use your help and support with this; if everyone sells a couple of tickets that would be a huge help. The money that we raise from this helps us send local youths to a conservation camp for a week of learning about, and having lots of fun in the outdoors. Our club meetings are the 4th Wednesday of each month, excluding November. It would be great to see all of you at all or even a few of the meetings each year. Over the past few years we have seen old faces leave us and have new faces join us. I would love to see all our members, new and old, come together and make our club stronger than ever. We could use all the input and new ideas to make our club stronger and offer more to the community, which hopefully will raise the number of members. In closing I would like to say, lets come together as a club and work as one, and have lots of fun doing so. Sincerely, Jeff Sprague Page 1
Hunter Education Robert Raskevitz Lead Instructor Spring Hunter Education: April 9th & 23rd 2017 Bow Hunter Education: August 27th 2017 Fall Hunter Education: September 1010 & 24th 2017 The Randolph Fish and Game Club will host both Spring and Fall Hunter Education Courses. We hold two regular Hunter Education courses, one in April and the second in September with a Bow- Hunter education course in late August. We have continued the Randolph tradition of two-day regular Hunter Education courses. The first day is a combination of classroom and outdoor activities with the emphasis on gun safety, gun handling and operation, ethics and outdoor skills. Between the two days, the students must either complete the Hunter Education workbook or complete the on-line Hunter Education course and provide proof that they have passed all of the quizzes. The second day includes a visit by Sargent Keith Gallant and a discussion of laws and ethics. The second day features active sessions on Shoot-Don t shoot, Caliber and Gauge, Game Identification, Judging Distance and Zones of Fire, the Woods Walk which includes as many as seven or eight archery targets set up in different safe and un-safe situations, fence crossing, muzzle control, safety zones and other situations. There is also time spent shooting.22 rifles and various shotguns at stationary and moving targets. Both the spring and fall courses are staffed with over 15 volunteers from our club. Total volunteer hours was far in excess of 200 hours. The goal at the end of every course is for each and every instructor and assistant to feel like he or she would be comfortable taking any one of our graduates out into the field as a hunting partner. Once again we have a Randolph Union High School student completing their Senior Project by studying to become a certified Hunter Education Instructor with a Mentor from our club. The August Bow-Hunter Education course will be on August 27th 2017. The one-day Bow-Hunter Education course has two instructors and a host of volunteers to make the day go smoothly. The day is a combination of classroom activity, shooting and blood trailing in the woods. Ethics, safety, shot choice, outdoor and hunting skills and tactics were featured. Randolph Fish and Game Club was well represented at every Chief Instructor meeting in 2015, the Cross-bow training in Barre and at the annual Hunter Education banquet held in Montpelier. Our thanks go out to everyone who participated as an instructor or assistant this year with our Hunter education program. If you are interested in becoming an instructor or just volunteering to help out, please call Robert Raskevitz at 728-9582. Archery We are always looking to Certify more instructors! Archery Shoot July 22-23, 2017 The archery league has grown to about 30 members shooting every Thursday night. This year Rhett Savoie looks to be just as good. The 3-D targets are in pretty good shape, but many replacement centers are needed. Last year the club hosted four weekend shoots open to the public, with once again complements coming from many people about the club and the archery course. We were approached by the IBO and asked to host the Vermont State Championship in 2015 and because of the great turnout of events we will be hosting it again in 2016. Page 2
Rabbit Grounds Eric Messier Rabbit Grounds Membership Dues - must be paid by January 25, 2017 to ensure your place on the roster. If your dues are not paid the next person on the waiting list will get that spot! Congratulations to Eric Messier who is now the new Chair of the Rabbit Grounds. His contact information is: Phone: (802) 917-3853 Email: messierfarm@yahoo.com NRA Women On Target Leah Stewart Thank you to the RF&G Club for hosting our NRA Women on Target Clinics for Spring and Fall of 2016. What great days we had teaching 16 ladies about firearms. Each lady had a different level of experience from none, to minimal to experienced so throughout the day it was great to see them each evolve in being more confident with the firearms they used. We started out with the basic mechanics and safety and then jumped right into range shooting. Each lady had a chance to shoot a series of handguns starting with a 22LR, then a 9mm, next a 40 and then a 45 (if they wanted to). After handguns we moved onto rifles starting with a 22LR, then onto a 243 and lastly a 243. Thank you so much to everyone for helping us with making the range and club house look so good, how to s, tips and safety patrol, we really appreciate it. We will be doing Gun Training Classes at the club again this year, we are looking at Spring, Summer and Fall of 2017. This will not only be NRA WOT Clinics. Dates will be posted on the calendar when finalized. If you or someone you know is interested please send me an email at locustcreekoutfitters@gmail.com and I will add you to the list. Thank you so much Leah Stewart Page 2
Reminder of a Few club rules Shooting is permitted on the appropriate ranges ONLY! Exercise the courtesy of carry in/carry out and take all garbage and brass that you create home with you at the end of your shooting session. Consumption of alcohol during any/all shooting events is strictly prohibited! Non-members will be considered trespassing and may be prosecuted. Should you find a non-member using the grounds, please ask them to leave immediately and welcome their return after they ve joined the club. Elected Officers President Jeff Sprague wildlifeandguns@yahoo.com Vice President Ron Warner Jr. ronwarnerjr@yahoo.com Treasurer John Becker johnbecker267@gmail.com Secretary Leah Stewart locustcreekoutfitters@gmail.com Directors Director Tom Malanchuk captom67@gmail.com Director Erik Messier john.rose@newenglandprecision.com Director Don Stewart locustcreekoutfitters@gmail.com Director Rhett Savoie rhettbsavoie2gmail.com Director Jacoby Young jocoby.m.young@gmail.com Director Chantel DeForge cspringb@gmail.com Director Doug Haggett dshaggett@gmail.com Director Bob Orleck reunion@ussorleck.com Director Bill Walsh billw_mfg@gmavt.net Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is always holding great events and informational seminars. For more information please visit the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department Website at www.vtfishandwildlife.com Page 3
The club is always in need of volunteers for various duties. An extra hand or two, possibly switching off, are always appreciated. Areas we could use extra help are: Volunteers Needed!!! Trap every Tuesday evening starting in May (contact Tom Malanchuk) Field Day for the Hunter Education Classes (contact Robert Raskevitz) Archery tournament weekends, sign folks in & serve food items, parking (contact Kevin Kinerson) Mowing at the club - Rifle range, Trap area, and Archery course (contact Tom) Club house maintenance and upkeep (trash & clean up weekly basis, contact Tom) Signing up to man the booths at both the 4th of July Parade and Tunbridge Fair Any other help you are willing and able to give is always welcome Membership Dues are due by the First of January. There is a 60 day grace period (Feb mtg) Please provide your email address on the membership form. This is our main type of communication. Monthly Member Meetings: (every 4th Wednesday of each month) January 25th - 7:00 pm February 22nd - 7:00 pm March 22nd - 7:00 pm April 26th- 7:00 pm May 24th - 7:00 pm June 28th - 7:00 pm July 26th - 7:00 pm August 23rd - 7:00 pm September 27th- 7:00 pm October 25th - 7:00 pm November - NO MEETING (good luck hunting) December - 15th - 6:00PM Upcoming Events: (see inside for specific dates & times) January: Membership Dues are Due March/April: Spring Hunter Education May: Trap Shooting begins - every Monday at 6:00 pm May/July: 3D Archery Shoots July: 4th of July Parade & Booth September: Bow Hunter Education Fall Hunter Education Tunbridge Fair & Gun Raffle Drawing December: Christmas Party