The Naperville Trapshooter The Official Newsletter of The Naperville Sportsman s Club May 2004 Issue President s Message RSVP Now for Picnic We are ready to accept RSVPs (required) for the Annual Dinner to be held June 26, 2004. Barbecue on Wheels will provide a Pig Roast. The menu will include Whole Roast Suckling Pig with Boneless Pork Loin and BBQ Chicken. You can RSVP by sending an email to rsvp@napervillesportsmansclub.org, by fax 630-717- 0785 or leave a note at the counter. Please tell us how many guests age 11 and up, children from 5-10 and tots 4 and under will be attending. Raffle Tickets Available The Annual Raffle tickets are available. Please let me know if you would like to sell some (I have packets of 10 available) or if you would just like to purchase some. New Voice Release for Trap 3! The NPD has purchased a third set of voice release for trap 3. All three fields are now equipped. New Member & Ranger Manager Orientation The next new member orientation will be at the club on Sunday May 30 at 10:00 AM. Please RSVP to myself at 630-842-0391. The Range Manager/Range Worker clinic will begin at 11:00 AM....Jim Monk President What s Inside President s Message... 1 Jay s Tips... 1 The Fred Section... 2 Trap toon... 2 Dates to Remember... 2 Obsservations from #3... 3 Club Info... 3 Scott s Travelog... 4 Classifieds... 5 Calendar... 6...Member/Board Meeting Date: 7:30 P.M. - May 11, 2004 Jay s Tips Hearing Protection The second in a series on range safety With the eyes covered by some sort of protective lens, we must now turn our attention to protecting those small bones in the ear canal and the tympanum or ear drum. Imagine your ability to enjoy the world around you without the sense of hearing? Ear protection, like eye protection comes in a variety of appliances over a spectrum of price points. Electronics to natural fibers, triple digits to just a few pennies there is no excuse for not wearing adequate hearing protection. Hearing protection is quantified using a simple standard the noise reduction rating or NRR. The larger the NRR the lower the decibel level reaching your inner ear. Ear protection began simply by inserting cotton wadding into the ears. High tech inventions have included the introduction of closed-cell foam, silicone plugs and silicon wrapped baffles, electronic earplugs as well as exterior hearing protection ear muffs. Muffs also come in varieties employing low-tech foam, liquid-filled ear cups as well as high-tech electronic limiting and amplifying technologies. Each approach to hearing protection offers its own set of pros and cons. It is how we weigh those positives and negatives; against the kinds of shooting we do, that ultimately direct our choice. Take a look around the Clubhouse the next time you re out at Sportsman s Park. Trap Class students are provided with inexpensive foamies offering a 29 NRR, while some instructors wear their custom injection molded plugs. I ve seen a number of members using the electronic hearing-aid type earplugs and I ve been happy with my North silicone plugs. While there is no one right choice, just make sure that you wear something that is comfortable, will not interfere with your shooting and offers effective noise reduction. Just like shooting glasses, don t chintz on your hearing protection. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?????...Jay Spitz NSC Life Member
The Naperville Trapshooter 2 The Fred s Section Members Meeting & Board Meeting We ll have our next members and board meetings on Tuesday, May 11th starting at 7:30 PM. (Members meeting followed by the board meeting.) All members are invited and requested to attend both meetings. Doors open at 7:00 PM for hunting and fishing mishap stories. New Second Time Out Program for Members Are you (or a family member) in a situation where you have shot trap once or twice (maybe at just a class or the Open House) and are haven t been able to go any further yet? If so, this program is for you. We ll be test-firing (pun intended) a program to provide a second time out shooting opportunity for members who have not yet become shooters, and to provide other assistance. This program is intended for members (and their immediate eligible family members) who have received some type of instruction once and shot trap once or twice but, for whatever reason, never went beyond that. We ll offer: A refresher on safety and the routines An orientation Use of a gun Light supervision Assistance on how to go the next step. We ve scheduled the first one of these for Sunday, May 2nd at 11:30 A.M. This program is available to members (and eligible immediate family members) who have shot trap and received instruction at least once. There is no cost except for the cost of the round(s). We may accommodate 1 or 2 walkins, but to be assured of a spot, please contact me by April 30th to register. continued next column The Naperville Sportsman s Club Officers & Board Members President: Jim Monk Vice President: Scott Calhoun Secretary: Fred Turek Treasurer: Tom Coleman Directors: Jim Daniels Dennis Haffner Ed Heasley Art Jablonski Rosemary Jendras Aaron Harriman Park District Liaison: Brad Wilson Newsletter Editor/Publisher: Rosemary Jendras Fred Turek, Tureks@ameritech.net, Phone 630-717-0437, Fax: 630-717-0785, by mail c/o the NSC address, or by leaving a note at the counter. Please indicate name(s) of participant(s). Also, please contact me in the same manner if you would be willing to help with this program....fred Turek Secretary Trap toon Your overall form moving to the target is good...a little less follow through on the hard angles though, OK? from April 2002 issue of Shotgun Sports Are you having trouble getting going? On trapshooting, that is. If so, see the Second Time Out section in Fred s column, left, and sign up. Dates to Remember 2004 Mark your calendars with these important dates! Mother s Day (Club Closed) 5/9/2004 Trap Fundamentals Class 5/16/2004 Hunter Education Class 5/18/2004 Hunter Education Class (cont.) 5/22/2004 Hunter Education Class (cont.) 5/23/2004 NSC Annual Dinner 6/26/2004 Trap Fundamentals Class 7/25/2004 Trap Fundamentals Class 8/22/2004 NSC Open House 9/19/2004 Fall Trap League TBA Trap Fundamentals Class 10/24/2004
May 2004 Issue 3 Observations from #3 The Little Man We ve all got one. OK, maybe some of us have a little woman, but regardless of gender, they have only one purpose in their pitiful lives. To stand on our shoulder, talk in our ear, and make sure that whatever success we might be having at any point in time is ruined. That s right, I m talking about that voice inside your head, the one that tells you that you are 20 straight heading to the last post, and reinforces the fact that you only need five more broken targets for that elusive 25-straight. According to Phil Kiner, a trap shooting All-American and respected instructor, the little man doesn t even have to be around all the time to work his voodoo. In fact, some of us share the same little man. He can do double and triple duty, because as soon as he s ruined your round he can head off and find his next victim. Phil contends that you won t have any significant success at this game until you learn to deal with the little man, and each person has to figure out how to deal with him. I ve spent a lot of time listening to my little man, and I have some vivid recollections of good rounds gone bad caused by my little man. I ve started wearing earplugs with music input, so at least he has to shout above the volume of the music before he can be heard, but I still hear him more often than I should. Make sure you have positive thoughts in your head before you call for the next target. The little man, who will appear to be helping at this point, will suggest things like I m not going to miss or Don t raise my head. However, the little man is employing reverse psychology, because he s actually putting negative thoughts into your head by using negative words (miss, don t). Ignore the little man, and try break the next target and keep my head down. Those phrases contain positive words to convey the same thought. continued next column Club Information The Naperville Sportsman s Club P.O. Box 27, Naperville, IL 60540 www.napervillesportsmansclub.org Clubhouse Phone: 630-420-9816 Hours of Operation: Thursdays: 6:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M. Sundays: 12:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. Final sign up at 4:00 P.M. Board/Member Meetings: 7:30 P.M., 2nd Tuesday of every month Observations continued If you can ignore your little man often enough he ll eventually write you off as a lost cause and move on to an easier target. Park District Update After reminding the Park District of their obligations under our operating agreement, they have purchased a third set of voice-activated equipment for Sportsman s Park. This equipment will be used on Trap 3, which will give us full voice-activated capability on all three fields. The equipment should be on-site by the time you read this. The rest of the story regarding the Park District is not so positive. As a result of the statement I made on behalf of the club to the NPD Board at their March meeting, we were invited to attend the April 8 NPD board meeting so that we could participate in discussions with the board regarding our request to modify the Best Management Practices document so that the use of reloaded ammunition would be allowed. Although some of you might not be aware, there are a growing number of members who were using reloaded ammunition (prior to the IEPA visit and subsequent prohibition). Jim Monk, Fred Turek, Ed Heasley, Jay Spitz, and I attended the board meeting, and I represented the club in the discussion with the NPD board members. There are a few members of the NPD board that were receptive to our request to review and modify the BMP, but there is still a contingent of anti-gunners on the board who were not interested in even asking NPD staff to spend time on the effort. What we eventually got was a directive to NPD staff to develop a timeline for reviewing the BMP, as well as determining the cost of doing so, so that the board could consider at next month s meeting what action, if any, they would take. Overall, this was not the outcome that we had hoped for. As a result of the NPD board s inaction, the NSC Board is carefully reviewing all aspects of our operating agreement with NPD, and is reconsidering the use of club resources for any activity that is not specifically required by the operating agreement. We feel that the NPD is not working in a cooperative manner with our club, and as a result we need to make sure that operating the facility does not become a one-sided effort. We continue to have a dialog with NPD staff and board members in hopes of resolving this issue....scott Calhoun Vice President & WebMaster
The Naperville Trapshooter 4 Scott s Travelogue: Southern Grand Fearing that the cold weather was never going to leave our area, I decided that I was going to make a pilgrimage to the Southern Grand, one of six satellite Grands scattered across the country. These 6 trapshooting tournaments are lead-ins to The Grand American Trapshooting Championship held each August in Ohio. It didn t take much arm twisting to come up with a shooting partner, so Dennis Haffner and I sent in our pre-squad form and started making plans to travel to Tampa, Florida during the middle of March. The Southern Grand lasts seven days, and is comprised of 15 events and 1,600 targets. Considering the amount of stuff required, along with the thought of paying retail for seven flats of shotshell ammunition, we made the decision to drive to Tampa. Destination: Odessa, Florida Odessa is just a few miles north of Tampa, and a few miles inland from Clearwater. Total distance from Naperville was 1,215 miles, which we decided to break up into two days of driving on the way down. We departed Naperville on Saturday, March 13 around 7 am, and with stops limited to just gas and food and taking full advantage of the increased speed limits in Tennessee and Georgia, we were able to make it to Tifton, Georgia before we called it a night around 10:30 pm local time. Tifton is around 55 miles from the Florida border, leaving us with less than 300 miles of driving to our destination. We got an early start on Sunday morning, and rolled into Odessa at noon. The event was held at the Silver Dollar Shooting Club, located in the middle of a large retirement/winter home community that also includes 27 holes of golf. Silver Dollar has 27 trap fields total, and had 24 in use for the event. We got the registration taken care of, after which Dennis visited one of the vendors and had a new adjustable butt-plate put onto his BT-99. This began a weeklong series of adjustments in quest of a perfect score. Dennis had his gun back by 3 pm and we shot 100 practice targets to get ready for the start of the program on Monday. Preliminary Events Monday and Tuesday were the preliminary days, with three events each day (100 singles, 100 handicap, and 50-pair of doubles) for 300 total targets each day. Dennis wrenched on his adjustable butt-plate with the intensity of a NASCAR mechanic, while I shot my new Browning XT and began to develop quite a sore spot on my right shoulder. By the end of the day Tuesday it was my turn with the stocksmith, who fitted my XT with an adjustable butt-place and softer recoil pad. The preliminary events had anywhere from 250 to 500 shooters in each event. Championship Events The championship events began on Wednesday, and by late Tuesday all of the big name shooters started showing up. One of the great things about attending shoots like these is getting to watch all of the top shooters. The list included Leo Harrison, Kay Ohye, Ray Stafford, Phil Kiner, Frank Hoppe, Nora Martin, Deborah Ann Ohye, Richard Marshall, and Harlan Campbell. I got a chance to watch a few of them shoot, and they mostly shoot just like us, except they miss a lot less. Non-Shooting Activities Dennis and I requested early squads each day, and with one exception we were in the first rotation of squads each morning. They start at 8 am, so it was early to bed, early to rise for us. Silver Dollar has a very nice, large clubhouse with a full service kitchen. They offered a full breakfast menu each morning, and in addition to large, tasty portions the prices were right. We shot our first event each morning on an empty stomach, as Dennis contends you shoot better when you are hungry, then we headed inside for something to eat. Lunch was offered as well, although I usually skipped it after having a late breakfast. We returned to our luxurious accommodations at the Red Roof Inn before heading out for dinner. We tried a few of the local, non-chain establishments in Clearwater and had a bunch of good meals. We tried Tarpon Springs for Greek food one night as well. We drove over to Clearwater beach one evening for dinner, but the place was overrun with spring-breakers, so we didn t get to see too much of it. We visited Cody s Roadhouse, a loud-music-with-peanut-shells-on-the-floor kind of place on St. Patrick s Day, and they had a bagpiper wandering around, which was kind of out of place in a roadhouse bar/ restaurant. It prompted this exchange with the hostess: Me: Do you know the difference between an onion and a bagpipe? Hostess: (with a quizzical look) No. Me: Nobody cries when they cut a bagpipe in half! How Did We Do? Well, our objective was to shoot at lots of targets in nice weather, hoping to improve our sagging averages. We did that. What we didn t do was win any of the events, although both Dennis and I shot some decent scores that got us close a few times. However, this isn t Frankfort with 30 shooters where a 74 will win a doubles class. I had two 95 s in the singles that weren t enough to win D-Class, and a 93 in D-Class doubles that was 3 birds short of winning. Competition is stiff. We did manage to win back some of our entry money, as Dennis and I both hit a number of Lewis Class purses, but it still cost us money for the week. Some guy from Naperville won the Class-D High Overall award, which is based on total score over the last nine events (300 singles, 300 doubles, 400 handicap targets), and also won the Class-D High All-Around award, which is based on total score from the last three championship events (200 singles, 100 doubles, 100 handicap). From what I hear, his wife could hardly live with him before he went, and it s impossible now. If anyone has a spare room......scott Calhoun Vice President & Webmaster
May 2004 Issue 5 Classifieds Many thanks to our contributors. Please support those who support our club. 630-963-4686 Delivery 10 am - 12 am 4920 LINCOLN IN THE LISLE BOWL LISLE, ILLINOIS 60532 Complete Professional Repair Darien Automotive 2525 W. 75th Street Darien, Illinois 60561 Mechanical And Body Shop Phone: (630)985-5440 Fax: (630) 985-0135 Mike Weresch Douglas L. Frazier attorney at law 19 South LaSalle Street Suite 802 Chicago, Illinois 60603 Civil Law International, Domestic Employment & Commercial Telephone: (312) 629-2827 Facsimile: (312) 845-2902 Jay Spitz, CLU Independent Insurance Broker Box 876 Naperville, IL 60566-0876 (630) 369-3666 Insurance for Individuals & Small Businesses Life: Term, Cash Value & Annuities Disability: LTD, Keyman & Long Term Care Health: Individual, Group & Medicare Supplements Reserved For You! Place Your Ad Here! AD SPACE FOR RENT Business Card Size Rates: $10/month - $100/year
Naperville Sportsman s Club P.O. Box 27 Naperville, IL 60540 www.napervillesportsmansclub.org MAY 2004 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Trap League 9 10 NSC Board 11 12 13 14 15 Mother s Day & Member Closed Meeting - 7:30PM Armed Forces Members welcome Day Fund. of 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Trapshooting Class 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Memorial Day