BLGC Open House 13 Jun 09

I appologize, I should have posted this sooner, but I'm a dumb ass...

Ben Lomand Gun Club will be having their annual Open House this Saturdy, 13 Jun 09. It's an opportunity for everyone to come out and chech the facilities out, use the facilities, and find out all the different shooting clubs that utilize the BLGC as their home.

I'm a member, and a board member of the USPSA club at BLGC, High Plains Practical Shooters. I'll be out there with a few others of my ilk. We will have a basic USPSA stage set up for people to shoot. We can make pretty much any pistol work, but a semi 9mm to 45 cal or revolver 38 to 45 cal (no magnums) will pretty much work. A box of ammo, three mags, mag pouches and a decent holster and you are off to the races. We used to bring loaner guns out with us, but with the ammo/primer shortages this isn't possible this year.

There is also typically reps from the other clubs for black powder rifle shooting, cowboy shooting, and sporting clays at the event. If one of these areas is more your cup of tea, bring your gear and do it. If you just want to shoot some guns at a kick ass range, well, we have 11 berms of which two are set up for 100 yd rifle of any caliber. The other nine are set up for pistol. There is also a 25 to 600yd range, covered, any caliber up to 50 bmg. There is a .22lr silhouette range and a sporting clays range.

I have been shooting competitively off and on since I was 11yo in multiple diciplines. I've been to a ton of ranges across the US, and very very few rank as high on my list as BLGC. The facilities are huge, there are no neighbors to bitch about anything, and the place is just ran correctly. The Range Officers for the facilities are all regular shooters, and not a bunch of trumped up retirees looking for something to power-trip over (seen this pretty regularly across the US). Very little hassle out there as long as one doesn't do anything that qualifies as stupid. It also one of the few ranges that doesn't have a waiting list for membership. That's right, no waiting list. Aurora Gun Club's waiting list is 12 years (and a testicle) last I heard. Clear Creek up in Dumont also has a waiting list, and I think so does Pueblo West but I could be misinformed on that one. Trust me, the drive is worth it.

I'm a member, that place rocks! So this weekend it'll be overran with tourists?

Just Saturday. Sunday goes back to normal.

I was up there for the Appleseed in late May. BLGC has awesome facilities, I highly recommend it.

Also - highly recommend the Appleseed - they'll be back in August!

I wish I had known about this earlier (before making plans for Saturday), I have been wanting to check the place out for months.

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Originally Posted by hkOrion

I was up there for the Appleseed in late May. BLGC has awesome facilities, I highly recommend it.

Also - highly recommend the Appleseed - they'll be back in August!

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I was out there that weekend too. I was on Berm 1 taking a class from Ron Avery. Glenn Higdon was doing a class on berm 7 that day also. It was a busy weekend. You know you are going in the right direction when you have Appleseed and two USPSA Grand Masters all teaching at the same time and there are berms still available to use.

Sorry Eow. Unfortunately, it was not put on the BLGC calander. I don't know why either. I don't know of any of the BLGC board members or chapter officers that post here. I think I'm the closest thing to an official rep posting on this blog. So, I came up with the idea to advertise the open house here too late. If you want to come out and check the facilities out, you can always come out the third Sat of the month when the USPSA match is going on and take a look. I suspect we will cancel the HPPS match this month though. The CO State match is the same day (20 Jun 09) at Gunnison, CO so most of the shooters will be up there, but we haven't decided yet. I'm not shooting the state match and may very well try to put on a match anyway. I'll post if the match is going to happen or be canx when the decision is made.

The application form requires a member to be a sponsor. How does that work?

I also noticed the monthly chapter meeting dates and locations. What usually goes on during those evening meetings?

Just read about the Appleseed. I will definitely attend that in August.

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Originally Posted by Gman

The application form requires a member to be a sponsor. How does that work?

I also noticed the monthly chapter meeting dates and locations. What usually goes on during those evening meetings?

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Don't worry about a member sponser. If you fill out the app and show up to a meeting, someone will sponser you.

You have to join BLGC at a chapter meeting. It's kinda odd, but they vote ya or nay on new members. I've never seen a nay vote, but I think they keep it just in case a known bad apple tries to join. There are a few of them out there.

Meetings cover the basic info, future upgrades to the facilities, available work bond projects, current finances of the club, basic news affecting the club and facilities... Attending a chapter meeting also counts hours towards the annual work bond requirement for members. Some never do their work bond and just pay the difference. Others typically stack enough hours that it's scary (usually guilty). Even paying instead of completing the work bond, I think it's like $125 a year total.

You have to be an NRA member to be a club member. This is not some backroom shady deal to get NRA members, but for insurance purposes. The NRA insurance policy requires it. It's worth it for the club to be covered, and there is little to no other insurance for a gun club out there at these rates.

Ironically, I live in Castle Rock, but joined the Elizabeth chapter. I knew more people in this chapter, so I make the extra drive to these meetings. Any chapter is GTG to join though.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm an NRA Patron Life member, so no biggie there.

I bet it'll be a sloppy, muddy mess there this weekend, after all these storms.

Yep, it was muddy till about noon. Had storms and cloud cover all morning. Had wind pretty much from sunrise till I left at 1700. It was still good times and a hell of a lot better than mowing the fricken lawn.

The wife and I went. Saw Jim that was manning the Colorado shooters table and Post tostie was there as well. Not a bad place but smaller than I expected.

Did have a few interesting moments. Was shooting at the sight-in range and someone just walked up and started blasting an AR. Brass is bouncing all off me and this guy is just mag dumping into the dirt. I did ask if he was shooting at something? Just function checking he says...... He did not have a badge on so I assumed he was just a guest.

The next fun moment came when a Family showed up. This one little boy was heading straight for my Fal in 7.62X25 as the father asked if these were the rifles they could shoot for free.....

I am thinking about joining since Buffalo creek is no longer viable for us but is the wind always like that? Jeeze it never gave up. The food was great and the members were very nice.

It is close and the main attraction is the fact that you can camp there so weekend get a ways are feasible.

Probably the same guy that asked the same question at the Berm with the USPSA stage. Had two boys with him. We used to have extra guns and ammo out there, but with the current shortages, no freebies this year.

Shooting idiots are rare out there. Having someone just walk up and start blasting has never happened to me out there either.

The wind can be a pain, but it's been bad out there this year because of all of the storms and rain. Best time to be on the 600 yd range is in the early morning. Been out there with the flags completely dead pretty regular in the mornings.