The range is closed over the mid-winter months to give the Range Officers a much-needed break, and to ensure important maintenance is completed, the right time for our annual Leith Valley Rifle Range Working Bee. We scheduled a range make-over day on 8th June – thankfully the weather was relatively settled with no rain.
18 hardy souls braved the fresh conditions to assist with the Leith Valley Rifle Range working bee.
I met Sam on the Friday beforehand to pick up the necessary building materials at Placemakers. The weight of the wet long-beams and ply was noted as a concern as we loaded them onto Sam’s Landcruiser. We’d need a fair heap of fit, strong attendees to get the materials up the 600m+ long track.
Sam, Chaz & I were standing at the start of the track at 9am contemplating the carry in with all the massive beams. “Looks like you’ll need to do all the heavy lifting Chaz - I can feel a strained elbow coming on…”. Chaz was equally quick to remind me that he had his hands full with all of the tools he supplied. Foiled…
Thankfully, within just a few minutes, a stream of cars and volunteers had pulled up – with some very fit young lads keen to do the big carry to the range site.
We had a large list of jobs to complete – too many in one day I thought to myself as the list seemed to grow as we got started. Jobs we completed on the day:
- Remodel and extend the shooting benches to the very eastern end of the range width + install a new step system along the seats for ease of access.
- Clear scrub / vegetation / long grass right down to the 100m target boards. Reposition 25m targets to align with the newly constructed end-benches.
- Replace all target boards
- Incorporate a spotting scope stand from the RO shelter to assist with general sighting in and ‘group therapy’.
- Construct a bench off the RO shelter for all visitors to check their rifle in before registering
This should be the last major construction project on the range for some years to come – annual maintenance will likely be general tidy up / scrub-cutting, replacing target boards and painting the benches (annually).
Thanks to everyone that volunteered their precious time – the amount of work we got through as a team was quite incredible, and a real tribute to the attitude of everyone that came along. A special thanks to Sam, Ian & Jarad for their building prowess, ably assisted by Fras, and to Vanessa, who despite being pregnant, was putting Christian to shame with the yards she was putting in.
Douglas & I went up the next fine weekend to get some paint on the fresh boards. We’ll get another coat on when the weather warms up a bit.
See you all at the range when it reopens Sat 3rd August.
