Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
STEVEN UDD fires his Weatherby 270 after having work done on its bolt. Edde fired three shots, hitting the target with a nice grouping and called it a day.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood — The Superior Range Shooter’s Club, established in 1978, opened its doors on Saturday to the community to confirm their guns were accurate before deer season begins. Between the first open range day on Nov. 5 and Saturday, the range did not see as many members of the community take advantage of the opportunity as they have in the past. Gary Lowe, club secretary discussed the risk people take using open gravel and sand pits to site their weapons, instead of a range. Those pits do not take into account the range fan of a discharged weapon and therefore introduce an element of risk that rounds land where they should not. This is one of the primary reasons the club opens its doors to the community for free each fall, to provide a safe environment with targets at known distances, something gravel and sand pits cannot replicate.
Steven Udd, shooting a Weatherby 270, decided to take advantage of the free access to the range. Udd had recent work done on the bolt of his rifle and wanted to see how it fired and if his zero was affected by the work. Udd fired three rounds and the 100M target and called it an early day at the range. He was happy with his rifle and happy with access to the range.
Available at the range are new features not present last year. They brought a shooting chronograph to measure the velocity of ammunition. Using the chronograph to accurately record the speed of the projectile and the ballistics of the specific round type, a shooter can print off a reading of drop over the range of a fired round. This knowledge should increase the effectiveness of the shooter by hitting where they aim with greater frequency and accuracy.
Lowe said in the past three months the club members have poured concrete and built the covered shooting positions. Additionally they added a new target house just off the firing line to increase the speed and accessibility of targets to shooters. The education facility is also nearing completion. While still usable and nice, the club has nearly finished installing a kitchen and has the flooring on site tile flooring. The intention with the education center is to create a usable facility for various functions beyond club business and available to the public, like family gatherings, wedding parties, or even birthdays. For example, this past summer they hosted their first bachelor party.
