Mark your calendars for our annual Kid’s Fishing Derby on Saturday, May 11th. The order to “Wet Hooks” will be given at 10:00 AM, then the kids can fish their little hearts out until 2:00 PM. Refreshments of hot dogs, soda and chips will be provided in the clubhouse to stoke the fires of the young Izaak Waltons and keep them going.

The following Tuesday, May 14th, will be the turn of the Vocational Life Skills (VLS) group from Scituate High School to try their hands at fishing. The VLS group has several field trips during the year — their fishing derby at SRGC is their favorite outing by far, particularly Nona’s ice cream truck. The VLS Fishing Derby runs from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM, or thereabouts.

We always need help at both derbies with baiting hooks, untangling snarls, etc. Please consider dropping by for an hour or two to help out — it’s for the children. The “regulars” who have been helping for decades are getting long-in-the-tooth and are not so nimble any more when it comes to scrambling around the pond.

In preparation for the Fishing Derbies we are "goat-scaping" the area around the pond again this year starting May 6th The goats were a big success last year in cleaning-up the vegatation around the pond.

All ranges will be closed during the fishing derbies.

We will also be having a Clean-up Day on Saturday, May 4th to fluff and buff the clubhouse and grounds. We’ll start at 9:00 AM and go until the place shines, normally 2-3 hours. Y’all are invited just bring gloves, rakes, etc.

The Gunnysackers Ride Again
by Ron Rice, aka “Yankee”
After a 10-year hiatus the cowboy action shooters of the SRGC known as the Gunnysackers — like the Phoenix — rose from the ashes and held an organized cowboy action shoot on match on April 14, 2019.

Due to shooting venue limitations, it was an invitation only match, so outside shooters were limited in number. The total of all shooters was limited to 20 in order to shoot the match in a four hour time frame.

We had 19 competitors, including the current Senior National Senior Duelist Champion, “Grazer”, and a young first timer competitor “Red Wrangler” in the Buckaroo category, he came to the shoot with his Grandpa “One Eyed Black Jack” and his sister “Penny Candy”.

We had the three amigos from the Cape, “Mad Dog Gomes”, “Grumpy Jer” and “Come Back Shane” as well as several members from the Harvard Ghost Riders Club.

The Gunnysackers who participated were “Beaver Trapper”, “Bonnie Dee”, “Nantucket Dawn”, “Eastern Tenderfoot”, “Boston Maverick”, “Georgia Peach” and “Yankee”.

We will be looking forward to scheduling another shoot soon.

There’s some photos of the event here.

Shooter	Class	Score	Notes
Mad Dog Gomes	Senior	182.93
Eastern Tenderfoot	Silver Senior	189.77
Grazer	Senior Dualist	196.64
Yankee	Elder Statesman	206.44
Hawley McCoy	Lady Senior	227.42
Knob Creek McGee	Gunfighter	229.11
Grumpy Jer	Cattle Baron	236.49	Clean Match
Penny Candy	Cow Girl	238.83
Pauly the Kid	Gunfighter	257.93
One Eyed Black Jack	Elder Statesman	264.68
Chuck Wood	Gunfighter	273.82
Bonnie Dee	La Patrona	278.61	Clean Match
Nantucket Dawn	Lady Dualist	303.59
Beaver Trapper	El Patron	311.11
Leadslinger Lesky	Gunfighter	368.55
Boston Maverick	Forty-Niner	369.66
Red Wrangler	Buckeroo	488.96
Come Back Shane	Elder Statesman	500.6
The Georgia Peach	Cow Girl	636.84

Studying Self-Defense: Do Your Homework
by Sheriff Jim Wilson - Friday, April 5, 2019
This article appeared in NRA – Shooting Illustrated
Fortunately, many of you have realized that you are responsible for your own safety. You have shopped for a good defensive firearm and signed up for some shooting classes. But you also realize that you have never been involved in a deadly encounter and, in fact, have never even witnessed one. In short, you aren’t really sure how these things go down, and you really don’t know what to expect or what you should be prepared to do.

Well, folks, that is nothing to be ashamed of. What it means is that you have made a lifelong effort to behave yourself and be law-abiding. The fact is that defensive training is more than going to the shooting range and taking classes. Here is a really radical suggestion: Why not become a student again—as in buying books and doing some homework?

I would suggest four books that will really help you understand the dynamics of a criminal attack. The first two are by Chris Bird: “Thank God I Had A Gun” and “The Concealed Handgun Manual (7th Edition).” The second two are by Robert A. Waters: “The Best Defense” and “Guns Save Lives.” All four of these excellent study manuals can be ordered through your local bookstore or from Amazon.

You will find stories of regular folks who are confronted by deadly criminals, and you will see what happens as a result of different actions taken, with both good and bad endings. These true stories include home invasions, robberies, attempted rapes, car hijackings and even some family feuds.

Instead of reading these books for entertainment, I suggest that you study the numerous shootings that are included. Your focus should be on what each citizen did right and what they did wrong. You’ll find that a lot of defensive techniques were used, although some of them won’t appear to have been such a good idea. You will also see that a broad spectrum of defensive firearms were used, from custom guns right on down to some really cheap guns that shouldn’t have solved the problem but did.

A good addition to your family defense planning would be to sit down as a group and discuss these various incidents. Also, you might form a group of like-minded friends for the same study purposes. Look for what worked and why it worked. Look at what went wrong and how you could improve it. We see lots of videos on social media, but these videos don’t usually tell us the whole story. These books by Bird and Waters will give you a much better knowledge of what really happened.

Bird and Waters’ books will help you develop and expand your combat mind set. Now, go do your homework!

Gun Quotes by Average Citizens
“The problem is not the availability of guns, it is the availability of morons.”
    ~Antonio Meloni

“Know guns, no crime. No guns, know crime.”
    ~Ralph Lauretano

“In a perfect world, you wouldn't need guns. This is not a perfect world.”
    ~Sheriff Ben Johnson, Volusia County, Florida

The Coyote Principle

California

• Long time former California Governor Jerry Brown (former mayor of Oakland) is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.
• The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.
• He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
• He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.
• The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.
• The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.
• The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area.
• The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.
• The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The state spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training for the nature of coyotes.
• PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the state.

Texas

• The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.
• The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.
• The buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Texas is not.

General Meetings

Monday, May 06 – 8:00 PM.

Monday, June 03 – 8:00 PM.

Spring Cleanup

Saturday, May 04 – 9:00 AM until we’re done!

Kid’s Fishing Derby

Saturday, May 11 – 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Vocational Life Skills Fishing Derby

Tuesday, May 14 – 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Skeet

Sundays, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM.

Wednesdays, 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM.

Trap

On hold.

Safety Course

Tuesday, May 07 – 7:00 PM & Thursday, May 09 – 7:00 PM.

Tuesday, June 04 – 7:00 PM & Thursday, June 06 – 7:00 PM.

50 Yard Range Orientation Class

Sunday, May 12 – 9:00 AM. Register here.

Sunday, June 09 – 9:00 AM. Register here.