What Your Outpost Did This Week.

Good job, Jeremy.

Show us "Lowlanders" how to do it right!!!

Phillip Gross wrote:Now that makes me jealous! I'd love to be able to take the boys on a camp out in snow without driving 8 hrs...

Keep the updates coming. It's great to hear what's going on.

That's why I live in God's country.... I could go skiing in the morning and then go surfing in the ocean that afternoon if I really wanted to. I don't cause it would still be cold water and you would need a wet suit, but it could be done. Vancouver Island is great for outdoor activities all year round, if you can handle the rain in the winter.

You live on Vancouver Island? Looked around using Google maps street view and can see that it is a very beautiful place!

Yes, Google street view does not do it justice though. you need to see it with your own eyes.

We did..........nothing

We had three shoot BB-Gun in the National Royal Ranger Postal Matches (three more kids to go). Five shot air rifle, and I just came back from the range, having one (of nine) shoot the 50-foot .22 rifle course.

I was up until 2:00 this morning, scoring targets.

Half of the rifle shooters are adults. They will probably be harder to chase down than the kids.

Canadarangers wrote:Yes,  Google street view does not do it justice though.  you need to see it with your own eyes.

I'd love to if I could one day. I'll let you know if I ever make it out that way and we can hit the mountains for some camping!

the invite remains opens

Sunday after morning service we loadup the AR and ER boys and leaders and head out for a timber trip. Each boy is to bring a can of food to cook over a fire he makes. A long sleeve shirt and a pair of gloves and a water bottle.

I will kick in a can of soda.

We have several nice logs about 14" in thickness we will cut down to 4 feet in length and load up and bring back to our Ranger Building. At a later time we will resaw these into boards and sticker them.

Also will bring down from a barn attic a pile of rough sawn oak ranging from 2" thick to 1/2 " thick to make some FCF Chairs out of.

Our FCF mugs are coming along very nicely and some will get to put on some finish on them this sunday.

Going to Ranger Essentials in the morning to get my educations/certifications up to date.

We have 3 backpacks scheduled in the next 3 weeks. WOW.

Loving Ranger Ministry. God is good.

Mark Jones

Those logs were 4' long 17" around and there was 10 of them. Ernie and I went over to the Ranger Building and cut those logs into quarters so the boys can handle them. They were to big for them to safely handle them.

It took 2 hours of sawing on those 8 logs to get them to that state. We have 2 18" wide logs left. Ran out of gas in the chain saw. We had to rip them down the middle so we could handle them and get them under the 17" throat of the bandsaw.

We then worked on our FCF mugs. I put polyurithen (msp) all over the cup and spent 20 minutes sanding out the runs and bumps and then carefully added another coat. These cups turned out nice this time.

Using Danish oil on the outside and polyurithen (msp) on the inside to make them good and waterproof.

No 2 cups alike. We have about 12 cups in the works.

Mark Jones

Sounds like a good time to me!

Over the past eight weeks:

Registered with the NRA to conduct a Basic Firearms Safety Class to get the newer Rangers qualified to participate in the National Royal Ranger Postal Matches.

Got the boys rounded up on a Saturday, and conducted the Class and Introduction to Competition 3-Position Shooting.

Sent the Class Completion Information to the NRA Training Division.

Got the shooting teams put together:
One 5-Ranger BB-Gun Team with One Alternate/Individual Shooter.

One 4-Ranger Air Rifle Team with One Alternate/Individual Shooter.

Two 4-Person .22 Rifle Teams mixed with Adult and Youth Shooters with one Alternate/Individual Shooters.

Sent Team and Individual Registration Forms to the NRA, along with $160.00 Registration Fees.

Ordered 500 Rounds of Eley Club .22 Ammunition and .177 & .22 Scoring Gauges.

Ran two BB-Gun Matches, Two Air Rifle Matches, and Several .22 Rifle Matches, to get all of the shooters completed.

Got targets and score sheets completed for One BB-Gun Team, One Air Rifle Team, Two .22 Rifle Teams, and 20 Individual Shooters, signed by Witnessing Official, First Scoring Officer and Second Scoring Officer, then target packet sent to the NRA by Certified Mail.

Updated all of the Rangers record sheets for NRA Medals, and started sheets for the Adults who participated in the matches for the first time.

Coordinated with the Local Police Department to train members of our church in a Church Security Training Class.  Classroom at the P.D in the morning with the Training/SWAT Lieutenant, then 100 rounds fired at the P.D. Range in the Afternoon.

Thirteen Members originally scheduled; nine attended the training, last Saturday.

Now, get the certificates from the Police Department to those who attended the Training, along with my Annual Firearms Certification Letter for Retired Officers.

Go over my records for the boys' shooting, compare that to our current Inventory,  and order NRA Qualification Medals for the Rangers and the Pastor (always keep your wheels greased).

MAN, I AM SHOT........ER, POOPED.

Sounds like you've had your hands full! The boys really liked firearm safety and shooting last year, but I don't know what to do with it this year since we have several new boys. How do you get new boys caught up on firearm safety so you can move forward with competition with everyone? Do you have everyone refresh, or do a Saturday crash course?

I teach a 1-day course.  All of the kids are invited: we also invite the girls class (we let them shoot toward the NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program Medals), and we generally have a couple attend.

As a Commander, you can do the Avanti Program.  I register and use the NRA Materials, in order to keep my Instructor Status current.

The Avanti Program certifies the "Basic" qualification requirements.  Then as soon as they are on the Range, they can shoot toward their medals.

If a boy has already taken the Firearms Safety Course and has the Marksmanship Merit, and he is an Adventure Ranger, he can attend the course again, and count it toward his Green Merit in Advanced Marksmanship.

Also,

When the boys shoot in the Postal Matches, before I send the targets into the NRA, I record their scores in my book toward the MQP Medal Requirements (double-dipping).  It is perfectly proper, and it can give them 6 of 10 target requirements toward their Pro-Marksman Medals or Marksman Medals.  If you shoot a practice course before the match, you can also use those scores on the sheet toward the Marksmanship Medals.

So,

Even if the kids didn't place Nationally, they would still be getting their qualification badge at the awards ceremony.

Also:

There is VERY LITTLE competition in the Air Rifle and .22 rifle (14 years old & older) categories, so it is much easier for a kid to place nationally in that event.  Get your Outpost registered as a "Civilian Marksmanship Program" Organization, and you can purchase surplus $350.00 Air Rifles for about $110.00.

Next shooting season for the Competition starts in January.

We are going to run the firearms safety again in late winter so that we can take the boys out shooting in the spring.

Outstanding.

I see that there are a number of shooting clubs and organizations in Canada. You may want to check with them for assistance.

Many shooting clubs/organizations are happy to help new youth organizations to get programs going. It can help to enhance the possible number of future shooters, and the number of clubs participating in youth firearms safety looks good in the stats reviewed by Parliament.

Started Models and Design merit tonight. Next week is out outpost Christmas party, the next Sunday is our church's candlelight service, then Christmas, then New Years. We will pick back up on the merit January 8th and finish it by the end of that month. The district Derby is the first Saturday in February, so all the cars should be ready to roll by then. Had a good time tonight and look forward to continuing this merit.

I love Christmas time. It gives me plenty of meeting nights of rest and relaxation. Personally. I would just rather meet unless the meeting is the day of or the day before/after.

Takes a lot of time to get things ramped back up.

Sunday night we had the childrens Christmas play and all my AR guys were AWOL. Most didn't go to the play. The ER guys were all there so we just worked on finishing up the Wooden mugs. Man them boys can talk and talk and talk and get nothing done. I have to keep checking on them to get them to get things accomplished.

Were getting there.

Mark Jones

Lots of fun these past 2 months. Here is some results. If you get a big red screen warning just click on the details button it will let you in. It's safe. Google Nerds need to get outside more.


http://readyrangers.tzo.com/2016woodworking/2016woodworking.htm

Looks good. I think I've asked this before, but are those mugs usable?

Yes from my research any of the poly type finishes after they have cured several days they are food safe.  Keeping that in mind...not sure what a good ole cup of hot coffee will do to it... I need to give it a go and see.   I did put a can of olives in my cup last night and it fit perfectly for a cup liner.  

Presented a cup to our District Commander last night at our Christmas Party for Rangers.  Put Nite Hawk on the bottom of it.  Wanted to cut that name out on a piece of white pine and glue that on the mug but never got around to it.  Just sharpied  and sealed it on the bottom.

These cups are cool and boys can make them.  

I found a 3" hole saw did a good job of cutting the inner circle.  Then took a 1/4" x 1.5" wide by 2" long piece of scrap and made a jig by  drilling 2 holes the size of a pencil for the thickness I wanted and just ran that around the inside ring and it marked a 3/8" thick mark where we then cut those out with a bandsaw.  The scroll saw is hard for the boys to use. I can cut them out perfectly on the dewalt scroll saw but most of the boys can't..so the 3" hole saw made it faster and easier.  


We are making FCF chairs next after a Christmas break of 3 weeks and couple weeks of Rappell training and making some 3 to 1 and 5 to 1 come along type rope and pulleys.  Will have the boys stand on a spare tire and have them pull them across the floor to show them the mechanical advantage of just adding a couple of pulleys to the system.  Rappelling knots go pretty fast and wanted to add this to the hands on fun.  

Phillip Gross wrote:Looks good. I think I've asked this before, but are those mugs usable?

Well after 3 weeks of break I can't wait until Sunday night.

We have a 5 foot high stack of cedar and oak that we will bundle up. Going to teach them the truckie Hitch. Similar to a truckers hitch but it has a few extra twists..kind of like a steveador knot just a bunch of extra twists before you bring it through the overhand loop.

After we get that knot taught and area cleaned up we will start on mechanical advantages with ropes and pulleys. Going to show them the power of a wedge as well.

Going to a Div meeting tonight to plan for the next few months of events.

Always fun around here.

Mark Jones

Mark Jones wrote:Well after 3 weeks of break I can't wait until Sunday night.  

I wish I could say the same

I wound up arranging a "Church Security Seminar" training class given by a certified FBI Instructor at our local Police Department. It consisted of 4 hours of classroom training related to Firearms Familiarity, Concealment Holsters, Different Levels of Force to Stop an Offender, Use of Deadly Force, Statistics of Deadly Threats in Churches, and Warning Signs for the Security Team to watch for.

In the afternoon, we went to the Police Shooting Range, where we each fired about 100 rounds (Strong-Handed and Weak-Handed) at different threats: Firearms, Knife, and Impact Weapon at different distances from the Target.

The Pastor & I developed a list of candidates for the Training, and we had about nine men attend (including the Pastor). At the suggestion of the Police Department, we had tried to get about three ladies involved in the training (you can have crazy women in Church, too), including the Pastor's Wife. All of them declined, except for one wife, but she had an out-of-town family commitment.

The Church paid for the Pastor's ammunition for the Training, but no one else. It's Good to be the Pastor!

Claymore wrote: I wound up arranging a "Church Security Seminar" training class

Any chance it's on paper or digital? I'm sure that it's fine-tuned for your neck of the woods, but there's got to be good stuff in there for any location.