Rifle Team Weekly Happenings 2023-01-08

Hi Everyone!

I hope that everyone had a great break and everyone's travels were Moose Encounter Free.

While it might be the start of the Spring semester, it's the middle of our season.  January, February, and March will be very busy with competition with things tapering off towards the end of the semester.  If things get nice and dry out before the end of the semester, we might be able to do a bit of outdoor shooting and competition.

Range Time This Week:

• Monday 6pm - 10pm
• Tuesday 6pm - 10pm

Items this week:

• We will hopefully be shaking the rust out and getting back into the groove of things
• Learning Sitting and getting ready so start 4-posititon competitions.
  • More details will be sent out on this at a later date. 
• If you are interested in joining, come down to the range and try us out!  It's never too late to start!

Homework:

None - Welcome Back

Upcoming Items:

• This semester we will start 4 shooting 4-position competition
• We've got some upcoming competitions.  Here's a short summary of what we can potentially travel to:
  • January
    • Precision Air Rifle Sectional (Travel)
    • Michigan Metric 3-Position Championship (Travel)
    • WIRC Targets (Postal)
    • MidState Rifle League (Postal)
  • February
    • Collegiate Sectionals (Travel)
    • WIRC Finals (Travel)
    • Midstate Rifle League (Postal)
  • March
    • Collegiate Championships (Travel)
    • NRA 3 Position Sectionals (Travel)
    • NRA "Junior" Sectionals (Anyone under 21ish) (Travel)
    • Michigan Precision Air Rifle State Championships (Travel)
    • Michigan Indoor 3 Position State Championships (Travel)
    • MidState Rifle League (Postal)
  • April
    • NRA 4 Position Sectionals (Travel)
    • MidState Rifle League (Postal)
    • GVSU Prone Invitational (Travel)

As you can see, we have a lot of competitions coming up that require travel.  Any travel event that lacks the word "Championship" (And even some that do), are an event that we have the potential to host at our range and have other teams come to us for a change.  I have a list of teams who would love to travel here to compete (UofM, MSU, GVSU, UW-Superior, UW-Oshkosh, Purdue, Border States Rifle Club (Iron Mountain) are just a few).

The reason we can't host competitions at our range is simple:  Our range has been renovated to accommodate and the SDC Range Management gives preferential treatment to pistol shooters and is managed for "General open shooting", not competitive shooting activities.  SDC Range Management is either unwilling to listen to or make the simple changes and repairs necessary that would allow us to host competition and bring in other teams.

(Note: this is probably "controversial" and is wholly my opinion).  But if you want to be able to host events and not travel as much, or just want to see change....   Help be part of the solution.  Speak out.  Goto a USG meeting and raise awareness of our situation.  Write a message to the SDC Building Management.  Better yet, just stop in at the office and voice it verbally.  Alumni - You can help us as well.  When the Tech Fund calls, bring it up.  At alumni gatherings when they talk about changes made to campus and "The good days", bring it up.  If we want to see change we need to take action and start challenging the status quo and having those "awkward conversations".  Make Waves.  Being complacent with our situation (Just accepting the poor range times, the inadequate and broken facilities) and just submitting the same requests over and over to the same person aren't accomplishing anything.  For whatever reason our requests seem to go unacknowledged.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the content of this message please let me know.  Thank you for your attention, and have a great week!

GO HUSKIES!
- Zach