Large Crew completes renovation of barrier wall between pistol ranges
See the full set of pictures showing the project's progress: Pistol Range Barrier Rebuild
Here's the recap from Rich Dunn, club Work Coordinator:
The team got’er done! Seventeen members along with the adult son of one member came out and boy, did they churn and burn! The weather cooperated as well and although cool, was comfortable.
The entire wall was in terrible condition with many boards cupped, warped or bowed with gravel filler seeping out in many places.
Here’s what we started with…
We started by removing the boards on both sides to ground level, keeping the vertical posts. The disassembly took less than two hours with teams working both sides simultaneously.
At the same time, others were pulling the hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) of nails out of the removed boards so as to reuse as many boards as possible by simply flipping them over. Boards were roughly sorted by length to facilitate location when remounted.
Then, reconstruction. Tarpaper lining was stapled to the vertical posts.
From the bottom up, the boards were remounted and screwed in place with multiple premium SPAX coated 3/8” x 5” PowerLag screws. Overall, we consumed several hundred of these fasteners. they weren’t cheap but they did the job and won’t be loosening up!
Overall, the entire job took all day with the last board being mounted around 3:30. Less than eight hours! Wow, what an effort! Many boards were scrapped and needed replacing. Around thirty-five new 2x10x10’ boards were needed.
And, here’s the final outcome. As Donald Trump would say, “A big, beautiful wall”….
Without question, our work was hugely supported by a few of key guys. Member Brad Hopke initially rallied the effort and drove the crew’s work direction as our boss. Don Flach once again brought his Bobcat skid steer out (as he did when the bowling pin range was rebuilt) that immeasurably helped with excavation and final dressing of the worksite. And, lastly, member Andy Norsten (and his two sons) contributed his time by cooking a fabulous pulled pork and hotdog hot lunch which he brought out so the crew had a hot meal on a cold day. That makes such a difference in how we treat our volunteers and how we appreciate their work.
Additionally, my thanks to Garth Guyer’s FAS Field Day crew for their accommodating our intrusion into their activity. When planning this work, I had overlook checking the calendar for any conflicts and sure enough, Garth’s event was the same day. However, they graciously adjusted where Mark Skweres would conduct his .22 range session to the multi-range which allowed us to do our work concurrently to theirs. Thanks, Garth and Mark for your helpfulness!
And we did it with no injuries or mishaps! The Chief Safety Officer ought be happy with that!
This wall won’t have to be touched again for another twenty-five years!
So next time you’re out there, stop over and give it a look!
My thanks to the board by paying the bills on this job. It wasn’t cheap with over a thousand dollars being spent, but the life we got out of the original wall justified the expenditure to rebuild it with a new life of decades to come.
Any questions or comments, let me know.
Rich