President's Newsletter

September 2026

I hope everyone has had a great safe and healthy summer. It is starting to wind down—at least according to the calendar. You sure wouldn’t know it by looking at the thermometer. It’s still plenty warm out there. All in all, it’s been another busy and successful season for the club. We’ve had a good number of matches, made some improvements, and even managed to make a few changes. We are slowly growing both in membership and participation. Most of us probably agree we don’t want too much growth too fast. One of the many nice things about our ranges is having enough room to actually shoot when you show up.

Vale Range

Kerry held his short range benchrest match the first Saturday of August. It was a double match as usual and turnout was low due to the heat, smoke and mosquitoes. Only four hardy souls attended but we had a great time and the heat wasn’t too bad. The mosquitoes had also made plans to go elsewhere thank goodness.

Dave held his high power rifle match on August 9th with 5 shooters in attendance. They shot 200,300, and 600 yards. Some respectable scores were shot that day.

I ran the 600-yard benchrest match for George during the third week of August. Once again, we only had four shooters. We were competing with two other matches in the valley that day, so thanks to the guys who chose to come shoot with us. We even got a lesson from Chris Johnson that morning. His rifle and load were well tuned, and he knows how to drive it.

Judy held her practical pistol match on the fourth Saturday of August. I didn’t receive a total for the number of shooters, but from what I heard, it sounded like they were busy.

I also held my .22 benchrest match that same Saturday, and we had our biggest turn out yet. We had a total of 12 shooters, some of which shot 2 rifles. We had to have 3 relays for a total of 18 guns. We added another class to this match- Airguns. Those guys were a lot of fun to watch, and some of the scores they turned in with those switchy winds were downright impressive. Hopefully, everyone will return in September, and maybe we’ll get a few more of the airgun guys to come out and play.

New Match at Vale:

We are adding a new discipline and weekly match starting in September. Ron Drynan is starting the Steel Challenge at the Vale pistol pits. This will be a weekly match every Friday morning and these will be national sanctioned matches. Everyone is welcome, regardless of skill level. If you are not familiar with the discipline it has a huge following around the world and probably one of the fastest growing shooting events running now. Check out our website for an explanation of the event Ron has provided and get ahold of Ron if you are interested or have any questions.

A big THANK YOU to Ron for stepping up and taking this on. It takes somebody willing to do the work to get these things off the ground and we appreciate it.

Very Important Reminder:

The fire danger at Vale is extreme and with no relief in sight please be careful. Due to the fires in the area they never put the cows on our range this year. This means we need everyone to use some common sense. Keep vehicles in the graveled areas and no smoking outside of your vehicle please.

Ontario Range

We had a minor scheduling error on our part in August. Somehow, we managed to schedule the Oregon Youth Hunters annual trap shoot at the same time and day as Curtis’s monthly NSCA sporting clays event. Needless to say, the Ontario Range was one busy place! Fortunately, thanks to the great organization and hard work of Bruce Hunter and Curtis, everything went off without a hitch. We threw a bunch of targets that day - over 12,000 clay targets using more than 50 machines. That’s a lot of clay! Great job everyone!

A huge thanks to Curtis and his family for continuing to provide great targets, great food and a clean, safe range month after month. This is no small task resetting the course, loading 50 machines, keeping them loaded all day, picking up spent shells (we filled an entire dumpster with spent shotgun shells alone), keeping water on the range, emptying trash and then feeding everybody lunch is a heck of a job.

With the increase of shooters coming across the state to shoot our events, we’re going to have to order another truckload of targets come April. In my time, this will be the first time a truckload didn’t last 2 plus years.

Skeet

Pat has been under the weather lately, but the skeet shooters are still shooting a couple times a week. Pat has also started a raffle to help purchase some new machines for Skeet Field 1. Check out the website under special events for details.

Membership Renewal

One more reminder: September 1st is the start of membership renewal. You can renew your membership for both ranges and your membership will carry you though December 31, 2027.

Don’t wait until you’re standing at the range gate wondering why your combination doesn’t work.

Until Next Time

That wraps things up for now.

Thanks to everyone who continues to show up, shoot, help out, pick up brass and hulls, run matches, fix things, haul things, reset things and generally keep the club moving.

That’s what keeps a sportsmen’s club going—not fancy talk, but a bunch of folks willing to pitch in and do the work.

Stay safe, stay healthy, keep an eye on the fire danger, and we’ll see you at the range.

Thank you for supporting Snake River Sportsmen.

See you on the range.

Bob Smith

President, Snake River Sportsmen