11/14/2025
BCSA November 2025 update to our membership
November BCSA update to the membership:
1: Porta-Pottie should be leaving for the winter anytime now. Paid through October, they just haven’t collected it yet. It will be back in April.
2: The second the backstops on Bays 2 & 3 freeze, they will be roped off till warmer weather. We are in the process of creating new bullet traps of our own design and will be applying for Gilford Planning Board approval. Once approved, our goal is to start as soon as the weather allows.
3: We will also be installing a new fence and gate at the range entrance once the permit has been received from the town. It has become clear we need to have a more visible indicator to passers-by and non-members that the range is not open to the public and that they are trespassing.
4: AYCE $5 Pizza and Turkey Raffle November 20th at 6 PM. The return of tickets seems to be up from previous years, so we are looking forward to that and hope to see you there. Many of the returned tickets have “DONATE’ written on them. Rest assured, we will be delivering them to local food pantries in the region.
5: Member Liam Reilly has volunteered to administer our Becoming an Outdoor Woman (BOW) program for 2026. Liam will be the liaison to Fish & Game and will be using social media to stir up interest in the program and search for candidates to attend next year.
6: There will be a Fly Tying class on Saturday, February 21st. Expect to see detailed information on Facebook and our website soon.
7: Gun raffle was successful and we had 4 winners. Several people wanted to know who won. As in the past, we make it a point to not publish names to protect the winners.
8: October Swap Meet went very well and a lot of good deals were made.
9: BCSA is searching for an Association Secretary. Duties would include, but not limited to, 10 meetings a year, responding to emails, maintaining the downstairs office and BCSA history. If you are interested in contributing to the administration of the Association, please contact us at [email protected].
10: 2026 Membership cards will start going out the first week of December.
11: Winter prep range work party Saturday December 6th, 9AM. Rakes, leaf blowers, etc.
12: Mitch Dyer had built a beautiful new bench rest for the range building. Thanks to Mitch for your donation!
13: You’ve stuck with me this long, but I’m going to close out with some observations on what we have been seeing on the range in the last few months. We’ve had significant growth in new members, with a corresponding increase in range use. Please be courteous and share the space. No problem using both inside benches, one for shooting and the second for gear, but when a second person wants to use a bench to shoot, remove your gear. To help alleviate this problem, we are building a new table for gear that will be usable and won’t take up too much space.
If others are on the same bay as you, ALWAYS announce your intention to go down range, regardless of the status of their guns, PERIOD.
Suddenly it’s become a trend to want fresh cardboard when perfectly serviceable targets are available. Good cardboard is being discarded unnecessarily and makes more work for the volunteers. When a target is too damaged, the range committee ensures a sufficient supply on hand. Please use them.
Lastly, my usual beating of the dead horse, the brass! We turn in approximately 600 pounds to a recycler every year and expect measurably more next year with the increased use. A member, Vicki Fantozzi, does a great job sorting and sifting to make it acceptable to the recycler and get top dollar. She is now finding gum, cigarette butts, trash, quantities of live rounds, plastic, and the ubiquitous shotshells. All buckets are clearly marked, it’s not too much to ask to use them appropriately.
Regards to all,
Rags Grenier
BCSA President
