RICOCHET ALERT

Two line men from Central Jersey Power & Light visited the range complaining that as they worked on the towers, as seen from the 300 yd. range, bullets wizzed by them.

On the following day the head of CJP&L Safety Dept visited the range. He explained he had to report the issue to the Home Land Security and Jackson Police.

 

We placated him by taking steps to reduce/prevent ricochets as implausable as it may seem. We inspected the berms and conclude that bullets ricocheting off the 50yrd. and 100yrd. berms may be the major causation.

 

EFFECTIVE EMMEDIATLY Only 6ft tall Target holders are to be used on the 50 and 100 yard ranges. The club has produced a number of these holders for your use. Absolutly no bottles, cans, bowling pins, or any other target is to be placed on top or infront of the 50 and/or 100 yard berm.

 

EVERY BULLET YOU SHOOT MUST GO INTO THE BACK BERM. [*]

 

The only restrictions are on the 50 and 100 yard berms.... 2 1X2X6 furring strips, a piece of cardboard, and a couple of spring clamps and you're GTG. For the record im not all that enthused about this, since i usually use a small spinner setup on top of the 100 yarder, and have to figure out something different now, but the rules are the rules.

KD, I spoke with some board members about the whole situation. It seems everything concerning this issue is a work in progress. It seems they are recieving input well as I had made a point about the fact that the 6 foot target holders would put a prone shooters rounds over the top of the berm and it already made the news letter.

 

My opinion is it is a very good value.

 

If I lived close I'd be a member. It's a great range.

KD, I spoke with some board members about the whole situation. It seems everything concerning this issue is a work in progress. It seems they are recieving input well as I had made a point about the fact that the 6 foot target holders would put a prone shooters rounds over the top of the berm and it already made the news letter.

 

Just received the new news letter. Seems they want different height targets stands on 50 and 100 yd holders depending on how you are shooting, ie: standing, sitting, and prone. They have plans with removable legs in the newsletter. As you have said, still evolving, but also say you can hang bottles, etc from the top of your stand.

 

Jimmy

If we werent already on the hook for a couple of Million dollars over the past 5 years or so i'd say that maybe the club should consider raising the berms on the GP and LR ranges, just to be on the safe side..however, considering the HUGE Capital expenses we've just laid out between the Pits, indoor Range, Roads, Entry System, and the like, we'll have to deal with this as is. I had been HOPING to get out there today and try out my new toy, but the dang ammo didnt come in yesterday as expected, so it'll have to wait till next week... I belonged to Cherry Ridge years ago when I lived up north, personally i prefer the facilities at CJ, IMO if it had a clubhouse like CR does it'd be 100% Perfect, although the building we have now is functional, it'd be nice to have a place to relax on site.

I hate shooting indoors but the new indoor range is nice. What I didnt realise is it took out the kitchen :(

As far as the ricochet concern, some of the solutions ive seen talked about in the news letter seem like they would be big $$$$ Hanging baffle plates etc etc. I think they are thinking to high. The rounds are skipping off the flats. They should be putting up AR500 at 45 degree angles in a couple rows along the gound to act as traps.

I'd like to see some sort of exception/method for .22 shooting on the GP range, at least till the pits open back up. The weekend prior to the alleged bullets whizzing by the tower, I had just bought a set of .22 spinners on sale, and was planning on using them the following week. They would be awkward, to say the least to try and sky those things 6 feet in the air at 50 or 100

How often are lineman actually out there? 1 day a month? Seems a bit easier to just give proper notice to the range what day they will be out there and what hours. A little professional courtesy would be nice. Never happen though

I agree with Malsua and Caine.

You can do so much more at CJ. If it wasn't almost 2 hours away I'd be a member right now.

 

The only thing I didn't like about CJ was the gotcha game those old fucks played here on the forum. I think we even banned one or two of them too. Hopefully those members have retired from shooting as I do NOT want to see them again.

 

Rayray, You live right by me so maybe I'm wrong about them being the same distance... have you gone to CR? On the map it looks like it should only take an hour to either CR or CJ from us but I dont know how traffic is down there, etc., whats your input on this?

 

I think it's exit 7? off the turnpike then about another 20 minutes on 195.

Without traffic it's still close 2 hours away. Maybe an 1 and a half. 600 bucks to join? I'll pass.

Lets do a little math and assume the person will get off their ass:

 

year 1 to join 600

Year 2 100

Year 3 100

year 4 100

year 5 100

-----------------

1000

 

SJGC

 

Year 1 225

year 2 225

year 3 225

year 4 225

year 5 225

-----------------

1125

 

Cherry ridge

Year 1 190

Year 2 132

Year 3 132

Year 4 132

Year 5 132

-----------------

718

 

Sorry, not seeing the big price diff for what you get at CJ......

Thanks Shane, still way over my budget.

Except thats with working etc etc.

 

Whereas CR you have to do nothing.

 

Data can be leaned for either side.

 

It comes down to really which one is closer in all honesty.

For me its what I can to do there. NJGC is a half hour more of a drive for me but if they do in fact put in a 600 yd lane...I may very well dump my CJ membership. I would say that CJ is head and shoulders above NJGC but...if NJGC caters to the disciplines I want to shoot then they get my dough. But I would agree that if it start getting beyond an hour and a half it is much less attractive.

 

Just to make sure I didnt mislead, you dont have to work at CJ, it just adds a fiddy to your annual dues if you dont.

It comes down to really which one is closer in all honesty.

This.

 

but...if NJGC caters to the disciplines I want to shoot then they get my dough.

What's NJGC?

 

but...if NJGC caters to the disciplines I want to shoot then they get my dough.

What's NJGC?

 

Agreed!

 

Keep us posted about that 600yrd, that would be AWESOME!

Whoops its SJSC, sorry

 

http://sjerseyshootingclub.com/

Ah ok.. that makes a little more sense

How often are lineman actually out there? 1 day a month? Seems a bit easier to just give proper notice to the range what day they will be out there and what hours. A little professional courtesy would be nice. Never happen though

 

I dont belong to CJ, but I am a lineman for JCP&L. The circuits that are behind the range are sub-transmission and tranmission circuits. Voltages from 34.5kv to 230kv. These circuits are critical in the fact that if a circuit goes down, there is more of a possibility of additional strain on the system. The transmission grid is overseen by PJM systems operations, if there is a problem they notify JCP&L to make whatever repairs are necessary at whatever time of day or night. It would by impossible to notify the range every time work needed to be done on those lines, and quite frankly, the last thing on a system operators priority list would be notification to the range. When the grid becomes, for lack of a better term, unstable the operators are quite busy and have their hands full. Perhaps a better remedy would be to have the Line crews drive to the range and directly notify the club that work will be performed on those circuits and how long the crews will be there. I'll make that suggestion to the JCP&L safety director who I know quite well, that is not to say the company will listen to me though.......

 

BTW, I had a conversation with the safety guy after the incident where he visited the range. He was very impressed and said that CJ is a 1st class operation.