East Tn TGO Members JANUARY 2008 Meet

[Marswolf]

OK, are we back in Kingsport on the 19th?

[Guest c.a.s.]

So, are we going to get set up to go to Kingsport, or are we going ot end up back to Phantom's place? IF the latter, I say we go get sandwiches again! And that I need practice with clays!

[Marswolf]

So, are we going to get set up to go to Kingsport, or are we going ot end up back to Phantom's place? IF the latter, I say we go get sandwiches again! And that I need practice with clays!

I'd say that depends on Mark@Sea and his wife.

[Mike.357]

Have not seen Mark on here in a month nearly. I believe he will be at sea and Tower will be up on a Tower somewhere.

Not much point in coming up if they are not there. No one else from Tri-Cities comes to these shoots anyway.

[Guest Boomhower]

Yep. With Elliott finally working that leaves Mark, and I've not heard much from him in a while, so that makes me wonder if he is back at sea.

[wareagle]

I plan to be there in Jan, especially if its in Oak Ridge.

[towerclimber37]

Yep. With Elliott finally working that leaves Mark, and I've not heard much from him in a while, so that makes me wonder if he is back at sea.

Marks' here, but he's going to be gone in Jan. guys...I MAY be here..but I won't know till about that time.

[Marswolf]

I really like the idea of alternating sites, but it's up to you guys.

Anywhere up in this region is a crap shoot through even April. I remember one 14" snow on April 10th some years ago.

I'll try to get to a Kingsport area shoot if we do one in January.

I have no idea if Phantom6 even wants to do one then.

Mark and Phantom are our hosts. We need to thank them for going through the hassle of hosting us. Nothing says they have to do so at some appointed time.

My feeling is that for a couple of potentially really bad months we might plan a luncheon meet somewhere around Morristown with a shoot somewhere if we can find an appropriate location.

But you know how many shoots I've made, so I'll go along with the crowd on this.

[Guest c.a.s.]

As long as someone doesn't mind playing taxi for me, I'm good.

[Guest Boomhower]

If Mark will be at sea, and Elliott probably, maybe, might not be there, I would hate to impose the event hosting on Sue. We just need both of them to confirm this.

In the beginning, everyone was all about finding places to shoot and we lucked up and have had 3 different places to gather at. Actually, in the beginning, we were hoping that as new people joined from the E. TN area, they would come out to the shoot's, enjoy themselves and then if any of them had any land they would be willing to offer up to host a shoot, that would be great. Unfortunately, we have had nothing of the such. Elliott, Mark, and Mike have graciously hosted us each time. I'm sure neither of them mind it either.

I don't really care where we do it, we'll never get everybody there anyways, we just need a place to meet this coming Jan. I don't even know if I will be able to make it or not just yet. If I had a few acre's with a decent spot to hold the group, I'd be more than happy to have everyone come out to Knoxville. But I don't think my next door neighbor's would like us shooting guns at/thru our separating fences. Especially since one of them just put about 7 to 8 grand into one of those plastic fences.

[Guest Boomhower]

Would anyone want to see if we could do something at the indoor range at Coal Creek Armory. They might let us rent a few lanes for a certain period of time. And there are plenty of places to eat in West Knoxville.

[Guest c.a.s.]

IF he doesn't mind, and I find out how much of the land is cleared, Theres some unused land right by my grandparents house, just outside of Clinton. The guy who owns it is a family friend. IT isn't developed into a range or anything, but it just might be a few acres, going straight into the mountains.

[Marswolf]

I have to admit I'm a bit irritated that some folks are apparently trying to make this a continuing OR/Knoxville area shoot. That's a long way from me just to shoot.

I shoot a lot.... I'm really more interested in the social interaction.

My feeling is that it would be better to go to a forest service range than change the pattern from alternating sites.

Maybe it would be better to just have two monthly shoots in our area - one in the Knoxville area and one in the Kingsport area? That's what I originally thought we would do. Folks who wanted to come to both events could do so. Frankly, I always though the meal before the shoot was as important to me as the shoot itself.

I'd have made more of an effort to get to the shoots if there was a friendly meal beforehand, but that's just me.

What do you folks think?

[Guest Boomhower]

That's great information to hear Mars, so please don't get irritated. That's the kinda of stuff that I, if noone else, likes to hear. I for one, do not want to split up the monthly shoots. I like alternating, but I am also right in the middle of both places. It takes me an hour to drive to OR, and between an hour to an hour and a hlalf to drive to Kingsport.....but we have never done anything in Knoxville, and even though we've not, I still do not care to drive to meet up with all of you guys. But that's just me I guess. There's several places around me that I can shoot at as well, but to me It's not about how long it takes me to drive there. It's the folks I meet once I am there. That's why I don't care to spend the extra money in gas to get there.

Eating before hand is fine by me as well. If someone would like to set that up, let's hear what everyone else has to say.

Do you have a forest service range in mind Mars. In case Mark or Elliott can't host this month? As I was insinuating earlier, the more places that we have available to us to use, the more promising our future shoots will be.

I just read in another thread about the Sevierville Indoor Range. Would anyone be interested in something like that? That's kinda inbetween Knoxville and Kingsport isn't it?

[Mike.357]

I'll put in my 2 cents worth here. Since Mark is not going to be in Kingsport and Tower will not know until about that time there is not much point in trying to plan something up there. If Elliott is going to be there for sure then ok, but since he is not whats the point? I certainly am not going to be a part of impossing on Marks wife. While she is very nice and I consider her a friend she does not actively participate in the shoot, and therefore should not have to deal with people being there.

Not to speak for Phantom6 but I mentioned this scenario to him yesterday and he said we could shoot in Oak Ridge again in January. In the interest of people being able to make plans I think we should go ahead and make a plan for being in Oak Ridge on January 19.

If it works out to go to Kingsport in February that is fine and we could do that then.

I for one am very appreciative of the effort it takes to put on a group shoot. And I believe everyone is very thankful for the efforts put forth by our hosts at these events.

In the last three events we have had a organized series of competitions. While these are great fun it is not required. I believe everyone in attendance would have just as much fun with an open shoot. Bring some targets, pin 'em up and shoot what you brung. With that opinion I aim to take any unwanted pressure off of our hosts and any stress they may feel in trying to come up with an agenda.

As for Coal Creek or the place in Sevier, personally I do not hear good things about Coal Creek, dunno about Sevier but I prefer shooting outside. Also I do not particularly care to drive to Tri-Cities to shoot with people who live here near Knoxville. If more people from Tri-Cities were involved it would work better. So far at all the shoots in Kingsport it has been basically only been Elliott and or Mark from there. Like I wrote earlier if Elliott can commit to being there then I am all for it. But if not then why go there to do something I can do here.

As for meals, we always seem to have food involved. And not just Doritos.

Anyway that is my 2 cents on this. If I am wrong someone tell me so.

[Guest dotsun]

I'm good wherever, but I think outdoors works better for our ragtag bunch. I doubt any indoor ranges around could accommodate the number of people we had come out in October. Plus they frown on shooting veggies.

Eating beforehand or during makes no difference to me, I'm easy. Unless Mike needs to know something by a certain time to reserve the range, maybe we hold off on changing the plans until Tower knows for sure about his schedule or Mars checks on a back up plan?

[Guest dotsun]

Oh duh I just reread Tower's post about not knowing until close to the time of the shoot, so I guess we can't schedule that yet. I'm with you guys about not imposing on the wives. That wouldn't be fair to them.

[Guest Boomhower]

Eating beforehand or during makes no difference to me, I'm easy. Unless Mike needs to know something by a certain time to reserve the range, maybe we hold off on changing the plans until Tower knows for sure about his schedule or Mars checks on a back up plan?

You've got my vote for Prez.

[Branket]

If its near Knoxville count me in, if it's in tri-cities I'll plan on coming but if there is any chance of weather being too inclement then I'm not going to chance a two hour drive that could end with either a) no one else showing up, or people show up but decide they would rather not shoot in a "snow storm" (a term I use lightly).

I've been to shoots at both locations and if this ends up as being two separate events I will still try to make it to both. But as said earlier most of the people who actually attend are from Knox/OR and if no one is willing to host in tri-cities or find a definite range to use then I see no reason why we shouldn't just stay around Knox/OR, unless of course no one can host/find a range here either.

[Guest dotsun]

You've got my vote for Prez.

I appreciate your vote good citizen, but what my campaign requires right now in order to reach the good people in Iowa are more contributions.

[Marswolf]

I think it's really nice of Phantom6 to offer his place for next month. That is probably the way to go. Maybe by spring we can find an alternate site in the Tri-Cities.

My problem is like Tower's. I never know till the last minute if I'll even be in the area.

All the forest service ranges are on the non-Knoxville side of this area, so that's an even farther drive. Sort of like driving to Oak Ridge from my place. If we could find someone with a place in the Morristown or Greeneville area, maybe we could go to an every third month format and give our hosts a bit more of a break. Hell, I'd love to see a half dozen places to shoot.

[Guest Boomhower]

I appreciate your vote good citizen, but what my campaign requires right now in order to reach the good people in Iowa are more contributions.

Maybe you should hook up with Ron Paul then. I read he picked up somewhere around 6 million in internet fundraising.

[Guest Jamesmb]

Would anyone want to see if we could do something at the indoor range at Coal Creek Armory. They might let us rent a few lanes for a certain period of time. And there are plenty of places to eat in West Knoxville.

We could go to John Sevier Outdoor Range in Knox County or Royal Blue WMA Exit 141 off of I-75, they are run by the TWRA. I think John Sevier opens at 10 AM and has a shotgun range opening later in the day, they are closed the first weekend of every month for the National Guard training. John Sevier does have an indoor range, but think it is only open on Thursdays. Just an idea.

[Guest Phantom6]

As Mike indicated, we talked about this and for sure, our place is available for that date. It's the open weekend between our NRA Pistol/Handgun Carry Permit class and our NRA Basic Rifle class. If Marswolf however can find a place to shoot there in the Tri-Cities area I'm all about comin' up to to celebrate some friendship and shooting as well as celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee, Earl Crow (my great grandfather- a confederate soldier), Earl A. Crow (my grandfather) and Earl A. Crow IV AKA Phantom7 (my son). - Yeah, I know, apparantly a couple of generations didn't get the memo.

In checking on the TN Outdoorsman site I found the following ranges up in the Tri-Cities neck of the woods:

• Greeneville
  Tac2 - Tactical Advantage Concepts 2000
  P.O. BOX 1654 Greeneville, TN 37744
  423-636-1550
  Facilities include: Outdoor range, Instruction: Pistol Class 3: Full auto Instruction: rifle
  
• Maynardville - Chuck Swan WMA
  Located in Union & Campbell counties, near Maynardville
  Phone: 865-278-3248
  Facilities include: Outdoor Pistol, Rifle, Muzzleloading (50 & 100 Yard Backstop Only)
  
• North Cherokee WMA
  Located north of the Great Smokie Mountains National Park
  Fee required, daylight hours only
  Jacobs Creek: Denton Valley Road, Sullivan Co. 423-735-1500
  Pond Mountain: Hwy 321, Carter Co. 423-735-1500
  Scioto: Scioto Road, Unicoi Co. 423-735-1500

Hey Marswolf do you know anything about these?

If we can stay away from it or unless things have changed dramatically, I'd just as soon not shoot at Coal Creek due to the poor lighting, smokey atmosphere, poorly maintained equipment and inability to shoot the range of weapons that we TGO East shooters typically bring to the shoots. Our place or any place else would do though.

Where ever we shoot, what if we meet for lunch somewhere at 1130 and shoot following. As you can tell by the pictures, I'm comfortable with just about any food (except sushi 'cuase I already found Nemo when I went to the theater with my grand kids). If y'all want to come to O.R. , Big Ed's and Champs are good choices and just 15 minutes (that's 5 minutes in Tower-time ) from the range.

[Guest ricks]

I'm planning on attending the Jan, if it is in NETN. Unfortunately, the November one fell thru for me at the last minute.