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On Thursday, April 4th, the youth of KGOC gathered at KGMS to assemble and paint their own custom lures. LurePartsOnline made this event possible. We started with a short PPT on fish in our area, predator/prey and coloration of food that fish eat. Then the students got a short primer on the types of baits that they could make. We were able to make spinnerbaits, jigs, crankbaits and topwater lures. The youth were busy painting and then putting screw eyes into the baits or split rings as well as props on some baits. We had over a dozen youth show up to do the event. Sgt. Spuchesi, cofounder of KGOC, Mr. Long, parent and our honorary leader/assistant, and Mrs. LaPaz helped the students. Kristy Fike, assistant leader of KGOC, also helped the youth. Judging by the way the youth worked and the chatter, I would hazard a guess that the youth had a lot of fun. Several asked to come see me the next day to build another lure if we had any extra. Mrs. LaPaz brought ice cream and served the youth that were taking a break while we were busy with the lures.
Sgt. Spuchesi and I want to thank Mr. Long who always helps us out and Mrs. LaPaz. A big thanks goes to the youth for following directions and doing a good job with their lures. Look for us to go fishing later this month. Tentatively we are looking at April 26th in the evening at a local pond. We will be having a contest to see who will catch the first fish on their lure that evening. A prize will be awarded for that fish!
LurePartsOnline.com was THE reason we were able to do this event. They donated all the supplies for the youth to make their own lures. This event has gotten better each year and the skill and quality of the lure making has improved too.
Last, this program is supported by the 2018 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia. This program has supported our youth many times over the past few years. https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/shopdgif/virginia-wildlife-grant-program/
Rappahannock Spurs Chapter of the NWTF provided insuarance for our event. We are very grateful to them for always supporting our outreach!
https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/shopdgif/virginia-wildlife-grant-program/

Today we had the pleasure of hearing Retired Detective Monty Clift of the KGSO give a presentation on the wild turkey and calling the wild turkey. Det. Clift's presentation began with how to get a gobbler to call off the roost and locating him to how to entice him to come to you using hen sounds. During each part of his presentation he reached into his turkey hunting vest to pull out the call he was talking about and demonstrated using the call personally. Along the way he also told stories to make his point. His presentation was not only interesting and educational but entertaining as well. Det. Clift has a gift for speaking and everyone was interested in what he had to share with us. We all learned something.
After he finished speaking  we got some instruction on how to assemble our calls and how the sound works inside our calls. Then options were laid out for the students in how to finish their calls. Next, students came up and picked up their parts and choose a wood and type of call. The calls were paid for by the Rappahannock Spurs Chapter of NWTF as part of their outreach program for R3 and Brookside Game Calls (a great company to get your own call from! www.brooksidegamecalls.com).
Students began working on their calls as Sgt. Spuchesi of VDGIF, a cofounder of our club, helped the students. Det. Clift, Mr. Long, Missy and KD Fike and Mrs. LaPaz also helped the students customize their calls.
By the end of the event, the students were busy making their own turkey sounds with their calls. The parents were helping teach the youth how to make the sounds correctly as well. The sound quality of the calls is quite good. Thanks Brookside!
Youth---please alert us and take a good photo if you harvest a turkey and use your call doing so!
Thank you Rappahannock Spurs Chapter for sponsoring us!

Each year youth from the King George region are selected and then invited to try their hand at hunting. These youth first have to take Hunter Education. This first step has two purposes. First, all of our hunters MUST learn how to be safe while afield and they have to show a serious interest in trying hunting.
Our club offers a handful of hunting and shooting opportunities to include an introductory fun shoot for both youth and their parents if they are new to shooting. We often will have a mentored and structured goose hunt for a few youth, our annual youth deer hunt and sometimes one on one youth deer hunts. We also have our annual Sgt. Frank Spuchesi rabbit hunt. Our final hunt for the season is usually our upland bird hunt.
We always hold our annual upland bird hunt at Rose Hill Game Preserve in Culpeper, Virginia. The guides out there are top notch and we are treated very well each year. Some may think taking youth brand new to hunting on a bird hunt is not a great idea but I beg to differ. There are a lot of moving parts to include dogs moving, people nearby and in adjoining fields, and of course the birds suddenly changing course. This is why we require all the youth not only take hunter education but they have to prove to us that they are mature enough to make sound decisions while afield when things are constantly changing. We also require all the youth to come practice shooting clays with us several times prior to the hunt. Gun safety is observed and those not up to the maturity and safety level are asked to try again another time. The annual bird hunt is good training because each youth has a mentor to stand right with them during the hunt to advise, encourage and direct their actions as needed. Hunting at a game preserve is an excellent choice for R3 because the youth WILL see birds and get shots!
Our group always consists of 8 youth and we try to keep it half girls and half guys. As I stated before, we require ALL the youth to have Hunter Education AND attend some clay shooting practice with us to make sure they are safe and able to hit targets. All youth have to be able to hit targets at least 50% of the time, and preferably more often, to go on the hunt.
This year we had Austin, Mason and Madison, Layla, Adom, Wil, Chase, and Chloe attend the hunt. We met in the parking lot overlooking the snowy fields on the chilly March 9th morning. At least it was not blowing 30+ mph like it was the previous year! We were joined by KGOC cofounder, Sgt. Frank Spuchesi and his friend Roger Summers, who helped mentor the youth. Our local NWTF Rappahannock Spurs Chapter President, Julie Abel, was on hand. She never misses this hunt and she always jumps in to mentor a group of young ladies. KD Fike also joined to help mentor. She loves going on these hunts and seeing the youth get their first birds.
Dean, the office manager at Rosehill, beckoned us to come fill out liability paperwork. As soon as that was done (and while we all jumped into the pastries and coffee Julie brought!) we held a safety brief in the warmth of the office. Then we gathered our shotguns and ammo and headed down the hill to watch the guides put the youth their paces at the 5 stand clay range. The clay shooting was done for two reasons. First, we wanted the youth to warm up, get used to shooting with heavy coats on again and the guides were observing the youth not only to learn their strengths and weaknesses but also to see where their bad habits were. The guides judge the youth secretly as to who is the safest hunter each year. At the end of the hunt, we give a small prize for the hunter that the guides agree was the safest from the moment they got on the property until their gun was put up for the day.
Anthony, a former Marine and energetic host, took off work just to come over to help the youth fine tune their shooting skills. He is incredibly patient, knowledgeable and he is super friendly with the kids. He gets them laughing some and sometimes he messes with them a bit by secretly calling for clays to be thrown from a direction they are not expecting them to be thrown. This is all great training and he makes it fun.
Each youth got plenty of opportunity to shoot clays from various angles until Anthony and the guides were sure they were good to go. Then Matt, the farm manager and a guide, held a second safety brief for the guides in general. I have to say that the guides, Matt, Anthony, Mike, Cody and Kirby, very much look forward to the youth coming out each year. I overheard some banter back and forth about which youth the guides hoped they got to take out to the fields. The kids definitely feel they are getting attention from their guides and they are welcomed at the hunt. Matt finished up his safety brief by saying that no bird is worth any accidents and he expected the youth to be safe and keep fingers off the triggers until they moved up on a bird.
Then the hunt was on! While I could not be with each pair of youth hunting, I did get to walk with Austin and Adom. None of our hunters in the entire group had ever shot at pheasants or chukar before. By the time we left the hunt, all of our youth had gotten at least one bird. Wil Emory got five birds! We had rough conditions with the wet ground, lateness in the season, and the snow covered areas, but the guides made the best of it and helped the youth learn about the cover, how the birds behave and some guides even gave some biology lessons in the field regarding animals. The scattered POP of shotguns going off in the various fields and some celebratory, “YEAAAAs!” could be heard too.
By the time we all got back up the hill at the completion of the hunt, there was a huge crock pot of homemade chicken soup made by Julie Abel and a huge crock pot of venison sage sausage soup made by KD Fike to warm the hunters up. The kids were sharing stories about the birds they got and even the ones they did not get. One youth was on the phone calling his mom to try to line up a time he and his dad could come back this year to hunt again. The guides were pleased with the kids and challenged them to come back when it was warmer to have a shoot off with them and learn more shooting skills at the 5 Stand range. We definitely are in for that!
Once everyone got a bite to eat, we took a group photo with the guides and then the cleaning started. The guides took the youth into the cleaning area and taught them how to properly clean their birds. The youth got to examine the organs, see the body parts and feathers up close and learn some more biology. One of the guides was offering some cooking tips too. This was a complete field to plate event and the youth learned so much about hunting all in one trip.
Was the trip successful? You bet. The youth had an opportunity to not only learn more about hunting but they were able to put in practice their hunter education knowledge, receive a few reminders and pointers about gun safety along the way and remain safe while in the field. The bonus? They were also able to learn about the way a bird dog works, how the guides find birds, work cover and train dogs and of course the youth were able to harvest some birds to take home to cook on their own. I know for a fact that they slept well that evening! I had to get a nap when I got home.
At the very conclusion of the hunt and bird cleaning session, the kids met with Julie Abel, filled out a Thank you card and put a tip inside before delivering it to their guides. We felt it important that the youth learn that the guides need to be shown appreciation for their time and efforts too.
Last, we announced our hunter safety award for the event. The guides all decided that Wil Emory exhibited consistent safety while afield and he was awarded an NWTF bag, a T Shirt and some funds to go towards his own shotgun. He was borrowing one from the club for the hunt and is currently saving his chicken egg money from the farm to get his own gun. We would be remiss not to mention that Austin Gray was awarded a second place safety award. The guides noticed him right away as did Dean, the office and preserve manager. Austin was careful where he had his shotgun pointed during the hunt and during the shooting practice. We greatly appreciate the youth practicing gun safety and want to encourage this as we teach them about the outdoors. We want all our hunts safe.
This hunt is a favorite of ours because our hosts are so good to us and the youth go home with a great memory. We hope to take more youth out next year if we can secure funding. These hunts are not inexpensive. We have some partners that we could not do this hunt without.
First, Rose Hill Game Preserve and the guides donate their time, efforts, some of the birds, the clays and the facility to the youth. They look forward to us coming out and we are always given top notch attention. https://www.facebook.com/RoseHillGamePreserve/
The Rappahannock Spurs chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation is a HUGE supporter of youth and women in the outdoors and of course of KG Outdoor Club. They sponsor just about all of our outreach events and we so appreciate Julie Abel and the members of the Rappahannock Spurs. https://www.facebook.com/rappahannockspurshttps://www.facebook.com/rappahannockspurs/
Big Dog Outfitters of King George County has always supported the KG Outdoor Club shooting and hunting adventures. They consistently help make safe shooters by supplying shells for the shooting practice, hunt and for our fun shoot. This is an incredible hometown business that genuinely wants to see kids safely enjoy shooting sports. https://www.facebook.com/BigDogOutfittershttps://www.facebook.com/BigDogOutfitters
Last, this program is supported by the 2018 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia. This program has supported our youth many times over the past few years. https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/shopdgif/virginia-wildlife-grant-program/ https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/shopdgif/virginia-wildlife-grant-program/
 

Terry Misch, the local 4H Agent and 4H Coordinator for King George, stopped in our the KGMS Outdoor Club meeting on February 22nd to present a hands on activity for the youth in our club. Mrs. Misch is no stranger to the KGMS students as she does an insect collection and classification and a tree identification activity with the kids each year. Some kids affectionately know her as the “bug lady” due to her zeal for insects, while others know her from 4H summer camp which they love.
When the students arrived in the cafeteria they immediately noted a long row of animal skulls on the table with numbers next to them. On another table was a long row of animal pelts. Another table had a row of animal track imprints while yet another table had a row of scat molds for the students to try to identify.
The meeting opened up with announcements about upcoming events such as the turkey call and fishing lure event, the fishing and shooting event and Mr. Limbrick’s duck decoy painting event. Mr. Limbrick explained to the youth he would have 10 or so slots for his event in mid-March which was sponsored by duck hunters in Virginia who were donating their old decoys to the kids to learn about and paint.  
At that point Mrs. Misch made an announcement about Woods and Wildlife Camp and how much fun that was for participants at Holiday Lake 4H Center. Mr. Fike also brought up the Youth Conservation Corps opportunity that students could enjoy by living in a park for 3 weeks and receiving $500 for their work at the park.
Next Mrs. Misch gave directions on the activity she was about to do with the kids while Mr. Fike handed out a chart with the names of various animals on it. The students were to examine the pelts, scat, tracks and skulls to determine which one went with each animal. Then they were to determine whether the animal was a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore.
The students went around the tables and began trying to figure things out while the teachers and Mrs. Misch offered some clues but mainly observed the students working on the task. At the end of the time, Mrs. Misch went through the chart and the students graded their own papers. Mrs. Misch stopped to explain key characteristics that should have helped the kids ID some of the animals, particularly the teeth on the skulls.  When we finished, Mrs. Misch worked on determining which students scored the best. We had a half dozen students that had more than 30 of the 40 answers correct!
Thank you Mrs. Misch for always being willing to come to KGMS to help educate our kids. Your presentation was outstanding and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Some of your items stumped even the teachers!

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Today we had our annual Sgt. Spuchesi Youth Rabbit hunt that Sgt. Spuchesi hosts each year for youth in the KG Outdoor Club. This year we had Madison, Mason, Adom, Chloe, and Austin join us for the beagle running fun. Roger Summers, Dustin Pifer, Stephen Long and Kristy Fike joined us as mentors for the youth.
The conditions were quite muddy, so out of respect for the landowner, we walked back to the fields where we wanted to hunt and Sgt. Spuchesi's pack of beagles soon hit the trail and began burning up the the rabbits. The joyful chorus of the beagles soon resulted in a circling rabbit that bounded a bit too close to Austin who put him the game pouch. Chloe used a 20 gauge pump shotgun and put supper on her table soon after. The dogs circled around pushing the rabbit among saplings and weeds for while and then after a good chase he was also put in the game bag.
We had an exceptionally long chase that lasted for quite some time at one point. Sgt. Spuchesi was able to move youth around to various spots with their mentors and they got to hear plenty of beagles hurrying rabbits around the gorgeous farm we were hunting. At one point the dogs pushed several rabbits at once and one rabbit squirted out of the woods and darted across the fields and then wisely went into a ditch before the nearby redtail hawk made a move on him.
The day was a memorable one with most of the youth getting their first rabbits ever.
We want to first of all thank Sgt. Spuchesi for taking a vacation day to host this hunt. He purposely does not harvest rabbits from this piece of property just so the youth can learn about not only hunting and ethics but learn about beagles and hunting with dogs.
Rogers Summers is always helping us with mentoring kids on these hunts. He is enthusiastic, fun to be around and gets as excited as the kids when the rabbit shows up. His knowledge for how the dogs work helps put the kids in places where they can be successful.
Mr. Long has been a part of the club the past few years and you would think we recruited him to be a leader because he takes on leadership and supervisory roles when he comes. He is always willing to help out and he always has an eye for safety.
Kristy has always gone along to help out when I ask her to. She is extremely safety conscious and never complains about the time she spends with the youth. She really enjoyed hanging out with Madison today and she hopes to do it again soon.
Dustin Pifer mentored Chloe and he is also very safety conscious and mindful of where people are. I really enjoyed getting to know him more and I know he can be counted upon to make good choices in the field with the kids.
Thank you also to the parents for allowing their youth to go. I know they went home with some good meat to eat. I bet they sleep well tonight!
I look forward to seeing you all on the annual pheasant hunt in 3 weeks!
Send me an email if you want some recipes for the rabbit. It is hard to go wrong baking it with a little oil to keep it from sticking to the pan and then hitting it in the skillet to brown it if you want. The backstraps are delicious.
This program is supported by the 2018 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia.
We want to give a HUGE thanks to Big Dog Outfitters in King George for supporting the youth of King George County by providing ammunition for this hunt and the practice sessions. No way we could do this without you guys! https://www.facebook.com/BigDogOutfitters
If you read this and get a chance to stop in to Big Dog, be sure and let them know how much you appreciate them supporting the youth in our region but helping them get introduced to shooting and hunting safely.
Our next event is the bird hunt March 9th and Big Dog supported that too!

Yesterday we held a clay pigeon practice for some of the youth that are going on our annual upland bird hunt in March.
Chloe, Layla and Adom stopped by and earned some sore right shoulders by putting over a hundred rounds downrange each to sharpen their skills busting clays. Adom and Layla had never shot a shotgun before and were hitting clays within ten shots. Chloe has shot clays once or twice and she was hitting them yesterday too. By the end of our practice session the youth were doing quite well with straightaway shots and slightly angled shots. For fun, we tried hitting some rolling "rabbit" clays. Next time we will be practicing some left to right and right to left shots since those tend to be harder for most shooters. Our annual upland pheasant hunt is a month away from today!
Thanks to the parents for staying and helping supervise and keep things safe. A particular thanks to Dustin Pifer to helping instruct. While I am pretty handy at putting birds in the bag with my shotgun, instructing people how to hit targets with a shotgun is not my strongest suit. Thanks Dustin.
We want to give a HUGE thanks to Big Dog Outfitters in King George for supporting the youth of King George County by providing ammunition for this hunt and the practice sessions. No way we could do this without you guys! https://www.facebook.com/BigDogOutfitters
This program is supported by the 2018 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia.

On January 25th, Karen Snape, our state forester from Department of Forestry, came to visit the King George Outdoor Club to talk about her job. Miss Snape has been working in our region for a number of years and has assisted both me and my father with timber jobs and she has also consulted with us about trees that were being attacked by insects and disease on more than a few occasions. Additionally, she has been a great resource with a conservation project I headed up on a local property I manage. Asking Miss Snape to come speak to our club was an easy choice to make.
When she arrived she introduced herself and asked the students what they thought a forester did. We heard a number of answers, some of which were on target. Some mentioned logging and she told the students how she has to inspect logging sites and work with logging operations to ensure they are following the law. She mentioned fire safety, controlled burns, and conservation efforts and so on. Then she asked the students about interactions between trees and wildlife. Specifically she asked what types of things animals need to survive. The students called out that animals needed food, water, shelter and finally they named cover as something the animals needed.
This brought Miss Snape to an activity which led the students through identifying trees based on their leaves and the characteristics of the leaves. Each table was given a leaf to identify.  Students looked at the teeth on the leaves, the lobes, and so on to slowly whittle down the choices of tree species that the leaf came from. Miss Snape called out questions regarding the characteristics of the leaf and as each characteristic was not noted on the leaf at each table, those students sat down. This continued until only one table of students was left standing. The way Miss Snape led the students through the activity allowed them to learn what each identifying characteristic was. Given that 7th grade life science students were about to learn how a dichotomous key worked, this activity was perfect for us.
As the meeting wound down, Miss Snape also spoke about the arrangement of habitat and how animals need certain types of trees and bushes and their locations with relationship to water and each other. Students were able to get up and according to their group “name” move to “interact” with other groups based on what type of tree or habitat they were.
The time Miss Snape took to explain and lead the youth through the activities was educational and dovetailed into our objects as science teachers at KGMS. We greatly appreciate the time she spent preparing the lesson and activities and we also appreciate her coming to speak to such a large group of students. Miss Snape was also a great role model for the students interested in a career in natural resources, particularly the girls in our group!

KG Outdoor Club held a venison processing event today after school. We had six girls show up and three parents to include Sgt. Spuchesi who was one of the original founders of the KGOC. Sgt. Spuchesi was able to donate a deer to the event (Thank you!). The deer hindquarters were brought to school along with a VDGIF DVD about processing venison, some cutting boards, knives, a hand grinder and other tools to do the job. Katelyn, Caitlyn, Elmery, Ashleigh, Layla and Chloe all watched the video about field dressing a deer and then we got to work taking the legs out of the cooler and began our processing. The girls worked carefully under the watchful eyes of Sgt. Spuchesi, Mrs. Berdeguez (thank you for helping!) and Kristy and KD, who have done this countless times with me, (thank you for your many hours of helping set up and take down). The girls learned how to cut each muscle group out of the hindquarters and trim the silver skin off and then vacuum seal the roasts they cut out. All the extra trimmings that were free of fat were put through our hand grinder to make burger. I think they ended up with 8 bags of burger! There were plenty of roasts to go around and the backstraps were also cut and trimmed and vacuum sealed too. Each of the young ladies was able to take home several organic, self trimmed and butchered venison meals. Katelyn let the others take home her portion since she had meat in the freezer from a gorgeous buck she took on youth day.
While we were processing the meat, Elmery's mom and sister walked in and were watching. She noticed that we had an electric skillet, onions and peppers in the back. Without asking her, she immediately took the initiative and began cutting up and cooking the peppers and red onion and then stirred in the extra backstrap of venison that I brought for the girls to try. The food all disappeared. She can cook! We thank her for taking the time to cook and make such a great meal despite not having rice and the other ingredients that would have made it even better.
I want to thank the all of girls for coming and trying something new that might have been out of their comfort zone. You did a great job! Thank you to Sgt. Spuchesi for the deer and your time leading the girls in processing. I also want to thank Mrs. Berdeguez for being so great at supervising and advising the girls on how to cut up the meat and watching for safe handling of the knives. Mrs. Paz-Calderon was awesome back at the skillet and cooking. She wasted no time and did a great job and jumped right in. MUCHAS GRACIAS!
KD and Kristy, no way I could do these events without your help loading the truck and unloading and cleaning up. THANK YOU.

December 31st was a day of reckoning for at least one of the members of KG Outdoor Club. Kayla had been goose hunting with us two or three times without even getting a shot due to weather and lack of geese. This day was quite different. Our guide, locally legendary goose caller, Steve Purks, invited the girls to go goose hunting. The geese have been thin in numbers this year, so none of us knew how the day was going to go. However, we knew  that Steve was going to give it 100% as he always does. He has a passion for teaching and passing on his knowledge about hunting to others. That is one of the reasons he was nominated and received the NWTF state Hall of Fame award last year.
Not long after we got the property we were busy setting up decoys. Steve immediately started teaching me about how he places the decoys when there are mature birds. I feel as if each time I go hunting with him I learn a ton of new info. This time was no different.
We had the spread of 120 + decoys put out in 45 minutes or so and then started getting things set up in an awesome blind he, Julie Abel and her husband Steve Abel had helped set up. Steve did a bang up camo job on the blind.
Sunrise came and we were tucked in the Avian X blinds and soon heard birds coming over. Some would look and fly around and then bear off but it was not long before Steve was able to bring some down for the girls to take. Some of the birds were so close I could FEEL their wingbeats. He spoke their language well because the beating of their wings above us was plenty loud enough I could hear them too despite putting my head down to avoid being spotted. It was awesome. Once a group set into the decoys he called the shooting and hissed at the girls to stand up and shoot. Birds went down and we cheered them on. Kristy's dog Baily was a bit rusty on what to do but eager to do something. She did run out and retrieve with a little direction and guidance. By the time the 6th bird or so was down she was wired correctly and was prancing back with her birds. At one point we had birds coming in and they suddenly veered off. Steve was in the middle of his crew of shooters in the blind and he did not think we spooked the birds. A little while later someone noticed Baily out of her blind and sitting next to our blind. We think that the geese could see her and messed things up. I will say that she was pretty quiet for being outside the blind!
Both Kayla and her sister Alina got their limits which were their first geese. They were using 20 gauge guns too. After the girls all got their limits, Julie and her husband started on birds and so did Steve and I. We had a great time hunting and enjoyed seeing the girls all get their birds. Kayla and Alina took some good fresh meat home and Baily got some work. We want to thank Steve Purks for all the hard work and long hours he donated to this great hunt.
Here is what Kayla had to say about this hunt:
"I’ve gone goose hunting a few times, but every time I’ve had no luck! I had such bad luck that I became known as the “goose repellent.” But on December 31st, I woke up and thinking today was going to be the day. Later that morning set up in the blind and a few hours passed. We could hear the sound of geese all around, but none of that compared to when they got close and I could actually hear their wings beating because of how close they were to us! Hearing Mr. Steve call those geese in was something unforgettable, and I can’t wait to go on more hunts with the outdoor club! -- Kayla Puentes "

This program is supported by the 2018 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia.
We want to thank Big Dog Outfitters in King George https://www.facebook.com/BigDogOutfitters for supporting the King George Outdoor Club and our shooting events time and time again. They stepped up again and made today a blast (pun intended) for the kids. Howard Communications--A media relations company-- supported us with targets for the .22 range and the kids. They have regularly supported the youth and our R3 efforts. Check them out at http://www.howardcommunications.com/ Also, NWTF Rappahannock Spurs Chapter sponsored and covered us today! This is an outreach of their chapter.


I definitely could not do this event without help. Today that help came from my daughters Kristy and KD who ran the camera and the clay range. My father in law, Larry Stewart, pulled targets. Mr. Long was again a huge help with supervision and coaching. He is fast becoming one of our leaders! We had assistance from all of the other parents to include TJ Rollins, Mr. and Mrs. Karle, Mr. and Mrs. Berdeguez, Mrs. Emory, and Mrs. Cook. When shooting, ALL parent support and watchful eyes are important.
We had over a dozen young people firing .22 rifles that were club rifles and a nice subsonic bolt rifle and an AR style rifle, a .22 handgun (Big Dog helped us with a great price on this), shotguns to include personal guns that were shared. Thanks to those that shared guns and rifles!
The event started at 11 AM with a safety brief, notice about those sponsoring and then a reminder about being safe so everyone goes home with all their digits and no holes in their body, just holes in targets. We had shooters of all ages. Some moms and dads took a turn or two and the kids loved it. In addition to paper targets (Birchwood Casey's SHOOT NC--Thanks Howard Communications), we had cans, spinning targets and clays to include "rabbits" to shoot at. I think the kids had a good time. Safety was in good supply today and we are happy the day went well. Thanks again to all that helped out and to all that came! Good shooting!
The next event planned is a venison processing event. It will be short notice, but tentatively it will be Jan 3rd or 4th or 7th or 8th depending on when we get a deer to use. Email me to be put on the email list. We will limit this to 8 youth for safety reasons.
[email protected]