We regularly review footage from the security cameras. Facility rule infractions identified during these reviews are referred to the Member Discipline Committee for investigation. In doing these reviews, the following regularly recurring themes are noted.

As identified in the Safety Rules, there are three safe muzzle directions for uncased firearms on SPFGA ranges: straight up, straight down, and pointed downrange. Muzzles of uncased firearms must be maintained in one of these directions at all times.

A common issue observed with uncasing/recasing a firearm at the rear of the shed is muzzles not being maintained in a safe direction, instead being pointed along the length of the range shed, toward the parking area, or toward other members. The benches at the rear of the range sheds are equipment benches - places to set things at a convenient height. Uncasing/recasing of firearms should not occur here. Instead, as a best practice this should occur at the shooting bench to ensure safe muzzle direction.

Another problem area is moving rifles between the racks and the shooting bench, where maintenance of muzzles in one of the three safe directions can be lax. Ensure that your muzzle passes between pointed up and pointed downrange directly without any turning side-to-side. The bad habit observed is turning while raising/lowering the muzzle, which directs it down the length of the range shed toward other members.

When the safety curtain in a range shed is in the down position all members must stand behind the cease fire line (i.e. on the parking lot side), the yellow line painted down the centre of the range shed floor. This is necessary as it places clear distance between members in the shed and firearms on benches, important when there are members downrange placing or retrieving targets.

When the safety curtain is in the lowered position, there can be no handling, touching, manipulating, or fiddling about with magazines, ammunition, or uncased firearms. At all. Period. The safety curtain must be in the raised position for you to handle these items, even to pack them up or recase them because you are departing.

When you are the leaving the range shed as the last person present, you must raise the safety curtain. It may not seem overly important to you as you're departing, but ask yourself this - if the curtain is lowered, how could you have cased up your firearm and put away your ammunition and magazines without being in violation of the rules (referring to the preceding point)? Next, it creates complications for the member who arrives at the range after you: did someone simply forget to raise the safety curtain when they left, or is there actually someone downrange and they're just not in view? As well, an arriving member with an uncased firearm is immediately in violation of the rules if they enter the range shed with their firearm unless they first go and raise the safety curtain. Lastly, the wind whips the curtain around when they're left down and they become damaged. So please, as part of your final sweep before departing, ensure that you raise the safety curtain.

This event serves as an important reminder for each of us that range members are individually responsible for ensuring that the ammunition being used and the firearms it is being discharged from are safe for use. (This is a direct quote of the 'General Safety' section of the Facility Rules.)

The pump on the fish pond aerator was discovered to have failed recently, resulting in the loss of some of the fish.

We're getting the aerator back up & going, and have closed the fish pond for the year while we do that. We close it on October 1 annually anyway, so closing a little early like this shouldn't be overly impactful.

Advance reminder that the shooting end time on the firearm ranges moves to 6:30 pm, starting Thursday, September 22. All firing must cease at this time each day.

Throughout the year, our range hours shift to accommodate the changes in daylight hours (see below). These times are posted at the gate and on the website.

We are trialing this new design at the 200 m and 300 m shrouds on the Big Bore range, and at the 150 m and 200 m shrouds on the Overflow range. They have been up for a couple of weeks now and <taps wood> they seem to be holding up well.

Our thanks go to SPFGA member Troy Lymburner for bringing this course to our attention. We have considered in the past trying to offer a similar content course ourselves, but this is superior to anything we would be able to offer.

Offered by professionals from Southbrook Safety, this course will provide instruction on the skills and safe practices required for saw operation and maintenance.

This one day (6.5 hour) course will cover:

Everything will be provided, including saws and safety equipment. All you need is gloves and CSA-approved safety glasses. You are free to bring your own saw if you choose.

Cost: $150/person for SPFGA members + $50 for course materials and certification card

Over the next week or two, you will likely notice a variety of improvement projects happening throughout the property:

While the Handgun range work is in progress, this range will be out of service. We will be timing this work to occur during the day on weekdays so as to minimize the impact on members.

As always, we appreciate your understanding and patience.

We close to new membership signups and renewals of existing memberships for the current year on October 1 annually (three quarters of the year has passed at that point).

Renewals for 2023 for existing members will open on December 1, and new membership signups will resume on January 1.

Starting with renewals for 2023, members will be required to complete a revamped Facility and Safety Orientation prior to processing their renewal. This will then be repeated on a three year cycle. The purpose of this is to keep the rules fresh in everyone's minds & keep everyone on top of rule changes.

From our review of the security cameras, we see that rule infractions are not limited to new shooters or new members - they are equally an issue with long time members as well. Maintaining a high level of awareness of the facility rules will benefit everyone.

You will be able to complete the orientation online. For members unsuited to online completion, we will have a number of in-person sessions available.

We're still working out the specifics and will keep you aware of the details as they are finalized. Meanwhile, we wanted you to be aware well in advance that this was coming.

As a reminder, the only thing that should go into the brass pails on the handgun and rifle ranges is spent cartridges.

Misfired cartridges must be safely placed into the red disposal containers at each range.

Noticing that the rules regarding pets was a bit narrow (only mentioned dogs specifically) and missed touching on important areas (like stating explicitly that they are allowed in the campground, or that pets must not be left unaccompanied, or that owners must pick up their pet's droppings), we have updated the General section of the Facility Rules to capture these points.

Please take a moment to review them.