Upcoming Events

Cedar Mills Rod & Gun Club Breakfast Buffet
		Meat, Eggs, Cakes, etc. Highway 22 North (at the go-cart track) 3rd Sunday of each month 9:00 am until 12:30 pm Adults - $6.00, small children – free For more information call 587-7852.
	Gopher Campfire members please help with your support!

100th Anniversary Banquet

Gopher Campfire Club will kickoff its 100th anniversary on Saturday, January 17, 2009 with a banquet at the Hutchinson Event Center.  The evening will begin at 5:30 pm with a social hour, followed by a buffet dinner, slide show on our history, a couple of skits, and a speaker.  A dance will follow.  The cost of the evening will be a $25.00 per person.  Seating will be limited to 300. 

Tickets are available from Galen Carlson (320) 587-8792 and David Larson (320) 583-3619.  Call early if you plan to attend – we would love to fill this with our members!

Past Events

News

Attention Life Members

Due to a computer glitch, we’ve discovered our list of life-time members may be incomplete.  Please check the list in our newsletter for your name, and if it is omitted, please contact Roger Lambert or Don Merkins to verify your life membership card.

Aluminum Can Recycling for the Sancturary

ATTENTION MEMBERS!

The McLeod County solid Waste Department is providing reimbursement for aluminum cans at their Recycling Redemption Center to help fund the sanctuary improvement project.  The Redemption Center is located 1065 Fifth Avenue SE, Hutchinson on the west side of the Materials Recovery Building, after the glass bunkers.  You can either receive a county check and donate the check to the club, or request the proceeds be donated through the Solid Waste Department 501(3)C program and it will be directly deposited to Gopher Campfire.
Thank you for your support!

The New Range is Complete - October 2008!

The new 50 yard range is now ready for use! The bench legs were stacked and glued on Wednesday and on Saturday the concrete tops were set. Ten benches are spaced under the new 50 yard cover and an additional bench was placed on each of the two pistol pits (see pictures).

There is still some landscaping and seeding to be done, but we must wait for drier conditions maybe later this week. Newly designed 50 yard target holders were erected on Saturday morning as well. With last week’s rain, it was a bit slushy/muddy putting them up, but they are now available to shooters.

Please comply with safe and respectful practices while using the range. There should be no reason to shoot at ANYTHING but a target attached to the provided backers. And please use care when sighting in rifles or shotguns so as not to hit the vertical or horizontal target holders. The board is considering our request to make this range a lead only range, meaning NO JACKETED BULLETS. The vertical target holders, made of steel, will NOT deflect a jacketed bullet. (And now that you know that, there should be no reason to shoot at one to find out!)

There are brooms and dustpan as well as a trash container on or near the range pad. Please sweep up your empty brass and discard it along with other trash in the container. We appreciate your help in keeping the range looking nice.

A LOT of effort, money and time went into making this range a realization. We will be gathering name for an official thank you to be published in a few days. Meantime, some of the major inputs came from Harley Baumeister and Dwight Lauinger along with Dale Ross, Dan Calhoun, and Ray Wight from the Rifle League.

Thanks!

Concrete blocks before the tops were added.

John Bahr driving his Bobcat, lifting the tops from the basketball court
where we poured them and placing them on the concrete block legs.

Ray Wight helping to clean up the basketball court.

Mark Rickertsen doing the same.

Harley Baumeister directing the placement of the tops.

John Bahr and Dale Ross discussing the project.

Keith Berwald, President, taking the first official shots from the new range (he DID hit the target).

The new rifle racks, donated and built by Ray Wight.

Pouring the Concrete

The concrete is a big undertaking. Here we have the pouring of the slab under the new roof.

Here we have the process of pouring the new bench tops.

Raising the Roof

The roof gets finished.

Range Work Continues

Erecting the Range Roof - Nailing Joist Hangers

Erecting the Range Roof - Installing Trusses

Cans for Conservation

Save your aluminum cans to help support the Gopher Campfire Sanctuary. Collect and take your aluminum cans to the McLeod Solid Waste facility and be sure to tell them the cans are for the benefit of the Sanctuary. The solid waste facility, located east of 3M at 1065 5th Ave. SE, is open for aluminum can redemption on Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm. If all the members of Gopher Campfire participate, it will have a terrific  benefit for the birds and animals of our sanctuary.

More Progress on the New Range

The finishing touches to the berms for the range expansion are being completed this weekend (July 27th). Here we can see the completion of the short berm on the south side of the current rifle range.

This picture shows the front end loader coming out of the new 50 yard range area.

In this pic, Dale Ross, Harley Baumeister & Dwight Lauinger confer about sight lines between the ranges.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the front-end loader climbing the berm - COOL!

And finally, a photo of the changes made to the current 50/100 yard rifle range where the 100 yard range was leveled, widened and deepened to improve safety.

Now, all we need is a concrete pad, some benches and a roof!

-Ray Wight

New Range Underway

On July 15th, the long awaited, new 50 meter, 10 bench range began to take shape. The contract for building the berms was given by the Gopher board of directors to Luedtke Construction.

On Tuesday, Dave Luedtke met with Dwight Lauinger, Gopher's authorized "foreman" for the project, to view the area and plan the project. (Dwight is pictured in the straw hat.)

Early on Wednesday morning, Dave brought his front end loader driven by Howard and started work on the berms.

Fill material was removed from the west end of the pistol range to extend the berm on the north edge of the pistol pit.

Howard finished this berm about 2:00 pm and began removing the "middle" berm, moving the fill to extend the berm to the north. As the sun was setting on Wednesday, the new long berm was taking shape.

About 4:00 pm, Dave and Howard took a break from moving dirt and removed the old trap range building. It was fascinating watching how much progress a couple of pros can make in a few hours. If it doesn't rain too much in the next few days, there will soon be a big change in the area between the pistol pits and the current 50/100 yard rifle range.

The plan is to build the berms in 2008, vastly improving the safety of all shooters at Gopher Campfire. Then, in early 2009, a new concrete pad will be poured, benches constructed and the new 10 bench range will be a reality. Please be patient for a few days if you find construction underway which could prevent safe shooting.

Firearm Safety News 2007

In 2007, ninety-seven students graduated firearm safety at Gopher Campfire.  A big Thank You to the Crow River Chapter of MN Deer Hunters Assoc. for donating compasses for all the students in 2007 and they will be doing this again for us in 2008.  Thank You for the Little Crow Archery Club for partnering with us on range day so our students could experience archery as well as firearms.  Last but not least Thank You to all the volunteers that help with class room and range day activities.  Without them, we couldn't offer such an extensive range day.  The Spring 2008 class dates are set for April 3, 19 & 20th. If you are interested in the class, contact Brian at 587-3361 or Rocky at 587-3639, class size is limited.

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Walmart Donates $1,000 to Gopher Campfire - June 2007

Walmart representatives present members of Gopher Campfire with a check for $1,000.

The funds were donated for repair of the fence at our wildlife sanctuary bordering the north bank of the Crow River in Hutchinson.

Looking at the picture from left to right: Doctor Virgil Voigt- Gopher, Donald Merkins- Gopher, Scott Hilgemann- Wal-Mart Store Manager, Skip Quade-Gopher, Brian Schmeling-Gopher, Felecia V. Wal-Mart Assistant Store Manager

Sanctuary In Need of Improvements

Our sanctuary is in dire need of improvement. Our sanctuary board is working with the city of Hutchinson to improve the sanctuary along with improvements to the city as well. This group is planning vast changes that will rebuild the dike area along the river and to install new fencing. At this point, Skip Quade is working with the city engineer to get a detailed plan of the area. He is hoping to have this completed in a month or so. We need to fix the existing fence to suffice until the new fence is installed, so we am asking for volunteers to come forward and help clean up the sanctuary this spring and to help rebuild the fence that many cars and weather have damaged. We plan to do this task after the spring thaw, probably sometime in April or May. If you are able to help, please contact Keith Berwald or one of our officers for times and dates.

2009 is the 100th Anniversary of Gopher Campfire!

2009 is the 100th Anniversary of Gopher Campfire! If you didn't already know, Gopher Campfire is the oldest conservation club in the state of Minnesota. I am rallying for all club members to come forth to help and get involved in our club. I would like to see everyone contribute to events and projects to make us as strong and united as we can be. Our club is one of the many Gopher Campfires that President Teddy Roosevelt started over a hundred years ago. Our club is the only one left in the United States. I have asked the Gopher Board Directors to phone club members to volunteer to help with special projects and events. If you are asked, please come forward and donate some of your time. We would really appreciate your help; but please don’t wait for a phone call, our meetings are at 8pm every second Tuesday of the month. Currently we have from 20 to 30 members at these meetings. I would like to see these numbers grow so much that from now on we would have to use the larger back room of the clubhouse for the meeting.     - Keith Berwald, President

Projected Expenses for 2007

Below are our estimated expenses for 2007:

Annual Fishing Contest- 1/27/07

Everyone had a great time. Winners list is posted below. Click here to view pictures!

Fishing Winners
     Largest trout - Morgan Goldschmidt
     Smallest trout - Sara Clark
     Most trout caught - Brandon Goldschmidt

Each of these three received a nice rod & reel combo. and a $50 savings bond.

Raffle Winners
     $5 print raffle
          3 Kouba dark house prints - Reece Seefeldt
          Muskie Trip - Dave "Goober" Ondracek

     $1 raffle
          Ice Auger - Brenda Schramm
          Ruger 10/22 Rife - Kionna Dolezal
          $100 cash - Jacob Goldshmidt
          $75 cash - Steve Dircks
          $50 cash - Harry Pieper
          $25 cash - Brian Plath
          $25 cash - Danny Roiger
          $25 cash - Dean Totushek

Annual Meeting and Elections - 1/9/07

The Gopher Campfire Club Annual Meeting was held Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at the clubhouse. Newly elected officers are listed below, see the complete list on the home page.

President - Keith Berwald
Vice President. - Rocky Lambert
Secretary - Don Merkins
Treasurer - Craig Schmeling

Last Updated: 11-26-2008