With the shooting season over and winter here to stay for a few months, what can you be doing to prepare for next year?  Many will do their reloading so that they have a stock of ammo to carry them through the season.  I try to do this myself so that I am not hurriedly reloading the night before a match.  Maintenance and upgrading of your firearms and other gear is also a top priority during the off season, so that everything is ready to go when the first match arrives in March.  Range trips are limited due to weather, but dry-fire practice at home should be a ritual.  I personally work harder on my physical fitness during the winter months, which helps with "cabin fever" and occupies my mind and body with goals that I set for myself.

Another thing you can and should be doing is designing courses of fire for next season.  We will need a good supply of stages for next years' matches - both pistol and multigun - so get busy with SketchUp or whatever way you prefer to draw and get those ideas down on paper!  I am doing a series of short videos on how to use SketchUp for course design so look for those to be posted here in the near future.  These will show you how to use SketchUp to design a course of fire in a clear and simple way, using components that we provide for you.  Hopefully you will find them helpful.

We will also most likely have club projects going on after the first of the year - repairing and maintaining walls, props, steel targets, and painting hard cover on paper targets.  We will try to keep you posted here on what is going on and when help is needed. 

Don't let the off season go to waste - as you can see there are lots of things you can be doing so that you and our club are well prepared for next year.

-Joel