Working On The Range

[Alan in Vermont]

On 1/6 we started a long delayed range improvement project at the Sportsman's Club of Franklin County in St. Albans Bay, VT

The only sure time we can drive heavy trucks on the property is when the ground is frozen. We cleared the snow off the week before, when temperatures were below zero at night and got the frost cover we needed.

Work was done primarily between 1/8 and 1/13. Bad weather on 1/6 and 1/7 prevented getting heavy equipment trucked to the site but on 1/8 we had a D5G Cat dozer and a 320EL excavator to work with and four tandem dumps hauling fill.

The fill was used as base for a new 6,000 sf. parking area and for additional cover over drainage lines on the 25, 50 and part of the 100 yd ranges.

Side berms were added on the south boundary and between 25-50 yd and 50-100 yd firing lines. Additional material was placed to make the backstops at 25 and 50 yds. both longer and higher. That material was dumped but no attempt was made to bring it to final shape because we had a day of heavy rain and two days of thawing weather and everything was just mud by that point. The final shaping will have to wait until everything thaws/dries out in the spring.

[missionary5155]

Greetings Alan
Looks like a major overhaul !
Our local range near Danville ILL. did similar opporations a couple years ago. Fortunately ours could be done in the dry summer months also. It was well worth the muck and dust.
Mike in Peru

[TES]

wow...thanks..your taking on a really big project...while mine is just scratching the surface.

[Alan in Vermont]

Our problem is that the entire area is on a strata of shale, varying from 6' to only 2' below the surface. On top of that it is virtually level so water doesn't run off very well. Unless it is a very dry summer it never dries out deeply. You can run trucks across it without getting stuck but not more than a couple times in the same tracks before the axles are dragging.

We were two days doing the sand where we needed it, then a third day moving some 650cy from where it had been dumped(poor planning by people who were clueless about dirt work). A good driver who is also a very good excavator operator loaded(40 loads), hauled that across the site and dumped it where it was needed. He dumped loads close together and I flattened them off so he could back right up on the first course and dump a second lift. The dozer blade was 8'8" wide and he backed over 100' along an elevated path that wide multiple times and never had to correct his aim, perfect one-shot runs every time.

On the fourth day we had rain and thawing temperatures and that put the boots to us. The added moisture turned the clay soil into a sticky dough. I was using the excavator to dig borrow pits and swing the material to the end of the side berm. Every 2-3 bucket loads the guy helping would push it up onto the berm. We finally reached a point where the vibration from the dozer was making the mud mass settle faster than he could add material to it. We ended up completing the berms completely with the excavator. I would swing material to the end of the berm, then crawl over that pile and swing it to where the top was still low. There was a bit of pucker factor with a 54,000lb machine with a 10+ track width sitting on a soft pile only 8'8" wide but we got 'er dun after a while.