"We once had a club in Western Washington (Paine Field Gun Club)" sounds like the opening line in the song "Camelot". Carl Aos, Harbor Master and one-time P.I.T.A. President didn't screw around when he ran the Paine Field Gun Club. Every Weekend he had six traps running. The next squad was on line before the last squad finished. On Saturday you got a free round if you broke 25 singles - two free rounds with 25 handi's. Some people shot almost free under this program, including current All American Veteran, Marvin Sims. Practice was $1 a round and we shot Caldwell targets. Carl saved the target cartons and Bob Caldwell gave the club a credit when they were returned. The year before the club closed Carl reported we had thrown over 2,300,000 targets.
Paine Field is the site of the Boeing plant where the 747,777 and soon the 787 will be built. The ground rent for the club was minimal and Carl probably had the power hot-wired from a cheap source. Boeing and progress forced the club to close and Carl's successors spent the club's treasury on lawyers trying to get reparations. Today it's all a memory - kind of like Camelot.
The moral to the story is that, even today, a frugal management could make a club successful and it usually comes down to one person willing to take the guff and get-er-done.
Paine Field is the site of the Boeing plant where the 747,777 and soon the 787 will be built. The ground rent for the club was minimal and Carl probably had the power hot-wired from a cheap source. Boeing and progress forced the club to close and Carl's successors spent the club's treasury on lawyers trying to get reparations. Today it's all a memory - kind of like Camelot.
The moral to the story is that, even today, a frugal management could make a club successful and it usually comes down to one person willing to take the guff and get-er-done.
