Brother David invites you to shootout!
It won’t exactly be a shootout at the OK Corral, but Fort McMurray Brother David Henry Todd has invited everyone to a summer weekend shootout of considerable proportions.
‘I got to thinking about how I wanted Regional Council members to occasionally have some fun with each other off the job, and then I realized I have access to the best party site in Northern Alberta,’ he says.
As one of Northern Alberta’s biggest gun enthusiasts, David is on the executive of the Fort McMurray Fish & Game Association, which operates a large shooting range south of Fort McMurray.
Two and two added up.
‘If I get enough people telling me they’ll participate, we’ll organize a big, one-day Summer Trapshoot & Barbeque out at the range, where we can easily handle as many as 100 people.’
Attendees won’t need experience if they’re interested in learning to shoot, says David. And guests don’t even need to bring their own guns. ‘I’ve got a whole pile of guns. We won’t run out of them,’ he says.
David also says families would be welcome, ‘as long as the kids are almost literally on a leash’. There's a small playground area with swings where they could play while being supervised.
There would be a nominal charge, to cover the cost of food, the range rental, shotgun shells and clay targets.
He’ll wait until he knows enough people are interested before he proceeds with setting a definite date and organizing volunteers. Once he sets a date, he can let everyone know, and we’ll carry it on our website as an event listing. He says it’ll be summer or very early fall, so as not to intrude on hunting season or the end of fishing season.
If you are interested: You can email David and tell him you’d like to attend. You can also tell him when you see him on the job site, or at our Fort McMurray office. Or you can call him (780 792-5239) and leave your name, phone number and email address. Members from anywhere, not just Fort McMurray, are welcome.
And your host is…
If you’re among the lucky people who attend, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with a man who really did inherit a genetic passion for guns and hunting.
“My dad was a world-class competitor, coach and Olympic coordinator, not to mention being a great shot. My mom, my sister and my brothers were shooters, and when I was 14, I won my class nationally.”
In the late 70s – during a four-year period when David earned his living running some huge (as big as 8 sections) fly-in remote trap lines in the Fort McMurray region – David developed a love for black powder guns of all kinds.
“I still hunt partridges and geese with black powder shotguns, and I use black powder rifles to hunt big game like moose and bears.”
Every year, David’s Fish & Game club runs a week-long Rendezvous that involves a primitive camp (no trucks, RVs or tent trailers) and all kinds of shooting with small bore muskets, flintlock muzzle-loaders and other black powder firearms.
‘It’s a good crowd. We have a lot of fun out there.’
