INFO ON FIELD FROM RANGER SERVICE

Direct quote of email:

Dear Zach,

Thank you for contacting us about your airsoft club. I have looked over the Craig Creek area and have a spot I want you to go look at. It is directly across from Caldwell Fields. There is a road that goes off (not Lee Road- before that) It goes back into an old timber sale that is very large and has no private land around it. We use this area with the ROTC when they are doing war games. This area is off the beaten path and you will not run into random fishermen or hikers. It is an old timber sale and should have things to hide behind. Please go look at it when you can and let me know what you think.

If it suits your club’s needs we will designate it as an airsoft area that all airsoft users can go to.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sheryl Lyles




This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.



I hope to be able to check out the land saturday morning. If anyone wants to go along with me... we may be able to make a game out of it.

PRAISE BE TO (INSERT RELIGIOUS DEITY OR LACK THEROV HERE). Good work Zach, and Hoyeah, Lets get this fucking club back on its feet!

I'm there. I'll be planning to play, and hoping the area is good and enough people show.

Thanks for all your hard work, Zach. I really appreciate all the personal time and efforts you've sunk in to getting VTAC a place to play.

going to scout it now!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe I can make my return to airsoft here? o_0

perhaps it is this area? They said the road is before Lee and Lee is the one directly across from Caldwell. This road is right before Lee and leads right to a logged area denoted by the stickman where the road opens to a clearing
Link

Click satellite to get a good view

Looks like snipers would become very effective here....muah hahahahahahahahaha

I'm so excited.

And I just can't hide it...

^Also...damn Apple endorsed map links. Kids these days...

SOMEONE TAKE A FREAKING CAMERA AND TAKE SOME PICTURES!!!!!!

please and thank you. Grazie Mile.

Speaking of scouting, I had a friend suggest contacting the Boy Scouts (the Blue Ridge Council) as they have a lot of privately owned land, esp in Pulaski County. If this location doesn't work out, I believe we have some scouts in VTAC that might know people in the Council, or at least how to talk to fellow scouts at that level.

^Not gonna happen.

I worked at Camp Ottari for 3 years, I know the ranger there. It's true that the council has 16,000 acres of land, but most of it is not usable or inaccessible. And council heads certainly wouldn't want plastic pellets all over their camps before the campers roll in during the summer. Not to mention, paintball is technically a "banned" scouting activity. Even through this, High Knoll actually managed to get paintball, but only for target shooting, not as an action sport.

That said, knowing the people that run this council, there's no way a non-scout affiliated group is going to be allowed to play a banned activity on BSA property.

...not that playing an OP at Camp Ottari wouldn't be ABSOLUTELY FREAKIN' AWESOME!

Another email from Ranger Office.



Great Zach,
We're making progress. We like you playing there and you like playing there.

Now we have to work out the rules so everyone is happy and we understand each other. I attached the rules that the Virginia tech paint ball club came up with when we worked with them. This is so you can see what kind of parameters we are talking about. Of course it's a different sport so it will have different parameters.

If you could please get with your crew and figure out what a good set of posted boundaries are both physically on the ground and written down code of conduct/parameters. write something up. Then give me a call or email.

I will have a group come review them with you on site.
Then we can make a board and put it up and post the rules.

May I assume that your group will be the official caretakers of the airsoft field?
You will need to have your group sign a volunteer agreement to pick up the trash in the area.
The area will have to be open to the public for airsoft users that come upon it and want to use it. We will not advertise it. But if people ask we will direct them to the same area. When the ROTC has special maneuvers in the area, the airsoft area will be closed. This is generally two weekends a year. When the Forest Service is burning the area each spring, it be closed.

Let me know when you are ready to go out to the site and I will gather the FS personnel that need to be there.
Thanks
Sheryl


That sums it up. Mods, we gotta get our waiver and rules on paper. Now it matters.

Good job Zach

awesome news! I wouldn't mind helping draw some boundaries if more info on available land is given (in general I think it would be good to have enough room for 2 groups to play). Also, is it possible to get a key to the gate? If we ever have a big game it would help to have a truck to haul props or something up the trail.

Ok I am going to grab the NC rules off the old forums and get them together with the ones from VTAC forum. I wanted to do that anyway so we could get the ball rolling being recognized as a NC team so we can use high velocity weapons at NC games. I should be able to get that all together in a day or two When we meet up with them we should aim to make boundaries that include some of the wooded areas as well so we have varied terrain types. Should we try to aim for Sat morning Apr 21st? Or does it have to be during the week?

what about this sunday or the following friday? not everyone has to go, just a car at most.

Sunay would be fine but what is the difference between friday and saturday? What do you have against saturday?

then we could play saturday :3

I am sure that even if we meet friday it will take till the next week at least to process everything and to post the sign.

She has been pretty quick about responding now and seems to be on her game. Now that land is actually involved on our end of the matter, I think we can more or less dictate the pace of how it pans out. We could very well meet with the ranger service on sunday and then be able to have a game on the 21st of april. If not by then, at least getting it done sooner means they should be able to get it done sooner. They seem very open to cooperate and sound very pleased to work with us at the present time. Something must have impressed them. They like working with the paintball club, anyway. Maybe they assume we are just as cool and kind as they are.

At any rate, Sean, the help with the rules would be awesome. Gene, if you wanna mark boundaries, that would be fantastic. My schedule is so FUBARed, I don't know when I am available but Sunday morning may be my best possible chance. If anything, I want a large map of the area to draw rough boundaries that check out with the rangers there. After this is all said and done, I would like for us to be able to actually make some fortifications such as what the paintball club has set up. Nothing fancy, just things to add to our game types.

Ok I can try and make Sunday also. The link I posted can be used as a rough map if you zoom in and prntscrn. There are some rough fortifications already in place, I think our major work will be clearing running lanes so people wont hurt themselves
We could ask for something like this, it incorporates the open are and side open area and some of the woods also. It also includes most of the trail coming up to the open area. Just a rough idea, not sure how much they will let us use. Little man is trail entrance to clearing.

Remember to put biodegradable bb's in the rules.

SmokeInYourEyes wrote:Remember to put biodegradable bb's in the rules.

Well yeah, that is a requirement. When I speak with them in person I will be sure to tell them to post something saying only biodegradable BBs are allowed to be used on the premises.

I have the area GIS maps in PDF format if anyone wants

Here's a link to a portion of the map that I received:
(WARNING: These are 1360x1360 pictures...NOT 56k or 4G friendly)

https://2img.net/h/i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/asianblade89/topoMap.png
https://2img.net/h/i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/asianblade89/topoMapMarked.png

I marked some landmarks also I divvied up the area so that more than just one group can play on interesting terrain~

What is the status of the new location? I'm coming back to the land of the living, so I get out and help with marking if needed. We haven't had any games scheduled since the change over, so I'm guessing something still needs to be done.

We have to get the waiver done, rules are done and map is ready (I think). Then we meet with rangers and iron out details. They appprove it and post us a sign.