We sit down with Len Smith from the beautiful Grand Blanc Huntsman’s Club to talk about their Tow and Collect 1500 Pro and how they have found it since purchasing the model a year ago. The 1500 Pro has been a huge help in assisting them to clean the broken targets and shotgun wads on their skeet and sporting clay fields.
The Grand Blanc Huntsman’s Club is an 80 acre ‘piece of heaven’, located in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Its been operating for over 65 years and boasts 4 skeet fields, 2 sporting clay fields and a unique bystand set up. They’re a member owned club, with 600 members and the retirees taking care of the clubs general and ground maintenance once a week.
“For years and years we’ve been raking broken targets and shotgun wads off of the skeet fields and sporting clay fields, trying to keep the amount of debris on the ground reasonable. Its a challenge and we’d done it manually for years.”
“We heard about the Tow and Collect on Youtube… So I followed up about it and saw the video with the horse manure pickup situation and contacted Tow and Collect in Savannah. Talked to Brigette who put me in contact with a couple of clubs who were using the machine in Australia – I sent them emails and they responded and said it was working and gave a few tips on how to use it effectively. So we decided to go with it because our hand manual way of doing things was becoming more and more difficult as our volunteer group ages, so we needed a machine! So thanks to the effort of Brigette and the references she gave, we decided to make the investment a year ago. And its really been a blessing, its really helped us a great deal.”
“The biggest benefit is the time saving. Less labor. An easier way to do it. Its worth its price just in the time saving alone. It does a nicer job than you can do by hand. (…) You don’t have to pay the manual labor to do all the raking and then shovelling into the receptacle to haul it away, we just use the Tow and Collect to sweep it up, dump the pile in a convenient spot, to where we can scoop it up with a bucket on the tractor and take it to our dumping area.“
“Would I recommend it to another club that throws a lot of targets, or doesn’t throw a lot of targets, absolutely! If you can afford a quality piece of equipment, it’s worth its weight. I would recommend it to any club that throws a lot of targets to consider purchasing one. And Brigitte and her team have been very helpful in answering questions and helping us make it right.”
Len’s Usage Tips
“The best thing to do is make sure you’ve got it adjusted properly. That the tow bar is level to the ground and you’ve got your tines adjusted so its just tickling the ground. Obviously the flatter the ground is, the less divots its trying to go through, the better. It does a tremendous job on flat ground.“
Thanks to Len and the team at Grand Blanc Huntsman’s Club!
If you’d like more information about how the Tow and Collect could be used for your facility, please get in touch.
