How do you start a shooting club?

[PatMarlin]

I've been wanting to get folks together and start a shooting club but no idea on how to set it up?

I know some shooters in our county, and I think if I got it going, folks would start to make it a habit and attend shoots. Unfortunately there's no rifle range, but I have a great range on forest service land.

I guess I could just start calling guys I know, and just start setting dates to meet at the range. I don't want to advertise and get some unknown problem people showing up. I guess word of mouth would be the best.

Any ideas?

[bobthenailer]

IMO its hard enough to find a few friends who will actually go shooting togeather at almost any time! ive been to club shoots for 40 years and you usually are very lucky to have 5 % max, of the membership show up on a regular basis
Ive been lucky over the past 5 years or so ,as i have 2 friends who i regulary shoot with at least 2 times a week and another that i also shoot with at a indoor range 2 days a week in the winter. Ive had lots of other friends who shoot for a while and then loose there desire to shoot regulary or something else takes up there time.
Im lucky to have a small group of friends who love shooting as much as i do and will show up every week to shoot almost reguardless whats happining . all are in ther 50 to 70s kids are grown up and semi retired or retired. as a matter of fact im going to meet them today at 9:00 am today for our regular sunday shoot and we usually meet up wed or thursday mourning for our mid week blast.
This tuesday starts the tuesday night indoor 50' 22 cal nra BE matches , ill be running them this year for the first time as match director insted of a assistant it runs for 6 mounths so it is a bit demanding, but someones got to do it! and i guess its my turn to go to the firing line.
The only 2 things i would recommend is no cash prizes just a fun shoot, and make it easy for every skill level as every one likes to fell they did half ways deceint to keep them comeing back for more. probley reactive targets are the most fun forget BE type shooting for most people . just blast & have fun
HAPPYNESS IS KNEE DEEP IN BRASS

[sundog]

Pat, the first thing I thought of when I read your post is - liability. If you are going to start a club, it needs to have bylaws, officers, a set of financials, and insurance, among other things. That takes capital. It has to be run as a business. And then, of course, you will have to deal with the IRS. This is the way it works. I know, as I am fully involved with a club here.

If you just get together with a group of friends and shoot, that's another thing.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

probley reactive targets are the most fun forget BE type shooting for most people . just blast & have fun

I am mostly a pistol shooter and am a member of 2 sportmans clubs with ranges
and have been part of two pistol leagues.
I agree about reactive targets for pistol.
BUT, I suspect you are thinking Rifle shooting...Am I correct ?

If so, my experience as follows:
I joined a rimfire rifle league some years back. A friend and I did this for several summers. Mostly this league was setup for youth, but there is a Adult subdivision, mostly for the parents of the kids. The league averaged about 10 to 15 members.

There were 12 events shot for score. about half were reactive, Bowling pins, iron figureens of Chickens,sheep, pigs, and also some flip steel targets. The rest were paper and the final event was the NRA prone,sit, stand at 25 yards.

We had a season league fee of $25 for the adults, kids were free and we would also provide ammunition for the youth if needed. The fee basically covered the Ammo for the kids and paper targets with a small stipend to the club. There were prizes for the kids, but those were donated.

so, what I am saying...do what you can to attract the kids. while it can be tiresome to watch kids fiddle around on the line when us adults want to shoot. But it is truely rewarding in the end to see some of the kids mature into fairly serious shooters and clearly outshoot us old guys using their young eyes.
Jon

[PatMarlin]

Pat, the first thing I thought of when I read your post is - liability. If you are going to start a club, it needs to have bylaws, officers, a set of financials, and insurance, among other things. That takes capital. It has to be run as a business. And then, of course, you will have to deal with the IRS. This is the way it works. I know, as I am fully involved with a club here.

If you just get together with a group of friends and shoot, that's another thing.

Yaw- I just want to get a group together and shoot. Don't want all the pitfalls of an "official club" business.

[jsizemore]

Might want to check with the local law enforcement and see if you need a special use permit to operate a range. Might have to bring it up before the county commission. If you know one of the commissioners you could run it past them informally. Forest service might have their own rules.

Some folks run a club on forest service land and had to post the range with signs every 50 feet along with a continuous strand of wire. I believe they used high tensile wire. Another used barbed wire. At one match I shot at 2 people on horses showed up on top of the 200 yard berm during a cease fire. Said they heard all the shooting and wondered what was going on.

If OSHA gets involved, utoh. NRA has insurance but you got to own the land, unless they changed that requirement.

[PatMarlin]

I could plant a pot crop and be just fine, but as soon as I told em' I wanted to do that, they would come and get me ...:roll: ..:mrgreen:

[Blacksmith]

PatMarlin

Start by calling friends and see if you can get them interested in meeting for a shoot on a regular basis, every week or month whatever suits. Then try for each shoot try to have at least one different funmatch set up so it isn't always the same thing. If the people like it it will take on a life of its own. Call it an "Invitational Match" you gotta be invited but you could have your friends invite their friends if you need more people.

Some fun matches I have shot in over the years to get the idea:
Saturday night special shoot for handguns with barrels less than 3"at a distance that makes the short sight radius a problem.
.22 rimfire rifle on paper deer targets at 200 yards, I remember it was up 35 clicks on the rear sight.
Baloons hanging from a string at various distances in a cross breeze.
Clay pigeons at various ranges say a total of 5 or 10 per shooter, shoot offhand first to break all his wins, when people hurry they get sloppy.
Necco wafers or Ritz crackers as reactive targets.

Keep it fun and they will keep comming. If it is friends you might have a Pot Luck lunch or supper afterward.

Blacksmith

[MtGun44]

I founded a pistol shooting club 30+ yrs ago that is still going strong, I dropped out of
management totally about 10-12 yrs ago. Two friends and I started holding matches at the
local range, charged membership fees to join, you could shoot without joining for more money
to make it worth your while to be a member. We ran it informally for about 6 months and
then incorporated with the state, had officers, etc. Only a couple meetings per year, kept
the BS to a minimum. It went well because we did a good job running matches and treated
everyone fairly. I stayed on the BOD for the first 20 yrs, finally got burned out, and decided
that if the club would collapse without me, so be it. Others jumped in and have been running
it pretty well for over a decade, I still shoot with the club, but not as often these days. I
am pleased that the club is continuing on, it feels like a small accomplishement.

Bill

[jsizemore]

I went to a commision hearing about a special use permit to hold matches at a private range. A neighbor lady said all that shooting caused her mares to miscarriage their foals. I said that must be why the Calvary quit using horses. I then asked if they remembered watching Roy Rogers shooting his sixgun between Trigger's ears and the neighbor lady chose not to make anymore comments. Good Luck with your endeavor.

[PatMarlin]

Great ideas. Food always works. I don't like Ritz Crackers so that would be perfect.

[Spartacus]

I'm fortunate. There are a half dozen clubs of various denominations in my area.