Gun club

[Sasquatch-1]

I can understand 1 and 2 of the rules you posted. I do think three shots in 15 seconds is kind of vague. To me it sounds like you could walk up to the line and pop off three shots in one second and then not shoot again for another 14 seconds. I tell people at the range I belong to, to give themselves a one second count between shots. Also, seeing how poorly some people shoot at seven yards, with a spread you couldn't cover with a pasta platter, it is nice that they should be required to take time to sight the firearm each time they pull the trigger.

As far as number 2 goes just look on you tube at how many people either shoot themselves in the leg or hit the ground right next to them.

As for #4 I agree, I have no idea what they mean by "Tactical".

Most of the rules of this nature are due to insurance requirements.

1. No holster draw before firing.
2. No Rapid Fire-no more than 3 shots in 15 seconds.
3. No silhouette or humanoid targets.
4. Nothing TACTICAL. (Whatever that means?) I am glad I have an option. I provide an alternative to good people needing real training. I do exclude certain students who do not pass "muster."

[GhostHawk]

I have a good local club with indoor rifle and pistol ranges. I used to pay 200$ for a membership. As i have aged I shoot less, so I just pay the 20$ walk in fee and consider myself lucky.

[beemer]

I have a 100 yd. range on my place, just step out the back door. It faces the side of a mountain that I own so it is safe. I had 200 yd at one time but keeping it open through the woods got to be more trouble than it was worth. I sort of live out in the boonies but there is a small water park about a quarter mile down the road. It is busy in the summer. I don't shoot when they are open, never had any problems but I am not inviting any either. Years back nobody cared but things change. They are decent folks and just trying to make a living.

The nearest range is 25 miles and private, almost have to wait for someone to die. I have been with a friend a couple times over the years to watch a match. Buddy keeps wanting me to participate but I am simply not interested, would rather tinker with my stuff here at home.

[Battis]

I belonged to a club in the 80s that had a skeet field that faced towards a river. We had to keep a spotter near the river with a walkie talkie, and when he saw canoeists coming, he'd call and we'd have to stop shooting. That skeet field has since moved.
I belonged to another club in NH where a developer built several houses across the street. When the houses sold, the owners sued to get the 100 yr old club shut down due to the noise. The court basically said, "Ah, you knew the club was there when you bought the house." The club is still there.
The one I belong to now is about 2 miles from my house with an archery range, a walk-through archery course, trap field, 100 & 200 yd rifles ranges, pistol range, air gun range and a trout pond. They limit membership. 90% of the time I shoot alone and no one bothers anyone. But, sometimes...

[sureYnot]

I can understand 1 and 2 of the rules you posted. I do think three shots in 15 seconds is kind of vague. To me it sounds like you could walk up to the line and pop off three shots in one second and then not shoot again for another 14 seconds. I tell people at the range I belong to, to give themselves a one second count between shots. Also, seeing how poorly some people shoot at seven yards, with a spread you couldn't cover with a pasta platter, it is nice that they should be required to take time to sight the firearm each time they pull the trigger.

As far as number 2 goes just look on you tube at how many people either shoot themselves in the leg or hit the ground right next to them.

As for #4 I agree, I have no idea what they mean by "Tactical".

Most of the rules of this nature are due to insurance requirements.

1) This needs to be practiced so you don't shoot your foot in a gun fight
2) There should always be at least 2rds center mass. I'm no Jerry Miculek, but I like to stay practiced enough to double-tap 2 targets at 20' in 1 second. Taking careful aim isn't always your best option.

People go there to hone their skills. As long as it's pointed downrange and there are no people downrange, it shouldn't matter what, why, how, or how fast you shoot.

[jdgabbard]

I have mixed feelings about clubs....

So the short version, is a buddy of mine owned an indoor range which also has a membership option. But it's not really that bad, $20 to shoot for the day... But here's the catch, there was a homicide in the range one day. Guy came in, rented a pistol, wasn't flagged by anything, walked into the range, got to his lane, loaded up, and walked behind the guy that was next to him and popped one off to the back of his dome. Turns out the guy was a Schizophrenic. Ever since then, I have been VERY leery of those around me. And I have pretty much regulated my shooting to one day a week when there is another member I'm acquainted with there. We both ask to be all the way down at the very end of the line, and usually watch over others in our immediate AO.

That said, I wouldn't mind being a member of a club, but Tulsa's clubs leave a little to be desired. There's Red Castle, which is honestly probably the best option. First year is about $300, then $150ish for both a full outdoor range that is really nice, and a pistol only indoor range a few blocks from the office. There USAA Shooting Academy, but it's too rich for my blood. Tulsa Rod and Gun, you gotta wait about 10 years on a list to get a chance at buying in for a ridiculous amount of money. And from what I can tell it's mostly NRA types that hang out there - nothing against them, just hate the NRA, it's a useless organization that hasn't been relevant since 1986. A few others, but they're mostly just a lot of money for a very mediocre range.

There are a couple outdoor ranges open to the public, they're not bad. Happy Hollow is probably the best, run by an old Marine. But way out in the country. The rest of the ranges are just trash...

[35 Rem]

I grew up on a farm and still own it along with more farm land I bought that joins it, so I have plenty of places to shoot on my own land. But I have gone to a couple of ranges over the years mainly to shoot with friends from work. One of them was wide open for years with no management at all. Now part of me likes that, as I do not like having some grouchy old Ex military guy barking orders at me when I'm shooting. You won't find anybody who is safer with a gun than I am but I won't tolerate being barked at like an army recruit. Yet, I know why some of that is needed for the general public. Even people who have been around firearms all their life will sweep their muzzle across your legs again and again. And when that starts happening, it needs to be nipped fast because of the consequences and you can't worry about being polite. Anyhow, this range was completely unsupervised for years. A Friend had a gun stole there one day while he was down range checking a target and there wasn't even another car out there. Another time I was there with a different friend, and we were shooting our AK's among other guns when a car slammed it's brakes out on the road, backed up and came driving out to where we were shooting. They stopped and all got out. There were about 5 redneck thugs all were obviously drunk. They started crowding around us acting the way drunk rednecks do. I had just put my AK in the truck and locked the door about the time they arrived. Well, despising drunks in general I decided to show no consideration at all for our new "visitors" so I continued to shoot my 44 Magnum revolver with heavy H110 loads and 200 grain hollow points. Of course, they had no hearing protection so this was causing them some serious discomfort even in their condition. But they were still enjoying the gun display enough to start asking to "borrow" my friends AK to shoot it some. We looked at each other knowing that was a bad thing. The main drunk started insisting and bit harder. He was not going to take "NO" for an answer. I decided that as much as I had shot and fooled with guns all my life, I was not going to let myself be killed by a bunch of drunks on a shooting range where I had plenty of ammo and was still in control of the situation. I moved slowly around and partly behind the guy wanting the AK - but still where he could see me - along with his other drunk buddies, drew my revolver from the holster, pulled the hammer back to half cock and began punching empties out then dropping loaded rounds in the chambers, drew the hammer back to full cock and let it down. No empty under the hammer either. Then just stood holding it in my hand down by my side as I looked them in the eyes. They decided that they didn't need to shoot an AK that day as bad as they thought they did and left. But what if we had been downrange when they arrived? With a bolt action I always take the bolt down range with me, not so easy to do that with most guns. I even do that on my own farm a lot of the time when there is Zero chance of another person being around. I'm so thankful I don't have to mess with other people for my shooting unless I want to. I put a berm in the backyard last summer for handgun shooting so I can recover all my lead. Rifles don't get shot nearly enough to worry about recovering all the bullets so that's not an issue. My big field is 930 yards across so I can shoot way further than I will ever actually want to there.

[Handloader109]

Yeah, I shot a few times at a state owned range about 30 minutes away from me at the time. Unsupervised, and I left a couple of times when it was packed. Don't need to be shot or even shot at by ignorant folks. And most were pretty ignorant. I can shoot at my home range now and I'm very happy to do that....

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[ebb]

Quote My Cousin Vinny and tell him it's time for thicker glasses.

[country gent]

Most of the rules are made for the beginner or inexperienced shooter but they have to be enforced across the membership. The experience or trained shooter can shot faster and farther more accurately but when the novice tries it usually a disaster waiting to happen. Hence the rules.

The club I shoot at has a 1 second rule for firing. You also have to be certified for 200 yds. I also proposed being certified to shoot from position. They also have a light to be turned on when going down range.

As I said rules are made for the newer beginner shooters till the improve. The one that irks me is the lack of range etiquette and attention to whats going on by shooters.

[Battis]

Rules are good, but club members cannot make them up as they go along. There's no rule at my club that says you can't shoot a 9mm at 200 yds. The rule is that your shot must hit the berm - I was shooting directly at the very large berm. I did not miss. He said I only hit it half the time. I pointed out to him that my eyesight is 20/15, which is better than 20/20. He had big thick glasses - I doubt he could see the berm. No, he was just being an *****. And, he questioned whether a 9mm could shoot that far.
I belonged to a club with close to 1000 members. They did not train new members as to the range rules, not even a basic safety class. I asked the board why they didn't train them and I was told that, if a member is trained and screws up, the liability is on the club for training them. I also suggested a three light system for the range, red, green and yellow, and they thought it was a great idea but they couldn't agree on what green meant and what red meant, so they never put the light system in. That was a very dangerous club.

[jimlj]

When I saw the date of the OP I thought "April fools". I guess it wasn't.
For 99% of my life I have lived in areas where I could go shooting either from the back porch or within a few miles of home. It's just been the last couple years I've joined a gun club. There has been no drama at the club except when a guy shot himself in the foot. I can still go shooting within a couple miles of the house, but it's nice to shoot with a bunch of guys in a laid back competition.

[15meter]

I belong to 4 gun clubs, each for a different reason. I've made great friends at all of them. Yes, there have been issues at all of them at one point or another, never anything that was insurmountable. I had belonged to a different club but I quit that one when the president got too obnoxiously overbearing, all he wanted was a place to drink and get away from his wife. At that point I belonged to two different clubs that covered all my shooting needs. Actually considering rejoining, the old president has been shuffled off to the side, drinking is down, shooting is way up there.

I wouldn't give up the buddies and the friendship AND the shooting at any of the four clubs. I used to have access to the family farm for shooting, I would drive right past it to go to the range. More fun.

[Rapier]

In the not to distant future, if you want to shoot, or hunt, you will need your own private land. I was told that 40 years ago, and it is coming to pass.

[15meter]

When I saw the date of the OP I thought "April fools". I guess it wasn't.
For 99% of my life I have lived in areas where I could go shooting either from the back porch or within a few miles of home. It's just been the last couple years I've joined a gun club. There has been no drama at the club except when a guy shot himself in the foot. I can still go shooting within a couple miles of the house, but it's nice to shoot with a bunch of guys in a laid back competition.

We had one guy at one of my clubs not be able to find the dot on his pistol with a Red Dot sight. You can guess what happened, he stuck his index finger out in front the sight to see if the sight was on. BANG. Hole in finger. Luckily it was "only" a 22. Bill packed up his stuff, came in the club and announced he was going home to "clean" his gun then have his son drive him to the hospital.

That's how the police report read, "shot while cleaning his gun".

Bill didn't want any grief coming down on the club.


I miss Bill, crotchety old dude, but good people.

[Rapidrob]

I've been running NM MILSURPS ( Military Surplus Rifle Pistol Shooters ) for the last 28 years. The range is divided into two ranges in one. One is metric from 25 to 500 meters. The other 200 to 1,000 yards. If you want to shoot a non-military firearm during a practice you can. We shoot 50 Saturdays a year.
The only non-safety related rule is no ammo that will outright cause a fire. Tracer, incendiary or the like. Since we shoot mostly AR-550 steel targets, silhouettes and man torso targets, no real armor piercing ammo is allowed. Normal steel core ammo is O.K. ( Russian 54R, Romanian 8MM, M855 Green tip )
I also have remote control moving targets to keep the members keen on their shooting skills.
I do not tolerate any member who is unsafe, or para-military mall ninja types.
We do have fun. Ian McCollum (Forgotten Weapons ) shot with us and filmed himself shooting my M1917 rifle at 800 yards. He took 2nd place! It is posted on Youtube if you want to see it.
I've read stories of ******* members or range officials who go out of their way to make the day-ar-the-range not fun.