Self Policing at Gun Range

[archerforkids]

I belong to a gun club that is members only. You get a combination to the gate and come and go as you please year round with no monitoring of any kind. Annual fee is sub $100.00. This is a nice range with covered benches at rifle and pistol areas as well as a couple of skeet and trap fields.
We are having problems with participants shooting up target frames and just generally trashing the place.
Do any of you fine folks have a similar setup? If so, what are you doing to maintain sanity?
I'm wondering if a few cameras running on a 30 day recorded loop might serve as a deterrent as well as a away to see who the idiots are. Add multiple signs suggesting they smile for the cameras as a reminder to be grown-ass adults.
Any feedback back is appreciated.

 

[Rocketvapor]

What distances at that range?
Cameras to cover target frames might cost.
General trashiness or other poor behavior would be easy.
Couple ranges I go to have video of the shooting line.

 

[steve210]

Sounds like a great idea. These are the kind of people that you need to get out of your club before they ruin it for everyone

 

[FNSafari]

I belong to a gun club that is members only. You get a combination to the gate and come and go as you please year round with no monitoring of any kind. Annual fee is sub $100.00. This is a nice range with covered benches at rifle and pistol areas as well as a couple of skeet and trap fields.
We are having problems with participants shooting up target frames and just generally trashing the place.
Do any of you fine folks have a similar setup? If so, what are you doing to maintain sanity?
I'm wondering if a few cameras running on a 30 day recorded loop might serve as a deterrent as well as a away to see who the idiots are. Add multiple signs suggesting they smile for the cameras as a reminder to be grown-ass adults.
Any feedback back is appreciated.

Yes, I belong to a similar club sans the skeet ranges. We've had issues with people shooting at cans on the ground despite signage stating you shoot at paper targets only on the target frames. I don't see that many or any shoot the target frames up on purpose, it just happens because they aren't sighted in or are crappy shots.
A live and recording camera system helped a lot but not entirely. In the end there is no way to eliminate stupidity, indifference and just plain maliciousness in some shooters.

 

[archerforkids]

What distances at that range?
Cameras to cover target frames might cost.
General trashiness or other poor behavior would be easy.
Couple ranges I go to have video of the shooting line.

We have berms at 50, 100, 200 and 300.
I don't think it would be practical to have cameras at berms. I do think that a camera at each shooting line as well as overlooking the parking lot would be doable.

 

[ShtrRdy]

We ended up installing a bunch of surveillance cameras. It's still hard to stay on top of it but it can work.

 

[archerforkids]

A stretch might be plot cameras in armored boxes of some kind at the berms that took pictures twice a day of the target frames. You could verify equipment conditions and compare it to sign-in sheets in the event of malicious damage. This might be a pipe dream to get it to work. Much less funded.

 

[AlNyhus]

I'm a Board member and past president of a members only club. The members get an individual code for the front gate and come and go as they please. Twelve covered benches for 100-200 rifle, two covered 50 yd. rimfire benches and several hand gun lanes. We require NRA membership to be a member at our range.

Over the years, we've had a few clowns but we sent them down the road quickly. The biggest single thing that cut down on the dumbazz stuff was requiring that new members be sponsored by an existing member. The accountability by both parties really works. We encourage and empower each member to either say something or take down info and relay it to one of the Board members if they see an unsafe situation. In that way, we all become range officers. Nothing is perfect but this works pretty well...at least in this part of the country.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[mongo chicago]

There have always been gun slobs. Some people are just careless some are deliberate jerks. Look at the street signs in rural areas. You will find many with bullet holes or Impacts. Hard situation to control. Don't have a simple answer.

 

[Jim G]

I used to be a member of a club with a similar set up. Cameras help, but won't stop problems. The club had to go to an on duty range safety officer for the outdoor range and members had a schedule when they could shoot. It was that or face shutting down. We had bullets leaving the range and flying over the neighbors due to targets on the ground and bullets skipping.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Sounds like a increase in yearly dues would help the situation.

 

[archerforkids]

Sounds like a increase in yearly dues would help the situation.

We did this 3 years ago and it seemed to help a little. This club is FFA and 4H oriented. These are not folks that can swing a high membership fee nor should they. I think we are at about 500 members now. I'm pretty sure we have the budget to put in a decent camera system. Next meeting will tell.

 

[KMart]

I'm a Board member and past president of a members only club. The members get an individual code for the front gate and come and go as they please. Twelve covered benches for 100-200 rifle, two covered 50 yd. rimfire benches and several hand gun lanes. We require NRA membership to be a member at our range.

Over the years, we've had a few clowns but we sent them down the road quickly. The biggest single thing that cut down on the dumbazz stuff was requiring that new members be sponsored by an existing member. The accountability by both parties really works. We encourage and empower each member to either say something or take down info and relay it to one of the Board members if they see an unsafe situation. In that way, we all become range officers. Nothing is perfect but this works pretty well...at least in this part of the country.

Good shootin' -Al

At our private club, we have basically have the same set up. One member of the BOD is a Safety Director and also have a safety committee. Every member also has the ability to contact the BOD about range violations.
The Safety Committee can issue suspensions for up to 90 days. The BOD can send violators down the road and we have.
What is sad is that 99% of the general membership will not participate in calling out another member even when their own safety may be in jeopardy.
All in all, it works pretty well.
One thing for sure is that as soon as the membership sees that the BOD is serious about enforcing the rules, the number of violations will decrease.

 

[Rocketvapor]

Maybe some members just can't shoot worth sheet.
Range qualification.

Some "Guidlines" for target positions to help with skip.
Like Standing mag dumps at a low mounted 25yd target.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

We did this 3 years ago and it seemed to help a little. This club is FFA and 4H oriented. These are not folks that can swing a high membership fee nor should they. I think we are at about 500 members now. I'm pretty sure we have the budget to put in a decent camera system. Next meeting will tell.

We did this 3 years ago and it seemed to help a little. This club is FFA and 4H oriented. These are not folks that can swing a high membership fee nor should they. I think we are at about 500 members now. I'm pretty sure we have the budget to put in a decent camera system. Next meeting will tell.

Just curious on the come and go anytime, do you think any are coming out at night and doing some of the damage?

 

[danny]

I belong to a gun club that is members only. You get a combination to the gate and come and go as you please year round with no monitoring of any kind. Annual fee is sub $100.00. This is a nice range with covered benches at rifle and pistol areas as well as a couple of skeet and trap fields.
We are having problems with participants shooting up target frames and just generally trashing the place.
Do any of you fine folks have a similar setup? If so, what are you doing to maintain sanity?
I'm wondering if a few cameras running on a 30 day recorded loop might serve as a deterrent as well as a away to see who the idiots are. Add multiple signs suggesting they smile for the cameras as a reminder to be grown-ass adults.
Any feedback back is appreciated.

First off, is there a club that is not members only??

As a general rule, we live in a lazy country and it is always the other guy that is supposed to be following the rules and doing the correct thing. The observer, pretty much, will never adopt or follow the required action or procedure, and they "have a reason" why they should, under the circumstance, short circuit procedures or rules. I know that is laziness. Like I said, "the other guy" is supposed to be the one doing... So, you are firstly dealing with that.

Our club uses an electronic card to unlock the gate. There are other such locks within. All entries are logged and retained. You are either there on your own, or shooting with other members or with classes and matches running on other ranges. We maintain a policy that all members are supposed to act as safety officers and either correct improper actions if possible, or report them.

I was once at a public range, and what looked like a bunch of fresh out of college punks pull up with their hair cut about "this long" (envision me holding my two fingers together to show about 1/4"), driving brand new AUVs, looking like they had too much money, too early in life. The range has a posted rule of "no magazine dumps". They proceed to the pistol range (with rifles no less). They had a bunch of stuff like AKs, etc. They put some targets or junk out to shoot at, then go to the firing point. They jump up and stand on the bench tops, then cut loose as fast as they can and start yelling things like "get the bitch". That is exactly when I was leaving.

Danny

 

[archerforkids]

I've wondered that myself. At my deer lease we have a game camera at the gate that sends a text everytime somebody goes through the gate. I'm going to push for that at the next meeting.

Just curious on the come and go anytime, do you think any are coming out at night and doing some of the damage?

I've wondered that myself. At my deer lease we have a game camera at the gate that sends a text everytime somebody goes through the gate. I'm going to push for that at the next meeting.

 

[archerforkids]

First off, is there a club that is not members only??

As a general rule, we live in a lazy country and it is always the other guy that is supposed to be following the rules and doing the correct thing. The observer, pretty much, will never adopt or follow the required action or procedure, and they "have a reason" why they should, under the circumstance, short circuit procedures or rules. I know that is laziness. Like I said, "the other guy" is supposed to be the one doing... So, you are firstly dealing with that.

Our club uses an electronic card to unlock the gate. There are other such locks within. All entries are logged and retained. You are either there on your own, or shooting with other members or with classes and matches running on other ranges. We maintain a policy that all members are supposed to act as safety officers and either correct improper actions if possible, or report them.

I was once at a public range, and what looked like a bunch of fresh out of college punks pull up with their hair cut about "this long" (envision me holding my two fingers together to show about 1/4"), driving brand new AUVs, looking like they had too much money, too early in life. The range has a posted rule of "no magazine dumps". They proceed to the pistol range (with rifles no less). They had a bunch of stuff like AKs, etc. They put some targets or junk out to shoot at, then go to the firing point. They jump up and stand on the bench tops, then cut loose as fast as they can and start yelling things like "get the bitch". That is exactly when I was leaving.

Danny

Yeah. I've personally nipped that in the ass on occasion. Don't think i won friends that day, but on a good note, nobody got shot!

 

[joshb]

You should post signs in LARGE PRINT so the idiots see them. Get cameras ordered so you can identify and boot the bad apples.

 

[KMart]

You should post signs in LARGE PRINT so the idiots see them. Get cameras ordered so you can identify and boot the bad apples.

In most cases, signage is just another unauthorized target. We put up yard markers at 50, 100, and 200 yards. One 20+ ft berm serves the 100 and 200 yard range. It only takes about 2 weeks before you start to see bullet holes in the yard markers.