Good Grief! Gun Club Politics!

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El Tejon

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Lafayette, Indiana-the Ned Flanders neighbor to Il
Wednesday night I received a call from a colleague of mine who has been a gun buddy since I moved to Lafayette from Indy in '95. Apparently Wednesday night my gun club, Wildcat Valley Rifle and Pistol Club in Brookston, voted to freeze the shooting of .50 USMG weapons until the Safety Committee completed an "evaluation" of any potential hazards to the berms and backstops.

It seems the .50 USMG has become the "in thing" to shoot among the gun nuts here. Someone who did not own one was jealous of the others and complained to the club officers.

My club has no rule against it (heck guys shoot all kinds of big stuff--deer slugs, .416s, .460s, even found a .505 case out on the range once). However, the shooting of .50 USMG (which I know have been shot at the club since I joined in 1996) is now suddenly a "problem".

So, the club decided to prohibit shooting .50 USMG until a "study" can be done. Now here's the silly part (this is Indiana, you know there's a silly part), you can still shoot .416s, .375s, .338s or even a .505, just this specific caliber is prohibited.:rolleyes:

The claimed safety hazard: bullets leaving the range, has never transpired with any sort of rifle to my knowledge. However, it has happened with pistol bullets (pin shooting match, bullets bouncing off table and ending up in field where detasseling was ongoing! Yikes). I fail to see how .50 bullets pose a greater hazard of leaving the range than a .308, especially since we shoot into river clay.

Anyone else having jealousy related problems with their gun club? *sigh*
 
If the range does not have the necessary safety fan/danger template, and is not baffled to prevent a round leaving the range, then this is a possible safety issue. The 50BMG requires a larger template area than a .308 for example, but rounds with a similiar energy level/maximum range would also require the same template as the 50 cal. If the backstop is inadequate then there is reason to halt shooting, but again this would apply to all high energy rounds. Sounds like BS to me as they are not restricting other high velocity/high energy rounds.
 
Rad, yes, of course. So, now we can shoot a .600 Nitro, but not a .50 USMG.:rolleyes:

This reminds me of an incident at my brother's gun club. An individual was shooting into treetops with a Glock pistol. The range prohibited the shooting of Glocks! (Yeah, I know, it's like Indiana does not get made fun of enough).

I need to do a comparison on the big stuff vs. the .50USMG. Anyone have a link with comparative foot pounds? TIA.:)
 
No links, but a club that I belonged to when I first moved to this area decided to ban .50's. This is the same club that holds Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and Patriot's Day M1 Garand matches! When I found out, I told the president what a crock-of-you-know-what it was and renounced my membership. Haven't been back since. Thankfully its not the only club in the area.
 
Gun club politics get mighty interesting.

As a general rule, they're under constant pressure from local governments, as it doesn't really take much for a GFW to show up @ a town meeting with whatever angst they've been reading about in their local McNews rag.

This is the source of _endless_ problems for ranges.

To a _certain_extent_, it's reasonable for them to pre-emptively obtain objective information concerning the strength of their backstop against a politically maligned round. This provides them with the ammo they need to counteract such charges.

I think the main thing is to be certain that the study actually be performed, that it be fair, and that any negative findings it comes up with be remediated.
 
I shoot a bunch of '06 and .308 AP ammo. No problems. Would .50USMG be that much different?

We did have a problem with 8mm tracer which caused a fire to the 300 yard berm one summer match.:uhoh:

geek, while I understand political concern, as much money as this club has put into berms over the past few years and the fact that we have been shooting big stuff for decades there and have never had a problem, it just seems inane.
 
It is not allowed at the club I belong to because of the damage that could occur to the berm. And if you have ever shot a .50, it does tear up real estate!
 
I think if I were a member of your club I would point out that they are being remiss in focusing on just one caliber of rifle if it is a safety question that is of concern. The liability aspect of just studying the effects of one caliber rather than the safety of all rifle calibers might just turn around and bite the club in the butt if there was an incident in the future involving a non-studied caliber, I would think. I would propose a ban on ALL rifle shooting until it is determined exactly what IS safe to shoot on the range rather than just examining the one caliber. Just to be safe, ya know? This would surely motivate whoever is doing the study and would probably lead to "kudos" for whoever instigated this in the first place!
 
QuickDraw;

"Detasseling" is removing the "tassel" from the top of cornstalks by hand. The tassel holds the pollen. You remove the tassel from every other plant/row in order to prevent pollenation and thereby create hybrid plants/seed.

Traditionally a summertime job for teenagers in the midwest.
 
Detasslilng

I'm a city boy myself, so I googled the word.
Here's an excerpt from a blogger's notes.

"Corn has to be detassled so it doesn't pollinate itself. If it does, you get weaker corn that isn't so sweet. The detassling itself consists of walking up and down rows of corn for eight hours a day, doing nothing but popping the tassels out of the corn and dropping them on the ground. If you've ever seen a row of corn, you'll find some of them are half a mile long and five to eight feet tall. Imagine eight hours a day, pop, pop, pop, in the heat and humidity of a Midwestern summer, sweating and sneezing and twitching and getting "corn rash" from brushing against the leaves, for about three weeks."

Fud
 
El T,

At least a certain fellow did not go to the White House from your state that took ducks "about 75 yds out" with his "duck rifle". :p

Gun clubs : I quit being a member, a long time ago. I refuse to set foot on some, I refuse to visit many and this applies to both Private and Public ones.

Between the Politics and Attitudes of some Gun Owners - more harm than good is being done IMO.

As a kid, our Public range we shot at banned .22 short ammo. Now we shot competition .22 rifle. Later when bigger I competed in centerfire rifle. Allowed the use of centerfire handguns. Reason .22 short was "banned" was the fact some fella working for city did not adhere to 4 rules of safety and his Beretta Minx "accidently went off" and he shot his car. So naturally the only thing to do is ban the culprit - right?

Shotguns, I gotta a bit of trigger time with these. I was asked to NOT shoot a Spanish O/U in 32 ga. Neat gun! Seems the "Board" based this own the simple fact - they had never heard of one. I shared how the loads were #8 shot, so I was adhereing to rules of no shot sizes larger than # 7.5.

I snagged a gun book in the Club HOuse and showed them the gauge did exist. Forget the fact I had already handed them the gun to shoulder, showed them the cute Fiocchi shells..."NO!".

Okay - I did not shoot it that day. I did come back later with a 24 ga and ...well...I made MY point and chose to never set foot on property again. Not before I beat the Club President like a drum at a round of skeet. I ran a straight, with a .410 and he ran like 70-something with his high-dollar O/U in 12 gauge.

Dealing with clubs and "variances" with codes and such. Gee willikers, never seen so much fighting and fussing in all my born days! Dealing with the surrounding folks, noise , and other codes was not so bad. Even doing the hearings and such. Silly me invited these folks out with questions and concerns and let them shoot. Have fun, find out we shotgunners were NOT a bunch of Neanderthals at another site.

Did a kids day, and invited any and everyone to come out and see , picnic and all...
...converted a number of folks and they converted even more. They just shared how having this club was not a bad thing...actually having visited with shotgunners it would be GOOD thing to have one closer.

The Club members were the worst, I've seen kids throwing temper tantrums in candy / toy stores with more maturity. Stupid club members ran off shooters and made matters worse.

I donated what I promised I would. I never set foot on the grounds again - on paper it "says" I was a founding member. I had that removed later on thru a buddy of mine. I do not want to be associated with some folks or Organized clubs - including shooters and clubs.

Shooters are their own worst enemy at times.
 
Geez, Fud...we must have been living in an advanced society in our small town in Nebraska. Our girls (Boys weren't welcome on detasseling crews) rode on a wagon that was about 5 ft high and detasseled as they went slowly down the rows.

Boys bucked hay, cut weeds out of corn/beans by hand, made fence, laid irrigation pipe...all the grunt work. I did all of that stuff for a buck an hour plus dinner. Bucking hay paid two bucks. Nothing like sweating yourself to death all day on the hay rack, and then have to stack the hay up in the 130* loft of a tin-roofed barn. Go home, take a shower, go straight to bed, get up at zero dark thirty the next day to start all over again.
 
Wherever there is some power to be had, there are those who will attempt to grab it for themselves. Sucks, but that's life.
Is the member who complained a known quantity? Old, new?
Sounds like maybe an anti got hisself a membership and is trying to backdoor some otherwise impossible legislation.
 
Gun Club Officers . . .

. . . in my experience are often** recently-retired from blue collar jobs where they were always at the bottom of the heap, being told what to do, when and how to do it, by every other Tom, Dick, and Mary in the company.

They grew to resent being told what to do . . . but now, once they're on the Board of a gun club - or any other organization - they're now in a position to tell EVERYONE ELSE what to do.

And, being in love with the sound of their own voices barking out orders, they do so . . . at every opportunity.

And if an opportunity doesn't arise naturally . . . they'll create one.

The old proverb dealing with small people in positions of minor authority was probably based on the writer's encounter with a gun club board member. ;)

(** - note that I wrote OFTEN, not ALWAYS.)
 
Ah yes.

I won't go too far off topic, and will do the short version only.

But a certain small person in a minor position of authority is the reason why I refuse to ever try cowboy action shooting at the one and only gun club where I am currently a member.

I got read the third degree for standing 60 feet behind the firing line as a spectator and not having any safety glasses on.

Now, to my immediate left and right were two other people without glasses. Only they were older, and both dressed in cowboy garb. One was an elderly woman sitting in a lawn chair and keeping the scorebook for the match.

But I was the guy in shorts and t-shirt who got singled out for public humiliation.

Only certain people in cool-cowboys and cowgirls club get to not wear safety glasses while standing 60 feet behind the shooting area.

But yeah, gun club politics is just like any other small gathering.

Certain people get in charge, and they get off being in charge, not actually doing what the club is supposed to be organized to do.

hillbilly
 
Never had any rules implemented because of jealousy. Ignorance however...Last club I was in needed a commitee for every single aspect of the club. Ecah committee required monthly meetings and a report to the club meeting each month also. Was more of a select few (a clique) that ran the club. Believed tey needed a study of every proposal as well. Meetings turned into a joke as they tried to keep a set program and the "Robert's Rules" just confused the whole mess. Got to the point where none of my firearms were even usauble at the ranges. I have to wonder if they realized they drove away more members than they ever attracted that year. Very happy in current club, better facility and much more knowledgeable members.
 
Moondoggie-------Ah but on the farm where I grew up my 2 sisters and I loved to see the guys hired to help with the hay. My Dad about had a heart attack one day when they all drove by and we were laying out on a quilt sun bathing in our swim suits. We got told to go to the house and never do that again. We siad we would after we gave the poor boys a drink of iced tea. :neener:
 
Detassling corn is done to cross polinate two different strains of corn to produce seed corn sold to farmers. The rows are set up in groups or 3 and looks sort of like fmf--fmf--fmf--fmf if you were to look down the rows, with the female plant rows surrounding male plant rows. The tassles are removed from the female plants so that only pollen from the male plants is allowed to grow the seeds on the female plant. Yup, I did this work for a couple of summers while in middle school.

I wouldn't think a .50 would need as much safe range as a lot of popular cartridges. A .50 is fired at about 2800 fps, contrast that to a .300 magnum or better yet a .30-378 weatherby. Fired a little bit over the berm, there are plenty of magnums that will carry further.
 
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