What about your gun club?

What does your gun club cost?

  • 50 - 100 $ per year

    Votes: 64 51.2%

  • 100 - 200 $ per year

    Votes: 33 26.4%

  • over 200 $ per year

    Votes: 6 4.8%

  • I don't belong to a gun club

    Votes: 22 17.6%
  • Total voters
    125
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T

trooper

Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2003
Messages
700
Location
A small police station out in the German countrysi
Do you belong to a gun club? What are the membership fees? What kind of range do you have access to, and how often?

What is your club like in general - are there non-shooting activities, monthly contests etc.? What kind of people (age, profession, gender) do you usually meet there?

Living in Germany, I have to belong to a gun club (not a legal obligation but factually you don't get around it). Membership costs 100,- € per year. Any profit the club might make is usually spent on a huge barbecue in the summer :) .

The club doesn't own a range but rents it once a week for one whole evening. It's an indoor range that only allows shooting at 25 meters (though sometimes you can do whatever you please if you're careful :) ).

We have around 15 - 20 members (don't know exactly), all guys and at least 35 - 40 years old. At 24 I'm the youngest member by far. Due to the range rules we usually shoot 25 m bullseye.


Regards,

Trooper
 
Mine is $25 providing you help out at 3 functions. $45 if you don't. It is a private club with a keyed gate.

We have an indoor pistol/archery range, 2 sporting clays courses, skeet, 5 Sstand trap house, a steel target blackpowder course, a 3D archery course, 7 rifle bays (one to 550 yards), 4 outside pistol pits (for IDPA) and 3 fishing ponds.

We have weekend turkey/luck shoots, 4-H activities for kids, boating courses, game dinners.....etc.
 
:) Hello, Trooper!

Now, this may come as a shock; but I belong to two gun clubs, here, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The first one is in Palmerton. It has a large clubhouse with a kitchen and dance floor, as well as over 250 acres of land. The outside facilities are excellent and include: a 300 yard high-powered rifle and pistol range, a conventional 25 yard pistol range, an archery range, and a large wooded picnic area with a covered bandstand and food shacks. There is, also, a fishing stream, recreational park area, and the remainder of the property and adjoining lands are open to hunting by the general membership. Palmerton, also, has better than average security features in place: The ranges have high dirt berms on all three sides, and access is, both, fenced off and restricted to use by membership - only. Large, well-made fiberboard backstops are, always, in place; so there's never a problem with where to hang a target; and all shooting ports are covered. Palmerton is a well-managed club, that spends its money carefully, and relies on the generosity and skill of its members to keep everything in, nearly, brand new condition! How much does it cost to belong to this shooter's paradise and community center? Well, they are going to raise the dues next year; but, right now, annual dues are $10.00 per member. (Yeah, the cost is really killing me!) I don't know what I'll do if the annual fee climbs to, say, $20.00 per year. Guess me and the other 899 members will have to get second jobs!

The other gun club I belong to is in Roseto. The shooting range, here, is small: About 80 yards for rifle with a maximum of four shooters. The pistol range is staggered from 7 1/2 out to 25 yards and will accomodate up to six shooters. Again, the shooting ports are covered. Happily there is, now, money being set aside to significantly expand and improve this shooting range. Security, here, is the best I've seen: restricted access to club grounds, high berms and fences, as well as multipe outside cameras with 24 hour video surveillance, and routine patrols by the local police. (It's common to turn around while you're on the firing line and see a police cruiser stopped, somewhere, behind you. Hey, they're club members, too!)

Roseto, also, has other things going for it, like: a large clubhouse and tavern, (This place is, always, immaculately clean.) a large well-stocked fishing lake, an imaginatively laid-out archery range, and well-maintained picnic grove - complete with covered eating area. Roseto is, also, a well-managed club with a large 6 figure bank account; annual dues, here, are steeper than most other gun clubs: $15.00 per year. (Now, I know, I need that second job!) Like the Palmerton club, Roseto also serves as, something of, a community center: Marriages, anniversaries, and meetings or parties of all kinds are constantly taking place. This is another large club with general membership counted in the hundreds.

In the Wintertime I shoot indoors at a police range near Allentown that sets aside one of its two rooms for use by the general public. This is, strictly, a pistol facility with a well-ventilated 50 foot (16 1/2 yard) range. The cost, here, is (actually) high: $58.00 for 3 months; but the convenience (and heat) are worth it. No wonder I moved to Pennsylvania! ;)
 
http://www.wvrpc.org $144 to join, Must NRA member, 2 references.

Steve really went nuts with his plane. Geez, why couldn't they put some ground level pics in there? *Sigh, shakes head, don't listen to me, I don't own a plane*

My other club is a little south of me. Very cheap ($30 US a year), clubhouse, fishing ponds, archery ranges, trap & skeet. Sort of a "sportsman's club".
 
I joined Desert Sportsman's Rifle & Pistol Club last year after trying the indoor ranges - just didn't like them much. DS is over 400 acres, with lots of rifle ranges and lots of "bays" where you can shoot rifle, pistol, shotgun or MG. Primitive - no paving, water or electricity. $150/yr unless you participate in 2 "Range Clean-up Days", then the fee drops to $100. Lots of different matches on weekends, rifle and pistol. Combo lock on gate, shoot anytime. About 1500 members, but I haven't seen it crowded yet.
 
www.bonecreekgunclub.com

Membership runs $50 per year, and members have access year round, 'cept during deer firearms season.
Can take family, and guests out there also. The pic is from the match Sunday, me getting some trigger time in!
 
I belong to Mid Carolina Rifle Club, dues $100 per year. This covers everyone in my household who is 18 or over. All they need is to get a range safety briefing, and they are then given the combination to the gate padlock (combo changed every 6 months.)
Ranges:
Hathcock Rifle range, with 100 & 200 yard berms, covered firing positions with built-in concrete benches.
2700 (bullseye) bay, 25-50 yds., with covered firing postitions and turning target stands.
Multi-purpose 70 yd. bay, a plinking bay, a plate machine bay, a Hunter Pistol Silhuette bay (25, 50, 75, 100 yds.), a qualification bay (25-50 yds) for qualified instructors who give CCW classes, and finally, the Jeff Cooper Pistol bays (6 total.)
Must be a member of NRA, GOA, JFPO, or some other nationally reconginzed shooting organization to join.
Hours are from 9:00 AM to one hour after sunset or 9:00PM, whichever is earlier, 7 days a week.
Disciplines: High Power, Bullseye, HP Sihouette, RF Silhouette, IPSC, IDPA, SASS, and some others I can't think of offhand. All of these disciplines have monthly matches.
The club has a total of about 600 members. It does have bathrooms and porta potties, and we are in the process of installing actual bathrooms at the far end of the range near the pistol bays so that we can eliminate the porta potties.
Somtime in the upcoming year, we should also finally be getting the electronic keypad gate that's been in the works for 25(!!!) years.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a heck of a facility, and the price is more like a STEAL than a bargain. Consider that the only other range in the area is an indoor range, max range of 25 yds with all sorts of restrictions on calibers, rapid fire, etc., can accomodate a maximum of only 14 shooters at a time, and costs $120 a year to join.
 
$40 bucks for dues, $35 for my nra membership(required)=$75 a year. If your a newbie at my club your initiation costs you another $25.
 
$35/year for my local highpower club. 2 Saturday matches and one Saturday junior day each month (you can shoot after the juniors finish up). Some folks (retirees) also shoot Weds at lunch. Shoots at the county shooting range 200yds.

Other club (Coalinga, CA) is about 2hours away and $25/year. Private club with combination lock on the gate. Access is 7days/week unless there's a match going on. ~30 shooting points on the silluette range, 25 points on the 1000yd range (w/ pits), a benchrest range and places to shoot pistols. Kitchen, bathrooms, showers, water & fire pit. Camping is permitted. It's in the middle of no-where (cattle graze there).
 
As I'm active duty, my base has a Rod & Gun Club. Thirty-five bucks a year, and you pay reduced pistol range and skeet/trap fees.

The pistol range is 100 yards with a large dirt berm on 3 sides with a covered area. Lots of steel targets, and the best part? Nobody is ever there except for me. I go there a couple times a week and I'm always alone. It's great.

They have 2 skeet fields and one trap field. Throw in a patterning board and a mobile sporting clays trailer and you have it.

Guns are ordered in at 10% over cost and you don't pay taxes. They carry reloading components too. Rainier plated 200 grn for .45.....55$, no taxes....very nice...

esheato...
 
Mine is $25.00 a month for individual, $35.00 for the family. No in town guests but out of towners are OK. Nice Range house with wood stove to keep the shooters warm, Archery range and shotgun range on either side. Nice club house where they play bingo and have other get togethers. We also use the range for my work to qualify.
 
Just to keep it interesting here's the view from the other side of the pond.

Clyde Valley Pistol Club

100 UK Pounds per year, the club was, before the ban primarily a pistol club(hence the name), since then mainly 22 rimfire and 38 underlevers with a sprinkling of long barrled revolvers and 'black powder' shooters. 25 Meters indoor and flood lit, the club also has an active airgun section and a practical section using CO2 powered pistols. A small club room and kitchen, plenty of compititions throughout the year. Takes 6 months probation to become a member (a legal requirement) and a check by the Police (ditto) before unsupervised shooting is allowed.

We make the best of what we can. :)
 
When they need $ for fundraising, My uncle, brother & myself bought a limited life for $200 and don't have to pay annual. :)
 
Another European here. Let's see. The club where I spend the most time, especially if you include non shooting activities with other members, is a university club, actually we're open to students and graduates of any learning institution in the neighbourhood. At 36 I'm one of the resident geezers (certified coach, 34 years of shooting experience - well, 25 or so if you count organized shooting sports :) ). We shoot once a week at an indoor 25 m pistol range and have access to an outdoor pistol range by arrangement with another club. We have very good range facilities for rifle shooting at 100 and 200 meters, fully computerized range with I think 20 plus 40 electronic targets.

I'm also a member of another rifle club with 100/300 m ranges although I haven't been there for some time.

I'm a member of a local pistol club with a decent outdoor range where I can often shoot all by myself if I go early in the day, which suits me because I work shifts...

Local club of the hunting and sportfishing association with access to trap range.

I live close enough to the latter two to hear shots from one or the other depending on the direction of the wind.

In addition to this, my employer has a very nice indoor range where I can shoot 15 m small bore rifle two evenings a week (rifles and ammo courtesy of the company) and 25 m pistol two evenings a week (I have to bring my own guns, but the company pays for ammo). Outside "posted" practice times I can really go there any time night or day as long as I bring a guest (the owners don't want us to shoot alone, for safety reasons). IMHO all large media corporations should have an arrangement like this for their employees. :D

I think that's all...

I haven't bothered to figure out how much I pay for shooting related club memberships, but the total is probably somewhere between $200 and $300 a year.
 
150/year at Benchrest Rifle Club in Warrenton Mo. A very nice range going up to 600yds. They have many national level events there every year. One of the best ranges in the country from what I have been told.
 
Trooper :

Thanks for the kind words my friend, not a lot of action, not many particularly polititians who want to stick their heads above the parapet but where there's life there's hope.
 
Well, I suppose you can't count on politicians anyway... I was thinking more along the lines of grassroot activism.

I didn't follow the things after Dunblane very closely (wasn't really into shooting back then) but in hindsight it seems to me that the British shooting associations readily took the blame and surrendered.

After the Erfurt school shooting all major hunting and shooting associations stepped up and basically said "We're sorry, but since the overwhelming majority of gunowners are decent, law-abiding citizens we won't accept any attempt to outlaw guns."

If you don't take the initiative you'll get eaten alive. Aren't there ANY attempts to fight the ban? Just wondering...

Darn, now I've hijacked my own thread...


Regards,

Trooper
 
Mine's not really a club, it's just a range (Firing Line, Huntington Beach) but whatever. We paid $250 for a 1-year family membership (renewals are $200 per year after that.) It's indoor, 25 yards. They only allow pistols and pistol-caliber carbines, but no magnum carbines. Shotguns are okay but you must purchase the ammo from them. Haven't really met any people there except the ones behind the counter, who are really nice and helpful.
 
There are a few groups but the main problem is that the media over here is very anti. Particularly the big news organisations like the BBC.

There was a rumour of a little easing of the ban at least to allow olympic\commonwealth target pistols but I havn't heard any more about it.

I try not to get too involved in the politics of it, it dosn't do the blood preasure any good, I just try to enjoy what i can.

Hey if you can't hi-jack your own thread .... :)
 
I belong to two ranges.

#1. $45 per year, 100 yard rifle range, 5 benches + 450 yard gong. 25 yard pistol range, 2 benches. Informal, full auto OK, please take your trash when you leave.

#2. $54 per year, 6 pistol bays, archery, trap and skeet, 100 yd. 100m, 200m, and 400 yd. rifle ranges. No full auto, no FMJ, paper or cardboard targets only, pick up your trash and brass.

#1 range is six miles away, #2 is 25 miles away. That's why I belong to both.
 
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