Public range rules

[Hangingrock]

I have a handgun range on my property. With that said, I do a certain amount of rapid fire and movement during firing sequences. Also a membership
(land share owner) of a shooting facility. There are different shooting bays with one of those bays being a designated training bay. One must signup for scheduled usage. In twenty-some years there have been no reported incidents of injury occurrence.

 

[LaneP]

Where I live in the northeast, gun clubs are constantly under attack and under threat to be shut down due to safety concerns, so my club enforces the rule about not shooting by drawing a ready pistol from the holstered position. Their fear is someone is going to plant one in his hamhocks (or worse, someone else's hamhocks) and they will have to deal with the negative publicity afterward.

As to one shot per second, my club has no such restriction but I have been to another area club that does. They also have a rule against loading more than 6 rounds in any firearm regardless of capacity. An acquaintance of mine wanted me to join that club to shoot with him but those rules make it a no-go for me.

 

[entropy]

given a public range that hosts 3gun matches, with numerous 3gun bays that have 12’ berms on 3 sides, 20-50 yards deep....

Is there a reasonable justification for either of the following rules on non-match days?

- no drawing from holster
- no more than 1 shot per second

Does anyone have range insurance that stipulates these rules? ( I had NRA range and club insurance a few years ago and neither did.)

Two reasons:

-During your 3-gun matches, there are numerous RO's present to facilitate safety compliance; I bet there are none or maybe one there otherwise.

-During the matches, the proficiency most of the competitors ensures there is less need for the additional RO's: they are there for the less skilled competitors. When there is no match, being a public range, the competency level of visitors is not assured, or controlled by more supervision.

I'm actually surprised there is a 3-gun course on any publically accessible range.

 

[Obturation]

Where I live in the northeast, gun clubs are constantly under attack and under threat to be shut down due to safety concerns, so my club enforces the rule about not shooting by drawing a ready pistol from the holstered position. Their fear is someone is going to plant one in his hamhocks (or worse, someone else's hamhocks) and they will have to deal with the negative publicity afterward.

As to one shot per second, my club has no such restriction but I have been to another area club that does. They also have a rule against loading more than 6 rounds in any firearm regardless of capacity. An acquaintance of mine wanted me to join that club to shoot with him but those rules make it a no-go for me.

7 shot revolver = deadly assault cowboy blaster.

 

[taliv]

One thing in the responses here consistently surprises me is the assumption that match competitors have a much higher skill set.

As a former match director for 3gun at a very large club and also a match director for prs type matches, I can assure you that lots of beginners show up to matches. While it’s true that the average competitor skills are much higher, there prob isn’t a lot of difference on the low end.

 

[George Dickel]

I shoot rimfire handgun silhouette with a T/C Contender out to 100 meters and plan on trying silhouette at 200 meters once I purchase an appropriate caliber barrel for that competition. We have an indoor rifle range that accommodates 100 yard rifle shooting. I asked if I could shoot my Contender on the 100 yard rifle range for practice and was told no, nobody shoots pistols at 100 yards. I told the individual that I did and do so with a number of people. No, no pistols on the 100 yard range. Another employee questioned me about my .44 mag Rossi 92 that I use in lever gun pistol cartridge silhouette. He warned me not to shoot the ceiling as the arc on a .44 mag at 100 yards was like a rainbow. Granted the .44 mag isn't the flattest shooting round but the ceiling is at least 20 feet high and the round wouldn't even come close to hitting it.

At a range near where I used to live an individual came out with an AK with a bump stock. He sprayed bullets all over the place except on the backstop. There are neighboring farms and livestock on the sides and back of the range so it is critical that rounds hit the backstop which is quite large. He was physically removed from the property and told to never come back. There are too many yahoos with guns to allow for rapid fire or drawing from the holster. For every experienced shooter there are probably a dozen or more morons that have no more grasp of firearm safety than a rock.

 

[DustyGmt]

There is no such rule for my range, or RSO for that matter. There seem to be only 2 rules posted, no FA fire and no steel. Somebody set up a self resetting steel plate rack a few months ago and it's still there. They seem pretty lax about things in general.

I was told that they had millions of dollars at their disposal in the form of grants but that they dont use it because it would put them under thumb somehow in terms of the NRA and insurance regarding rules and regs. Dunno how true that is....

 

[JohnKSa]

One thing in the responses here consistently surprises me is the assumption that match competitors have a much higher skill set.

I don't think it's true that they ALL do, but I think that the average match competitor is considerably more skilled than the average shooter, and also much more likely to know and follow the basic gun safety rules.

But I think that's really a secondary issue. I think that the primary issue is that during a match, there's one person shooting at a time and lots of people watching, some of whom have the responsibility and authority to insure that the shooter doesn't do anything unsafe.

At a public range, there are many people shooting at once, and, at most, one person watching them all to try to insure safety. I've been to ranges where there is either no one actively monitoring the shooting, or someone monitoring it remotely (via CCTV) which would likely prevent them from actually intervening to rapidly resolve a problematic situation before things go really wrong.

With an RSO (or two) within arm's reach of the only shooter who has a hot firearm, the rules can be much less restrictive than at a range where there's one RSO watching a lot of shooters--or maybe no one really watching at all.

 

[taliv]

So are you saying if you ran a public range you would impose those rules?

 

[JohnKSa]

For a walk-in shooter, I would absolutely impose the no holster work restriction. I would also come up with a test to allow shooters who want to do holster work to go through a qualifying process that would allow them to work from the holster if they passed. In fact, I devised such a process some years ago and submitted it to a local indoor range. Unfortunately, nothing came of it.

Whether or not I imposed a slow fire restriction would depend more on the design of the range. If it were set up where wild shots going downrange are safe (no way for bullets to exit the range) and are unlikely to cause expensive damage then I would be willing to forgo the slow fire restriction. At an outdoor range where shooting over the berm just takes a few degrees of upward angle on the muzzle, or at an indoor range where the downrange equipment wasn't reasonably well armored, I would protect the range equipment and the range itself (from a liability standpoint) by restricting the customers to slow fire only.

I don't like those restrictions, and I tend to avoid ranges with the slow fire restriction, but I understand why they have them and I would likely do the same, and for the same reasons, if I owned a range.

 

[hso]

Is there a reasonable justification for either of the following rules on non-match days?

- no drawing from holster
- no more than 1 shot per second

Drawing from the holster puts the firearm behind the firing line and depends heavily upon the competency of the person drawing the handgun (this may be fine at matches, but the level of training and skill of Average Joe may not) to avoid a round in the ground or knee.

The second seems to make less sense since if the handgun is pointed downrange even if you're a wretched shot the rounds should be going in a safe direction on a properly constructed range.

 

[MEHavey]

+1 above for limited draw-from-holster
The consideration of enforcing "Timed-Fire" intervals/prohibiting MadMinuteFiring however, . . . saves both Baffles & Bounces (ground bounce up-out-&-over the top of the berm).



(We had to actually put kevlar over the two wood/gravel/wood overhead baffles at 10(!!!) and 20 yds -- and they still put multiple holes in them on a regular/darn-near-daily basis.)

 

[FL-NC]

Public ranges are often havens for people with less than average intelligence and skill. These people often try to mimic tactics, techniques, and procedures that they see skilled individuals do on youtube, or things from John Wick movies. I avoid such places.

 

[Rule3]

Public ranges are often havens for people with less than average intelligence and skill. These people often try to mimic tactics, techniques, and procedures that they see skilled individuals do on youtube, or things from John Wick movies. I avoid such places.

 

[Rule3]

given a public range that hosts 3gun matches, with numerous 3gun bays that have 12’ berms on 3 sides, 20-50 yards deep....

Is there a reasonable justification for either of the following rules on non-match days?

- no drawing from holster
- no more than 1 shot per second

Does anyone have range insurance that stipulates these rules? ( I had NRA range and club insurance a few years ago and neither did.)

Public ranges are often havens for people with less than average intelligence and skill. These people often try to mimic tactics, techniques, and procedures that they see skilled individuals do on youtube, or things from John Wick movies. I avoid such places.

The only "Public Range we have is run by the State, so therefore as FL NC posted there are many idiots out there therefore the range rules are no drawing, no rapid fire.plus many others. It is the State so no logic facts or justification needed
Never ever shoot there after a Gun Show!, People show up with Wal Mart bags of ammo, new guys in a box, never fired and proceed to be idiots!

Many many years ago I used to shoot there. The rules where relaxed and you could draw and rapid fire.

One day I was there shooting, an elderly guy (older than me) was Bullesye shooting with is 22lr pistol and shooting box, scope the whole deal. He was left over from the early bird club of guys that hogged the range when it first opened. He was the only one left and the rest of the shooters were blasting away.
I was practicing drawing(a 380 pocket pistol) which he didn't like. He went and complained to the RSO (who I was friends with) he asked me nicely if I would stop as the guy was getting antsy. I said sure OK.
I then watched the guy take 5 minutes a shot, go through is whole slow fire, look at scope, routine etc etc.

Being the nice guy that I am, I then took out my 44 Mag, and timed my shots for each one of his trigger pulls.
He left in about 10 minutes,

 

[Outlaw75]

I tend to put down such rules to past incidents.

My local public range (run by Fish & Game) allows draw and fire as long as you do it standing on the firing line and even full auto fire as long as it's done from prone or bench. They do not, however, allow .50 BMG rifles on the range because they had a couple of incidents where people overshot the berm with them.

 

[herrwalther]

My current range allows drawing from a holster and has no rule on rapid fire. The rafters and target holders are chewed up from misses or poor shots. And they will charge $5 for every target clip shot, even though they are just basic binder clips. I joked with the guy on the way out that I shot the binder clip, but it was my own I brought with me. Even with four 5.56 rounds through it, still held the target.

I understand ranges tend to draw the bottom of the barrel when it comes to safe firearm handling. And rules are rules. The range I frequent has classes so the unsafe can be safe. And the rest of us can practice on our own without an overbearing RSO.

 

[Steve S.]

I have attended public ranges with the crazies, the cowboys, the militia, the barrel heaters, the m-fers at every other word, the target checkers at any time (range clear or not), etc. - trash with firearms - they would read this and say that’s not me!
My wife and I then joined a private club with lots of rules - what a refreshing difference - a completely different clientele. It is relaxing and enjoyable to shoot. Everyone is respected; the rules are followed and everyone is safe.
The good news about the 2A is that everyone can keep and bear arms, the bad news is that everyone can keep and bear arms.

 

[Thibaut]

Our modern indoor range, allows drawing if you have first performed in front of one of the staff. That is reasonable. Double taps are fine but long pray and spray strings are not, due to the lack of control that some show.

I went to that range soon after it opened to wring out some quirks in my grip. The SO showed me the new gadget to control the targets. Very nice. However, I looked up and saw the holes right above the station. I commented and he sighed, saying it was like that a month after opening. Then he pointed down the lanes which are separated by some bullet proof 'glass'. On one lane the separator had a big star pattern from a hit. OMG!
.

My first indoor range area had three suicides in a four-month period. Five in the area, total, in a twenty-month period. The local newspaper counted 34 suicides or attempted suicides in gun ranges in the state in the last decade.

Most people are probably pretty comfortable at a range, indoor or outdoor. I am not one of them. Ever. I turned to private sessions to make me less nervous and able to concentrate better (along with other reasons).

My favorite outdoor ranges are the ones with well enforced rules. A responsible range safety officer will always be my new best friend.

 

[ford8nr]

As a RO at a large gun club of 2200 members and can understand the rules. When there, we're watching 3 rifle ranges, 1 pistol range and 5 trap ranges. That's potentially 67 shooting lanes. No draw hinders the competent but assures there are no barrel sweeps of people in the lanes next to you.
One second per shot keeps all shots where they belong. The 12 ft berms on th OP's range probably isn't high enough without baffles to comply with the no sky rule.
Before my club went to the 1 second per shot rule, my restriction was shoot as fast as you want but every shot had to be at least on the paper. That slowed most shooters down.

Most new shooters think shooting fast teaches you to shoot fast. Being competent and accurate with your firearm allows you to develope speed. Like the old saying ...
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.