I am starting a project of orientation for new members at our local gun club. We are the largest gun club in Pennsylvania with over 5,000 members. I am on the Board of Directors and we are concerned that new members are being added every month and we have no idea if they have ever handled a firearm or attended a hunter safety course. We have observed unsafe gun handling practices on our ranges and have issued warnings and dismissed members.

Successful completion of the safety course that will be put on by hunter safety and firearms instructors will be required prior to submitting a membership application. What are you good folks doing at your gun clubs? Take care...
Joe

Good on you for staying involved and putting back into the sport.
maybe???? part of the orientation could be an air rifle night??? so your instructors/ range bosses get to observe the way people handle firearms with the chance of a fatality reduced way down.
that way you will/should be able to spot potential trouble before it starts and point the person in the right direction (whether that is retraining or out the door )
I no longer belong to a gun club as I dont have need of a range and cant justify forking out the $ for membership I wont use.

Very similar new member orientation. By-laws and policies reviewed at meeting when they are approved for membership. They are not allowed to use facilities until they have completed range safety training put on by RSO's. Only then do they get the combination to the range. All are required to have name tag/ID badge when at the range so any infractions can be addressed by other present and reported to board if not resolved.

Biggest problem we have is people thinking that shooting clay birds off of the 2x4 that supports the targets at the 15 and 25 yard lines is a good idea.. all fun and games until the board takes one to many 230 grain .45 slugs and shatters...

pretty much like dawgdad. range orientation and safety meeting. We do our every thursday.

I know that our range has an orientation for new members but I'm not sure exactly what is covered. They started it long after I became a member. I'll try to find out what they go over.

Joe, it might be worth having a look at the requirements for a Firearms Licence in my State here in Australia. I am sure that you could put something useful together from the information shown in the Firearms Course link below.

Apart from the usual Club Range Etiquette, Rules and Regulations that each new member must be familiarised with, EVERY new shooter before applying for a Firearms Licence in Queensland MUST complete an approved Firearms Safety Course, the competencies of which are set by the authorities.

It is not a difficult course, and is delivered by authorised presenters...for a price of course. The course basically takes two days usually, of 4 - 6 hours per day. The "students" are instructed in a classroom type environment and are required to pass a theory test on completion. They are also required to pass a practical test that involves using firearms of the category Licence they intend applying for from the Police.

The Course Competencies and Weapon Categories are detailed in the following link:

Firearms Safety Course

I am fortunate in that I was licenced well before the need existed to complete a course, however I believe that the course gives a new shooter the necessary information to be a safe and competent firearms owner and shooter. From what I have heard, a lot of the course is basic common sense and safety principles applied to firearm usage.

Cheers, Vince

Certainly both ranges I'm familiar with have both firearms handling and etiquette training and if you can't follow the rules and regs it's good bye. Shooters in NZ have enough problems with morons stuffing it up on the outside let alone on ranges.
Its our deer Roar at the moment 2 dead so far and two idiots have had they guns and licenses confiscated after setting up a range and not checking the back drop.... yeah a local cop was heading out to see what these two morons were doing and in the process drove behind bushes where these two cretins ahd set up a pare target and were about to fire...low and behold cop comes into view with cretin 1 about to put lead down range and nearly shites himself.
No sympathy from me!!!
The two cretins were about to go into the bush and decided that they needed to see if their guns were shooting straight. WTF. Should have planned better boys!

Bloody idiots...they deserve everything they got mate.

If I am checking zero, I always ensure that there is some sort of an earth "stop butt" behind my target. Of course I also check behind the target for as far as I can see (walk it if necessary) to ensure the fall of shot cannot continue on for any distance, and if it does that it is 110% safe.

Range etiquette and Range Safety is the start point for any firearm safety...right AFTER the shooter familiarises himself with the firearm and knows how to safely load and unload.

Cheers, Vince

Over here we are in the process of opening up a handgun and rifle only range since we already have a shotgun club range here. One of the reasons our old rifle range shut down years ago was because it was situated at that time (built in the 1940's) and was shooting at open county with a small 4' berm.

As the town grew, the berm was raised to 15' and idiots still managed to shoot over the berm and onward to the now expanding city.

So the new range a year or 2 down the road will be membership only, now were in the process of figuring out how to go about the legalities of if the club can require background checks on new members to make sure they can own and shoot a firearm.

I have always wondered why ranges dont put concrete tunnels out fron the bench towards the targets?? they wouldnt have to be very long and the "flier" problem you are referring to Omni would be all but impossible as the projectile could only go down the pipe and nowhere else.
I havent heard about the secound case yet Radar, but the first one was interesting in that the media homed in on the flouro hat worn by the victim, well the photo that was in our local paper showed the poor chap a few hours before he was shot wearing the said hat, well if thats flouro I must be wearing super duper extra whooper duper stuff because it wasnt much different to the colour of the deer he was holding.
now dont get me wrong there is NO excuse for this shooting and the twit who pulled the trigger should be in deep doo doos. but I was taught at a very young age if you are going out to hunt at this time of the year nothing short of flashing lights n sirens is too much safety gear. my family members were wearing BRIGHT pink and orange and blue and lime green striped jerseys 30 years ago that the womenfolk had knitted for us to keep us safer.if you have a look at the photo in "the bloodlines are there" you will see my young fella wearing a elcheapo work vest that has had a bit of black spray paint added to dull it down a bit. no way could you not see that coming. it weighs next to nothing and is not to hot to wear and fits in a pocket so is no issue to take with you.
what is the answer to stop these tragadies from happening again???
I dont know but will try to keep me and mine as safe as can be.

I'll be honest with you Elvis this is the only time of the year I won't go bush. Once duck shooting starts most of the idiots go that way..... I know you are a keen and avid fowl shooter so that barb isn't aimed at you or any righteous fowl shooters but lets face it both codes have their fair share of morons who wreck it for the all the good keen honest blokes and bloke-ettes.
I'm going stalking in May - got my leave pass in already with swmbo.

P.S. she just spent $350 on a hair colour and cut so she hasn't got a leg to stand on at the moment Haa haa haa - must admit though she's looking good.

that sounds like a win win. good on ya mate.
one of my duckhunting books puts the firearm accidents into perspective quite nicely.
if all the years quota of chickens were to be slaughtered on the same day the amount of electricutions and finger/hands that got lopped off would be quite substantial.
or words to that effect.
look forward to hearing how you get on with the hunt,
did you get a rifle for SWMBO???

First answer of mine is for Joe.
To become a member of my club Joe, the applicant has to have three references from club members in good standing.
Our members are very fussy who they recommend, and as Chief Range Officer, I haven't had very many problems over the years with idiots doing stupid things.

Second is for Elvis.

For many years Elvis, we have had concrete tube at the 100,200,300, and 400 yard ranges.
We are now in the very expensive process of removing most of them.
First off, here in Minnesota, with our hard winters, the heaving problem has gotten so bad that the tubes are making it hard to get a straight shot at the targets.
Second, smarter guys than me have determined that the tubes accentuate the gunshot sound, just like a horn does.
We have neighbors, and are VERY sensitive to not pissing them off too much.

Eric

Playing devil's advocate here... While I agree with some screening of new members you can't make it TOO difficult for them or you'll end up killing off the club as old members quit going. The club I shoot at has raised the initial entry fee to $400, with $125/year after that. I hope we aren't pricing ourselves into extinction.

ok that answers the noise thing. maybe a tube of wire mesh would work better???
good point pumpkin thats why Im no longer a member of the deerstalkers association which I was a staunch supporter of. I do wish I had bought a life membership when they were $500. hind sight is a great thing.