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If so, I'm interested in hearing how easy you found the whole process and what might attract you to join a club?

I'm thinking about starting a new venture which would provide information and assistance for anyone who might want to start shooting, develop their shooting skills, try a new shooting discipline and many other aspects of the sport.

What would your ideal shooting club be like?
How easy do you find it to get information and help from shooting clubs and organisations?
What could they do better?
Why would you join a club (apart from the obvious reason to get an FAC!) and what would you expect to get in return for your membership fee?

Please tell me what you think. I need suggestions, comments, ideas and maybe we can make the shooting world a better place between us

Thanks
John

Definitely worth a chat with John (Thorney) having been through the same thought processes over the last few years with his Silverstone Shooting Centre.

The biggest hurdles to joining a club in my experience are:

A) Finding contact details that still work and then:
B) Finding a club thats actually accepting new members

After that it depends on if you can already shoot or not as there appears to be very little desire to encourage total beginners into the sport.

Rockhopper wrote:The biggest hurdles to joining a club in my experience are:

A) Finding contact details that still work and then:
B) Finding a club thats actually accepting new members

After that it depends on if you can already shoot or not as there appears to be very little desire to encourage total beginners into the sport.

Was this when you were originally looking to join a club to get your FAC?
If smaller clubs are difficult to get into, is the NRA considered an alternative?
Can you give any examples of the lack of encouragement you came across?

If anyone replying to this thread is uncomfortable posting their experiences and thoughts publicly, please message me. Every response will be treated confidentially and not repeated here.

I doubt the NRA or any national body would be considered an alternative unless you live close to Bisley.

One of the reasons I built Silverstone Shooting Centre was the sheer apathy/hostility/arrogance/sniffyness (if thats a word) that I got when I first started shooting.

To be clear though, there are some excellent clubs, with excellent membership systems and encourage shooting for all kinds of people and they should be encouraged, but a lot of clubs are so far up their own arses that you'd need to be the most committed person in the World to want to take up shooting.

To help the OP, I think you'll find the clubs that want to grow the sport are already working very hard to do so, guest days, mentorships etc and the ones that dont, wont and whatever you say it wont change their minds, its is just how it is I'm afraid.

I'd say the hardest thing as a club committee member is that our small club has grown exponentially over the last 4 years and we physically cannot take on any new members because we don't have the room.

We only have 4 lanes and every night we're open it's rammed, existing members are struggling to get time to shoot all the postal competitions that as a club we compete in.

Sometimes it may seem that some clubs are up their own arses, but we've certainly found that we cannot grow at the pace that is necessary, so we have to turn new potential members away or get them to put their names on a waiting list which basically means when one member leaves or otherwise relinquishes need for the club, then we can bring on someone new, it's not a nice thing to do when you see someone wanting to get into the sport, but at the same time what else can you do when you're busting at the seams?

We're looking at expanding the facilities at the club to give us more lanes and more disciplines, but as it is run from the membership and volunteers, it's difficult to gain momentum at a pace necessary to keep up with the demand.

OK so there's not enough capacity with existing clubs and this is acting as a barrier to get more people into shooting?

Is this across the country or just in certain areas?
It would also help if you could mention which disciplines your club covers.

JSC wrote:OK so there's not enough capacity with existing clubs and this is acting as a barrier to get more people into shooting?

Is this across the country or just in certain areas?
It would also help if you could mention which disciplines your club covers.

Its very regional, TG has a range with only 4 lanes, not surprising he is full, there are others than have capacity and actively look for new members and also ones that have capacity but dont want members, its really down to them, its not like you can force people so its luck of the draw really as to where you live.

I am a fairly new shooter (5 years)

I was first introduced to a smallbore club with 4 20 yard bays, a 25 yard range with prone and bench options and a 10 yard air range with 4 bays. We (I say we as I am now on the committee) run a rolling beginners course on Monday's. The club is an indoor range with heating and a social area. Imho, this is the best club to start with.

I have since joined a full bore (pistol calibre club) with access to military ranges for long range shooting. Historically it was a pistol club and many members are long term. It is a small outdoor club with limited facilities so membership is limited to 50. As a result they generally only accept a couple of new members a year as someone lgives up shooting. They have club guns for newbies, but they are not stored on site so non shooters create a lot of work for the volunteer committee.

I started in the easy newbie club, and joined the other by invitation once I got my FAC.