Blue Creek Conservation Club

[PLANEMECH]

This not a complaint against the place or the people who run it more to some of the people that shoot there. I really love shooting there its outside small and quite place. But lately some friends and I are tired of a certain problem starting to acure. Here it is a great day to take my son and daughter today to teach them to shoot. All were excited we get there to find the 30 yrs range has been destroyed by someone who has tore down all the wood posts for the range with shotgun blasts. It then takes me over an hour to try and rebuild them and try and find nails long enough and something to hammer them in with since someone stole the one we keep down there.This just pisses me off for rest of time there. Since it has eaten in to our time. If you destroy it rebuild it don't just leave it. What has happened to people today. This is the third time I have had to rebuild it before we have shot and my friends many times also. What is the reasoning to try and target shoot with shot. I could understand stand sighting in a slug gun or a few shots to see how the pattern is, but to just go blasting away. Come on go out to field some were you know and blast at things don't destroy the range. Does anyother place have problems like this. Thanks for the rant.

 

[sartwell]

I know what you're saying. Last Monday when Tracy and I were there it was the same way.

 

[bwframe]

I'm truly sorry to tell you this, but we are amongst self-centered non-caring aholes. This is not unique to your club. I am a member of three different conservation clubs and all have had problems like this.

Some of it is very naive lack of understanding of what and how target stands work. Some of it is blatant disregard for club property. IE, shooting tires, equipment, other obvious non targets.

 

[giovani]

Here is what the club I belong to did to combat vandalism, raise the club dues to a point where you keep out most of the rifraf.
Our dues are now $275 for the first year and $200 every year after,at first I thought "ouch" but after a couple of years it was evident that rubes who want to shoot everything up or blow stuff up quit coming.
With all the money I have invested in guns , ammo,reloading, its really insignificant .
Actually I wouldn't mind if they raised it another hundred and weed out the rest.
We found that you have to put up fences and lock the place with a combo lock and every member gets the combo when they join via email, and it gets changed every 6 months

 

[indyk]

Sadly yes, our club chose to install a few cameras at the entrance and one towards/near the line "hidden".
The monitor etc is at the managers house on a live feed. We have new and NON members showing up blowing 2 ft holes into the ground, leaving their trash, shooting into the canopy, shooting at anything they can find in dumpsters, glass, mcdonalds cups, the chairs, name it.

These idiots clean thier cars out after they shoot and fill the ranges trash barrels till they overflow

Since the cameras have been installed we "members" will more than likely give a stranger the 3rd degree about his membership being visible, or just verifying they have one.
Non members are getting kicked off the place more and more since one ass decided to launch a 54R round 1/2 mile above the backstop landing into someones bathroom, the management has been getting stiff.
Things are getting better.

I have been goin to my range since 82,
while my dad sighted in his blackpowder rifle I would shoot my first daisy pellet rifle and pick up brass etc.
Family members, friends and acquaintances help build our clubs range many many years ago.
To see it deteriorate one bit gets me worked up more and more,
Still the riff raff occasionally keeps getting in, doin what they do.


The day I have my own place

 

[giovani]

I will also add with the added revenue to the club we have hired a grounds keeper to do the day to day maintenance ,repair back stops, mow grass, grade parking lot etc.
It also pays for the wood , screws , mower, gas etc.
We now have membership cap in place and a waiting list of over 350 people wanting in, so it didn't hurt the club in any way.

 

[Miles42]

The club I used to belong to in Pa also had locked fences etc that only paid members had acces to keys. All locks changed yearly. This cut down destruction of property to nothing. Self centered jerks are a big contribution to the way the general public views gun owners.

 

[midget]

Sadly FWRR has the same problem from time to time... People will hang targets on the uprights and cross beams and shoot the hell out of them.... Our FWAPS group normally has to replace them...

 

[digitick]

Thanks for the heads-up, PLANEMECH. I plan on getting a membership there soon. Now I know what to look out for.

The dues are extremely inexpensive at Blue Creek. Maybe it's time to double them?

 

[MtnBiker6510]

When I was there in July the uprights and crossbars at the 50 were normal, but it seems every year its in the late summer and fall when they get destroyed by shotgunners.

OP, Did you call one of the club reps to report the damage?

 

[PLANEMECH]

Digitick please don't take my rant for not going to blue creek everyone I have met while down there has been great people and your right the dues are low which attract people I would be ok for a rate hike. I think the ones that do it are mostly non members who sneek in. There are ways in I have noticed most seem to police their own stuff. Just wanted to hope to reach out to the idiots if they were on line.

 

[PLANEMECH]

I will be

 

[Westside]

I wish I could say that is only your club. Every club or range I have been to is the same way. People pay their money so they think they can destroy it and it will magically get fixed. Very few people take pride in there work and what the have. 'tis a sad season we are in.

 

[CountryBoy19]

This is what a private range I am a member of had to do to combat range damage.

Create a sign-in list so that every visitor can be tracked. Obviously this alone doesn't tell you who did the damage but by process of elimination over time you can weed out which guys are doing the damage. For example, Joe leaves the range at 1100 on one day and it was in good condition when he left, and Jack got there at 1700 and it was destroyed we know that the damage was done between 1100 & 1700. We look at the sign-in book and determine who was there and contact each person to ask them if they noticed any damage while they were there. Obviously they can lie, but you can eliminate some of them if you know some of them are honest. Now you've narrowed it down to X, Y, or Z members, and you know to keep an eye out for them next time.

The penalty for being caught not signed in? You get 1 warning. If you screw up again and don't sign in your membership is revoked. So anybody trying to remain anonymous by not signing in will face a pretty steep penalty.

 

[zenbruno]

OP, as others have said, malicious disregard for club property, unfortunately, is a problem for many ranges - whether public, private or by some other form of membership.

Where I shoot, I can promise you that if I saw what you described, as you described it -- with shooters willfully destroying club-owned wood target frames and leaving the splintered, destroyed and useless mess scattered all over the range -- I would have calmly confronted the shooters. And depending upon the response and effort to fix and cleanup after themselves, I would report their names/club IDs to one of our club's board members or trustees. And I can promise you that many other of our club's regular members, who upon seeing the violations as you described, would also have definitely confronted and/or reported the errant shooters.

Part of what makes the expectation of member accountability work so well at my range -- MCFG, by the way -- is that I know, positively, that if I report such an act of vandalism and malicious conduct, the board members WILL back me up, as they would back up any club member who brought to their attention a similar transgression occurring on club property.

I'm sorry for always being such a cheerleader for MCFG, but I've been a member there, off and on, for more than a decade, and I believe that the balance right now between freedom to shoot as you please (within common sense bounds, obviously) and accountability/enforcement with regard to basic range rules is very close to ideal.

When visiting MCFG, if you're doing right and you've done your due diligence in absorbing safe gun handling practices and range rules, then the "sense of presence" of heavy-handed protocols or strictures will remain out of your central consciousness, allowing you to fully concentrate on a fun, safe and meaningful range experience.

Without criticizing other ranges around the state, I know that some of these facilities, by their design, are much more intrusive upon your range experience. Again, I don't criticize that, but I REALLY appreciate that MCFG has chosen, instead, to ask each member to dig just a little deeper for a spirit of maturity, courtesy and self-accountability while conducting themselves at the range. But baby, f#@% that up, and quite likely, you will be caught and held accountable. Freedom and enjoyment undergirded by clear common sense range rules and structured accountability. Perfect. Thank you MCFG!

But for these other shooting ranges/clubs, if there is no governing structure in place to outline and enforce range rules, then it leaves all that up to the various members to decide on the fly... and sort of make it up as they go along. THAT is not ideal.




ETA: Attempted to clarify a point I wanted to make.

 

[GIJEW]

Like MCFG, Fall Creek Valley cc has a sign in sheet; member orientation (MCFG now requires a safety class); and an electronic gate. The gate was installed to keep non members from driving up and abusing the place.

 

[Chance]

The gate is locked...

I have been a member there for the past 20 years. St. Mary's/Bluecreek is a great little range and is usually taken care of. As a member, you get the combination to the gate, which is to be locked behind you when you enter. There are definitely more "abusers" of late. I usually clean up the range before I even start to shoot.

We do have video at different times.

for those of you who are members......the next work day is Saturday, November 3, 2012. The range could use your help. I was one of the 8 out of 300+ members that helped at the Spring work day......

 

[sloughfoot]

I am VP at FWRR, I am a past member at Bluecreek. Love that range and the people.

Things seem to be getting worse. I am getting close to retirement. I want to spend more time just on the range and monitoring behavior. I think It would be OK to lay around eating sandwiches and drinking iced tea.

I did have a conversation one time witha fellow who stapled his targets to the uprights in bay 4. He didn't remember who sponsored him into the club. he thought it was perfectly normal to use the uprights behind hs paper.

I really think some people have no commen sense.

 

[Wesley Willis]

Bumping this thread for the "new rule letter" that was mailed out. I didn't get the letter because I have been in NYC for almost 3 months, but my friend who is a member e-mailed me a copy. Apparently there were so many problems like this thread describes, that they have limited hours and a range master now. Does anyone know if any new rules will be in place regarding machine gun use at Blue Creek? To be honest, their "OK" of machine gun/full auto weapons on their range is the only reason I joined 3 years ago...but the range itself is what has kept me a member. I saw my fair share of target destruction, but never thought it was excessive. The pistol range was always way worse than the rifle range...go figure, haha. Also the letter states a neighbor found rounds in their barn/yard.

 

[Wesley Willis]

Oh, and I would be all for a rate hike to build a fence and proper gate. The "locked gate" they have is a joke.