"new" Ipsc Club (we Hope)

[Run n Gun]

Okay boys and girls, I REALLY need some help!

First a little background. I belong to a gun club that has been around since 1947 and in all of those years hasn’t had a single accident, not one. That said we’ve been shooting what’s referred to by or club as Action Pistol in a single bay that is our only pistol range. Our “Action Pistol” should be in no way confused with NRA Action Pistol we use IPSC (actually the USPSA) rulebook for our matches. A couple of us were looking over a plat of our club and noticed that we had an underused area that would accommodate (with some berm work) 4 shooting bays so we could have real live, genuine, full blown certified IPSC matches! Cool. So far so good but we have to convince our ultraconservative executive board members (who are mostly trap and silhouette shooters) that we can shoot IPSC without having two ambulances and six attorneys on standby at the matches! This is going to be a VERY hard sell; anybody that needs to load more than one round at a time is always viewed with suspicion.

So here my plea (finally!), I need some HARD data about safety and IPSC shooting (ya listening Vince? ). I’ve got a rulebook so I can show safety PROCEDURES, but something credible showing how effective those procedures are would be great.

Range design, berm types, heights, and berm materials, ricochets potential, sightlines. Anything, everything! I know some of you guys live this stuff and I need as many resources online/off line as I can get. The more credible/official the better!

Thanks SO much,

Ed

P.S. I called Sedro Woolley and they’re sending what they have.

[Flexmoney]

Run n Gun,

Get your crew into a USPSA RO class, ASAP.

Try to sponsor the class at your club, and get some of the shotguns guys to attend if at all possible. If you can bring in an experienced RO instructor...then they (shotguners) will see the stress that is put on saftey first hand.

[Vince Pinto]

You rang?

I can't help much in respect of giving you range design or construction information, but I suggest you explore the NASR website, especially their Reference Library section, which has a lot of files you can download.

Of course Flex is right on the money by urging that everybody involved should take an RO course.

Other than that, I don't have any "data" I can give you about the safety of IPSC, but I think our excellent safety record (i.e. no news is good news!), speaks for itself.

[Run n Gun]

Hey guys, thanks for the quick response!

Flex,

Of course you’re right, however, a quick peek at the USPSA site shows; “The hosting club must be affiliated with USPSA, all students must be current USPSA members, and there should be at least 20 students.” For us, that’s three strikes.

This is something that we (especially me) WANT to do and we probably WILL do it AFTER the board approves (and we then can “be affiliated”) but before we start running matches.

Vince,

Great resource! Please keep me in mind should anything else comes your way. We’re going to go slow and make sure that “all of our ducks are in a row” so it could be months.

Thanks again,

Ed

[BDH]

Run n Gun,

First, keep the faith and you will prevail! Second, if you can't host an RO class at your club, try to get as many people as possible through a nearby clubs RO class.

I do feel your pain as I belong to the Miami RIFLE and Pistol Club , and we have to deal with 'a concerned club member' every time we set up a match. It doesn't seem to matter to the rifle oriented board that our 'concerned club member' has NO pistol experience, and has no idea what we do.

Hang in there and let us know what else you need....

[Paul B]

All of the above are good suggestions and just may work. It depends on what you are truly fighting on the good ole boy board. It's been my experience that sometimes they just will not give in even though the arguments are all logical and true. In that case the only course (and sometimes the best course) is to set up a campaign and run for the board. In our area recently a club literally had a coup and changed the board. They went from 0 matches to 2 per month. In fact the only reason the RIFLE club that BDH mentioned has matches is because someone got on the board and started them from the inside.

Only you can guage what it will take, but if an election is coming up it might be good to move on 2 fronts. Just my $.05 (inflation).

[BDH]

In fact the only reason the RIFLE club that BDH mentioned has matches is because someone got on the board and started them from the inside.

True statement, and actually we now have two people on the BOD which does help. However, recently I was disappointed as I showed up at the club to practice, only to see a big track loader sitting on the range. This was brought in to move a bunch of dirt so they could widen the rifle range. Unfortunately, no one thought about the fact that while the heavy equipment was in, we should have also used it to 1) clean up some of our existing bays; 2) take some of the dirt from the rifle range expansion, and build up our berms; and 3) put in a new pit. The first two things could have been done with only a couple of hours of work (adding a new pit would be another matter), but apparently, no one even thought about what else we could have done while we had the equipment in.

I've had several people suggest that I run for the BOD, and so far I've resisted because I have most of my time committed to NROI and the big matches, but maybe I should take another look at this..........

[warpspeed]

Run n gun:

It has been my experience in life that no matter what the circumstances, money talks and BS walks.

Perhaps when talking to the BoD, show them how having a IPSC/USPSA club can add money to the clubs' bank account. More exposure means more possible members. More members means more $$$$. Not to mention match fees from non-members.

[bgary]

Where are you located? Your profile says Salem, Oregon?

If that is the case, there is *lots* of help available. Start with contacting Everett Mastrich, the Columbia-Cascade section's Section Coordinator. He not only works with the 4 or 5 clubs in that part of Oregon, he has spent the last couple of years working with a local club in Bend to build their range (berms, etc). He knows all the ins and outs, on everything from dirt-work to working with parent-club BoDs. Contact me off-list for his email and phone numbers, if you want.

Feel free to contact me, too, on or off list, for anything I can do to help. I work with clubs all throughout the northwestern US, and would be happy to help in any way I can, up to and including coming down to talk to the BoD about our sport's safety training and truly-impressive track record.

Bruce / USPSA Area-1

[dpeters8445]

Run N Gun,

My local club is kind of going threw the same thing only my club is going IDPA. I am a full time IPSC shooter and part time IDPA shooter. Our club decided to go IDPA before IPSC because because that is what the shooters in our area were more geared for. We started the process about 6 months ago and since we have goten 4 pits dug and we are going to have our first IDPA match next month.

One of the best thing to do to get the board interested is to have a complete game plan. And I mean complete, down to every detail that you can think of. Our club is prodominently shotguners so they were not going to do the leg work. Get the prices and contact information for all the gear your club will need and put it on papper.

Estimate how many shooters you will have per month and how much capitol it will cost to get started up and then do the math and figure out the time it will take to break even. It is much easier to get the startup cost in one sum then having to go back to the board and ask for money every week. Get as many people from your club and the clubs in the area to attend the RO class. The more the better.