Re: sportsmans association
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ruggerio
hi all i am looking into forming a private sportsman’s club here in pa. can anyone give any advice on how to organize it and in what form, ( llc, inc ?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ruggerio
i now have 7 dedicated potential members and i have the real estate to make a cub h.q. what next?
Thanks in advance jim
The goals of this club will be along the lines of firearm safety and training, education about the shooting sports, fishing, hunting and the propagation and conservation of public land for hunting and other outdoor sports and the occasional social event and or fund raiser
We have been through this before, but you ask different questions, first, is this an indoor range… I take it you will have a range right?
Outside? How big? As a general rule, you will want enough land to ensure bullets land on your property. Then to be sure, you will probably want to buy all the farm land right next to your property.
To give you an idea, GPGC had 150 acres, yet some one over 2 miles away complained of bullets hitting his roof on the opposing side of the range… Boomerang bullets are a big problem, if you own those farms next to the range, you can cut out this bull..
Now you want to be sure the land you own can be used as a range. Most municipalities will not complain about the noises of fishing, but guns are generally not welcome.
Next, you probably want to limit the liability to yourself.. LLC and insure both the range and yourself anyways, cause people will still try to sew you no mater what.
You will be asked to do water tests to see where waters coming off your land go, the people who are directly affected by these waters even 20 miles away will complain that you are polluting their water that they can not swim in or drink with lead. Be ready for this, it wont be pretty.
Now consider this land will be contaminated in a few years to the point, no one will want to buy it if you should decide this did not work out and want to sell the property.
Ok so this all done, you have to maintain the property. Not just the area where people will be shooting, but beyond it, so that any dummy who decides he wants to go for a walk to see where he could possibly hunt or shoot clays on his own will know this is an area where bullets are regularly expected to land.
Now most people think in terms of a coal mine or strip mine, or mountain side as a proper backstop, but you will need to design your shooting areas in such a way that no mate where the shooting activity is happening, the members will be safe. Nothing like learning you can’t shoot trap today because some one is shooting pistol or vise versa can’t shoot pistol because people will be shooting trap behind you.
The best club I had seen yet for this was built around a horse shoe manner. Entering the club, you went into the clubhouse by the open end of the horse shoe. To the right was pistol, directly in front where the toe would be was long range rifle and to the left skeet and trap. This way, no matter where you where going or what you where shooting, you where safe as all the shooting events happened shooting out of the horse shoe area.
Then again I also belonged to an other club where the opposite happened and you entered the toe area of the shoe where the club house was, At this club, when people shot trap, all other activity was stopped, then if some one shot pistol, rifle could also be shot, if some one was fishing, he could do so only when pistol rifle was open, Archery because it went every where stopped all other activities…
OK enough about this, so now, you probably need a couple hundred members to even make this worth it, maybe even a few thousands, You might even consider having a FFL on the property for these members so they buy every thing from you just to have the club operate.
You have property, but you need equipment, pending on what exactly will be shot there at the very least a very good tractor with a plow in front, probably more like a loader. If you have traps, pending again on how many fields or area’s you might consider a 2 to 4K per field and bunkers for each one of these or if skeet trap houses… To give you an Idea, GPGC had more then 100K in machinery and equipment needed to operate. So one of the things you will definitely need is some serious financing.
Anyways, when you open up, tell us where it is, we love group shoots.
Re: sportsmans association
wow thanks frenchy! but maybe i was confusing in my original post. we do not have a range we are in philly and want to start a club, like a private social club but we are sportsmen in that we all are into guns, hunting and fishing
what i was looking for is some technical info on the formation /organization of the club. thanks jim
Re: sportsmans association
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ruggerio
wow thanks frenchy! but maybe i was confusing in my original post. we do not have a range we are in philly and want to start a club, like a private social club but we are sportsmen in that we all are into guns, hunting and fishing
what i was looking for is some technical info on the formation /organization of the club. thanks jim
Perhaps I am confusing the workd Club with group...
You mean like a MC club?
A group of people who use a "club house" but have no specific place to shoot, more or less like PAFOA.
Wait, why not just join an already existing group? There are many members already and if a specific shoot is what you had in mind, like IDPA or CMP, then you can just organise a shoot at a specific "Club" as guests.
Re: sportsmans association
i have the building in philly and some friends and i are looking to start a local thing so that we may legaly host fund raisers as well as a general meeting to develop the shooting sports and maybe purchase a camp in the mountains. i want to ensure that " the club" will be owner and be run by a board
