Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #21
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    On top of a hill, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    Quote Originally Posted by wanneroo View Post
    Surprisingly the EPA is not much of a problem. I have been involved with small companies that built extensive outdoor ranges and I queried about this. As far as the EPA is concerned intact lead bullets are inert and when shot into woods or a berm they just sit there for eternity and do nothing. The only concern they have is lead dust from shooting steel and even that wasn't a concern. In fact the state environmental agencies in these two different states(not PA) were more concerned and even that was overcome.
    When I lived in NJ I belonged to NJRPC which is a huge outdoor club and the lead clean up project lasted from 2011 into 2013 and cost a small fortune. While I didn't go to every member meeting a lot of the new berm construction and the amount they had to remove of the old was due to EPA and state eco regs. Maybe the majority came from the state but I'm sure those rules will carry over to here sooner then later especially if one goes up in an area that doesn't want it.

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    Out There, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    SO many hurdles to jump through. Things were more simple when most of these clubs and ranges were started. Huge investments of money, and time. Red tape, zoning, liability.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    USN Retired, Pennsylvania
    (Monroe County)
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    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    There is $$$$ to be made with a good outdoor range and it's a pipe dream of mine, but the $$$$$$$ and years of fighting locals and zoneing keeps it that way.
    Owner Trigger Time LLc 01 FFL/NFA Saylorsburg, PA. Sales/Service/Transfers/Training
    NRA CRSO/Pistol/Rifle/Shotgun inst. BSA Rifle/Shotgun Merit badge counselor. US Navy Marksmanship Team Staff

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Montco, Pennsylvania
    (Montgomery County)
    Posts
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    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Gunowner99 View Post
    Now I have heard this is the best private club in Berks but never been in there:

    https://goo.gl/maps/u7ApZs7c4NG2

    Some thing about poker games and scantily clad women?
    I don’t get it?

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Media, Pennsylvania
    (Delaware County)
    Posts
    112
    Rep Power
    2414532

    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    The opinion I am giving is simply my own, and not based on facts:

    It SEEMS to me that the rise in gun interest is due to home and self defense...as opposed to old-fashioned target shooting for score. A small indoor range is adequate for blasting your magnum handguns at 5-10 yards at a target that resembles a man, troll, or whatever. Many old farts, like me, prefer shooting our less potent handguns at bulls-eye targets at a distance of 25 or 50 yards. Some even do this one-handed. That being said, I assume very old ranges, like I being to, are disappearing, and new indoor ranges are opening. I would also guess that most indoor ranges cater to handguns only. Our gun club takes up many acres catering to handguns, rifles, black powder, trap, skeet, sporting clays, archery, and air guns.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Chambersburg PA (Pure Appalachia), Pennsylvania
    (Franklin County)
    Posts
    1,649
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    650477

    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    I'll not anylize it, just offer what I see.

    The club I am a member of has been around in one form or another for over a hundred years. Chartered and incorporated since just after World War Two, when the returning members wanted to shoot more in a formal setting. Wound up owning near a hundred acres up aqianst the mountain, where nobody could buy land and start fussin' about bullets and noise and stuff.

    The membership is limited to one thousand, we DO have a waiting list.

    But the Board of directors and the club officers and the "inner-club" (Black-powder, archery, 22 silhouette, trap and long-range rifle) club officers are among the hundred that manage and do all the labor for all the money-making events, make and sell funnel-cakes at the county fairs and festivals every weekend of every summer, that show up to mow the lawns, repair the target-butts, or clear brush.

    The other 800 are there so they can have a place to shoot - and not much more. They pay their dues, shoot up the backstops, don't put their litter in the cans ( and often don't make it as members the following year).

    There is about a hundred that do the work, another hundred or so who have been on the boards, done the work, and now are too old or too lamed up to do more than support.

    Flash
    Last edited by Flash; December 13th, 2018 at 07:35 PM.
    "The life unexamined is not worth living." ....... Socrates

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    West Alexander, Pennsylvania
    (Washington County)
    Posts
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    Default Re: Why aren't new outdoor ranges and gun clubs being formed in PA. ?

    We started researching building an outdoor range around October 2014 and by early March 2015 we had purchased property, finalized all the permits, and started construction of Washington County Tactical Range near West Alexander, PA, On May 3rd, 2015 we opened the first shooting area. Since then we have added four other shooting areas from 30' to 300 yards and added two additional parking lots. I'm glad to say we have zero debt and there are no plans to every go into debt. We don't build something until we can pay for it in cash. I don't expect the business to bring in money for at least three years, which is good, because there are a lot of things I want to build in that timeframe. Classrooms, force-on-force 360-degree shoot house, and of course more ranges.

    In the past three years have dealt with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, PennDOT, DEP, DOJ, ATF, PA DEP, county, and lastly the local township government.

    Point being, new ranges are being built, but it definitely takes a commitment of time and money.
    Washington County Machine Guns & Tactical Range -- CMP Affiliated Club -- FFL 07 / FFL 10 / FEL 20 / SOT 02 / ITAR
    Largest MG Rental Business on the entire East Coast. M2HB, M9 Flamethrower, M67 Grenades, M240 Bravo, M249 SAW, M1919, RPD, M60, Bowling Ball Mortar.
    Now offering High-Explosive Classes (Open to the Public)

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