New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club

**codename** · December 10th, 2011, 08:22 PM

I know there have been a few threads regarding New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club, but I wanted start a new one instead of trying to piggyback on an old thread.

I recently moved to Chester county and am looking to join a club for use of the facilities year-round. New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club seems to fit the bill based on what I'm looking for which is basically pistol, rifle, and shotgun (Skeet and target) at this point. I also want to get into some precision rifle shooting and they seem to have the facilities for this.

There are a few concerns that I have based on what I have read in previous threads. The New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club web site is minimal at best, so I was hoping that people could provide some insight as well as their opinions.

- Work weekends: Are these required? Not that I am against them, but my line of work has me working odd hours in addition to being on call 24/7. Excuses aside, I do not want to be deemed a deadbeat or be in poor standing with the club if I cannot make it to the work weekends.

- Land Fee: I'm not sure what this is, it's purpose, ect. Any information would be helpful.

- Probation Period: My understanding is that this is something similar to a "don't screw up period". Although I don't really understand it since I would assume any club reserves the right to revoke your membership if you do something unsafe. Perhaps there are details that I am missing?

- Ammo Freedom: Not necessarily anything that I have heard about New Holland, but I want to be sure that I am able to shoot whatever ammo I want (with in reason). Personally I have mostly run into this with indoor ranges that don't want you to use steel cased ammo or ammo that is in bulk packaging for varying reasons.

I know the best bet is to take a trip up there, take a look around and talk to the staff there. I plan to do that once I am ready to make a final decision. At this point I'm just gathering information and would appreciate any additional opinions that anyone wants to share.

**jack76590** · December 10th, 2011, 10:45 PM

New Holland Rifle and Pistol club does not have a shotgun field.

No problem with steel, aluminum cased ammo, but I am sure tracer would be a problem.

They now make you attend certain number of monthly meetings during probationary period. Maybe you can be excused. Why this provision was established is beyond my understanding.

I am member of New Holland Rifle and Pistol club as well as Penn Dutch which is about five minutes from New Holland Rifle and Pistol Club. Penn Dutch I think is much better deal and it has trap field which they operate on periodic basis. I think announced on their calendar.

My advise is join Penn Dutch now and consider joining New Holland at later date. Link

http://www.penndutchsportsmen.com/

Cocalico is the place for trap and skeet. One of few skeet facilities in Lancaster area. May be too far for you however. But they have regular practice session about twice a week and this is open to the public. So you can go shoot trap/skeet and see if you want to join club to have access to other facilities. Link

http://www.cocalicosportsmen.org/

There is also Atglen esp if you are into sporting clays. However, I suspect their membership is currently filled, but an email to check is easy.

http://www.atglensportsmensclub.org/index.asp

**Rosco the Iroc** · December 11th, 2011, 08:57 AM

PM Lastdefender.

**TunedDownGuitar** · January 7th, 2012, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by codename

- Work weekends: Are these required? Not that I am against them, but my line of work has me working odd hours in addition to being on call 24/7. Excuses aside, I do not want to be deemed a deadbeat or be in poor standing with the club if I cannot make it to the work weekends.

- Land Fee: I'm not sure what this is, it's purpose, ect. Any information would be helpful.

- Probation Period: My understanding is that this is something similar to a "don't screw up period". Although I don't really understand it since I would assume any club reserves the right to revoke your membership if you do something unsafe. Perhaps there are details that I am missing?

- Ammo Freedom: Not necessarily anything that I have heard about New Holland, but I want to be sure that I am able to shoot whatever ammo I want (with in reason). Personally I have mostly run into this with indoor ranges that don't want you to use steel cased ammo or ammo that is in bulk packaging for varying reasons.

I know the best bet is to take a trip up there, take a look around and talk to the staff there. I plan to do that once I am ready to make a final decision. At this point I'm just gathering information and would appreciate any additional opinions that anyone wants to share.

New Holland is one of the better ranges in the area in my opinion. I'm not a board member, just an enthusiastic member of the range. It's an unmanned range and it runs on the honor system. As long as you don't compromise safety or break the rules you'll be fine.

- Work weekends are required. You have to do three in the first year, however they are flexible on it and may allow you to do other stuff like assist at matches by scoring or working a stand for major ones. I believe they had people working stands for the Mogadishu Mile and Contagion 2010/2011. Make a best effort to get out there. I know I personally don't want to wake up at 7AM and hop in the car to work my butt off, but it does help the club and without maintenance it'll fall into shambles.
- Land fee pays for the land grant that we purchased not too long ago. It's $250 upon joining along with the $75 dues. It's more of an initiation fee, but it can be broken up over your first two years for $200 each renewal.
- Probation period is while you attend four meetings, one per quarter, and three work days. It's important to show up to the meetings because you get a say in what goes on even if you are a probationary member. Not only that you get to know the board, the fellow members, etc.
- Any ammunition is fine except for .50BMG, armor piercing, or incendiary. That also applies to shotgun shells, so no dragons breath. No +P or +P+, magnum loads, etc. on the steel plate racks in the pistol pits. That'll chew it up something awful and then it has to be replaced. The indoor range we have is limited to rimfire only -- .22 or .17HMR. The bullet traps can't handle centerfire and you'll put a hole in the wall.

The indoor range is locked 24/7 and you have to be a full member to get a key to get access. It's a good range. There's the 25/50 that is going to have one of the backers stretched out to 100 yards. There's the 50/100 range on the same turf as the 600 yard. There's steel silhouettes or targets from 200 to 600, sometimes the 200 gets shot down because it gets hit the most. 5 pistol pits, one with two steel plate racks.

If you want more information PM me. I'll also take you as a guest one day if you like so you can try it before you buy it. Membership caps at 1000 members and we're in the 850 range, so now is the time to join. I can show you the whole facility since I have a key as well. Just bring $5 for the guest fee and we'll be fine.

Also, Jack, I might join that club because I want a good skeet range. It'd be nice to go straight from New Holland a few minutes down the road to do skeet/trap all in one day.

- Taylor B