Questions on IWLA

armed_economist · Jan 4, 2018

outrider58 said:
There are only a couple days a year the ranges are closed; Easter Sunday, Christmas(and maybe Eve too) and Thanksgiving day. If there are more, I'm not aware of them.

All range qualified members can shoot whenever the ranges are open, i.e. 10:AM til sunset (That time is always printed at the sign-in box and access gate).

Each range qual member receives two(2) guest passes, allowing them to bring two guests along to shoot with them during any open range period.

Our RSOs are usually charged with running classes and meets. They are not required to run ranges. I have met and know several of our RSOs and to a man, as far as I know, never went to RSO Nazi school.

We have a monthly general member meeting on the third Wednesday of the month. We have a dinner for those who would like to pay a small fee and a well stocked cash bar and social hour.

Sundays, our skeet and trap ranges are open to the public. Pay to shoot.

Check us out. We are a very friendly and welcoming chapter.

http://www.damascusiwla.org/calendar2018.html#january

Anything I'm wrong about, someone will be along to correct me, but for the most part, this is the usual operation.

Thanks for the details. If I understand correctly, 3 visits need to be made before I can get range access at Damascus:
1. First Wednesday of the month, present yourself in board meeting, get voted by board of directors. If approved,
2. 4th Wednesday of the month, general member meeting, get voted and become a chapter member if approved.
3. Last Sunday of the month, do range officer training to become "range approved" and obtain range access card.

The advantage is that once you become range approved you can use the range any day of the week, and you can become range approved right away. In the other chapters, only range officers have such privilege and a new member has to wait a period before becoming eligible for RO status.

Please correct if if anything is untrue.

outrider58 · Jan 4, 2018

armed_economist said:
Thanks for the details. If I understand correctly, 3 visits need to be made before I can get range access at Damascus:
1. First Wednesday of the month, present yourself in board meeting, get voted by board of directors. If approved,
2. 4th Wednesday of the month, general member meeting, get voted and become a chapter member if approved.
3. Last Sunday of the month, do range officer training to become "range approved" and obtain range access card.

The advantage is that once you become range approved you can use the range any day of the week, and you can become range approved right away. In the other chapters, only range officers have such privilege and a new member has to wait a period before becoming eligible for RO status.

Please correct if if anything is untrue.

Sounds right to me. It's been some time since being sworn in, but that sounds right.

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kshaw · Jan 4, 2018

armed_economist said:
Thanks for your detailed write up, very helpful. Is it possible to make arrangements with a RO to gain range access during the week, on a case by case basis? And sounds like the range is open during the winter months? The possibility of having storage there is great too.

Many of our ROs will not mind letting you shoot during the week while they are there, but it is their call. If you drop by and someone is at the range, you just need to ask and show your membership and range approved card. Here is the link to our chapter which contains information on the ranges and the range rules. http://www.iwlar.org

armed_economist · Jan 4, 2018

kshaw said:
Many of our ROs will not mind letting you shoot during the week while they are there, but it is their call. If you drop by and someone is at the range, you just need to ask and show your membership and range approved card. Here is the link to our chapter which contains information on the ranges and the range rules. http://www.iwlar.org

The Rockville chapter website does not say there is a probationary period for a new member, so there is nothing that prevents a new member from immediately taking the range officer training? You need both range safety (held every month) and officer trainings ("held at regular intervals throughout the year"), how often does the latter happen?

The advantage of Damascus is that you only need one training session right after you join to gain full week access, but it's also exactly twice the distance as the Rockville chapter from my house.

kshaw · Jan 5, 2018

armed_economist said:
The Rockville chapter website does not say there is a probationary period for a new member, so there is nothing that prevents a new member from immediately taking the range officer training? You need both range safety (held every month) and officer trainings ("held at regular intervals throughout the year"), how often does the latter happen?

The advantage of Damascus is that you only need one training session right after you join to gain full week access, but it's also exactly twice the distance as the Rockville chapter from my house.

There is no probationary period. After your membership is approved by the Board, you are invited to attend the next General Membership Meeting and before that meeting, you are provided the training for range approval. To become a Range Officer, you will have to make three visits to the range and have the Duty Range Officer sign off that they observed your shooting at the range and you handled your firearms safely and followed the Range Rules. Once you get the sign-offs then that you need to take a full day of training and pass a written test. You may want to attend our General Membership Meeting this Friday at 8:00pm as my guest and I can introduce you to our Membership Chairman. Our Guest Speaker is a chapter member and she will be presenting her experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail. I can give you a tour of the ranges and our lake on Saturday afternoon if you wish.

boss281 · Jan 5, 2018

photoracer said:
I think that is one of the major reasons I chose the Monocacy Pistol Club in Frederick as my first gun club. As a member I had access to the range from 9 to 9 (10-9 on Sunday) every day of the week except Christmas, no RSO required. Also because its mainly a competitive shooting club with matches most every weekend. Damascus IWLA wanted me to become a member at one time, and while I liked the range and my late wife and I did our Hunter Safety Course there we stuck with MPC.

Regarding Monocacy Pistol Club: Are the target layouts something similar to what you see in various competitive stages, or "traditionally" spaced at intervals like 5, 10, 15, 25 yards? PCC allowed for practice? I'd like to come to a membership meeting this month if I can. I'm only in New Windsor so perhaps a 40 minute drive...

biermkr · Jan 5, 2018

outrider58 said:
There are only a couple days a year the ranges are closed; Easter Sunday, Christmas(and maybe Eve too) and Thanksgiving day. If there are more, I'm not aware of them.

All range qualified members can shoot whenever the ranges are open, i.e. 10:AM til sunset (That time is always printed at the sign-in box and access gate).

Each range qual member receives two(2) guest passes, allowing them to bring two guests along to shoot with them during any open range period.

Our RSOs are usually charged with running classes and meets. They are not required to run ranges. I have met and know several of our RSOs and to a man, as far as I know, never went to RSO Nazi school.

We have a monthly general member meeting on the third Wednesday of the month. We have a dinner for those who would like to pay a small fee and a well stocked cash bar and social hour.

Sundays, our skeet and trap ranges are open to the public. Pay to shoot.

Check us out. We are a very friendly and welcoming chapter.

http://www.damascusiwla.org/calendar2018.html#january

Anything I'm wrong about, someone will be along to correct me, but for the most part, this is the usual operation.

The shotgun ranges are not open to the general public unless we have an open shoot tournament like Shooting Clays to Save the Bay.

http://damascusiwla.org/#skeet menu

outrider58 · Jan 5, 2018

biermkr said:
The shotgun ranges are not open to the general public unless we have an open shoot tournament like Shooting Clays to Save the Bay.

http://damascusiwla.org/#skeet menu

Thanks for the correction. I guess that was years ago?

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armed_economist · Jan 5, 2018

kshaw said:
There is no probationary period. After your membership is approved by the Board, you are invited to attend the next General Membership Meeting and before that meeting, you are provided the training for range approval. To become a Range Officer, you will have to make three visits to the range and have the Duty Range Officer sign off that they observed your shooting at the range and you handled your firearms safely and followed the Range Rules. Once you get the sign-offs then that you need to take a full day of training and pass a written test. You may want to attend our General Membership Meeting this Friday at 8:00pm as my guest and I can introduce you to our Membership Chairman. Our Guest Speaker is a chapter member and she will be presenting her experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail. I can give you a tour of the ranges and our lake on Saturday afternoon if you wish.

Thanks so much I appreciate it. Last night I spoke with Judy Danish, your membership secretary. She was very informative, and told me a new member has to wait at least 6 months before becoming eligible to take the range officer training. Before becoming an officer, a range approved member can still use the range during the week if there is a range officer there, but the officer must stop her own shooting and assume an supervising only role on the range approved shooters.
I also talked to a member of the Damascus chapter and confirmed that a new member there can immediately go through range training and become an officer (they don't distinguish between approved and officer status, you must become an officer if you want to use the range at all). That makes me lean more toward the Damascus chapter.

DrNRA · Jan 5, 2018

All good info. I’m going to attend my first Rockville meeting this month.

kshaw · Jan 5, 2018

DrNRA said:
All good info. I’m going to attend my first Rockville meeting this month.

Great. Meeting is tonight at 8:00pm.

armed_economist · Jan 5, 2018

outrider58 said:
Sounds right to me. It's been some time since being sworn in, but that sounds right.

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I shot an email to Tim Garrity the Damascus chapter membership chairman to see if there are membership vacancies at this time. I also have a current member who can sponsor me. Hope to get the application going next month.

outrider58 · Jan 5, 2018

armed_economist said:
I shot an email to Tim Garrity the Damascus chapter membership chairman to see if there are membership vacancies at this time. I also have a current member who can sponsor me. Hope to get the application going next month.

Good to hear. Last time I asked, we were taking new members(and I'm good friends with the Pres.

). So unless things have changed recently, you shouldn't have any problems :fingerscrossed:

.

photoracer · Jan 5, 2018

boss281 said:
Regarding Monocacy Pistol Club: Are the target layouts something similar to what you see in various competitive stages, or "traditionally" spaced at intervals like 5, 10, 15, 25 yards? PCC allowed for practice? I'd like to come to a membership meeting this month if I can. I'm only in New Windsor so perhaps a 40 minute drive...

MPC has several ranges, Pins, Steel, Bullseye, and Multi-Purpose.
Bullseye is 25 and 50 yard paper targets
Multi-Purpose can also be paper or steel as in rimfire metallic silhouette (they shoot the Maryland State Police Pistol Combat matches there).
Pins is either static steel or bowling pins you can set them up anyway you like, bring your own steel paint if you want to.
Steel is static or falling steel setup anyway you want, and also bring your own paint if you want to. They also have some types of specialty steel target setup including a plate rack and others.
The Steel and Pins ranges have a max distance of about 17 yards give or take a little due to range limits. You can bring your own steel targets with CRO approval (range insurance requirement). No other type of targets except paper.
Max velocity on range is 1350 FPS except for lanes 15 & 16 of the Multi-Purpose which can be used for testing at 1500 FPS.
No rifle calibers except .22LR. Currently working to get PCCs approved (a velocity thing).

photoracer · Jan 5, 2018

MPC has a waiting list as its maxed out at around 260 members. There is turnover every year so the waiting list usually goes to zero in January. Dues are $60 per year with an additional $60 initiation fee the first year only. Background check, training, and range familiarization in the first 6 months. Renewal requirements are you have to do 4 hours of work per year (there are range work days thru the year), or pay $25 for every hour you don't do, exempt if you are 65 and older. You must complete 1 shooting match per year.
There are 2 ways to become a member. One is show up as a guest at the range and shoot a couple of matches ($5 for non-members) so they see if you are safe to shoot with and then go to a meeting and apply. You will get plenty of sponsors if you do it that way and are safe. Or go a meeting and apply and then shoot a couple of matches.

boss281 · Jan 6, 2018

photoracer said:
MPC has a waiting list as its maxed out at around 260 members. There is turnover every year so the waiting list usually goes to zero in January. Dues are $60 per year with an additional $60 initiation fee the first year only. Background check, training, and range familiarization in the first 6 months. Renewal requirements are you have to do 4 hours of work per year (there are range work days thru the year), or pay $25 for every hour you don't do, exempt if you are 65 and older. You must complete 1 shooting match per year.
There are 2 ways to become a member. One is show up as a guest at the range and shoot a couple of matches ($5 for non-members) so they see if you are safe to shoot with and then go to a meeting and apply. You will get plenty of sponsors if you do it that way and are safe. Or go a meeting and apply and then shoot a couple of matches.

I'll try a meeting, and go from there. Thanks!

Fishguy · Jan 6, 2018

That is about right. However, in addition to those, you also have to go to the shotgun class if you want to use the trap and skeet fields.

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