Range Officer

[Pete]

Phaedra said "Anything happens you're on your own, not a good situation to be in if you have an accident or God forbid a firearm injury"
Well if you're happy to accept that risk, and take full responsibility if it goes tits-up, then why not?

You may find that most clubs won't allow it, though.

Pete

[Mauserbill]

Hello
Sorry Pete and what then happens if an accident results in serious injury or death and the health and safety executive/Police investigate and find that the club is found to be in breach of its duty of care and closes the club resulting in all members being penalised.
There could also be serious implications to any shooting facilities insurance liability cover should a claim be made for the omission of safety procedures.

[Blackstuff]

Has anyone any recommendations or shared experiences?

Don't be afraid to enforce the rules, even with your mates. They might get the hump with it, but ultimately it's about ensuring everyone is safe and continues to enjoy themselves.

I've had to stop people shooting a couple of times over the years and one person understood, the other was difficult about it. The difficult guy was ex forces and loved to remind everyone about it. He was a hazard on a practical range (and I suspect the static rifle ranges too...) and refused to listen to range orders because he'd been in the mob and thought he knew better.

I agree with some of the other comments that it is a mostly thankless task, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. PSG tended to be the best to RO, the worst was ROing Target Rifle competitions, bunch of divas.

I was an NRA RCO for 10 years and I still am a UKPSA RO. The above is similar to my experience, although I'd say by some margin, the people who mainly game shoot/pest control are far and away the worst 'group' to manage I've come across.

I went clay shooting for the first time in 6.5years at the weekend and some of the people that feel the need to attend wearing full tweed/cammo etc when clay shooting displayed some mind boggling gun handling. One guy managed to muzzle sweep the entire cafeteria/restaurant (its a posh place!) with no less than 3 guns at the same time . Saw another with an O/U closed, arms resting on the butt, muzzles resting on his toe. Spectacular(!) THis has always been my experience.

Being an RCO you will get to learn about the vast difference in peoples attitudes towards 'rules'. Everything from those that are obsessed by them, to the point where they will actively dob someone in for the most minor infraction, to people who are utterly oblivious to the reasoning behind the most common sense rules and in some cases will purposefully break them just to 'prove a point' (the "nobody died" brigade).

Being an RCO/RO is by and large a thankless job, but these days without it nobody would be shooting at a range so its good to see someone keen to put their hand up. Don't be surprised if you don't have a vastly different attitude in 5 years or so

[billgatese30]

Being an RCO you will get to learn about the vast difference in peoples attitudes towards 'rules'. Everything from those that are obsessed by them, to the point where they will actively dob someone in for the most minor infraction, to people who are utterly oblivious to the reasoning behind the most common sense rules and in some cases will purposefully break them just to 'prove a point' (the "nobody died" brigade).

Don't get a job in Health & Safety...you've just described the last several years of my daily life in one paragraph!

[ukrifleman]

I was a NRA RCO for a number of years. mainly helping to run shoots on MOD ranges for one of my my clubs.
I enjoyed the experience, but it can mean a drastic reduction in personal range time if there aren't enough RCO's to share the load, which often happened.
On the plus side, you do save on ammunition expenditure!
ukrifleman

[Jersey]

Being an RCO/RO is by and large a thankless job, but these days without it nobody would be shooting at a range so its good to see someone keen to put their hand up. Don't be surprised if you don't have a vastly different attitude in 5 years or so

I took the view after 15 years membership when someone asked, I thought - why not?

[bradaz11]

There's zero tolerance to anything that would compromise personal safety.
It's surprising how many feel the need to touch firearms, magazines etc when people are ahead of the line

whats the issue with touching a magazine? never heard that as an issue before?


as for shooting on your own, as others have said, if stalking etc, it's not seen as a big deal.
for those saying about safety from others, if you are all down range changing targets and there is just the ro behind the line, thats still only one person. same goes for entering and leaving. do you all escort each other out in one big group if someone wants to leave? of course you don't.

and if a van load of travellers rock up to your range and demand all your guns, are all the old boys going to scrap it out with them? no of course you aren't. you're going to hand it all over then call the police.

[Jersey]

There's zero tolerance to anything that would compromise personal safety.
It's surprising how many feel the need to touch firearms, magazines etc when people are ahead of the line

whats the issue with touching a magazine? never heard that as an issue before?

With a crowd of up to 15 shooters, often many new, with their pistols benched with one or two empty magazines sitting alongside, it's best to have a no handling policy whilst others have gone forward to patch. With the tables full, it's often hard to determine what's being touched - be it firearm or magazine.
Here's one of the club's 50 metre ranges, this one is used for general practice and training. I'm to cover this once a month.

[Jorden]

I agree with Jersey, it does not take long before you get " I was only showing my mate how tight the magazines are" when people are down range marking.

[Daryll]

Our range shooting area floor is painted in 2 zones... the red zone 3-4 ft from the benches, the gray zone behind that.
Once all the weapons on the benches have been cleared by the RO, and people are allowed to go forward, no-one is allowed in the red zone. If the RO stands at the end of the line of benches, he can easily see anyone infringing that..

If you've picked up a magazine and box of ammo, theres no problem loading the magazine while you're standing in the grey zone when others are forward.