We’ve been told time and time again, “You sure do have a nice range here! It’s probably the nicest range in Arkansas.” Well, I can’t say if our range is the nicest in Arkansas, but I can say, we have a very nice range! We have a nice place to play!
That said, each club member with Just very few exceptions came to our club asking if you could join the club and use the range. Each of us “just wants a place (a nice SAFE place) to come shoot our guns. Not only did each member ask to join, each member actually PAID us to be allowed to shoot here.
That said, it remains a puzzle why some seemingly responsible club members appear inclined to shoot up club property and damage expensive targets when they probably know better. You guys asked us to be allowed to come to join and shoot here! Why would someone want to tear up what they seemed eager to be allowed to use?
The club strives to have interesting or at least usable targets to shoot at the range. The AR500 Bullet RESISTANT targets we place at the rifle range cost in excess of $250 each. The steel targets at the pistol range cost in excess of $200 each. Obviously, these targets are expensive! You, as members have paid a bunch of money for something to shoot at time and time again. Wouldn’t you like to have these targets last as long as possible?
Let’s talk a minute about Range Safety, which goes hand in hand with being polite to fellow club members! There are over 600 club members at this time. Needless to say, if all 600 showed up with guns wanting to shoot at the same time, we’d be in trouble. Please remember, this is a GUN RANGE! Everyone here is armed. Some are better shots than others, but everyone on the range is armed. That being said, why would anyone want to be rude to someone with a gun?
There are basically 3 Rules of Gun Safety. We each need to practice them religiously at ALL TIMES. Serious injuries usually result when we choose to ignore any or all three of them. That’s a nice way of saying “someone is going to get shot!” Wonder who it will be?
1. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
2. Always keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction.
3. Always keep your firearm unloaded until you are ready to use it.
There are other, longer versions of these Rules of Safe Gun Handling, but if you can manage to keep up with the 3 Rules above, everyone gets to go home at night to their families.
There’s a document going around on the internet touting the RULES OF A GUNFIGHT. One of the rules is that the longer the gunfight lasts, the more shot you’re likely to be! The same applies to the 3 Rules of Gun Safety; the longer or more you ignore the 3 Rules of Gun Safety, the more shot you or someone else is likely to be!
If someone tells you that you are conducting yourself in an unsafe manner, take that as an effort on their part to help you and others present to go home safe, please accept their intervention as an effort to keep us all alive or to stop damaging club property. Don’t be disrespectful, be grateful they are trying
to keep everyone alive or help protect club property! If you bring a guest, please don’t allow them to argue with club members about how to conduct themselves at our range. If you or your guest disagree, call it a day or go to the other range and plink there. Current members trump guests EVERY TIME. Agree or move on!
Conversely, if you see someone being unsafe or damaging club property, as a club member, it’s your responsibility to point out to the offender (in a very polite manner) that what they are doing is not in the best interest of the club or club members! Get involved! Our gun club and our shooting range will only be as safe as each of our club members insists it be. If you allow unsafe acts, everyone is at risk! Please report anyone who chooses to continue unsafe or damaging behaviors after being asked to stop. Provide the club officer with as much information about the offender as you can…..Name? car license tag number? Make and color of the automobile? Some information that we can use to learn who this guy is so we can get his side of the story. It doesn’t always work, but at least we tried!
We as gun club officers try to provide a safe and clean place to shoot as well as provide “after-hours” club functions that we can all enjoy. Please plan to come to participate in our fan and games. We have two cookouts at the range; one in April or May and one usually in October. Great food, a great time to enjoy the outdoors. Come join us. We have an Ice Cream Social on the 4th of July where we make homemade ice cream and have deserts while watching fireworks! We also have a nice Christmas party every year. Again great food, a nice get-together with friends, nice prizes as well. The club is spending your money as agreed to by club vote by those that attend the club meeting (every other month). Come to the meetings as well as the get-togethers and enjoy all we have to offer! Again, we’re spending your money and having a good time doing it!
For new members wanting to join us, these two pages tell you a little about our club.
For existing members, these two pages are a sign of my desperation and feeling of helplessness. I’m helpless to stop the senseless damage to club targets and a few members being obstinate and unsafe and disrespectful to others while on the range.
This range belongs to all of us. Each of us asked to be a member of this range and seemed glad to have a place to come shoot. Each and every one of us asked to be here! Please don’t tear stuff up! Regarding
range safety, treat every gun like it is loaded…Always. Don’t point it at ANYONE. Be nice to folks, and accept their coaching regarding range safety. Coach those that are being unsafe. Don’t accept a reckless person on our range.
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For existing club members: Before we’ll mail you a new club membership card for the coming year, I need you to read this document AND the attached Range Safety Rules. Put your name on the page asking for your name marked “RENEWAL” and mail that one signed page back to us with your renewal fee check. When we receive your renewal check AND the one page saying you’ve read this document and the attached RANGE SAFETY RULES, we’ll mail you a new card with the upcoming year’s combination on the back. You can also take the same cover sheet and your renewal check by the Old Bank Gun and Pawn and, after you’ve read and signed the cover sheet, Mr. Ellis (Chief Range Safety Officer) will hand you a new club card with this year’s combination on it.
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For all you new members looking for a nice place to shoot, please don’t take this pitiful appeal as a foreboding of woe. We’re actually a pretty nice group. Like any group, we have one or two who think they are above the rules. If you plan to be #3 who plans to go rouge and ignore the rules, please move
along somewhere else. If, like many of us who are proud of our range and enjoy what it has to offer, step right up, promise to play by the rules and put your money down. Line’s Hot. Play Nice. Sam Cullum, Currently, your Club President 479-886-8900 [email protected]
RANGE RULES
THE RANGE IS RESERVED FOR MEMBERS AND INVITED GUESTS OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY GUN CLUB ONLY.
Should you choose to bring a guest to the range, you are responsible for this guest’s behavior and safety while they are at the range. The guest is not to argue with or second guess any of the members’ safety briefings or safety suggestions. They are a guest and must conduct themselves in a manner deemed safe by all shooters present. Do not allow the guests to act unsafely or to damage club property by shooting our steel targets with the larger caliber or more powerful rounds than allowed. You are responsible for their behavior. Visitors are allowed for 2 or 3 times, and then they must purchase a membership. Before shooting, your guest must sign a Liability Waiver found in the 100-yard target house.
UNINVITED SHOOTERS ARE VIEWED BY THE ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY GUN CLUB AS TRESPASSERS AND ARE ASKED TO LEAVE.
When entering the property, lock the access gate behind you. This ensures that a person entering the range should be a member and have the same safety consciousness as you do while shooting. Be sure to place the locking chain around the swinging gate before locking the locks! Should one of the locks fail to function properly to let you into or out of the range, use the other remaining lock and contact either Jeff Ellis at the Old Bank Pawn and Gun at 229-2228 or Sam Cullum at 479-886-8900 to have the defective lock replaced.
Eye and ear protection is required on the range. No alcohol or illegal drugs are permitted on the range. Prescription drugs can impair your judgment. Come to the range unimpaired for everyone’s safety.
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Should you be injured or injure someone at the range, you must notify one of the club officers immediately.
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In case of emergency, there are 911 address signs located under each awning. Remember to tell 911 the gate combination or send someone to unlock the gate for them.
No shooting is allowed before 07:30 AM at the earliest and must cease shooting at 30 minutes after sunset.
If you discover an abandoned firearm or shooting gear at the range, please take found items to the Old Bank Gun and Pawn in Dardanelle. Likewise, if you left something of value at the range and it wasn’t at the range when you returned for it, go to the Old Bank Gun and Pawn and hope someone dropped it off there!
NO FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS ARE ALLOWED ON THIS RANGE!!! This helps promote good neighbor relations for the time being. Shooting exploding here has been banned by the voting membership. They panic the neighbors!
No hunting is allowed on the range property. This is a target shooting club, not a hunting club. Should an animal or bird cross the firing range, let it go! Do not take legal game or “blow it away” just because you thought it would be cool! That’s not why we’re here! Act responsibly! Be a grown-up!
Do not go exploring on the property without a safety watch posted. A newly arriving shooter would not know where you are down range and begin firing, putting you at risk. There is no recreational 4-wheeling or
motorcycling allowed on the property. The use of such vehicles to go forward and check targets is allowed.
Please don’t spin donuts or cut ruts on the property. Someone has to smooth them back out!
Observe the permanently posted safety rules. Please shoot at “normal” targets only. Trees are not targets. Do not shoot the trees in two and leave your mess for the club to clean up. Don’t bring your trash from home to shoot or leave in our trash barrels. Trash is difficult for us to dispose of. All this is to say some folks have done that, and it’s uncalled for and unappreciated. The club provides lots of targets; please take care of our facilities. A lot of work went into making these ranges. Please, take care of our toys.
Please store any club equipment properly prior to leaving. This includes items such as club staplers, sandbag rests, front rests, etc. Be sure a release any stored spring energy in the clay pigeon thrower before you
walk away. If not tripped prior to leaving it, it could accidentally release and seriously injure someone. Close the roll-up door to the storage area before you leave.
Pick up your trash. If you brought it, pick it up and discard it properly, including used paper targets and cardboard backing. Target stakes are costing the club about $1.00 each. Please make an effort to shoot the cardboard sheets BETWEEN the stakes and not the stakes! Targets are about a nickel each. If the target and cardboard you use show severe signs of use at the end of your range time such that it is “all shot up”, please don’t store it back in the target house. Strip the serviceable stakes off the cardboard, throw the cardboard in the trash and store the wooden stakes for re-use in the future. We can get more cardboard! Please do not throw used targets on the tables in the target house or try out the staple guns on the picnic tables. Someone has to clean up the mess. Don’t store “trash” in our crowded target house. Help keep it clean and uncluttered. If you bring cardboard to donate, please cut it to roughly the size of 24” X 18” or so. Stake pockets are 24” apart. Larger pieces of cardboard do not store well and tend to clutter the target house.
The lawn mower building and the office building are both unlocked so folks won’t feel obligated to break in and look around. Feel free to look in the buildings, but please close the doors to keep the critters out.
The 100-yard line target house contains our picnic supply cabinet. Again, it’s unlocked; feel free to open it and satisfy your curiosity, but close and latch the cabinet, or if you see that it’s unlatched, please help us keep it latched.
We have a clean-outhouse. Help us keep it that way!
The steel cabinet outside the 100-yard target box houses our steel silhouettes for Pistol Shooters! No Rifles! Also, there is a crate of ¼” thick silhouettes in the big target box for the .22 caliber rimfire shooters. .22
Rimfire only!
Should you have a problem with the equipment here or you find it degraded, please notify one of the club’s officers. If you find someone being unsafe or damaging club assets, please politely bring it to their attention. If they refuse to correct the undesirable behavior, obtain the person’s car license tag number and we will determine what they were thinking! Be nice; remember, everyone there is armed. Don’t start a confrontation, and if YOU are asked to stop damaging things or change your safety behavior, please do so! Play nice! Giving someone “Attitude” on the range will not be tolerated; not where guns are involved!
From time to time you may arrive at the range and find a small portable sign saying one range or the other is closed for mowing/maintenance. Range work crews such as mowing crews or crews repairing or installing
new equipment have priority over range usage. Their work shouldn’t take long. Pitch in and help them if you can. Don’t expect the work crews to work around you while you shoot! If the lawn mower is running on one of the ranges, please leave and go to the other range to play until he finishes!
Pick up anything that a lawn mower will hit including spent shotgun hulls!
The club has two cookouts at the range each year; one in the spring and one in the fall. These are potluck dinners with the club furnishing the burgers. We have an ice cream social on the 4th of July. We make about a dozen freezers of homemade ice cream and members bring cakes and pies and we shoot fireworks!
Are you aware that the club owns a chronograph that you can borrow? Contact Jeff Ellis at the Old Bank Pawn and Gun to “check it out” for the day. Remember, you shoot it, you fix it!
100 YARD RANGE and PISTOL RANGE USAGE
Eye and ear protection are required on the range. Eye protection is non-negotiable on the pistol range especially due to the steel targets present at close range. Everyone MUST have eye protection while shooting or watching at the pistol range.
Common courtesy, patience, and range safety between club members are essential in keeping the range property a safe and enjoyable place for each of us to play. Please go the extra mile to be both safe and to play nice with other members! Be sure everyone on the firing line has ear protection on before anyone starts shooting! You would appreciate the same courtesy. Be sure to coordinate between rifle shooters at the 100-yard range and the shotgun shooters! Shotgun shooters have to put down their firearms while rifle shooters are downrange!
When more than one shooter is present and actively shooting, one person should serve as a “Range Safety Officer or RSO” calling the line hot or cold so that targets may be checked safely. Once an RSO is appointed, all shooters will do as he/she instructs. If you disagree with the RSO, do not argue, but leave the range and take up the disagreement with the club’s Chief Range Safety Officer Jeff Ellis at the Old Bank Gun and Pawn. Do not begin shooting until EVERYONE has a chance to don ear protection!
Do not shoot center fire rifle cartridges at ANY of the steel targets found on the pistol ranges. The use of long guns that fire .22 caliber rim fire, 9mm, .357 or .44 caliber handgun rounds are acceptable to shoot the metal targets on the pistol range. Do not shoot metal targets with the large .454, .460, or .50 caliber handgun loads! Shotguns with shot shells may be fired at pistol targets that appear robust enough to withstand such an impact. If it’s a light-duty target, please don’t shotgun it!
When chambering a round into a semi-automatic handgun, it is somewhat natural to turn the muzzle to the left or right with the shooter’s strong hand while cycling the slide with the off or weak hand. Take care not to allow the muzzle of the handgun to sweep the firing line to the shooter’s left or right. Don’t ever point your firearm at anyone on the firing line! Be careful!
CEASE FIRE COMMAND:
Anyone on the range can call “Cease Fire!” if a dangerous condition arises. One shooter may see a problem that others on the line do not see. Hearing protection is in use so yell it LOUD! When a cease-fire is called, immediately lay your firearm down on the table with the muzzle pointed down range and step back behind the red line on the floor until the situation is rectified. Do not handle your firearm until the acting range safety officer allows.
LINE CLEAR COMMAND:
Once the appointed Range Safety Officer (RSO) has determined that all shooters are ready to make the line cold or safe, he/die will call “the line is clear” indicating that all shooters have unloaded their firearms, slides
back, magazines out, bolts out or locked open, and all muzzles pointed down range. Everyone must step back behind the red line if anyone needs to go forward of the firing line. NO ONE is to handle a firearm with anyone down range FOR ANY REASON.
LINE HOT COMMAND:
At the time the appointed RSO determines that all shooters are ready to once again begin shooting, and all personnel on the range have the proper personal protective equipment (safety glasses and ear protection) and
he/she verifies that the downrange area is safe to resume shooting, the RSO will call “Line’s HOT, eye protection, ear protection, THE LINE IS HOT!” Only then may the shooters resume shooting.
NO ONE is allowed to handle a firearm with anyone down range. NO ONE. This includes loading a weapon, casing a weapon, or showing it to your buddy while someone else goes down range. DO NOT HANDLE A FIREARM WITH ANYONE DOWN RANGE. Out of respect to fellow shooters, please move behind the red line on the floor such that you present no threat to the safety of those down range. Remember to also check with anyone that might be at the shotgun area.
Always bring your gun’s muzzle up from the ground to the target, not from up in the air down to the target. This keeps all rounds on the property and won’t allow any rounds that might go over the berm.
Don’t shoot shotguns to the south or to the left of the shotgun range. Our property doesn’t go very far to the south. Keep muzzles pointed towards the backstop or the center of the range.
Please do not shoot the steel targets at the rifle range with .50 caliber BMG rifles. Whatever you shoot with these will be destroyed! Do not shoot steel targets at the rifle range with surplus steel core ammo. (Armor-piercing) A test with a magnet on the bullet will tell you if it’s steel core or not. Steel rifle targets that we purchase cost in excess of $200.00 each. Please take care of them.
Always pick up or sweep away as much spent brass as possible when you are finished shooting. If you do not want your brass, place re-loadable, center-fire brass in the brass containers found on the range. .22 rim-fire brass should be swept off the shooting area, or thrown in the trash receptacles. Aluminum or steel spent casing should be picked up and thrown in the trash receptacle, not the re-loadable brass containers. Please do not throw trash such as .22 rimfire hulls or ammo boxes in the white buckets! The concrete firing line should be swept clear of all spent rounds before leaving.
Please store any club equipment properly prior to leaving. This includes items such as club staplers, sandbag rests, front rests, etc. Be sure a release any stored spring energy in the clay pigeon thrower before you walk away. If not tripped prior to storage, it could accidentally release and seriously injure someone. Close the roll-up door to the storage area before you leave.
200 YARD RANGE
Do not fire from the 200-yard tee position when anyone is present at the 100-yard line awning. Do not handle firearms at the 200-yard position when the 100-yard firing position is in use. Do not put those persons at risk by shooting past them. Criminal charges may be in order because you have put their life at risk! This is serious business. Treat your fellow shooters like you expect to be treated.
Remember to put the second chain up when shooting from 200 yards! This will make new arrivals aware that someone is shooting across the access road at the top of the hill. No strict rules exist on what happens if someone is using the 200 and someone wants to shoot from the 100-yard awning. Use common sense and courtesy in those situations. Maybe both of you can shoot from the same range of distance, or let one shooter finish the course of fire he has started. Who was there first? Even if you were there first, be courteous and limit the time you prevent the new arrival from shooting. A simple “Hi, give me another 20 minutes and I’ll be done” will acknowledge the new arrival’s presence and lets him know that he will get to play soon. Get to know the new arrival! You may have a chance to make a new friend!
Do not place targets in the area between the 200 and 100-yard awnings, even in the open area to the left or south side of the range. A deflected bullet could damage the 100-yard awning. When wanting to shoot at a distance of less than 100 yards, do it from the 100-yard awing.
Many items on this briefing list are a result of someone actually causing us problems by doing some of these items. Please don’t cause us to add any more issues to this list by your future actions!
Enjoy the assets the club has amassed, but be responsible and safe in its use. Please be courteous to the neighbors at Jones Mountain as well. Leave either range cleaner than you found it. Please don’t litter the access roads.