What do you Recommend?

[45Gunner]

Hypothetically, you are a member of a Private Gun Club comprised of a nice mix of people that come from all walks of life. Your club, which consists of nearly 100 members and is growing steadily meets once a week to shoot and holds a once a month educational and business meeting. Due to geographic and environmental circumstances, the club does not have their own range but has an agreement with a LGS to utilize their indoor 30 lane range. By virtue of being a Shooting Club, there are certain guidelines and rules in place to protect everyone's safety.

Hypothetically, you occupy a seat on the Board of Directors of the aforementioned club and are charged with Range Safety and as a matter of fact, are a NRA Certified RSO. What would you designate as appropriate "Range Wear?"

Please be specific and go beyond the "eyes and ears" protection. List everything you think would increase safety for the individual shooter which will enhance safety for the group. Your group has a mix of novice shooters to the very experienced and you must act in the best interest of everyone.

[JimmyR]

First off, I would start off with the attire required by the range owners. Your rules should not be less than they require, since you are using their facilities.

Assuming the range has no rules:

No swimsuits
Shirt/Shoes required
Closed toe shoes
Family friendly logos/messages (no profanity, endorsing drug use, etc.)

Just for starters....

[Jim243]

What would you designate as appropriate "Range Wear?"

OK 45Gunner, you are not a new member here, so spill your guts! What is it that is bothering you, open toe sandals, the flowery shirts, tactical vests, tactical holsters, T-shirts with foul messages, what???

Are some guys cross dressing while shooting??

I think bare feet would be a safety issue, but not much else besides eyes and ears.

Jim

[kraigwy]

I am on the board of directors of our club, we have both indoor and outdoor range.

If I'm running an event eye and ear protection are required. Other then than that we don't have any clothing requirements.

Its highly recommended that eye and ear protection be used if you're shooting on your own, but I figure people can make their own decisions, I'll not run anyone off as long as they are proving to be a safety hazard to others.

We also discourage halter tops, but those who wear them, learn fast enough its not a good idea. Same with open toed shoe, there is enough stickers in the grass to discourage that.

Mainly safety is all we really demand, I don't tell people how to dress and wouldn't like it if people tell me how to dress.

[TailGator]

I confess to wearing sandals at an indoor range occasionally. Yes, hot brass can hit your toes, but it is easy to just flip it off without causing a safety problem if you keep your wits about you. Since that last phrase is a problem for some people, though, I can sure understand making a rule requiring closed toe shoes; it would definitely be safer for new shooters to avoid that situation. You can recommend high-collar shirts, but defining the term would make enforcement difficult if it was a rule.

[g.willikers]

Brimmed hats, ball caps and the like, to keep hot brass from getting behind eye glasses and down shirts.
Maybe have some made for the club.

[WVsig]

Eyes and ears are IMHO the only real requirement when it comes to gear when shooting. Everything else is a matter of personal choice.

I almost always shoot with closed toed shoes and most of the time wear a baseball cap not having those particular pieces of gear are does not make me a danger to myself or others at the range.

I have shot in flip flops on more than one occasion and have shot a countless number of times with no hat. As tailgator said yes hot brass may hit your expose foot but if you know it can happen and you are not startled by it there is really no danger. That said if I were participating in an active shooter type gun game I think it is reasonable to require close toed shoes.

I am not sure why people bring up logos and clothing in general. I personally would not expect a gun club/shooting club to have a dress code. I am 100% with kraigwy I do not want other people telling me how to dress and would see no reason to tell other people.

I would allow common sense not rules to prevail.

[DaleA]

yes hot brass may hit your expose foot but if you know it can happen and you are not startled by it there is really no danger.

The thing is 45gunner has to consider that he is dealing with novice shooters that WILL be startled by hot brass on their toes, down their shirt fronts and backs and between their glasses and their faces.

So what’s he to do? Require boots, helmets and turtlenecks of everybody and become a regular range nanny or cross his fingers and hope nothing goes wrong…

I guess I’d just go with the dress requirements the range has for their regular customers and then give the club members SERIOUS advice on what to wear including having the range officer do an individual face to face with those wearing problematic clothes and have a couple club sweat shirts or jackets folks could use.

[Sabrewolfe]

About all I would go with is eye and ear protection (40dB combined minimum as indoor ranges tend to amplify noise), a basic No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service type dress code with a No Hotpants/Daisy Dukes, No High Heels rider and a no offensive text/graphics (aka be respectful/family friendly) requirement.

I would then make a second list of recommendations for new shooters regarding protection from hot brass (no halter tops, scoop neck blouses, sandals/flip-flops, etc, brimmed hats are your friend, noise filtering ear pro is a God-send, etc), but otherwise I'd let people pick there own clothes.

Any troublemakers I would handle on a case-by-case basis beyond that.

[mavracer]

I would then make a second list of recommendations for new shooters regarding protection from hot brass (no halter tops, scoop neck blouses, sandals/flip-flops, etc, brimmed hats are your friend, noise filtering ear pro is a God-send, etc), but otherwise I'd let people pick there own clothes.

This Eyes and Ears are required every thing else is recomended and stress 4 rules maintained at all times, you have to tell people to maintain muzzle control even when hot brass is searing thier skin.

[tony pasley]

As a former Sgt At Arms for a gun club, We had a safety code and a dress code. You will get some one who will be self centered and we had all ages show up. The dress code was to respect the families that came to shoot together. I did once have to ask 2 couples to leave because no one had shirts on so there are those kind of people out there.

[CrowdPete]

I like all of these:
Shirt/Shoes required
Closed toe shoes
Family friendly logos/messages (no profanity, endorsing drug use, etc.)


Also, how about "Must shower at least a week prior." Some of these gun guys are stinky

[Brian Pfleuger]

If you are an NRA certified RSO, I would think you would use the NRA Range Rules, as each applies.

http://www.mcsm.org/rngrules.html

I don't know why you'd need any other rules, except eye and ear protection. I'm actually shocked that those aren't part of the NRA requirements.

[Theohazard]

Originally Posted by Brian Pfleuger

I don't know why you'd need any other rules, except eye and ear protection. I'm actually shocked that those aren't part of the NRA requirements.

From what I hear, they do that for a good reason. In another thread, someone was saying that the NRA specifically recommended to his range that they change their eye and ear protection policy from a requirement to a recommendation.

The reasoning went like this: By making it a requirement, the range basically says that they will enforce the rule; if someone takes off their eyes and ears and then gets hurt, the range could be liable because they didn't enforce their rules. But if they simply recommend it, then they go on record as saying it's a good idea, but they remove their requirement to enforce it, and therefore they would be less liable if someone got hurt.

That's how it was explained, and it makes sense to me. But I'm no lawyer, so I'd be interested to hear what one of you lawyers thinks about it.

[1-DAB]

i've been to the NRA range (nice facility), and have a range safety card from there.

i'd add: high collar shirt (keep brass out), long pants, closed toe shoes, hat with front brim (to keep brass out of eyes).

[45Gunner]

Thanks to all of you for participating in my little ad hoc survey. Now I'll tell you what prompted this:

I serve on the Board of Directors of one of the three gun clubs I belong to. The designated Safety Officer got really upset one day when one of our shooters arrived at the range wearing flip flops. Later that day he sent out a memo to the rest of the BOD asking that we ratify a dress code he had put together. My stance is the range safety rules should be adequate. If you over-regulate the group, and this applies to most anything, you take away the fun of it all. Further, I suggested we educate the membership at a monthly business meeting about the negative things that can happen when hot brass goes down a shirt, hits one in the face, or gets stuck between the toes. A demonstration of the what happens to one's gun when they do the hully gully, twist, and whatoosi all at once should be adequate to ingrain that they must be aware of with their loaded gun.

The consensus here seems to validify my direction of thinking.

[1-DAB]

I don't care if you do the hot brass down the shirt dance. But I do care when you have a loaded gun in your hand that you start waving around.

Brass burns. Bullets kill.

[JohnKSa]

Caps with bills. (Helps prevent brass from getting behind safety glasses).
Safety Glasses with polycarbonate lenses.
No lowcut shirts to help prevent the hot brass dance while holding a loaded gun.
No open top shoes.
No footwear that could compromise balance.
Quality hearing protection.

[TailGator]

one of our shooters arrived at the range wearing flip flops.

I wondered if that might have been the issue because of your location.

The simple fact is that there are folks who wear flip flops everywhere this time of year down here, including church and nice restaurants. We were really glad to get my brother in law into real shoes when my daughter got married; he wouldn't be caught dead in anything but flip flops any other time. (He had long pants on for the wedding, too - equally rare.) As I said earlier, you have to keep your wits about you if you make that choice and get hot brass on your toes, but it is manageable.

[serf 'rett]

My primary footwear – Sandals.

Had several serious foot infections, but was able to reduce the frequency by wearing sandals.

I've been shooting IDPA for over four years and have worn sandals the majority of the time. I’ve never had a problem with hot brass during the matches, likely because of the open space and moving and being able to move my feet if I need to dislodge a piece of brass(very, very, rare).

Shooting inside, with deflectors, would be different, but still not a problem since a simple flick should dislodge a piece of brass.

I did have one incident three years ago. I tucked a clipboard under my arm so I could reset a swinger; the clip board slipped out and fell on my toe.

Required – eyes/ears.

Required – muzzle control at ALL TIMES.

Recommended: ball cap/visor, no loose fitting “brass catchers,” no cussin’, fussin’, drinkin’, smokin’, dopin’, or spittin’.

[Theohazard]

Originally Posted by serf 'rett

Everybody hating on my sandals

Ha, yeah, I guess they are. But for a good reason: New shooters. You have to make blanket rules that apply to everyone, unfortunately.

Now, if you and I were shooting somewhere, I wouldn't worry about your sandals. Any experienced shooter is used to dealing with hot brass while still being safe. The problem is that you can't always tell the experienced shooters from the inexperienced ones on a public range, at least not before they start doing stupid stuff on the line.

[Brit]

When I teach Lady's, I lay down rules as in dress. Long pants, jeans. Hi necked tee shirt, under long sleeved shirt.

Sneakers, socks. Ball cap, wrap around safety glasses, good ear muffs.

Better being safe than sorry. Had a Buddy get a new Gen4 Glock 19, b/4 the new parts stopped the brass in the face problem, drop a very hot 9mm brass between his glasses, and his face! Quite the burn.

My wake up call, a Bren gun, LMG in my Army Service, me with rolled up sleeves, firing from prone, bottom eject! Laid a very hot .303 case across the crook of my right arm. No did not do that again.