Range Safety Officer benefits

[Gil Martin]

I have been working part-time for over a year as a Range Safety Officer at a large gun club (with 5,000 members). You get to meet a lot of folks, see a lot of things and get to shoot almost every week. It is amazing how many folks cannot sight in a rifle or fear the recoil of a firearm they just bought. Some people show up to sight in a rifle without any sandbags or rests. Others have ammo that is not suitable for the firearm they want to shoot. I help out where I can and offer advice and assistance. Folks seem to appreciate that level of attention. I also get to shot a whole lot of different guns and get paid for it. What a deal! All the best...
Gil

[Dan Morris]

RSO's at my club are unpaid.,,,plus we have a 900 member cap, with waiting list.
Dan

[Adam Helmer]

Gil,

Range Safety Officers fulfill a need. How many RSOs are on duty at your club and how many benches does each RSO supervise?

Adam

[Dan Morris]

The way we are set up,unless there is an event, we RSO each other! May sound strange....but it has worked for years.
Dan

[Gil Martin]

Our Range Safety Officers pull four-hour shifts. They supervise ten pistol ranges (eight pistol ranges are reserved for large handgun events) so two pistol ranges are active and four rifle ranges. We verify membership cards and guest passes and ensure safety and range rules are being followed. So on an average day, there may be up to ten shooters on the line at one time. There are a total of eight pistol benches and sixteen rifle benches. That means that RSOs are usually on the move going up and down the line. The vast majority of our members are safe and tend to follow our range rules. We tried to use volunteers and have members police each other. That rarely works so we went to paid Range Safety Officers. At this time we have about a dozen Range Safety Officers and at least one is on duty when the ranges are open daily from 8:30 A.M. to sunset. We do staff up on weekends and prior to the opening of big game seasons when more members are on site. All the best...
Gil

[Adam Helmer]

When I was the Firearms Coordinator for the agency, our regulations mandated one range safety officer for every six agents on the firing line. That did not include the coordinator; thus I ran 10 to 12 agents on the firing line and had two safety officers watching the agents.

Adam