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Range Safety Officer??

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Topic: Range Safety Officer??
Posted By: Goosic
Subject: Range Safety Officer??
Date Posted: May 12 2021 at 12:00pm
Two weeks ago, I became a member of the Tonto Rim Sports Club. They operate the Jim Jones Shooting Range in Payson Arizona. "It's a 50 minute drive from my place in Phoenix."
I also became an active NRA member that day as well.
Proir to leaving the range, I was approached by the Chief RSO who mentioned that they need certified Range Safety Officers and would I consider taking the required courses? I went through the NRA website and found a course that takes place on 5-22-21 at Ben Avery Shooting Complex. I signed up with my $145.00 non-refundable payment and hopefully will leave a full fledged certified Range Safety Officer. 
The one small item I will be grateful for is, if I successfully complete the course and submit the certification to the Chief RSO, my $145.00 will be refunded by the TRSC and I will be granted a lifetime membership to the range I will be a RSO at...



Replies:
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 12 2021 at 12:34pm
I was promised that by the local range here.
As soon as I passed they defaulted. GET IT IN WRITING, please.
The course is odd. Just so you know.
Don't just forget, but eradicate, the word "weapon" from your vocabulary. As the course starts they will fine you for every time you use it. If you refuse to pay you'll be removed from the course.
Its not a bad course but its very doctrinaire, so brace yourself.



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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 12 2021 at 8:18pm
i am a Cheif RSO at our range , ive not done range duty for a number of years but have my credentials if im needed , we have four RSOs that take all of our shifts currently including multiple on duty during hunter sight-in time so the leave me at the counter where my winn9ing p-ersonality only gets a cupel complaints a year , mostly from those that walk in with a chip on their shoulder and not anypone we want our RSOs dealing with at the range , 

if you can get reimbursed - thats cool , i get it that you would only do it for them and at our age your not shopping creds to other employers - our range so far has looked at it as a commodity you can trade with , next time mine come due ill not renew , im old enough to just say i dont need it anymore , but ive been happy to have it for the past dozen years so i could work the range and [use it after hours] it gave me the creds to be there anytime i wanted , 


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: May 12 2021 at 8:35pm
I love the range and the one RSO that was there that I was  talking to was extremely friendly along with the Chief RSO.  I currently have 24/7 access to the range and once certified I am asked to volunteer as RSO one weekend, be it Saturday or Sunday a month. The range has 6 pistol bays, 100, 200, and a 300 yard range with two ranges for bows. The main public range is very simplified and everyone works in tandem of one another during live and cease fire. The Saturday i was there i witnessed alot of kids and women there that would benefit from someone qualified to assist with experiencing a better day of shooting if there were more Range Officers there than the two that were there that day besides the Chief RSO...


Posted By: RogueAussie
Date Posted: May 12 2021 at 10:40pm
I've been an RSO here in Australia for a number of years working at the range once a week. It is rewarding to help people that aren't too sure (and are willing to learn) and also great getting people into the sport. Being a qualified instructor also helps. However, you seen some seriously DUMB sh*t some days and wonder how some people have a licence .... deep breath .... go and "educate" the individuals on what they have done wrong and watch with eagle eyes.

As Shamu said, the first thing was to lose the word weapon from the vocab which was tough coming from a military background.

We fortunately don't have to pay for the RSO course as it is voluntary and you are expected to work at the range when rostered on which for most is maybe a Sunday a month.


Posted By: shiloh
Date Posted: May 13 2021 at 4:28am
I too am an RSO at our local club/range, iirc the course was free in exchange for doing a minimum of 10 shifts per year, and free range of the ranges, that is, if a range is not in use we have the right to open it up for our personal use and the right to refuse if anyone else other than an RSO shows up.
Our club has 3 clay ranges, dedicated .22 range, high power range, pistol range, static archery range and a 3 acre wooded adventure walk through archery range.



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Lead from the front; eliminate all obstacles...


Posted By: SW28fan
Date Posted: May 13 2021 at 8:47am
Another RSO here 

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Have a Nice Day
If already having a nice day please disregard


Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 13 2021 at 9:15am
There's basically 2 kinds of R/O, the helpful guy who stops you getting into trouble & helps you out if something goes wrong.
My "range bag" is a honkin' great hard sided toolbox. In it I have everything I can even think of being needed to fix mechanical problems, then there's the well stocked trauma related first aid kit. I have on occasion needed both. & so have other range users.

Then there's the Range Nazi.
No one lies him or wants to deal with him.

Become type one,  not type 2.
Hug


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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: May 13 2021 at 2:13pm
So true Sham.  I’ve met both.  Fortunately, by far the majority I have met are Type 1.  Most are great guys and so helpful.  

This got me thinking of another conversation we had about match competitors.  I have met a few Type 2’s, arrogant and know it all.  But, again, by far the majority are great guys and will do anything to help you improve.  When I won the trophy for highest score over the two day matches a few weeks back, I gave thanks to the guy who has helped me so much over the past year.  He was in the Presidents top 20 at the Nationals in 2019 (2020 was cancelled), which is an impressive feat.   His goal is to get me to beat him in competition.  So, there you go, there are some true sportsman out here, they are not all snotty arrogant competitors!





Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 14 2021 at 11:11am
Most are very good.
My worst experience was on the (now closed) Range in Nassau County Long Island adjacent to the Bethpage State park.
The place was safety gone mad to the point it became dangerous & I refused to shoot there any more.
They had six or seven color coded zones, going from the office to the firing line & the rules were insanely complicated. They has bells buzzers klaxons & whistles which allowed you to filter in & back out through the various zones & it was all timed. Didn't matter if you'd finished a string or had rounds in the gun when the bell rang you had to go from the red zone to the orange zone put down the gun (without unloading) & wait for the next detail to come in from the yellow zone & only after the firing line was opened could you touch your gun to unload or make safe & then you had to wait for the buzzer to go to the yellow zone & case the gun, waiting again for the klaxon to go to the white zone & then through the office to the parking lot & so on.
I was there with a friend & he had a then Charter Arms AR-7. It does not have any kind of bolt hold open, but the range rules say bolt open in yellow & orange sections. So the Range Nazi (after a suitable yelling at) told him to stick a case in the bolt to keep it out of battery. Well there's no ammo in the yellow zone so the RO simply takes a LIVE .22 rim-fire, slips the rim into the breech sideways & drops the bolt.
BANG!
Yup the RO created an ND!
That was my last time there & I told anyone there would one day be an accident because it was so massively over-complex.

A couple of months later a round went over the bank into the adjacent park & unfortunately struck a camping boy scout in the head, killing him.


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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: May 14 2021 at 2:23pm
What a tragedy. 


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: May 14 2021 at 3:04pm
I went to the range I will hopefully be an RSO at this morning to initially resight in my faux L8A5T and then observe the other shooters. I was actually amazed at how every shooter works in tandem with the others during live and cease fire. We all coordinate prior and when a cease fire is asked,"Not Called" everyone clears and empties all rifles and pistols accordingly and then steps behind the yellow safety line and waits until everyone is ready to approach their respective targets.  When everyone is back behind the safety line a question of, "Is everyone ready to go back to live fire?" is asked. Everyone on line gives a thumbs up and the red flag goes back out. We all police the area around our respective bench and pickup when neccessary.  The last person at the range does a walk through  of each bay and around the perimeters while checking for any possible fires near the berms and when it deemed safe, he or she then leaves. This range only has a RSO present on the weekends. The Chief RSO and maybe one regular RSO will show up midday during the week briefly to check up and assist for roughly 30-45 minutes but before and after the active shooters are on their own. I spent 5 hours there today and not once did I notice any acts of undiscipline or poorly uneducated shooters. 


Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: May 14 2021 at 3:33pm
Sounds like a very well run range!

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Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually


Posted By: SW28fan
Date Posted: May 14 2021 at 7:22pm
The closest I ever came to being a Range Nazi was  when a guy started going forward after I called cease fire but before the range was called safe  I shouted "Back of the Line! Back of the line! No Soup for you!" Wink

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Have a Nice Day
If already having a nice day please disregard


Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 15 2021 at 9:02am
Oh once in a while you get a live one!
My favorite was the simpleton who cut through the trees to the 100 yd point on a 200 yd range, while We were firing on it!
How he couldn't have heard  several .30 cal center-fires is beyond me to this day!
Cry


I looked for my old NRA RSO workbook figuring it might give you a head start but its lost in the mists of time somewhere, sorry.



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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)


Posted By: Goosic
Date Posted: May 15 2021 at 9:48am
Preface: I wear my 1911A1 when I am at the range as do a few of the RSO 's at Ben Avery. 
A cease fire was called,"Cease Fire,Cease Fire, Cease Fire!!! Open and empty all firearms and then step behind the yellow safety line!!!" After the line was cleared everyone started walking out to reposition, post or retrieve targets.
I am standing behind the yellow safety line with two Range officers when someone a couple of bays down shouts out,"Woo Doggies Let's get busy!!" We then hear the distinctive sound of an AR go into full battery. Both the range officers and myself have our pistols pointed at this mans head before he has time to shoulder the rifle and we are yelling, "DROP THE RIFLE,DROP THE RIFLE!!!" His response was to look like a calf looking at a brand new gate while replying with,"Dudes?" DPS officers were practicing in the small bore range next door so a few of them came over when they heard us yelling.  The idiot in question here swears what he heard was FIRE,FIRE,FIRE! OPEN UP THOSE FIREARMS! He then says that he thought it weird that everyone was out on the range but shrugged it off anyways, figuring someone would stop him if he was wrong in his actions. He got a lifetime ban from that range...


Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: May 15 2021 at 12:36pm
This is one of the reasons I enjoy shooting at matches.  They are very safety rule conscious.  It’s the open public ranges that scare me, it brings in the real idiots.  


Posted By: Zed
Date Posted: May 16 2021 at 3:47am
When I shoot at the 200 metre range; you have to walk down the range to set your targets. But you are next to the 50m and 100 m ranges with no barrier. I always go with a friend. One person goes to the targets; the other makes sure no one sets up a 50 m target and starts shooting. When there's more people present, it works as Goosic mentioned. When everyone is ready, some stay to ensure safety and also no theiving. They will tend to their targets and when everyone is ready; firing resumes.

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It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!



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