Gun Club Membership

touchyie

Hi Guys, looking for some advice on getting gun club membership. I have appraoched the local club looking to seek membership, but was greeted witha very frosty reception. was told i would have to join a queue and new memebers were only been taken as old ones as the shooting ground is getting smaller. has anyone else encountered this problem and if so how did they over come it. As it happens I have been given permission by most of the farmers the club shoots on, but they just seem old fashioned in there approach to new members.

foxhunter

Seems like you got the old "league of gentlemen" treatment your not a local:D
The only thing i can suggest is to get to know some of the members do a bit of lamping and so on with them and try again.
Generally most clubs are a bit sticky about new members although i dont know why they are generally the ones that do most of the work.

bunny shooter

This seems to be a common trend in certain areas. You say you already have permissions from farmers approach club and tell them this and explain they should take you're membership money as you'll be shooting there anyway

Most clubs, including the two I'm in, work on the presumption that if you come from, live in or work in the area you have a right to join the club so long as you haven't been up to no good in the area (eg shooting out of season etc).

This is a very silly approach by so called clubs IMO.

cavan shooter

Hi Guys,
If you want to get membership of a gun club the process is as as easy as:

Get to know other members first as to join you will have to be proposed and seconded? Thats how I did it when I moved to cavan 10 years ago after coming home from England

How do you get known
Go to shooting grounds, Flapper shoots, local gun shops, fund raisers, at the flapper offer to help

I know you've permission already, mention that in passing to other members (common sense will prevail)

When someone is proposed by a standing member of a club (at least the ones I'm in, there are always some questions about who is he? where does he live? whats he work at?

Our club has yet to turn away anyone living in the area? if he is vouched for?

You have to build up trust,

Write to the committee introducing yourself and telling them you've got permission from Farmers in the area.

Some clubs have into their constitution that you must reside in the area or have ties to the area.

Dont give up Try again? Its good crack!!!

Mellor

bunny shooter wrote: »

This seems to be a common trend in certain areas. You say you already have permissions from farmers approach club and tell them this and explain they should take you're membership money as you'll be shooting there anyway

Most clubs, including the two I'm in, work on the presumption that if you come from, live in or work in the area you have a right to join the club so long as you haven't been up to no good in the area (eg shooting out of season etc).

This is a very silly approach by so called clubs IMO.

Its all well and good if the area can take extra people, but some of the gun clubs in dublin are way way over filled.
this is because it might of had just enough members for the land to take, then due to devellopment, it lost well over 50% of its land. Serious problem now, especially considering the development wipes out wildlife in adjoining areas. I can't imagine that i'll get many more years shooting out of dublin, will be forced west

bunny shooter

Mellor wrote: »

............... will be forced west

Which will be area/s covered by other clubs who may not let you join. catch 22 ?

Mellor

Not really a catch 22,

If other clubs were full, thats fine.
I suppose, the way I see it, nobody as the right to be allowed into a club, and no club has the right to try to generate a 2monopoly" od sorts in an area.

So if the club is legitimatly full, then refusal is fine, and if it has space, then they should be easy going regarding new members.

Mr Burns

What does one do when the local super demands you join a club?

Jonty

He has every right to demand membership of a club in regards to pistol applications. If you are applying for a centrefire calibre rifle and do not plan to go deer stalking he will also ask you to join a club.

In relation to a shotgun or a .22 LR for rabbits, 3 letters from different land owners will suffice.

Also if club membership is hard to get in your area, explain this to the super as he might see club membership = insurance. Explain that insurance is also obtainable through Countryside Alliance and would this suffice?

MODS - please delete previous post

Mellor

Just to clarify, I was posting in relation of (hunting) gun clubs. (These being the "local" club the OP refered to). I'd seeparate these from pistol clubs/ranges etc. Which is a different situation imo

IRLConor

Mr Burns wrote: »

What does one do when the local super demands you join a club?

Do gun clubs reject membership applications from people who already have permission to shoot on some land in the area? What reason would they have for that? I would think they'd be mad to turn down the sub. I can understand trying to keep the numbers of people shooting on a particular piece of land down to a manageable number but where an applicant isn't an eejit and isn't going to cause numbers problems it doesn't make sense to turn them away.

I can understand a super requiring a gun club membership if you don't have permission from a landowner. Without one or the other you have nowhere to use the gun. Gun club membership is probably a "nice to have" thing for the super even if you do have land permissions with the thinking being that you'll learn safe shooting from the other members.

bunny shooter

I'm in two rural NARGC gun clubs. Both allow locals, based on gun club parish boundaries, and "outside" (outside of the parish area)members following a proposal and seccond from existing members, join the club without any hassle as long as they are not known to be undesirable. If they are of good character they're more than welcome. Both clubs have never refused anyone on the grounds of being full.

What has happened in the clubs I am a member of is that a significant amount of people (possibly 80% of new members) have joined and got firearms licences and never renewed their membership. This is an ongoing problem. The gardai then won't refuse to re-issue licence when they haven't renewed their gun club membership. Therefore, they get firearms licence and never join club/s again. Maybe this is the reason they refuse membership ?

NOTE : I know this is hopefully going to be addressed under the new regulations

MRJ

I agree i think that happens a lot, but down our way the gun club has to supply the local sargent with a list of members. There was a lot of lads going down to the station saying they were mebers and they wer'nt

cavan shooter

42 members of our gun club, last year we gave a list of members to the local FAO. He rang me back and asked did I make a mistake, thast there were 78 firearms owners claimimg membership:mad:.
We asked for this year that any guard taking the license in to look for the membership cards and asked any member going to pay to attach it where it is easily seen and bring it to the guards attention.

I have no proplem with Lads that make other arrangements for their shooting, and understand that some clubs are hard to get into but claiming to be a member, thats wrong

Sparks

I'd not be in the least bit surprised to start seeing that kind of check crop up a lot more in the future from the Gardai's side of it Cavan, not just the club's side.