Starting from Scratch - finding a home for an airgun activities related club

[Iowa Airgunner]

Just spotted this thread and had to check twice to make sure it was not my post. I have gone through all of this and had unbelievable support from the gun club. If you want to contact me feel free.
Basically what I have done was start a Facebook group and post airgun stuff and field target topics every day.
Pick a catch name that indicates your location.
Once you get 20 members find a range with a wooded section they are not able to use.
Approach them with the idea that you want to add to there club. Show them the Facebook group and videos or make a presentation and present it to the board of directors .
The biggest obstacle the board will have is money and manpower.
In my case I offered to pay for 100% and supply all the manpower.
That is the first lesson in sales. Overcome the objections.
You absolutely need insurance and parking lot and a toilet. You can’t get that from a private land owner and the liability it to great.
But gun clubs have chapters . Pistols rifles and shotguns. Just add airguns and you are on your way. The more people you can get the join the gun club the more it helps the club because you are paying for membership and not using there current resources but adding another resource. It’s a win for the club. But you gotta sell it. Then be consistent. If I can make this fly they are very open to expanding and direction resources to the airgun range.
Remember it takes 500 members to get 25 people to do anything and five of them run it all. That’s just how clubs are.

 

[BillmAGF]

Just spotted this thread and had to check twice to make sure it was not my post. I have gone through all of this and had unbelievable support from the gun club. If you want to contact me feel free.
Basically what I have done was start a Facebook group and post airgun stuff and field target topics every day.
Pick a catch name that indicates your location.
Once you get 20 members find a range with a wooded section they are not able to use.
Approach them with the idea that you want to add to there club. Show them the Facebook group and videos or make a presentation and present it to the board of directors .
The biggest obstacle the board will have is money and manpower.
In my case I offered to pay for 100% and supply all the manpower.
That is the first lesson in sales. Overcome the objections.
You absolutely need insurance and parking lot and a toilet. You can’t get that from a private land owner and the liability it to great.
But gun clubs have chapters . Pistols rifles and shotguns. Just add airguns and you are on your way. The more people you can get the join the gun club the more it helps the club because you are paying for membership and not using there current resources but adding another resource. It’s a win for the club. But you gotta sell it. Then be consistent. If I can make this fly they are very open to expanding and direction resources to the airgun range.
Remember it takes 500 members to get 25 people to do anything and five of them run it all. That’s just how clubs are.

That second to last sentence is so true

 

[Motorhead]

That second to last sentence is so true

If you can manage the personalities & have everyone get to know everyone else present ... You have created a team mentality & now that team will collectively wish to have there day with friends shooting airguns be one everybody looks forward too !!
Setting the tempo of how and what is going on is leadership and as most have figured out in life, when no one is really willing to be the leader ... They calmly follow along w/o issue if guided

 

[Iowa Airgunner]

If you can manage the personalities & have everyone get to know everyone else present ... You have created a team mentality & now that team will collectively wish to have there day with friends shooting airguns be one everybody looks forward too !!
Setting the tempo of how and what is going on is leadership and as most have figured out in life, when no one is really willing to be the leader ... They calmly follow along w/o issue if guided

Here is my personal problem with that. And I am really just joking . Because I have made unbelievable progress in a short time. BUT I have managed to build myself a private personal airgun shooting range. I can shoot four days a week and the worse the weather the better. There is no one to manage at all . Except bugs. I need people with personalities to manage. I’m telling you . First person that shows an interest is elected president. But don’t tell anyone.

 

[Motorhead]

I sooooo get it !!!
Our ( Now My ) club started with 3 founders to do all required, in the last 5 years have lost both my two other founding friends, leaving me to come with some creative miens to get all present at any given event to pull off monthly events with nary a hitch.

You will get it figured out & done ... just not overnight

 

[Iowa Airgunner]

This is how I justify it to myself and my wife who is totally supportive.
I could have bought a really nice scope or gun for what it has cost me. But this
Is more fun and I really believe if I just go have fun ,someone will notice.

Here is how I see it with building this club. I am drawing from a very small demographic of people. Right now It’s the people I know from racing RC cars and then the people in the gun club.
I have added the airgun range to the gun club but how do I get people to use it?
First they need to live within an hour of a gun range. And that gun range is set in the middle of nowhere .
Everyone here in the area already has a hobby right now. All there time and money is tied up or spent on other toys. From motorcycleS to fishing, but at some point they decide they have had enough. Maybe it’s just time, maybe it’s the club or space what ever. Those are the ones that will come out of the woodwork and start shooting a lot. They get excited about a new hobby. They get dragged to a party with their wife and start talking to another guy that just gave up a hobby. They bring excitement to the club. The people that have and know airguns will come to an event or to the range if it’s near there home. And that’s the beauty of airguns. You shoot them from home. Building a club from scratch is tough.

 

[BillmAGF]

This is how I justify it to myself and my wife who is totally supportive.
I could have bought a really nice scope or gun for what it has cost me. But this
Is more fun and I really believe if I just go have fun ,someone will notice.

Here is how I see it with building this club. I am drawing from a very small demographic of people. Right now It’s the people I know from racing RC cars and then the people in the gun club.
I have added the airgun range to the gun club but how do I get people to use it?
First they need to live within an hour of a gun range. And that gun range is set in the middle of nowhere .
Everyone here in the area already has a hobby right now. All there time and money is tied up or spent on other toys. From motorcycleS to fishing, but at some point they decide they have had enough. Maybe it’s just time, maybe it’s the club or space what ever. Those are the ones that will come out of the woodwork and start shooting a lot. They get excited about a new hobby. They get dragged to a party with their wife and start talking to another guy that just gave up a hobby. They bring excitement to the club. The people that have and know airguns will come to an event or to the range if it’s near there home. And that’s the beauty of airguns. You shoot them from home. Building a club from scratch is tough.

I can relate to your post. I owned hobby shops for 20 years and held RC racing for most of that time and I’ve been airgunning for 50+ years. There are a lot of parallels between RC racing and airgunning. It’s extremely difficult to get new racers and even harder to keep them. I never went the club route as my experience was that, without my business support the racing would not last long . The reason being is that there are only a small group of hardcore racers that consider it a lifetime hobby and not all of them can devote the extra time to run the program. Most of the others come into the hobby for a short period annd leave. its funny that this thread started about the effort to start an airgun club in Mobile Alabama. The major competing racing program to mine was in Mobile. It was converted from a hobby shop run program to a club format and was plagued with infighting and lack of support. It’s also similar to airgunning in that participants spend thousands on their equipment. But, the biggest similarity is that both hobbies lack public exposure. The general public has no idea that multi-thousand dollar airguns or the competitions they are used in even exist. Without exposure, it’s hard to get new participants. I would love to get into airgun bench rest shooting, but there’s none around here anymor. Luckily I can shoot out to 120yds off my back porch. My experience with military organizations and groups like RC flying clubs is that they are usually run by a small handful of dedicated members.

 

[Iowa Airgunner]

I have raced rc cars for going on six years . Carpet oval in Cedar Rapids Iowa. It is super strong here. And it is indoors. So a great winter thing.

 

[trapdoor2]

@cavedweller
I used to belong to the "Blue & Gray" CMP club in Huntsville. 45 min drive to the monthly matches (I had a lot of fun). Everything else was 2-4hr. drive (mostly TN).

Here in Eastern SC, it is a match desert. Kinda the same...3-4hr drive to anything (all in NC). I'm still exploring.

I have an airgun friendly range nearby, paper punching only (no metallic targets)...and 25-300yds available. They seem amenable to having matches...we'll see. I've met one other airgunner there.

 

[Iowa Airgunner]

Another angle I push is the social part. I set up a picnic table in the shade. After you spend 100 dollars on ammo shooting pistols. Come have lunch and try to hit a target 165 feet away with a BB gun. 2 shots for a penny.

 

[Motorhead]

Just WOW !!! ... same thing here coming from nearly a 20 year obsession with R/C Boat racing. Was in and over time ran a local club where we shared lakes to run monthly 3 day racing weekends threw out the summer months.
The politics, squabbling about rules, clubs wanting pick of the ideal months to host there race, keeping water access, fair judging etc etc finally chased me off and have never looked back !!

 

[Iowa Airgunner]

I raced pylon air planes and everything else. My Oval racing group is like a family. Really close to the people. But is summer we spread out. 80 people show up and everyone races multiple cars. It is a lot of work and fun.

 

[cavedweller]

I just joined AGN and saw your post. I know it’s a few months old, did you get a club in Mobile started? I saw that there was a small group shooting FT in Pensacola, but it looks like they disbanded last year. The Pensacola Rifle and Pistol club is/was airgun friendly.

@BillmAGF - give me a call and perhaps you can shoot with us... on the down low. I will send you a PM with #

 

[cavedweller]

Just spotted this thread and had to check twice to make sure it was not my post. I have gone through all of this and had unbelievable support from the gun club. If you want to contact me feel free.
Basically what I have done was start a Facebook group and post airgun stuff and field target topics every day.
Pick a catch name that indicates your location.
Once you get 20 members find a range with a wooded section they are not able to use.
Approach them with the idea that you want to add to there club. Show them the Facebook group and videos or make a presentation and present it to the board of directors .
The biggest obstacle the board will have is money and manpower.
In my case I offered to pay for 100% and supply all the manpower.
That is the first lesson in sales. Overcome the objections.
You absolutely need insurance and parking lot and a toilet. You can’t get that from a private land owner and the liability it to great.
But gun clubs have chapters . Pistols rifles and shotguns. Just add airguns and you are on your way. The more people you can get the join the gun club the more it helps the club because you are paying for membership and not using there current resources but adding another resource. It’s a win for the club. But you gotta sell it. Then be consistent. If I can make this fly they are very open to expanding and direction resources to the airgun range.
Remember it takes 500 members to get 25 people to do anything and five of them run it all. That’s just how clubs are.

You and I are already in touch on facebook etc