Public Archery Range Startup

[hickry]

My biggest problem right now (other than lack of time) is having a good place to shoot.  We live in a neighborhood and, although the yard is not THAT small, I'm always working to make sure that I don't send an arrow across the fence.  SO, I've been trying to come up with a better place to shoot that's close... and have a brainstorm idea.  Our Church has a lot of open property (hayfield/softball field/soccer field) that I believe we could make work well.  I was wondering if any of you have ever set up any type of public range?  Most everybody that I know who shoots in town... shoots a wheelie-bow... so the range would have to accommodate that as well.  I guess my two biggest questions are: 1) What do you do about liability?, and 2) What about targets?  There's probably a lot of other things that I'm not thinking about at the moment... but these pop out...

[Don Armstrong]

We just moved our range and it was a REAL pain dealing with the county. You will need to get affliated with ASA, IBO or the NFAA to get any kind of decent insurance. I am not trying to discourage you, just point out some issues you may encounter. We had to have inspections, get permits and ended up contacting a lawyer. He was a bow hunter so a membership was his fee. After we jumped thru all the hoops, everything is good now. Don

[recurvericky]

Our range is about 1 1/2 years old. Below are the steps we took.
1. Form a club with officers. Create your by-laws. Get your Not-for-Profit status for your state and a Federal Tax ID from the IRS.
2. Have five members of your club join the NFAA. This allows you to aquire liability insurance. Contact Sadlers Sports for insurance.
3. Contact the NFAA for info on setting up a range per their requirements. An NFAA officer will then inspect the range. Once it passes the insurance company will give you a policy for about $400 a year.
4. For targets you can start out with bag type targets until you can afford 3-D targets. Our Club has bought alot of used 3-d targets.
5. Post signs at sporing good stores and on site such as this to get members in your area.
6. Once your range is set up you can begin having shoots to raise money to better the range.

Feel free to contact me if you need more info.

[Bowwild]

I've built ranges on several public lands and am helping a museum build a range now. Recurvericky provides excellent guidance above.

You can reach the NFAA's headquarters at Yankton, South Dakota.   You can also obtain liability (club) insurance from the IBO.

Your state fish & wildlife agency folks have received many hundreds of thousands of dollars more in excise taxes the past two years. They may have grants available and likely advice to help you.  If you contact Steve Hall with your Texas Wildlife & Parks agency he is a super fellow who might be able to help. Also, if you have a NASP school in your area that could be a selling point to get local support for a place for the kids to shoot after school.  Texas is one of the top NASP states.

If you are needing contact information, feel free to PM me.

[hickry]

Man!!  Thanks a bunch for the information!

[lpcjon2]

Check the churches insurance policy first. What you do may not be covered by it or worse may void it.