Range Officers

[Hemmers]

Varies. A lot of NSRA clubs won't bother on indoor ranges, possibly also on outdoor ranges. Depends on who is shooting. Clearly on a guest day for instance you're going to have a hi-viz'ed RCO and probably a couple of other helpers hanging around in addition to your 1-on-1 instructors. Likewise if you're running a competition or have visitors, then you will have an RO making sure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet and understands the local range rules.

Conversely, for two experienced shooters quietly coming down and buddy-buddy shooting on a Thursday morning, it would be tedious to alternate between one person supervising the other. You just manage together.

Shooting on a military range is obviously military rules, and local rules would be stricter on a larger fullbore range where there's potential (for example) of accidental incursion by members of the public and you need dedicated look-out.

[Powderfinger]

Also depends on what the club means by a "range officer". As said above, for many indoor ranges, an experienced member , typically whoever is on the end of the line, gets informally designated the range officer even if they do not have a formal qualification. This seems to be safe for most indoor ranges where there are experienced club members present.

[mh374]

Interesting to see these replies. My club has three outdoor ranges 25m 50m and 100m, all run without any formal or informal range officer in charge at all.

[boff180]

Interesting to see these replies. My club has three outdoor ranges 25m 50m and 100m, all run without any formal or informal range officer in charge at all.

Interesting indeed, we operate the same outdoor range distances and there must be a Range Officer on duty at all times, if there are 4 or less shooters (including himself) the RO is allowed to shoot however at all other times the RO is none-shooting, with people taking it in turns to RO each detail. We ensure all members receive RO training as part of their probationary training course and all members are expected to take their fair share of stints as RO.