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Cost of 'No Blue Sky' Barriers?

Mountain

Mountain

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Greetings folks,

For those of you who had to install a 'No Blue Sky' barrier, would you mind sharing the approximate cost to install? If built via volunteers, cost of materials and how many man hours? PM is OK if you don't want to post publicly.

My home range has an increasing number of idiots violating the most basic safety rules. IMO, the club seriously needs to harden up rules enforcement before an accident causes us to spend some serious dough on safety measures and/or implement RSO's. Not to mention lawsuit, closure, etc. I'd like to inform the officers what are the options if we don't drop the hammer for enforcement.

Thanks
 
I would try to reach out to the board of directors at Old Colony Sportsman's Club in Pembroke. They built a nice one, I volunteered a few days of my time to work on it, but have know idea of the cost. And we still have idiots that can't shoot.
 
paracarry said:
I would try to reach out to the board of directors at Old Colony Sportsman's Club in Pembroke. They built a nice one, I volunteered a few days of my time to work on it, but have know idea of the cost. And we still have idiots that can't shoot.
Click to expand...


Thanks, LOL that's more or less what happened this weekend. I was there for a CMP match last Sunday and talked to the gentlemen who engineered and supervised most of the improvements. A good take-away was the construction technique for some sidewalls which are necessary on one side of my range due to safety concerns- especially if (when?) idiots shoot non-approved targets that cause ricochets.

I see how you had to paint 'no targets' on the no blue sky barriers and some of the bullet holes. Some people...

The biggest problem at our range is that the leadership is reluctant to put the hammer down on this stuff. I understand the want to keep things laid back like it was for decades, but that worked because everyone knew each other and exercised common sense. That's not the case anymore, and we have a few bad apples causing the problems.
 
Bigcat said:
Install video cameras, toss out the violators, no if and or buts. Plenty of people looking for a good safe club to join.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Not so easy to do, however. Our range is quite a drive from the main club house, which has the closest electrical service. They did install dummy cameras and signage, but that's not working. This is going to be a process- I just hope we stay ahead of any potential incidents.
 
No blue sky barriers are not the answer to deal with idiots at the range. They help accidental issues not people purposely doing dumb things.

Video camera's on entrances and key card gates help keep the rule breakers accountable.
After the club I belong to put the camera's in the stupidly level immediately dropped way down.
 
Mountain, how many lanes? Some clubs have both upper barriers and tubes. Where there are only a couple of lanes the tubes have worked well for long range.
 
Mountain said:
Agreed. Not so easy to do, however. Our range is quite a drive from the main club house, which has the closest electrical service. They did install dummy cameras and signage, but that's not working. This is going to be a process- I just hope we stay ahead of any potential incidents.
Click to expand...
How far is "quite a drive"? The rifle range at Hopkinton is about 1000 ft from the clubhouse, and the pistol ranges another 800 ft.

Our solution was to put a local solar system (roof panels, MPPT controller; inverter and 3 deep discharge marine batteries at each of rifle and pistol ranges) to provide power for IP cameras, wireless access points, and a Netgear RJ45/Fiber router. The recording system (PC) is in the clubhouse computer room. Single mode fiber connects the 3 locations, and a cheap ($35 Trendnet) mini-gbic at the end of each fiber drives the optics. The gbics plug into the Netgear router's SFP ports and are rated up to 10KM. If I spent $235 each I could have installed ones rated for 40KM.

We also installed card operated gates, on the same system as the clubhouse and indoor range, and put the club furnaces on IP connected thermostats. Everything has been surprisingly reliable. The result is club officers can maintain membership; check the videos; turn the heat on in advance of club events; and open the gates during a storm (for the plow) all from home.

If you decide to do this, PM me. I learned a few lessons in the project that will save you some of the detours I ended up taking. The most important is to buy pre-terminated fiber cable (you can order it in any specification and length online). The tool to properly splice fiber runs about $8500+, and the low end DIY kits don't work.
 
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Rob Boudrie said:
How far is "quite a drive"? The rifle range at Hopkinton is about 1000 ft from the clubhouse, and the pistol ranges another 800 ft.

Our solution was to put a local solar system (roof panels, MPPT controller; inverter and 3 deep discharge marine batteries at each of rifle and pistol ranges) to provide power for IP cameras, wireless access points, and a Netgear RJ45/Fiber router. The recording system (PC) is in the clubhouse computer room. Single mode fiber connects the 3 locations, and a cheap ($35 Trendnet) mini-gbic at the end of each fiber drives the optics. The gbics I got are rated up to 10KM. If I spent $235 each I could have installed ones rated for 40KM.

We also installed card operated gates, on the same system as the clubhouse and indoor range, and put the club furnaces on IP connected thermostats. Everything has been surprisingly reliable.

If you decide to do this, PM me. I learned a few lessons in the project that will save you some of the detours I ended up taking. The most important is to buy pre-terminated fiber cable (you can order it in any specification and length online). The tool to properly splice fiber runs about $8500+, and the low end DIY kits don't work.
Click to expand...

Thanks- definitely will send you a PM if we move in that direction. We would need some type of wireless communication to the clubhouse, however. Distance is more like 1,000 yards, not 1,000 feet; with varied terrain and a couple brook crossings.

I would like card operated gates & access could be controlled very close to the clubhouse.
 
1000 yards is no problem for fiber - the problem is how you run it. I find hardwired more reliable for long-term unattended operation than wireless, though EnGenius and Ubiquity have some nice setups. I have a job coming up connecting two buildings by wireless in Texas that are about 5 miles apart. That is going to be fun.

Gates are expen$ive. We spent $27K for two gates at Hopkinton, including the cement foundation for the gates and gooseneck for the reader, sensor coil buried in pavement, and other details. That does not include the card reader and access control system, since I integrated that into our existing system (same card for clubhouse, indoor range and gates). The gates required one dedicated 20A circuit to each gate, a two wire low voltage control for open/close, and one RJ45 cable for the card reader.

You need an in-house nerd to take care of this stuff. It gets expensive and inconvenient if every little thing requires a paid service call. For example, when we lost a board due to lightening it cost us $400 to have it replaced with a refurbed one in two days. I now keep a spare board and readers in the clubhouse parts box. Another club in MA had the same problem with a different vendor and went the "pro install" route - and paid $3000 for their repair.
 
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Mountain said:
Thanks, LOL that's more or less what happened this weekend. I was there for a CMP match last Sunday and talked to the gentlemen who engineered and supervised most of the improvements. A good take-away was the construction technique for some sidewalls which are necessary on one side of my range due to safety concerns- especially if (when?) idiots shoot non-approved targets that cause ricochets.

I see how you had to paint 'no targets' on the no blue sky barriers and some of the bullet holes. Some people...

The biggest problem at our range is that the leadership is reluctant to put the hammer down on this stuff. I understand the want to keep things laid back like it was for decades, but that worked because everyone knew each other and exercised common sense. That's not the case anymore, and we have a few bad apples causing the problems.
Click to expand...
Franco is a great guy and has done a lot for the club.
 
Resurrecting this thread... with Angle Tree going thru their BS, we're looking to be a bit proactive at our club. Our range is very small.. our 50ft pistol range is covered.. Our rifle range is only 50 yds and 45 feet or so wide. See photo. We are thinking of increasing the height of the berm, but also adding some baffles.. If your club has something, would you post a pic or 2 of it here? Especially if you designed/built it yourselves. I recall Old Colony has some nice baffles.. would love to show some of the interested people at my club some of the different options you all have seen. TIA.

1634145818354.png
 
EMTDAD said:
Resurrecting this thread... with Angle Tree going thru their BS, we're looking to be a bit proactive at our club. Our range is very small.. our 50ft pistol range is covered.. Our rifle range is only 50 yds and 45 feet or so wide. See photo. We are thinking of increasing the height of the berm, but also adding some baffles.. If your club has something, would you post a pic or 2 of it here? Especially if you designed/built it yourselves. I recall Old Colony has some nice baffles.. would love to show some of the interested people at my club some of the different options you all have seen. TIA.

View attachment 531962
Click to expand...
Sharon F&G was forced to put up baffles, etc. many years ago after a skip-shot from Massapoag Sportsmen's Club struck a girl in the arm 1/2 mile away. One thing that SF&G did was put up an eyebrow of cut telephone poles at the top of the berm so that it might catch any skip-shots. No idea if this works or not, just an idea. None of my other clubs have done this.
 

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