School me about Woburn Sportsmen's Association

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Can someone please school me on the details of the Woburn Sportsmen's Association?

I live in Wilmington and have been a member at MRA in Woburn for the last few years. I've been wanting to get into IDPA for a while now and MRA doesn't run IDPA shoots. All the clubs that seem to run IDPA are either too far away and/or take place during the day on weekends. With kids and my schedule, neither of these work for me.

I read that WSA is now running IDPA mini shoots. More importantly its just as close as MRA and the IDPA shoots take place on Sunday nights, which work out perfectly. However, after searching their site I can't find any details about the club itself. The info on NES seems to be all from 2011 or so.

Looking for details such as:
- # and type of ranges
- Hours of the ranges
- Caliber restrictions on different ranges
- Round count limits
- Ammo restrictions (read somewhere that they only allow lead ammo on the indoor range, is this true?)
- Guest policy
- etc.

Thanks in advance
 
I'm not going to school you about the club but I will tell you what i know. I am a member but i dont go frequently so my info about it is very minimal. What i do know is, there are 7 ranges and it consist of indoor and outdoor archery, indoor and outdoor pistol, trap, black powder & hi power. I believe the hours are 8am-10pm but i could be wrong cuz i never stayed that late or went that early. There is a 5 round limit for the pistol & hi power range. Not sure about ammo restrictions but indoor does not allow magnum ammo. As for guests, you're only allowed to bring a max of 2 guests and i think you cannot bring them more than twice in a calendar year. Immediate family can go with you as long as you'd like but they do encourage them to join the club. I'm sure someone who's more familiar with the club will chime in.
 
You typically don't have to be a member of a range to shoot IDPA/USPSA matches at that range.

WSA has historically not been friendly to action shooting. At least in the past, they would not allow you to practice drawing from a holster, shooting on the move, etc. So if that is the short of thing that you want to be able to practice, then WSA may not be the club for you.
 
A few clarifications
Out door Rifle/pistol/shotgun ranges:Mon - Sat Open at 9am closed at sundown. Sun Open at 10AM closed at sundown. Indoor pistol range open 6am to midnight 7 days/week.
Link: http://www.woburnsportsmen.com/


The Woburn Sportsmen's Association, incorporated in 1933, is located at 155 Middlesex Turnpike, Bedford, Mass. just 3 miles north of the Burlington Mall. The Association's 90+ acres of land borders the Shawsheen River in Bedford and Billerica. Range facilities and programs have been developed for big bore rifle, smallbore, pistol,trap, archery, runningdeer, black powder, education& training, junior programs and more. The main building and clubhouse has a recreation room, kitchen, office, rest rooms, and a unique indoor rifle and pistol range.

I am a member. Facility is kept up really nicely. I think IDPA shoots are every other Sunday night but check out the web site. Has something for every one out to 200yards.
 
I did search about that but couldn't find any comment either way, other than one poster who said "Cape Ann is full of FUDDS", lol.
They're not that bad. I like most of the folks that belong to the club. You can't "rapid fire", which is taken to mean shooting more than one shot per second or so. No mag limits, steel plates are cool as long as they are approved by the president. Plenty of EBR's floating around and lots of modern pistols.
 
They're not that bad. I like most of the folks that belong to the club. You can't "rapid fire", which is taken to mean shooting more than one shot per second or so. No mag limits, steel plates are cool as long as they are approved by the president. Plenty of EBR's floating around and lots of modern pistols.

I heard great things about them, it's just a bit far for me, 25 minute drive, and wrong direction from work. Now if I got a job in Gloucester I'd join in a heartbeat.
 
I heard great things about them, it's just a bit far for me, 25 minute drive, and wrong direction from work. Now if I got a job in Gloucester I'd join in a heartbeat.
It's a great drive for us. About 15 minutes or so. I work in Gloucester, literally within 3 minutes of the range. I can hear people blasting away in the summer when I'm out for a smoke. Music to my ears. :D
 
I noticed on the web site they have CAS shoots every Saturday. Is this correct? How many shooters do they get?

Mike
 
You typically don't have to be a member of a range to shoot IDPA/USPSA matches at that range.

WSA has historically not been friendly to action shooting. At least in the past, they would not allow you to practice drawing from a holster, shooting on the move, etc. So if that is the short of thing that you want to be able to practice, then WSA may not be the club for you.

This is changing.

There are a group of members led by John Iacomini that have been running IDPA practices in the indoor range every 2nd and 4th Sunday 7pm-10pm since last Spring or so. I am not a member yet, but have been attending those practices and they have been well run, fun and very well received. They have started having mini-matches once a month. They have been successful and have been attended by some of the Metrowest tactical shooters and even some Sig Academy guys.

On the success of those practices and mini-matches, they have gotten some commitments from the Board of Directors to expand the program. They have approved money to buy targets, spinners and drop targets and, more importantly, have approved plans to create 4-5 outdoor action bays. They plan to have full matches as soon as the the action bays are completed this spring/summer.

Given all this, I am planning on joining the club.
 
Can someone please school me on the details of the Woburn Sportsmen's Association?

I live in Wilmington and have been a member at MRA in Woburn for the last few years. I've been wanting to get into IDPA for a while now and MRA doesn't run IDPA shoots. All the clubs that seem to run IDPA are either too far away and/or take place during the day on weekends. With kids and my schedule, neither of these work for me.

I read that WSA is now running IDPA mini shoots. More importantly its just as close as MRA and the IDPA shoots take place on Sunday nights, which work out perfectly. However, after searching their site I can't find any details about the club itself. The info on NES seems to be all from 2011 or so.

Looking for details such as:
- # and type of ranges
- Hours of the ranges
- Caliber restrictions on different ranges
- Round count limits
- Ammo restrictions (read somewhere that they only allow lead ammo on the indoor range, is this true?)
- Guest policy
- etc.

Thanks in advance

Woburn Sportsman's Association has a ten station indoor fifty foot range. No magnums are allowed but jacketed ammo is now allowed. We replaced the old plate & sand pit backstop a few years ago with a commercial backstop that allows us to now use jacketed. The indoor range is accessible from 6:00 AM until midnight. The indoor range is reserved at different times for junior rifle & jr pistol programs. We are a member of the Greater Boston Pistol League and reserve the indoor range for their matches on night a week during the winter.

I do not know much about the hi-power range as I am not a rifle shooter but it does go out to two hundred yards. There are two trap fields that always seem to be being upgraded as the trap shooters are very active here.

The archery program here is also very active with an outdoor MFAA course and during the summer they have a 3-D course set up through the woods also. There is a outdoor practice area that has an impressive raised platform for elevated shooting practice at butts and 3-D targets. They indoor shooting facility (not to be confused with indoor pistol range) has a fantastic setup for archery they have a league during the winter indoors and run a very well run and attended junior archery program.

The outdoor pistol range has target stands at 25 & 50 yards. We did have targets at 30 ft but recently shut those down do to damage. We are in the process or redesigning the range to accommodate 30 ft shooting and possible outdoor action pits along with smallbore rifle shooting.

I have not attended the indoor IDPA that has been going on, but I hear it is going well and is expanding with the possibility of outdoor action pits. We run four 1800 Bullseye matches a year on the outdoor range.

There is also a dedicated blackpowder range.

We run eight USAS 10 meter Air Pistol matches a year on the indoor range from September to April.

There are many more things going on at WSA between CMP clinics & matches, smallbore matches, Running deer matches, Cowboy Action Shooting that I do not know much about because I have not attended them, yet.

I hope I have helped with enough information for you to come check us out at WSA.
 
Thanks all for the info on the club. Sounds like WSA is just beginning to offer action shooting with plans on expanding soon. I think I'll be joining in the next couple of months.
 
Any updates on the improved action shooting at Woburn sportsmen? I know they have the monthly match and have the idpa practices, which I've heard good things about.

how about just regular member usage though? Do they now allow drawing from the holster? Steel target setups? Are the outdoor action pits still coming?
 
how about just regular member usage though? Do they now allow drawing from the holster? Steel target setups? Are the outdoor action pits still coming?

Not yet, we are working on it, but it's still a work in process. We've had a little push-back from some of the membership about range usage for IDPA so we have to step lightly. But the new IDPA director Dave Draper is working hard to continue to improve things. The more members we can get that are interested in these things the better so if you are thinking of joining please do and then come to meetings and vote to support action shooting!
 
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