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I guess I’ll put this here...

First year on Camp Staff in New Hampshire, I’ll be working as a Rifle Range Instructor. During the day I’ll teach the rifle merit badge, then during night I’ll be responsible for “open shoots”, night shoots, and paintball.

What should I do to help myself prepare for ten weeks of “fun” this summer? Any suggestions for packing? Any knowledge or recommendations to pass along?

 

Appreciate everything, thank you!

 

 

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@bob_kins , welcome to scouter.com.  Your Camp Director and Shooting Director will be your first choice,  though many here will gladly help.

As for specific advice for a Rifle Range Instructor, I would bring these personal safety items - shooting glasses, hearing protection (I like the Walker's electronic muffs), and lead cleaning wipes or soap (D-Lead, LeadOff) for your hands. Scouts should wash up after shooting!

What kind of shooter are you? Hunter, target,..? You might get a discount from Bass Pro if you can show that your a BSA Rifle instructor.  Ditto for membership with Shooting Sports USA .

Safety is job one! Keep all hydrated at range.  Keep it fun.

Note: If you type @ followed by a member name it sends a notice to that member. These members come to mind, lets see what advice they have.

@Oldscout448@Sentinel947, @cyphertext , @ShootingSports @Eagle94-A1

My $0.02,

Edited by RememberSchiff
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So far @RememberSchiff has some of my choices.  I'd add sunscreeen and a wide brimmed hat. When I was running ranges, I usually wore either the Expedition hat, aka Brimmed hat, or one of my Smokey Bears. One guy I knew wore one of those Vietnamese conical hats.

And I want to especially ditto water and hydration. One time i had no shade, and my thermometer was reading 114 degrees!

 

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3 minutes ago, bob_kins said:

A good ol’ green canvas ten, it does have an outlet though.

In that case you want a fan that will blow across you at night, both for cooling, but more importantly mosquitoes.

Before you answered the question about electricity I was going to say that 10 weeks in a tent is very different from one week.  You need to be sharp and on your toes all day, think hard about what you need to do to get a good night's sleep every night.

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Assuming that the weather in New Hampshire is like that of Vermont, I second the long pants.  Also helpful when hot brass casings are flying about. Good shoes you are gonna be on your feet a lot.  A spotting scope if the range does not have one, a fan if you have access to power,   helps keep the bugs away at night.  A good head lamp.   a lockable trunk.   a multitool   or swiss army knife, a pillow. a small light for your tent. 

The two most important things however are a "lifeguards eye" that can look at 10 things in 10 seconds looking for the screw up that is about to happen, and the  This is my range. I put up with zero crap from anyone attitude.   I had more problems with the adults than the kids by far.   Worst were the dads who thought they knew what they were doing on a range.   If they won't obey the rules  you have to be prepared to chuck 'em out.  

For whatever its worth I opened every class with this " I am not  prepared to have to write some scouts Mom a letter explaining that her son has a hole in his head because  I let someone else be a screw up !   If anyone  here tries to be that screw up, I will throw him off this range  in a heartbeat.  NO excuses ! NO second chances!  Do we have an understanding?"

after that we always had a lot of fun

Oldscout

Oh yeah,  the best target of the day by a scout got a free ice cream at the trading post.  

And remember for a number of scouts this is the first time they have ever shot a gun, for some of them it will be tho only time ever.  Try to make it fun for them.   be prepared to give up a little of your free time to help those who are struggling

Edited by Oldscout448
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7 minutes ago, Oldscout448 said:

Assuming that the weather in New Hampshire is like that of Vermont, I second the long pants.  Also helpful when hot brass casings are flying about. Good shoes you are gonna be on your feet a lot.  A spotting scope if the range does not have one, a fan if you have access to power,   helps keep the bugs away at night.  A good head lamp.   a lockable trunk.   a multitool   or swiss army knife, a pillow. a small light for your tent. 

The two most important things however are a "lifeguards eye" that can look at 10 things in 10 seconds looking for the screw up that is about to happen, and the  This is my range. I put up with zero crap from anyone attitude.   I had more problems with the adults than the kids by far.   Worst were the dads who thought they knew what they were doing on a range.   If they won't obey the rules  you have to be prepared to chuck 'em out.  

For whatever its worth I opened every class with this " I am not  prepared to have to write some scouts Mom a letter explaining that her son has a hole in his head because  I let someone else be a screw up !   If anyone  here tries to be that screw up, I will throw him off this range  in a heartbeat.  NO excuses ! NO second chances!  Do we have an understanding?"

after that we always had a lot of fun

Oh yeah,  the best target of the day by a scout got a free ice cream at the trading post

Thank you so much! The kids will understand if I shout at them to stop, not so much with the adults who act like they know what’s going on. Should be fun...

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one other thing . when you are the RSO  that is your only job.     keep the range safe!

Just like a lifeguard has one job.     to guard life

do not let yourself be distracted by anything   a friend calling your name,   a fight between two scouts at the archery range, nothing    stay focused..

and I wish I had your job.

 

 

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21 minutes ago, Oldscout448 said:

For whatever its worth I opened every class with this " I am not  prepared to have to write some scouts Mom a letter explaining that her son has a hole in his head because  I let someone else be a screw up !   If anyone  here tries to be that screw up, I will throw him off this range  in a heartbeat.  NO excuses ! NO second chances!  Do we have an understanding?"

I love it.

I do something similar. I was working with German Scouts once and I got careless. There was a problem downrange, and I yelled "cease fire" 3x and expected instantaneous obedience to that command. So I started walking downrange without waiting for the translation to the Scout or confirming it was safe for me to walk downrange. A round was fired, and it went through my Smokey Bear. Thankfully A) it was BBs (which can still kill you, but less chance of it) and B) I wasn't hit. I use that as not only a reminder for myself, but also to the Scouts.

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i  once thought that everyone had fired their ten rounds.  I called  "Cease Fire " twice and turned to check on the next batch of shooters.  Just as I said " OK next ba  CRACK ! tch...I think my heart stopped until the echo died away,   

the first time shooter on the far end had one round left, and he had never heard the term "cease  fire" before  

.  He had absolutely no idea what it meant .      

My fault, I had not walked down the line and checked each gun, and  i had been hearing range commands for so long I assumed that that everyone understood them.

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9 hours ago, bob_kins said:

A good ol’ green canvas ten, it does have an outlet though.

Platform tent at all?

Fan is a good item. A big box one. 

And you asked, so here goes.....

Television, video games, alarm clock (not your phone) milk crates to stack stuff on and make shelves, laundry detergent, something to drink other than water (cuz you will get sick of water) 

About the tv and video games, you will teach kids (and know it all adults) all day. You will get stressed, you need something to unwind. That's your outlet.

That's what we did when I was on staff. We had wood platform frames with a canvas tent over it. Not sure what you have....

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30 minutes ago, Cubmaster Pete said:

Platform tent at all?

Fan is a good item. A big box one. 

And you asked, so here goes.....

Television, video games, alarm clock (not your phone) milk crates to stack stuff on and make shelves, laundry detergent, something to drink other than water (cuz you will get sick of water) 

About the tv and video games, you will teach kids (and know it all adults) all day. You will get stressed, you need something to unwind. That's your outlet.

That's what we did when I was on staff. We had wood platform frames with a canvas tent over it. Not sure what you have....

Camp Managment would not ne the happiest if I had a television in my platform tent, I wish though.

 

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