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CGSSA Shoots, Meets and Range Stories Set up and organize shoots and meets and share your shooting range stories. |
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#1
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Why is membership at Los Altos Rod and Gun so expensive?
I shoot at LARG pretty often and I asked about their membership fees. Maybe I was spoiled by the Yolo Range, but I was pretty taken aback when I was told "Recently, memberships have been sold in the $10,000.00 to $11,500.00 range."
Why so pricey? Supply and demand? |
#3
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To keep the riff-raff out?
__________________
“When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.” - Thomas Jefferson "We are number one, all others are number two or lower." - The Sphinx "Why does every discussion of culture always degrade into a discussion of burritos?" - GoZoner |
#7
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Too rich for my blood regardless. |
#11
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Out of curiosity, what exactly do you stand to gain from such a membership/ownership? Do they just split net profits x number of ways or something? It'd be cool to pick the brain of someone actually in this position..
__________________
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein
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#14
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Damn, two and a half years ago I asked about membership cost, it was $6000 to $6500 then. Price has almost doubled. If that trend keeps going two and a half years form now it will be $20000. Might be a good investment.
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#16
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I spoke to one of the cashiers, you can buy a unlimited range pass ($500?) to shoot during normal business hours. If you are member you get access whenever you want plus other benefits. There's only finite members and they can sell you their membership for 1 dollar or 10k.
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#17
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You should contact the membership committee through the on site management. |
#18
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To put it simply, you are basically joining a Country Club. You get special privileges and help pay for upkeep with your dues/payment.
It would be great if LARG was like Bushwood. Can you imagine Bill Murray as the RSO on the 100 yard line?
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NRA Benefactor Member NRA Golden Eagle SAF Life Member CGN Contributor |
#19
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It's Los Altos. When people ask why things cost so much in that area they don't understand that many people there are so filthy rich they can't figure out how to spend part of their money. I could tell you some stories that would blow your mind, hundreds of thousands on shoes that will never be worn, buying a house for a few million and keeping it empty so they could put the AC equipment closer to the fence line than was code.
I am not talking about some lawyer who works crazy hours and makes 300k a year, I am talking about rich people. There must be some of those people who are into guns. Now add in the commoners and flatlanders in that area who inherited a 6 million dollar home and make 300 to 500k a year. Do you think that there will ever be another gun club opening in that area? I am surprised that one has stayed open. It wasn't that long ago that you could hunt or dirt bike in hills close by the club after work. Now some ranch worth 800k on paper as a working ranch sells for 40 million just so we can't use the land.
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#20
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#21
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Personally if I had that kind of money I would buy a ranch on skyline Or the other side of the hill and have my own private range/off road/man fun area. |
#22
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its technically in Los Gatos, not Los Altos. it is member owned and I do not believe that is for profit, but the cost may have something to do with trying to maintain it as some neighbors would love to shut the place down.
there are other gun clubs in the area, sunnyvale R&G is over by Stevens creek reservoir and there are a couple of indoor ranges in the south bay. |
#24
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I dont shoot the rifle/pistol range at Metcalf often but I do like it better than LARG, and it's cheaper. Plus Metcalf has REAL trap shooting and skeet as well if you like shooting clays.
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Don't sing it bring it! |
#25
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Sunnyvale R&G club is only $300 to join and you get to use their FFL and
use the club off hours after attending a bunch of meeting and a few months.
You also got to work certain number of hours a year. But club is much smaller and only 100 yd range, etc. I've been thinking about joining if they'd have me, partly so I can buy hella cheap guns without getting hit with $50 FFL charge for a sub-$200 gun. |
#26
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#27
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Yo Johnnykck you are the next Nostradamus
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No but seriously, I looked at a GIS parcel map viewer just out of curiosity and it appears that the land LARGC own's alone justifies the underlying membership costs. And cleaning up the land to sell for homes would be free these days, the lead cleanup folks actually pay the ranges! That's because lead is so expensive. But the whole idea of it costing a fortune to cleanup old firing ranges is no longer applicable. And while they can't share profits, I believe non-profit interests can be distributed proceeds under a sale, just like they sell/buy each others memberships. But I'm no accountant. |
#28
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If you can only afford a Cayman, you don't have plenty of money to spend (unless you are a female).
Right up to the day that some libtard homeowner succeeds in getting the range shut down.
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My friends and family disavow all knowledge of my existence, let alone my opinions. |
#29
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Visited this range last weekend on the advice of a few members here....wouldnt go back. They treat everyone as if they are idiots and the atmosphere is more like that of a Marine Corps range on qual day. In my opinion this is not the range to go to if you want to 1)relax and not worry about getting a lecture 2)run your guns. That being said, If the range is more lax on member days and they allow you to actually run your guns and do drills, I would consider joining. As one poster said previously though, all it takes is some rich anti gun asshat yelling loud enough to get the range shut down.
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#30
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One of the primary reasons I go to this range is it is exactly opposite of what you describe. it's the only "major" range i have been to in the area you don't get treated like an idiot until you prove to be one. It is also the most relaxed while not compromising safety, doubly so on week days. It is the only public range I have ever really felt relaxed at while shooting. |
#31
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If a range has a high enough concentration of lead and the soil is easy to mine, then it can net a profit for the range. If the range only has a small amount of lead, it will not offset the cost to move all the material needed to clean up a range. Some ranges have soil that is easy to mine and some have soil that is a nightmare to move and clean up. The lead from the range still needs to be smelted to be cleaned up. The copper jackets are worth more money than the lead, if you can find a recycle center that will take them.
__________________
He who dies with the most tools/toys wins |
#32
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I've been scolded a couple times for not following the rules. The safety officers are actually pretty cool about it if it is the first offense. Break the same rule twice and they aren't so cool. I saw one group get kicked out. I don't know what they did but after watching the way they handled firearms I was glad to see them go. My favorite place to shoot is the Sunnyvale Rod and Gun Club but the limited hours the range is open to non members make it difficult to get to sometimes. |
#33
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It's 2020 and I'm a member
Hey Gang,
I'm actually one of the 164 full members and part owner of the LARGC and have been for close to 20 years. I bought my membership back in 2000 when it was in the $5-$6,000 range which seemed like a crazy amount back then. What I enjoy telling people is that I used the money from cashing out the 401k that I had from working for the Time-Warner company when "almost as anti-gun as Bloomberg" CEO Gerald Levin was running the company. I could have spent the cash on more guns or other fun things, but I chose to bid (yes, its a bidding process like an auction) on one of the memberships for sale at the time. This is not an ongoing process, the Board of Directors of the club only meets a couple times a year to discuss membership changes and transfers. Just to have my bid accepted, I had to interview with several members of the club's Board and be approved as someone they wanted to have as a member. I assume this is to weed out any anti's or other kinds of less than gun friendly types. I was already an NRA & CRPA Life member as well as an active cowboy action shooter (once or twice per month plus practice) so I was a Life member in SASS as well. I told them the story about where the money was coming from for the membership and they appreciated the poetic justice of it. I was approved to bid, had my bid accepted successfully by the family of the member selling it, and was warmly welcomed at the annual Christmas Dinner. As a annual dues (its just a maintenance fee) paying member in good standing, I can shoot at the club 7 days a week during regular range hours. Thursday through Sunday are public days where I can literally drive in, sign my name, and start shooting as I please. I can also bring up to 3 or 4 guests (depending on how comfortable I am with supervising them) and they can shoot free of charge (except for the trap station, everybody pays for that, but members get a discount) for the duration of their visit using whatever guns or ammo brought into the club. Monday through Wednesday are Member ONLY days and quite honestly its rare to encounter more than one or two other members shooting PLUS you have to self monitor and be your own Range Officer. Otherwise, you have the ENTIRE RANGE to yourself. The only limit on guns, that I am currently aware of, is everything has to be UNDER .50BMG in power. You're welcome to shoot your .54 or even a .78 cal muzzleloader or a long range rifle one of the bigger cartridges and, I far as I know, no one has brought a pistol that is not allowed. We also have a couple of member only events on Memorial and Labor Day which include a catered lunch. This is about as "Bushwood" as it gets. It used to be a potluck BBQ with the club providing the Entre portion. I know this because I was the BBQ chef for several years, but then people started bringing way too many guests and we would run out of food, so they switched it to an RSVP only and catered thing for the food portion. You can still just come up and shoot as much as you want on those days. If you've been there before, you may have noticed one particular range that is fenced off. Its the first one you see as you come down the hill and there are a number of steel targets like a dueling tree, knockdowns, and such there. FULL MEMBERS ONLY are allowed to use that range and not even their guests. It's one of THE strictest rules the club has. You can wear a belt with holsters and pretend you are having your own personal IPSC or SASS match and shoot pistols, rifles, or shotguns on steel as long as you being safe about it. Aside from that, everything done there is for a reason. Since its technically located in Santa Cruz County, they have to fend off the antis every so often and since the Board has fully turned over in recent years, there is a movement to be more active with regard to "gun rights" issues and activities. Many year's ago the club's Board had a little bit of a bad reputation for being alarmingly silent and neutral on ANY gun issue, but that's changing. So there you have it. I consider myself more of a regular guy and I'm certainly not any kind of "tech rich" multimillionaire, I was just lucky enough to have a few extra bucks at the right moment and enjoy shooting enough to want to be a part of the club. By the way, Full Memberships are transferable. You can leave it in your Will to anyone you choose, usually a family member. They have to be approved by the Board, but there's a good change that will happen. There are some memberships on their 2nd or 3rd generation of one family. |
#34
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I know people who buy memberships in country clubs as investments. One bought a membership in the Blackhawk Country Club for $25K while the economy was down, plus he liked to play golf! A couple of years later the economy was on a good come back so he sold it for almost $70K!
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I'd agree with you but then we'd both be wrong... NRA Certified: Chief Range Safety Officer Instructor: Basic Pistol Shooting Instructor: Personal Protection Inside the Home |
#35
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ROs were very clear and diligent about safety. I overheard (with my amplified electronic headset) them talking amongst themselves, they were observing and discussing trigger and muzzle discipline of new shooters they don't recognize (me included). It's actually very reassuring to know that they are doing this. Yeah I saw the action range with reactive steel. If members can do that at anytime, that is worth the price of membership. AFAIK the only places in the BA where you can do that is once a month in Sunnyvale and every Saturday in Richmond. |
#36
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Since you say it's in Santa Cruz County, wouldn't that mean it's not in Los Gatos?
__________________
Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them. - Rabindranath Tagore A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. - Rabindranath Tagore Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see. - Arthur Schopenhaur |
#37
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How much interest is their in this sort of Members Only California mutual benefit nonprofit corporation with XXX members, each owning an equal share in the corporation, in the Hills south of Livermore, if it were more upscale, Rifle Range with targets at 300/600/850/1000 yards, 2 or 3 pistol ranges with steel reactive targets, the works? A few hundred acres.
Last edited by QuinnBayArea; 07-07-2020 at 12:21 PM.. |
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