Cub Scout Shooting Sport Ratio

[Eagle92]

Background, I am scheduled to be the Day Camp Program Director and will be going through NCS next week, so I could get my answer then. BUT tomorrow nite is the District banquet, and I am recruiting for Day Camp Staff, so here it goes.

 

What is the ratio of certified adults, both Archery and BB Guns to shooters? I ask b/c I want to figure out how many adults I need for both areas in order to shoot 10 at a time. Last year we had 1:2 at archery( with only one adult) and 1:3 at BB Guns ( again only 1 adult) So not many folks could fire at a time. Luckily our camp was small, only 40 cubs.

 

This year I am hoping to double the number, and the DE is estimating 100 since I already began promoting CSDC. So my goal is to have 10 people on the line at a time. I looked in the 2009 CS Shooting Sports book some one gave me, and I can't find iot for the life of me.

 

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Also any help programming wise would be greatly appreciated, again (I asked already once and got some great advice, but please keep it coming). I am totally revamping the program from scratch and have approx $27/cub to use.

 

Eagle92

Program Freak

[Twocubdad]

Well...I thought I was going to be johnny-on-the-spot with a difinitive answer for you. I've got my Big Stack of Stuff for camp school right here.

 

But I've read the entire BB section of the Shoot Sports for Cub Scouts, the 2010 Camp Standards, the CSDC Administrative Guide and even the shooting sports section in the faculty syllabus and cannot find a specific reference to a scout/instructor ratio. The pertinent language is in camp standard M41, (M42 is identical, but referencing archery)

 

"BB gun marksmanship (no pellet guns)is conducted by a qualified range officer, at least 18 years of age. Additional adult supervision and guidance are provided, and minimum state requirements are met. All BB-gun range officers have successfully completed the BB-gun Safety and Training program from an authorized instructor, as outlined in Shooting Sports For Cub Scouts."

 

So at minimum, you have to have one certified range officer and additional supervision as you see fit.

 

My experience and suggestion is to have one certified range officer for every six boys. When I was CD our ranges were always set up for 12 shooters (the same as the number of boys in a den) so we always had two certified range officers. According to the standards, only one is required, (the other could be knowledgable in range procedures but not certified) but what happens if the guy with the certificate gets called away? We also tried to give each range a couple of good Boy Scouts who could help.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Have fun next week.

[Eagle92]

Thanks for the info. My goal, stressing goal, is to have 4 adults, 2 on BBs and 2 on Archery, and 2 Scouts/Venturers in each area assisting. With the DL and the DC, i am hoping to have 3 adults and 3 youth per 10 folks on the line.

[SSScout]

The "minimum" is ONE BSA trained and certified (card is up to date) Range Safety Officer on site during range open hours. That's one Archery on the Archery Range, and one BB Shooting Sports on the BB Range. No RSO, no open range. THEREFORE, it is a good thing to have more than one BSA RSO available for potty breaks, reporting to Admin, etc. Get lots of Boy Scout assistants, many worthy adult assistants, who your Chief RSO trains to his satisfaction. BUT,,, no RSO , no open range. Assts. don't fill the bill for BSA purposes.

 

When they take their RSO Training, they should be given the following, updated as appropriate:

■Shooting Sports for Cub Scouting, No. 13-550

In PDF:

http://www.stlbsa.org/NR/rdonlyres/42BDA04E-AE7A-40EC-832B-3CB4B7C68E15/0/CubScoutShootingSportsbook.pdf

 

...among some other places.

 

Your RSOs should take their role very seriously, but still allowing the Cubs to have fun and take pride in a new skill well learned. The discipline of the range allows all to become skillful archers/gunners SAFELY.

[Eagle92]

Working on getting the RSO certified folks now. For whatever reason, in the past my district would never find out about them in time to have people take them. Always found out a day or two in advance. Luckily teh NCS instructor who does the cert will do the class on summer camp staff training days, so we were able to get someone certified in time for day camp. problem is, we lost him to summer camp staff this summer

[Cubmaster Mike]

I was looking for a related topic in the net and this came up in my search.

 

Correction:

There is no Range Safety Officer requirement for Archery or BB guns. Both fall under the Section 5 exemption in the National Shooting Sports manual. The instructor runs the BB gun range, not a safety officer.

 

But- my suggestion is to always be two deep on the range. You can have an NRA RSO as your assistant, but unless they also hold a BB gun range master training card, they can't run the range.

 

CMM

 

 

[DLChris71]

At the Spring Camp we had a few days ago they were organized...

 

1 Trainer, going over safety and range procedures.

 

There were two groups of 8 shooting positions

Each Group had one person in charge of the group and one scorer.

Each cub scout was usually accompanied by an adult.

 

Things ran very smooth as far as shooting goes, but not much instruction.