Help others improve their confidence, safe firearm handling skills, and shooting at Maine's shooting ranges
Volunteer RSOs are people who have a passion and energy to donate their time, talent, skill set, and experience to ensure the safe use and enjoyment of shooting ranges across the country. These dedicated volunteers give their precious gift of time and knowledge, out of the belief that they are benefiting other individuals and their community. Volunteer RSOs are the heartbeat of the Department’s state-owned shooting ranges in Augusta and Fryeburg. Each year our dedicated corps of volunteers donate thousands of hours at our facilities and allow us to offer a no-cost and self-supporting program that serves the greater community.
Major responsibilities of volunteer Range Safety Officers:
- Greeting shooters
- Overseeing shooting activity at firearms and archery firing lines
- Ensuring the safety of all users
- Passing along knowledge of firearms and education on safe use and handling firearms and equipment.
The Department’s shooting facilities provide a range of shooting opportunities – We have firing bays for rifles and shotguns (with restrictions on ammunition), and shorter bays set-up for shooting handguns and shorter barrel firearms, archery/crossbow field, and our Fryeburg facility is equipped for aerial shotgun shooting.
All of our RSOs are trained in the most current line safety techniques and the safety rules of each range. Each RSO is required to meet the requirements of NRA-RSO certification and are provided on-site training specific for procedures at each range. We also offer a variety of additional training opportunities to all of our volunteers which has included First Aid/CPR, customer service, and de-escalation techniques.
The Department provides all required training to our volunteers, at no cost to the individual. But we do require the following to become a volunteer:
- Complete an NRA Range Safety Officer training, provided by the Department.
- 8 hours of on-site firing-line training.
- Submit to a cursory background check
- Adhere to Department polices, range specific procedures and the RSO code of conduct.
To learn more about becoming a volunteer RSO, please contact the Department’s Shooting Range Coordinator, Craig Gerry at (207) 287-5212, (207) 446-4249 or via email Craig.I.Gerry@Maine.gov.
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