KNOX — When the Helderberg Rod & Gun club received  land on Quay Road in 1958 as a gift from  a family who were members, it seemed the perfect spot.  It was  a rural and largely wooded location, thinly populated.  It still is today, but now the land opposite the club  has some large homes.

And at least one neighbor says there is more activity, more firepower, and more noise at the club than ever before.  John Grennon, a contractor who 20 years ago built his home just down the road from the club, has complained about the club at both the August and October town board meetings.

But another neighbor, Mary James, who lives directly across the road from the club, says the club has been  responsive to her rare complaints, especially  to her most serious complaint —  about an errant bullet that landed only feet from where she, her dog, and cat were enjoying the front porch of the home where she and her husband, Morgan, have lived for about 25 years.  Their house — like Grennon’s, which is a short way to the west of the James home — sits well back from the road. She has not joined Grennon in lodging a public protest with the town board.

But James backs up Grennon’s contention about there being in recent years many more members and much more activity at the club. “I would say their membership has more than doubled since the passage of SAFE,” she told The Enterprise, referring to the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act enacted  in 2003.

Neil Taber, who was club president for 23 years years and is now its vice president, says the club has 225 adult members as well as around 115 family memberships. He affirms that club membership is now capped at its present level and says  club membership did grow  substantially after the passage of the SAFE act.

At the August town board meeting,  Grennon claimed club membership has spiked from 50 to over 300 members in recent years, that higher-caliber rifles are being used, and that firing can be heard  “for up to 12 hours a day.”

Club set-up

On its website, the club says it has been “promoting firearm safety, education and sportsmanship since 1948.”  The club president, Michael Gdoula, declined to speak on the record to The Enterprise for this story, saying he wished to tell the club’s side at a future date in another way.

The club has two outdoor ranges as well as an indoor firing range. The 50-foot indoor range is used for small arms — pistols, .22 caliber rifles, and air rifles — while the 100-foot and 200-foot outdoor ranges accommodate larger-caliber firearms.  Users of the outdoor range fire their weapons either from a standing position or sitting at a benchrest set-up that holds the gun securely in place and is often used  for sighting guns precisely before hunting season begins.”Hunters want to kill deer accurately and humanely, “ Taber says.  There is also an archery area and a trap range, named in Taber’s honor.  He is the only living original charter member of the club.

The building that houses the indoor range is not far from the edge of the road. Members enter the outdoor ranges through this clubhouse building,  by swiping their entry cards through a card reader — a recent addition —  at the building entrance. They then sign in inside the building. However, no barriers prevent someone from accessing the ranges from outside the building.  James says that, to her knowledge, the club does not post a gatekeeper to make sure only members use the outdoor ranges.

Taber says there has been an occasional problem with non-members using the facility, but he says new security cameras should help prevent that.

“We don’t want to employ watch dogs or erect fencing around the range,” he adds.

James also says that  one day she observed out-of-state license plates on vehicles parked at the club. “Maybe they knew a club member who had told them about it, so they stopped for target practice that lasted most of the day,” she says.

Most members, she says, do a little practice shooting and leave, though “kids want to shoot and shoot.”

The most intense firepower, she says, occurs when local law enforcement agencies  show up for their periodic re-certification in firearm use, usually first thing in the morning. The process requires proof of proficiency with a variety of firearms that includes higher caliber weapons.

Taber, a retired Altamont judge,  says that the Altamont Police Department formerly use the facility for its qualifying shooting but no longer does. He says the semi-automatic guns police use for qualifying can sound to an untrained ear like fully automatic weapons.

Days when the club offers a gun course can also be extra busy, James says. A photo that Grennon showed the town board of cars parked along the road, as well as  in the club parking lot, was probably taken on such a day, she says. Taber thinks it may have been at the time of the club’s annual picnic.

Taber says that in his day-t0-day experience at the club, a dozen people using the facility at the same time is about the maximum number he has seen there.

The two outdoor ranges stretch behind the building  toward the surrounding woodlands —  about 50 acres in all that are  owned by the club,  managed  by it, and that provide  members with an area for hunting small game and deer in season as well as with walking trails.  A stream threads through the woods not far beyond the shooting ranges’ targets which are paper and placed against an earthen berm that absorbs spent bullets.

Floodlights  enable trap and gun range shooting after dark.

The outdoor ranges are closed during hunting season because of hunting activity in the woods beyond.

James says that when Grennon, and she and her husband, moved to Quay Road  just a couple of years apart, “We knew we would be living near a gun club, of course.” But she says the club membership was much smaller at that time. Grennon says he initially had good relations with the club  and even contributed excavated earth for the berm backing the shooting range targets.

 A bullet gone awry

The Department of Environmental Conservation website says that according to state law, “You cannot discharge a firearm within 500 feet...of any school, playground, occupied factory or church, dwelling, farm building, or structure.”

However, the prohibition does not apply to a target range "regularly operated and maintained by a ... law enforcement agency or by any duly organized membership corporation," according to Environmental Conservation Law.

Nevertheless, the club proved too close for comfort for Mary James one summer day last year. She heard a “whizzing sound” as she sat reading on her porch with her dog at her feet and her cat on one of the porch steps. It was a bullet from a gun fired at the club range, later inquiry revealed, toward the  range targets and away from her home.

“My husband went down to the club to tell them to stop shooting and the guy shooting just about died when he heard what had happened,” she says.

After getting no response from the club president — who it turned out was out of town — she filed a complaint with the New York State Police.

But, once the club learned what had happened, “They were absolutely quite concerned….and shut down the club for a whole month.”

“I had to explain to 99 club members what happened,” she says.

An investigation by the club revealed the whole story. The bullet had ricocheted off a metal target someone had placed on the range without permission and sped over the top of the club building, crossed the road, and bounced off the Jameses’ porch step.

Subsequently, the club banned metal targets and also, as re quested, added more earth to the berm to bury any rocks off which bullets might ricochet.  James also asked the club to seal up a window on the side of the indoor range facing the road, a road on which she often walks her dog. The club complied.

Taber, as well,  says the berm was made higher after that incident.

Grennon met with a less positive response one day. He describes an unusually busy weekend on which the firing started at 8 a.m.  “It sounded like Vietnam the whole weekend,” he says.

He says he walked down to the club, approached  a group of members, and asked, disbelievingly, “What are we doing here?”

He says he was met with a reminder  that “this is private property and we can start shooting anytime we want.”   He says the club filed a complaint against him and a sheriff's deputy came to his house.

One thing all the neighbors can agree on is that the club can shatter the rural quiet at times. But James says, “It’s like living alongside a busy highway, you get used to it.”

 A house unsold

Grennon, on the other hand, says that too often the noise is intolerable. He cites the morning on which he thought he finally had a buyer for his home, which he is trying to sell.

The good prospects had returned for a third visit on a quiet Sunday morning when gunfire broke out at the club.

“My house is  about 1,000 feet from the road,” he says. “But the wife turned to her husband, and said, ‘We can’t do this.’ ’’

His house remains unsold.

Something no one can dispute is that the club produces noise, sometimes loud and continuous noise that can travel. Grennon says that residents on Bozenkill Road  and  Bell Road to east tell him they hear gunfire echoing.

According to one gun enthusiast website, “most gunshots average a dB level of 150 to 160...The normal conversation benchmark is 60 dB, while a jet takeoff is about 120 dB, and a jackhammer has 130 dB...big-bore rifles and pistols can produce sound over 175 dB.”

Larger-bore rifles makes more noise and most gun clubs place an upper limit on the caliber of firearms that can be used.  Taber says that at Helderberg Rod & Gun Club,  a .30-caliber firearm is the  largest employed.

Corrected on Nov. 11, 2016: The original story did not include the section of Environmental Conservation Law that makes clear the prohibition on firing within 500 feet of a house does not apply to target ranges run by "any duly organized membership corporation."