Range recommendations for the Lower mainland?

[silveragent]

Poco (PDHFC.com) is very well organized however until they finish building their second public range it will remain very busy on weekends. Before I became a full member I sometimes had to wait 2 hours to get in after driving up from Vancouver. As a full member now I can be there at opening at 9 while the public waits until 11.

It's a victim of having a large membership (I think I heard 3800 members), allowing public to pay day cards and that it absorbed the membership of closed ranges such as Barnet. It is also the closest gun range to Vancouver and Burnaby except for DVC (pistols and shotguns, no center fire rifles) and Richmond (Vancouver Gun Club -- shotguns only I believe).

As one of the most high profile clubs Poco also has some of the more stringent rules. It was explained to us in orientation that the CFO holds Poco up to very high standards and that is why they have a lot of supervision and safety procedure classes for becoming members, for being allowed onto outer ranges and for holster policy. The ROs can scold newbies (or oldtimers who feel above the rules) but after a few visits it feels very laid back. I've had hardly any problems with the rest of the membership. Poco has IPSC (and hosted the BC Championship last year), trap and skeet and a couple other pistol clubs. Membership is pretty multinational.

That area of Burke Mountain is also undergoing a lot of development up the slopes so it is a question if it will survive longterm though I would not hesitate signing up now. The closest development so far is still out of gunshot hearing and Poco shares the mountain with hikers and mountain bikers. I've never had any trouble with the construction traffic with the devleopment but I usually only go up on the weekends. Whenever I've spoken with board members they felt fairly confident they would remain for a number of years. Someone mentioned that development couldn't, for some geographic reason, go up much farther than now.