Last night those of us who shoot Thursday airgun silhouette at the club learned of an air pistol match held on wednesday evenings at the Delran Junior Marksman Club. In virtually any other state, this wouldn’t really be an issue at all to go to the match. But Delran is in New Jersey, and in New Jersey, airguns are firearms, and as we know, firearms are illegal in New Jersey. You can only possess them under exceptions.
One of those exceptions is traveling to a shooting match, but you must go directly there. You are only allowed to deviate in your course of travel as reasonably necessary under the circumstances. They get to define reasonably necessary. Considering I have to travel from work, my course of travel through New Jersey would be direct, but my entire course of travel would not be. I’d also have to make sure I can find the range first, so I don’t risk getting lost. And god help me if I have a hollow nose .22LR cartridge floating around in my car or range bag.
I’d like to shoot matches in New Jersey, but after hearing many a horror story from New Jersey gun attorneys of ordinary gun owners, including ones from Pennsylvania, ending up in serious trouble over there for things which are not illegal in any other state, I’m wary of traveling over there to shoot.
WELCOME to where it really is a “COLD DAY IN HELL” – A New Jersey Zombie
Just leave your rifles and such in the trunk, range bag/ammo on the backseat/on the rear floor, and you’ll be fine.
But you will notice a heavy weight coming over you once you cross the Delaware.
I’m from Wyoming but lived in Pennsylvania for a few years. I love Pennsylvania and have a PA permit. I visit fairly often because I still have friends and relatives there, both alive and dead. But I would no more set foot in New Jersey or Massachusetts than Mexico. I was stationed at the Philadelphia Navy yard for a time a few decades ago and got to know a few things about New Jersey. I don’t understand why anyone lives there. On the other hand, it’s because of the sort of people who do live there that it is the way it is.
… and that’s why I moved from NJ to PA.
Nothing says freedom like walking into a shop and buying guns & ammo and taking them home, THAT SAME DAY!!! Wow.
I can tell you some specifics about the location and vicinity of the Delran Junior Marksman Club. According to “Google Earth”, the place is on a nameless access road just off of Taylor’s Lane in Cinnaminson Township, which borders on Delran.
This immediate vicinity is generally industrial/commercial. There should be a small signpost on Taylor’s Lane which indicates where to turn onto this narrow yet paved access road. The small sign should say something to the effect of “Delran Junior Marksman Club”. The access road itself will wind its way to the right and into a wooded area before one could even see the chain-link fencing around this range. The approximate latitude and longitude coordinates of the front entrance gate are 40° 1’5.52″N and 74°58’29.50″W, respectively.
As for getting there from Pennsylvania, the closest bridge would be the Tacony-Palmyra bridge, but that would mean passing through Philadelphia first, which may be less than desirable for some. The Burlington-Bristol Bridge would be the closest bridge for those coming from Bucks County. In either case, one could easily get to Route 130 from either bridge, then head north or south on this highway depending on whichever bridge was crossed, and Taylor’s Lane can be readily accessed from it by means of a traffic light and/or traffic-pattern jughandle. (Look for landmarks such as Riverton Farm & Garden, Eckerd Drug, and Pat’s Pizza at this traffic light.)
If your vehicle doesn’t have any sort of navigation system, I would urge you to check out Google Earth to develop a clear plan for your travel route. After all, you enter New Jersey at your peril when and if you transport a dangerous “firearm” such as an airgun, right?
Shit, I just avoid NJ altogether, except when I’m traveling through to get to PA where I can shoot my air rifles to my heart’s content on my friends property.
Again, I say, when does the liberation begin?
“…I’m wary of traveling over there to shoot.”
Which, of course, is rather the point.
Speaking only for myself, I live in Jersey City, NJ because my job is in Manhattan and JC is much cheaper than NYC. Not that be much better off gunwise if I was in NY …
What sucks most is that you’re a law-abiding sport-shooter, trying to engage in sport shooting, and if you got pulled over by the wrong police officer and charged by the wrong DA, they’d try to ruin your life if you accidentally goofed and, say, decided to divert to go visit Eric the ammoman and thus were off-path.
But then to listen to the Brady Bunch, the Democrats, some Republicans, and others, they’re out to add new gun laws to prevent criminals from getting guns. I had a loyal Democrat tell me at work the other day (I almost choked on my coffee) that Obama’s 2A stance along with a Pelosi/Reid congress wouldn’t impact sport shooters at all.
It all comes back to this: look at the places where it’s been tried like Jersey and there you have it.
I’ve been to that Delran Junior Marksman Club. It is certainly is quite “junior” indeed – as soon as I got there, I could not help but think of those rinky-dink juvenile rifle ranges at all of the Boy Scout summer camps I went to in my pre-teen and teenage years. I’d say going there to shoot competitively isn’t worth all the risk for anybody who lives out-of-state. You really wouldn’t be missing much, except of course for the constant risk of violating Jersey’s asinine gun laws on a technicality while traveling to and back from there, and then suddenly finding yourself as an involuntary guest at the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly.
It’s an air gun match, so the facilities don’t need to be spectacular, but the point is taken on the risks of traveling over on that side of the river.
I’ll put it this way: I drive two hours out of my way(way out to Scranton) when I drive from my NH place to where I work in the DC metro area. All to avoid New Jersey.