Los Altos Rod and Gun Club

by April Byars, Office Manager
(Saratoga, CA )

The Los Altos Rod and Gun Club was formed in 1953 to provide facilities for target shooting with pistols, rifles, and shotguns for its members and the general public; to promote the general welfare of game and wildlife; and promote high standards of sportsmanship in the State of California.



The range is open to the public Thursday through Sunday. This is where our very important workampers come in the picture. They provide staff on our public days.

Our workampers are always off Monday through Wednesday. This is the best time to sight see throughout the area.

We use workampers all year around.

We are located about 40 miles south of San Francisco, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. The closest town is Saratoga, nine miles down the hill, at the edge of the Santa Clara Valley.

We are in a beautiful setting and very peaceful, with lots of things to do on your days off. The range is surrounded by Castle Rock State Park, and close to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and several other open space areas. We are close to Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Monterey, CA.

We are looking for couples, husbands working as range safety officers and doing light maintenance, and the wife doing counter work in the pro shop and some light cleaning.

I have a calendar to schedule people in and since we only have four sites, it's important for me to schedule as soon as I can.

We are pet friendly here. I do want to caution that there is gunfire down range, so please keep that in mind with concern if you have pets. If they are sensitive to noise, you will want to be aware of this.

The weather here is wonderful. We are about 3000 feet above sea level and can stand on the manual trap area of the range and see the ocean. Our spring daytime temps are usually high 60's, nights cool to 50's. Summer temps range from 80's day to 60's nights, occasionally it gets in the low 90s for a few days. Winter time is mild with daytime temps in the 40's and nighttime in
the 30's. Occasionally, we do get snowfall, but it usually last for one day.

Our requirements for workampers is 16 hours per person per week. Any hours over the 16 are paid at $8.00 an hour. We offer FHU RV site, plus washer/dryer, wi-fi, propane, and range time.

Lots of our workampers take advantage of using the range facilities on their days off. Whether it be paper targets, aluminum cans, or trap
shooting, our workampers have a bang of a time here.

Typical duties include:

Pro Shop/Office/Cleaning: cashiering, credit card machine, stocking shelves, taking inventory and preparing lists of goods needed, assisting customers with checking into range, collecting range fees, and selling ammunition, targets, snacks, and coffee, helping with mailings, rolling targets for sale, and other miscellaneous office help.

Men/Women's Restrooms: cleaning of restrooms will be alternated with other workampers according to how many we have on staff. Clean range officers
break room, picnic area, and other miscellaneous cleaning as needed. Our bathrooms are very clean and only require minimal cleaning. Help with Memorial Day and Labor Day member picnics if this is during your tenure.

Range Officer/Maintenance: Working on the range as a range safety officer ensuring safety for all members and public using the range. This will entail working the control tower and each range, which requires standing and walking on asphalt during your shift. Helping to maintain a clean range, cutting tar paper for target frames, making target frames, replacing target frames as needed, and any miscellaneous painting or projects needed to ensure range is in good working order. May entail using a blower or rakes and brooms, and grass cutting or weeding in specific areas. Four times a year, we clean the road for Adopt a Highway; this entails about 1.5 miles of road our range is on.

The members of the club, as well as the public customers, are always courteous, helpful, and friendly. They appreciate the efforts we take to provide a safe, clean, family orientated facility for all our customers.

Our facility is surrounded by Castle Rock State Park, which provides hiking and biking trails. As well as the local communities, there are
many sightseeing adventures for workampers who come to the Los Altos Rod and Gun Club.

Give us a call at 408-867-3106 and be sure to check out our web site at www.losaltosrodandgunclub.com.