Handgun Club of America

HandGun of the month Club

Unequaled Value. Select four guns for just $99.00, plus shipping and handling—that's an immediate savings of up to $800 off manufacturer's prices. You agree to buy just 6 more guns at regular Gun of the Month Club prices within the next three years.

Bonus Gun Offer. You can increase your savings by taking a fifth gun now for $49.95. That's five guns for less than the price of one gun in a regular gunstore. If you decide to take the Bonus Gun, you'll only have to buy five guns at regular club price within the next three years.

Free Concealed Carry Holster. As our special welcome gift to you, you'll also receive the GOMC Concealed Carry Holster.

Continuous Savings. After you're a member, you'll save on every gun you buy. Each month we will send you the 'Gun of the Month' selection for you to try out. If you are not satisfied, just send it back. Our "New and Noteworthy" guns, hand-picked by our fire arm experts, are always up to 30% off the manufacturer's price. And with our special offers, you'll get discounts of up to 40% off manufacturer's prices on all guns.


Sound all well and fine now but what about when you want to quit and they keep sending you guns that you dont want?[frown]

This is pretty good also? In a funny sort of way

http://www.lovelandnet.com/toms-place/writing/triggerlock/index.htm
 
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The product testing offer on their website reminds me of the North American Hunting Club. You join, they send you a magazine and you end up getting unsolicited junk products sent to you and then invoiced for them.

Unsurprisingly, your turn to test products will rarely come up.

Also, a Whois search shows that their domain was registered through Perfect Privacy LLC, an outfit which allows the domain owners to remain anonymous. Further, the only address available on their site is a PO Box in Vermont. Any of this would make me leery about sending them my credit card info.
 
It claims to be a club but I was unable to find the portion of their website with the bylaws or explanation of the election process for officers :).
 
Mr Weebles said:
The product testing offer on their website reminds me of the North American Hunting Club. You join, they send you a magazine and you end up getting unsolicited junk products sent to you and then invoiced for them.

Unsurprisingly, your turn to test products will rarely come up.
Click to expand...

+1

NAHC is a huge scam. I dropped them like a shitty diaper as soon as I caught on. This "handgun club" seems to be the same ol crap.
 
Wow,

I'm taking a beating over here :)

I am the director of the Handgun Club. We operate out of an office in Stowe VT. (588 So. Main St....if you're worried about the PO Box)

Aout the club?

I spend an enormous amount of time acquiring products for members to test. Sure...we may not get something to EVERY member but I'm sure trying.

I also spend a lot of time working out discount deals for members on handgun accessories....Holsters, Cleaning gear, gear bags, etc...

I think it's worth $18/Yr just in discounts!

We don't send out unsolicited products.

Theres also a no questions asked refund policy.....If you try it and dont like it, just let me know and your card gets refunded or we send you a refund check.

Regardless...Whether you decide to become a member or not, this looks like a great board and I'm glad I found it. I hope you dont mind if a Vermont shooter pokes around for a while.


About me?

I used to run the Green Mountain Boys MG shoots in Eden, VT. Hell, I've probably met some of you.

I've been an avid shooter for most of my life. I try to make it to the range once a week and love shooting everything from subguns to old english doubles.

Anyway....If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Josh Mitchell
Director of Operations
Handgun Club of America
 
Guys, you DID notice the NRA logo on the website, right? I suspect that it wouldn't be there if the NRA hadn't looked into it first.

John, good to have you here. Welcome.

Ross

PS - Oh, and some words to live by when you bash someone in public... Best keep your words soft and sweet; you never know when you're going to have to eat them. [wink]
 
I've been on web boards long enough to have a leathery hide ;)

I also dont have a problem with skepticizm from my fellow gun owners when a new organization appears. Our rights have been under constant attack for a loooong time and trust is something that has to be earned.

Yep, We're members of the NRA business Alliance and the NSSF.

I've been a long time avid 2nd ammendment supporter personally and wouldnt be part of a club that didnt hold true to my ideals.

I was one of the few who fought daily on the old CNN guns under fire message boards. We argued with paid anti-gun schills from HCI day in and day out.....destroying their arguments with solid logic and facts until CNN finally shut the board down (Wonder why? :D )
 
After my experience with the NAHC, I'll NEVER participate in another "xxxx of the month" club.

I don't care who runs it.
 
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Josh - thanks for the info. No disrespect intended by my "club" comment - in the shooting world there are loads of "clubs", but also people using "club" as the designation for a sales operation.

I noticed that the registration data for handgunclub.com appears to use an intermediary to keep the actual registrated owner private.

Some posts on the net mention that the registration info for handgunclub.com used to list the owner as Josh Manheimer of "J.C. Manheimer and Company" (http://www.directmailcopy.com). Is this reference on the net accurate and, if so, are Josh Mitchell and Josh Manheimer the same or different people? While I don't want to jump to conclusions that they are one and the same, it is interesting to note that directmailcopy.com is registered to a Josh Manheimer of Norwich, VT, and that both handguclub.com and directmailcopy.com are registered by tucows. Although these consistencies do not prove a correlation between the two organizations, the statistical chances of two unrelated sites being registered by the same low market share registrar, and being located in the same low population state are not all that great.

I think the reason you got "beat up" is that the very first thing on your site seemed to be "Join and get something for free" rather than "we are selling a service you may consider to be of value." Some people react to the free stuff approach positively, whereas other realize that it's just not practical to run around giving out free stuff to everyone who subscribes, and sees this more as a gimick that an actual attempt to get useful testing accomplished. I suspect the reaction on this list would have been more positive if you had said something like "we also ask our members to test stuff from time time, but it's not realistically possible to get something for everyone, especially as the organization grows, so please think of this as an extra plus, rather than a primary reason you should join."
 
The use of an domain registration intermediary is becoming more common and doesn't necessarily equal "shady." More often it means "this is a home based business." Registrar data is publicly available. So, if you have a gun related website, and you register it to your home address, you are in essence saying to the Internet world: "I have guns and I live at this address. Come visit my house!"

I have my dozen or so domain names registered to a P.O. Box. Other business owners use intermediaries. It's not to make us hard to find, but you'll have to go the extra step of looking up our websites rather than having a spider crawl through "whois" listings looking for interesting keywords.
 
Rob Boudrie said:
Josh - thanks for the info. No disrespect intended by my "club" comment - in the shooting world there are loads of "clubs", but also people using "club" as the designation for a sales operation.

I noticed that the registration data for handgunclub.com appears to use an intermediary to keep the actual registrated owner private.

Some posts on the net mention that the registration info for handgunclub.com used to list the owner as Josh Manheimer of "J.C. Manheimer and Company" (http://www.directmailcopy.com). Is this reference on the net accurate and, if so, are Josh Mitchell and Josh Manheimer the same or different people? While I don't want to jump to conclusions that they are one and the same, it is interesting to note that directmailcopy.com is registered to a Josh Manheimer of Norwich, VT, and that both handguclub.com and directmailcopy.com are registered by tucows. Although these consistencies do not prove a correlation between the two organizations, the statistical chances of two unrelated sites being registered by the same low market share registrar, and being located in the same low population state are not all that great.

I think the reason you got "beat up" is that the very first thing on your site seemed to be "Join and get something for free" rather than "we are selling a service you may consider to be of value." Some people react to the free stuff approach positively, whereas other realize that it's just not practical to run around giving out free stuff to everyone who subscribes, and sees this more as a gimick that an actual attempt to get useful testing accomplished. I suspect the reaction on this list would have been more positive if you had said something like "we also ask our members to test stuff from time time, but it's not realistically possible to get something for everyone, especially as the organization grows, so please think of this as an extra plus, rather than a primary reason you should join."
Click to expand...

Josh Manheimer is the founder of the club. Two of his close friends were murdered in NH several years ago (two college professors....you probably remember). After that happened he began to think much more seriously about defending his home and family from intruders.

He's not really a "Gun Guy" so he searched the web trying to find basic handgun information that would help him decide what to purchase, how to carry, home defense tactics etc..

Although there are a lot of websites that have handgun content.....he didnt feel like he was finding the answers he was looking for. Coming from a marketing background....he decided to form the Handgun Club so that others in similar situations would have a place to go for information.

I met him in a gun shop in Waterbury where he was shopping for his third pistol.

At this point.....he has stepped back from the daily operations of the club and acts as a marketing advisor. Thats where I come in. They hired me 6 months ago to be the Director of Operations. They needed someone who has worked in the gun industry before and is an actual avid shooter to head things up.

The domains were purchased before I was hired so I don't really know a whole lot about how that was done. The Club was run out of Josh Manheimer;s house for the first year so I assume he just wanted to keep his location anonymous for security reasons. Believe it or not,.......there are some pretty vicious antigunners out there.

The website is a little gimmicky....thats another of the reasons I was hired....to find ways to make the club more palpable to shooters. We're working on that every day and testing new ways to bring members in.

I really appreciate the feedback. I'm not a marketing guy so a lot of this is brand new to me.

This is not an "xxxxx Of the month" club. We dont send out unsolicited products and charge you for them later. (I cant imagine the paperwork that I would have to deal with if we did.....I'm buried as it is).

I'm not aware of a "Handgun of the month club" (although if you looked in my safe you would guess that I belonged to one [smile]

This club is really about getting shooters together and sharing information. In our last newsletter, we published an excellent article from a member who was in Iraq and had the chance to test 4 pistols and ancillary gear in that environment. He wrote a heck of an article and submitted it to us.

Anyway....I've gone on long enough.

There are indeed two Josh's.

Mr. Manheimer lives in Norwich, I live in Stowe where our business office is.

If anyone is in the area and would like to stop by anytime....feel free to give me a call. (802) 253-8333.

Theres a range 10 miles away in Waterbury and I'm always willing to go make holes in paper.

BTW......congratulations on your 1000th post [smile]
 
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Jose said:
After my experience with the NAHC, I'll NEVER participate in another "xxxx of the month" club.

I don't care who runs it.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with NAHC but from your description it doesnt sound like I would join it either.

I'm not here to recruit you as a member.

I came by because my google alerts led me here and I wanted let you know what the club was about.
 
Rob Boudrie said:
10 Miles? Why don't you join the Lamoille Valley Fish & Game CLub - it's right around the corner from you in Morrisville (http://www.vtfsc.org/ABOUT_US/LVF&GC.htm
for a club application - you'll have a place to shoot that's almost next door for $25/year). You may also want to check out a rather cool handgun event happening there this summer - visit http://www.area7aware.com/
Click to expand...

Its probably less than ten miles. The Waterbury range is about 5min from my house.

I was a member of Lamoille Valley F&G for many years. It's a GREAT range. I used to shoot with GMPS(IPSC) when I lived in Eden.

If you were a member a decade ago.....you'd remember Dick Wells.....one of the best guys I've ever met and my gun mentor over the years. He was the president for a long time. Think he's down in FL now. I spent a TON of time in his shop growing up. Guy could fix anything.

I do need to re-up over there.

I miss the gongs [grin]

I contacted aware a couple weeks ago regarding sponsoring the shoot at LVF&G but havent heard back yet.
 
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jmitchell said:
About me?

I used to run the Green Mountain Boys MG shoots in Eden, VT. Hell, I've probably met some of you.

I've been an avid shooter for most of my life. I try to make it to the range once a week and love shooting everything from subguns to old english doubles.

Anyway....If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

Josh Mitchell
Director of Operations
Handgun Club of America
Click to expand...

Awesome to have you come on over and join us here. Glad to see not only your willing to show face on the questions asked but also are browsing the web to stay up to date with shooters all over.

I will be considering a membership just for those facts.
 

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