What do y'all use for a shooting "range"?

[hunter63]

I really don't have a reasonable priced placed to shoot, close-by any more.

What and where does everyone use for a range?
Regular shooter?
Teams leagues.
Precision shooter?
Fun shooter?
Or just work out loads and sight ins?

At the City house...the indoor ranges I used to shoot at...that did have open shooting and leagues...events for different things....have all closed.

Mostly were a victim of "evil gun syndrome"....."Did you know that they shoot "GUNS" in that building?... That is only a mile and a half for a school!!!!"....What if one of those Evil bullets get out of the building ....Our snotty little bass-turds might get hit while on their phones.

So several stores with small indoor ranges closed.

Another was a bigger store with indoor range....you could rent and try out stuff....But got really expensive and limited to what you could shoot. .No ML, rifles, shotguns.......

Then was a along time shooting club....I used to like that one....Now closed, building down and area part of a subdivision ......This Club kinda depended on teams from local factories.... most all gone now, the middle class could afford it.

Police range on Lake Michigan was open to the public on certain day and times...shot out over and into the lake....THE HORROR....Closed a while back.

Local Sportsman Club...manned with the uppity club members mostly a-wholes, that have the look of "stank face" when you showed up to PAY, big bucks to be in their presence.

That area has built around them with McMansions as it only 3 miles from the Illinois border....and they are getting pressed to close...They are being one upped, by the upper, uppity new McMansion Owners Association..... (actually enjoy these guys squirming) .

Anyway my shooting is now more informal at "The Place" has a couple of little ranges..or off my porch.
Have back stops and target boards...and if the neighbor is there...longer 200 yard across both lots...

The neighbor and I get together to try out his latest AR project....I drag out the Nagants and the SKS and play "spin the 5 gal. bucket on the post at 200 yards...We are out in the conrty so use feet and years...not meters... rof ranges.

But out little gem... is the Local "Big Buck Sportsman Club" ......$7 buck a year. or $10 bucks for a family and/or guest.
Covered out door range open to all at any time during the day......Had benches, sand bags, tables benches, racks and "Free ear plugs..Donation requested"...I usually tuck a $5 in the slot.

Right on the edge of town of 300 people you can see it from the highway....hear it from the local saloon...( Hey, Ya hear that, Joe has the .338 Lapua out again....man that sucker is loud....Oh he's done, will be in shortly... now set him up with a Miller High Life"

So I do most of my shooting there, taking out new arrivals, and anything needing sighting in....the blast away with the .357's and 1911 for fun.
If I have scored a brick of .22's..... and some one is along bring out the .22 for beer matches...looser buys.....

So what do you all use?

[madmax]

30 miles to the rifle range. I go once a week on Thurs. They repair the damage the idiots do to the target stands on Wed. I go at dawn. Serious shooters wait for the sun to come up. Good group.

Indoor pistol range a few times a week. 5 mins from the house.

Bang bang

[Fixit]

I have a nice long holler on my place in middle Tn . Natural backstop built in and I can't hit anything AF its full depth (1200' ) or truth be told not much over 300 yards anyway .

[kyratshooter]

Big well kept range at the WMA. 2 1/2 miles from the house. On a quiet Sunday I can hear them shooting.

350 yard gongs for fun.

25 yard berm for sight-in

25/50/75/100 meter small bore and straight wall pistol range.

50/100/150/200 silhouette range w/hydraulically operated targets for full rifle shooting.

About ten trap stations + five stand

Two skeet ranges

Cost is $25 per year plus a small fee for each use. $1 for open range days, $8 for a round of trap/skeet.

We also have a free public range on that land but it is limited to shooting from benches through long tubes to restrict all rounds into the berm. Works fine for sight ins and no caliber restrictions. I was there the other day sighting in an AR and guy on one side had a .22lr and on the other side was a .338Lup.

This particular range/club was one of the reasons I remained in KY after my wife died. I love my kids but there were no good ranges in my area of TN.

Half dozen indoor ranges within driving distance but they are only 50 feet so they are only good for pistols or to function check rifles. One of them has a very good price structure. Pretty expensive by the half hour but if you buy different passbooks it is reasonably cheap. They have "Old Geezer Monday" with range time $10/h between 9-4.

The indoor ranges have insurance costs out the wazoo so I can see why they have to charge a bit. Oddly, some of them have not learned that volume is the critical thing for a range. A snooty place that gets only five shooters a day at $20/h is not going to pay the bills.

Down in Lexington, at Buds Gun Shop, you have to book range time in advance, like a fancy restaurant.

And I also have the back yard range. 1/4" steel plate backstop (means no center-fire rifles but works fine for pistols) with a creek bank as backstop. 25 yard max distance but I can shoot out the door of the workshop.

We also have shooting resorts here in KY. This place is about an hour from the house.

http://www.elkcreekhuntclub.com/

Note that they have a special, 100 clays for $60 w/golf cart for transport, so they get a lot of folks that can no longer roam the woods freely at a very reasonable cost.

They also have a resort lodge with gourmet meals and they are oly minutes away from excellent lodging.

We also have several 1000 yard rages down in south central KY, which is a couple hours drive, but I have driven farther than that to get to a party in my yonger years.

[rebel]

At home a 100 yard berm banked that could be extended to 200 and a 25 yard berm banked behind the barn for pistol. For longer I go to my buddies farm. He has a 50, 100, 200, 500 & 1000. They're either banked or natural. I applied to the local range and waited a couple years before acceptance. They wanted two hundred a year and work for joining. Nope.

[crashdive123]

My wife and I shoot at an outdoor range that we really enjoy. $124 a year for a family membership - we go quite often, so it is relatively inexpensive. The longest rifle range is 200 yards - with my eyesight that is fine. http://www.grpc-jax.com/

[jim Glass]

I go to a sportsmans club about 7 miles from home that is open to the public. $10 to shoot four hours for non-members. It is open weekends and the first and third Tuesdays mornings of the month. I usually shoot on Tuesdays with other retired men and women. I could join the club but it is well known for being very clicky.

I have a summer home on the Mississippi River about 100 miles from home. I have a stone quarry 2 miles from the cottage where I can shoot any time I want to. I shoot evenings and Sat & Sun mornings. Usually have the place all to myself. I took it upon myself to cut some grass and do cleanup, try to keep the welcome mat out for me.

[alaskabushman]

The nearest and only legitimate range on the island is almost 70 miles away from me. There are any number of rock pits, muskegs, beaches and old logging roads to use as improvised ranges. The more heavily used ones actually have gongs (propane tank with the bottom cut off and hung from a rebar tripod) and a home made shooting bench. Most of the time I bring a folding card table and use a rolled up raincoat for a sandbag. The only real requirements are that you be 50 feet away from a drive-able road and no shooting across a road. As long as you are outside city limits you can pretty much shoot anywhere...

[canid]

Generally I use Stanislaus National Forest and paper targets, though I'm itching for a chance to find a longer range area suitable for my purposes because I'm determined to learn to shoot medium-long range competently.

[pete lynch]

House in wooded country with long straight driveway that was recently graded and paved with chip stone. Leftover dirt at the end of driveway is now the berm/backstop of our range.
The drive is horse-shoe shaped so it turns away about 30 yds from berm so the cars and trucks are safe. Thats the pistol range. You could do some long range shooting from mailbox at the end of driveway. That might require a spotter for when cars pass. Would not want to startle anybody driving by.

[Rick]

Range is about 20 miles. $60 a year membership. Covered shooting from 10' to 100 yards. Usually a range officer there to keep it reasonable. Through the week is pretty quiet. You can use just about any range whenever you want except the 10' range. Always seems to be cops on that one.

[Old GI]

If I had a gun, I'd shoot in my front yard, if I had ammo. Kinda like "If we had some bacon, we'd have bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs" - sort of.

[hunter63]

If I had a gun, I'd shoot in my front yard, if I had ammo. Kinda like "If we had some bacon, we'd have bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs" - sort of.

I hear ya.....
This is just a imaginary discussion on what we Would do....IF we had guns, ...and If we had ammo....Gotcha......

Guess I gonna have to look a bit harder.....Used to be much easier.

[finallyME]

One of the reasons I wanted to move out west... don't have to pay. I am in lament right now though. I got a new job in October, and just moved out this last week from my house...waiting to close on the new house. But, the old house was out in the desert. I only had to drive 5 minutes to a rock quarry that the city (ie the residents of the city, not the city gov) used as a shooting range. Or, I could drive another 5 minutes to a more secluded spot. A hours drive would put me WAY out in the desert where I could set up long range shots... as long as I wanted. Of course, my new house is about an hour away, so now I add an hour to those times... or I find new spots that are closer, which is what I will probably do. Now I am more or less in the middle of city, so I will have to drive far to get to free places. We do have local indoor ranges that we can pay to use. Mostly they are gun stores, which gives the opportunity to rent new guns and try them out before buying.

[madmax]

Sum sum sum sum summertime. 17 acres in the mountains. Shooting from a chair in camp. Soon to be 6 months a year.

[kyratshooter]

I think I am going to shut down this computer and head for the range.

Shooting is always better than talking about shooting.

I have a couple of rifles to zero and a shotgun to pattern. I'll probably leave the shotgun for tomorrow.

[kyratshooter]

I had a bit of a strange range trip.

Got two scopes zeroed for the AR on quick release mounts and verified the zero on one of my MN rifles.

Two hours in the fresh air and sunshine.

There was a strange little old man there (like I am one to talk). I arrived and got set up on one of the shooting stations. Two rifles, three scopes, sandbags, spotting scope, ammo and all the normal stuff spread out on the bench and I had been shooting for an hour when he arrived.

I was the only shooter there and he had his choice of three other stations. He hovered over me for a few minutes then asked, "How long are you going to be here, I normally shoot at that bench?"

You could tell he expected me to pick up all my gear and move. I have been out of "push around mode" for some time now so I told him I was going to be a while, I had three scopes to work on and if he wanted to shoot he could pick one of the three empty stations.

He seemed shocked that I did not offer to move! He got all huffy and sat in the truck for a while, like he was waiting for me to come to my senses and clear out of his world. He took about a half hour to get his gear out of his truck and set up at one of the other tables and never said a word for the entire session.

I was actually glad when another shooter arrived and got busy with his own gear. I was feeling like I needed a witness.

[hunter63]

LOL....Now that is funny.....I can see that happening.

We (our hunting group) stopped at a little Diner in Nebraska on the way west for elk and mulies....just before 6 in the morning.

No one was there....so we took the middle table by the front window....sat down and ordered....as we waited...couple of guys came in...looked like local ranchers....
They where standing by the register...., then a couple of more showed up..same thing..room was full if tables..???

Got our food, pretty fast, ate...waiter came over with the bill...and offerer to fill our thermos bottles...

Got up to leave...seven guys walked over cleaned the table them selves and sat down.....

WE were at THEIR table for 6:00 coffee.

[crashdive123]

It would have been hilarious if after he finished setting up, you moved your gear to another station saying.....just not feeling it at that bench.

[kyratshooter]

It would have been hilarious if after he finished setting up, you moved your gear to another station saying.....just not feeling it at that bench.

I would have done that but I was really basking in his irritation. He seemed like one of those people that was used to getting everything he desired through use of his ill manners without though for the inconvenience it might place on other people.

I felt like the cat that had found the sunny spot on the floor near the window on a cold morning and none of the other cats could have it.

Every shooting bench on that range is identical. I have never noticed that one of them is a bit better or an inch closer to the target banks.

I was in good form yesterday. The only words he spoke other than "how long are you going to be here?" were "I like to shoot at the last bench so no one will bother me."

I replied, "Me too, but its not working."

That was when he went to set in his truck for a few minutes. I could not decide if he was contemplating going home, waiting me out, or shooting me!

He never spoke to anyone else that arrived at the range either, and that place is usually a buzz of chatter among complete strangers. Not a hello, how you doing, what you shooting today, or kiss my butt. He just sat there shooting a single shot bolt action varmint rifle, one shot every three or four minutes.

Sorry old curmudgeon.