Informal Survey: Where Do You Shoot?
I’m curious where other people do most of their recreational shooting. I live in the Big City, so I mainly go to an indoor range, which costs about $10 – $15 a session. There are a couple of other indoor facilities, but the only outdoor ones I’m aware of belong to clubs which are kind of pricey to join.
The last place I lived, I went with some guys who knew a guy who had a place in the country where we could blaze away. My parents also live out in the boonies, so when we go there we can pretty much just shoot out in the backyard.
So how about you readers out there? And if you want, feel free to give a plug to your favorite range.
June 26th, 2004 at 7:00 pm
I go to john sevier range or guncraft.
June 26th, 2004 at 8:00 pm
A friends palacial estate in south Knox County, the lake, out of my car at stop signs, mountains in Sevier and Campbell County, off my back porch at starlings and miscellaneous creatures.
June 26th, 2004 at 8:01 pm
I live in the city too. It’s tough. We have an indoor range, but you can’t really take rifles there. I belonged to private outdoor range for a while but it got closed due to “noise” complaints…. I’m out of luck with my long guns.
June 26th, 2004 at 8:35 pm
I live in the PRNJ so shooting in the boonies is verboten (nor is there much in the way of boonies left).
I shoot at Ft. Dix Rod and Gun for outdoor rifle (to 250 yds), pistol, and shotgun. I shoot at ShoreShot (Lakewood) for 25yd indoor pistol.
If I shot a gun off my back porch, it would soon look like an ATF convention around here. It wasn’t always like that.
June 26th, 2004 at 10:18 pm
For indoor, I’m a member of a range nearby. For outdoor shooting, I just go to one of the free ranges on the state gaming lands.
June 27th, 2004 at 12:00 am
There is an outdoor range that I go to that is $7 a session. I also carry a goodly portion of my arsenal with me whenever I go to the family land in the boonies in Oklahoma and burn off a thousand rounds or so (like I will be doing on the 4th.)
June 27th, 2004 at 6:44 am
This is the reason I thank God I am not in Dallas or Houston or San Francisco or NY. I have access to a free range about five miles from the house. I can shoot to 110 yards there but it is set up as a pistol range. Shaded firing points with a berm. Has a table top running across the firing points covered with indoor-outdoor carpet. Shaded parking.
I belong to a range three miles farther out- 125 per year. It has covered firing points at 100 on a golf course cut lawn, a berm at 200, and a one lane 500 yard berm. Concrete benchrest tables on the 15 100 yard lanes. I also shoot at highpower at Carthage, Terrell, Red River, Waco, the Nationals at Camp Perry, so I get to shoot from 200 to 600 with my AR15 all the time. I also teach this Squad Designated Riflemans course and have shot m16s on many Army Ranges with soldiers.
In town in a 15 bucks a lane indoor upscale pistol range.
Plus deer hunting, but I am counting the ranges. It’s not enough and all the time I hear about the noose tightening….
Airgun at the house here in town and I USED to shoot .22 at my photo studio, (90 foot range) until the landlord moved in upstairs.
You gotta shoot.
June 27th, 2004 at 7:17 am
Guys, within 150 miles of every city in the country, SOMEONE is running a Highpower Rifle match about once a month. If you find the match director and CALL or email him, he will loan you the rifle, mat, ammo, et to go and shoot across the course at least once. Highpower rifle, especially shooting SERVICE rifle at 200, 300, 600 yards will enlighten every other shooting discipline.
I know it sounds extreme, or something only “special” people with extraordinary eyesight or something ONLY can do, but that’s not true. You can do this.
http://www.epcgc.com or http://www.tr-pc.com.
Check it out.
USA Shooting Sports lists the NRA matches in all disciplines nationwide. Folks are out there shooting like crazy all the time in competitive matches. Folks JUST like YOU. You don’t need ANYTHING to shoot the first match but 15 bucks or so and a cap.
June 27th, 2004 at 8:39 am
…if I go to a range, it is normally the one down in Calhoun… otherwise, I put up targets in the back yard, or head over to our farm..
June 27th, 2004 at 4:32 pm
GunCraft Sports indoor range (minutes from my job) or the quarry in Walland. There’s a place (Insley’s) near my house in the county I need to check out, too. It’s private, but apparently cheap. I went to John Sevier range with Uncle one time and liked it. Wish it was closer.
An absense of places to shoot is a real impediment to shooting.
June 27th, 2004 at 8:52 pm
I shoot at Range Master here in Memphis, TN. (Yes, a liberal with a gun — imagine that!) It’s only about two miles from my house, so it’s convenient.
Shelby Farms has an outdoor shooting range, but I’ve never pesonally used it.
Of coure, it helps that the park with the outdoor range is also the home to Ducks Unlimited‘s world HQ, so they’re not likely to close the range any time soon. 😉
June 27th, 2004 at 9:52 pm
Weekly Check on the Bias
Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone’s yapping about Bill Clinton’s new book. But NOT US! Here at Alphecca we’re focused like a laser beam on the male Olympic gymnast tryouts on NBC bias in the media against guns and the Second Amendment….
June 28th, 2004 at 9:04 am
down here in tuscaloosa, AL, you pretty much just have to get outside the city limits. my mother in law’s folks have a quite suitable clay creekbank for us to use as a pistol backstop.
For rifle shooting, we usually head over to the Oakmulgee range; national forest range close to Centerville,AL, located on National Forest property. six bucks per car to park if you pay by the day.
June 28th, 2004 at 9:23 am
In DC I shoot at the NRA Headquarters Range in Fairfax. Its about 10 minutes from my house and I pay about $200 a year to use it. I think it runs $10 or so an hour otherwise. I also shoot, on occaison, at a friends Gun CLub in King George County, VA – about halfway down to Richmond from here. Thats free, well, I have to give him beer. For Skeet and Trap, I either go to the Gun Club or head over to the County’s Bull Run Park where they have a great Trap/Skeet range – Skeet, Trap, Wobble Trap, 5 Stand, Sporting Clays plus archery. Pretty good stuff. Also, we are looking at purchasing a piece of land in Western VA (1-2 hours from DC to shoot at).
When in Dixie – I shoot the .22 in my backyard to hearts content. Outside of hunting season, if I have anything bigger to shoot, I generally head over the the National Forest Range in Villanau, Georgia. Its $3 or $5 for as long as you want. I go there other times of the year because I am a good neighbor and I don’t want to upset anyone. Also shoot at a friends farm in Sweetwater, TN on occaison too, but havent in awhile.
If you want to shoot over the 4th of July Weekend (or next week), let me know. Were not too far from Chattanooga.
June 28th, 2004 at 9:50 am
Wade’s Guns in Bellevue, WA
June 28th, 2004 at 10:17 am
I didn’t see the New Jersey mention – Since i grew up there I thought I should comment as well.
Usually we shot in our backyard into the mountainside – there was nothing but woods and hills for a couple of miles till you hit the next road – and no major development west of us for 30 miles till at least PA. Gun fire was a frequent sound (as were earth shaking tremors) from Picatinny Arsenals range which wasn’t too far away.
My father has a business in Newark and after a fire in part of the building in the 1960s the decided to leave the rubble as it was out in back and instead turned it into a gun range (It was next to a stream and too difficult to develop) We would shoot all sorts of things there. Good fun, however, they have since rebuilt it and it no longer exists.
My brother, who still lives in Jersey, shoots at a gun club in Butler. not sure where it is, I havent been to it yet.
June 28th, 2004 at 12:37 pm
I can’t resist 🙂
We now live in Amador County in Northern California and live on 27 acres surrounded by grazing land. The land in this area is hilly with live oaks and a few digger pines. Perfect for a range. So I have my own range with metal reactive targets, a place for paper targets and trap. Both my wife and I are avid SASS shooters and compete every weekend and practise during the week on our range.
Here’s to good shooting!
Marius Johnston
June 29th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
If you live in or near Knoxville, TN. try the City of Norris watershed in, well, City of Norris. I think it’s $5 per day or $15-20 yearly. They change the locks in July.