cracked butt
I would shoot every day if I had more time and a decent range closer to me. AS it stands, the range that I shoot pistols/rifles at is 60 miles away,and the local trap range has very limited open shooting hours and I work an odd schedule.
Every time I go shooting, I have to plan my entire day around it- 2 hrs travel time, 1 hr of loading everything in my truck, 3 or 4 hrs of shooting, 1 hr of cleaning guns. When my kid gets a little older, we'll go alot more.
September 3rd, 2004 02:26 AM
ReadyontheRight
I love to shoot, but I dislike how far I have to drive to do so.
September 3rd, 2004 04:12 PM
zougou
It is sort of a mix up for me. On the one hand, it's fun to have a chance to practice and see what other folks are shooting. On the other hand, you have to get your equipment in order, ensure you have ammo, then drive a distance to the range. At my range, there are no automated target holders and such, so invariably I get there and then have to stand around waiting for the line to go cold. That can take a while and then if you want to change targets you have to wait again. So, sometimes the prospect of all these hassles sometimes outweighs the fun of going. That and sometimes I feel guilty when I go.
September 3rd, 2004 06:56 PM
Jeff Timm
I like to shoot, but it's a pain to get to the range, when you have a job, wife and house to maintain.
September 5th, 2004 12:17 PM
In addition to all of the above:
When I was finally lucky enough to find an indoor range (private club) 10 minutes from where I live, I used to go every weekend and shoot 300 - 500 rounds. When I was the only person at the range, it was great.
But in addition to zougou's observation about waiting (or, I will add, having other people wait for you to finish), other members would start getting on my case about violating some unwritten rule ( eg - no shooting at targets closer than 50 feet, no shooting more than 5 rounds at a time). It was bad enough that the written rules were so poorly written as to be ambiguous and contradictory, but this was getting to be too much.
When I inquired with the board about this, I was told that they were right, and I was in the wrong. Needless to say, I didn't renew my membership this year.
As I've gotten more involved in organized clubs and competitions over the years, I've found them to mainly be a collection of "good ol' boys networks" and "group think" at it's worst. While we talk about how welcome newbies are to shooting, the truth I've seen is that they're not. This was especially illustrated to me when several people I know became interested in shooting after Colorado passed a "shall issue" CCW law early last year.
This is not so much due to rudeness or boorish behavior (although that exists, too), but shooters suffer from the C.O.I.K. syndrome ("Clear Only If Known"), and forget that newbies are not only ignorant -- not in an insulting sense of the word -- but have a lot of misconceptions and aprehensions about guns that have been fed to them their whole lives.
I've found that most shooters and instructors would rather impress people with their knowledge (which is often faulty or just an opinion), or make people believe that they're a tacti-cool bad-ass, rather than being interested in clearly explaining basic concepts and making sure that the newbie understands what was taught.
I'm a certified gun nut; and none of this has yet stopped me from buying new guns. Although I am starting to sell some of my collection, too, which would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
For a long time I was willing to put up with a lot of hassle to have a place to shoot. However, life is too short, and I have better things to do than waste more time driving to and from the range than I actually do shooting there, only so I can waste time with petty-minded jerks who want to tell me how to enjoy msyelf (a behavior not exclusive to liberals), or find out that the range is too crowded. It is no longer practical to go shooting often enough to maintain proficiency -- every time I do it seems like I'm nearly starting over.
So for now, I vote "Not really."
PS -- Sorry about the long rant, but it's something that's been bothering me for a while now whenever I think about questions like this poll. I've mentioned it here before, and really do mean to articulate more clearly about this in the future.
But if I'm getting frustrated, what are the chances of attracting new people who aren't as dedicated to the gun culture as we are.
Consider: I can take my $200+ bike and go nearly anywhere, anytime. For high-power rifle competition, figure on spending $800 for a rifle, $200 for a spotting scope, $100+ for a stand for said scope, $100 for a shooting jacket, plus ammo costs. And then I can only use them at actual competitions, since the club I compete at has a 10 year waiting list for membership, and I have another 9 years to go. (Not to mention that participating in competitions involve more waiting around than actually shooting, whereas something like biking involves actually bicycling).
Why would, or should, anyone invest the time and money into something that's such a hassle to do?
I think that more than anything Schumer, Feinstein, Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, Brady, Brokaw, Rather, Jennings, etc. do, the lack of convenient and fun places to actually shoot is going to be to be the big nail in the coffin of our second amendment rights.
I find it odd that for a community that prides itself on being individuals, we engage in an activity that -- at many ranges -- requires us to do things in lockstep.
(poorly phrased for lack of being able to think of a better one this morning)