Long time reader, first time poster.
I feel like this community might understand my lament.
Short version, I grew up really poor shooting my Pumpmaster 760A1 BB gun in my back yard. I could sit there for hours and it was just the most relaxing, enjoyable thing I've done. It was an inexpensive hobby and I always knew that, when I got older, I'd want to have a house with a safe backstop where I can safely shoot a rifle and hunt on my own property.
After years of searching, I've realized that's extremely unlikely. If you're curious about my journey, I've been looking for over five years. In spite of the fact that I have a huge footprint I can live in, finding land in my state to safely shoot has been a nightmare:
State Ranges:
- State ranges in my state require a hunting license (Which is close to $100) or a range permit. They also have really, really restrictive Fudd rules. As in, rules literally like "You can only load 3 bullets in the magazine at a time." or "No targets that look like people." and "You must wait 3 seconds between each shot."
- I figured I'd try it anyway. After 20 minutes of shooting, I had a game commission officer approach me and shriek like a girl "What do you hunt with THAT?!?" *pointing to my AR*. After checking my license and seeing I was legally allowed to be there, emptying my magazine and finding that I was following the rules with only 3 rounds in the magazine, and then discovered I was recording myself shooting (and therefore honoring the "3 seconds between each shot" rule), he shocked me with a new rule. I was shooting from the standing position, pointing my rifle a the target, discharging a round, and then lowering my muzzle to the ground. I was informed this was "unsafe" and how he was doing me such a huge favor by not fining me. I didn't mention I was an army veteran and this is a standard drill. I just wanted to pack my stuff and leave.
Private Ranges:
There are private ranges here where they do 3 gun, but the waitlist to get in is insane. They also require a monthly fee, regular volunteer work, and an NRA membership. Even then, I was considering joining because I knew someone who shoots there who took me on a range trip. Sure enough, I've looked it up, and there are tons of people in the nearby area who are trying to get it shut down. They "don't like the sound of gunfire" because "they have children."
The other private range I went to literally had a huge PVC pipe style tube that you had to aim your rifle through. You were not allowed to shoot outside of that pipe. Part of the introductory safety course to the range was how often people try to get them shut down or continuously launch faux complaints about bullets "zinging over their neighborhoods" (which there's no way they're coming from this range unless everyone is having negligent discharges every day). Hence the pvc pipe.
Basically I'm just going to sell a bunch of my guns and move into town. I don't want my first post to be a negative one, but where can I just take an SKS, load it to capacity, and fire controlled pairs at a target 150 meters away? Where do you folks shoot at?
I feel like this community might understand my lament.
Short version, I grew up really poor shooting my Pumpmaster 760A1 BB gun in my back yard. I could sit there for hours and it was just the most relaxing, enjoyable thing I've done. It was an inexpensive hobby and I always knew that, when I got older, I'd want to have a house with a safe backstop where I can safely shoot a rifle and hunt on my own property.
After years of searching, I've realized that's extremely unlikely. If you're curious about my journey, I've been looking for over five years. In spite of the fact that I have a huge footprint I can live in, finding land in my state to safely shoot has been a nightmare:
- Acreage is extremely expensive. I'm regularly seeing 5 ~ 10 acres go for over $200,000.
- Even if you have the acreage, having a safe backstop and neighbors that are far enough away to safely shoot is a real difficult problem.
- In my experience over the last 5+ years, real estate agents haven't been sympathetic or particularly knowledgeable about shooting. I've had some show me all sorts of houses and try to convince me shooting towards a neighbors house is okay ("Just use a .22!")
- Even finding out if you can shoot recreationally is a huge pain in the neck. In my state, it goes down to the borough / township level. Often even making a phone call or stopping by the office isn't good enough because nobody wants to take accountability and "tell you that you can" because of the liability involved in case someone doing something stupid.
- Even if you have ordinances that are 2A friendly, often noise ordinances act as a loophole from non 2A friendly neighbors to complain. Basically you're just hoping nobody in earshot feels like filing a complaint.
- Just because an area is okay to recreationally shoot today doesn't mean it will be tomorrow. We're seeing an influx of city / suburban folks move out to rural areas who "don't like gunshots" going to township meetings and kicking up dust.
- If you work from home / use high speed internet for your kids' school, you're basically going to have a very hard time finding reliable high speed internet in areas rural enough with attitudes that are pro-2A.
State Ranges:
- State ranges in my state require a hunting license (Which is close to $100) or a range permit. They also have really, really restrictive Fudd rules. As in, rules literally like "You can only load 3 bullets in the magazine at a time." or "No targets that look like people." and "You must wait 3 seconds between each shot."
- I figured I'd try it anyway. After 20 minutes of shooting, I had a game commission officer approach me and shriek like a girl "What do you hunt with THAT?!?" *pointing to my AR*. After checking my license and seeing I was legally allowed to be there, emptying my magazine and finding that I was following the rules with only 3 rounds in the magazine, and then discovered I was recording myself shooting (and therefore honoring the "3 seconds between each shot" rule), he shocked me with a new rule. I was shooting from the standing position, pointing my rifle a the target, discharging a round, and then lowering my muzzle to the ground. I was informed this was "unsafe" and how he was doing me such a huge favor by not fining me. I didn't mention I was an army veteran and this is a standard drill. I just wanted to pack my stuff and leave.
Private Ranges:
There are private ranges here where they do 3 gun, but the waitlist to get in is insane. They also require a monthly fee, regular volunteer work, and an NRA membership. Even then, I was considering joining because I knew someone who shoots there who took me on a range trip. Sure enough, I've looked it up, and there are tons of people in the nearby area who are trying to get it shut down. They "don't like the sound of gunfire" because "they have children."
The other private range I went to literally had a huge PVC pipe style tube that you had to aim your rifle through. You were not allowed to shoot outside of that pipe. Part of the introductory safety course to the range was how often people try to get them shut down or continuously launch faux complaints about bullets "zinging over their neighborhoods" (which there's no way they're coming from this range unless everyone is having negligent discharges every day). Hence the pvc pipe.
Basically I'm just going to sell a bunch of my guns and move into town. I don't want my first post to be a negative one, but where can I just take an SKS, load it to capacity, and fire controlled pairs at a target 150 meters away? Where do you folks shoot at?
