time to find a new range

[WrongHanded]

I have found I would rather drive 1hr+ one way, to an unoccupied piece of National Forest and take my time all alone, than go to a range and have to consider the needs and hazards of others.

 

[WestKentucky]

What brass was it? I’m missing some 10mm and 32acp that may have finally re-entered the atmosphere


I have never been to a range with a proper RSO. It does sound like time for a new addition to the range though, a simple sign that indicates that the range is safe or not. They can be made a number of ways, I like a plywood sign with a hang-on cover. Slide the cover to either say DO NOT SHOOT! PEOPLE ARE DOWNRANGE or FIRE AWAY. Then there are the flippers, spinners, arrows, raised chains, train bars etc… but the simple one is easiest and best.

 

[kmw1954]

Don't check-in to this sub-forum much so a late reply.

I am now on my 3rd year working as an RO on a daily fee public range. The land is owned by the State, controlled by the DNR and leased to a private management company. We have 4 separate ranges with covered houses.
1. is the 25yd range that has 22 lanes with benches and these targets are moveable from 7yds to 30yds..
2. is the 100yd range which has 44 lanes with benches, minus 10 lanes that have been rest to 50yds. These target stands are all stationary.
3. is the 300yd range which has 12 lanes with benches and again stationary target stands at 200yds and 300yds.
4. is the 50yd range which also contains a 6 lane 22LR plinking range only the 50 yd range is only opened on the weekends.

The first three ranges listed are always staffed with an RO on the range. Each range also has red flashing lights and a PA system. The range is run in 15 minute firing cycles and during the cease fires no one is allowed to be at their bench or handling any firearm or ammunition's. Also during the cease fire all firearms are to be unloaded with magazines removed, actions open and chamber flags in place. On the weekends the busy 25 and 100yd ranges are covered by 2 RO's.

Customer reactions are mostly positive yet we still see the cowboys that get puffed up egos and childish attitudes. Always love the Range Nazi comments. To which we tell them they can always go down the road to the other public range if they do not like the way we run ours. Then from what I have been told there has not been a accidental or intentional shooting on this range since 198? and that was a suicide in the parking lot.

So after 3 years of working 2 to 3 days every week, year around and seeing some of the things that people do and the way they act with their attitudes and disregard for basic safety rules, I just can't picture myself ever again shooting at an unattended range. I can come here and rest assured that I won't be going home with any extra openings.

 

[JDeere]

Local range here shut down due to progress a couple of years ago. I could shoot on my property but I have neighbors kinda of close and we respect each other. I drive 50 miles now to the closest controlled range. I just don't like retrieving targets down range without some rules in place. Just make a morning of it. Not a bad drive and I get some good tacos on the way home.

 

[ParallelCode]

You guys are making me appreciate my country home.


View attachment 1142104

Your local club needs a RO.
Someone picking up a rifle while the line is closed would be a deal-breaker.

I'd love to have a block of land like that.

 

[Grayrock]

"wetlands some miles away and build a housing project. on the news the local reporter was at the housing project and held up a piece of empty brass and declared that she found it there so it must have come from our local range."
Perhaps someone could invite the same reporter to go shooting so she could learn a little more about our sport and become educated on how our tools function. Then she would be in a better position to present intelligent stories the next time she has the opportunity.

 

[starnbar]

"wetlands some miles away and build a housing project. on the news the local reporter was at the housing project and held up a piece of empty brass and declared that she found it there so it must have come from our local range."
Perhaps someone could invite the same reporter to go shooting so she could learn a little more about our sport and become educated on how our tools function. Then she would be in a better position to present intelligent stories the next time she has the opportunity.

 

[starnbar]

had the same type of reporter who held up a shiny new rifle bullet while saying it was found lodged in the roof of a house near the range. A closer exam of the offending projectile showed no rifling marks nor obturation of the projectile a call to WTVT Tampa channel 13 went unanswered until a progun radio show picked the story up. We never did get a apology but the story was retracted. That was the Tampa Police pistol range.

 

[Jim Watson]

I know of a couple of cases like that, how a complete cartridge flew half a mile to land on a roof or break a window.

My club got moved off its convenient near-urban location because in a housing development built after the range had been in operation for nearly 20 years, "the children run inside when they hear shooting." An old lady was so frightened, she fell out of her rocking chair.
Shot pellets were falling on workers at the nearby water treatment plant. Well, that really happened but it was some sort of AGEs shooting their riot guns, not club members.
I am sure it was a coincidence that both the mayor and a new councilwoman - one of those widow appointments after her narrow gauge politician spouse expired - were in real estate sales.

So we are now way out in the sticks and the land has been graded over but the promised megabuck development has still not come about after several years.

 

[Mstafford88]

Y’all make me so grateful for my family land. My advice: find a buddy with some property. Or as Jordan Davis would say: buy dirt

 

[Jim Watson]

A friend of a friend has a 1000 yard range on one acre of land.
He gets a farmer with a huge grain field to leave a narrow strip unplanted. 3000 feet long, 14 feet wide.

 

[Mstafford88]

1 acre 1000yd range? That’s gotta be border to border. I’m from the sticks tho so I’m not good at math

 

[WVRJ]

Eight miles from my house is a small public range that only goes out to 100 yards,but it's in a great location and it gets used by a lot of people.There's no R.O. but most of the time it's well disciplined.I've noticed the most misbehaved people are the younger crowd,most of which like to make lots of noise and have a passion to burn through as much cheap ammo as they can,usually with AR's and/or AK's and pistols.The rules are posted by the gate that goes into the covered benches and one of those rules is no rapid fire.A big turn on for the machine gunners(as we call them)is to shoot one of the posts the target boards are attached to off with rifle fire.They are 6X6's and it takes quite a while to chew through one,but they do it.The range is owned by the county and occasionally one of the deputies will stop by to check on things and if any damage is done,they look at the security camera footage and go have a talk with any of the idiots they can catch up with.for the most part,it works well,people respect each other and it's a good place to shoot.A year or so ago,a couple of citizens who had bought property about 2 miles away went to a county commission meeting and made complaints about hearing all the noise from the range.They wanted the range shut down because they didn't feel safe on the property they'd recently bought.The 3 commissioners politely informed them that the range had been there since the 1960's and it wouldn't be shut down.Older folks from Baltimore they were,and they felt unsafe in a remote rural location,but they were also wanting to develop some of the property they bought.I have my own private range at my home,but I like to go to the public range to shoot with my friends,and we have a very safe and fun time.If the rapid fire crowd can settle down,that small range will be there for many more years.But with the more urbanized areas on the increase,that range and others like it need to be well taken care of by all who use it.

 

[Glenn Berryhill]

I have found I would rather drive 1hr+ one way, to an unoccupied piece of National Forest and take my time all alone, than go to a range and have to consider the needs and hazards of others.

I wasn't looking for this thread/post but glad I found it. I'm almost 69. Had to drive into town about 1.5 hours away so figured I'd go the local country range. When I saw there were 5 or 6 cars there, I left and came home. I almost felt embarrassed because I didn't think I could handle the anxiety while around that many other shooters. The National Forest is just a few miles down the road so I will use that even though you don't have the shooting bench, etc. Glad I'm not the only person.

 

[Lo-Profile]

So they found a piece of "brass" in the construction area. Yeah okay

Same thing happened at a range I use to shoot at. Someone sprinkled live 22lr in a housing area behind it and said people were shooting that way.

 

[Chuck R.]

A friend of a friend has a 1000 yard range on one acre of land.
He gets a farmer with a huge grain field to leave a narrow strip unplanted. 3000 feet long, 14 feet wide.

I've got 1 berm at 760 on my place.. I can stretch it to 850, but I lose my incline as a backstop. I've thought about talking to my neighbor to the west to see IF I can set a berm on his place for when he's got the cows out. Right now we shoot down the power line right of way that runs through my southern hayfield.

 

[Show Me]

stretches me to 225yds

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

trying to sort this out in my mind how to explain, to start let me say our local range is a mile down a road to an area of no housing, however someone decided it was a good idea to clear the protected wetlands some miles away and build a housing project. on the news the local reporter was at the housing project and held up a piece of empty brass and declared that she found it there so it must have come from our local range. an uproar ensued. the range decided to rectify the situation by rerouting the rifle ranges from north/south to east/west. now the problem, because of the layout the rifle ranges are no longer under the eye of the ROs and are self regulated. which is fine if you're there to plink steel but if the purpose of your visit is precision shooting or running a load ladder and a paper target is required a safety issue now exists. on a slow day (which I prefer) it would be to easy for some cowboy to arrive while I was downrange and not noticing or caring I was down range and start popping away. And I was just considering buying a 7/08 which would need to be scoped and sited.

Whereabouts are you? I can recommend several excellent, highly controlled outdoor and indoor ranges in Fl.

 

[Tilos]

I wasn't looking for this thread/post but glad I found it. I'm almost 69. Had to drive into town about 1.5 hours away so figured I'd go the local country range. When I saw there were 5 or 6 cars there, I left and came home. I almost felt embarrassed because I didn't think I could handle the anxiety while around that many other shooters. The National Forest is just a few miles down the road so I will use that even though you don't have the shooting bench, etc. Glad I'm not the only person.

get you one of these:

Caldwell Stable Table Lite Shooting Bench

Buy Caldwell Stable Table Lite Shooting Bench at Sportsmans Warehouse online and in-store has everything for your outdoor sports adventure needs. Fishing, rods & reels, camping gear, tents and much more.

www.sportsmans.com

I did

.

 

[Chuck R.]

get you one of these:

Caldwell Stable Table Lite Shooting Bench

Buy Caldwell Stable Table Lite Shooting Bench at Sportsmans Warehouse online and in-store has everything for your outdoor sports adventure needs. Fishing, rods & reels, camping gear, tents and much more.

www.sportsmans.com

I did

.

I'm going to check those out!

My bench goes from 50yds to 300:

But, when I want to test further I have to go prone off my trailer or back deck:

I can use a patio table, but it's not the most stable platform:

That portable bench would give me another option (I honestly never thought of putting on a trailer!). The top looks a little small, but I can always use a couple tripods for the scope and chronograph.

 

[anothernewb]

I guess we've been lucky. our outdoor club range has never had an RSO. only thing it's got is a fence and gate. and you get a key with membership. been operating since the 80s and we've never had an event.

Oh there have been a few disgruntled people who didn't get along from time to time. but never an accident, and no one has ever brought a safety issue or complaint to the club board in all that time.

Then again, ours is several miles from town, out in the flatlands which is mostly farming. the range itself is an old gravel pit that sits on a piece of land purchased out of 600 acres owned by US fish and wildlife. The biggest thing we have to contend with is vegetation when it's super dry. USFW won't let us make a fire break outside the fence. so we rely on volunteers 3x a summer to clear any veg at the top of the berms and away from the fence.

I probably jinxed us all now just by saying something...

 

[JFrank]

That piece of brass must have been fired from an SKS if it came from the range.

Yeah’ how does a piece of brass eject a mile or so ? That’s ridiculous..

 

[Scooter22]

Sounds like a anti gun hit job. She should have immediately been called out to show the brass to LE and show where she found it. Bullets travel down range, not brass and LE might have backed up the range that it could 't have been from there. We had a similar event local. A home owner miles away on the opposite side of a large hill claimed some bullet holes in his garage were from the range. LE investigated and found the angle of the holes came from almost 90 degrees from the range location so impossible. Good luck.

 

[Tilos]

I'm going to check those out!

Nice setup.
Portable Table-
I find the seat to be a bit high for me, but I don't have a sled, just bags.
I plan to lower the seat about 6 inches and make it adjustable, but know I modify everything.
I covered the top and seat with stick-on carpet "tiles" from Walmart, way better.
jmo,
.