I lucked out....
i live about 20 mins from what i have found out is one of the few(less than 5), 600 yard ranges in texas that is NOT owned by the military or an individual (read this as it's owned by a club not some lucky rich guy). and there are plans to expand it to 1,000 as soon as the money is present.
the 600yard area is of course the NRA High Power section and has a pit. there are also standard "fixed target" lanes int eh riofle area from 50ft to 300yards. then another berm each for 50yrd and 100yrd next to the pistol range. pistol is the standard distance (what 25 yards??) with a covered firingline. and a new non covered area of same depth for the use of the action pistol group.
for shotgun, we have a separate range area, as in about 10 miles away, in a more open location thus giving more room to expand both areas. the shotgun range is equiped with Skeet, 5-stand, trap, and currently work is underway on the ONLY "bunker trap" (some sort of "International trap" setup i'm not much of a shotgunner) field within at least 200 miles and possibly the only one that will be acessible to the public on any regular basis in the eastern half of texas.
what do i pay to be part of all this???
$55/yr!!! i used to pay that much a year to have acess to a well kept pistol range with a simple two firing lane rifle area out to 300 yards!! with no acess to any shotgun facilites
yes there IS a campaign amoung many of the members to up the dues. trouble is there is a fear that upping the dues to a more reasonable (in light of facilites provided) will scare off the "hunter" (those who are members only to have a LEGAL sighting in spot) crowd, and also many of elder (both by age and tenure) members voice the universal cry of "but it's ALWAYS been this way!!".