http://www.backwoodstraps.com/
I'm sure many of you have your own experiences, but I thought I'd just write a quick mini-review of my first visit.
First, get good directions. I had good directions, but I took a wrong turn and added 20 minutes to my hour+ drive.
When I got there, I was struck by the large expanses of concrete. Whoever owns it must also own a concrete plant, because otherwise I'd think that that much concrete would be cost-prohibitive. It was a pleasant change to turn off the road and be on concrete the whole time, as opposed to driving down rutted trails.
When I went in the range office, I was greeted by a friendly young lady who took my money and then pointed me in the right direction. The range office also contains a pretty sad pro shop. They had a small selection of ammo, and a few things like shell bags and rifle rests.
The kid working the trap house was very friendly and offered kind words of help to some of the beginners. He was patient with the little girl who was having trouble breaking open her .410 that her dad was making her shoot with no help.
I'm horrible at trap, so I made sure to bring someone that is worse than me. It was a little windy, so I was averaged 13 over 6 rounds as opposed to my usual 15.
They also have rifle and pistol facilities. They are divided into bays and are different distances. They use fixed target holders at the back of each range. The pistol range looked like standard fare. I didn't get a very close look at them, but they looked like they were in good condition. Same with the rifle range.
A few small gripes:
1) It's really far for me (over an hour drive.)
2) The rifle range seems to only be 100 yards. Their website says that they are adding a 50 and 200 yard range. That should do for most people. Anything longer and we're pretty much stuck driving out to Tac-pro for their 1K yard range. :banghead:
3) This is the big one... NO FMJ.
They also prohibit FA, which (unfortunately) doesn't affect me.
The facilities there are as nice as I've seen, and the people working there seemed like they were happy to be there. I'd give it 3 Cowboy Hats out of four. Once they get their other rifle ranges set up, I'd bump it to 3.5 Hats. The elusive fourth Cowboy Hat won't appear until they allow FMJ.
I'm sure many of you have your own experiences, but I thought I'd just write a quick mini-review of my first visit.
First, get good directions. I had good directions, but I took a wrong turn and added 20 minutes to my hour+ drive.
When I got there, I was struck by the large expanses of concrete. Whoever owns it must also own a concrete plant, because otherwise I'd think that that much concrete would be cost-prohibitive. It was a pleasant change to turn off the road and be on concrete the whole time, as opposed to driving down rutted trails.
When I went in the range office, I was greeted by a friendly young lady who took my money and then pointed me in the right direction. The range office also contains a pretty sad pro shop. They had a small selection of ammo, and a few things like shell bags and rifle rests.
The kid working the trap house was very friendly and offered kind words of help to some of the beginners. He was patient with the little girl who was having trouble breaking open her .410 that her dad was making her shoot with no help.
I'm horrible at trap, so I made sure to bring someone that is worse than me. It was a little windy, so I was averaged 13 over 6 rounds as opposed to my usual 15.
They also have rifle and pistol facilities. They are divided into bays and are different distances. They use fixed target holders at the back of each range. The pistol range looked like standard fare. I didn't get a very close look at them, but they looked like they were in good condition. Same with the rifle range.
A few small gripes:
1) It's really far for me (over an hour drive.)
2) The rifle range seems to only be 100 yards. Their website says that they are adding a 50 and 200 yard range. That should do for most people. Anything longer and we're pretty much stuck driving out to Tac-pro for their 1K yard range. :banghead:
3) This is the big one... NO FMJ.
They also prohibit FA, which (unfortunately) doesn't affect me.The facilities there are as nice as I've seen, and the people working there seemed like they were happy to be there.
I'd give it 3 Cowboy Hats out of four. Once they get their other rifle ranges set up, I'd bump it to 3.5 Hats. The elusive fourth Cowboy Hat won't appear until they allow FMJ.
