Escape from New York - just moved to Austin

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Wedge

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Howdy Ya'll,

I escaped New York about 6 weeks ago and now live in Austin, TX. I finally got out shooting last week, went to Red's North. It was my first time shooting on a range as I always had property available for me to shoot on. I thought it was a good experience and will be going back as soon as I get my reloading station put back together and get some more ammo made up.

It also looks like I moved to Austin at about the perfect time with Cabela's opening up this week.

Haven't been online much lately, just too much stuff to do getting the new house set up and getting set up with my first real job. I only had time to go shooting last week, and finally got my reloading bench partially put together (the rest will get done throughout the week).
 
Welcome to Austin! I shoot at Red's North, too. Actually, my wife and I just got home from there a few minutes ago.

You're going to love it down here (well if you don't mind taxes). I'll never move north again!

Regards,
ChickenHawk
 
Funny, you move from a liberal state to a conservative state and just happened to land in the most liberal town. Ironic. :D
 
I spent three wonderful years in Austin Texas.
I have lived in several States and that is the place I miss the most.
Great BBQ, good music, very high rent, I loved every minute of my time there.
 
Wedge:
Welcome to Texas. Though I live about an hour north of Austin, I'm there practically every weekend. I do most of my shooting at Red's North but usually during the summer its very hot inside the range. Have they turned on the AC yet? Anyway, gunshows in Austin every 3rd weekend of the month, and if you ever make it up to Dallas, there are BIG gunshows there. Enjoy.
 
Lets see, it seems like you are up North near Round Rock. (Where I am)

Here are a list of Ranges around you

Eagle Peak in Leander (Probably 30 miles away from Reds) $10 membership and you pay 10 a day to shoot as long as you want. Great pistol range, great rifle range all lasered. Probably the highest quality outdoor range in town. http://epsr.home.texas.net My Favorite!

Hill Country Rifle Range - Good pistol ranges, reactive targets, tactical ranges. Sub standard 100 yard range, but does have steel targets at 225 Yards for playing army man. Be warned of Crazy Richard, avoid conversations at all cost. Do not mention you are from New York. Thats all I can say.

Reds North - I personally don't like the guys at Reds at all. They seem kind of stuck up, and I will not stand to pay 12.50 an hour to shoot off a bar stool. Cook's rifle range was SOOO much better.

Reds South - Just as expensive as North, an older facility, and the same old "shoot off a bar stool" kind of place. I personally have a bad taste in my mouth for reds, but give this one a try. I have not had bad expirences with the staff like in the North store

"Maynor Skeet/Rilfe Range" - 1/2 deacent rifle range, 100 yard targets. Absolutley horrid skeet range and trap range. If you shoot skeet don't ever expect the throwers to work, and if they do don't ever expect the throw to be consistant. The staff there drinks heavily while operating the place, and from what I have seen, alochol is welcome on the range if that kind of thing apeals to you. It usually seems dangerious to me. :eek:

Capitol City Skeet Range - A high class range, with high class members. Don't expect to see a Winchester or remington there. It's the Citori and Perazzi crowd. I belive the membership is 250 a year membership and 5 dollars a round of skeet. If you can afford it and shoot enough skeet each year it is definatly well worth it.

Tony's Gun Range - it north on 183, on the other side of Seward Junction. Never been there, I do pass it every time I go to my ranch. It does look nice, but a smaller range.

I have also heard rumors of a new Range east of the airport on 71, although I cannot confim this as I have not seen it.

It sounds like you are up north, if so check out Sportmans wearhouse. It has a nice selection of reloading componets, and some deacent prices on guns. It has everything you would go to cabelas for, just without the expirence cabelas is.

McBrides also has a lot of good reloading componets, and to a lesser extent so does the Eagle Peak "Pro Shop".

Shoot me a PM if you would like a "tour" of some of the ranges in town. I would be more than happy to have an excuse to go to the range.
 
Welcome to Texas. To paraphrase Jerry Patterson (Texas Land Commissioner, former State Senator responsible for pushing through our CHL law), Austin is 90 square miles of insanity surrounded by Texas. Hope you enjoy your stay.

Jim
 
Manor range

Where did this come from?-
"Maynor Skeet/Rilfe Range" - 1/2 deacent rifle range, 100 yard targets. Absolutley horrid skeet range and trap range. If you shoot skeet don't ever expect the throwers to work, and if they do don't ever expect the throw to be consistant. The staff there drinks heavily while operating the place, and from what I have seen, alochol is welcome on the range if that kind of thing apeals to you."

NEVER seen this there, there are constantly cops training there also.
Red's is expensive, averages about $14 an hour, too hot or cold and too loud.
Manor is outdoors under shade and $7 per gun NO time limit. Never had thrower issues there either. If I need to test a gun Red's is fine but to have fun with friends it's the Manor range.
CT
 
I have always had problems with the throws as the Manor range. Prehaps it's under new ownership now, It's been about a year since I was there. Last time I was there the old man who runs the place was talking about going to his sisters funeral and picking up some more throwers, maby it's changed.

Last time the drunk range attendant drove up on the skeet blocks with his truck, promptly got out and asked us if we would come shovel a 6ft pile of sand in his yard. This was after shooting 10 rounds of skeet.

I do know Travis County Sheriffs is out there quite often, however I have seen this behavior going on even when they are there. Usually the foolishness takes place on the skeet ranges.

My problem with Reds is as follows:

I reacently purchased a Remington 700 and was alone in the range on a Tuesday night. The range attendants in their infinate wisdom decided to put a guy with a full auto 9mm weapon of some kind right next to me(possibly to play a joke I guess). He proceded to hit my targets on my lane mutiple times, throw shell casings on the front of my stall, and then decide emit slight gunts when firing. I said something to the range officer and he basically brushed me off. I was extremly angry. I informed the shooter to basically only shoot it if he could control it and left.

That night I had fired 10 total rounds, there were something like 30 holes in my paper.

I had a bad expirence, so I choose not to go there anymore. I do have one good thing to say about hte place, the older man who works behind the "scope" counter seemed quite nice, and actually had a nice conversation with me. He also boresighted my scope for me quite fast.

IMO it's just cheaper for me to go to Eagle Peak and spend all day, and shoot as much as I want. You can basically just bring a lunch and make a day out of it.
 
Hey Waffen, I'll probably send you a pm once I am getting more setup down here. I definitely noticed that Red's was loud, and it was pretty warm in there - if AC was on then it doesn't work too well. I didn't mind paying the money to shoot but it was a very solitary experience. I'll probably go back a few more times (on Monday's with my wife hopefully). I would like to see some of the ranges out west since that is probably where I will end up living permanently (renting now in Pflugerville - Red's is just too convienient at under a mile from my house)

ChickenHawk, I assume you went since it was a Monday and therefore cheaper for the ladies? I hope to get out there next week after I have loaded up some more ammo.

For being the 'liberal' city in Texas I have met more hunters and shooters than I did when i lived in a 'conservative' town in New York (Fairport, east of Rochester). I love being down here.
 
Hey Wedge, welcome to Texas. You'll love it here. In reality if your in Pflugerville(I live close to Pfluger also) your in as conservative country as you'll find in the state. Now a two mile trip south on I-35 becomes a whole different story. :scrutiny: No matter what your politics are everyone needs to go downtown at least once on a Saturday night and watch all of God's mysterious creatures come out of the woodwork and say "hello" to Leslie. :D As far as ranges go, Red's is too steap for me, the Austin skeet/rifle range is O.K., Eagle Peak is nice but NO FMJ ammo on the rifle range. :banghead: I'm in the process of joining the Austin Rifle Club, that has a range in Manor. $75/year membership, and virtually unlimited rangetime. :)
 
Waffen:
The older gentleman behind the gun counter, did he have a beard? If he did, I think you were talking to Red himself. Sorry to hear about your encounter with the SMG guy. That is definitely a range violation and they should have known better. I used to regularly renew my membership there, but I haven't been able to shoot there as often because of work, but also since its so darn hot at the range during summer, 3-4 months of membership are usually wasted.
 
Tman, it all varries. I'm also not an indoor range kind of guy. I like to relax and not worry about my surrondings. It is probably me being self concious, but I don't like people watching me from behind while I shoot, I also don't like the idea of "mooning" the people watching (Thoes bar stools are so hard to get comfortable :banghead: )

also since its so darn hot at the range during summer, 3-4 months of membership are usually wasted.
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Agreed. I have actually been making it out every weekend, although I now only go to Hill Country Rifle Range because they have "open" stalls, the layout of the land promotes high wind. I'm usually the only person there on the afternoons. It really gives me an advantage come deer season. I will have been practicing for months when everybody else is just starting.

Wedge, you sound like a reloader in witch case FMJ restrictions don't affect you, and you are up in the Pflugerville/Round Rock area, in witch case Eagle Peak would probably be the place for ya. IMO there is a great crowd there, who has probably forgot more about reloading than I will ever know. It's a wide range of pepole from bubba with his rusted Yugo SKS to real benchresters.

A tip for Red's, at least in the south store. If it's hot in there, make sure they put you on lane 7. You will get more A/C than you can handle. One time I made that mistake, the air was so strong I couldn't steady my rifle on bags!
 
www.krtraining.com - look for the Austin shooting FAQ.

As an old NY'er who landed in TX, welcome. Austin is a great city. Those who worry about the liberals are those who live in their rec rooms waiting for the Red Chinese and giant worms like Burt Gummer :p

There are even semi-passable delis.
 
My Austin Range Experiences

Here are my Austin Range experiences:
Manor Skeet/Rifle range - I'll 2nd the bad experiences of a previous poster. When I first moved to Austin, went out pistol shooting with a friend, and had one ditzy blonde waving a loaded .38 at all the shooters to the left of her, turning to her boyfriend and saying "This is so fun!" after about every shot. And the two young guys with a POS Lorcin or Jennings that were pointing it at everyone at the range trying to clear a jam by prying the muzzle and rear sight against wood, benches, anything they could. We left in a hurry, don't know if they ever cleared the jam. Where was the range officer during all this? Don't think there was one, just a grumpy old guy who never came out of the office/shack.

A few years later, went on a long lunch to go skeeting shooting with guys from work, thought we were going to Capitol City Trap and Skeet (which isn't too far from this place), but we ended up at Manor rifle/skeet instead. The guys on the skeet range next to us were quite obviously drunk, and acting like idiots. Shot one quick round (only because coworkers insisted) and left quickly. Skeet throwers were very poorly aligned. Again, no range officer to deal with the drunks. Didn't seem to be any interest/emphasis on safety at that place. I'll never go back.

Capitol City Trap and Skeet - good range. Very good facilities. I never got the feeling they were a snobbish Citori/Perazzi crowd as a previous poster alluded to. I got the same treatment when I brought my 870 or 1100 as when I brought my Citori. Don't need to buy a $250 membership to shoot. Last time I went it was $7.50 for a round of skeet for non-members, and I think $4.00 for members. Membership is only worth bothering with if you shoot a LOT.

Austin Rifle Club - very nice range. Been a member for several years. $75/year all you can shoot is a great deal. Nice facilities, about a 45 minute drive from my house, but worth it. Since its a private club, and you need to go through safety training to get your combination to the gate, it cuts out the unsafe yahoos/drunks like you see at public ranges. I like their emphasis on safety.
 
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