Feeling Constrained At The Range

At my range they're way more relaxed, using one RSO in the range area (they have two ranges), you'll see a second RSO if there is a newbie shooting to help them out. No shooting from the hip at during regular range shooting. But they do have events at least weekly where one of the ranges is setup with fake buildings, people, etc. and you can shoot how you would in a real life situation. I'm curious, does your range let you keep your own brass? That would be a show stopper for me if I couldn't keep my brass.
 
Zerodefect said:
Augment your practice with competition.
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I have neither the time nor the interest in getting into competition shooting. My goals are fairly simple: at a minimum, retain my current skill level. Advance it if possible, without a significant investment in additional time or money. This is the direction I was going at my previous range. The constraints of the new range, coupled with my lack of enthusiasm for it, have resulted in somewhat of a backslide.
 
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ultra45 said:
Consider yourself lucky, in that they let you shoot from the Hip.
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If they didn't, membership would be entirely pointless to me. I now consider how lucky I was to have been a member of a range that let me do everything I became accustomed to. But given how it appears the majority of ranges restrict the activities of their customers, it's no surprise most CCW permit holders aren't nearly as proficient as would be preferable.
 
gonoles_1980 said:
I'm curious, does your range let you keep your own brass? That would be a show stopper for me if I couldn't keep my brass.
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They do let me keep my brass. I collect it after each strong of fire. Unfortunately, if brass goes beyond the firing line, I must ask an RSO to retrieve it for me (which they seem to dislike doing). The sacred squeegee is forbidden to members.
 
AK Hunter said:
I have only been to two indoor ranges in my life & yes that was the way it was, so that's the reason I belong to an outdoor club range now. I have almost unlimited access to a large outdoor range where I can shoot on bay from 30yd to 500yd in length & be the only one shooting there.
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There is an outdoor range in the area. It's about an hour's drive, but has up to 300 yards for rifles (or I guess pistols too if a person were so inclined). Much cheaper too. I sometimes go there for rifle practice, sight-ins, etc.
 
WrongHanded said:
They do let me keep my brass. I collect it after each strong of fire. Unfortunately, if brass goes beyond the firing line, I must ask an RSO to retrieve it for me (which they seem to dislike doing). The sacred squeegee is forbidden to members.
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They let us use the squeegee at our range, though if it gets out of squeegee range, it's lost. My .380s have this nasty habit of going out onto the range floor. I probably lose 10-20% of the .380 brass every time I shoot. Maybe they'll lighten up, if after a year they don't change, you might want to see what your other options are. Hope they're not one of those new ranges that won't let you fire reloads (you mentioned they check your ammo).
 
I work as an RO part time at an outdoor range. Our 25yd range is basically the pistol range or sight-in. There are 22 benches with movable target stands. At times we encounter waiting lines for an open bench.

One of our rules is absolutely no holster work. No double taps and no rapid fire. You may think that unfair or unreasonable but with the volume of people we serve it is necessary. I hate working that range because I can guarantee that I will be flashed at least 5 times in an 8 hour day and many of these guns are loaded!

Last fall while working that range I had 2 guys on a bench and one had never shot before. They were firing semiauto's and by 3pm we had to remove the one person because they got slide-bite and ripped their thumb from knuckle to knuckle.
 
kmw1954 said:
I work as an RO part time at an outdoor range. Our 25yd range is basically the pistol range or sight-in. There are 22 benches with movable target stands. At times we encounter waiting lines for an open bench.

One of our rules is absolutely no holster work. No double taps and no rapid fire. You may think that unfair or unreasonable but with the volume of people we serve it is necessary. I hate working that range because I can guarantee that I will be flashed at least 5 times in an 8 hour day and many of these guns are loaded!

Last fall while working that range I had 2 guys on a bench and one had never shot before. They were firing semiauto's and by 3pm we had to remove the one person because they got slide-bite and ripped their thumb from knuckle to knuckle.
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Sorry for your troubles. I'm sure being an RSO is sometimes dangerous and difficult. It does nothing to address my issues though, or make me feel any better about the constraint of the range I'm a member of. If all I could do at a handgun range was slow fire with no option to draw, I would see no point in even going. I might as well stay home and dry fire at a dot on my basement wall.
 
WrongHanded said:
It does nothing to address my issues though, or make me feel any better about the constraint of the range I'm a member of. .
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All I was trying to do was point out that many ranges will not even allow you to do what you are doing now. And then explain some of the reasoning behind it.

I in no way feel sorry or regret for doing this job. Actually I enjoy the job, the people, the guns, just the whole experience.
 
There I was at the indoor range this morning. I waned to shoot the gun I plan to take to the IDPA match tomorrow, haven't had the Plastic M&P out in a good while.

I buckled on a holster and commenced to draw and fire, pairs and failure drills.
Staffer looked to see who it was and moved on to shadow a novice.
I swept up my brass, too.
 
Update on this one:

I've been shooting more outdoors recently. Playing with shotguns and working on target transitions with handguns.

Today I had a fantastic session outdoors. I took a cardboard torso sized target out for some casual shotgun ammo evaluation, then shot 50 rounds of 10mm. At 15 yards I ran Mozambique drills with my G20 until I was down to the last two rounds (which I put in the head). I shot so much better in the daylight where I could actually see my sights. I've never shot close to that well at this new range.

On the way home, I diverted to the indoor range and cancelled my membership. More time outdoors. :)
 
Indoor range here has a new set of rules, probably from NSSA, the supporting video is by them.
No draw from holster
No rapid fire

I won't test their adherence by strapping on a holster, a couple of friends and I went to the sparsely attended outdoor range to warm up with a lot of draws for yesterday's "practical tactical" match.

I cannot shoot a Mozambique fast enough to trigger whatever "no rapid fire" criterion they go by, I have tried.
 
I could understand no holster work... too easy for an inexperienced person to send a bullet down their leg, or into the floor...but not even being allowed to do double-taps is ridiculous! I agree with WrongHanded, no point in even going to such a range.
 
I deal with the No Holster bias by practicing the off-body start occasionally seen in IDPA and USPSA.
Snatch the pistol off the bench, aim, fire. It is actually a bit more tricky than drawing from a good holster but I'm not telling them that.
 
I quit shooting indoors when my lead levels elevated to what doctors call an unhealthy level, except for a few sanctioned matches here and there.

You might try to find an IDPA club near you. There are rules with that too, but there is drawing, mag changes and a little more dynamic than just standing in a lane shooting at a hanging target.
 
jmorris said:
I quit shooting indoors when my lead levels elevated to what doctors call an unhealthy level, except for a few sanctioned matches here and there.

You might try to find an IDPA club near you. There are rules with that too, but there is drawing, mag changes and a little more dynamic than just standing in a lane shooting at a hanging target.
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Just curious, do you reload? I shoot 2-3 times a week indoors at 2 different clubs. I recently had my lead levels checked and they were perfectly fine. However, my buddy who loads a lot had sky high levels.
 
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