Free at last!! and help!

[TechBrute]

Yay!!! I'm in Texas!!!

Now I need some help. Where in the DFW area carries parts for AR15 rifles? Specifically uppers, triggers, tools, etc. I'm in the Grand Prairie area for now, and the closer the better.

I'm also looking for the longest rifle range in the DFW area. 1000+ yards would be ideal.

 

[night4creeper]

your best bet would be to go to the

BIG TOWN GUN SHOW•
•May 3 & 4 •
• CALL 214-341-2895•

its the best show in the area, it at the big town convention center, off of big town blvd and hwy 80..

 

[Standing Wolf]

Congratulations! Life in the United States is much better than the People's Republic of California.

 

[coonan357]

hey tech change your location, those texans take a might offence to say you in texas and display san deigo ....

 

[TechBrute]

hey tech change your location, those texans take a might offence to say you in texas and display san deigo

Can't say I'd blame them.

 

[blades67]

Welcome to the Free States!

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

Welcome to the Republic, tech.

Probably your best bet is to hit the major (and I mean MAJOR!) gun shows that come around about every month or so. You can't hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a big orange and black billboard advertising one that usually will be on a weekend only 2 weeks away.

Cheaper than Dirt in Ft. Worth is a good place to browse for small parts and gobs of other odds and ends.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com

Mike's Gun Room on Greenville north of Beltline/Main St. sometimes has interesting things.

The Bullet Trap also could be a source. Indoor range also, professional operation. Plano on Ave. K. 7 days a week and a retail operation that is tough to beat.
http://www.bullettrapinc.com/

I shoot outdoors at the Garland Public range. 200 meter rifle area and a separate pistol area. Reasonable membership fee.

Maybe Stephen A. Camp can steer you toward the range near Denton he shoots at. Never been there, but I hear it's nice.

I have my own place out a couple of hours east of DFW where I have 800 meters of open lane, but I never seem to have time to go there anymore. It's the old family farm.

IIRC, there is a place off 820 and (maybe) 287 in Fort Worth that has a retail store in front with a first class inventory, a separate Smith in the back that shares a building with an indoor range. Only been there once, several years ago and unfortunately was in a big hury and couldn't spend the time I wanted in browsing. Maybe the other DFW folks know about it. I also know I'm leaving out some nice folks up north of Dallas; maybe they'll chime in.

Regards,
Rabbit.

When I grow up, I want to be an honest lawyer so things like that can't happen. - A young Richard Nixon on the Teapot Dome scandal.

 

[SJ]

Welcome to the Metroplex. Unfortunately everything is 1/2hr at least away from everything else, and usually farther for gun stuff. I have heard numerous stories of various public ranges in the area being unfriendly to black rifles, but I cannot verify anything besides those places I will list here.

The range/shop Rabbit is probably talking about is Alpine Range. Pretty good place (free use of the trap throwers if you buy targets there) and they do have a decent shop, but no FMJ for rifles the last time I was there. Kinda bad for surplus-ammo shooters, and only 100-yard range.

For a FMJ- and black rifle-friendly place, try Gibson's range in Mesquite, off Lawson Road next to the Devil's Bowl Speedway. Great place, but rifle out to 200yards only, or less if it has been raining. Lots of AR and FAL people shoot there, and it is pretty cheap too.

Another good public range is Collin County Gun Range (www.ccgunrange.com) in McKinney, only 100-yard rifle, but with movable target stands so you can set them at the exact ranges you want. Check their hours first, as the City of McKinney is trying to illegally shut them down to build a bigger airport, and have put restraints on their operation.

One place I know does have a 1000-yard range is TacPro (http://www.tacproshootingcenter.com/), a relatively new range/club on Highway 106 near Stephenville (approx 1 hour west of Fort Worth). It is very rural and not completely finished yet, but lots of very serious people shoot there, an excellent atmosphere. They have well-regarded classes and competitions. I am not a member (I would be if I lived closer) but I enjoy alot of their competitions.

The Grand Prairie Gun Club (private $$$) has a range north of I-30 (19th Street exit), they have some kind of 200yd rifle range there. I used to shoot IPSC twice a month there, it was an excellent spot so central in the metroplex. However, the IPSC matches were shut down because of IMHO BS "safety reasons" (IOW, club politics which is dominated by shotgunners), so they are on my s#!t list.

For shops, besides the ones listed above, there is also K2 Sports in Richardson. A small custom shop, they don't really have a showroom IIRC, but can do alot of things. www.k2-sports.com

 

[TechBrute]

Thanks for all the suggestions!!

That Tacpro range looks ideal for the type of shooting that I do. The K2 website looks interesting, as well. I love Cheaperthandirt.com, do they have a storefront?

I was in Duncanville today, and drove by the Bullseye shooting range. It used to be Ben's Gun Shop a few years back when I lived here the first time, and that's where I got my CCW, so I decided to stop in. I hope beyond all hope that the prices in there are not indicative of prices in this area. Glocks with the fixed sights were $650. A Kimber Pro Carry was $950. Then I asked if they would recieve guns, and they said yes, for $65 or 15% of the purchase price, whichever is more. That was followed by a ranting about all the people that were putting the gun shops out of business by buying on the internet. I wanted to tell them that their prices were probably the reason why, but refrained and left as quickly as I could. Somebody please tell me this isn't normal!

 

[SJ]

CTD has a storefront in NE Fort Worth, I820 @ Mark IV Parkway, it's worth a trip if you're in the area some time. They have quite a bit of stuff on display, and can pull pretty much anything from the catalog from the back for you to check out. Nice mounted animals too.

Those prices are high, for sure. Guns shows are pretty good, and there's one about twice a month at least. Market Hall (last weekend) and Big Town are the two decent ones, the others are not so good. I use a FFL that will do transfers for $10, and I'm sure there are others. However (sadly) I don't know a good shop for actually buying guns.

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

SJ is right about K-2. They carry a lot of high-speed low drag stuff. Nice, friendly folks too. They used to be stocking STI dealers and may still be. They are heavy into the LE market and supply a lot of the tac units. They also know how to work an AR trigger as good as any of them.

D-Rays over on Preston at Forest is a good browsing place with tons of accoutrements for the sporting clays bunch. The guys in the back are pretty smart, too. Richard @ Big Bear off Beltline in Carrollton can do nice things with CZ's among others, but the store can be hard to find and he can be moody sometimes.

Even my wife loves going to Cheaper Than Dirt. You just have to be serendipitous on prices, but that goes for anywhere. Folks gotta make a living somehow.

Regards,
Rabbit.

 

[TechBrute]

Ok, I went to the gun show this weekend. It's definately better than the one that I went to in San Diego. The one in San Diego was every three months, and it was more of a jerky and jewelry convention than anything else.

While I was there, I met the guys from K2 Sports. They seem like top notch guys and were willing to spend a minute or two with me explaining a couple of things. Their prices were fair, too. They are pretty AR-centric, but that's what I was shopping for anyway. Skunk would like them as well, since they carry a fair amount of tactical gear.

I felt like a kid in a candy store when I was there. If you were there, I was the guy running around screaming "woo hoo!! I love Texas!!" at the top of my lungs. I ran around buying all the evil things I wasn't allowed to have in CA. I got a 16" M4 flat-top upper for my pre-ban colt, an ARMS #40, #22M68, #39, #15, and #45, an Aimpoint M2, several of those "high" (standard) capacity magazines for my Glocks and AR15s, and other misc items. I found a class III dealer and am starting a savings account just for that. Unfortunately, since I haven't been here for 90 days, I couldn't bring home any new guns, and I didn't find any face to face deals that I liked. Oh well, there's always next month, or next week, or anytime I want to pick up the newspaper... WOO HOO!!! I love Texas!!

 

[Shooter 2.5]

Check the paper for the Market Hall gun show.

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

Glad you made it to the Big Town show, Tech. I was out there both days. Saturday I was mostly browsing but a super-nice Hungarian M44 found its' way home with me. Sunday I was back there because 1). the wife wanted to go see what she could find for herself and 2). the guy with the really nice cowboy hats left early Saturday. Had to git me one o' them "squattin' heifer" styles with the pencil curled brim to keep the sun offin' me. Ended up getting hats for me and the bride and she came away with a good deal of "non-gun" stuff, but to her credit she did pick out a nice concealed carry purse and an extended eye relief scope and a B-Square mount (made in Ft. Worth, by the way) both for her own M44.

I was pleasantly surprised at all the Black Rifle stuff available. Next show is in June. See you there. Hope you picked up business cards from the guys who had tables set up in case you need something else between now and then.

Regards,
Rabbit.