Interesting time feeling like cattle

[offroaddiver]

I'm spoiled as far as gun ranges are concerned. I'm used to small ranges where the most I've seen is 10-15 people on either the handgun or rifle range. I always take a pistol and a rifle to the range in case there's alot of people at one and none at the other. Or there's the indoor range where you pay one rate and shoot as long as you want. If all the lanes are being used then you can shop around. Only rules at the indoor range are no bottle neck rifle cases or shot shells. Pistol,straight side rifle, slugs, and full auto allowed. Shooting from hip and drawing from holster are not allowed but that's ok.
Today the small ranges were closed due to hunting season and the indoor range closed as well. I am drooling to get some shooting time in. So the other option is the Wildlife agency run range nearby. I should have stayed home.
The price is ok at $5.50 for 2 hours. Not bad. The problem is it is benchrest only shooting. Meaning you must be seated to shoot. Even when everyone is waiting to change targets have to wait for the predetermined intervals to change targets. Just loose some of the fun factor due to safety concerns.
I got bored and always had time to shoot a 22 pistol, 9mm pistol, 5 rounds of 30-30 and 308 before cease fire was called.
The price keeps it as a backup range.

Now to the ?'s How can I get rid of ho-hum of shooting at this range? I took my dad with me because of his birthday being this past friday and it's been a while since he's shot. I always seem to have fun at the other ranges, but the cattle stall feeling of the range sank in today hard.

 

[230RN]

Gone are the days when my favorite ranges were the entire Roosevelt National Forest and the whole Pawnee National Grasslands.

Where I could skip shotgun slugs along the prairie just to watch them bounce along for half a mile, and where I could try handgun aerial shooting with no problem ('cept I was no good at it) or shoot at a pine cone without worrying that the bullet might come down on some condomium complex or plunk into some subdivision's community swimming pool.

Or shoot at a rock, just to hear the bullet's ricocheting, spanging whine.

Gone are the days when I could run up Boulder Canyon only a couple of hundred yards to test out a load without running into half a million joggers and bikers along the new paved, lane-marked Canyon Trail.

Gone are the days when I could go shooting up in what is now Eldorado Springs Canyon State Park any old time I wanted to, and wander for hours, shooting what I felt like, amongst one of the most beautiful canyons around, with the prettiest twisting gurgling little stream you ever saw.

And fire a random shot, just to hear the echo off the canyon walls.

Gone are those days...

I feel your pain.

Tenfold.

 

[xanderzuk]

Price is just "OK" at $5.50 for 2 hours? I don't know of anywhere I can shoot for any amount of time for less than ten bucks.

 

[jackstinson]

Price is just "OK" at $5.50 for 2 hours? I don't know of anywhere I can shoot for any amount of time for less than ten bucks.

Wow....My local Wildlife Dept range is only $5.00 per day or $24 PER YEAR. If I go there after work during the weekdays, it's usually fairly empty and relaxed. But I never go there on weekends or just before deer season.
I have several indoor ranges closer to my house, but they charge from $6.00 to $12.00 per half hour.
I do miss the 60's when you could just go out in the woods and plink to your heart's content. To get a similar feeling today, I go to a deserted public hunting area and woods-walk/plink with .22 CB's.

 

[PTK]

230RN

We still have Harris Park and that little 60 yard range in Buffalo Creek, though....

 

[shotgun12321]

230RN that was very poetic

 

[graygun]

I remember seeing a guy fire some kind of high-power rifle at a piece of driftwood in the Chesapeake bay when I was a kid(early 60s). This was from a beach,in the off season. He was a security guard there. The bay is about 7 miles across at that point and you can easily see a few miles of its breadth in good visibility.