Outdoor public Ranges

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nettlle

nettlle

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Oct 10, 2014
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Preble County, OH
I have a pistol/rifle range at home now. Took a while.

Pros about about outdoor public ranges:

Get to meet a lot of nice folks that will let you try out their guns.


Cons about outdoor public ranges:

They will trash the range.
They will Rambo a 100 rounds of hot 9mm casings down your shirt collar from the adjacent bench.
They will tote a 100 pound cast iron bath tub as a range target. The rounds hit the bathtub and zing past your head.
They will play with a one pound can of black powder. Filling 22 caliber ammo boxes with black powder, insert a fuse, and light it over a one pound open canister of black powder.
They will shoot 100 rounds of 22 caliber at tree limbs in an unsafe direction at a tree limb. When the limb is finally shot down they will describe that heir rifle is so accurate that it can shoot a limb off a tree.
 
went to a public range today. fired 5 rounds. while i was there a couple half value knuckleheads showed up with a 308 AR that they said had never been fired. they wanted to test the trigger. dude loaded a round and started talking to us, then without looking at the sights, pulled the trigger. line was cold. no one had earpro on. i know he didn't hit the berm. he prob hit the mountain behind it. who knows.

then he asked me to shoot it to feel the trigger, and went ahead and loaded around. i went to unload the round so i could function check it before shooting, and the round wouldn't come out of the chamber. i think it was handloads but not sure. he got pissed that i was going to pull it out and test the trigger dry firing. some people...
 
Sometimes I think they are not there for the enjoyment of shooting but rather for a story to tell others when they return to work Monday morning.

I am grateful for my range at home.
 
Holy cow, never had that at my public range. Casa Grande has a free, unmonitored public range where shooters police themselves. I have found garbage on the range that me and my best friend picked up and threw away, but never a cast iron tub. if anyone was shooting that unsafely I would bail right then and there. I've seen some idiots, usually people who want to go downrange WHILE other people are still shooting, but that's about it.
 
Yes, reminds me of the salt block incident...
One would think a 12"×12" salt block would disappear in a white "poof" when drilled with big bore marlin levergun .450
....Nope. Took out a divot of salt the size of a fist, and sent the mushroomed slug right back into the torso of a bystander, leaving one hell of a bruise and sending him to the ground. Jeepers was scary for a moment.
 
I was once walking up the dirt road to the public range and started hearing bullets passing overhead. Hugged the cliff side of the road and poked my head around the corner to see a couple shooting back down the road they'd just walked up themselves. Still a half mile to the actual shooting range.

I'm as pro-2A as anyone, but gee whiz.
 
There was a county rifle range in Westchester Co. NY I went to twice. They had a one cartridge at a time rule, no loading magazines, and a geezer range officer who would stand over you, literally breathing down your neck, watching you shoot.

He would grin, knowing he was annoying you, and keep repeating the one shot at a time rule. The second time I went, realizing this was the norm, was my last time.

The pistol and shotgun ranges were fine.
 
Had some jackass start shooting at a range once when my kids were downrange posting targets. Let's just say he got an education on range etiquette that day...
 
Opinions on public ranges is a lot like opinions on other drivers, everyone going faster than you is an (expletive) and everyone going slower than you is an idiot. Public ranges either have too many rules or they have no rules. There never seems to be a happy medium.
 
The public range I go to is pretty nice. The RO doesn’t breathe down your neck, but doesn’t tolerate any foolishness either. I’d like a place I could shoot offhand for rifle but it’s not a huge deal. Rifle is seated at the bench only but you don’t have to use the bench. Pistol is offhand or with rests and shotgun is naturally off hand. A few people get riled sometimes but they either change or leave.
 
I wonder if there is confusion about definitions here. At least in my neck of the woods, "public outdoor range" can be a commercial venture with facilities, range officers, rules, and fees. It also can be a completely unsupervised pit or mountainside in the middle of nowhere which is essentially a free-for-all for anyone who can find it.

The former - again at least around here - tends to be fairly civilized and safe. The latter, which is what I envisioned upon reading @frogfurr's post, can be a real nuthouse. I've seen a few odd things at supervised ranges, but nothing nearly as hair-raising as the stuff that seems to happen at unsupervised ranges on a regular basis.
 
I guess my local range would be considered private, I think there's about 1,200 members and a 3 year wait list to get in. The waiting sucked, but for the most part people take care of the place. There's no RO, but at least the times I've been there people have been safe.
 
Man, are all of those cons things you've actually experienced at the range? That's outright insane. I'd have to find another range, even if it meant driving a lot farther away...

I'm lucky to be within 15 minutes of a great private range. Not a lot of lanes, probably eight or so 100 yard targets, one 50 yard, and two 25 yarders. But it's very seldom busy (often I'm the only one there), except leading up to deer season and maybe a nice day after a long hot/cold spell. Everyone I've met there has been competent and safety-conscious, and the majority of them very friendly to boot (some would prefer to keep to themselves, which is fine of course). It's nice not having to worry about an over-bearing range officer hanging around since we can police ourselves. Hope it stays that way...
 
Yeah, and that's the problem. Idiots show up and do idiotic things and everybody suffers for their behavior. Why there is such an exhaustive list of rules and seemingly needless restrictions at most public ranges. I took my home range for granted, when I moved for work I guess I didn't really realize what I was giving up. Being a townie sucks, I used to not even have to step off my front porch to shoot targets. When I go to my local range people are usually well behaved. I've had a couple instances of sketchy range incidents but there is nothing better than the home range. I have enough stuff that when I finally do carve out my own piece and have my own chunk of land I will have an excellent range. For now, the local range will do. The deacon at my church has also given me permission to shoot at his private property which is a 5 minute drive.

The nice thing about the ranges/clubs though is meeting other like minded people who have alot of knowledge and experience. I shot a $12,000 gun this past weekend. Wouldn't have ever happened if I wasn't friendly with fellow range goers.
 
When we resided in the Commonwealth Pennsylvania AKA (Penn's Woods) The Pennsylvania Game Commission had public ranges. The one we had access to was dependent on the game warden for that particular area as to the upkeep and safety enforcement. Private ranges with membership were for the most part better supervised than the public ranges. The truth is among firearms enthusiast's there is a Slob Element be they are a minority but still nettlesome. Here in North Carolina I'm a land share owner member of a shooting association which is affectively administrated. As for myself I have a private handgun range on the property which is more covenant.
 
The home range is also nice because you can shoot at your own pace. Don't have to worry about holding somebody up or feeling like you're hogging the bench, or speed things up without risk of someone wondering what the #$@% you're doing.

I like the guys at my local trap range, they are all good guys, but they shoot at a certain pace and I can see certain aspects of shooting are lost on them. The trap range is the lower portion of the property and the rifle/pistol range is behind the trap range, about 100 yards uphill up a lil access road and whenever I'm down at the trap range and somebody is lighting a few mags off, not mag dumping or anything, just what sounds like normal somewhat rapid fire drills, the trap guys may make a face or a comment, you can kind of see the disgust. It occurs to me that when I used to fire up there, whenever I left and drove past the trap crew, they all cranked their heads around to clock me coming out. Knowing them as I do now, I knew they were hating on me pretty hard because I would fire 300-500rds some days, and I was working on speed, alot.:D
 
The only outdoor range I've been to is as moderated as this board. I don't go that often more because of the weather (too hot, or actively storming, are the patterns there that make up 300 days of the year) than because of safety concerns. It's actually been a few years since I've been there, and it's an hour from me.

The indoor range at which I shot a couple of weeks ago is less moderated than that one.
 
I normally shoot at public Georgia Wildlife Management Area range. It is managed by a range officer and has strict rules that are reasonable. The only rule I don't like is the one shot per second rule, so no double shots or mag dumps with the 10-22.

The range used to be unmanaged and it was fine. I use to go about once a week and only saw once or twice some fools acting dumb. Those times, the people were just young and dumb. After talking with them a while and making friends with them, they would calm down and follow the rules. It actually was pretty safe, everyone would yell range cold and make eye contact before going downrange.

Now, the range has range hot and cold lights and sirens. It is 150 yds, wooden target holders, and has nice covered benches with ceiling fans. And it is not too crowded, maybe because of the ammo shortage and prices.
 
I must be unusually blessed.

I'm a volunteer RO at our local public range, so I see a lot of people shoot there. Almost without exception, the shooters are responsible folks.

The rules are pretty simple: Don't handle firearms during a ceasefire. Follow RO instructions. No metal targets or stands closer than 50 yards. Carry firearms muzzle up. No tannerite. The job of the RO is to make sure everybody goes home in one piece and that they have fun shooting.

We all cringe when a Rambo type shows up to play army, but we let them have their fun.

People mind the ROs, and if they don't, a deputy will be there quickly to escort them off the range. I've never had to call the sheriff.

$60 per year per family, or $10 per day. The shooting club rents the property from the county, and all funds go for wooden target stands, backers, targets, and improvements to the property.
 
denton said:
I must be unusually blessed.

I'm a volunteer RO at our local public range, so I see a lot of people shoot there. Almost without exception, the shooters are responsible folks.

The rules are pretty simple: Don't handle firearms during a ceasefire. Follow RO instructions. No metal targets or stands closer than 50 yards. Carry firearms muzzle up. No tannerite. The job of the RO is to make sure everybody goes home in one piece and that they have fun shooting.

We all cringe when a Rambo type shows up to play army, but we let them have their fun.

People mind the ROs, and if they don't, a deputy will be there quickly to escort them off the range. I've never had to call the sheriff.

$60 per year per family, or $10 per day. The shooting club rents the property from the county, and all funds go for wooden target stands, backers, targets, and improvements to the property.
Click to expand...
Muzzle up? Why is that?
 
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