Range Rules

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DustyGmt

DustyGmt

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My local range that's 5 minutes from my house has never had any kind of RO on staff or anything like that, the only posted rules were pretty simple and understandable. No 50BMG, no FA fire, no shooting steel, etc... it was the kind of place where you would go down to the local bait shop and pay your yearly membership and get a card with a gate code and go about your business. Now it's all different, a whole host of new rules, which kind of sucks but I guess is what it is but the one that's got me really twisted up is the fact that now they allow shooting steel but, "No use of paper targets of the silhouette variety, unless you are a uniformed police officer shooting your qualification". ????????????? Is this a thing, can somebody shed any light as to why this would be a problem, at a shooting range? Seriously, it sounds like the stupidest thing I've ever heard but maybe there is a reason, idk.

This place was the most laid back place where you were free to go about your business. Sad.
 
The guy that was running it, who may still be running it idk, was up there one day and I asked him about guests, like if I could bring my wife and daughter or if they'd need memberships and he was like "oh absolutely, bring em along, as long as your a current member you can bring a few guests, just don't bring the whole family, etc..." now it's one guest, one time per calander year, and a whole bunch of other rules that kind of suck, but I can live with, their house, their rules. The no silhouette target thing just has me scratching my head......
 
Just remember the rules Bass Pro used to have beyond belief even the color of the targets also look at the original Texas CHL targets and the change to them.
Much info omitted due to perceived rules.
 
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Some time ago, the silhouette targets the LEOS used had to be changed for "black" color to blue or some such color as you can guess why. Now I think it would need to be another color like green or something.

Center mass is all you need to be concerned with. As mentioned paper plates work fine.

It's all political stuff.

Did you ask why??
 
Yep, that's pretty weak, especially for a private range. Especially considering that training for the lawful defensive use of a firearm would be greatly enhanced by the use of some sort of realistic target. I have never heard of a person defending themselves from an attacker that looked like a set of concentric circles, or a squirrel, or something of that sort of description. For what its worth, Merriam-Webster defines silhouette as: A likeness cut from dark material and mounted on a light background or one sketched in outline and solidly colored in.
sillouette.jpg
Based on that definition, I would call this a silhouette.
target.jpg
Thus, these don't appear to be "silhouettes"
realistic.jpg

Heck, this thing isn't even "mounted on a background".
Just sayin'.
 
DustyGmt said:
"No use of paper targets of the silhouette variety, unless you are a uniformed police officer shooting your qualification"
Click to expand...

And note that even the NRA does not have anything calling for "civilians" to shoot at "humanoid" targets.
A lot of IPSC shooting is now done on the non-humanoid "Classic" (Turtle, Amoeba) target.

DustyGmt said:
one guest, one time per calander year
Click to expand...

More income.

I am a "member" at three commercial ranges here. One is a "match membership" entitling me only to attend the weekly USPSA match. Humanoid targets, drawing from a holster, rapid fire, rapid movement, woo, woo. If I wanted casual shooting there, I would have to have a "range membership" but it is too far away for that to interest me.
The next is an indoor lane rental. They don't care about the paper target type, selling various humanoid targets. I get four guest passes a year. I don't know if they keep close track but I don't push it. Ammunition limits to preserve the bullet traps and sustain their scrap brass business.
The third is an unmonitored outdoor square range. Bring your own targets of any type or shoot their bullseyes or steel gongs, shoot any ammo into the earth berms.
 
My outdoor range allows silhouettes as long as they are not the "life" like type. No Zombies, printed picture silhouettes.
Their logic seems to be that they don't want anybody shooting at anything that resembles a human.visually for safety reasons.
I am fine with the rule since I can sort of see the logic since they are a public range and do get Dilbert Dumbasps every now and then.

In post #8 my range would allow the top target but none of the lower ones.

USPSA has a couple paper targets, Metric which is sort of a silhouette and has a "head", and then Classic which has no "head".
My understanding is for IPSC shooters some countries do not allow the Metric silhouette target.
 
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The club I belong to allows 2 shooting guests per visit. The only restrictions on targets is no tannerite and no glass.
 
If you want to get mad and have no understanding why, come to Massachusetts. Or as we like to call it, "Behind Enemy Lines". They actually outlawed the use of Silhouette targets for the entire state. Has to be one of the most ignored laws on the books as I see them at the range all the time. Have no clue what the charge would be. Most likely a fine.
 
There's some sort of consensus "out there" that training with any sort of "realistic" target is inhumane.

This has been going on for a while, to include Olympic sport style shooting for some long while.

Allegedly this is "kinder and gentler" for all concerned.

It waxes & wanes, too. I remember when many ranges started banning OBL targets and that was in the 90s.
 
Many decades ago it was common here in California, and the reasoning was that we didn't want to be seen as practicing to kill people. I'd guess it's been 30 years since I've seen rules like that around here. Perhaps it varies by region, or perhaps the new owner of the OP's range comes from a different generation.
 
All ranges I have been a member of were "family friendly" and your yearly range fee counted for all family members and up to two, or three, or four, or something non-family members per visit. I dont really have an immediate family (just wife, no kids yet) so that never really applied to me. Once, my friend (also a paying member) and I brought 3 guys with us to shoot sporting clays. It was a good time. The yearly range fee is pretty steep though.
 
The UK and European competition shooters used to mock our humanoid targets in their gun periodicals at times. I shoot USPSA and we are using both types.
 
1. I shot at the NRA range in the basement of the NRA HQ for many years. They also ban human figure targets, but I think they are OK with simple silhouettes, like IDPA targets.
2. In his 2019 book on concealed carry, Tom Givens specifically recommends using realistic human image targets for practice so you do not freeze up in the real situation as the first time you see your sights on a person.

Craig
 
I don't really "need" to shoot at silhouette targets, but I like to and I have a ton of them, got a deal on them. I can just as happily tap away at whatever "shape" is allowed, it's just the point of it. It is just disappointing to see in gun culture, especially at a private club with not alot of traffic and out in the country on a back road in a town with pretty small population. I've been going there since 2018 and I've only met a range staff member there once. It's pretty secluded and not much going for it really, other than the fact that it was a good place to go and be left alone, which seems to be changing now.

On the one hand I'm glad it's not just this range and that it sounds like fairly common practice, on the other hand I wish the opposite was true. Sounds like something some idiot on a power trip cooked up, like really. I'm going to become desensitized over time and become blood drunk and frothing at the mouth for the "pink mist" because I'm shooting silhouettes all the time? Yeah right.
 
DustyGmt said:
My local range that's 5 minutes from my house has never had any kind of RO on staff or anything like that, the only posted rules were pretty simple and understandable. No 50BMG, no FA fire, no shooting steel, etc... it was the kind of place where you would go down to the local bait shop and pay your yearly membership and get a card with a gate code and go about your business. Now it's all different, a whole host of new rules, which kind of sucks but I guess is what it is but the one that's got me really twisted up is the fact that now they allow shooting steel but, "No use of paper targets of the silhouette variety, unless you are a uniformed police officer shooting your qualification". ????????????? Is this a thing, can somebody shed any light as to why this would be a problem, at a shooting range? Seriously, it sounds like the stupidest thing I've ever heard but maybe there is a reason, idk.

This place was the most laid back place where you were free to go about your business. Sad.
Click to expand...
Each range privately owned has the right to make their own range rules including any rules which extend beyond the usual common sense rules of about any gun range. The best answer to your question would likely come from range management or ownership who created the range rules. Ranges are about guns and right now a large number of people would like to see guns portrayed in a bad light. Maybe range ownership wants their range portrayed as a place where the customers are only shooting bullseye type targets?

Ron
 
Different ranges ... different rules. Whoever owns and runs the range makes the rules. Go with the flow or find another range. You need them more than they need you. I'm an annual member of three outdoor ranges and one indoor, and they all have different rules. If one range has rules that get in the way of what I want to do with a certain rifle or handgun on a certain day, then I just go to a different range.
 
The wild life range somewhat near me has similar but not irrational target rules. Paper only. No tannerite, reactive targets, bottles/cans etc. Although they did give me some funny looks when I showed up with a Hilary Clinton paper with a bullseye on it. But I can't complain much. It is free to shoot at even though it is far out of my way.
 
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