Rifle Ranges/Shooting Leases in Central Texas (Austin area)?

[beaucoup ammo]

perdurabo93

Land around Rock Springs WNW of Uvalde is cheap. I'm looking there myself. It's cheap, because there's nothing there...all I want is a place to shoot.

This is raw acreage. It's in Edwards county. Take 290 West from Austin. Hit 10..little north to Junction and then south on 377.

 

[frostbiker]

FWIW, if you plan on trying to lease from a landowner, they may not be receptive to a 'shooting only' group. I've been on a couple of leases where the owners get a bit hinkey with regards to target practice outside of regular hunting. Also, if you are looking at 'deer lease' property to shoot on, you have to contend with neighboring hunting camps, possibility of cattle on property, etc.

Most landowners lease the property out to make money as a side business. For the prices we're paying, our landowner is reaping a profit. In return, we maintain the property...all 2,500 acres. We keep the fences maintained, roads passable, varmits and predators culled, and harvest wild game for our freezers. To do nothing more than shoot on the property and nothing else runs the risk of scaring off the game on that property and neighboring properties and alienating land owners in the area.

Another thing to consider is that these landowners are salt of the earth types most times. They may look on us 'city folk' with some suspicion until we can prove ourselves to be worthy in their eyes.

I'm definitely not trying to shoot your plan down, but trying to give some 'devil's advocate' insight into it. You may very well find a landowner willing to let you shoot, so keep looking. Also, have you considered checking on property foreclosures, auctions, and government surplus sales? Might be a cheaper alternative than paying what the actual market rate is.

Best of luck on your quest.

 

[beaucoup ammo]

Frostbiker hits on good points. $834 per acre. That's the price I'm looking at.. and as they say, "The Good Lord ain't makin' any more."

Lot's of families sell off chunks, and it's rare to find parcels under 150 - 200 ac. Do the math. Not a bad deal for a group of family memebers or friends. If you bring anyone in on a "consortium" deal..make sure they're good people and not just able to pony up the dough. A bad apple can ruin it for everyone else.

As Frostbiker mentioned..these are "salt of the earth" types. Great folks to have on your side...but you wouldn't want them anywhere else.

 

[MudPuppy]

I was actually planning on a road trip out thataway this past weekend, but we had an unexpected guest (a tiny little girl--cute as a bug's ear, but didn't want to take her tent camping and didn't want to do the motorhome thing either...we'll head down there in a couple of weeks.)

 

[perdurabo93]

I discovered a new range in Central TX recently. Its a new place out off Hwy 183 out between Seward Junction and Briggs (Florence, technically). No, this isn't Stan's (crappy) old shooting range, this place is about 3-4 miles further north just over the Williamson County line called "Astro Village Shooting Range". I spend a couple hours out there on Saturday and was quite impressed.

First off, they've only been open since Feb 1 and are still in the process of improving the range. They have 70-some-odd shooting bays. Two separate 100-yard rifle ranges, one for paper targets and one with various kinds of steel targets setup (gongs, swingers, and those cute little spinner target trees). They have a pistol range setup for paper targets and with steel spinners and auto-reset poppers, but its in a temporary spot and will be moving soon as soon as they get the covered shooting bays setup for it.

They only charge $12/head for shooting all day and are open 10am till dark with no gun limit. The crappy part is currently they do not allow NFA or 50 cal firearms on the range, are only limited to 100 yards on the rifle range, and you can ONLY fire off the bench. The covered benches are quite nice and have built in side netting to catch your brass for you but shooting at 12" gongs off the bench with my NM M1A is not very fun or challenging. After talking to the guys that run the place they say they are in the process of building out four new ranges, one for black powder, a new covered pistol range (the current temp one will become a shotgun patterning range), an archery range, and a 100m range where you can shoot steel from field positions rather than off the bench. They said they might be adding a 200 or 300 yard rifle range if they can build a good enough backstop for it.

It looks like a really good start so far. I don't enjoy having to shoot battle rifles off the bench, and I don't like that the pistol range is currently uncovered but otherwise its a great range. If they can be convinced to extend the range a good bit further and allow controlled burst full auto rifle fire or 50 BMG rifles at reactive/steel silhouettes, I would be in hog heaven. The drive from Austin is pretty quick if you take the brand new 183A toll road (free till may 1). When they finally finish the Parmer extension all the way out to hwy 29 it should be pretty fast and free as well.

If you want more info about the range, call em at 512-489-2061