Sacramento has a new Range!!!

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45R

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I was over at the local indoor range last night and bumped into forum member WOT. We got to talking about indoor ranges and sure enough we have a new range in Elk Grove.

The website is www.thegunroom.org

10 bucks to shoot per lane and they have 20 lanes. No more driving to Stocktons indoor range. :)


45R
 
It's always nice to have multiple ranges to choose from. Does the new range have rentals? Here in Fort Wayne I only know of 1 indoor range and they don't have rentals.
 
I wonder if this is the reconstituted Brandon's Gun Range that used to be over in Rancho near Mather Field Road
Click to expand...

It's run by the guy who owns The Gun Room over in Elk Grove. Maybe he consolidated and moved his retail store to his range.
 
Wow! Is that a two-tone Sig 225 on his website, or has that slide been chromed? Beautiful gun. I guess I'll have to head that way!:cool: :D :D :D
 
I just want to say that I have bought several guns from The Gun Room.

I used to work in Elk Grove and went over there a lot to talk guns, look around and shoot the breeze.

I bought the following guns from them:

Cold Defender
Ruger Single Six .22/.22WMR (9.5" bbl)
Remington 597 .22 rifle with scope.

I have always found Jeff and Mike to be extremely honest and upright and I can give my full, enthusiastic recomendation.

There were times when I wanted something and they flat told me - we can get this for you, but even if we make next to nothing, we are still going to have to charge you too much - you should do this (this was on my Valtro purchase).

Jeff is the owner, Mike has worked for him for quite a while and they seem to be pretty good friends. This range has been a long time coming and they were planning on putting in a state of the art filtration system so you can shoot lead and the air is still extremely clean.

I also want to say that if you load your own, they have very good prices on cast bullets - I picked up 500 .45 ACP 200 gr LSWCs (lubed) for $19.99. The best price in the area previously was $25 and many places charge $30-$40. They told me last time I saw them that they were planning on getting a commercial caster so they could cast their own bullets and sell them even cheaper.

Have not been to the new range, but I have seen the plans and I have dealt with them many times - Sacramento is very lucky to have them here.
 
Wow, I'm another guy who used to live in Elk Grove before it grew up (and boy did it grow!). I'm happy you guys got a new local range. Also slightly surprised it got zoned.
 
45R et al,

What about the outdoor range north of Roseville about halfway to Beale AFB. When TDY at Beale, I used to pass it on the right near the clay pit just past (I believe) the town of Lincoln.

It seemed like a nice outdoor range, but I didn't have a chance to find out when I was out there for 3 weeks in April.

Thanks,

Albin
 
That's a small bore only range run by the same club that runs the rifle range just past McBean. They seem to be pretty much a service rifle and italian 22 handgun type of club. Impression I got from them was that drawing from a holster and firing quickly was frowned upon.
 
Carnitas, I'll have to call you out on your statement.

That's a small bore only range run by the same club that runs the rifle range just past McBean. They seem to be pretty much a service rifle and italian 22 handgun type of club. Impression I got from them was that drawing from a holster and firing quickly was frowned upon.
Click to expand...

It's the Lincoln Rifle Club, and the Dillman Outdoor Range, found at:

http://www.lincolnrifleclub.com

I was a range officer for that club for just over 7 years. Whoever told you it was a smallbore-only range was smoking something strong. The indoor range at McBean park is smallbore, but the outdoor range goes out to 300 meters, and up to .50 BMG, no problem.

Ever have shooters show up drunk with guns in hand? I have. Ever have somebody try to shoot the cattle on the property adjacent to the range? I have. Some people think that if you give the range officer $7 for the day's admission, that it's open season on everything forward of the firing line. :(

I enforced the no-quick-draw rule. Damned right it was frowned upon. Too many divots in the concrete floor in front of the shooting benches, and too many holes in the roof above the benches. If you can't demonstrate proper gun handling, the gate goes right back to Highway 65, if you turn right you can go to Vassar Lake and try taking your life in your own hands and shooting at an unsupervised state recreational area. Controlled rapid fire was allowed, as long as shots stayed on your own paper target and the bullets impacted the berm. No carrying of weapons on the individual, and certainly not holstered when going downrange to check targets. Got one of those elusive Sacramento/Placer County concealed carry permits? Good. Keep it concealed, like your permit rules state, or leave it on the bench.


The curriculum is a bit more varied than Carnitas let on. They shoot NRA High-Power, IHMSA Silhouette, Sporting Rifle competition, Varmint Rifle Matches, Cast Bullet Rifle Silhouette, Smallbore, and sometimes Blackpowder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette. In addition, weekend hours are open shooting during daylight, from about 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, depending on Daylight Savings Time.

Having set the record straight, it's a damn nice club and range, maintained and operated by a stand-up group of volunteers.

outdoorbenches.JPG
 
Must have been about 10 years ago I was driving by comming home from a job and I saw a couple trucks there and the gate was open at the outdoor range. IIRC they did not have any regularly scheduled public range times then, and I was curious about the outdoor range.

I stopped in to say hi and get some information about the range or the club or whatever. I was then (and now) primarly an action pistol/defensive pistol shooter. The guy I was talking to was not particularly friendly to begin with and was even less friendly when he heard what kind of shooting I was into. He pretty much indicated that the primary focus of the club was service rifle and the nra small bore stuff. He also indicated that if I wanted to be a member if the club I'd have to find someone to sponsor me and after a while I might be voted in as a member. Over all it fell well well well short of a warm invite.

Perhaps things have changed since then but the impression I got was that it was a bunch of retired guys with $5,000 garands, $1500 Italian 22's autos and that's the way they intended to keep it. The guy seemed pretty clearly to suggest that it was NOT a is any sense a range where I was welcome to come and shoot.

If I'm wrong about that, I'm glad to be wrong.

BTW did they ever catch that guy who shot it out with one of your members on the range a couple years ago?
 
Gewehr may remember better but AIR......

Club member was at the range alone early one evening to shoot. He steps away from his truck for a second for some reason, comes back and some guy has grabbed some guns from his truck and is making off in, I think a Red Toyota (dont know why that sticks with me). BG fires at Club guy as he makes his get away. Club member returns fire with a weapon he had on him (22lr ???). IIRC the Club guy got minor wound. Never heard if the BG got caught.
 
Yup, they caught the guy...

I'm saddened to learn that Carnitas found one of the cranky, soon-to-be-ex-range officers the day he showed up. I'm pretty sure I know who it was. Several personalities exist with the different range officers, one was big on Cowboy Action Shooting, and nothing else mattered. Another was a smallbore fanatic, and nothing else mattered to him. I personally feel they drove away potential members. I was a bit more open-minded, as long as it was safe, I even had a blackpowder 1"-bore cannon show up, it fired pieces of automotive axle shaft using a bunch of Pyrodex and oiled rags as the patch material. :D

The membership process wasn't really too painful, sponsorship was easy, just making it to the monthly club meetings was difficult for people's schedules. You have to volunteer one day's worth of your time to the club, cleaning the range, making target frames, maintaining the 200-meter target pop-ups in the pits, etc. Not a big deal.

My acquaintance who was shooting his Remington 700PSS after hours had finished a string of fire, and was taking a Porta-Potty break before going downrange and checking his targets, when somebody jumped the gate and stole the firearms. Shots exchanged, good guy has relatively minor injury, bad guy gets away. Bad guy shows up at local hospital a few days later, with a badly septic abdominal wound. They got their man.

If you look real close at the concrete pad of the rifle range, particularly the edge nearest Highway 65, you'll see a bunch of divots. After-hours shooters had to make themselves real small one evening, somebody cut loose towards the firing line from the highway! I got real apprehensive towards the end of my tour of duty in Sacramento, because I carried the day's proceeds from the range to the bank, it was a lot of cash, and once I had sent the shooters home for the day, I felt like a big target. I ended up getting my concealed carry permit from Eugene Byrd in Isleton, based on that risk. :what:

At least we didn't have the suicide like the indoor Gun Country range had in Stockton. Dunno what our insurance premiums would have been like after something of that nature. I had wondered if Branden's in Rancho was at risk for that, then they closed...
 
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