Where to shoot (and live) near Minneapolis?

[Father Knows Best]

I'm considering a possible move to the twin cities area (job change). I'm spoiled right now by living just two miles from an excellent gun club. The Memphis Sport Shooting Association has trap, skeet, sporting clays, action pistol, cowboy and archery ranges, and covered rifle/pistol lines ranging from 15 yards to 600 yards. If I want to go dust some birds or work up some rifle loads, I can go from my living room sofa to being on the firing line in 15 minutes.

So if I move to the twin cities area, what good gun clubs are there? I'd like to find one that has excellent facilities, is well managed, and is within reasonable commuting distance of the northern and western suburbs. There should be decent schools in the area, too, as I have small children.

Thanks, all.

 

[Janitor]

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to shoot there, but there's Oakdale gun club on the North/East corner of the Twin Cities area (Lake Elmo). That's about the nicest in the TC area that I'm aware of.

I'm gong to check out the Dakota gun club this summer (I hope) - that's one on the South side in Rosemount MN (15-20 min south of Mpls). Supposedly they have a pretty nice 300 yd range there.

I'm sure there are others further out. These are the two closest in that I'm aware of.

 

[Fat_46]

There are a few indoor ranges in the area. This is a partial list:

Bill's North and South
Metro
Burnsville Pistol Range
Dakotah Firing Range

MN Rifle and Revolver club is about 35 minutes north of the Twin Cities. Its an excellent facility during the more temperate months. The have everything from handgun to a Palma range.

On the nortwest side, there is the Minnetonka Sportsmans club, Elk River Sportsmans club (they have highpower once a week during the summer), and farther out is DelTon, near St. Cloud.

I'm sure there are more I've forgotten about. Plus those that Janitor mentioned...

 

[pete f]

The twin cities Metro area is one of the least densely populated metro areas in the country. We have lots of people here, we just spread them way out. Where are you looking at being located for work. South of the Cities are two shotgun oriented places, Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club, a very nice place to shoot Sporting Clays and trap and skeet, Minneapolis Gun Club was moved several years ago due to Airport expansion and is now in Lakeville, they have a large amount of trap and skeet available.

On the North side of town is Metro Gun club, a more shotgun oriented place but they do have indoor rifle and pistol, albeit short range. Rumor has it that Ziggy Wilf the new owner of the Vikings has bought Metro as the place he wants to build his new football stadium. However they are closed lipped and it was in operation a few short days ago.

As far as other gun stuff. We have several really good gun shops in the area. Maybe not as big as some of the southern ones, but we have good people running them. Gunstop enterprises, is a reloading and retail store that has great selections and prices. J&S is a primarily pistol shop located in the south subs and historically been the place for comp shooters to hang out. Big box retailer Gander is located here and has several stores within easy driving of almost everywhere in the metro area. Sportmans warehouse from the west is here in the northern suburbs as is Cabela's with one north and another south of the Cities. Rumor has it that Bass Pro is going to open a monster store here as a cornerstone tenant in the multi million sqare foot expansion of the Mall of America. Rumor also has it that the new store will be on the order of a half million square feet. (thats nearly eleven ACRES of shopping floor) the two Cabelas are on the order of 200 to 250 K square footage. we pride ourselves here has being outdoorsy people. Even a lot of the very liberal tree huggers get out and go to the BWCA or Quetico at least once a year.

We fish year round, although some time we have to walk on the water to do so.

If you are moving here, PM me and I will give you my choices on where to live.

 

[BigRobT]

I live in Ramsey, MN (NW Metro). There is a gun club a couple of miles from me,(St Anthony Gun Club?) but it's only open during the summer. Sherburne County Sheriff's Office has opened their range to the public a couple of weekends per month. I am only half an hour from Bill's North in Circle Pines (N Metro). I just recently moved from Becker, which was closer to St Cloud. Up there are a couple of ranges, Del Tone-Luth Gun Range and another. I would invite you to check out our local board, http://www.twincitiescarry.com as there is a lot of good local info there. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[yorick]

I used to live in St Paul - (still have the house for sale if you're interested - it's even got a nice little gun room tucked away in the basement )

Oakdale was very nice and allows non-members to shoot - 3 year waiting list for membership - trap/skeet/pistol & rifle ranges out to 200 yards - they let me shoot my .50 bmg there too

Gopher Rifle & Revolver - http://www.grrc.org/ is about a 45 min drive from Downtown and had a 1000 yard range as well as a very active Hi-Power, Archery & BP groups. I was a member there for 3 years...very nice facilities - including camping areas, covered shooting stations and little trailers w/ stoves for warming up on a cold winter day...

100 metre range at GRRC:

 

[ReadyontheRight]

On the NW side of town, you can quickly get to some State and Federal hunting land around Zimmerman, MN. If you live in Maple Grove or Plymouth, you can get there somewhat quickly and still be close to the metro area. If you want to live out farther and join the daily commute, Rogers or Elk River are worth checking out. Osseo, Anoka, Ramsey are also nice communities on that side of town.

The MN Rifle and Revolver Association has a great range with indoor heated shooting stations and self-scoring 300 meter targets near Zimmerman.

Two big PLUSes in Minnesota...1. There is a lot of public hunting land, and in my experience it's not as crowded as other states I've seen. 2. It does not cost a whole lot (getting more spendy) to get a lake cabin within a 3-hour drive of the metro area.

Best of luck to you! I know a lot about Minnesota (at least I have a lot of opinions) if you would like to pm me some questions.

 

[Srigs]

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to shoot there, but there's Oakdale gun club on the North/East corner of the Twin Cities area (Lake Elmo). That's about the nicest in the TC area that I'm aware of.

I'm gong to check out the Dakota gun club this summer (I hope) - that's one on the South side in Rosemount MN (15-20 min south of Mpls). Supposedly they have a pretty nice 300 yd range there.

I'm sure there are others further out. These are the two closest in that I'm aware of.

I shoot at the Oakdale gun club and it a very large and complete gun club.

The east side of the Twin Cities have great schools like Stillwater, White Bear, Oakdale and Woodbury. Great place to raise kids.

 

[craig101]

the Elk River Sportsmans club may be one of the most complete clubs in the cities.

they have a pistol range (outdoor), but covered though, a rimfire range, a 50/100yd bench rest rifle range (i think a 200yd range this year as well...), an archery range, a trap range, black powder range, and a 200/300/600 yard over the course rifle range. they have about 400 acres as well, so there is some elbow room there.

i think you can camp there as well.

it's a nice club.

Craig

 

[hiofcer]

holy cow

Wow. I have lived in MN my whole life and nerver new there were so many places I didn't know about. I guess I have lived a sheltered life. I only knew about bills, bills north, Metro in Blaine and Oakdale.

I had not heard that Ziggy was looking to build ziggyville over by Metro. I thought it was a bit further up by the home depot and wal-mart just off of lexington? If metro goes where can I shoot Trap? I'm in Coon rapids now.

 

[ChillyW]

Trying not to get too far off the original topic, but...
The last time I talked to the owners of Metro, they were still very vocal and against being taken over by the stadium.

As a member, it's pretty cheap to shoot there. I bought a 25 round punch card that let's me shoot for around $5/round. It's good for trap, skeet, and I believe sporting clays and duck tower; though don't hold me to those last two.

The have 14 trap fields, about 10 of which are dual purpose with skeet as well. 2 or 3 of them have setups for 5-stand. He has a duck tower field, and it talking about doing a real sporting clays course as well.

The indoor range is short, about 50' I think. I haven't shot there, but members pay about $3/half hour if I recall correctly.
Unfortunately, there are no outdoor rifle facilities, and no room for them.

But it's a good club with very hard-working owners, and I highly recommend it. If you like to shoot on a league, he does a great job with them, too.