Favorite Shooting Area (Range)

[Uncle Buck]

I am just curious as to what type of ranges most people here use and how far you have to go to get to your range.

  I am blessed to have the ability to shoot out to 100 yards on my own property.  We have targets set up at 25, 50, 75, 82 and 100 yards.  Most of the shooting is done from the back deck (Where coffee, ice tea and good friends get to sit, shoot and tell lies).

  I use to use a public range about 20 miles from where I live, but I got tired of the trash, the nut jobs and the trash.  At least on my range, if you do not pick up after yourself, you do not get invited back.

  For targets we use the standard plywood backing, hanging paper and sometimes hanging jugs.  (A string is hung from the top cross member of the frame and jugs are hung under it.)  The hanging paper targets are clipped to a piece of thick tin and hang off a piece of re-bar.

  I am working on collecting a few more golf balls and I will put in hooks and hang them also.

  So where do you shoot?

[masfonos]

I grew up out in the sticks, so my range was pretty much our back yard.  Lots of good hunting opportunities as well.  The nice big bank on the side yard made for great clay shooting.

At the last place I lived, I had a pretty decent DNR operated free outdoor range to go to.  It had a pistol and rimfire range and a rifle range.  Like you mentioned though, it also had plenty of whackos and ****-heads that don't pick up after themselves.  There was no range safety officer or anything like that either.  Every once in a while a DNR ranger would stop by and chase off the people acting like goons or shooting non-paper targets.  Sometimes the local 2A club or other volunteers would come out and pick up all the garbage that was left on the range.  Sometimes the DNR guys would have to come out and do it, which they really didn't like.

Where I live now, I'm a short drive from a nice outdoor range, although this one isn't free.  The range is very nice and clean, there is a range officer to kick out goons, etc.  You get what you pay for, I suppose.  There are a few other ranges around, both indoor and outdoor, but I've never been to them because of their ludicrous prices.

My preferred place to shoot is somewhere I can go for some no-BS shooting where I'm left alone for the most part.  I want to send some lead down range and not have to deal with muzzle-sweepers, brass vultures, gangsta wannabes, etc.

[Uncle Buck]

Brass Vultures... I like that.  I do not mind people ASKING about brass, but when they jump in front of you and just start sweeping it up and taking it off the bench, that is when I get really P.O.ed.

Nothing wrong with asking.  If you do not ask it is stealing!

[masfonos]

Oh, they're everywhere.  Like you say, it's not so bad when they at least ask before they pick up your casings.  I don't reload so I usually just let them have whatever they want.  I've heard of people coming up and reaching right under someones bench or even ON their bench to take fired brass.  And of people who continue taking brass after you tell them that you want to keep it.  Luckily I haven't encountered much, if any, of those type of people.

Lately though, it's a non issue since I've been shooting a lot of steel case ammo.  They can have all of that they want