Public Gun Range Amazement
- Thread starter Downhill
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bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
Our logic is to give them something they may actually hit.
It keeps the pressure off our long range target steel. The other day I witnessed a guy hammer one from a bench with a .300 Weatherby Mk 5. Who cares, just the cost of doing business.
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At my local range the pistol shooters get only one target in the center of of the target stand. That helped some but now they shoot the target to pieces and still have time left in the relay so they start shooting the legs on the stand 1x2 cheap pine. Most of the stands on the rifle side last a couple of weeks. What get's them is the new ar or ak owner with iron sights determined to shoot up all five hundred rounds he brought.
It sounds like everyone has very similar experiences. I've recently inherited rangemaster duties at the rifle range at my club. We have tubes buried in the ground to support target frame legs at every yard line and they are shielded by an earth berm in front. After a while the berm wears down and the exposed tubing gets shot up, not to mention all the wood target frames as well as anything else that can be used as a target. It's unbelievable at times...
My club recently started using a new target holding arrangement. At 25yd-50yd-75yd-100yd-200yd-300yd-400yd they put an 8ft 6"x6" timber on the ground perpendicular to the direction of fire. The timber has a 3/4" track cut in the top from one end to the other. The 6"x6" has a hole bored straight down from the top on each end so that a piece of reinforcing rod can be hammered through it and into the dirt. This stops the 6x6 from rolling.
At the benches a target holder is available. It is merely two vertical 1"x2"s with a cardboard target holder screwed to it with oversize washers. (24"x30") The target holders can be placed in the 6x6s at any distance. There isn't much that can get shot up. Yeah the 1"x2" verticals w/ cardboard get replaced periodically but they re very cheap and easy to replace. The 6"x6" timbers don't get hit too often and can take a beating without needing to be replaced. If they do, you just lift the timber off the rods and drop a new one on.
This is probably the smartest and cheapest system the club has ever had. We do have steel gongs all over the place that get shot off eventually but that's another story. We also have a massive steel snail type trap made from heavy steel. A 4'x4' piece of sheathing is slid in from the side and covers the entire trap. The trap sits at the 200yd line and takes heavy magnum hits without any damage whatsoever. The piece of ply lasts at least 6 months and is fast and easy to replace.
At the benches a target holder is available. It is merely two vertical 1"x2"s with a cardboard target holder screwed to it with oversize washers. (24"x30") The target holders can be placed in the 6x6s at any distance. There isn't much that can get shot up. Yeah the 1"x2" verticals w/ cardboard get replaced periodically but they re very cheap and easy to replace. The 6"x6" timbers don't get hit too often and can take a beating without needing to be replaced. If they do, you just lift the timber off the rods and drop a new one on.
This is probably the smartest and cheapest system the club has ever had. We do have steel gongs all over the place that get shot off eventually but that's another story. We also have a massive steel snail type trap made from heavy steel. A 4'x4' piece of sheathing is slid in from the side and covers the entire trap. The trap sits at the 200yd line and takes heavy magnum hits without any damage whatsoever. The piece of ply lasts at least 6 months and is fast and easy to replace.
hogpatrol
Silver $$ Contributor
Due to power line construction that runs through the property, part of our club ranges are now closed. There are signs noting such, website notices, calendar notations and caution tape across all shooting lines. That didn't prevent one member from thinking none of that applied to him. You just have to wonder about some people.
Irvington Sportsman Club, 4 bermed bays good for all caliber pistols and rifles out to 100. One bay with covered benches measured for 100 zero and load testing. Trap range. $40 per year. Knob creek Gun Range (famous for machine-gun shoot and fake news story about violence in Syria). Full time range officer with strict safety rules. Any caliber out to 300. $75 per year for veterans.
Most shooters do not know how to sight in a rifle. You know you start with bore sighting it and then shooting at 15 yards first where you do a rough sight in and then you adjust scope or iron sights for 100 yards and then you move and sight in at 100. Two shot sight in at 15 and then another two shots at a 100.
bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
We provide an inexpensive frame that fits on all our applicable ranges. We put out new ones every other month. As expected they have a short life span. It's not the AR shooters so much as the morons blasting at zombie paper targets with shotgun blasts.
We still suffer with the guys that show up with old wooden pallets for paper hanging and leave them behind.
The perils of an unsupervised range.
KMart
Gold $$ Contributor
I agree. Sometimes it is hard to have something nice.
Been there for the flea market and machine gun shoot several times
The high price of 9mm and 223 should help curb a lot of these problems, at least for a little while.
I am 72 and belonged to a half a dozen different gun clubs in Western PA over the years. The two weeks prior to deer season were always a circus. Watched nimrods show up at the range to sight in their deer rifles, put up one of those 18"x18" free targets at 100 yards and start banging away. They usually don't have a spotting scope and interrupt the firing line frequently to walk down to examine their target. I usually offer the use of my spotting scope to save myself the aggravation. My rifles are always tuned and sighted well before the season so those pre-season trips are just a final check. I have witnessed more than one exhaust a box of ammo, never put a round on target and walk away. Many of them say, "I had it bore sighted, it should have been on." If the guy has a bolt gun, and I see him struggling, I usually offer to help. The guys with the 30-06 760 carbines with 3x9 scopes in iron-sighter mounts are left to their own ignorance. When I was in my 20's, I quit hunting the first three days of deer season because I knew what was in the woods.
not a gun range but here it goes:
This incident happened at the archery range at a shop I frequent: i brought my 6 year old daughter to shoot at an indoor archery range, it was probably the second or third time she had ever handled a compound bow in her life, i had my bow with bit was mainly helping her, she had fired all her arrows and was waiting for me to finish. we were the only two On the range untill three guys walked in with a brand new crossbow amd one other bow. They walked eight past me to go hang a target while i was at full draw, I decided it was time to get the eeeffff out of dodge. i let down, my 6 year old gave me a look like “what on earth is that idiot doing” she didn’t have to say it... I retreived ourarrows and was quickly packing up when they started taking turns drawing the compound bow, none of the guys were overly small and they all could barely draw it. They managed to dry fire it before i could get out of the room, I looked over to make sure they were not in need of medical attention, wich they were not, and left. On the way up the stairs my daughter whispers “dad!” And motions for me to come closer, when i did she said “Dad! Those people are all really, really stupid!”
This incident happened at the archery range at a shop I frequent: i brought my 6 year old daughter to shoot at an indoor archery range, it was probably the second or third time she had ever handled a compound bow in her life, i had my bow with bit was mainly helping her, she had fired all her arrows and was waiting for me to finish. we were the only two On the range untill three guys walked in with a brand new crossbow amd one other bow. They walked eight past me to go hang a target while i was at full draw, I decided it was time to get the eeeffff out of dodge. i let down, my 6 year old gave me a look like “what on earth is that idiot doing” she didn’t have to say it... I retreived ourarrows and was quickly packing up when they started taking turns drawing the compound bow, none of the guys were overly small and they all could barely draw it. They managed to dry fire it before i could get out of the room, I looked over to make sure they were not in need of medical attention, wich they were not, and left. On the way up the stairs my daughter whispers “dad!” And motions for me to come closer, when i did she said “Dad! Those people are all really, really stupid!”
So many replies on target backers. Ours are made of railroad track, literally, buried standing. They've been in place for decades. The boards are 4x8 felt with some 1x4 pine top and bottom, replaced every few weeks.
I love my club.
I love my club.
One idea some clubs could possibly put into place from a club i used to belong to:
Make a wood frame however you like and staple cheap orange construction Fence to it to attach your target to with clothespins. When the plastic fence gets shot up, staple a new piece on, takes one person with a staplegun and utility knife a minute or two. Hint: The frames last longer if you attach the fence to the back side of the frame
Make a wood frame however you like and staple cheap orange construction Fence to it to attach your target to with clothespins. When the plastic fence gets shot up, staple a new piece on, takes one person with a staplegun and utility knife a minute or two. Hint: The frames last longer if you attach the fence to the back side of the frame
I like the railroad track. Example of doing it right one time, it will be a while before that has to get swapped out
Exactly what is done at the club I belong to.
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