Toughest Range To Shoot

[anschuter2013]

I know this topic is and will be purely subjective to your area, but what range gives you fits and hands your butt to you on a Silver platter?

I'll start off...

Pinetree Rifle Club in Johnstown NY is a BEAST at 200. Quite simply just a bear to compete in due to the prevalent mirage. Kicks my ass every single time. When you shoot there, don't expect a free ride.

The second most difficult range to shoot at, in my opinion would be Lincoln County Rifle Club in Damariscotta Maine. It's a real widow maker...

So...let's hear the horror stories about that great day that went south with no explanation. No rhyme or reason...just couldn't get a handle on it.

I have not had the opportunity to compete at the ranges in the South, but would like to hear about the "real killers".

 

[ShootDots]

The Capitan New Mexico range has both 600 and 1000 ranges and is one of, if not thee toughest I have ever shot at. Palo Alto in Louisiana is a 600 yard range that is very challenging. I generally shoot at Ben Avery in Phoenix at 600 and 1000 yards. It can be extremely tough at times..

 

[Bamban]

Camp Bullis in SATX, never saw anyone clean the 600 yards with service rifle. That includes the military teams who used to come down for a rematch after the Nationals at Perry.

Palo Alto is another one. So is Capitan.

I forgot, adding now:
While on business trip, on a borrowed rifle from Charles Young, I shot at Blair Atholl in '98 in the Northern Scotland Championship. The wind coming in from about 2 and appears to bounce off the mountain range on the left side. Weird wind

 

[JimPag]

I know this topic is and will be purely subjective to your area, but what range gives you fits and hands your butt to you on a Silver platter?

I'll start off...

Pinetree Rifle Club in Johnstown NY is a BEAST at 200. Quite simply just a bear to compete in due to the prevalent mirage. Kicks my ass every single time. When you shoot there, don't expect a free ride.

The second most difficult range to shoot at, in my opinion would be Lincoln County Rifle Club in Damariscotta Maine. It's a real widow maker...

So...let's hear the horror stories about that great day that went south with no explanation. No rhyme or reason...just couldn't get a handle on it.

I have not had the opportunity to compete at the ranges in the South, but would like to hear about the "real killers".

Mike. I've had really good luck at Pinetree at 200. It was the first range where I ever shot a 500 my second year in 2014. Never thought it was too bad. Won a National agg at 200 there in 2016. Damariscotta at 300 is the most difficult range I ever shot at 300. The ocean is about less than a mile away and I've had to hold off the target frame to get somewhere near the center of the target. It wasn't too bad there this weekend, not the usual conditions despite the fact that nobody stayed clean at 300 as you found out sharing the bench with me. Mid Carolina in Orangeburg isn't easy either at 300 yards or meters. Not as difficult as Lincoln County but it's pretty tough. Wait till the tackdriver in Novermber. Should be real interesting. I predict most people will get used like a Govt mule.

 

[watercam]

COSSA Range near Bend, OR and the range known as Rattlesnake near West Richmond, WA have made many a Long Range High Power High Master cry...

 

[MikeMcCasland]

Long Range Alley in Louisiana.

Dropping 62 points in one day is enough to hurt ones feelings.

I think the range record for TR there is a 584

 

[bpd459]

Greetings,
I will put WA States own Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility 1000yd Range against any other in the USA. Where a clean is not getting a miss...
John

 

[338 Mollett]

Atterbury aint no cherry !

 

[XTR]

My F class experiences...

I think they all have their days I’ve never shot Rattlesnake but I’ve heard the wind there can be ..... intimidating.

Long range alley in Shreveport can be really hard to read. There are some really good shooters who shoot there and you don’t see bragging scores. I certainly haven’t gotten any when I shot it.

Oak Ridge Tennessee can nine ring you to death because it is so difficult to pick up the small changes if you’re shooting on the F class target

I think once you figure out what the berm on the left at Palo Alto does to values it might not be quite so bad. it chewed me up the one time I shot there because I didn’t understand what that did to the value, but it didn’t seem to bother Jade too much that day.

Raton can be quite difficult, and Connaught can put are you in survival mode like Rattlesnake if you’re there at the right time.

Burner can be phenomenally frustrating at 1000, esp when you factor in the slow targets.

To me the hardest ranges are the narrow ones where you don’t have as many indicators or they are not true because of trees or terrain. Lodi is tough at least my one outing there I did not do well at all. I shot Malvern Ohio recently and it reminded me a lot of Oak Ridge where are the indicators are all over the place, and you have to find the one that matches what the bullet is doing this relay. Forbes in New York at 1000 yards can have some things going on that you won’t see.

They get big winds, but I find Ben Avery and Raton easier than most of the others mentioned above because the indicators tend to run true

 

[338 Mollett]

If you catch any of these ranges with a bad wind they can all hand you your butt.A greater question presents itself as what wind direction plays the most havoc ,And I would say a switching head wind !

 

[Ringostar]

It’s definitely Capitan for me. West Texas Long Range can be very windy. It’s wide open cotton fields. Winnequah at Lodi can be challenging.

 

[jackieschmidt]

Tomball Gun Club, Tomball Texas, especially at 200 yards.

 

[lb-ft]

I second Raton. It can be humiliating. Great place to learn though.

 

[D-4297]

Those of us who shoot Ben Avery on a regular basis will tell you there are days on that range , when not getting at least one eight , is a good day . I've seen High Masters come off the line at the SWN grumbling about how this miserable , Mother- @%$&^*( , Son of a B+)(*& place is CURSED ! Camp Perry and Raton can have you wanting to take up curling in Arizona , outdoors in July . Like the man said . Subjective .

 

[Willow]

I'll throw one in from Australia - Pinjar range in Perth. One of the windiest cities in the world, this range is world class with its facilities, but particularly unforgiving if you get it wrong. Wind and plenty of mirage to contend with, along with any number of brown snakes hiding in the bushes waiting to kill you.

 

[Erud]

After spending around 20 days shooting there over 2 years, I am convinced that the Trentham range in New Zealand is the most difficult range on the planet. The wind is unbelievable, and switches faster than anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere else. It does this almost constantly, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

In February of 2019, 330-ish of the world’s best Palma shooters shot 3 Palma matches (15 shots at 800, 900, 1000) there over 4 days. There were exactly 9 clean stages (No lost points out of 15 shots) shot, and 6 of those were all fired at 800 on the same relay during an unusually calm 15 minutes. So out of roughly 3,000 stages shot that week, 9 were clean.

 

[jamesdmock]

Benches 1 and 2 at Kelbly's and Raton during the 3:00 PM thunderstorm. Another is the Hodgdon range in DeSoto, KS when the morning sun is shining in your face.

 

[Falfan2017]

Every range I’ve been to the guys there say their range is the most difficult.

 

[jimmymac]

100 to the left, 200 in the middle, 300 to the right with a steep valley that affects every yardage in a negative way. Good luck with wind flags and mirage. It is a rare day when conditions are favorable and the targets make me feel like I actually know what I'm doing. Tough place to learn the craft.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

They all can get wild from time to time. Rattlesnake has had a year plus run of good luck. We’ve shot in mostly mild conditions.

That said, I’ve also been there when we had to stop shooting because the 2x4 uprights on the target carriers were snapping off.

Raton at the 2019 FCNC was quite an experience. My time shooting at Rattlesnake helped a lot.