BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[WesternHunter]

Just want to get some feedback on where the members here shoot regularly and about how much it cost you in fees? What state and what type of facility? Private Club? Public Ranges? Public land? BLM? Out in the woods as far away as possible?

I'd like to see how much variation there is from region to region and state to state.

I get the idea that non-club shooters on Colorado's front range are getting the bad end of the stick. With few public ranges and unreasonable fees. Even though the Colorado Div of wildlife has a policy regarding them to maintaining ample shooting facilities for hunters, they simply do not. I've seen a few good ones close down over the last 15 years with almost no new public ranges opening. Just curious as to where you all shoot and what the situation is like in your state.

[CVC]

I belong to a club that just celebrated its 80th year. Must be an NRA member and $105 annual dues.

[ChesterGolf]

I mostly shoot at a club but since I live about a mile away from a public range, I go there as well.

[csumerall]

I shoot at a club, dues are $60 a year they have a 600yd,550yd,300yd,and 50yd rifle ranges a archery 80yd range and coming soon a 24 station 3d archery range. Ive been told its one of the few long ranges in the area.

[JCalhoun]

Pascagoula Shooting Club in Moss Point, MS. We have around 400 members and dues are $100 per year. We have a 50y pistol line, a 200y rifle line, and a 600y & 1000y match line.

[GBoyd]

I can't afford to pay range fees often, so in Washington I use public land out in the woods and in Michigan I use a friend's farm. It can be tough to get accurate measurements on the targets for siting in, but I can go more often than I would at a range.

[csumerall]

boyd you can shoot in eatonville for $7 a gun, Im not sure where you would normally go but i used to do the same but, I was always concerned about getting blamed for someone elses garbage where I was shooting so this solves the problem.

[Fisher King]

Here in Ontario Canada I shoot at a private range $125.00 a year 20, 25 yrd pistol , and 50 , 75, and 100 yrd riffle. You can use your pistol on any of them. Or out my back door off my deck if I'm trying out an action or shooting my M.L.
F.K.

[Old Professor]

Here in Upper Michigan, I belong to a local club with a $50 annual dues. Located less than 4 miles from my house, it is very convenient! Rifle range to 400 yds, pistol range, archery, sporting clays and trap ranges.

[Don Fischer]

There are no clubs around here and I probably wouldn't use them anyway. I can shoot farther than you would believe a couple miles fron the house. Used to shoot about 2 min from the house, out to 1000yds easily. But the owner doesn't want anyone shooting there any more.

Lot of BLM and Grasslands around here. I used to use a line counter on a fishing rod to set the range, now I have a range finder. The line counter was awfully awfully close!

[expatriate]

I shoot at a public range about 20 miles away. It's a decent facility, but you have to bring your own target stand and it's uncontrolled -- which can get a bit irritating. I don't know which is worse -- the idiots that decide to start strolling downrange before insuring that it's cold, or the arrogant jerks with the custom rifles and Swarovski spotting scopes that think they own the place. But it's free and they have good benches. The other option is to find a spot out in the bush and throw your rifle across the hood of the truck.

Surprisingly, Alaska doesn't have much for indoor ranges. There's one indoor range in Fairbanks run by the State, and to my knowledge there isn't one in Anchorage. There were a lot to choose from in North Carolina where it was warm, but not here.

[tim]

backyard.
ranges scare me, to many people. It also helps that i live in the county not in a city.

[WesternHunter]

csumerall wrote: I shoot at a club, dues are $60 a year they have a 600yd,550yd,300yd,and 50yd rifle ranges a archery 80yd range and coming soon a 24 station 3d archery range. Ive been told its one of the few long ranges in the area.

Seem from what I hear, all you guys living in the Pacific northwest (Washington and Oregon) have the better advantage for both club dues and public land available. My in-laws live in rural Oregon and their property backs up to a ton of BLM land. My father-in-law walks out behind his house about 100 yards and he has it made. When he wants a better facility to shoot, like a range with benches and such he drives ten minutes to a public range that charged only $5 all day to shoot.

I shoot mostly at a really nice range on a state park about 30 miles from home. In fact it's the only privately managed shooting range located on a State Park in the whole USA. Up until 5 years ago it was $10 per person all day and you could get to the range on a public road by by-passing the park enterance without paying a state park fee. They have since late 2003 closed off that public road access making everyone pay $8 fee to enter the park, plus pay an inflated range fee of $13 a person per day. For me it's also an added $13 in gas I spend as well. That's $34 plus the cost of ammo :](*,) Of course it is a very nice facility and one of the few public ones near by. There is another range for trap and sporting clays range about 25 minutes from me in the opposite direction for $35 100rnd sporting clays. An Indoor pistol range in a basement of a gunshop another 25 miles south of me for $14 per shooter, if you were'nt shooting, the range officer would not even know you were there. :roll: My other options are a the generosity of some private gun clubs that are open the public the first weekend of spring/summer months. $10 per shooter, but if you aren't a member, they only allow you restricted use of a small portion of their facility. Colorado is now starting to prohibit shooting on national forest land. This State fairs better than most as far as gun ownership laws are concerned, but it isn't very friendly or easy for the shooting public, despite the Div of Wildlifes policy on maintaining and adequit number of shooting ranges.

[Whelland]

I shoot on my own property. It's one of the advantages of living out in the country. Ya gotta love rural America.

[ADKBEAR]

I step out my basement door and have a 50 and 100 yd target set up. Good to go.