If you ever go to a shooting range, watch how others shoot including law enforcement.. Its scary how bad of a shot so many people are.

This is exactly why I don't want to go back to the range I used before- the guy to my left fired a few rounds and stopped. I was re-loading and heard someone from the store come down and say "Let me see that hand- oh, we need to take care of that" and he never came back. I don't know if the slide bit his hand or maybe, a round hit something on the ceiling and ricocheted before hitting his hand but I didn't feel safe. Then, some clown came down with a long gun, fired five rounds before yelling "That was f^&%in' great!" and ran upstairs. It's not a rifle range! Another guy seemed to think he was part of a militia or civilian police force, by the way he was dressed. Light tan pants, black golf shirt with some kind of shield logo, a black ballistic nylon holster and vest that had pockets for extra magazines, a note pad, knee pads, Buford T Justice shades and elbow pads.

This all happened on one trip to the range.

That's the nice thing about living in a rural area.

The "range" is a mountainside void of Dirty Harry wannabes shooting holes in the sky and injuring themselves.

After getting all of the surrounding neighbors approval,I'm in the process of building a small hand gun range(with their help) towards the back of my property.

Although rural,it's too populated for a high powered rifles.

We will still have to drive five miles to the desolate mountainside for that to be safe.

I went past a shop on the West edge of MKE and saw a chain link fence around the vacant lot next to the store hopefully, they're building a range- they sell mostly to law enforcement and military but the public is welcome. I used them for my FFL transfer and their prices are very fair. One of the other places that is remotely close to me has sold a buttload of guns through straw buyers and in one case, two cops were shot in the face by the teen-aged dirtbag who ended up with the gun. The other used to be good, but the current owner and staff are just not giving me good feeling about what goes on there, as I posted about all of the incidents with clueless people. We have a few places that are out in the boonies, but a couple require membership- something to think about, if only to know who's going to be there.

We have a membership range about 4 miles from the house that touts 'Word class marksmen globally recognized".

I went there as a guest and was kind of impressed with the members.

Friendly and more importantly safe when handling firearms!!

It's primarily a rifle range with targets out to 1000 yards.

I fit right in but can't decide if it's worth the $250 a year when I have zero interest in competing and enjoy hitting things more with a handgun than a rifle.

A couple of years ago I was invited to a National Guard"shoot out" and took 2nd with an M4.

The enlisted winner took out 36 "bad guys" with 185 rounds.

I only took out 35 "bad guys" with 36 rounds!

This was a combat style scenario,not bench shooting.

The winner set his gun to a 3 round burst.

I was on single fire.

The Sargent Major asked me if I was interested in a new job!

Keep in mind that this was the reserves,not the men on the ground!

A little focus goes a long way when it comes to hitting your target!

With enough practice and the proper mindset,it should be a reflexive action,not a thought process that requires lining up the sights.......that's for snipers that have the time to line up and compensate for wind and elevation.

Certainly that is a most important element.

But I would think for many of us the requirements of day to day work and family don't leave us with as much time as we would like for things such as practice.

When I was single I went to the range once a week - then I got married to a wonderful lady who was a "package deal" with a sister, two daughters, two nieces and four grand-kids.

Free time? What's that. :)

What about family time at the range? A friend in Tucson posted some photos of himself, his wife and daughters at a range with handguns and shotguns- he said they all had a great time. I also have two sets of three female cousins whose dads hunted a lot and had nice arsenals and would take the girls out with them.

I watched the Bikers shootout in Waco yesterday. A good example of what could (and did) happen if a bunch of good old boys are packing heat. How did it turn out? 9 dead, and 21 injured.

Yep lets all pack heat. That'll really solve mass murders from happening.

Shut up Stupid. I'm pretty sure quite a few people are going to get pissed if you continue to compare their law abiding ownership to the actions of criminals. Crawl back in your hole

Don't make me get the hose! back in your box!

poor Bruce.

Yeah, that was a normal incident.

I don't remember hearing about any schools, theaters, or office buildings with the mix of people who were at the bar in Waco- how would you deal with those situations if a lone gunslinger goes in to shoot up the place?

It will eventually come out that all the dead and most of the wounded were victims of LEO snipers(all dead were head shots from above) who were pre-positioned around the property. Better known in these parts as the Twin Peaks Massacre.

[Link: agingrebel.com]

Bruce, I'm sorry that you react the way you do to discussions such as this. I think, in general, our reaction to you is "what the hell is he talking about? How can a person see these things as parallel?"

Let me just extract something you yourself said that points out that even YOU don't think you're describing circumstances similar to the rest of the discussion. You speak of "if a bunch of good old boys are packing heat."

NONE of the rest of this discussion is about anything at all in the same universe as that group! Yet you draw conclusions and apply them to the rest of the thread.

Really, man, your logic skills need a severe tune-up.

He's just trying to troll this thread. That's what pisses me off. Motorcycle gangs shooting it out has nothing to do with what's being discussed

I used to be a member at an indoor range (rifles/handguns only) and even in the "Member" section I always kept my eye on other members and the staff.
I've since joined a local NRA sponsored Fish and Game club for way cheaper ($140/yr). No additional fees, I get a key to the gate, I can bring up to 4 people with me, there's two ponds to fish on, skeet, target stands, no age restrictions, ranges that go from 25yd to 400, hunter/bow hunter education classes, friendly people, dedicated staff and volunteers, built on 83 acres that abuts 70+ acres of conservation land, there's plenty of land to hunt on, and you can even camp there if you want provided you get approval from staff first. It's awesome. You just have to be an NRA member and pay yearly. There's a wait list now, but there wasn't 3 years ago. It's very lenient with its rules, you just have to be respectful and follow etiquette. Tends to keep the riff raff out as it's a bit more family oriented. I would suggest a Fish and Game club over any "range".