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Shooting Ranges

3K views 25 replies 19 participants last post by  Seabee 
#1 ·
Can some one tell me why a lot of ranges do not allow rapid firing. Now that most states have some kind of carry concealment, I feel learning to rapid fire your weapon is a must. The outdoor range by me requires 3 seconds between rounds. This is fine learning to hit your target but in a situation with a BG I'm sure we are, at least I am going to throw quite a few rounds at the BG. Which brings up another situation. I know of nowhere unless you own land in the country where you can practice shooting on the run. I feel this is also training everyone needs to protect themself. How do the rest of you feel?
 
#2 ·
Ben, welcome to the forum!

Regrettably, what you are finding are ranges that are setup for target shooters ONLY!

Most in MA are somewhat like that, although not as restrictive about rate of fire or number of rounds in gun, they don't allow shooting on the move.

Keep looking, I just joined a club that allows shooting on the move, so they do exist, just difficult to find.

As one of the international trainers taught us in a defensive tactics course . . . "if you are still standing in the same place you shot from when you finish shooting, you WILL get shot by the BG!"

ALL 19 years of my police qualification courses were fired from a stationary position, with no movement allowed!! :blink: :rant: :mad:
 
#3 ·
Hello Ben and welcome. :smilez:

I call this syndrome - appeasing the lowest common denominator. Meaning - there are a great many folks - the majority perhaps, who visit the range for little else but plinking - no real serious practice such as we CCW's wish to perform.

There are of course some logistical probs to being able to shoot on the move and there I think IDPA competition is one answer that can help. But rapid fire - well, seems the regular Joe plinker just makes a fuss when he gets all the noise and will whine about distractions - and maybe brass hitting him!

It is needed tho and hard sometimes for a range to effect a good compromize. You get folks who only want to empty mags quick as they can for the hell of it - not practice as we would rate it - then too another example is the AK owner who wants purely to burn up ammo. I like some rapid with any gun but can see that there are limits for some folk's tastes.

So hard to please everyone. I am so lucky that I have two small local ranges where I can go during week and all but guarantee no one around and so - I can practice any old which way.
 
#5 ·
Thank you guys for replying back. But this is my thought on this. Part of my responsibilities of having a CCW is knowing when not to draw my weapon but that is only half of it, the other shoud be knowing what to do if I have to draw it. After I took CCW course for Missouri, I also signed up for an urban tactical course given by a LEO. It was a great course but not cheap. We rapid fired, we ran and rapid fire and we went through a lot of ammo. I can go to an indoor range and rapid fire but that does not help train me if I happen to get into a gun battle, which is something I hope never happens. I'm just saying there should be some place us city people could practice to make us more responsible CCW owners and that does not cost us an arm and a leg. Thanks again guys for the nice welcome and letting me put my two cents in.
 
#6 ·
Our indoor range doesn't allow rapid firing because of the few who tear up the target hangers, shoot the ceiling, etc. I have been there when they do. Just as Bud said, if no one is there, they will usually let you practice rapid fire if they know you won't kill the lights.
 
#7 ·
i caught a peice of jacket in the end of my nose at the indoor from a guy that didnt have any buisness shooting a gun that he rented shot gangst style and waved around shooting the celing the target hangers and one point the floor i went out asked if i could shoot in the ccw class range and im know there they let me rapid fire i.e. trippl taps think they dont alow the avrage guy to rapid fire because they will rent a gun to any one that walks in and face it some folks shouldnt shoot
 
#8 ·
When I ran an outdoor range the limitation on rapid and full-auto firing was to do a little something to appease the neighbors. The range was established as a "sight-in" range, but had evolved over the years. If the neighbors heard what they thought was full-auto or rapid firing they were on the phone lickity-split. So that was the reason for the limitation on our range.

Other ranges limit it because every yahoo watching a movie or "The Unit" is going to show up and want to start blasting as fast as they can. That is how your range gets tore up. It costs the operator money to repair that damage and the yahoos that do most of the damage shoot once or twice, so they don't pay, the regulars wind up paying. Along with the lack of control that results in the range being all tore up,there is the danger to other shooters. So that enters into the equation as well.

Having run a range I have seen some of the dumbest, most ignorant things done with firearms. Just when I thought I had seen it all, someone dumber would come along and do something else. I used to be a 2nd Amendment absolutist that anyone not in prison should be able to own a firearm. Now I have to say there are some folks that shouldn't own guns. It was a sad day for me when I first said that.

-Scott-
 
#13 ·
Thank you Airedale. I added that site to my favorites. I wish my comunication skills were better so that I could make my point more clear. Let me try it this way. I want to be a responsible CCW holder as I'm sure all of us do. Part of being a responsible CCW holder is being comfortible with your self in a conflict or out of one. I'm very comfortible with myself out of a conflict But putting myself in one, my skills are only inmaginary. I have in my mind what I will do but my only training is a four hour course I took two years ago. Doing the wrong thing can land you in jail or financailly broke for the rest of your life or both. Lets face it you can get a CCW permit without any real life training. And where do you get these real life training? Well that leaves you searching for something hard to find. Like I said I took a fiur hour course about two years ago given by a LEO. It would be great if I ciuld find an urban tactical course for about an hour that I would take once a month. RANGE owners there is a big demand for this and as for as liablity have a qulified instructor there and make your patron sign waivers. I'm sure your classes will be filled. Well let me stop before I start sounding like I'm whinning. Thank You people for listening.
 
#14 ·
Ben - I'll bet there are folks like me around that could help - tho of course having a suitable range is important.

Tho I teach NRA stuff I am available also to do one on one practice tuition drills locally - as I have access to two ranges that are ideal.

Problem is getting folks to know about it - and tho I have left some cards in local gun shop - still no takers. I don't want to advertise/promote this big time and I am not the king of tac' training but - know well I can sharpen most regular CCW folk's skills with ease, given the chance to get them to the range.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Ben, what part of St louis are you at. I'm southwest by Fenton. I do know of some ranges in and around St Louis.
And a couple of range that have tactical shoots.

Outdoors - Arnold Pistol and rifle club (around $200 a year, you get key to range shoot then you what. couple times a month have a tactical shoot)

indoors - Topgun Shoot Sports ($200 a year, rapid fire ok. once a month a bowling pin shoot, once a month a tactical shoot) <- I go here. Great bunch of people. www.topgunss.com tell them Tom sent you.




And a open free fire range in Troy, MO (I'll be there this Saturday with my son).
 
#18 ·
Unfortunately, it's because of the idiots.

We just recently instituted a no-rapid-fire rule on our indoor range. We did that because several idiots have been shooting up the baffles on the ceiling. In fact, the first baffle, less than 5 feet from the firing line, has a bullet hole square in the middle of it.

All it takes is a single escaped round or other incident for a range to be closed down for good. Yes, it does suck.
 
#19 ·
I personally don't want some idiot plugging away as fast as he can and injure me or someone else. If I need to rapid fire I have more private places I can go. As stated before, there are some people that shouldn't be allowed to breed, drive cars, operate heavy machinery or own/shoot firearms.
 
#20 ·
Plugging a way and true rapid fire is to different things. If some one is plugging away like wild they will be stopped and told to slow down and control they shots.
The regular members know control.
Idiots need to be stopped.
 
#22 ·
Plugging a way and true rapid fire is to different things. If some one is plugging away like wild they will be stopped and told to slow down and control they shots.
The regular members know control.
Idiots need to be stopped.
Our club is very small. Typically you are the only person there when shooting. So we often don't know who the idiots are. We found one and disciplined him. But there's at least one more.
 
#23 ·
I went to a range in SoCal (when I was stationed there)--never had any problems with rapid-fire or drawing from a holster (fast is slow, slow is fast)...but then, I went during the week when it wasn't busy.

I went home to visit my parents in IL :gah: ; my dad took me to his gun club (we were the only ones there)--later on, one of the other members started to freak out when I had my weapon in a holster...."Do you have a holster card?"-HUH?:confused:

"What is a holster card?"

"It is a card that says you are safe carrying/drawing your 'gun' from a holster"

"No--I've been carrying a weapon for the last year and a half; to include shooting..."--(just came back from tour in Bosnia)

"Not good enough--you need to take off the holster" :rant:

"No...I'll just shoot from the bench" :wave:

"No...you NEED to take off the holster...we don't even let law enforcement carry their 'guns' in their holster here" :rant:

"No...I will be leaving"--thus ending a nice day at the range :aargh4: After that, my dad tried to explain to the guy my training, experience and such...this guy was a real piece of work--I guess he (the other guy) enjoyed the privilege granted to him by the state of Illannoy :image035: to own and shoot a 'gun'---I am so glad I left that state

My parents are now coming to visit next month--told my dad to bring his holster(s), so he can enjoy the land of the free (VA) and open carry...and rapid fire..double tap..etc...

Mike
 
#24 ·
Well through the help of another member here, I found a club only about 10 min. away that has everything I was looking for. But after reading some of the post here about people shooting up the place, I feel the range needs to be maned a little better and try to enforce reponsibilities and rules. Just my 2 cents.
 
#25 ·
SIGguy229:

Actually, I can understand where they are coming from. As I'm sure you know, drawing and reholstering can be very dangerous if someone doesn't know what they are doing. I've seen lots of people cross themselves (and others) while doing so. When it comes to police officers, many are outstanding shots and have very safe gun handling. But some are downright dangerous.

So what that club was doing is requiring that everyone get checked out before using a holster on their range. My guess is that it was not a big deal to get checked out -- you have to demonstrate to them that you can holster and draw safely. Once you've done that, you're good to go. Other clubs take the easy way out and just ban people from using holsters.

For most ranges, all it takes is a single incident for them to be closed down, probably permanently. So I hope you can understand why they may seem very cautious at times.
 
#26 ·
I'm glad that I dont have that problem. The range I go to is super cheap ($6 a day) and allows everything up to and including .50 BMG. Full auto, rapid fire, supressed weapons, bring it on. It's outdoor, so if heat is an issue, dont bother going in the summer, but I love that range and go all the time, year round.
 
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