Thankfully, most ranges are more accessible than the one in SilencerCo’s latest video. Otherwise even fewer gun owners would take their heaters out for a stroll than currently do. That said, the Arizona desert redoubt featured in the video looks like all kinds of fun. And it certainly appears that a good time was had by all. We all have our favorite places to shoot. Some because they’re close, some because they’re cheap, some because they have all the amenities. What’s the best place you’ve ever sent lead down range?
Afghanistan.
This. The veritable free-fire zones in RC-East and RC-South are unmatched! If you’re really getting hardcore, you can have some A-10 30MM fire adjacent to your position.
Shooting a suppressed MP5 off the fan tail of the USS Kearsarge.
So THAT’S what a jealous rage feels like…
My buddies 200 acre farm in rural Indiana. We can do whatever we want. Considering I live in illinois, that’s a big deal.
Mine is Ben Avery. They have every shooting discipline available, it is $7 for all day, it is 10 minutes from home and there is an In-n-Out less than 5 minutes away. If they had girls in bikini’s I could pay to watch clean my guns, I would never leave.
Ahh Ben Avery…yet another reason I miss living in AZ (Mesa born and raised). TX is great but AZ will always be home.
I moved here 4 months ago from California and I don’t ever want to leave this state. I will definitely never again live in CA.
Ben Avery for sure. Best ever.
No better long range shooting than the Nevada high desert 1 hour out of reno
A place that looks just like that video. Coyote Wells west of El Centro, CA.
Shooting from trucks and dune buggies, chasing jack rabbits, long range yodel dogs, and winter training grounds for the blue angels and parachute test range. Great times.
Volgograd Tractor Plant
Public range with covered shooting benches and target stands out to 200 yards (500 yd silhouettes) – Black’s Creek Range (http://blackscreekrange,com), southeast of Boise, ID. $10/day, sixty covered shooting benches, SASS shoot setup, scheutzen house, actual flush toilets, and a rangemaster on duty when it is open – cuts WAY down on the poor safety issues.
Other times – my local gravel pit on public lands, about 3 miles from my house.
Bays Branch DNR Range in Iowa. Most people would call this place kind of a craphole. In the middle of Nowhere, Iowa… long gravel road to access, but I really liked it. No one there on weekdays, just a nice quiet place to throw rounds downrange.
I used to enjoy the rifle range at Sherburne WMA in Louisiana. This summer, however, they installed the worst set of baffles… you can no longer shoot offhand. It’s also nearly an hour away from me, access road is in bad need of repair at the moment. There is a police range slightly closer with easy paved road access in Ascension Parish, but it is only open one Thursday (?!) a month to the public. The lack of public ranges where you can actually stretch out your rifle for us city-dwellers is a real problem.
Have to agree with Michael Nieto. Open high desert in northern Nevada for long distance shooting.
In the southern parts where I am now, not so much. Public and private ranges are not terribly great, though a few a pretty nice.
I prefer the chunk of desert between Vegas and Pahrump, but our wise government has now closed the area to any form of vehicular traffic. So, unless you want to hump your stuff 2.5 miles off road, you can no longer get to it. And the BLM rangers are out there to enforce it.
Parent’s land. Not enough open space but there is a mountain for a backstop and chill neighbors who are as tooled up as we are, so we can do whatever we safely and legally want to do.
Mountain range about 40 minutes north of my house. Clear cut so you can see for miles, and shooting across the river at ranges up to 700 yards….good times….
Frisco gun club in Frisco Tx. 4 100 yd rifle bays indoors. You can shoot anything short of .50 BMG at a meaningful range in the comfort of AC.
My club range. 3.5 miles from home, 25yd, 50yd, 100yd, and 200yd. outdoor ranges, an archery range, indoor .22 caliber range below the bar, another 50 ft. indoor range out back of the bar. Did I mention it has a bar? For after the guns are packed away ofcourse.
My back yard. Shooting to the south east I have steel plates hanging on rebar strung between 4X4 posts along with a shooting tree, bullseye targets, my trap thrower and any other misc. targets that I might think of. To the Northwest I have 200 yard or so for my longer aspirations. I can’t even imagine having to pay let alone drive somewhere to shoot.
Knob Creek Range. Louisville, KY. Twenty minutes away. It is really crowded on the MG Shoot weekends. Otherwise it’s fantastic. Nuff said.
I know a lucky guy where the best place he ever shot was center mass three times.
I shot a course of NCAA Smallbore at the Coast Guard Academy range in New London back when I was in college.
A beautiful, well-appointed range.
Southern Utah, Bryce Valley area.
There’s a place about a mile away from my parents’ house where a sandstone ridge curves around to form a sort of cul-de-sac. Park in the sagebrush flat next to the county road and you have a mountain as your backstop on three sides, and at least 300 yards of sagebrush and juniper-covered range to do with as you please.
Just put on sunscreen and bring plenty of water (and if you’re bald like me, wear a hat), because in the high desert at 6,000 feet elevation the UV rays will crisp you like a Thanksgiving turkey even on a mild day, and there ain’t no shade to be had unless you bring it with you.
How do I get on the invite list for these guys’ shoots? I can bring beer.
Best place I’ve ever shot? Shoot, that’s like asking who my favorite kid is. Probably Pima Pistol Club north of Tucson, mostly because there was never anybody there.
Does it really matter?
For indoors, Scottsdale Gun Club in AZ. We visited a couple of years ago. I was amazed that there was no smoke–the air handler whisked it away and yet it was cool inside.
My local private range. All outdoor, all new concrete pads and all are covered. 3 pistol bays w/steel targets (1 bay you can set up additional ones to have up to 120 degrees of targets to shoot at), 1 50-yard pistol/rifle range (can move line of fire forward if you want to train closer to the berm–coordinate with other shooters if they are there of course), 2 100-yard ranges, a 550-yard range, an 800-yard range, 8 action bays (25 – 45 yards each), a cowboy action range w/buildings, etc., and a shotgun range w/ 24″ gong and tower w/12 clay throwers. All for $20/month!
Google map search
Malabar rifle range
800 metre full bore and 400 metre service ranges. Canteen, shop for firearms accessories and ammunition, toilets and showers, camping facilities, individual club houses and a hall, and lots of parking. NO benchrest. A real shooting range.
Unfortunately state and federal governments are trying to close the range for property development. We are fighting tooth-and-nail to either stay or have contracts and agreements made by previous administrations honored to provide a satisfactory alternative location.
It was in The Bronx. The statute of limitations ran out a long time ago, but I’m still not supposed to talk about it.
U.S.T.G, Moyok NC.
Everything one could possibly want for a place to shoot. EVERYTHING. But something more local, old gravel pit behind the house. Plenty of mounds for backstops and a corridor front to back about 300m long.
Mid-town Manhattan, on a Sunday morning at 5:00 AM, at a thug who tried to mug me and 2 friends.
Well, I wasn’t doing the actual shooting, but my brother-in-law took me onto the TAC-P practice range at Ft. Drum, and let me watch him blow stuff up with A-10s. I’m pretty sure this was the range:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycy-e4EdWfE
(That counts, right?)
For actual shooting, it was probably with him at Ft. Bliss, at a range just off post that catered to the soldiers and airmen. Some of his buddies brought out some fun gear to shoot, and I got some pretty sweet handgun instruction.
My options in NJ are limited due to distance, lack of open membership, price at public ranges, or the lack of good ranges in general, so I often make the hour and a half journey out to Wicen’s shooting range in Furlong PA. It is a public range, but they run a tight ship so it attracts a friendly, safety conscious crowd. The RSOs are all great guys too, very helpful and professional. The certification card they give you is valid for life. After your first visit it’s ten, or maybe fifteen bucks to shoot all day from open ’til close. Compared to other ranges I’ve been to that gouge you on pricing, make you pay per hour, or both, it’s a blessing. Rifle range only goes to 100 yards, but the benches are all placed under giant concrete structures. Even on the hottest days being under that heavy shade with a light breeze makes shooting an absolute pleasure. It’s my go-to range.
Blue Trail n CT which is the old Lyman factory range and club. Not so much anymore. Some vaginated yuppie with a lawyer moved in out back and threatened so many suits they closed the 300 yd range and built a 50′ deep 25′ high berm and he is STILL trying to shut the place down.
Ray
In the middle of the Salt Flats on top of a small mountain. White in all directions shooting from decent height. A pretty surreal shooting experience.
Cool vid, but whiskey tango foxtrot with the handgun grip at 2:02?
After that, I was kind of hoping that the shooter would go the “full Sabrina.”
East and south of Torjes, Honduras. Running an L1A1.
If it’s just plinking cans as I’m wont to do, then all I need to do is shoot off the back porch into the embankment (with a heavily forested hilltop beyond) on the other side of the driveway. I can also do the same thing around the corner of the property where the previous owner was going to put a swimming pool in, but never did so. Again, nice high embankment for a backstop.
Rifle….well that’s a bit of a problem so far. There’s a 100 yard public range about 6 miles over the ridge as the crow flies, but I haven’t found anyplace with more yardage in the area. There’s a few in Georgia but they’re all a very long drive (2+hrs).
I was always a pistol guy anyway.
Tom
Close call, but I’m going to go with a certain place in some dunes on the Oregon coast.
Ever push yourself across a pond with an old Japanese infantry rifle while floating on your back? Or lie prone in the shallows to bombard a sandcastle fortress a hundred twenty yards away where you can hit the tower tops by skipping lead off the water? Or pop away at floating targets put in motion by multiple cannonballs off a dune top? Or try hitting a target from twenty yards while treading water?
I’ve never found another place where so much creativity in shooting was possible.
Your mom’s bedroom! Lol!
Here in nj, we dont like to talk bout that sorta thing, or allow that sorta thing, or even ackowledge that sorta thing… options are few, but in state, id go with Range 14. Various ranges, large facility, and cheap! Does get congested though
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