Shot indoors for the first time yesterday.

[mmb617]

I belong to a club that has multiple ranges, one out to 300 yds. It's never crowded and I love going there. I try to get to the range once a week, but as I've gotten older I'm kind of wimpy about the cold and the club only has outdoor ranges.

A new indoor shooting facility opened a few months ago and it's pretty close to me, probably about 2 miles away. I made a few inquiries to see if it was worth checking out. One thing that turned me off was this answer to a question I sent them:

" We prefer you do not collect brass and push it all forward of the booths. We don’t want people to back sweep or reach out past the firing lines to retrieve anything, for everyone’s safety."

I do want to collect my brass, but also understand that it would be unacceptable to reach out past the firing line. I also noted that it doesn't say collecting your own brass is prohibited, just that they'd prefer you don't do it.

The weather has been pretty cold and windy lately and I was ready for a range trip so I decided I'd go check the place out. Since I have never shot at an indoor range I wasn't sure what to expect. I'll have to say the experience went much better than expected. I knew the gun range there only went to 25 yds so I didn't take any rifles as I don't have any interest in firing them at such short ranges. I did take three pistols, one each of .22, 9mm, and .45.

The place was clean and well lit and the man at the counter was very friendly. I went early afternoon on a week day figuring it would be less crowded that way and there was only one other guy on the range, two lanes down from me. There was no RSO present but they do have a CCTV feed to the front desk so it's not like we weren't being monitored. The way the lanes are setup the dividers on the sides go all the way to the floor and the one on the front goes from about waist level to the floor other than a slot a few inches from the bottom to the floor which you are supposed to sweep the brass into when you are done shooting. So pretty much all my brass bounced off the sidewalls and landed at my feet. When I was done I just picked it up instead of sweeping it forward. I can't see how that creates a problem for anybody.

I did notice that shooting indoors is a lot louder, but not too bad with my single stage hearing protection. The guy at the other lane was shooting two AR's, one suppressed and one not. I'd never heard suppressed rifle fire before, so that was interesting to me. I noticed it wasn't the soft pfft sound they make on TV but it sure was a lot less noise than unsupressed. Before I saw what he was shooting I thought it might be some type of airgun.

I'm glad I decided to check the place out as I am planning on becoming a member. Non-members pay $15/hour for range time but for a one time fee of $40 and then $15/month members get unlimited range time. I think I'd use it enough to make that worthwhile. I still prefer to shoot outdoors when the weather is nice, and certainly want the longer ranges for my rifles but with the indoor place being closer I'm sure I'll go there a lot when the weather is not good.

 

[Golddollar]

I belong to a private club that has an indoor range as part of its facilities. It's a bit of a haul to drive there but I can't take the cold either. I'm a life member of the club so I don't have to worry about range fees or membership fees anymore.

It's great to be able to keep in practice during a time when it's too cold to be outdoors. One thing i discovered though. The lighting in a indoor range can vary so much from an outdoor range it will probably be necessary to re-sight in at the outdoor range.

Enjoy your time at the indoor range. It's hard to shoot a tight group when you're shivering from the cold.

 

[jimbo728]

Glad you had a good experience.
Prior owner of the local indoor range was a pleasure to have. He ran weekly pin shoots and was honest.
The current owner, not so much. Has been known to cheat people and charge for damages not incurred by the customer. Other things too.
He lost my business.
You are lucky to have a good indoor range.
Jim

 

[Rastoff]

One thing i discovered though. The lighting in a indoor range can vary so much from an outdoor range it will probably be necessary to re-sight in at the outdoor range.

If your sight picture changes with the lighting, you're probably not using the correct sight picture. Yes, I understand that different lighting conditions can affect how you shoot, but it shouldn't require changing the sight alignment.

 

[Nevada Ed]

"Shot indoors.... "

OH;
you got to go shooting...

I thought you finally got shot !!


Carry on.

 

[Golphin]

We have a indoor range near my home and I go in the summer when it is really hot here in Florida. They have brooms for sweeping the brass forward as well but I pick up mine and any left near me that I want and they don't care. It can get loud so I go during the week when there are not many other shooters.

 

[BARgunner]

You'd have to spend more than 180 hours there every year to make it worthwhile to join. That's at least 4 hours a week. It all depends on how much you shoot.

Did I miss something here? By my calculations, the $40 one time joining fee comes out to about 2.7 hours of non member range time and the $15/month is 1 hour of range time. At those rates you'd only have to spend 15 hours a year shooting there to break even. That's a good deal and I'd be all over it if I lived near there.

 

[bigwheelzip]

The club that I'm a member at has several side benefits I appreciate, besides the two nice 8 lane indoor ranges with excellent ventilation.
Firearms sales, and they will generally match the price of any new firearm I planned to buy somewhere else.
Member discounts on FFL fees.
Members get priority on lanes, skip right to the front of the line and shoot as long as you like.
Guest range passes.
Good discounted group and private instruction.
Free targets, ear and eye protection.
Free use of rental firearms.
Free minor services from onsite gunsmith.
Free use of fully stocked gun work bench. Easy gun clean and lube before or after shooting.
Good retail accessories area with lounge and coffee.
It is managed by a friend, and they treat me extra nice, even bringing in personal firearms for me to try.
It's three miles away and $250 bucks a year for both hubby and I.

The free outdoor state range is also very good, has pistol, rifle, shotgun, dove, archery and is about twenty minutes away.

 

[DeplorabusUnum]

You'd have to spend more than 180 hours there every year to make it worthwhile to join. That's at least 4 hours a week. It all depends on how much you shoot.

I shoot Trap. On a normal week I'm at my regular outdoor range at least 3 hours on Saturday. That includes about an hour at the pistol or rifle range and then 2 hours at Trap. Even when I was shooting a lot of pistol, it would still have been less expensive to pay per trip to an indoor place.

The only benefit to becoming a member would be priority placement. This means you could bump someone else, who isn't a member, if the range is crowded. In some areas that's a great benefit because it means you wouldn't have to worry about crowds.

I think there's some fuzzy math here

 

[Rastoff]

Did I miss something here? By my calculations, the $40 one time joining fee comes out to about 2.7 hours of non member range time and the $15/month is 1 hour of range time. At those rates you'd only have to spend 15 hours a year shooting there to break even. That's a good deal and I'd be all over it if I lived near there.

Yes, I should learn to be fully awake before doing math.

 

[robrossk]

The club that I'm a member at has several side benefits I appreciate, besides the two nice 8 lane indoor ranges with excellent ventilation.
Firearms sales, and they will generally match the price of any new firearm I planned to buy somewhere else.
Member discounts on FFL fees.
Members get priority on lanes, skip right to the front of the line and shoot as long as you like.
Guest range passes.
Good discounted group and private instruction.
Free targets, ear and eye protection.
Free use of rental firearms.
Free minor services from onsite gunsmith.
Free use of fully stocked gun work bench. Easy gun clean and lube before or after shooting.
Good retail accessories area with lounge and coffee.
It is managed by a friend, and they treat me extra nice, even bringing in personal firearms for me to try.
It's three miles away and $250 bucks a year for both hubby and I.

The free outdoor state range is also very good, has pistol, rifle, shotgun, dove, archery and is about twenty minutes away.

Wow. Never heard of an AWESOME deal like that for an indoor range.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Indoor shooting has been the norm for me and most others here in NJ for years, and on a miserable cold, icy, rainy, snowy day....

 

[bigwheelzip]

Wow. Never heard of an AWESOME deal like that for an indoor range.

That price is based on their retirees family plan. I'm a new shooter and it's the best choice of several indoor ranges nearby, and the only range I've ever joined.
They offer bigger membership discounts for active and retired first responders and military, and free membership for Purple Heart and disabled military.
It's owned and operated by a nice family, staffed mostly by LEO and military.


Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[Fishinfool]

The club I belong to here in PA has a great rifle and pistol range that goes out to 300 meters, and is seldom crowded, often during the weekdays I am the only one there. No indoor range though. I really don't like indoor ranges, especially when folks are blasting away with their AR-15's, but they are nice when its nasty out.

A buddy of mine in CT belongs to a range that has a nice 25 yard indoor set up, and its open 24 hours to members, handgun only. He is a night owl, and often goes at 1 or 2 in the morning, and almost always has it to himself.

Larry

 

[LVSteve]

Indoor shooting has been the norm for me and most others here in NJ for years, and on a miserable cold, icy, rainy, snowy day....

Or....

Indoor shooting has been the norm for me and most others here in NV for years, and on a miserable 115°F day with Tarantula Hawks flying all around....

 

[mmb617]

The club I belong to here in PA has a great rifle and pistol range that goes out to 300 meters, and is seldom crowded, often during the weekdays I am the only one there. No indoor range though.

Larry

I'm also in central PA. The club I belong to is the Altoona Rifle and Pistol Club. What you describe is exactly how it is. Same club by chance?

 

[Donn]

The indoor range I frequent allows shooters to police up their brass as long as it's behind the firing line. No rapid fire, drawing from holsters, uncasing or otherwise handling weapons outside your lane. Like the OP, I prefer outside, but also like the fact inclement weather isn't an issue. I do draw the line at crowds. If it's too congested, I pack up and leave or don't go out on the range at all.

 

[Ron IL]

When we wintered in Florida a few years we had an indoor range about 7 miles from us. It was the only shooting range in the whole area. It only took one trip to realize I needed ear plugs plus muffs. They had brooms and dustpans to sweep up brass to keep or dump in the brass bucket. While I was shooting one day a nice lady was sweeping up all the brass and throwing it in the bucket. She didn't realize we keep brass.

 

[Kinman]

The range I belong to is three miles from my house. We have an indoor range with electric target carriers, maybe eight to ten lanes. I've only shot inside a couple of times, prefer to shoot outdoors where we have a covered 10,15 and 25 yard range. Also a covered 50, and 100 as well as uncovered 200. During special shoots we close down the outdoors range and open the 300 and 600 yard line, that is when the indoor range gets popular. We also have a trap range with two automatic machines. Our fee is $225 to initially join, $125 a year thereafter. Seniors over 65 with five years membership get half rate dues, members with 20 years membership over 65 years of age become "life members" No Dues. Due to Covid no non members are currently allowed to shoot and if that were the way we ran it all the time most of us would be happy. It has been very enjoyable to shoot without worrying about some knucklehead and his new AR sending a round sideways down the firing line.