Geez, you guys have no idea how lucky you are.
Here in the center of the People's Republic of Maryland, I have two indoor ranges and one outdoor range club within about a 20-25 minute drive (there are others but they're farther out).
I am a member at one of the indoor ranges, which is fairly new, about two years old.
Both of the indoor ranges charge $18 an hr plus $10 an hr for a second shooter on the same lane. Eyes and ears (if you don't have your own) are an additional buck a piece.
Targets start at $.50 a piece.
Membership at the outdoor range (which is private) runs about $100 a year, plus you have to do about 8 hrs of volunteer maintenance work per year. They have a pistol range, a rifle range, and two shotgun ranges for clay.
It's smack in the middle of a bunch of housing developments that have sprung up around it over the last 25 years, so they have a HUGE sign posted on the main road warning prospective home buyers about the ranges!
The range is run by a bunch of older members who are scared to death of the new home buyers and potential litigation, so there's NO shotgun or rifle shooting on the weekend
because those ranges are actually closer to the housing than the pistol range.
You can only shoot #8 or 9 shot at the shotgun range because it's so small. And they do not allow multiple clays, only one bird at a time.
And, you supply all your own supplies (clays, ammo, targets, etc.) and police all your own brass. They don't sell any targets or anything.
The two indoor ranges are pretty nice actually. The older one has just expanded their selling space with a large (probably 2200 SF) showroom with lot's of firearms, gear and gun safes.
Nice selection of mostly new stuff; pricing is a bit high, I think, but they do now have some significant overhead.
The range there has 15 lanes. Overhead cable system for targets with distance marks painted on the floor.
The cons are, no heat in the winter (and the #12 lane has a blower overhead that enhances that Arctic experience
), and no tables or cabinets at the back wall to sit and sort through your gear, you just plunk your range gear on the floor and have at it.
The newer range (at which I am a member) only has 12 lanes presently, but they have an adjoining space where they are planning 12 more lanes.
It's nicely heated and ventilated, has an overhead digitally measured cable system for targets, and a nice row of built in cabinets along the rear wall where you can sit and store your gear off the floor while shooting.
It's a little short for rifles, but they do allow them. Shotgunners are only allowed to use buckshot.
It's also run by a slightly nicer and more amiable bunch of folks than the other indoor range (where there is at least one downright nasty young guy who acts like he knows everything).
Has a nice little showroom (about 700 SF) plus a waiting area with tables and chairs, a pool table and soft drink machine, his and her bathrooms, and a nice size classroom area for training classes.
This place gets mobbed at certain times (like Sat. & Sun. mornings and afternoons) when there can be an hr or 2 hr wait for a lane.
They're open 7 days a week from 10 AM to 10 PM (which is longer than the other indoor range) and I usually try to go in the evenings after dinner when it's not crowded at all (even on Fri. & Sat. nights), or first thing on a weekday morning (although you do find it busy sometimes with a lot of LEO's shooting qualification).
Both of these indoor ranges charge (ready now?) $360 a year for membership for my wife and I (considered a family membership, but it only applies to family living in your house, not my son who lives down the street
). I can bring one guest at a time and pay a flat 10 bucks for their time, no limit.
While I can stay as long as I want and as often as I want, it's just for my wife and I on one lane. I have some friends who keep asking me to take them and offer a little training, but I can't use two lanes at a time with friends unless we pay the hourly rate, which I guess is fair anyway.
So, you guys shelling out $20 to $60 a year for access to a range, God bless you! Wish it was that way here.
Actually, I wish it was the way it was when my brothers and I were teenagers and we just picked up a rifle or shotgun and walked back into the woods and fields, sometimes even went down to the sand & gravel pits when they were closed!!
Three teenaged boys wandering around the neighborhood with rifles, and nobody even batted an eye!
What the hell happened?!?
