Color me unimpressed

[Brad]

Took the wife to the indoor range today. They have a special on a Friday nights, 2 shooters on one lane for the cost of one. They call it date night, I like that.
They have two bays of 6 lanes each. The pistol bay was full so rather than wait we took a lane in the rifle bay. Each bay is 25 yards long.
Two guys on one side shooting a red dot sighted AR at 25 yards. A guy on the other side firing an AR10 in 308 at a whopping 7 yards. The concussion was horrendous. I need to start taking my Khornet 10" Contender to demonstrate what a fireball is to those yahoos.
308 guy finally left only to be replaced by a foursome with a combined IQ in the low triple digits. One guy was firing a selective fire AR in 223. I was really impressed with his 3 round bursts at 5 yards. Another one then broke out his full auto with integral suppressor. Ran the target back to 20 yards or so. Fired a burst of maybe 10 rounds. Never saw bits of ceiling tile come down like that.......
All of this while I watched a guy next to me with his quite new 1911. I saw more of it that I wanted. While his buddy fired a revolver he had the 1911 on a bench between a couple lanes. Slide was locked, looked like a cocked hammer too. I was not impressed and the fact the muzzle was swung toward my wife and I made it worse. At least the guy had on glasses, I'm sure the top of his head appreciated the protection.

Yep, it was moron night at the indoor range. We finished out shooting quickly and left.

This is why I like the club I belong to. I can have a 25 yards pistol bay to myself and know there is a 15' or so high berm between bays. Too bad it was 10° and dark.....

 

[JonB]

Sounds like one of those days where you wish you have a 500 S&W revolver that's ported.

 

[Brad]

Oh, the 10" Khornet would suffice. A case full of 1680 and a 35 Vmax gives a fireball at the muzzle that is quite impressive in full daylight. At an indoor range it would be like a strobe with each shot. I have to believe the effect would be quite impressive.

 

[freebullet]

Public, stand next to strangers ranges dont get many visits from us. The one you mention is nice, but...short visits maybe best.

 

[waco]

I have zero neighbors out in the woods, and next to zero range limitation....
And besides fuel, it's free.
I just don't care for any of the ranges around here. Some of you guys have some pretty sweet ones from what I've seen.

 

[Brad]

Public, stand next to strangers ranges dont get many visits from us. The one you mention is nice, but...short visits maybe best.

This was the newer one in Bellevue. Close to home but yikes, it brings out some scary people.

 

[fiver]

sounds like my one and only time at an indoor range.
most everybody was chill, shooting their 9mm's and such then MR. 454 showed up, spent 15 minutes putting his gear on, shot a 3 shot group and walked around behind the line for 10 minutes, then he would light off another 3 rounds.
[pretty much annoying everyone]

I excused myself and went out to the truck and grabbed the 375 and 445 super mags.
my dad seen the case I was bringing in and went out the other door.
I loaded the 375 and waited for him [MR 454] to walk right behind me and touched one off.
that emptied the place out, and I was about to follow.
even knowing what was coming it was more than I was prepared for [plugs and muffs both] inside a building.

 

[Rick]

I went to an indoor range exactly once. When the guy told me that all fired brass was theirs & I could not leave with any fired brass I took my loaded rounds and left never to return.

 

[Richinsd]

Got a chuckle out of that one fiver! Wished I could have seen that.

I live six miles from our private outdoor range and have been a member since we started the club probably 30 yrs ago now. Pretty nice by now, fifty yd pistol with falling plates, and rifle from 100 and 200, covered. There are four or five of us unemployed old farts that frequent the place on week days only when we have the place mostly to ourselves. Stay away from there on wk. ends and holidays though !!!!! Unless you want to be a witness or a free ride to ER.

Sadly all the indoor ranges closed years ago due to OSHA.

 

[KeithB]

Used to be a local range that had a rule that if the brass hit the floor it was theirs. The only semi-auto I ever shot there was a .22 Ruger. Another reason I like wheelguns.

Another range would not allow reloads, factory ammo only and they really wanted to sell you the ammo you shot there. I went in with a buddy's .30 Luger and a couple of my .44 specials, fun watching them scramble around trying to find something they could sell me.

 

[Brad]

I don't shoot my autoloaders at the indoor range. I can pick up my brass but it bounces all over and is a pain. I view them as revolver only places.
Come better weather I won't even consider shooting indoors. I am doing it now to get the wife comfortable with a new revolver and back into shooting more.

 

[JSH]

I don't play well with others a lot of times myself. It takes me a fair bit to be comfortable shooting around "new" folks.
I try to do any of my load work during the week. I avoid range time on weekends like the plague, unless a match of some type.
We have an indoor winter league 22 RF bullseye. I have seen as few as 5 of us in the league and as many as eighty. It comes and goes in numbers. I have not shot the indoor for several years. If I do show up to visit with friends, I sit in the back and observe. The more shooters the more careless handeling I see. Nine times out of ten the adults are more careless than the younger shooters. A 50-60 year old does not take a scolding from a teenager well most of the time. Sitting and observing, I have backed up several of these incidents, on the side of the "kid".

I shot at a public range once, never again. I felt like a cat in the dog pound.
Jeff

 

[fiver]

our public range is kind of like my own private range so I don't mind it.
I have my own bench under the cover, and I have my own pistol target stand I provide backer boards for.

the only time it's remotely crowded is during one of the shoots they have.
no big deal if I'm not shooting the wed night bench shoots I just go over to the 22 range and shoot 100yd targets, or go shoot handguns.
if they are having a steel match I shoot my rifles.
it's never been full enough to not have a place to shoot, I usually have the place all to myself and can do what I want.

 

[Hawk]

My outdoor public range is usually pretty crowded and on weekends, ur three shooters deep waiting on a lane.
Everybody is shooting 9mm, with girl friends in tow, just to watch.
I get a big giggle out of the newbies shooting the 9mm "gangsta style" (rotated 90 degrees counter clock wise) to try to impress their dates.
It might be more impressive if they hit the target more than one out of three shots.
Best thing that ever happened to me was retiring, so I could go during the week.
I used to have buddies that had land 45 minutes away, where we could go shoot without the crowd. Alas, they all passed away and their families sold the land. I really envy you guys with your own private ranges.
And yes, pulling out the ported 44 mag with full power loads gets everyone's attention.

 

[smokeywolf]

Never shot at an indoor range; been to at least 3. Never could get past the "your brass belongs to us" rule or the, "idiots welcome" policy, I won't even go the outdoor ranges on weekends. Closest range recently changed ownership and immediately changed their name to "tactical" something or other and doubled their prices.
If I even make it to the range again before we move, it will be Angeles Shooting Range.

The older I get, the less tolerant I am of idiots.

 

[Rally Hess]

When I was stationed in Germany, we had a two lane range at the rod & gun club. It was two 5' culverts buried, waist height, and 75' long. The "enclosed" booths measured about 10' x 12' for both lanes. Even standard .357's made an impression. Any brass left on the floor belonged to whom ever picked it up. I got to mine the back stop whenever I asked. I was the only one casting there that I knew of. Got free wheel weights at the on post DIY garage they had set up for soldiers. I cast in a guard shack on our missile site, with permission from my CO, between my shifts. We were locked inside for 24 hour shifts, 12 of which we each actually manned towers, rotating in and out every 4 hours. Casting helped kill the boredom and I cast a lot of 148 wad cutters, for a S&W 66 I owned at the time. I have two ranges on my property now, but just for convenience. It's 28 miles to the nearest road if I leave my property and head west, all of which belongs to the state and paper company.

 

[Mike W1]

When stationed in Berlin in the old SS area we had a 100 meter indoor range with a pistol range on the short side of a L that we shot at sometimes. As I remember it maybe 15' or so wide with about a 7' ceiling. All concrete with a sandy floor. Plugs and muffs so my buddies .257 Weatherby didn't bother our ears but you could feel your clothes flap when he touched it off. Didn't go a lot as you had to get CO's permit to get your own weapons out of the arms room and go another place to get a key to get in. Never ran into anyone else there. Used to be able to check out 45's and ammo and the nicest part may have been another buddy's friend was the bored company armorer so he'd clean the guns to keep from going stir crazy. The rifle range was 1 lane as I recall. The idiots mentioned by the OP would have been lonely from the sounds of things as I sure wouldn't have wasted my time there either!

 

[Pistolero]

I founded and ran for 25 years an IPSC club at our indoor range. Gotta have strong safety rules
and enforce them. 36 years later the club still runs two stages every Friday night.

Much of the general public is not well trained on safety, unfortunately.

Bill