I was also at the last LaRue range day.  As with every other day I have ever spent at a major range - I watched an idiot shooting over a berm - it was one of the south bays, so his rounds were whizzing over the parking lot.

CA has two giant ranges of mountains as a backstop plus 3000 miles of distance, but that doesn't stop their bullshit from landing here. No mountains or hills for a backstop?  Gee, I guess we'd better make 2/3 of Texas a gun-free-zone, then.

BotW requires users of the longer ranges to demonstrate skill at the shorter ranges before they move up beyond 200yds (IIRC)

If people are missing the 100yd targets, then nothing short of forcing them to shoot through a concrete tube would keep them from sending rounds anywhere.  The berms are fine.  The problem is some asshole developer bought cheap land behind the range, and is trying to either increase its value by shutting down the range, or gain direct access to a major road by buying up the defunct range at a discount (frontage along the road is quite expensive)

I suspect the bullets found by the developer will be; badly damaged from high-speed impact as though they were fired at close range into a hillside of the same composition as the berms at BotW, unrifled because they never passed through a barrel, or still have their cases attached.  The most innocent explanation would be the bullets came from trespassers or reckless shots from one of countless land owners within ballistic range (many times you find out the bullets in these claims aren't even coming from the direction of the range being accused; still the insurance company typically clamps its butthole shut)

When the Garland Public range in Dallas was being targeted (I assume they're out of business now), there was one point where a woman claimed bullets were raining on her house and into her gutters.  Yup, showed reporters & police a handful of unfired 22LR she'd bought & thrown up onto her roof.  Ignorance breeds fear breeds hatred breeds stupidity.  Given the enormous attention paid to safety & containment at a facility such as this one, such claims really need to be viewed with great skepticism, with an eye for ulterior motives.

Double tap

I remember they used to say, "as goes CA, so goes the nation". Theyve been saying that just about as long as they've said "it can't happen in TX".

I wish you all the best of luck. If you need some pointers on what's coming, let me know. I've seen things you people wouldnt believe. Ranges brought down by vernal pools. Ive seen water stolen by smelts. But it doesn't have to be lost like tears in rain. Time to vote.

Just like Washington has deserts.

Best of the West was the largest and most well-outfitted public range within reasonable driving distance of Austin.  They were large enough to host competitions & industry events (and did for years).  It seems gun culture in the area is slowly dying as it grows rapidly from out of state arrivals (shock); first the big Saxet Gun Show was finally run out of town, then the Texas Firearms Festival held at BotW fell apart, and now the range itself is going down.  I think Eagle Pass or whatever it's called out in the boonies of Nameless is probably the next best option (only another half hour away) and it's run by dickhead Fudds.

Yeah...you're still doing it.

About the same time Best of the West was being developed, someone was trying to make a fairly significant range in Kerrville.  4H shooting sports had their national even there 2 years.  The first year was pretty rough, not sure about the second - but I expect it was still poor enough that they permanently moved nationals to Nebraska.

Our state rifle/pistol even is pretty small - but we got kicked out of San Antonio.  They moved it to Amarillo the next year and I stopped attending.  It has been in Budapest the last few years.  I have been to that range a couple times - was never overly impressed.  It might be a ok range, but it was ill suited for the events - lots of rounds were bouncing over berms.  That said, our events are limited to 100 yards - so nothing like the glory of the 1000 yard lane best of the west had.

It's never enough.  The orders to build up backstops are just to get the owners to waste money so they have less to fight the next legal battle with.  Rinse & repeat.  It's like Indian tribes & frontier settlers; the developers are a comin', and this range is in the way.  At least karma will bite the ass of whatever rich-fuck Californian douche nozzle arranged this deal & buys the place to put up a trendy vineyard, when he gets bitch slapped for selling lead/copper tainted wine.

I have been there many times.  You idiot chicken littles sound like DUers.  This is not a sky is falling political battle, it would happen any place where idiots are sending bullets across property lines.   This is why I have my own range.  Too many idiots who can't even follow basic safety rules.

The biggest problem for TX and most red states is the Conservative voter base is dying and then voting Democrat from the hereafter.

Schools have done more damage then can really be quantified. I don't remember when I was going to HS school (08 grad) anyone really caring about politics. Sure there was a small group that cared but the majority of people were normal HS kids who cared about getting drunk and stoned and trying to bone.

Now it seems like even in Middle School kids are claiming they are non binary/trans and marching in all these political rally's and it's always for left leaning messages.

Kids who grew up in very conservative households go to even Community College and now suddenly they are SJWs and it's 100x worse in any 4 year college.

Add into them abandoning any organised religion which usually leads people to Conservative causes or beliefs and the lack of meaningful relationships/marriage and you have no real family unit and more people only conserned with looking out for themselves.

It's really just a numbers game now. Minoritys have bought into the Democratic party and think all conservatives are racists and they are steadily growing in population while traditional Republican voters have slowed down.

But overall I think we still outnumber them for now, the biggest issue is getting people to show up at the polls instead of sitting at home bitching about the left.

The left is organised and votes as one. We don't and lose because of it.

It doesn't help that RINOs are ruining our party and driving conservatives away because of them stabbing us in the back at every chance.

There is *nothing* about a hog-farm

There have been five mass shootings in less than two years and the Dems are working it as a wedge issue. Abbott is taking heat for inaction.

There is a flouting of the irony a mass shooting on the weekend when several liberalizing gun laws went into effect.

This is part of the play for 2020.

While gun laws won’t change soon, a Dem government will start changing them over the next 4-5 years.

We have a range just north of Seattle right smack dab in the middle of a populated suburban area (called Kenmore/Bothell). It actually goes all the way out to 300yd rifle with an additional trap range, archery, pistol, indoor air rifle, etc..

The ONLY reason it's still around is due to the club buying the property back in the early 50s.

Suburbia has been encroaching ever since but they've done everything to keep complainers off their backs...sound deadening walls, staggered overhead beams that make it almost impossible to shoot over the backstops, etc.. Still though, they're always trying to shut it down.

My parents lived a few miles away and you could always hear the gun shots since it was on top of a hill. To me it's one of the last great middle fingers to the liberal NIMBY in Seattle.

You can see the urban density surrounding the range...and this is only 12 miles north of Seattle.

As a developer... who has dealt with a belligerent and antagonistic range...

It isn't always the Evil developer.

I view a local range as an amenity... a good thing. The range fought us tooth and nail.  We were mystified why they were pushing so hard.

Come to find out their skeet shooting ranges were raining lead pellets beyond their property... and onto the property we just bought.  And they Knew about it... for years.

That isn't really that much of a safety concern but the EPA is going to make us clean that up before we can build houses... and some sort of solution would need to be concocted so no more lead arrived.  Selling the portion of the land that they were firing onto to them would be an option.

Would be an option... had they been reasonable people.  But no.  They continued to be belligerent and dragging everything out with legal battles over every little thing.

Long story short.  The Range was shut down.  Don't piss off a developer by treating them as an enemy from the word go.

9 years ago there was nothing out there but the range and it had a wide 1000 yd steel target range.
4-5 years ago a shooter with a 50BMG, RSO and a spotter managed to miss the target, skip the round off the top of the berm and the round entered a house over a mile away- no one was hurt and the Sheriff knew what happened and everyone fessed up to the error. Range insurance made them reduce caliber to under .400 so there were lots of .338’s being fired out there. Now there are more houses being built downrange of the 1000 yard range. They have about 12 tactical bays with berms 15’ high, one skeet field and one trap field. SO using the “better safe than sorry” legal standard, a judge has enjoined them from shooting any rifles on that long range out of about 800 acres. That is the only long range anywhere near Austin. I figured this was coming as its the type of thing used to shut down 2 other ranges in past 30 years- Some call it progress I suppose-but its just too damn many people moving to the area.
I think they built the range too damn perfectly flat when. They could build up the shooting end xyz feet and force all rounds DOWN from the start- Tiger Valley in Waco was laid out that way with pull targets etc. like a military range. But that is no guarantee some idiot won’t have his shit together and launch one over the berm again. Can’t imagine its even possible to prevent without a hell of a overhang of plate steel or what that would entail cost wise.

I’ll second this.  My home range has large backstops that are themselves backstopped by...hills, at least a couple hundred feet tall, plus or minus.  Shots go generally downhill towards the generous backstops.  We’re told our neighbors in the fruit orchards behind these hills have workers complain about bullets going over their heads.  Fortunately it’s a conservative farming area, but...I did a double take.  How?
I will have to try to stop by sometime when I’m n the Seattle area again. :)

We need to be making those threats right back at them.... then following through with the lawsuits. If they can harass and intimidate using the legal system, we should hit them right back with it.

This is very familiar to people who used to race at local drag strips. I can remember those being everywhere and even raced at one way back in the day. They're all gone now for homes and industrial parks.

Any way to get the name of the developer and the judge? Sounds like the judge may need to be made aware that the developer is lying in order to force the range to close in a land grab.

@Puritanus
You have to be a member to get on the 300yd but the 100yd rifle/pistol is open to the public.

Only thing that sucks is they make you hand feed each round regardless if it's a semi auto. They're doing everything possible to keep the range around so I assume forcing people to hand feed eliminates the inevitable mag dumping/really pissing off the neighbors. There is tons of new housing around and most of the newer stuff is hovering around 1 million dollars...and with money comes a lot of HOA types/complainers.

Examples of typical real estate nearby:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/29-226th-Pl-SW-Bothell-WA-98021/177894797_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/23207-13th-Ave-SE-Bothell-WA-98021/284882954_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/22405-5th-Pl-W-Bothell-WA-98021/72069210_zpid/

Well, I've seen a few too many crooked developers, and that colors my view. Hell, we have a mayor across the river from me who should have been prosecuted for games he played with land developments.

And that's what it takes.  Most of the time, nobody shows up.

As to this particular case - this has more to do with urban sprawl than the political tides of the state.  It completely sucks, and I wish wasn't happening.   If the developers complaints were on noise; than he can FOAD, as the range was there first.  But if his complaint is of rounds leaving the range, entering his property, and impacting there; then that's not an unreasonable complaint.  It's also probably not a made-up complaint, based on the video showing the range facility.

Capitulators!!! Let the squawking begin.

Pathetic.

In the Austin - Central Texas Area, you don't have one without the other...

the growth has changed many once "Rural" areas to become commuter communities to high priced areas.   We have seen moves over the decades by many shooting ranges that were encroached upon by development and then the new arrivals expected the established businesses & customers (rifle ranges) to go away because the noise bugs them...

We see the same shit around airports.   Someone bought a home cheap, but now says they are tired of airplanes flying over their house - so demand to move the airport at the tax payers expense...

May the "Woke & Enlightened Reign of Governor Stacy Abrams" (on her 2nd try) make you happy in your State & party affiliations.

Well Said!

Bullshit.

Duplex.

That really sucks but sadly it's a sign of the times we live in. I don't know the kind of margins ranges run on but I don't suspect many can withstand the legal costs of suit after suit. All it takes is some land developer to start shit because the transplants he will be selling to don't want to listen to the constant gunfire.

I'm amazed that the Fairfax Rod & Gun Club range is still in operation given the build-out in the area.

Agreed. Total shithole. Hot. Mosquitos. No biodiversity. No hills. No mountains. No valleys. No canyons. Everyone is an asshole.

Miserable place.

Yeah, because Aggies are generally the anti-gun doucheknuckles. Before you condemn all of us because of one asshole, remember where your degree is from...

Attached File

If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile.

Agree on Eagle Peak and the Fudds. I was shooting there and one of the old ROs came over and bitched about rapid fire. He wasn't bright enough to figure out with 3 people shooting that it might sound like, "OMG rapid fire!!!"

Is this where you start chanting S-E-C, S-E-C? Doesn't change the fact this asshole is going against the grain of his entire background to screw the local gun community for money.

Not good but this doesn't mean we are losing Texas for god's sake.

Sorry to hear OP, but this is the future. Liberals are like locusts, they destroy everything then move on, and they out breed non-liberals.

I don't get it, how does this mean Texas is lost?

Did op read the article?

I'm confused.

Did libs chase away the customers?

I read that as they cannot make it economically. How Is that anyone else's fault?

This same process has been used to close one of the best ranges in our area. Complaints filed to county of rounds hitting homes across the bay from the range. Doesn't matter that it's physically impossible - baffles and a hillside are in the way. The home owners created an LLC and filed suit, then shopped the case to another country where they could find an anti-gun judge to issue an injunction shutting down the range.

It was to nobody's surprise when it was found that the leader of the LLC is involved in a plan to purchase and develop the land that the range is on, to create a county park, and the county is also involved.

It's almost as if there is a template for how to get a range shut down.

Sad news, been there many times

I will say that last I visited in 2018, they told me I couldn't shoot my AK (7.62x39) in the tactical bays because it might go through the berm.

WAT?

Made no sense

I'll withhold judgement until I see the developer's evidence.  Might be bullshit, might not.

The range I'm a member of had an incident a few years ago that resulted in a guy being gutshot by a .45ACP round on his porch a couple miles away.  Had to install baffles in front of the firing line to contain any rounds discharged at an angle that would allow it to exit over the backstop.

Shit happens.  How the range responded to the complaint could have more to do with the resulting order than anything else.

Nobody is going to drive any distance for an overpriced pistol range. Prohibiting rifles probably cuts visitors by 75%.

NETT won their ~10 year lawsuit over his range. Lawsuits came in as soon as he started it.
Some of the lawsuits against him were pretty ridiculous. One homeowner/developer or someone wanted NETT to pay for the upgrades or updates to a house

From their FB:

"OK, I'm processing a lot of emotions after this win and want to let those who don't already know, that God is faithful. Main takeaway right there. I want to thank all the jurors who sat through 3 days of sometimes very boring testimony and seeing the truth for what it was. This whole 8-year saga has been especially hard on my wife who has been put through the wringer with all of this. Thanks Jess, for being incredibly patient with me.
Congratulations to my attorney of 8 years, Charles Cotton, who FINALLY gets to retire.
Thanks to my Afghani Tailor who supplied my baller-status suits. Also, to every one of you who supported and donated to the cause over the years, Thank you!

To the plaintiffs: I realize you are angry, and I am truly sorry for all of the genuine heartaches I have caused. I continue to promise that I will operate my range in the safest manner possible to ensure your safety and that of your property. We have to come to some kind of compromise and I am still willing to come to the table and do what I can to ease your fears.

For anyone wanting the long version:
The trial started with the same hired range hitman saying my range needed all these safety features that are impossible and unreasonable, and not a single range in TX has them; fully baffled 1500 yd range, 30' berms along the entire perimeter of the property and/or I needed to own 7500 acres, and so on, and so on.

Then I heard from a plaintiff for the first time, that several years ago I was intentionally shooting at him and his dad from about 200yds away, no police report... They also showed up with a picture, that they had just taken the day before trial, of 3 "bullet holes" in their 90+ year-old abandoned farmhouse; they were not bullet holes. But "if" they were, they equated to about a 1 MOA group at 1200 yds through hundreds of trees. Also, they actually brought in a tractor tail light with a "hole" in the lense. What was silly about the tail light was that there was no exit hole. The "bullet" broke through a 2mm thick piece of plastic and then... vaporized? disappeared? My lawyers didn't let it into evidence but I was BEGGING them to. It was too funny.

One of the other plaintiffs had a rent-house in the area and when the tenants moved out he spent thousands of dollars remodeling it so he could sell it. He wanted me to pay for his new carpet, paint, septic tank, kitchen, and his closing costs from when he sold it in 2016. I know they are going to read this, and I don't mean to antagonize them, this was just how silly I perceived it to be. There was more emotional testimony but none of it backed up with any actual evidence.

When it was our turn, Nigel "Doc" Beech of Applied Ballistics was not accepted as a ballistics expert. Which is like saying a flight instructor is not an expert in flying. We were able to get some good stuff from him though. Two of my neighbors who live next to the range also testified on my behalf. Gene Smith and Jason Lassiter did a great job refuting all of the other "I'm so scared I can't go outside" testimony. Then it was my turn. I tried to present the facts as well as I could. We showed pictures and video of the range in operation and the safety features built-in from the ground up. Up until this point, many of the jurors admitted afterward that they were siding with the plaintiffs. But when they heard from me and saw what was really happening, they did a complete 180 and saw it for the "witch-hunt" it was.

I didn't "get away with" anything here. I'm not boasting that I somehow beat the system. Nothing, legitimately, has ever happened to bring on this suit on in the first place. The more the neighbors try to bully me, the worse it looks on them.

Short term:
I have a deployment coming up shortly and the TRO still has to dissolve before any commercial operation can resume. I still have to manicure up the berms (as per usual) and get some of the other stuff ready to go again. I will be back home in October and will see how much of it I can get done then.
If it's good, Fight for it! Thanks again to everyone, and I look forward to shooting with you soon."

Insurance folks reassessed their coverage and rates?