Posted: 1/31/2005 4:51:05 PM EDT
| Any one from around austin on this board........... if so where are (if any) good ranges to go shoot at. |
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Check this thread: www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=8&t=187454 And this one: www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=8&t=185129 And one more: www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=8&t=191987 Please use the search function or just go back a few pages... Pflugerville here. |
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"Good Ranges" depend upon what you are looking for as everybody has their own ideas on what is good or even great. In my opinion there are no "great" ranges in the Austin Area. There are two indoor ranges. Reds North (Formerly Cooks Sure Shot) Reds South Both ranges are black rifle friendly and will let you shoot just about anything you can shoulder with the exception of Machineguns. Reds South will allow Supressed only MG fire only on Thursday evenings. Indoor ranges are generally far from ideal shooting locations and the per hour charges can get hefty pretty quick. 100 yard berm at both locations and you will be punching paper only. Outdoor Ranges. Austin Rifle Club (Members Only) Not a big fan of ARC. Primarily Elmer Fudd friendly with lots of club politics involved. I got some pretty nasty stares when I pulled out a AR-15 with a Beta Mag. Only been once and deceided not to join. If I remember correctly the annual membership is not cheap either. 100 and 300 yard berm Austin Skeet Club Old Podunk range that used to allow limited full auto and seems pretty indifferent to black rifles. Run by two old guys in a trailer who can barely hear anymore. Unfortuantely they make you pay "per gun" so the bill starts to rack up pretty fast when you bring along a handful of different rifles and pistols to shoot. 100 yard berm Tonys 183 This used to be a good place before he was taken to court by his neighbors for bullets going over the berm. The place went from one of the best to one of the worst. You now have to shoot under 2x8 boards that are strung horizontal to the range to limit your muzzel angle and no rapid fire what-so-ever. Havn't been back in over a year. 100 and 150 yard berm (The 150 is usually a giant mudhole) Hill Country Range This place is on a piece of prime real estate off Hamilton Pool road, but unfortunately looks like a 1950 scrapyard with rusting trucks and rotting trailer homes. Over the past couple of years I have shot here the most as they allow unrestricted Full-auto and have a nice subgun/pistol metal target area. My two big gripes are that the place is run by a lunatic. The infamous "Richard" When I mean lunatic, I mean "Communist Aliens in my Kitchen that are trying to read my mind" type of crazy. Normally this type of behavior is slightly amusing but not so much when the said lunatic has a cocked .45 stuck in his belt (which is usually made out of extension cord or rope). In addition he also has the wonderful policy for charging "per gun" and it gets old when every range trip cost you 40+ bucks for two people and a couple of guns. Being "Nuts" he doesn't always keep regular hours and I have made the trip more than once to find the range closed. Be careful and look for a sign that says closed as I have heard of him chasing people down with the aforementioned 45 for "commin onta his propty when the range is closed dagnabbit." 50 -100- 250 ish yard berms with metal silloute targets. Eagle Peak I have never been but have been told that that there is no FMJ allowed. Plus you have to shoot under some sort of concrete window ledge. Never bothered to try it. Minute Man Range I have attempted to go twice but they were "closed" both times. They have a nice big sign out from but I have never met anyone who has actually shot there or can confirm if it is ever open. Hays County Sportsmans Park (Members Only) This is where I shoot now. They are black rifle friendly and MG friendly. The cost of membership for two people for the year was less than one of my typical ventures to visits crazy richard at HRC. Now my range fees are 3 bucks and the range is always open. They even allow camping?? The only real detraction is that all the berms are extremely short. I would say maybe 50 yards max. However, I can shoot in peace and I have found you can shoot "reactive" targets as long as you clean up after yourself and use some common sense. Clay pigeons, HEB Soda, etc. There are pictures of the range in the Texas Tactical Carbine Shoot Thread in this forum. I might have missed afew places, but unfortunately there is no holy grail of ranges in Austin unless you want to shoot 5 rounds while zeroing your deer rifle. James Austin, Texas |
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I shoot at Eagle Peak quite often. Aside from the no FMJ and having to shoot (rifles only) from the bench, I like it. Nice outdoor range, nice benches, nice facilities. Great for load development if you're shooting handloads. (just load soft point, hollowpoint or cast lead, and you're fine). They'll let you set up a chrony if you have one, you can bring your own targets. The rifle range has 50, 100 and 200 yard targets. There's a shotgun range off to the side, but I haven't ever looked over there. I have no shotgun. The Pistol side has 7, 15 and 25 yard targets, and they don't mind you shooting pistol caliber carbines on the pistol range. Rapid fire only by request. I'm going to be heading there Saturday if all works out well. The weather should be nice, and I'll have some cartridges to blow off in my big Boomstick. |
I love this range. You'll be fine as long as you ONLY talk to Richard about PURELY gun related topics. Please read again. If you so much as say "Happy New Year", you'll get a reply about witches, pagans,<add racial slur>, and of course the New World Order. Trust me...you don't want to do that! Richard charges $5 per shooter. This includes one gun and a taget if you want. Each additional gun is $2. This is for UNLIMITED shooting time! Don't get me wrong...this range is like shooting in a junk yard. But, there's very few rules, and the people who shoot here are usually real cool. Richard knows almost everything about almost every gun, and would be happy to help you out. He's actually a very nice man as long as you stay on his good side. See above. If you live near Austin, you must try out this range at least once...it's different  |
I shoot here once a month, very laid back, never busy $6 per gun or shooter, $6 more for each gun. |
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WAAAAYYY back when, we used to go to a range off 2222. The place was under a cliff that somebody decided to develop-you know the kind of hill country development I'm talking about, maybe even THE DEVELOPMENT I'm talking about. The residents started complaining that they were "being shot at," since once in a while some shot pellets would wind up on their back patios. Got the place closed down, and I believe they moved out off Manor Rd, a good ways east of town. This was before I left Austin in '87, headed to Panama on Uncle Sam's business-back when we had GREAT gun shows at the Civic Colusseum. Sigh. You can go home again, but it just ain't the same.  Edited because I can't spell sometimes. |
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Don't get me wrong HRC is one of the only two places I shoot on any regular basis in austin and if I want to shoot over 50 yards is the only place in town I go. However, Richard does charge by the type of gun also. My typical conversation when I pull up to the trailer/mobile home he lives in. Richard: What you shootin today? Me: I have a subgun, a centefire machinegun, two pistols, and a 22LR. Richard: That will be $10 per Auto, $5 per pistol, $5 for the 22. Me: Hands over two twentys. Richard: You not going to shoot my pistol targets with that rifle are you. You have been here before, right? Me: I have been here before and of course not. I wont stack them or shoot any trash either. (Prememptively avoiding the range rules speach to minimize contact) From then as long as your dont do something stupid or have a minority with you, you are good to go. James Austin, Texas |
Yup. Just like that. It's a shame too, that place has such GREAT potential. Too bad that nut job owns it. |
Somebody once posted they asked Richard about that. He was going off on one of his usual "Commie Aliens are going to blow up the world next week" rants. Guy asked, since the world was going to blow up in a week if he would mind selling the range since, according to his story it wouldnt be around next week anyway. Pricetag quoted by Richard was $2 Million if I remember correctly. Guy tired to bargain with him that he might as well take $50K, since it would be his loss anyway when the world ended next Saturday. Apparently he is crazy but not stupid enough to sell the range. James Austin, Texas |
Well shit. The land is only appraised at around 60K for the 20 or so acres. Crazy bastard. 
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It's gotta be quite a bit more then 20 acres. From Hamilton pool road to the range shack is almost a mile. It's several hundred acres at least. But yeah, it would be nice if he would sell it. Maybe we should visit the courthouse and tax assessors office to see exactly what/how much property there is there and who the actual owner is. Then ask a realator to provided a fair market value assesment. I'd chip in to help buy it if everything looked good. |
| You guys realize how fast that land would go it Richard sold it? Look at all the housetops that are now in visual range of the site. He's being encroached on by all sides. It's only a matter of time before someone buys next to him, complains about the noise.... |
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Richard has to have at least 100+ acres out there. Just the main range is 300 yards by 75 yards across. This doesn't include all the IDPA ranges in back and down below the main range. Land out on Hamilton Pool is worth on an extremely low range of $10,000 an acre. Hell, unimproved vacant land in Rock Springs, TX (3 to 4 hours west of Austin out I-10) runs $1000 an acre or more in my quest to build my own personal range. To break under 1k an acre you need to get out to Ozona, TX or farther. Richards land is probably closer to $15,000 an acre. It looks like the land is in some sort of trust and it probably is set up with grandfathered exemptions. The assement show the land value to be zero. Only 64k of productivity value is being assessed. Here is a nice piece a unimproved Hays county (89 acres) for a cool $1,000,000. :-( www.landsoftexas.com/texas/Index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=1498 Anybody in for a group buy on this one??? James Austin, Texas |
I think he used to own well over a hundred acres. He told me that the witches stole it from him and he has less than one hundred now  He recently told me the whole story, but all I rememberis the witches, something about the Kenedy's, and the human sacrifices on "witches hill" which is at your 2:00 when you're on the rifle range. 
Just a few weeks ago, my friend asked him how much it would cost to hunt on his land next deer season. Richard told him the price, then gave an evil grin  and said it didn't matter, becausethe world would be over by then. 
I hate to break this to you James, but Richard just doesn't like you I think it's time to ask him about the witches...you'll won't pay more than $10 again
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