Houston Crew (and points north) Range Day 09/14/2013

[benenglish]

A Side Note and Personal Plea for Mercy

Please understand that I'm relaying the way things are and not making pronouncements on my own behalf. I'm starting to see how all these posts could make me sound like a bit of a prick but I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just relaying the way things are and the way we'll have to accept them if we want to be allowed to stay on the range.

 

[TundraWookiee]

SOPs and allowed/disallowed firearms

Another of the reasons I visited the range was because I wasn't extremely confident about the size of the berms. Some of them are pretty small, both in thickness and height. The property line for the club is about 150 yards past the 300 yard berm, so shots that don't impact the berm are absolutely a huge problem. (More on this later.)

Due to the limits to the facilities and the general culture of the club, the following long-standing rules must be obeyed by everyone who attends.

• No full auto.
  
• No SlideFire.
  
• No .50 BMG.
  
• No rifles more powerful than 30-06.

No, I don't like this any more than some of you. I'd love to shoot a .50 (or a .338 LM or a .30-378 Wby, ad infinitum) but the range was not designed with them in mind. A couple of the longer-range berms are thin enough that a shot more than half-way up the berm with a .50 BMG would completely penetrate the berm. Thus, I can understand these rules.

Of course, it doesn't matter if I understand the rules. They exist. They're engraved in stone. We must obey them. Period.

Look, I know how disappointed some of you will be with this. I feel the same. However, it's better to know now and plan than screw up and get thrown off the range the day of the meet.

This one certainly puts a damper on things. That pretty much eliminates all of WestFork's toys and a big part of the reason I was willing to make the trek up there. I have a small berm at home that I can shoot at or can make a much shorter drive to a Houston range for normal slow-fire target shooting. This may have killed it for me unfortunately. I certainly understand the reason why and think that it is wise given the facility but doesn't make it suck any less.

 

[TundraWookiee]

A Side Note and Personal Plea for Mercy

Please understand that I'm relaying the way things are and not making pronouncements on my own behalf. I'm starting to see how all these posts could make me sound like a bit of a prick but I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just relaying the way things are and the way we'll have to accept them if we want to be allowed to stay on the range.

I don't think prick or jerk are words that anyone on here would ever use to describe you Ben. I'm pretty sure everyone appreciates all that you have done and we all love having you around.

 

[matefrio]

No full auto is defiantly a wet blanket on some of my expectations, that said I'm still going. Later in the day works better for me, I have obligations in the morning. Headed up to WI Sunday and packing some Saturday morning.

benenglish, no issue with you being a RO.

Any plans for an offsite get together after the shooting?

 

[mikeofcontex]

A Side Note and Personal Plea for Mercy

Please understand that I'm relaying the way things are and not making pronouncements on my own behalf. I'm starting to see how all these posts could make me sound like a bit of a prick but I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just relaying the way things are and the way we'll have to accept them if we want to be allowed to stay on the range.

You've done well. Ignorance is not our friend.

 

[benenglish]

Is it still okay if we bring our own targets/objects, Tannerite, etc.?

Targets, yes, of course.

Objects...I don't know. Sorry, I missed out on asking about this.

Tannerite?

I wish you could have seen the way the members I was talking to turned white when the whole notion of full-autos and .50s came up. I was walking a line to keep the president from simply declaring the entire range off-limits to us and he mentioned that possibility several times. He mentioned it in a good-old-boy way, as in "I'm not tryin' to..." but it was clear he was super-uncomfortable with the whole prospect of a couple of dozen heathens descending on his club.

So, I didn't ask him directly. Consider that I failed in my duty there. However, I'd bet my bottom dollar that if we shot a small container of Tannerite, the next shots fired would be from the president and aimed at us.

That's just my impression but even as autistic-spectrum as I am, I feel very confident in that judgment.

Another big disappointment, I know.

Look on the bright side; there won't be as much stuff to clean up.

Another consideration - There are cows all around (and occasionally on) the range. I know for a fact that severe stress on those cows, i.e. them being close to a serious concussive blast, would be an invitation to the neighbors to go ape. Let old Betsy stop nursing because she got stressed by them yahoos blowing shit up and, well, right or not we'd get the blame and cause major trouble for the range.

I have not discussed this particular point with Curtis. Let's see what he has to say. In my judgment, though, Tannerite is a complete no-go.

 

[benenglish]

One more thing about Tannerite - The target holders at the range are not sturdy enough to withstand any close detonations. Tannerite close to the berms would cause more damage then we'd be willing or able to fix. Tannerite set out in the open would mean that the projectile used to set it off would skip out of the range. One more nail in that coffin. That brings me to

More About The Berms

All shots fired must impact the berms. This may be a problem at the pistol range. A target put up in the mobile frames on that range could be so low that after passing through the target a bullet would hit the ground 40 yards out. Since the 50 yard berm is actually some 75 yards away, that means it would likely skip over the berm. When targets are set close to the firing line, we need to make sure that they are posted high enough that the bullets passing through them actually hit the berm.

I hung a target too low this morning and found that I needed to sit down to shoot it so that the bullet would stay above ground level all the way out to the berm.

The same principle applies to the far berms. They should be less of a problem since targets are normally posted close to them. However, there will be 25-yard target frames on the 100, 200, and 300 yard lines for sighting in. Be mindful of what's behind the bullseye so that the final resting place of all bullets is in the berm and not wherever it happened to ricochet to.

 

[benenglish]

Any plans for an offsite get together after the shooting?

Lordy, I hope so.

 

[benenglish]

I'm going to stop posting for a while to let Curtis chime in (in case I've got something wrong) and to let everyone discuss for a while. There are lots of changes here and I know this will cause the attendance to drop. I'm sorry about that but the rules are not something we can change and the club president will be in attendance to throw us out if we try.

See y'all late tonite or tomorrow.

 

[benenglish]

Breaking my own promise, (hopefully just) one more post.

1. Does anyone attending have EMT, combat medic, Red Cross emergency first aid, or any other medical training? I'll bring a trauma kit but I'd hate to be the only one who's willing to use it.
2. I need multiple volunteers for emergency procedure jobs. God forbid something should go wrong but if it does, I'll need at least 6 people to brief on procedures. Normally I wouldn't need that many but this range is a tad isolated and that means more people would be needed.
3. I've decided not to bring that .25 ACP ammo. I'll update the other thread. Since we need to keep all bullets on the berm and the closest berm is ~75 yards out, shooting .25 pistols at this range (or derringers or anything that's only good at poker-table distances) is a very bad idea.

I'm sure I'll think of other stuff later but that's all for now.

 

[cbigclarke]

Shit.. I was a EMT once; but i won't be able to make it

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[craigntx]

anybody else gonna ride an mc up there from houston?
pm

 

[Tejano Scott]

This one certainly puts a damper on things. That pretty much eliminates all of WestFork's toys and a big part of the reason I was willing to make the trek up there. I have a small berm at home that I can shoot at or can make a much shorter drive to a Houston range for normal slow-fire target shooting. This may have killed it for me unfortunately. I certainly understand the reason why and think that it is wise given the facility but doesn't make it suck any less.

bummer. Glad you got the full scoop Ben. Not sure I can justify cutting short some of my other plans that day without the full auto incentive.

 

[benenglish]

anybody else gonna ride an mc up there from houston?

Just an observation - I was coming from Spring, just south of The Woodlands, and it took me right at 1.5 hours to get there. The last couple of miles are on washboard-y dirt. If you're the type who hates getting his bike dusty, the trip won't be fun.

 

[benenglish]

Not sure I can justify cutting short some of my other plans that day without the full auto incentive.

My guess is that a number of folks will feel the same way. Just a guess.

 

[craigntx]

Just an observation - I was coming from Spring, just south of The Woodlands, and it took me right at 1.5 hours to get there. The last couple of miles are on washboard-y dirt. If you're the type who hates getting his bike dusty, the trip won't be fun.

Dirt aint a problem but how rough is it?

Edit: after seeing the rule updates i think im sittin this one out

 

[Sugar Land]

That is probably a good guess Ben. Is the rapid fire rule one shot per second?

 

[Greg_TX]

My guess is that a number of folks will feel the same way. Just a guess.

Yeah, it's true for me at least that the full-auto toys and reactive targets were the things drawing me toward the outing. I'm still planning to go, but I'll most likely scale back on what I plan to bring.

 

[Brains]

Wow, thank you so much for doing the leg work to grab these details. I'm on the fence now. On one hand, I really want to shed the noob status and meet a bunch of you yahoos. On the other, it a LLOONNGG drive from Cypress to basically do what I can do right next door at Hot Wells.

 

[benenglish]

That is probably a good guess Ben. Is the rapid fire rule one shot per second?

I didn't cover everything, unfortunately. I'm considering driving back up there tomorrow to talk to one of the officers who is in possession of the SOP book.