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  • baboon

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    May 6, 2008
    22,459
    96
    Out here by the lake!
    I could go to a shooting range but I am cheap so is there a place we can practice for free?
    Freedom was never free so why would shooting be? Anyplace free would be you going somewhere with someone paying one way or another.

    Next some members will be asking just were are you from that shooting was free? They might even tell you if you don't like paying up, then return to that other place with more freedoms.
     

    candcallen

    Crotchety, Snarky, Truthful. You'll get over it.
    Emeritus - "Texas Proud"
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Jul 23, 2011
    21,358
    96
    Little Elm
    One thing I miss about AZ is all the public land where shooting is free. Texas doesnt have that.

    One thing I dont miss about AZ ate all the phucking retards who destroy public land thinking they dont have to pack out their trash brass and not damage trees cactus stock tanks etc. Then the idiots on toys fighting with idiots shooting over who gets to use the millions of acres of public land. All leading to closure of said land to shooting and 2 or 4 wheeling.

    Add to that the gas and it's never free.

    Just pay 20 bucks at a range near you or develop relationships with folks who have ranges on their property.


    P.S., it ain't free to them either.
     

    Sasquatch

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Apr 20, 2020
    6,590
    96
    Magnolia
    I could go to a shooting range but I am cheap so is there a place we can practice for free?

    Make friends with a land owner who has enough land to shoot. That's going to be your best "free" option.

    Otherwise you're probably going to have to move to a state with public lands that aren't closed to target shooting. I came from such a place. It takes some adjustment, yes, but honestly - range fees ain't that bad.

    I used to drive 45-60 minutes (depending on traffic) to get to the closest safe "free" place to shoot. That was about a 40 mile drive from home back then. So 80 miles round-trip, or about 4.5 gallons of gas to get there. Gas in the PNW typically runs about a dollar or more higher per gallon than it does here in Texas. So lets say right now it'd be about $4 - 4.50 per gallon (their prices haven't come down as fast as ours, per my relatives still up there) - so at best I'd be looking at $18 in fuel just to get there, maybe as much as $22.50 for a round trip

    Depending on the day - you may have to wait for a spot to open up. If you were shooting on the weekends, if you weren't there by 7 or 8 AM, you waited until someone was done shooting before you got to shoot. The roads up there were sketchy too - narrow, curvy. Muddy. AT times you couldn't get up there without 4WD. Then you got to shoot in whatever the weather was, or stay home if you're weather adverse.

    The upshot? You could shoot the cheap steel or aluminum case ammo. The down side? Those places get trashed real quick. People are assholes and even "gun people" will just go there, shoot literal trash (never mind the regulations governing target shooting that said you were only to shoot commercial manufactured targets or paper targets) and were it not for volunteer clean up efforts - the place would've been shut down years ago because of the littering.

    That's what happens at "free" places - eventually the government agency that manages them will shut down target shooting because people drag out TV's, dish washers, propane tanks, soda jugs, etc and they shoot the shit out of it then leave it behind to be someone else's problem.

    Those "free" places are some scary places too - when others are shooting. Besides the occasional thefts / robberies at such places, its every yokel and cousin-fucker out there blasting with whatever they've bought or stolen, with ****-all regard for safety. Got to be amped up and always on your toes out there because the guy at the next spot over could wind up shooting your way on purpose or because of retardation.

    I *never* shot all my guns dry in those places. ALWAYS had a hot gun ready to grab in case of someone coming up to rob you. Happens. A lot more than you'd think.

    For me - I can drive 15 miles (so 30 round trip) so burning less than 2 gallons of gas, so maybe $6 in fuel. For $23 bucks I can rent a 50 yard bay for an hour and shoot in a climate controlled bay and at least know that I probably won't get robbed, the people have to have *some* idea of safe gun handling just to be allowed into the bays, and there are paid range safety officers watching over the tards, so I can relax and focus on what I'm there for. Cleanup is also a breeze there - don't have to take trash bags and pack everyting out. Don't have to hunt every bit of brass and pick it up. Don't have to clean up after other people. Just safely stow the guns, take down the targets for taking home or throwing away or whatever. That's it.

    Can also rent guns if they have something I want to try. The biggest downside, I can't shoot the steel case stuff I have stored up, but the range I go to allows you to bring your own ammo, so long as its brass cased and not steel jacketed or steel penetrator type ammo so you're not wrecking their range. All in all I'm not paying any more to go shooting now, than I was when I was going to the "free" places to shoot.

    I get being cheap, or not having the cash to shoot as often. Lot of us are in that situation - if even because replacing the ammo is way more expensive now than it was a few years ago, and sometimes the ammo is harder to come by now. Just want to point out that "free" places to shoot aren't really free, and there's upsides to going to a real gun range.
     

    candcallen

    Crotchety, Snarky, Truthful. You'll get over it.
    Emeritus - "Texas Proud"
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Jul 23, 2011
    21,358
    96
    Little Elm
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