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New indoor range in Temple

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  • jrbfishn

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    Have not been there, but one of my customers has. Said it was really nice. Rentals of all kinds of WW2 guns. Yup, including full auto. Firearms for sale too. My customer also said there was a 300 yd indoor range. A tube or something.

    sent from an idgit coffeeholic
     

    benenglish

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    My customer also said there was a 300 yd indoor range. A tube or something.
    Boy, I hope not. Simple tubes usually have ridiculous mirage problems due to the temperature changes they experience. To make a long indoor range work, you have to bury it under quite a bit of dirt (to maintain stable temps and humidity) or build it big (so you can rely on climate control). I know of just two places in Texas that took the first of those approaches and one that took the second with perfect success. Only the first two ranges are still in existence. (The last one was "the Houston Warehouse" so famed in benchrest lore, if anybody remembers back that far. If you were one of the lucky ones who used it, please start a thread. I'd love to hear about it.)

    Most private industry attempts at long (100 yards and up) indoor ranges are miserable failures.

    If this new place is built right, I'd be willing to travel there just to use it. We need an experienced benchrest shooter to try it out and write a range report.
     

    TexasBrandon

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    I prefer Shiny Top Ranch. Me and Jrbfishn went today, my second time there and had some fun with handguns and .22. Those indoor ranges usually time check you and I like to waste an entire day at the range sometimes or at least several hours.
     

    Vaquero

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    Boy, I hope not. Simple tubes usually have ridiculous mirage problems due to the temperature changes they experience. To make a long indoor range work, you have to bury it under quite a bit of dirt (to maintain stable temps and humidity) or build it big (so you can rely on climate control). I know of just two places in Texas that took the first of those approaches and one that took the second with perfect success. Only the first two ranges are still in existence. (The last one was "the Houston Warehouse" so famed in benchrest lore, if anybody remembers back that far. If you were one of the lucky ones who used it, please start a thread. I'd love to hear about it.)

    Most private industry attempts at long (100 yards and up) indoor ranges are miserable failures.

    If this new place is built right, I'd be willing to travel there just to use it. We need an experienced benchrest shooter to try it out and write a range report.

    Ben,
    what diameter were the tubes? I can only imagine the heat buildup in an unshaded one.
     

    benenglish

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    Ben,
    what diameter were the tubes? I can only imagine the heat buildup in an unshaded one.
    Are you asking about the successful or the unsuccessful ones?

    I've seen people use elevated, uninsulated, corrugated metal tubes 2 or 3 feet in diameter, stretching 100 yards. After all, that will keep wind from moving bullets, right? Well, that particular tube had mirage so bad you frequently couldn't even see through it.

    Sufficiently buried tubes will generally be at least 8 feet across, using those giant, square-cross-section concrete sections that are used for major wastewater handling. Surrounded by 6 or 8 feet of dirt, they can be stable enough to work. I've also seen cut tunnels that were as narrow as 4 feet but had to be pretty tall and buried a lot deeper. There are as many ways to do it right as their are sites to build on. And for each of those sites, there are 1000 ways to do it wrong.

    A (in some circles, "The") properly built 100-yard range run by the guy who knows more about how to shoot in a long indoor range than anyone in the world is the facility run by Gene Beggs in Odessa. It's available by appointment only. If you want to schedule some time there, PM me. I'll send you his email and you can correspond with him directly.
     

    jrbfishn

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    Well and there is the chance he was wrong too. It didn't sound right but the only thing I knew for sure was what I saw on the news. Won't get by there for a week or two.
     

    TexasBrandon

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    I didn't realize they even existed. Their membership cost is outrageous though. I wonder if the LE/Military price is extended to Disabled Veterans too? Shiny top is just a few minutes down the road from me and is, in my opinion, a cool place to go shoot. Been there many times now and good people there. Seems like Hawkeye might be more like Red's in Pflugerville. I'll give it a shot once though to see how things go.
     

    casp625

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    I wouldn't consider a membership; hourly fee is $15, and that's reasonable for the facility. I do most of my shooting outdoors, anyway.
    I've been to Hawkeye as well and while I wouldn't consider a membership, I'll probably be back for the hourly. It nice to be able to shoot indoors when the weather isn't permitting for outdoor shooting. Of course, Belton is supposed is supposed to be getting an indoor range as well, if they get around to it.
     
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