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  • benenglish

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    I hear of a range in Tomball, however I can't find an address or webpage for it. Help needed on that one.
    That would be the Tomball Gun Club. I've been there a few times.

    • Street address is technically 12600 Zion Road, Tomball, Texas 77375. That address, though, is the beginning of a private road named Schiel Nursery Road and the club is about 1500 yards north of Zion where the road finally dead ends.
    • Membership limited to 275 with a waiting list. Even if you know a member and can get a recommendation that puts you on the list, you'll still wait a very, very long time. A member there offered me an application back in about 2002 and told me at the time that wait times were over 5 years. At that time, the club cap was 200 members. Later they raised the cap to 275 members and for a while around 2008 it was possible to get into the club with a wait of just under 3 years. I shudder to think of what the wait list time is these days, now that development in the area has gone insane. I would be very surprised if the wait time was less than 5 years. The only real way to shoot at that range is to befriend a member and go as their guest. <ETA: As of 2016, the info in this bullet point is out of date. I've been told that membership now requires two current members to vouch for an applicant instead of one. Also, I haven't heard any reliable info about wait times and membership caps for quite a while. Anybody with more current info, please post it.>
    • The club is almost 100% focused on formal benchrest rifle shooting. There is no shotgun area. There used to be a pistol backstop thrown out there as an afterthought and a small Cowboy Action area. I haven't set foot on the range in quite a while but now on the satellite imagery I no longer see the CAS area and there are no longer any CAS matches on the club calendar. While there is still some sort of pistol match every month, the part of the line used for that has now been covered and rimfire benchrest matches (which would necessarily use the same space as any pistol shooters) have been added to the club calendar. While there is clearly a way to shoot something other than a benchrest rifle at the range, the point is that the powers-that-be at the club consider it a 99.9% benchrest rifle club. If you think a modern rifle should hold more than one shot at a time or if you can get any sleep the night after you shoot a 100-yard group over a half-inch in size under good conditions, you'll find the atmosphere at the club...uh...less than ideal.
      • With some diligent searching, you can find contact info for people who are members and try to get into the club but, IMO, you shouldn't bother unless formal benchrest is your sport of choice. Even then, the way to approach getting in is to find their web site, look at their calendar, show up at a match, introduce yourself, and tell the match director you want to get into benchrest. If you're not willing to go to that sort of old-school, press-the-flesh trouble to get into the club, then it's not the kind of place where you really want to be a member.
    • It is one of the great benchrest rifle clubs in the USA. At the regular club matches at this range (to say nothing of the couple of big shoots they have each year) you'll rub shoulders with world record holders, world champions, and members of the USA Benchrest Team and the Benchrest Hall of Fame. If benchrest rifle is your thing and you live within 100 miles of the place, becoming a member should be a "holy grail" goal in your life. Unfortunately, someone has to die or move away for you to move up a slot on the waiting list.

    entrance_zpsc85eecd5.jpg


    aerial_zpsb8060e02.jpg
    Guns International
     
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    Acera

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    Got it and have done so per your request.

    However, if they don't want that information out there, then they should have it removed from that other site. No sympathy to them in that regard.
     

    benenglish

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    However, if they don't want that information out there, then they should have it removed from that other site. No sympathy to them in that regard.
    Agreed. The NBRSA has to have a contact number for them and all that stuff gets published for reference by folks who have benchrest match-related business. Yes, they should have it in a members-only area.

    However, much of the benchrest community is incredibly old-school as in if you're under 60 you tend to get called "Sonny" at matches. I just don't think they have an awareness of the issues.
     

    Acera

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    Agreed. The NBRSA has to have a contact number for them and all that stuff gets published for reference by folks who have benchrest match-related business. Yes, they should have it in a members-only area.

    However, much of the benchrest community is incredibly old-school as in if you're under 60 you tend to get called "Sonny" at matches. I just don't think they have an awareness of the issues.

    Yeah I get that, what some call 'old school' others call AR :)


    I am sure they are going to love it now that the grand parkway is on their front doorstep.......................



    But probably a big plus to excel at that sport.

    Guess it is above them to figure out a way to get their own website posted to easily appear in web searches over the quick to find link I posted.



    FYI, still waiting on editing privileges for the 1st post.
     
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    Acera

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    Ok, got update privileges :)

    Please make sure all the ranges you know about are in the original posting.


    Will continue to work on a system that allows a quick overview of each range. Suggestions welcomed.

    Picture updated, hopefully interactive map soon.
     
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    Acera

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    Does anyone know about Champion Lake Gun Club Inc.??

    I see references to both Houston and League City on that one.

    What about Rives Rifle Range in Liberty???


    (Hey Allen, added Clay Mound Sporting Center in Liberty and Full Armor on the Katy Freeway to the list.)
     
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    benenglish

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    If you're going all the way to Angleton, there's the Greenwood Gun Club, 550 County Road 508, Brazoria, Texas 77422.

    It's a very beautiful, membership-only club with rifle facilities out to 600 yards. I've been there many times. IIRC, that's the first place where I did any 500 meter pistol shooting.

    greenwood_zpsa9d2bce7.png
     

    Acera

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    Bens comment got me thinking, what is too far?

    If we use 90 miles from downtown Houston, then we pretty much get all the way to the LA border, Huntsville, College Station, El Campo, etc included in this thing.

    What do you guys think is a good distance? Of course this depends on the side of town you are coming from, as Huntsville is a short easy drive from The Woodlands, but would suck from Texas City :)
     
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    benenglish

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    Bens comment got me thinking, what is too far?
    No answers, just questions:

    • What's the definition of "greater Houston"? I'd say anything inside the Sam Houston parkway qualifies. Then again, people who live in The Woodlands probably consider the Houston sub-forum to be their home on TGT and that's well outside the parkway loop.
    • How far will people drive to get to a range? I know I drive 75 miles to one club of which I'm a member
    • If we polled people on TGT who consider the Houston sub-forum to be their home section, how far away do you think the farthest respondent might be?
    • If you look at the TGT geographical sub-forums, it appears to me that "Houston" is probably home for everyone in the state living east of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi.
    If we drew this on a map and assigned to Houston everything this side of halfway to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus, it would look about like this:

    greaterhouston_zps924b4ff1.png


    That's clearly too much.

    Like I said, no answers. You are, however, asking the right question: "How far is too far?"
     

    Acera

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    No answers, just questions:

    • What's the definition of "greater Houston"? I'd say anything inside the Sam Houston parkway qualifies. Then again, people who live in The Woodlands probably consider the Houston sub-forum to be their home on TGT and that's well outside the parkway loop.
    • How far will people drive to get to a range? I know I drive 75 miles to one club of which I'm a member
    • If we polled people on TGT who consider the Houston sub-forum to be their home section, how far away do you think the farthest respondent might be?
    • If you look at the TGT geographical sub-forums, it appears to me that "Houston" is probably home for everyone in the state living east of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi.
    If we drew this on a map and assigned to Houston everything this side of halfway to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus, it would look about like this:



    That's clearly too much.

    Like I said, no answers. You are, however, asking the right question: "How far is too far?"


    I like the map you proposed, that is a pretty expansive area and I think it depends on where in our area you live, it is a big chunk of real estate. Driving out of town to a range is a heck of a lot easier than driving the same distance cross town. I think we have a pretty good spread now. However if any want to add ranges we don't have, please post them up. And if some of these others that are hard to find information about are within you area, please check them out. Any deficiencies in our list need to be pointed out and we will get them taken care of.

    So as always looking for suggestions. Still need help on a one line underneath the link ideas on how to get as much information about the range on a quick glance as possible.


    Right now, all ranges listed are within 50 miles as the crow flies from the courthouse downtown.


    Now another grander idea, Texas Gun Ranges. I think that would be a pretty big undertaking :)
     
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    benenglish

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    I like the map you proposed, ...
    It's not a proposal. It's a thought experiment designed to show that if we tried to divvy up the state according to the TGT home towns, Houston would have an area too large to reasonably handle.

    Driving out of town to a range is a heck of a lot easier than driving the same distance cross town.
    Quoted for truth. I prefer to drive 75 miles out of town to one club I belong to rather than drive 32 miles cross-town to another club where I'm a member.

    Now another grander idea, Texas Gun Ranges. I think that would be a pretty big undertaking :)
    It would be truly epic. However, it would also take dopplegangers for Acera and acorneau to pop up in every other TGT-designated home town.

    The best way to make it happen is for you guys to keep doing what you're doing until some folks in other areas get jealous and start their own projects, using this one as a template.

    Hint - That's a challenge, non-Houston readers. :)
     
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