I am going to take some heat about this but let me try anyway. I moved down to Granbury (35miles SW FW) last October. I was living in Rhode Island prior. There was only one public range in Rhode Island which was run by the State to obtain Federal grant money. Rules were very prohibitive and the range was not utilized by many. But what we did have were private clubs. I belonged to one pistol club, indoors only, two ranges, one 50 feet with manual hand crank targets and one 75 feet with electric run targets. We had a meeting room, bathroom, and a gun cleaning room. You accessed the range via an electronic card, and hours were 6am to 10pm 7 days a week. Cost was $150/year and we had 450 members. It was an NRA insured range so you had to also be a NRA member. For rifle and shotgun I belonged to another range in the country (country for RI anyway) where we had a clubhouse to sit 100, indoor pistol range in the basement, 100, 200, 300 yard rifle range, and a 50/25 yard small rifle/pistol outdoor range. For shotgun we had both a skeet and a trap range. We also had a private 30 acre lake for those who wanted to fish. Membership was $200/yr and we had 250 members. Hours were 9am to dusk, but there was some days when the range was closed during deer season. Forgot to mention, we had 600 acres and members could hunt on the property.
Now while I wasn't born in Texas I did get here as soon as I could. Don't take this the wrong way, and send my arse packing, but I am dissappointed that there isn't better ranges or clubs in the area. 100 yards is not far for a rifle range, and all the indoor pistol ranges are pay per visit with a fair amount of restrictions. I guess its because in Texas there are a lot of people with land and you shoot on your own property. I called the sheriff and asked him about shooting on my property and he said as long as I was outside the city limits, there were no restricitions. So I constructed a 50 feet pistol range with a 6 feet dirt burm that can handle two shooters. But even with that I have neighbors complaining (it upsets my dogs, my cats, a stray bullet may hit my child, etc) This is not the burps, and I am 200 feet from the nearest house, but still it would be better to have more than 8 acres.
My point is not to complain about Texas, as this is generally a progun state which I love. But to see if there is anything we can do to make it better. Land is cheap here, in general terms. And the government is not anti gun. A club that brings in 400 members x $175/yr is $70,000 per year. This sound like enough to amortize a loan or repair investors. 20 investors at $20K each would be $400K. The dues would amortize the loan as well as pay for day to day.
By the way, the pistol club with 400 members, most of the time I was the only one there or there might be one or two others. There was 20 bays and I never once had to wait for someone to leave. The club would hold matches, but then use only one range leaving the other open to the members.
The one unknown I have is whether or not a range in someplace like Cresson or Godley would be able to get the 400 members. I would think it might but not here long enough to know the community.
What do you think, would something like this work here.
Now while I wasn't born in Texas I did get here as soon as I could. Don't take this the wrong way, and send my arse packing, but I am dissappointed that there isn't better ranges or clubs in the area. 100 yards is not far for a rifle range, and all the indoor pistol ranges are pay per visit with a fair amount of restrictions. I guess its because in Texas there are a lot of people with land and you shoot on your own property. I called the sheriff and asked him about shooting on my property and he said as long as I was outside the city limits, there were no restricitions. So I constructed a 50 feet pistol range with a 6 feet dirt burm that can handle two shooters. But even with that I have neighbors complaining (it upsets my dogs, my cats, a stray bullet may hit my child, etc) This is not the burps, and I am 200 feet from the nearest house, but still it would be better to have more than 8 acres.
My point is not to complain about Texas, as this is generally a progun state which I love. But to see if there is anything we can do to make it better. Land is cheap here, in general terms. And the government is not anti gun. A club that brings in 400 members x $175/yr is $70,000 per year. This sound like enough to amortize a loan or repair investors. 20 investors at $20K each would be $400K. The dues would amortize the loan as well as pay for day to day.
By the way, the pistol club with 400 members, most of the time I was the only one there or there might be one or two others. There was 20 bays and I never once had to wait for someone to leave. The club would hold matches, but then use only one range leaving the other open to the members.
The one unknown I have is whether or not a range in someplace like Cresson or Godley would be able to get the 400 members. I would think it might but not here long enough to know the community.
What do you think, would something like this work here.
