tarheel7734
Active Member
Looking for a range in the Killeen and Lampasas area. Is hicksville the closest?
is hicksville the closest to killeen?
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There is also Texas Star in Kempner and Shiny Top Ranch between Harker Heights and Salado off Crows Ranch Rd. I believe they both have websites. Have not been to Hicksville, yet, but am going on the 5th, or Texas Star. I ussually go to Shiny Top. Small, but nice. And close. Big plus.
from a non-recovering coffeeholic
from a non-recovering coffeeholic
I have not been to Shiny Top, but I have been by Texas Star Shooting Range, the Just Glocks range in Copperas Cove, Astro Shooting Range and Stans Outdoor Shooting range both down on 183.
Just Glocks-it's a decent range, but very small. Their pistol/shotgun bay is only about 6 lanes wide. Everyone shoots out of a covered shack which is a great idea! The thing I don't like about it is because it's so small, everyone is working off of one table. They do have a 50 or 75 yd rifle range, but it's only one lane. It's a pretty cool set up how they have it as well, but it's only one lane.
I think this would be a good range if it were cold out and you were going on a weekday during the day. It's about 1 mile from my house and I still rarely go there. When I do, it's usually just to do a quick test fire of a gun.
Texas Star Shooting Range- Lanes-wise, they're almost as big as Hicksville. However, there's several things I don't like about this range. It's easy to miss if you don't know where you're going. Then, the parking isn't all that great and it's pretty far from the lines. This can be a pain in the ass if you're like me where I shoot rifles, shotguns, and pistols, but I don't like lugging it all to the different areas. The rifle lane is only about 50 yds, and it's ON A FUCKING WOODEN PLATFORM!!! Who's bright idea was this? What's wrong with a wooden platform-you ask? Lets say you're sitting at your table or laying in the prone position, and you're lining up your target. You're just about to pull the trigger on that bad boy, really hoping to add on to the nice tight grouping you've been doing when....any avg sized adult comes up to set up their rifle. Boom boom boom-every step they take vibrates the wood platform. I used to R/C car race when I was younger. I've spend years on wooden platforms. It's damn near impossible to walk on one and not get some sort of vibration. Well-I take that back. If you're only using 4x4's for the corner posts, and 2x4's for your crossmembers and planks, you're good to go. The ones at TSSR are plywood sitting on 2x4's. Also, something else that another person pointed out is they don't have any lane protection. So, say you're on pistol and the pistol guys are ready to change their targets-well, you don't have much protection from the rifles other than hoping the person is a good shot. One thing that bugs me more as a quirk than anything else is how trashy the place is. It looks like they built it as cheaply as they could and aren't doing anything to make it nicer. There's a few plastic chairs here and there-all different colors-some missing a leg and laying around. The tables look like they were just donated or came from the curb. I think I even saw a few orange cones in the mix, but I'm not sure. My point is, you can make things cheap and still do it nicely. Then, if you are going to do things cheaply, it's always nice for your customers if you upgrade. I've been by there a few times the past year just checking progress and it's been pretty much the same all year. Now, they ARE a Class III dealer, and will keep your Class III item onsite until the tax stamp is approved. This allows you to go there and use it while you're waiting for your tax stamp. I went there about a month back to check in on how the range was looking and also see about getting a silencer. The guy did pretty good talking to me about silencers, but then he told me that since I was planning on putting it on a 300 blk, I would need to make sure to buy a multi-cal AR lower from him because my 5.56 lower wouldn't work with a 300 blk upper. I was bewildered, and even came on here to do a double check in case there was some new, weird thing going on I had never heard of. I even asked him what the difference was between the two lowers, and he told me he didn't know-he was just told that by his dealer. In my opinion, if you're selling Class III items, you better know what's going on with the guns they're going on and not just going by what you've been told by your dealer. So, I'll just avoid that place for any sort of future purchases. To add on to the business aspect, they have memberships. A single annual membership fee is $15. Then, every time you go to the range, you STILL HAVE TO PAY! It's going to run you $12 vs the $15 for a non-member. What's the damned point of having a membership if you're still making your members pay?? I just think that's retarded.
Overall-I would be pissed if this was my only option for a range.
Hicksville Gun Range: So, a couple summers ago I had just moved in the area and was looking around at my range options. Hicksville immediately stuck out to me as being the place to go. Costs are the lowest in the area at $10 to shoot paper all day, and then you can add in an extra $5 if you want to shoot steel on the pistol area. Shooting steel on the long rifle range IS included in your $10 option. All of the shooting areas are covered, each individual lane has it's own nice solid table and bench to work from, there are tire walls to divide up the different bays and prevent you from being hit by any ricochets when you're changing your target. Everything on the range has been built by JD, the owner. This goes for all the solid tables, the metal overhang, the metal building that holds the sign in and CHL classes, the berm..I mean everything. If you see it there, JD put it there. He gets a retirement check, so all the money he gets from shooters goes 100% back into the range in some way. One of the small things JD does that I've seen other ranges skip is when we don't have the cold killing everything off, he's out there mowing the grass on the range every thursday or friday so it's always nice for the weekend. The parking area is pretty big, and he has an extra field he can expand it into for the bigger meets. The pistol range is right next to the parking lot, and he even put in an extra gate in the fence by the 25 yd rifle sight in area so those guys can also have easy access back to their cars. The rifle 100 yd range is nice because you can literally pull your truck right up to the shooting bench. I've seen guys just work off the back of their pick ups, and then keep their table empty for shooting only. JD has about 10 different styles of paper targets for you to choose from, as well as safety gear, ammo, guns, gun accessories, range tshirts/bumper stickers, and drinks/snacks. When the CHL guy is out there, he can custom make you a hybrid holster for any pistol you give him while you wait. It takes a whole 20 min. I've sat through the CHL guys' class and been watching him hold them there for a year and a half - two years now. He runs a quality class. The rules are pretty relaxed here-it's basically just follow common sense. They have paper pistol, steel pistol, 25 yd rifle sight in, 100 yd rifle, 200-600 rifle, shotgun/pistol/rifle tac bay, 4 tac lanes for anything goes and a skeet area with two skeet throwers. They allow any caliber you can haul out there as well as explosives. Their thing with guns is as long as you can keep it on the berm, they'll allow it. I've seen a guy bring out a belt fed full auto AR15 and just let it go. Every round hit the berm, so there was fun had by all. We had a guy at our last meet that brought out a full auto M60, as well as a few guys in the past have brought out .50 cal rifles. It's all about having fun at Hicksville.
When I could afford it, I was going there every week-sometimes twice a week. Me going there so often has made the Hicks' and I pretty good friends and I look forward to continuing to go there as long as possible.
Astro: To me, it seems like a junkier TSSR without the wooden platforms for rifle shooting. AND it's out of the way. Nothing really special going on there. I do know they don't allow any of the bigger cals.
Stans: This is kinda funny-this place is so small and inconspicuous, I drove by it for 6 months before I realized where it was. I was looking for it, and kept seeing the GPS say I was passing it, but it just looks like...nothing! You have to really look for a berm, and look for the tables to realize what's there. It's kinda hilly there anyways, and they don't seem to do anything to keep it civilized looking, so you can drive by it with no problem. From what I can see passing it on the highway, it's got 4 lanes shooting into a berm. Anything goes.
Just Glocks-it's a decent range, but very small. Their pistol/shotgun bay is only about 6 lanes wide. Everyone shoots out of a covered shack which is a great idea! The thing I don't like about it is because it's so small, everyone is working off of one table. They do have a 50 or 75 yd rifle range, but it's only one lane. It's a pretty cool set up how they have it as well, but it's only one lane.
I think this would be a good range if it were cold out and you were going on a weekday during the day. It's about 1 mile from my house and I still rarely go there. When I do, it's usually just to do a quick test fire of a gun.
Texas Star Shooting Range- Lanes-wise, they're almost as big as Hicksville. However, there's several things I don't like about this range. It's easy to miss if you don't know where you're going. Then, the parking isn't all that great and it's pretty far from the lines. This can be a pain in the ass if you're like me where I shoot rifles, shotguns, and pistols, but I don't like lugging it all to the different areas. The rifle lane is only about 50 yds, and it's ON A FUCKING WOODEN PLATFORM!!! Who's bright idea was this? What's wrong with a wooden platform-you ask? Lets say you're sitting at your table or laying in the prone position, and you're lining up your target. You're just about to pull the trigger on that bad boy, really hoping to add on to the nice tight grouping you've been doing when....any avg sized adult comes up to set up their rifle. Boom boom boom-every step they take vibrates the wood platform. I used to R/C car race when I was younger. I've spend years on wooden platforms. It's damn near impossible to walk on one and not get some sort of vibration. Well-I take that back. If you're only using 4x4's for the corner posts, and 2x4's for your crossmembers and planks, you're good to go. The ones at TSSR are plywood sitting on 2x4's. Also, something else that another person pointed out is they don't have any lane protection. So, say you're on pistol and the pistol guys are ready to change their targets-well, you don't have much protection from the rifles other than hoping the person is a good shot. One thing that bugs me more as a quirk than anything else is how trashy the place is. It looks like they built it as cheaply as they could and aren't doing anything to make it nicer. There's a few plastic chairs here and there-all different colors-some missing a leg and laying around. The tables look like they were just donated or came from the curb. I think I even saw a few orange cones in the mix, but I'm not sure. My point is, you can make things cheap and still do it nicely. Then, if you are going to do things cheaply, it's always nice for your customers if you upgrade. I've been by there a few times the past year just checking progress and it's been pretty much the same all year. Now, they ARE a Class III dealer, and will keep your Class III item onsite until the tax stamp is approved. This allows you to go there and use it while you're waiting for your tax stamp. I went there about a month back to check in on how the range was looking and also see about getting a silencer. The guy did pretty good talking to me about silencers, but then he told me that since I was planning on putting it on a 300 blk, I would need to make sure to buy a multi-cal AR lower from him because my 5.56 lower wouldn't work with a 300 blk upper. I was bewildered, and even came on here to do a double check in case there was some new, weird thing going on I had never heard of. I even asked him what the difference was between the two lowers, and he told me he didn't know-he was just told that by his dealer. In my opinion, if you're selling Class III items, you better know what's going on with the guns they're going on and not just going by what you've been told by your dealer. So, I'll just avoid that place for any sort of future purchases. To add on to the business aspect, they have memberships. A single annual membership fee is $15. Then, every time you go to the range, you STILL HAVE TO PAY! It's going to run you $12 vs the $15 for a non-member. What's the damned point of having a membership if you're still making your members pay?? I just think that's retarded.
Overall-I would be pissed if this was my only option for a range.
Hicksville Gun Range: So, a couple summers ago I had just moved in the area and was looking around at my range options. Hicksville immediately stuck out to me as being the place to go. Costs are the lowest in the area at $10 to shoot paper all day, and then you can add in an extra $5 if you want to shoot steel on the pistol area. Shooting steel on the long rifle range IS included in your $10 option. All of the shooting areas are covered, each individual lane has it's own nice solid table and bench to work from, there are tire walls to divide up the different bays and prevent you from being hit by any ricochets when you're changing your target. Everything on the range has been built by JD, the owner. This goes for all the solid tables, the metal overhang, the metal building that holds the sign in and CHL classes, the berm..I mean everything. If you see it there, JD put it there. He gets a retirement check, so all the money he gets from shooters goes 100% back into the range in some way. One of the small things JD does that I've seen other ranges skip is when we don't have the cold killing everything off, he's out there mowing the grass on the range every thursday or friday so it's always nice for the weekend. The parking area is pretty big, and he has an extra field he can expand it into for the bigger meets. The pistol range is right next to the parking lot, and he even put in an extra gate in the fence by the 25 yd rifle sight in area so those guys can also have easy access back to their cars. The rifle 100 yd range is nice because you can literally pull your truck right up to the shooting bench. I've seen guys just work off the back of their pick ups, and then keep their table empty for shooting only. JD has about 10 different styles of paper targets for you to choose from, as well as safety gear, ammo, guns, gun accessories, range tshirts/bumper stickers, and drinks/snacks. When the CHL guy is out there, he can custom make you a hybrid holster for any pistol you give him while you wait. It takes a whole 20 min. I've sat through the CHL guys' class and been watching him hold them there for a year and a half - two years now. He runs a quality class. The rules are pretty relaxed here-it's basically just follow common sense. They have paper pistol, steel pistol, 25 yd rifle sight in, 100 yd rifle, 200-600 rifle, shotgun/pistol/rifle tac bay, 4 tac lanes for anything goes and a skeet area with two skeet throwers. They allow any caliber you can haul out there as well as explosives. Their thing with guns is as long as you can keep it on the berm, they'll allow it. I've seen a guy bring out a belt fed full auto AR15 and just let it go. Every round hit the berm, so there was fun had by all. We had a guy at our last meet that brought out a full auto M60, as well as a few guys in the past have brought out .50 cal rifles. It's all about having fun at Hicksville.
When I could afford it, I was going there every week-sometimes twice a week. Me going there so often has made the Hicks' and I pretty good friends and I look forward to continuing to go there as long as possible.
Astro: To me, it seems like a junkier TSSR without the wooden platforms for rifle shooting. AND it's out of the way. Nothing really special going on there. I do know they don't allow any of the bigger cals.
Stans: This is kinda funny-this place is so small and inconspicuous, I drove by it for 6 months before I realized where it was. I was looking for it, and kept seeing the GPS say I was passing it, but it just looks like...nothing! You have to really look for a berm, and look for the tables to realize what's there. It's kinda hilly there anyways, and they don't seem to do anything to keep it civilized looking, so you can drive by it with no problem. From what I can see passing it on the highway, it's got 4 lanes shooting into a berm. Anything goes.
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Usually wind up out there on tuesday or wednesday. Nobody but me. It is on a working cattle ranch with a hunt camp. Started out to sight in hunters.
The people that run it are friends, just a peaceful place to shoot without big crowds.
Sent by a idjit coffeeholic
That's actually not bad looking. I like it when people take pride in their range.
Usually workin those days. Maybe this summer I'll be able to afford to take a day off and go chootin 
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