Range Time

[Bambistew]

I admittedly don't spend a lot of time at the range in the last 4-5 years. Usually go to an open area, or go when most people don't go... i.e. well before hunting season, when it raining, or early mornings. This year I renewed my range pass for the first time in about 5 years, and have spent a fair amount of time there tinkering and playing with new loads, rifles etc. The one thing I've noticed that has changed since I used to spend time with the general public, is the amount of high dollar rifles, big ass scopes that cost more than my ATV, and the muzzle breaks. Holy cow... Its like everyone is a trained sniper or their day job is shooting match competitions. I can only imagine what it will be like in another 10 years. I guess I'm just turning into a jealous old curmudgeon.

On the upside, all my fluzy rifles are ready stack up critters inside ranges I can still see them with the backup open sights. Got my fingers crossed I can find something inside 300 yards this year.

 

[Irrelevant]

Mine answer was rifle + scope. I think that's what you were looking for.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I have a different primary weapon for deer and turkeys. Which one would best represent your intended purpose of the survey? Optics included in that price?

Thanks

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I found a guy who was taking up golf and got a good deal so I'm only $500 into my big game rifle... not sure what it's actually worth.

I'm always a bit astounded by the guys who have multiple $1500-2000 rifles + a 75k truck and then complain about how much X,Y,Z hunt costs. I guess some people like playing with toys and some people like hunting.

 

[noharleyyet]

I go to the range at first light on Sundays....hardly anyone else there. From early Sept to Nov the deer hunters will start showing up about the time I'm finishing. Occasionally someone checking their elk rifles...you can tell by looking at the gear who's who. All personable and grateful to talk about their set ups. It's a good fraternity for the most part...even the AR guys.

 

[Dave N]

Doesn't take much to break a grand anymore. And to think they don't even make a T/C Pro Hunter like mine these days. Use my .50 cal muzzy barrel almost exclusively. Topped it with a Leupold Ultimate Slam scope and it's a pretty good grocery getter!

 

[madtom]

One day this past winter, I spent the better part of a whole afternoon in an indoor 100 yard range testing different handloads for a rifle and allowing the rifle to cool between shots. Over the 4+ hours I was there, I saw probably 10 or more people come and go, and only one other person was shooting something other than an AR-15. Not sure if AR-15 owners now represent the vast majority of rifle shooters nationwide or if it's just because I live in Casper...

 

[Brian in Montana]

I own a couple of rifles with a little over $1K into them, including scope. I do see what you mean, though. I can hardly believe a lot of the stuff I see guys pulling out at the range. I don't know that I'm jealous in particular. Sure, it would be fun to shoot some of those toys but I'm a hunter primarily and not very interested in buying something I wouldn't want to haul up and down the mountains slung on my shoulder. That's a big reason I like Tikka.

 

[Little Canyon Creek]

I just recently moved away from Madison, WI after living there since 2013. When I first got there, I found out there wasn't much for shooting areas and a lot of the private ranges required meetings and fees that I couldn't justify as a poor graduate student working 80+ hour weeks. One time I did go to one of the private ranges that had public hours on certain Sundays. There was two fairly old range officers who spent there time telling people a 270 WSM might not cut it for elk. Apparently they hadn't heard about bullet technology in the A.P. (After Partition) era. It wasn't a great range irrespective of the blowhards, so I never went back.

One of my lab mates wanted to give hunting a shot last year and he found a public range that just opened up. He bought a really cheap Savage 110 package gun as an impulse buy. I think it was maybe a little under $400. It has a good barrel, a good trigger, and everything else needs a serious overhaul. There was some things I noticed when we went to these public ranges. If somebody had a hunting rifle, which was somewhat rare, it usually was an entry level gun. I can count on one hand the number of serious hunting rifles I saw. The vast majority of people were shooting ARs or military rifles. These people ended up frustrating me a lot. The most shocking was a group of guys who walked down to the targets when people were shooting. After that I was a lot more aggressive about enforcing range safety. It was only a couple days later that my friend told me they were keeping pistols in their pants. Another time a guy interrupted me when I was shooting to throw some Wisconsin style passive aggressive shade on me for my Colorado plates ("restricting stuff, blah, blah, blah"). Whatever, at least I could hit the 100 yard target I was shooting at, which was more than he could say. Not every interaction was bad, but I have just gotten tired of it.

Intermixed in all of this was a guy in his 50s shooting a Rem 760 .308 with a Leupold and see through rings. I think he was just happy to have a millenial like me come up and ask him about it.

I have other rifles and ones that are certainly much prettier, but my own personal workhorse is a Ruger boat paddle 308 that cost ~$450 new in 2009/10 ($530 in 2019 dollars). That is barely more than what a Ruger American sells for today. The race to the bottom in the present day gun world is frustrating.

 

[cahunter805]

There are certainly many nice rifles available from lots of manufacturers today. My problem with the “Long range” market is how many people do not put in the real world time to practice, verify and validate their own personal data. Even if only shooting 300-400 yards I believe you should verify and practice from field position and not just a bench.
I own custom rifles because I like to tinker and building rifles is addicting!

 

[ZBB]

I wouldn’t want my wife to know how much my whole setup cost. She did buy me the rifle, my scope is worth more than my rifle but I did some trading with some of my buddies who didn’t know how to use it and didn’t want it. When I was in high school I remember looking at Remington 700’s and they were around 400 if I remember right. A lot more now. Honestly I think/hope the “long range” deal is a fad. If I doesn’t go away I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10 years rifle season were either eliminated or way more difficult to get. I hope I’m wrong but, time will tell.