Why You Should Avoid The Shooting Range
Hammer1
5/26/13
For many shooters, it’s a ritual to pack the range bag and head off to the shooting range. Shooting ranges are great places to, well, send rounds downrange. You show up, unpack your things on the little bench, pull out your weapon, break out into your favorite weaver or isosceles stance, and fire off a few dozen rounds. At the end of all that, you pack it all up and head home. Rinse, repeat.
There are some serious problems with shooting like this, however. Months, years, or even a lifetime spent range shooting really limits you as a tactical shooter. You might think you’re honing your shooting skills and to some degree, you are. Trigger squeeze, breath control, grip, and stance can all be extremely finely tuned by putting in some serious range time. There are some areas that atrophy badly on a range, however and these are areas you may not have even learned to begin with!
Not The Optimal Choice
Consider that the basic design of most shooting ranges especially indoor ranges is primarily centered around the concept of shooter safety rather than effective shooting. Many ranges place shooters very close together, separating them from each other with dividers. Most shooters will fire their weapon within a very narrow box, almost like having blinders on.
Consider the average range for a moment:
- Comprised of a bunch of shooting stalls packed into close quarters.
- You’re only allowed to shoot targets in your lane.
- You’re usually only allowed to shoot from a standing position.
- Drawing from a holster is usually discouraged or prohibited.
- The elevation of the target remains constant.
Realize that all of the above limitations are there for one thing, and one thing only shooter safety. That’s great when you fill a large room with a bunch of armed strangers, but you’re really missing out on learning some fundamental shooting skills! If you’ve never learned those skills, you’re missing a whole dimension of shooting. What skills are we talking about?
How about:
- The close quarters of a range puts you right in the middle of lots of armed people and lots of loud gunshots going off around you. If you’re vigilant (you are vigilant, aren‘t you?), you don’t spend most of your time concentrating on your lane instead, you‘re keeping a close eye on the yahoo beside you trying to impress his girlfriend rather than watch his muzzle.
- Being only allowed to shoot targets in your lane essentially makes you a perpendicular shooter. You’ve never shot targets at oblique angles or from anything other than dead on!
- Shooting from a standing position is fine, but realize that in a tactical situation you might be shooting from anything but a standing position. Have you ever shot prone? How about supine (on your back)? How about kneeling, or even behind cover? Have you ever shot under a car? How about flat on your side behind a rock? These are all positions of cover, and cover is essential in a gunfight.
- Drawing from a holster is an essential skill if you carry a firearm for a living. Even if you have a concealed license, you need to practice your draw. You aren’t going to be walking around with a handgun in your hand all the time, are you?
- Target elevation is important. Most range targets are conveniently placed at “normal guy height,” for lack of a better term. But what about shooting at someone in a second-story window? Or shooting down a hill at an attacker? Elevation is much more than just man height. You need to be flexible.
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The things i’ve seen at shooting ranges scare me to death. I remember one idiot who had a kid about three shooting a gun. Another time some clowns put a can full of explosives at the end of the range and asked me to shoot it (they didn’t have a gun).
That’s why i avoid ranges. Plus some guys have really loud guns that wreck your ears even with muffs on.
Haha! 8 totally understand, one time at the range I think death almost came calling. I turned my head to talk to my wife and ZING! A damn ricochet whizzed inches from my ear! If I hadn’t have moved I think it would’ve been the end! People are so stupid at the range. No thanks, we’ll go to the unpopulated dessert!
you got a problem with drunk drivers? I wish more drove drunk and took out family’s like yours,idiot!
That’s funny, because that’s never happened to me in the last 3 years of going to the range once a month..
The ranges I’ve gone to don’t condone that kind of behavior. They are strict and friendly.
And safe.
Use an earmuff with ear plugs if you’re that worried about your hearing. Concerts, and even certain movies are just as dangerous.
twitter @theMissesHelp
is anyone concerned about being on camera at the range. you are there showing what you have.
We had a case a year or so ago when a guy went to a remote shooting range only to be murdered by persons unknown and his vehicle and firearms stolen. As far as I know, nobody has been arrested.
Shoot wherever you can shoot. Range shooting is better than no shooting.
Buy a replica air soft of the rifle you own and practice in your house or backyard however you want. An action figure (non human a deer or other animal 3-4″tall) at 10 meters through iron sights of the rifle will equal 300 or so yards. Paper targets will work for your air soft hand guns. Many operate the same as the real thing.
good info but ya if that’s all you have then your stuck.
I can see the point of the author, in that a “one-dimensional frame of thought”, as per how someone MIGHT need ‘more consistent and live training’, in the use of firearms.
I must, and do, remind the author, that NOT EVERYBODY CAN AFFORD either time and/or money, for such a glorious thing.
I must, and do, remind the Author, that there are those that are elderly, or headed that way, that are quite comfortable in that ‘one-dimensional point of view’, BECAUSE THEY CANNOT CAVORT AROUND SOME OF THOSE TRAINING PLACES AS SEEN ON THE CABLE OUTDOOR SPORTS CHANNELS. I, am among that group, by age, and not by choice, but with forever edemous bad legs, ergo, on my two feet, making my stand, is doing the best I can do.
I must, and do, remind the Author, that there is a group within the American firearm-owning populace, that believe that revolvers are still quite effective. However, all of this Super High Intensity Training, more like madly cavorting about a training range, is designed for those that need as many rounds to m-m-m-miss their target, as socially acceptable, with the usage of semi-automatic pistols. The late lt.Col. Jeff Cooper embraced The Mozambique Drill, albeit with a 1911 Colt autopistol that was designed with a seven round capacity.
I would remind the Author, as long as I am mentioning revolvers, that one round fired, a 158-grain lead-round-nosed-bullet, from the then-current-state-of-the-art Colt Cobra snubnose revolver of Jack Ruby, rendered unto Lee Harvey Oswald, at bad-breath-detectable range: took out his spleen, pancreas, right kidney, a few arteries, and the diaphragm.
In this day and world, all the range cavorting, and Super High Intensity Training, might be good for some folks, but for the rest of us, the day will go good should we still be standing, and “They” not!
I must, and do, remind the Author of an axiom now accepted as fact. “Watch out for the old guy, he won’t fight you, he can’t run, so he might just up and shoot you dead.”
On range issues, I personally like the guy whos teaching his kid to shoot and it talkin with there hands with a loaded weapon. I have spend 4 years in the army as a sniper and like to shoot twice a month. I have watched morons shoot safty glass that seperates the gun shop and the range, also the work bench. Had a moron point his me while making idle conversation. Article is correct if you want to live avoid idiots at the range.
If you cant afford tactical combat traing get in involved with paintball gun clubs. It will be good practice and then on your own go into woods and practice with your weapon. Practice in your house with your weapon ( unloaded please. ) Think outside the box. Dont just learn from youtube vids, or you will absolutely fail inrwal life. Most of all, learn to keep a clear head and dont panic. You have to learn to get mean like a junkyard dog if you want to survive. Also get rid of trendy cool guns in 9mm and .40 cal. One shot per target is a matter of life or death for you. .44 mag and .357mag Ruger revolvers are what I tell people to get. Also a Mossberg 835 12ga shotgun. Forget .223 rifles. Yoy need a semi auto that chambers a 7.62×51 NATO or .308. Anything less and you will be at a disadvantage. Now stop using the range feds watch and go practice for real.
Practice at an open outdoor range only using multiple targets at different distances. Continually move and scan your parameters. Be comfortable in dropping mags and quickly top off new un-spent mags instantaneously. Use your peripheral vision to check for treats and do not holster until all threats are neutralized. Refrain from “tunnel vision” on only one threat.
only trouble I ever had @ the range was being in the center & asked to move to the right end so the spent’s from my HK91 wouldn’t hit the guys next to me… lol
Reporter calls defending ourselves “INCONVENIENT”javascript:grin(‘:mad:’)
&& NC Police AGREE !!
Listen to this >> http://www.wncn.com/story/22436417/gun-group
So I guess we go tell our loved ones ” sorry about that Little Ole Pesky RAPE!! But gosh darn its just “not convenient” !!!!!
Good luck wit that tho…
The private range by men has a small town setting with buildings and targets that popup in the windows, it is for handgun use only and many law-enforcement personnel, use it on designated times and days, it also offers a 1000 yard range.
To survive the enemy, learn how to use their weapons, because thats where you will getting your unlimited supply of ammo from, 44 mag is a great weapon, if you reload, a have a suppressor which is noneffective and not legal…
semi autos, which will be banded soon is nice to learn since, you will be going against them in battle…and figure 9mm to own as a side arm which most military and enforcement carry…
Find a range that rents the weapons, so you don’t have to invest and detest, and for practice use a 22 to get used to the feel and targeting.
Goto auctions for purchases on your rifles, and shotguns, and learn how to effectively use a shotgun.
If you have never taken another s life, chances are you will shake, and have poor focus on your more experienced target, which would be bad for YOU. And not them.
Shotgun, aim in the general direction and squeeze, then disarm and retrieve the weapon and ammo, long range requires skill, training, and equipment.
Go play paintball might be fun, but there are no tactics, just people shooting all over the place, until they hit something.
Think 1 shot 1 kill, and conserve your ammo