Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I'm in the Manassas area and have several gun ranges near me. The closest is Elite. What I need is an outdoor range, so I can run a box of JHPs through each of my new guns. The closest outdoor range I know of is Clark Bros. in Warrenton, but they don't allow any other ammo than what they sell to you. The only other outdoor range in the area that I see in the search engines is Range 82 in Warrenton (not all that far from Clark Bros. off of 17).

Has anyone here been to Range 82? How's the staff? Are there any special requirements? Are there any others besides what I mentioned that are relatively close to Manassas?

TIA!

EDIT: And I just saw that Range 82 requires RSVP and the window of usage for handguns is small (12-3PM on Saturdays)...kinda restrictive, and I'm sure it's going to be busy as hell, too.

Range 82 is not that busy. Its actually a great range, but its fairly quite. That is actually one of the things I like about it.

I haven't been recently. Been too cold for my joints. I do go 18-20 times a year though.

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Two other ranges I found:

Fairfax Rod & Gun Club (membership required and the initial fees are $$$)

Izaak Walton Range (membership is required)

In both cases, a member (or even two) have to vouch for you...you have to be voted into the Izaak Walton range.

MarcSpaz wrote:Range 82 is not that busy. Its actually a great range, but its fairly quite. That is actually one of the things I like about it.

I haven't been recently. Been too cold for my joints. I do go 18-20 times a year though.

Thanks a ton for that information! I might give them a try tomorrow or next Saturday, if I've the time. I just need to ensure my guns won't choke on the SD/HD ammo I bought.

unixfool wrote:I'm in the Manassas area and have several gun ranges near me. The closest is Elite. What I need is an outdoor range, so I can run a box of JHPs through each of my new guns.

I'm curious. Why not use Elite for this?

Why do you need an outdoor range to shoot JHPs? I shoot at Sharpshooters, which is an indoor range in NoVA, and they allow JHPs.

I think fair fax rod and gun club has some open shoots. You have to check the calendar and see when they are. Otherwise you have to go out a bit to find a area with out door ranges. I shoot sometimes in Culpeper VA at Rose Hill Game preserve. They have a outdoor skeet range, and rifle/pistol. I am normally doing a hunt so I don't spend much time just target practice but they will let you do that too.

Chasbo00 wrote:

unixfool wrote:I'm in the Manassas area and have several gun ranges near me. The closest is Elite. What I need is an outdoor range, so I can run a box of JHPs through each of my new guns.

I'm curious. Why not use Elite for this?

I thought most indoor ranges generally didn't allow JHP. Am I flat out wrong, or is Elite the exception? I could ask them, I guess. I just don't want to use JHPs and then have someone complaining that I damaged a lane.

trailrunner wrote:Why do you need an outdoor range to shoot JHPs? I shoot at Sharpshooters, which is an indoor range in NoVA, and they allow JHPs.

I did not know this. Thanks for the information!

This seems to be the recurring reason for not allowing JHP indoors when I do a search on it:

I have talked with the rangemaster at OC indoor range about this (they recently switched to rubber backstop so this is no longer an issue) and he said that they ban JHPs because when they bounce back at you (which does happen with the solid backstops) they tend to have sharp edges which are more likely to cut/hurt you.

More about splatter than backdrop or equipment damage, I guess.

Here is the ammunition policy from Sharpshooters:

http://www.sharpshootersva.com/category-s/1825.htm

unixfool wrote: I thought most indoor ranges generally didn't allow JHP. Am I flat out wrong, or is Elite the exception? I could ask them, I guess. I just don't want to use JHPs and then have someone complaining that I damaged a lane.

Elite has their rules posted on their web site. No prohibition on shooting JHPs.

http://eliteshootingsports.com/images/e ... les_v2.pdf

My experience is that indoor ranges that do prohibit shooting JHPs are likely to have such poor ventilation that you probably don't want to shoot there anyway. It's normally said to be a lead issue. I've not heard the back splatter excuse before - sounds like bs to me.

I was going to say... Elite has sand trap back stops. No issues with JHP's there.