Gun Club question ????

[JES Consulting]

Hello.
Is there any gun club/range 50 miles from Boston,except Mass rifle,which has an inside 24/7 range, where you can shoot pistol and rifle with no restriction on caliber and type of ammo?

Thank you.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

http://www.hsasports.com Hopkinton, 3 miles south of the I90/495 intersection - the only restriction is conventional pistol calibers only. Sorry, if you bring a Thompson Contender in .223, 7mm or .308 and start to drill holes in a pistol backstop with your rifle round because the BATF calls your gun a pistol, someone's going to be upset. If you bring a 50AE desert eagle, nobody will mind.

 

[JES Consulting]

Thank you for info.However I meant inside 24/7 rifle and pistol range together.
Kind of like LOEB range at Mass. rifle.

 

[Thor67]

I doubt that there are ANY inside ranges with absolutely NO restrictions on caliber. A .50 BMG (for example) will go through all backstops.

Did you have a specific caliber you're interested in shooting?

 

[JES Consulting]

I am looking for inside 24/7 range where I can shoot handgun and .223 out of an AR, for example, at the same time.

 

[M1911]

A .50 BMG (for example) will go through all backstops.

Not quite. S&W has an indoor 100 yard range with a backstop that can handle .50 BMG -- 20 feet of sand will do that. Of course, it isn't open to the public, except in IDPA matches and the like...

 

[Thor67]

it isn't open to the public,

Exactly!

Here's a list of MA ranges from the NRA. Might help: http://www.nrahq.org/shootingrange/findlocal.asp?State=MA

 

[Len-2A Training]

Check the GOAL website under Clubs and start calling around . . . usually on Sunday mornings someone is at most gun clubs.

www.goal.org

 

[rscalzo]

Nothing up here in NH will take centerfire rifle cal. in their indoor range.

 

[Scrivener]

AFS in North Attleboro will fulfill most of your requirements, other than full 24/7 access.

 

[hminsky]

You can shoot .223 and other rifle, and pistol at the Loeb range at Mass Rifle.

 

[C-pher]

AFS in North Attleboro will fulfill most of your requirements, other than full 24/7 access.

I was going to say.. They will let you shoot BMG if I'm not mistaken indoors.

 

[Jay G]

Nothing up here in NH will take centerfire rifle cal. in their indoor range.

Not entirely true - I've fired .30-30 at The Firing Line in Manchester.

Interestingly enough, they won't allow 7.62X39mm except as frangible rounds, even though it's ballistically similar to .30-30...

 

[Ray P]

Not entirely true - I've fired .30-30 at The Firing Line in Manchester.

Interestingly enough, they won't allow 7.62X39mm except as frangible rounds, even though it's ballistically similar to .30-30...

Is that because .30-30 is typically flat-nosed lead or hollow-point vs. the mil-surp FMJ 7.62x39?

 

[rscalzo]

Manchester would not fullfill the requirement of a 24/7 range. That is going to be very difficult to satisfy.

 

[Chris]

In order to handle what you want, you'd have to find a private club that was willing to install a 'snail' style backstop (basically sends the round into a spiral to allow energy to be dissipated over time)

With a cost of about $1000 per foot and requiring up to 24' behind the targets to fit the capture chamber, few if any clubs I know can afford this kind of setup. (image is a side view of a 'snail' type wet trap.)

Of course, one of the best things about these traps are the face that little to no lead is put into the air at the backstop unlike the plate style.

Not to mention the SPL caused by large rifle calibers indoors. (Which would require another whole setup of noise control)

Along with ventilation, recirculated heat recovery, target runners, and proper baffle/armored ceiling/walls (don't want those BMGs to escape into the community) you would likely be looking at an investment for a simple 8 position 100 yd range at close to half a million dollars. Or roughly 10x what a pistol caliber range costs. The only such setups I know of are some very wealthy private clubs in the west and government agencies.

 

[M1911]

Not to mention the SPL caused by large rifle calibers indoors.

I took a carbine class at Smith & Wesson a while back. We were required to use plugs in the ears AND muffs on top. The 16" and 20" AR15s weren't that bad indoors with that hearing protection. I bet a 10.5" would have been loud. One fellow had a Mini-30 and that was REALLY LOUD, even with double hearing protection.

One other issue with snail traps is, as shown on the diagram above, you lose a lot of overall length. For example, if you want a 50' range, you'll need a 50' + min 5' behind the line + 24' for the snail (based on picture above). That's almost 80' of building length for a 50' range.

Another alternative is to limit ammunition use to frangible ammunition. That allows the use of a much simpler backstop, but requires manning the range to ensure that no brings in any ammo that is not frangible. This is what they've done at Sigarms Academy. Unfortunately, frangible ammunition is limited in availability to a small number of calibers and is also several times more expensive than standard ammunition.