Sorry for the length of this thread, but it was our first time at a Range like this. This last Friday, Black Friday, we had breakfast at Waffle House and went to an Indoor Range across the street. This is the first time we'd ever been to an Indoor Range. It's a pretty small Range, being that it's part of a Gun/Rife Supply Store. The target holders are on electric channels. Hit a toggle switch and the target holder either goes out to whatever yardage the shooter wants or back into the shooting area. Each area is a lane. It cost us $30 total for 1 hour of shooting. Generally, at two different Outdoor Ranges we'd been to, one hour of shooting was plenty. The Range only takes handguns and small caliber rifles. What we didn't know was, just how loud it would be in this room. We forgot to put on our ear protection (muffs) before going in, but got them on really fast. Mine are battery operated, for adjusting sound. This was the first time for us shooting the Henry Lever-Action .22 Rifle we bought a number of months ago. We sold our Winchester 30-30 Lever-Action and our Remington Express Shotgun, being that it cost so much to shoot both outside here. We are going to buy two more ammunition magazines. We already have two for both our Sig Sauer .22 handgun and our Smith & Wesson 9mm SD9VE. When paying for time in a Lane, loading ammunition into a magazine will take too long. Yesterday we bought a Red Dot Optic for our S&W 9mm. A guy in the Range had one and he was hitting his target very nicely. The Red Dot Optic on Amazon is $89, compared to $300 and $400 other places and the Reviews for it are excellent. Yesterday, both of us were hurting in our arms/shoulders. IOW, we have to get more exercise on our Wii Game, before going to this Range again. But, it sure was fun!
Someone just opened an indoor range just outside of town here, but I haven't been there yet. I probably will this winter, though. Someone told me that it was pretty expensive, but I don't what they considered expensive. There are hourly fees, but I'm told that you have to use ammunition purchased from them and that they charge more for ammo than people would have to pay, otherwise. I don't know. Unless it's terribly unreasonable, I can see that they need to earn a living from it, and I never see more than a few cars in their parking lot when I go by. There was the cost of building a large building, probably state licensing fees, and the considerable cost of maintaining and heating a building. Maybe they don't heat the range itself. They might just heat the gun and ammo shop part of it. Sure, I can shoot for free on my land up north but that involves about five hours of driving, and I can't drive within two miles of my land during the winter.
We have had an indoor range for as long as I have lived here, but I have never been there. I was trying to get my wife and her close friend to attend the women-only shooting school there, but just couldn't persuade my wife to go. She wasn't raised around firearms, so, while she can shoot fine, she still isn't comfortable around them.
I used to shoot at a couple of indoor ranges 2-3 times a week. I shot at one of them during lunchtime only if they were slow, because there was no Rage Officer patrolling the place and it was not safe. I most liked shooting at the NRA Range at their HQ in Fairfax VA. You can set the targets to approach you from 150' away and randomly flip between Good Guy/Bad Guy side. I used to shoot there Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. Then it got so popular it was not worth messing with the crowds (you can apply that statement to just about everything in the DC area.)
The range we went to had some 8 lanes and no Range Officer. Eye protection is required, but , we looked thru a window, inside the store, where customers in the store could watch shooters shoot, we noticed two people not wearing eye protection. I felt it necessary to let the clerk at the desk, who registered both of us for a lane, to know this. He said to me "all shooters are suppose to wear eye protection" and I said "the words "suppose to" isn't happening with two people in there". After we entered, we noticed both people put on eye protection. Since this was our first time at this range, the clerk told us the rules and safety requirements. He also told us, "if your gun jams, stop shooting and call us to help you." Well, I've never had to get anyone to help me unjam. It's only our Sig Sauer .22 Mosquito that will jam a bullet in the chamber, once in a while. I simply pull back the slide, lock it, use a small screwdriver and pull/pry the jammed bullet out. Absolutely no problem. It happened to us while at this range and I did just that to unjam the Sig Sauer. IOW, this indoor range is nice, but, with nobody monitoring the safety requirement, or basically anything/anybody, I wouldn't consider the range "that" safe. But, then again, the last range (outdoor) we were members of for 10 1/2 years, the Range Officer/Officers that were there, rode around golf carts and couldn't be at all parts of the range to monitor people. And, there are those that dislike being "monitored" at all, but, because there are those that like to "do their own thing" (not always follow the rules), they have to be.
One thing we really didn't like that much was that it was all standing to shoot. It's understandable that shooting a handgun is standing, but, for older folks, like us, sitting down to shoot a rifle is much easier. Resting the rifle on a store-bought sandbag is much easier than holding it upright. We thought our Winchester 30-30 Lever-Action was heavy, well, this Henry Lever-Action .22 isn't light!
The last time that I used an indoor range was many years ago, back when I was a teenager. We had a youth group for firearms training, affiliated with the NRA in some way, but our instructors were the WW2 veterans who lived in Sandpoint , and other interested adults who all volunteered their time to teach all of us kids how to use and shoot a 22 rifle. We had a whole course we went through as far as shooting positions (prone, kneeling, sitting, standing) and earned badges as we completed each one. I also helped check and grade the targets , which I enjoyed almost as much as the shooting part. Our team did well enough that we all got to go to Spokane for the regional tournament one year, and that was really interesting and a great trip for all of us. Most of my life, I have lived out in the country, so I did any shooting outside, and also taught my kids how to shoot when they were old enough to learn. My Grandpa Bailey gave me his old 22 rifle as a present when I was in the Rifle Range program as a teenager, and I still have that old rifle, and now it is Robin’s. I used to go hunting with my dad, and he would hunt for deer and I hunted for early morning grouse.
Now, what I'm very, very curious about is, just how many ladies on this forum are like my 74 year old wife...........own/shoot a handgun and/or rifle? At the last outdoor range we were members at, there were only four ladies that were members and, one of those four was my wife. Am now wondering at what age do many women stop shooting? My wife's sister, who is 5 years older, dislikes any kind of firearm. Actually, I was quite surprised and happy that my wife showed an interest when I talked to her about us getting our first firearm, the Ruger 10/22 Rifle. At the outdoor range we use to go to, she'd help me load magazines for both handguns.
Not everyone is going to have the same hobbies as you and wife have, @Cody Fousnaugh . We could ask the same question about the people who have a vegetable garden each year, or who go to the fitness center several times a week, or whatever. Some of us will have hobbies and interests that not everyone else has. It is simply a matter of what one enjoys, and just because someone else is not interested, that is no big thing. You enjoy your hobbies, and that is what matters.
Please don't take my question personally, Yvonne. I was asking "in general" because I have a "curious mind", that's all. People hear very little, if anything, of older ladies shooting any kind of firearm. There are those ladies that say they are too old to shoot firearms, but in reality? There are numerous young and old/older ladies that completely dislike fishing, for whatever reasons. I have the kind of personality that I like to know the "why" about things that people, young and old, like and dislike.
Any time there are people at a range who don't follow the rules, I pack up and leave. If there's a Range Master on site and people are still not following the rules. he should pack up and leave, too. I rarely hunted with my father, but the few times I did, if there were yahoos or open beer cans around, we'd just drive on past. That's the reason I liked the NRA Range...they were always present and ever-vigilant. That other place where I would only shoot when no one else was around had zero oversight...there was a window behind the counter, and the guy who was selling guns & ammo was supposed to turn around every once in a while and make certain that everyone was still vertical. I'd do what I could to help people shoot safely, because not everyone is aware of the safety rules. Regarding women and shooting: there has always been a dynamic that [generally] women are much better shots than men, while men are said to be less likely to hesitate pulling the trigger in a crisis situation. I've been to lots of ranges lots of times and very rarely saw any women there. I've belonged to groups & clubs and I very rarely saw any women there. I got my NRA Instructor Credentials circa 2008 and there was not one female in the class, but there were a few in the CHP course I took in the early 90s in order to get my permit. There are some people out there trying to bring more women into the fold, especially in inner cities where women are at high risk of violence. Here's an article on one such group of folks in Detroit. On a single weekend, volunteers there trained over 2,000 women in handgun safety and appropriate use.
As far as the .22 goes, @Cody Fousnaugh see if the jamming is more common with one ammo manufacturer, or one type never jams. I have found that some mag-fed .22 handguns will jam some ammo more than others. I assume, but do not know, that it could be due to the rimmed cartridges and the precise length of the round.
At one time, when we had a membership with NRA, my wife got a magazine called Women & Guns. Not to change my thread here, but, one time when we brought our boat and put it on the trailer, there were three young guys that brought their Center-Console Covered Fishing Boat into the ramp. As we were securing our boat to the trailer, these three guys walked by us and I said "so where are the ladies?". One said "at home in the kitchen where they belong." I said, "Not my wife! Our boat doesn't go out without her on it with me." I heard one of them say, "whatever".
That seems to be a common thing in the smaller calibers. I have a Ruger .22 that's ammo-fussy, and a .380 that's the same way. Probably not enough pressure to overcome the variances you pointed out.
No offense intended, but I'm curious as to why you found it necessary to report two people for not following the rule about wearing eye protection, which would be for their own safety, yet felt free to ignore the rule about asking for help with gun jams, which would be for the safety of everyone, since that particular rule was to prevent misfires.