February Austin area get together -- 2/24 Hill Country 1PM

[j1132s]

Have we decided on a place?

<snip>

Whats yalls thoughts on bringing non CHL buddies along? I keep trying to convince my friend to hurry up and take the class.

Hill country rifle range.
Sure, as long as your friend is fine being surrounded by gun packing people. :)

[j1132s]

CMP M1 I haven't fired yet.

You are lucky; I've been interested in getting one but they seem to be out. Let's see how it shoots!

[O6nop]

I'd like to check out an SKS, hear a lot about it. Can I buy a box of ammo from you to feed it?

Should have plenty of ammo if anyone else wants to try.

I got a conversion kit for my Kimber to shoot .22's, I want to try that out too.

So far, I'm planning to bring:
Yugo SKS (7.62x39 - I have plenty)
M1 Garand (30.06 ball - I have plenty)
1911 (45acp) w/ 22lr conversion kit.
Ruger 10/22 carbine (.22lr - I have plenty)

[j1132s]

Update--

Meeting at 1PM (the time this range opens, yes 1PM on Saturday,
I just verified w/ its owner) at Hill Country Rifle Range in Dripping
Springs. Here're some reviews:
http://austin.citysearch.com/review/10186876

For those that'd like to car pool from Austin. Please contact me
and we can coordinate. I have a minivan that carries 7 :)

Here's more details:

1. The owner said he's got falling plates and rails at 25yd, which
we can shoot! If this is what I think it is, it'll be a lot of fun. (Must
use non-magnum cartridges).

2. And he's got fixed steel for rifles at 200yards. I think probably
a bit too far for the .22LR.

3. There's a CHL forum pistol competition on right now. I'll bring
NRA targets for us to shoot in case you'd like to participate.

4. My mobile is 408 area code, 7 seven 2 six 2 two 7 (read it out)

Hope to see you there!!


Just a suggestion -- steel shooting usually burns up a lot of ammo for some reason (don't know why, but they just do)... So I'd bring a cheap to shoot gun like a 9mm or something.

[j1132s]

I'd like to check out an SKS, hear a lot about it. Can I buy a box of ammo from you to feed it?

Should have plenty of ammo if anyone else wants to try.

I got a conversion kit for my Kimber to shoot .22's, I want to try that out too.

So far, I'm planning to bring:
Yugo SKS (7.62x39 - I have plenty)
M1 Garand (30.06 ball - I have plenty)
1911 (45acp) w/ 22lr conversion kit.
Ruger 10/22 carbine (.22lr - I have plenty)

Thanks! O6nop.

I'm planning to bring and supply ammo for same:
HK P2000 (9mm, my CCW)
Carbon 15 type 97 rifle (.223Remington)
Beretta CX4 Storm rifle (.40s&w)
CZ452 rifle (.22LR)

Edit: Since my wife is coming, I will bring a S&W Model 41 instead of the Beretta; Glock 19 instead of the HK; and a 1911 w/ a .22LR conversion.

[KaProw]

Well poo, we went to Eagle Peak last weekend to check the place out and get our range cards. now you change places on me ... lol.

the reviews for HCR look kinda scary

not sure if we will make it or not (nothing to do with reviews)

laterz,
rick

[tallmike]

the reviews for it do look frightening, Im going to be there anyway (most likely, I have permission as long as nothing major comes up)

[AR Traveler]

I'll try to come to but the Boy Scout troop is camping this weekend. Thousands of years of civilization so we can leave it all behind:)

[j1132s]

My wife has decided to come! Yeah!!

So I'll be running some ball and dummy drills with her and bringing some .22LR steel targets. Also, somebody suggested to double up on hearing protection to decrease the blast flinch, I'll try that too.

If there's any other beginners who'd like to go over the basics, you are welcome to join us. Bring a .22LR or 9mm! I.e. something cheap to shoot.

[j1132s]

I made some wooden targets that are very much easier to shoot than your typical steel plates at 25'+. Being wood, we can place them closer so new shooters can enjoy watching their targets fall in a timely fashion.

I went out to ARC and tested these targets out. They fall easily with .22LR hits (even if you just barely hit them), and being wood, the bullets go right thru them. I'll bring them and hope we can use them at HCRR.

The big draw back I see is that these targets work well only w/ .22LR rounds; anything more powerful disintegrates them way too quickly.

[O6nop]

I'll be running late, probably close to 2:00 Is anyone else planning on being there?

[dihappy]

Im running late also, yall dont shoot up your ammo so quick.

Where you coming from 06? Anyone coming up from south 35?

Call me. 512-618-2029 Henry

[O6nop]

OK, it's time to start talking about where to go next month, but first, my impression of the HCRR on Hamilton Pool Rd.

Personally, never again. First of all, it's way out there and the 1/2 mile or so access road is a rutted pot-holed road all the way up to the range house/trailer/shack... whatever.
The only impressive thing was the rifle range stands. Solid concrete and set up for either left handed or right handed shooters. That's where it ends. There were a couple rusty 5 gallon cans to sit on, but not one available for every table. No target stands, except one set up about 25 yards. The only other things to shoot at were some steel targets, 100yds or so out, but if you don't have a spotter with you, you don't know how well you are sighted in.

We shot a few rounds at the pistol/.22 rifle range but got chewed out for moving the steel targets around. That range was a broken down table with rusty folding chairs.

I didn't stay much longer after the owner/SO whatevwer got in our face and chewed us out about the steel targets. My biggest regret was I brought the wrong rifle, I thought I had my Garand, but I grabbed my Swedish Mauser and no ammo. I shot a few rounds from my SKS and left.

I guess we'll set up a new thread for the next get-together for the Austin group

[dihappy]

Nice to meet a couple guys out there. I didnt even want to shoot after seeing how the owner/mgr treated his paying customers.

There was absolutly no reason for the way he talked to 06 and Ching. I was biting my tongue so hard to to confront him about it.

He hadnt handed me hearing protection 5 minutes ago that i put them right back and left with CHing to go shoot somewhere else.

Ill never go back and will tell everyone i know not to go there.

Hope we can all meet up again soon.

[j1132s]

Hey guys,

Sorry about the Hill Country Rifle Range choice. I don't think personally I would go there again; it is too much driving and not enough return. This has got to be the worst kept range I've ever been to.

As I was driving up, I saw some old IPSC bays and one of them had what looked like leftover steel challenge targets. I was really excited until I'm told that we can't shoot at those bays because they don't belong to him or that there's the chance of bullets flying out or something, didn't pay much attention to the reason after I heard not to shoot there.

The one pistol bay that we can shoot in is what Richard (owner/manager) calls his "plate rack", "silhouette range".

I was very disappointed that the there was no "plate rack at 25 yards" as told to me by Richard. In its place, there was a "silhouette range". I put it in quotes because it wouldn't qualify as a silhouette range by most peoples' definition.

The silhouette range have maybe 50 heavily pitted and very-used steel aminals and plates. Many are shot so much on one side that they are concaved/bowl and can easily send ricochets back at you if set incorrectly. There is no rack anywhere, so all steel is set simply on the ground. Also, the aminals are of hunter pistol silhouette thickness; i.e. .22LR can't reliably knock them over. Richard had told me over the phone .22LR should have no problems with his "plate rack". Another thing is that the distance is close to 35-40m (my .22LR sights are set at 40 meters, and they are nearly dead on); this is no where near the 25 yard I was told.

I did break Richard's rule by moving some of his steel targets closer a bit (to about 30-32 yards) just to space them out a little so that ricochets don't knock additional targets over. So when Richard came over and gave me the huge talk, I only replied that I'm sorry and it won't happen again and apologized repeatedly. I almost wanted to bring up the fact that the conditions weren't what he had told me over the phone when he seems to not wanting to stop berating me for moving his targets; finally he stopped talking.

Besides this silhouette range, there is another pistol bay, but it has no target frames for you to put up paper targets. It is more of a plinking range without anything to plink at. Since I wasn't expecting this range so I didn't bring anything for it.

The rifle range is as O6nop described. I think I left a partial case of .223rem ammo there.

All in all, I didn't like shooting at the hill Country rifle range; I would _NOT_ recomment this range to anyone because there are much better ones for this amount of driving. I'm glad to meet up with follow forum members though, and hopefully, we can have it at a nicer place next time.