First trip to a range

[jmdavis984]

My wife bought me some range time at Family Indoor Shooting Range (formerly Popguns). I have an hour of range time, a 9mm handgun rental, and a box of 9mm ammo. Having never been to any range before, and never having fired a handgun before, I have a few questions to make the most of it. I am taking my brother-in-law along with me. We are both new shooters, but are both safety conscious and responsible adults. How many rounds will two people need to keep ourselves entertained for an hour? Should I bring my 22 revolver to fill the time? My 22 rifle? I've read the range rules on their website a dozen times, and know that they have a "one gun in use at a time per lane" rule, so would bringing the other guns along just get in the way? Any advice you all can give to a first-timer regarding being efficient with my time would be great.

 

[Scutter01]

Bring an experienced shooter with you your first time. You should have some hands-on help when you're learning to handle a deadly weapon.

 

[KG1]

Bring an experienced shooter with you your first time. You should have some hands-on help when you're learning to handle a deadly weapon.

Sound advice.

 

[jmdavis984]

Bring an experienced shooter with you your first time. You should have some hands-on help when you're learning to handle a deadly weapon.

Anyone here who wants to join me is more than welcome. I'll even front the $5 to get you on the range with me. I am going at 10:00 next Tues (May 8). My problem is that I am the only shooter that I know. None of my friends have guns, none of my family shoots either.

 

[Scutter01]

Oh, there's always INGO'ers willing to help out a new shooter. I'll be amazed if you don't get at least a few people wanting to join you.

 

[Lock load]

How many rounds will two people need to keep ourselves entertained for an hour? Should I bring my 22 revolver to fill the time? My 22 rifle?

When I go to the range with my brother he brings 22 revolver and I bring my 9mm sig 226. while he is shooting I'm reloading and when I'm shooting he's reloading. not sure how much 22 ammo he goes through but i usually get through 150-200 rounds of 9mm in an hours time.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Sound advice.

No, THIS would be "sound" advice...

 

[jmdavis984]

No, THIS would be "sound" advice...

yuk yuk yuk. Point taken though. I ride my motorcycle to work everyday, and know the benefit of decent ear plugs.

 

[lrahm]

No, THIS would be "sound" advice...

DITTO! Sound advice. Iv'e seen too many puns here today.

 

[greghvac]

try atterbury shooting range , i go there all the time

 

[bonas96]

Sound advice.

+2

 

[mrortega]

Bring an experienced shooter with you your first time. You should have some hands-on help when you're learning to handle a deadly weapon.

A big +1 to that. I was in the range at Strictly Shooting a few years ago and a father/young son came in. After a few minutes of fumbling around the dad asked me why he couldn't get his semi-auto loaded. I made my pistol safe then looked at what he had. He had a magazine with a couple rounds stuffed into the magazine backwards. Here he was with no knowledge of the gun he was getting ready to shoot. I didn't want to get myself into a jam by offering to tutor him so I left pretty quickly.

 

[netsecurity]

Bring an experienced shooter with you your first time. You should have some hands-on help when you're learning to handle a deadly weapon.

This is very important. You have to know etiquette and what to do when there is a jam, etc. Pop Guns offers instruction, and I recommend you pay extra the first time for that. I think whoever you're sharing the range with will feel the same .

Yes, bring your 22's, that will make it more fun. You'll want to have about 150-200 rounds of 9mm to shoot probably, it goes quick. You won't have any trouble at all with two people taking turns on a lane. One person will be reloadimg while the other is shooting anyways.

 

[jmdavis984]

try atterbury shooting range , i go there all the time

That is a LONG way from my house (live in Noblesville, work in Carmel). But I do plan on heading out to Wilbur Wright sometime this summer for some range time.

Thanks for all the input guys. I appreciate that you aren't poo-poo-ing me for being a newb. You gotta start somewhere, right?

 

[hoosierdoc]

Start with the 22 and get the feel for trigger pull, recoil, mechanics of a semi-auto. Then move up to the 9mm is my advice. Don't try to jam the mags to full capacity either if it uncomfortable. One hour will fly by when you're having fun so be prepared to rent a bite more time

 

[jmdavis984]

Wow, that was WAY too much fun. Other than the initial intimidation factor, I had an absolute blast yesterday pulling the triggers on some guns.

My brother-in-law and I got to the shop at about 10:30. We waited for about an hour for our slot, spending most of the time watching a few girls SPRAY bullets on their targets. We decided, since one rental fee got us access to al of the rental guns, to start with a 22 and move up to 9mm when we felt comfortable. That was a waste of time. The first gun we tried was a Glock something-or-other chambered in 22. It was in TERRIBLE shape. The feed lips on the magazine were almost non-existant, and we had 6 failures on the first magazine (only 10 rounds). Failure to feed, failure to extract, failure to fire, you name it. So, we gave up on that one. I took it back to the counter and the guy told me they don't clean the guns until they malfunction. Nice.

The second gun we shot was the Beretta Neos. It did much better, but still failed a few times. We figured out pretty fast that the 22LR ammo they gave us was JUNK, and we brought out the quality stuff that I had brought along. That solved the falures, and the shooting was good after that. The gun was "ok" but not one I would want to won. The slide was awkward, the sights were terrible, and it just felt a little "goofy."

After tiring of the Neos, we moved on to my dream gun, the Beretta 92FS. This has been my dream semi-auto for a LONG time, and it was awesome to shoot it. The sights were 6" low at 30' using a 6 o-clock hold, but other than that it cycle great and was a lot of fun. It handled great, other than the long trigger pull catching me out a few times. My BIL had a harder time with it. He is still recovering from shoulder surgery, and couldnt' hold the gun tightly enough to allow the slide full travel. This meant the slide didn't lock back oafter the last round, but he controlled it OK, and had a lot of fun. He has smaller hands than I do as well, and he found the grips to be too large.

We also got to shoot two of my grandfather's old guns, an IJ Supershot Sealed 8 (8-shot 22 SA/DA revolver) and a Mossberg 42Mb (22 bolt-action mag-fed rifle). I wasn't sure the IJ was up to the task of shooting 22LR, and the shop didn't have any shorts, so I bought some calibris. They didn't do so well, I think the firing pin was too weak to handle the larger casings of the calibris. So, I fed it some of the Remington 22LR that I had, and it loved it. The trigger was sweet, with a short first stage and nice crisp second stage release (single action, obviously). The Mossberg did really well too, cycling smoothly and putting rounds into the target as close as the shooters could get them. It really wanted more than the 25 yards available.

All in all, we shot 150 rounds of 9mm and about 200 rounds of .22. I can see why people can put 1000 rounds down range in a day if they have cheap ammo and all the time in the world. I could do that all day. Thanks again for the encouragement, now all I need is a few $K for a P22 or Ruger MarkIII, Beretta 92FS, and all the ammo I can shoot.

 

[jmdavis984]

One thing that surprised me a lot was how much a 22 handgun moves when fired. My only experience with firearms until yesterday was with 22 rifles, which just don't move when you pull the trigger. The 22 handguns had a surprising amount of recoil and "jolt" when the trigger was pulled. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that shooting 22 can be fun too! Maybe that's why so many people do it!

 

[hoosierdoc]

Sounds like a great time. Where are the pics of your targets?!

 

[jmdavis984]

I kept the rifle sighting target, which has some 9mm in it too. I'll get some pics.

 

[85t5mcss]

Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, 22s can be fun, and MUCH cheaper than 9mm or 45s. Even if reloading. So.....when you going out again? ITP has rentals on the south side as well. It may give you a couple more options to shoot. Not to mention a lot of members will let you shoot their guns at the range.