No more American Shooting Center (Houston) for me...

[LSUTiger]

I haven't really had any negative experiences at ASC. The per gun charges used to always kill me and sometimes kept me from going.

I've since joined a club with an outdoor range but otherwise I'd still go to ASC for outdoors/rifle and Top Gun Range for indoors.

The only downside is my wife won't come to the outdoor range (heat, bugs and she doesnt care for the bathroom facilities), but she loves the Top Gun Facilities with their air conditioning and nice clean bathrooms and store front amenities.

[Take Down Sicko]

I forget to tell you-only the pistol and rifle range is open, the rest of the range is still closed off to shot gunners due to the still flooded fields.There were only about four other shooters at the pistol range which i liked because of more elbow room.

[usurp31]

I use to go there until they started charging by the gun.

By the gun? Do they not realize that the number of people supporting them as time goes on seems to be dropping and maybe they need to stop pushing around the good guys? Crazy...

[Soccerdad1995]

I use to go there until they started charging by the gun.

By the gun? Do they not realize that the number of people supporting them as time goes on seems to be dropping and maybe they need to stop pushing around the good guys? Crazy...

I think this is their way of limiting your shooting use for the fee charged. Most indoor ranges do this by time (standard is that the fee covers up to one hour's use of one lane). But that requires someone to actually monitor the lanes for time usage. ASC could implement a system like this. In some ways it would be easier since there are set cease fire periods where everyone goes downrange to replace targets. You could get a color coded slip when paying that has the time you have paid through (i.e. 4 PM) and the range officers could quickly walk behind the lanes to check everyone during cease fire periods.

But they have decided instead to say that the fee covers the use of one single gun for the whole day, knowing that very few people are going to sit there and shoot the same gun for 12 hours, or however long they are open. My guess is that very few people shoot for more than 2-3 hours unless they have brought multiple guns, and a fair amount of people only shoot for an hour or so. So it kinda sorta works out in a similar fashion to the indoor ranges with their policy of unlimited guns for an hour. The difference is that it really sucks if you have several rifles you just want to zero at 100 yards. This is a very pricey endeavor with the per gun pricing.

One other note for those unfamiliar with the place. They are very picky about rapid fire. I believe they ask you to limit your rate of fire to one shot per second, so not very good for realistic SD training, but OK for shooting your hunting rifles.

[jb2012]

I have never liked going to ranges. Something about constantly having barrels pointed at me, rude staff, the people that think they are "operators", having nothing but a piece of paper to shoot at, and paying to shoot! For pete's sake I paid enough for my gun and ammo, if I want to shoot I want to do it in peace without all of these other distractions. I'll go to a steel range, or maybe a long range rifle range, but other than that I'll leave the range for other people.

[ScottDLS]

I have never liked going to ranges. Something about constantly having barrels pointed at me, rude staff, the people that think they are "operators", having nothing but a piece of paper to shoot at, and paying to shoot! For pete's sake I paid enough for my gun and ammo, if I want to shoot I want to do it in peace without all of these other distractions. I'll go to a steel range, or maybe a long range rifle range, but other than that I'll leave the range for other people.

(ScottDLS adds another non-sequitur to artificially boost his post count)


A drop leg holster... A sure sign of a special operator operating operationally, of course....

[jb2012]

I have never liked going to ranges. Something about constantly having barrels pointed at me, rude staff, the people that think they are "operators", having nothing but a piece of paper to shoot at, and paying to shoot! For pete's sake I paid enough for my gun and ammo, if I want to shoot I want to do it in peace without all of these other distractions. I'll go to a steel range, or maybe a long range rifle range, but other than that I'll leave the range for other people.

(ScottDLS adds another non-sequitur to artificially boost his post count)


A drop leg holster... A sure sign of a special operator operating operationally, of course....

Also insert hipoint into said drop leg holster lololol

[warnmar10]

(ScottDLS adds another non-sequitur to artificially boost his post count)


A drop leg holster... A sure sign of a special operator operating operationally, of course....

bump

[usurp31]

.... rude staff ....

I agree on the generally rude staff quotient across all ranges. Of course, they do have to put up with some silly stuff so I guess it wears thin quickly.

[Soccerdad1995]

I have never liked going to ranges. Something about constantly having barrels pointed at me, rude staff, the people that think they are "operators", having nothing but a piece of paper to shoot at, and paying to shoot! For pete's sake I paid enough for my gun and ammo, if I want to shoot I want to do it in peace without all of these other distractions. I'll go to a steel range, or maybe a long range rifle range, but other than that I'll leave the range for other people.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people would not go to public ranges if they had somewhere else that they could shoot for free. Unfortunately for a lot of us city folks, there is no alternative unless we want to not shoot at all.

[jb2012]

I have never liked going to ranges. Something about constantly having barrels pointed at me, rude staff, the people that think they are "operators", having nothing but a piece of paper to shoot at, and paying to shoot! For pete's sake I paid enough for my gun and ammo, if I want to shoot I want to do it in peace without all of these other distractions. I'll go to a steel range, or maybe a long range rifle range, but other than that I'll leave the range for other people.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people would not go to public ranges if they had somewhere else that they could shoot for free. Unfortunately for a lot of us city folks, there is no alternative unless we want to not shoot at all.

You're probably 100% correct. Honestly right now while in school I'm in the same boat unless I go home. Someday I hope to have a setup like hickock45 at my place!

[Take Down Sicko]

I wish i could shoot like Hickock45. The guy cant miss even with his eyes closed. I learned a few things watching Hickock videos and others like it.

[TEX]

ASC has always been difficult to deal with depending on who you are dealing with at any particular time. I heard ownership changed, but some of the same horse's rear ends are still there. They think the world revolves around shot gunners and people sighting in their deer rifles. They ran off what was once the largest IDPA club in the country and two USPA clubs. I only shoot there when I need pontoons to get into the Impact Zone and then I just shoot steel at the end of the range - one pistol, one shooter. PSC is a fabulous range, but I don't think it is open to non-members. If you can afford the membership and get an opening, a private range is the way to go. There is the Impact Zone Range in Monaville (north of Brookshire), and I believe Pacleb (Bellville) is now offering memberships. There is also Area 59 west of Rosenberg, but I don't know if they offer memberships. Thunder Range is south of Conroe, but I don't know if members can practice in the bays where IDPA and USPA is normally run. There is also Bayou Rifles and they have a range off I-10 west (.22, shotgun and pistol only) and they also have a long range way south of town (Alvin area I think). South again is Greenwood, but I have not been there since the late 90s and don't know the status of the club. Public ranges can be dicey. At ASC look at all the holes in the overhead structures. Safety at public ranges is always a concern.

[Take Down Sicko]

The overhead structure looks like swiss cheese. I'm hoping i wasnt there when someone shot those holes, some almost overhead.