Anybody attending LaRue Range Day?

[ccoker]

I'll be there with a Tactical Hunting Review shirt

[Estand]

This is great, it's been a while since I have been on the site much less posted anything.
I logged in to let locals know about La Rue day only to see you guys already talking about it! Awesome. I will be there with my brother. PM me if anyone wants to meet up!

Estand

[O6nop]

I really don't know anyone personally on this forum, it would be great if we could have an item that we could wear that would identify us as TexasCHLforum members so we could get to know each other - faces to (screen)names. Any ideas?

[gigag04]

I'm backing out...got free premo tix to the aggie game.

Sorry all.

[10Shooter]

I really don't know anyone personally on this forum, it would be great if we could have an item that we could wear that would identify us as TexasCHLforum members so we could get to know each other - faces to (screen)names. Any ideas?

I don't know anyone personally on this forum either. I think that is a great idea.
So what would that item be?

[RapunzelYouPunk]

You will know me by my braid :)

Andrea

[HankB]

I really don't know anyone personally on this forum, it would be great if we could have an item that we could wear that would identify us as TexasCHLforum members so we could get to know each other - faces to (screen)names. Any ideas?

Ear protectors and shooting glasses?

[NcongruNt]

I'll be there.

[HankB]

Arrived slightly before 10 AM . . . parking lot already was filling up. Went to sign in, filled out a safety release form, got a raffle ticket and a free "NRA" range bag with some NRA literature and a LaRue Beverage Entry Device. (i.e., a bottle opener.)

LaRue thanked everyone for coming, said they were expecting 1200 or so to show up - so many, they had to change their plans regarding things like shooting contests and drawings. Said MagPul had sent along a lot of "freebies" and everyone would probably get a P-Mag or something. Guy described the setup, mentioned that some military guys from an "unspecified" service were there "unofficially" and would stage a door breeching demonstration. He made kind of a big deal that they were unofficial and and their uniforms were "sanitized" and asked everyone not to ask them questions about what unit they were from. (Saw some guys in camo BDU's walking around - I don't know if they were the ones LaRue was talking about, but a couple of them looked a little . . . pudgy . . . to be spec ops types.) No idea what time the demos were supposed to go off.

So, on to the ranges. Several ranges were in use, with several rifles to try. Sounds good - but the wait in each line was at least an hour . . . for an opportunity to shoot five rounds. Want to try another one of the rifles? Get back in line. (Had a chance to shoot one AR with a red dot sight. Had to hold off the target to the left in order to hit.)

Good thing is, they had folks in 4-wheelers driving around, passing out soda and water.

Food was brisket or sausage in a tortilla wrap, with chips and drink. Not a terrible line here. And it was all free.

Vendor tent line was about 2x - 3x LONGER than the shooting bay lines. I stood there for about 15 minutes, and realized that at less than 1 foot per minute, I'd be in that line for at least 2 hours. For some sort of undefined "freebie" . . . maybe? Nope, not me. Talked to another guy there who actually wanted to buy some iron sights - but for a 10% (?) discount, he wasn't going to wait in line for a couple of hours. We figured 9 out of 10 people in the vendor tent line were just looking for freebies for their kids or somethng.

Took another look around - the lines were getting longer.

LaRue then came around and said that the half-hourly door prize drawings were changed - they'd have one round at 2:00 and another at 4:00. I looked around at the crowd, figured the chances of my number being drawn, factored in the chances of winning something actually worthwhile . . . and joined the line of cars leaving around 12:15 PM.

Bottom line: I think LaRue had the best of intentions, but he wasn't prepared for the size of the response.

IF they have this again next year, and IF I go, I'll make a beeline for the vendor's tent first thing.

I have to say that from what I could see, the crowd was extraordinarily well behaved - no rudeness, pushing, shoving, or people cutting in; even with the annoyingly long lines, everyone I saw was behaving in a far more civil manner than the crowds of latter-day hippies you sometimes see lining up for a concert. (Armed society, polite society?)

Facility itself was large - couple of skeet fields, several tactical bays, and the only opportunity for genuinely LONG range shooting that I've seen in a long time - I had my Leupold RX-1000 laser rangefinder, and from behind the firing line couldn't get a reading off the most distant target berm, putting it out at least1000 yards. The range is about 40 road miles - just over an hour - from my home, a fairly easy drive . . . and after I find out what their public shooting policies are, I plan to go out there on my own. Now that Hill Country Rifle Range (aka Crazy Richard's) is shut down, the only nearby alternative is Red's in Oak Hill - 100 yards maximum - or Eagle Peak, where they won't let you shoot FMJ from your rifle. So the opening of this "Best of the West" facility may be a good opportunity to shoot the rust out of the barrel on some of my rifles.

[A-R]

fairly accurate review, Hank. But I'm glad so many cleared out just after noon because the lines moved faster after that

It was a huge cattle call before noon - I was amazed how many people were there. Waited almost an hour to fire the first AR (a .308 OBR with Aimpoint + 3x magnifier) - sweet gun and optic set up. Knocked down the steel pop ups easily at about 60 yards in the tactical bays.

But after noon it started to clear up some. Shot another .308 with a giant ACOG on it - biggest I'd ever seen, the LaRue range officer said it was really meant for a heavy machine gun but was the only ACOG they had on site. Also 5.56mm with another Aimpoint.

Then went to the long-range rifle bay and waited about an hour to fire a .308 with a $1500 Nightforce scope on it. I was having a hard time hitting the BERM at 500 yards. I'm a bad shot, but not that bad. LaRue guy said he thought someone might've messed with the turrets on the scope - but of course didn't mention this until AFTER I'd embedded all 10 of my shots in the dirt in various places around the target. Oh well, ain't complaining - got to fire a $3,000 rifle set up for free.

All in all it was a fun day but a bit too crowded. The barbecue sausage was good, but they ran out of brisket before got up there. Grabbed a bit of swag - free dillo bottle opener, a few bottles of "dillo dirt" BBQ rub, some bumper stickers, and a hat from Gieselle? triggers. Was a good boy and didn't buy anything in the merchandise tent.

And agree with Hank that the crowds were very friendly - no pushing/shoving and generally all seemed to be good people having a good time. And LaRue did a great job with folks in golf carts and 4-wheelers delivering ice-cold water and sodas quite often. They also handed out little foam ear plugs and cheap plastic shooting glasses in case anyone forgot to bring their own.

Next year, they just need to plan a bit better for the much larger crowds. Have more guns and use all 8 tactical bays to spread the crowds a bit. Maybe have a time-stamped ticket system (like Disney) that says you can shoot at the long range rifle bay between X time and X time so you don't get a huge crowd lined up at that much slower-moving shooting station.

[fwgrace]

I was there - the girl in the IDF cap, if anyone saw me.

I arrived around 9:30 and got one of their 500 range bags with a few freebies thrown in. I think they opened their shooting lines around 10 or a little after, and I was able to get through 2 lines before I had to leave around noon. It was pretty cool; I think they just had way more people than they'd planned on, which made the waits lengthy. Still - everything was free, so who can complain?

[fwgrace]

Oh, and I have to agree: the people were great - both the crowd and the LaRue staff. Kudos to them for keeping their cool and being flexible to work with the huge numbers who flooded in.

[RapunzelYouPunk]

+1 on the reviews above. Huge crowd, long lines, good free food, nice people (except for one douchebag), lousy PA system, - I'm SURE Mark Fingar called out my number but I couldn't hear him - but at least I scored a limited-run 2010 LaRue Range Day t-shirt. 2 of them, actually. After standing in line about 2.5 hours. And I met 10Shooter! That was cool.

The new range looks like it will be great for next year's 3-gun, but with all that dust and gravel you know it's gonna be sizzling hot all day long . . .

[Chemist45]

I got there about 12:15.
I could not leave the clubhouse until I filled out the liability release paperwork and they were out.
10 min later they got the paperwork and I was released from the clubhouse.
I, too, stood in line for the vendor tent for 20 minutes and moved 10 feet.
Decided to switch to the food line since I was now getting hungry.
Same rate of movement on the line.
Walked past the shooting lines and decided it just wasn't worth it.
At 1:15 I decided to check my raffle ticket to see if I'd won and they told me they were moving the raffles to 2PM and you needed to be present to win.
I politely handed the woman my ticket and left.

I won't be back next year.

[O6nop]

I was there early enough to get the range bag and goodies and I got a good spot on the .308 OBR range. Eventually they figured out they could open another range and borrowed some AR15s from one of the original ranges, I got in on that.
They ran out of sausage on my trip to the BBQ line, the briskit was really good. They ran out of waivers for a lot of the late-comers and naturally, they couldn't shoot until more were provided.
The good part about standing in line was a lot of interesting conversation about guns, really don't remember talking about much of anything else.
Rumor has it that they plan on doing this twice a year, Spring and Fall. So, I think they will have something figured out to handle the big crowds.

This was my first time there, I think it is an amazing facility and I think it will be a great success. I definitely plan on checking it out on my own sometime in the near future. It's a 45 minute trip from my home in North Austin.