Soccerdad1995 wrote:Skiprr wrote:It is reloaded, mixed-case ammunition, so some ranges won't let you shoot it even though it's commercial, not hand-loads.
I'm near you in Houston / Katy. What ranges around here restrict reloaded ammo? The only restrictions I have seen are for aluminum / steel casings (common), and no magnums (MSC), plus no hollow points (I believe) at Top Gun.
Not to be obtuse, but how would the people running the range even know if you were firing reloads vs newly loaded ammo? I usually load my mags ahead of time and then put any extra ammo in a Crown Royal bag since it fits into my range bag easier than boxes. Maybe I am just blissfully ignorant since I shoot almost exclusively at Boyert.
In the Houston area, one notable range that prohibits commercial reloads is Top Gun. See range rule #14 here:
https://www.topgunrange.com/range/safety.html. They don't have a restriction on hollow point ammo, but do on commercial reloads. Another that bans personal reloads (handloads) is High Noon Guns & Range in Crosby (
http://www.highnoongunrange.com/range-rules.html).
There are a lot of ranges in the country, and about half as many different sets of rules. Other examples in the area include Athena Gun Club: you can shoot reloads in your own gun, but you have to sign a release of liability waiver first; can't shoot reloads of any kind in their rental guns. Another is Memorial Shooting Center: mandates you purchase their ammo if you rent a gun, prohibit hollow point, magnum rounds, or any bullets with exposed lead. A lot of ranges prohibit exposed-lead bullets, so while not limiting handloads, it does prevent folks from shooting bullets they cast.
Bringing your ammo already charged in mags also won't fly at some ranges. They want to see the ammo you're going to shoot, and some put a magnet to it to make certain there's no disguised steel in there. Bullet Trap in Plano is one of these, and they also don't allow you to shoot milsurp ammo.
I've also shot in several other states, as well. A few years ago, I visited a friend of mine in Clearwater, Florida, and we went to do some plinking. He told me he had seven ranges fairly close to him, but only two of them allowed reloaded ammo. We went to one of those two. Last time I was in California, we went to an indoor handgun-only range that mandated frangible ammo for any caliber larger than .25 ACP. That wasn't an outright reload restriction, but still. Also common in California is no gun rentals to individuals, only parties of two or more (evidently a suicide prevention measure). And there are ranges that won't let you pick up your own brass; won't let you shoot using your offhand only; won't let you load more than three rounds in any magazine; will let you use only targets you buy from them on that particular trip to their range; will let you use only ammo you purchase from them; won't let you take any headshots at any type of silhouette target (e.g., B-27, B-21, IDPA, USPSA)...or even use any target that even remotely resembles a person; mandate that you use a chamber flag when you place a gun on a bench or on a case, open and locked action is not enough; no FMJ rifle rounds of any caliber; no non-scoped rifles on the 100-yard line....
Maybe we need a Topic for the strangest or most unusual range rules we've seen.
and I'm also not knowledgeable about running commercial shooting ranges. I do know that Athena Gun Club cites OSHA regulations as a reason for not allowing aluminum or steel-cased ammo on their lanes, but I'm not personally aware of any OSHA regs about ranges that deal with anything other than lead and noise pollution. Both the bullet and the primer affect the lead situation, but I have no idea how the type of metal used for the case would...and if aluminum and steel are a problem, why is nickel (almost) never mentioned in range rules? (Dated by a few years, but here's a link to a National Shooting Sports Foundation publication addressing OSHA compliance for indoor ranges.)