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Thank you both for your input. I'm still probably around a month away from joining (family & need to budget appropriately for expenses), but your current opinions have helped a lot. I certainly feel more "free" when I'm shooting outside, and consider that to be the best place to foster teaching my young son about firearms, and to get involved in the community with me.

One of the big things I wanted to do when I got my LTC was to join the Austin Rifle Club. It's a solid deal at $150/year for a member, they have almost all outdoor ranges (except for the one indoor air gun range - same building as the orientation class), and they have lots of matches there. I'm interested in trying my hand at IDPA matches now.

Today, I attended the Prospect Safety Evaluation & Range Orientation Class. The Prospect Safety Evaluation is a simple process where you must state the four primary rules of firearm safety, demonstrate these rules, display your ability to heed a cease fire call, and to clear your weapon. ARC provided two volunteers to evaluate safety, and they took one prospect at a time. We fired upon paper plates from ~20 yards or so, and the volunteer working with me invited me to attend an IDPA match, shooting steel, next Tuesday.

Once the safety evaluation is finished, it's on to the orientation class. We (the prospects) pitched in to put down chairs, then attended the class. It's designed to get you familiar with what the club is all about, the opportunities to volunteer (which they encourage greatly), the matches that are held, how many people you may supervise shooting at the range at once, what firearms you may shoot at what ranges/what positions are allowed, what targets are allowed, with safety as the dominant theme throughout. I don't mind this approach for private clubs, and at no point did the class feel like it was a huge burden to me.

All in all, the volunteers running the orientation were all from the Board of Directors (President & VP there as well), the information was presented concisely, and everyone was polite as can be throughout. I'm really looking forward to getting involved in the local community of shooters, putting in some time to make an impact at the range, meeting some like-minded individuals, and shooting some matches. The Austin Rifle Club is also significantly cheaper to shoot at if you don't have your own range, which I do not.

I've seen some older posts about the Austin Rifle Club - I know we've got to have some current members on here. What do you all think, and what have your recent experiences been like? I haven't paid the dues yet, as it's a little steep for the pocketbook right now ($200 initiation fee, pro-rated fees for the rest of this year, and next year's dues put it over $450 for me). I do intend to join as soon as it is reasonable for me to drop the cash.