Need a place to shoot sporting clays in DFW

[flynbenny]

I don't know if it's just me, but as of late I've had a lot of problems with Elm Fork. Went to shoot sporting clays, and half of their machines were broken. Got my money back that time. Drove out to shoot pistol one day, range closes at 1800, I showed up at 1715 to shoot pistol for a few minutes (had a match the next day), but the cashier had already packed up the register, said it was too late. So then I went today, I called and asked about the hours, which the girl on the phone said were 0900 to 1800. I arrive a couple minutes after 1600, she says the sporting clays range doesn't take anyone after 1600. I inquired as to why I wasn't told this over the phone or on the website, she didn't have an answer. She offered the other shotgun ranges, but I drove all the way there to shoot sporting clays, not five stand, trap or skeet. At this point I informed them that they have lost my business for good, as I am sick and tired of wasting my hard earned money and valuable time with them. I've spent well over $500 there in the past year and a half alone. Is it just me, or does anyone else have problems with this outfit? Which brings me to my second question, does anyone know of a place near DFW where I can shoot sporting clays? I know of the Dallas Gun Club, but I can not afford to join it. I've heard Alpine in FW has a clays course, has anyone been there? Y'alls input is greatly appreciated.

[mikeintexas]

Alpine is OK for sporting clays, but I have heard of some issues there also. You might check into Arlington Sportsman's Club. I "belive" they have sporting clays and are more affordable to join than the Dallas Gun Club.

[garcia946]

I think that Garland Public Shooting does , Im usually on the pistol range but they do have clay shooting
They are Sun. thru Sat. 10am to 8pm $20 to join $10 everytime after , for all day long
all I can say is call them 972/495/5330 , they are in Garland dont know what part of towm you are in....

[flynbenny]

I shoot rifle at Garland all the time, they just have a few hand traps. For rifle shooting they can't be beat, $10 for all day is great deal. Of course if you want to shoot fmj rifle ammo you're out of luck, but my money say's its one of the best rifle ranges in the area.
For those who don't know sporting clays is like shotgun golf. Instead of shooting in one small area like five stand, trap, or skeet, one moves amongst ten or twelve stations with a wide variety of birds, generally 100 rds are fired. The idea is to replicate a variety of shooting situations that a shooter in the field would encounter. One of my favorites involves a clay target called a rabbit that rolls across the ground at a fairly good rate, very challenging to hit! The course are quite difficult, I've never shot more than 60% and even champions seldom get 100%. The layouts typically require a large area of land. Also, most clubs change the layouts frequently. In my opinion it is the ultimate shotgun game.
Someone at my job also was complaining of the lack of a nice shotgun facility in the area...perhaps I need to look into opening my own. The Frisco/McKinney/Prosper/Melissa area is seeing a ton of growth with the sort of folks who might like a nice customer focused sporting club. Sounds tempting actually, to trade my boring job for spending all day outside fixing traps, designing courses, etc, hey that's the American dream right? Uh oh now I'm really thinking about this

[dewayneward]

I went to Alpine with some friends of mine for some skeet and some range shooting. Had a blast and everthing was great. Seems like a great shop!

[flynbenny]

I was doing some more intensive research and found a club called Fossil Pointe Shooting Grounds in Slidell TX, NW of Denton. Probably an hour ten minute drive for me, but I'll give them a try in couple weekends. They have some event prep and an event in for a couple weekends so I can't shoot just yet. Check them out at:
http://fossilpointe.net

[aggiedave05]

I prefer Alpine to Elm Fork as well. Nice enough people at Elm Fork, but a little snobby.

[The Annoyed Man]

Nice enough people at Elm Fork, but a little snobby.

Really? Wow. I'm not a shotgunner, so I've never had the poor experiences there you guys have had, but I always enjoyed Elm Fork's rifle and pistol ranges, and found the ROs there to be uniformly friendly and polite. In fact, I was just there last Saturday (a week ago) with my son and a couple of friends.

[flynbenny]

I've never had a bad experience on pistol other than the one I listed, in fact they have great RO's in my experience. I don't shoot rifle there, I go to Garland because I can shoot open sights and it's only $10 for all day. Since I'm in Dallas Pistol Club now, I just go there for pistol, and we can shoot .22 rimfire chambered rifles there too.

I still haven't made it up to Fossil Pointe yet, I've been battling my job and a bad cold for a couple weeks, so some fresh air and burning gunpowder therapy may be in order soon...