End of an Era

[ssgross]

What sad news today. I popped in to my favorite hangout on my way home from work...Elite Shooting Sports in Manassas, Virginia. I learned from the staff that they will be closing down for good on May 31.https://www.eliteshootingsports.com

I've been spoiled rotten there these past several years. Popping in whenever I fancied to shoot, usually groups for an hour or two on their spacious 100 yd indoor lanes or working up loads to tune up whichever milsurp I've been working on.

I was told the owner has been seriously ill for a while now, and the local Prince William County government gave him a deal he couldn't refuse. The county will turn it into a law enforcement training facility. Some quick googling showed indeed the county board of supervisors voted a couple weeks ago to approve the contract.

No one knows if the county will keep it open to the public. The current business model is the rent out individual ranges (they have 4 separable ranges, x2 large 25yd ranges, 1 large 50yd range, and 8 lanes with benches at 100yds). Often times I'll go in the early afternoon to find the lobby crawling with police in swat gear and one of the ranges has privacy blinds all pulled down.

I don't know what I'll do. All the other options just don't compare.
Fairfax rod and gun - private club with 2+ year wait list
State run range an hour away at the Phelps Wildlife Management Area - 100 yds, nice covered firing points with benches, but only open sept. through March.
Quantico Shooting club - only on the weekends, scheduling is often unpredictable as it depends on the Marine's training schedule.
White Horse farms - 3.5 hours away in West Virginia. But has 600yd covered firing points with nice target carriages.

There are plenty of other ranges close to home - but nothing past 25yds. I suppose I'll have to become more of a pistol shooter. I'll add to my prayers every night the county sees fit to keep public access when there isn't any training on the calendar.

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[browningautorifle]

For that exact reason I'm a member of two ranges local. Many of my peer are members of three...

[ssgross]

Gone will be the days of shooting 2-3 times a week, without interfering with any other obligations. Words cannot express how bummed out I am. From what I was told, the owner has been seriously ill for over a year, and wanted to retire, and the county offered way more than it was worth, as their only alternative would be to pay even more to build their own facility. However, this then made it impossible for a private buyer. On the bright side my stock of components will last much much longer now.

The best part was they were open until 9pm daily. over an hour waitlist for any lanes on fri., sat., sun. I only every went mon-thurs. pretty quiet on the 100yd lane except for the regulars. All the other options close at 5pm. I'll need to shift to a mostly 4x10 work schedule to leave a day-trip each week to an alternative. Then of course all the extra time spent making several approximate drop charts that include windage now

[CINDERS]

We cannot get the consumables so we have to severely restrict all our shooting as goodness knows when if ever Berger bullets will becoming available again?
As for pistol powder ppl are paying up to a $1000/Aud for a full 1.5kg tub of Trail Boss AP50 and the likes rarer than the rocking horse let alone the poop!

[browningautorifle]

Our prices don't seem to be going down either. Even if the flow resumes, I fear the wholesalers will continue to soak the consumers now that they have a taste of "Real money"...

[ssgross]

We cannot get the consumables so we have to severely restrict all our shooting as goodness knows when if ever Berger bullets will becoming available again?
As for pistol powder ppl are paying up to a $1000/Aud for a full 1.5kg tub of Trail Boss AP50 and the likes rarer than the rocking horse let alone the poop!

For what it's worth, I did consider as soon as I started typing my first lament that here I am complaining when some of our members are in places where they have to offer a firstborn and an arm with an application to the authoraties months in advance to schedule a time at a range. I'll figure something out.

You're lucky if you've found trail boss, even at that price. I haven't seen it in a store or online anywhere, even the auction sites, since before the pandemic. Varget too - finally some came out online on Hodgdon's site the other month but was out then within a day.

[CINDERS]

Vargets our AR2208

[ssgross]

Vargets our AR2208

yep. all our powders that come from your corner of the globe have been mostly non-existant.
And from what I've read, just about all those extruded type products start life as the same thing, and get varied in the final stages with respect to thickness of the graphite coating, length of grain, diameter of the whole in the middle of the grains, etc. So perhaps a larger proportion of production in your country is focused on current global military supply than ours.

[mnmkeller]

If I say local means within 30 miles we have 2-3 indoor ranges depending on how many survived covid. Closest is members only, next closest is restrictive on calibers (no bottle neck rounds) so it is more or less a non commie caliber handgun and rimfire range and the other is an unknown as I have never been there.

There is one local outdoor range that is part of a club which requires yearly fee as well as a joining fee and having a club member sponsor and also a wait list methinks.

My best case scenario is to acquire a suppressor and find a friend in a rural county that has less restrictions than where I currently live.

[ssgross]

Well, that's it. I paid a visit to Elite Shooting Sports to say my goodbyes to the staff, and to zero my Smith Corona restoration (there is a thread here somewhere on that rifle). It shot lights out in spite of our tears. What a shame. It was a thriving and profitable business too, and the loss of tax revenue for the county and their planned renovations will eventually outweigh whatever savings they think they got over building their own facility. The deal was $22million, which I'm told was at least $2million more than it appraised, and they were quoted $28 million to build their own facility but it would have taken a year or 2 get that started. So impatience drove them to buyout our range - and likely the liberal leanings of our local governments made them all too happy to do it. I don't blame the owner. If someone offered me $2 million more than my house was worth, I'd say I'll be out tomorrow here are the keys, I'm moving to flyover country.

First Sat. in May is the new member orientation at the local Izaak Walton League and I'll be there. I did stop by just to scope it out and chat with the range officer. 3 o'clock on a weekday, maybe 5 or 6 shooters. Most were old timer pistol target shooters. Minimum distance allowed is 25yds. The range officer and a younger guy shooting a garand were very nice, answered all my questions - even the dumb ones. They have an informal service rifle league that shoots every Thurs. at the end of the day. I'm very rusty "across the course", and not as flexible as I was the last time I took it seriously as a salty Corporal 20+ years ago - but I'll give it a go.