Haven't fired a shotgun for 20 years since my military days and was a little apprehensive about…read moregoing here first instead of the range. I thought I would be met by people here who come every week and acted snobby about a newcomer into their hobby but had the exact opposite experience.
Yes, these guys are the local pros and yes, they all have their friend groups and being new can be awkward for anyone in any situation, but my experience was far different from what I expected.
The people working there were really really nice. Answered all of our questions, super supportive, not trying to rush anything or brush us off. One guy said something along the lines of, "Look,we want this to be a fun experience for everyone. We want people to come try the sport and experience our club and become members. We want people to be comfortable and have fun and be safe. We would love to have you guys back next time!"
We also had a great experience with the younger guy operating our trap house. Very patient, very kind.
A random guy (customer) watching us, stepped in to offer my friend's son (a 10 year old who had such a great time btw) some helpful pointers.
We got there around 4:30 and that was perfect because they let us shoot a couple rounds down the range before they even loaded the trap houses or turned anything on or started selling the tickets. This was great since my friend and his son had never shot a shotgun before and because it had been 20 years since I had.
The guys we were paired up with were visibly annoyed they got placed with new people(/ and a kid) who didnt know what we were doing (as far as etiquette and rules and how slow we were), but they were patient and polite and nobody made any inappropriate comments or anything. Everything from the staff seemed to be in the nicest way to help us learn and get better and faster.
They really don't care if you bring in a several thousand dollar over/under or a $250 mossberg. They didn't have an issue letting us also try it with our 18.5" barrel 20 gauge. Bring what you have, bring your ammo, and prepare to have fun. Get to know your gun somewhere else really well first if you can like at a range or with snap caps at home.
Because we were so new to it all, we definitely took up more time but again, everyone was really cool about it. Next, we are going to go practice somewhere a little slower paced before we come back to do this again.
We also only had 2 shotguns for 3 of us and didn't really think that through. We were all on the same ticket for practice, so that meant one of us shot, then the next, but the third shooter had to run and grab the first shooter's gun. The staff was totally cool about it, but we immediately realized it would be a lot more fun and faster for everyone to have one gun per person and to have each person really know and understand their gun well so we can keep pace and not hold up others. One of the guys working there was even nice enough to let me shoot one of his old mossbergs and he really didnt have to, but he was trying to help speed things along for the sake of everyone else.
The crowd is a lot of older guys (60s and up and a lot of vietnam vets) and a lot of 30-40 year olds. A couple groups with kids and women, but like 80% guys who all seemed to have fun, take it seriously, and were willing to help/chat/answer random questions.
If you become a member (have to attend a meeting and interview, then join a waitlist which accepts members based on availability once a year in every February) you get access to their boat launch on the river, camping, and the outdoor gun range.
They also sell food (nothing healthy lol, think hot dogs/nachos/soda) and water and have a restroom.
Tickets tonight were $7 which got us 25 pulls each (practice session). Apparently, if you compete, you might win meat (like beef for your freezer and that's pretty awesome).
Drive in (a car can access the dirt road with no clearance issues), back in behind the field. Walk down the concrete ramp and the trailer with steps has a side window that will open at 5 to sell trap tickets. Then you take your ticket to the window of the same building facing the field (4 feet around the corner) and you exchange that ticket to get your name on a list and they tell you a number (for your group/score card). Then they announce over the PA system throughout the night which type of group (practice/competition) and which group number and which house/field of the four.
The person in position 1 calls for the first pull to let everyone visualize how they look. Then the round begins. Person 1 calls pull and the staff guy at your house hits the button, bang, clay destroyed mid air. Then person 2 has a round in and closes their action, points, yells pull, bang, etc. Then they rotate a space so you get to do it from different angles.
Stick around to hear the score after all 25 rounds are fired by everyone in your group.
