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Well I found out that my mom got me a membership there for Father's Day. I thought I was supposed to be buying the gifts this weekend!!
As far as guests go the guy I talked to said guests need to pay full price. They can, however, go with you to the 500yd range. And in order to shoot the 500yd range I guess you need to qualify at 100yd increments if I understood correctly (I was driving south on the Palmetto at the time). So I guess you need to be able to shoot 1.5 MOA or so (according to the guy) at 100yds in order to shoot further. I'm not sure how that pans out at further distances though. I'm kinda curious how I'll do considering the furthest I've shot has been 100yds. But I just put a Leupold Mark AR 3-9x40 on my 16" AR with a DD barrel so I'm not too worried about it. It's not a precision rifle but it's all I have for mid-range shooting.
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Nice Mom
The range masters at HTC determine qualification for the 500 yard range. Their range, their rules. It was explained to me and my recollection of the policy is something like 1) demonstrate ~1 MOA at a 100 yards, 2) show an understanding of ballistics at extended ranges and 3) use only modern centerfire cartridges at the 500 yard range. Basically, they want enough competence to hit paper (target backers) at the extended ranges with the first rounds and no guessing/raining lead from rifles until paper is hit. Demonstrating that competency may be different depending on the shooter, and the observing RSO or range master.
Remember their neighbors fly very expensive jets, helicopters and cargo planes.
Your DD barreled AR is more than fine for the 500 yard range but you'll need to understand how much 5.56 rounds will drop. Most 55gr FMJ rounds will be dropping ~5 ft at 500 yards so you'll have to adjust your turrets or holdover accordingly. Thinking that 500 yards requires calibers larger than 5.56 is wrong.