well I have lived in north San Diego county for the last 10 years, and am moving to Temecula this weekend. And need to know where the local gun shops are, so I can go check them out as soon as I get settled in. So post your favorites from the area.............  Thanks
 And any range info would be greatly appericated..........

hope this doesnt sound bad -- but look in a phone book, then visit all of them and see which ones are worth frequenting.

Depending on which part of Temecula you live in, try Accurate Arms in Temecula and the Shootist in Murrieta.  Accurate Arms is smaller but for the most part the people who work there seem to be OK.  I've only visited The Shootist once but the employees were friendly and helpful. If you don't mind driving into Fallbrook, you can always try CalCustoms.  I used to go there with my dad as a kid and it is owned by the same family to this day.  Which part of Temecula?  I moved to Temecula in 1997 and last year my wife and I sold that house and moved about 5 miles up the road to Winchester, in the French Valley area near the Justice Center.  If you're looking for a place to shoot, try the range in Rainbow.  I joined back in 1997, they have a decent set up and they don't panic when you break out the Black Rifles.

Thanks for the info,  Do you havea phone number or name for the range in rainbow?

Range is called Rainbow Range & Shooting Club.  760-723-8743.  It is located off of I-15 near the Temecula Border Patrol checkpoint.  From Temecula: S/B I-15, exit Rainbow Valley Road. Turn E/B (left over freeway).  Straight ahead at stop sign, across Old Hwy 395.  Next stop sign will be a "T" intersection giving you the choice to turn left or right.  Turn left, N/B.  It comes up real fast on your right hand side.  Marked with only a little sign designating "Range".  Short drive up dirt road.  Range office on your right.  Check in with them and they are usually happy to give you a tour of the range.  It consists of a rifle range with berms at 50yds, 75yds, and 100 yds.  Several other ranges which include .22 rifle only, .22 pistol/rifle, pistol with berms at 15yds, 25yds, and 50yds.  Also have metal plates and shotgun range.  I usually take severaly firearms and go on a weekday.  If one particular range such as rifle is a little crowded, I'll go shoot some pistol.  It's not a bad place to shoot.  I used to belong to the Escondido Fish & Game Association when I lived in Oceanside but Lake Wolford was just too long of a haul from Temecula.  Rainbow has better variety anyway.

The Shootist and Accurate Arms are overpriced.  I don't think there is a decent gun store in the area.  Sorry.  Rainbow Range sounds interesting-but rifle range only to 100 yards?  What does it cost per year?

Membership went up to $100 this year from $75 for previous years.  I think that range set up is better than Escondido Fish and Game Association and there really isn't anywhere else to shoot in the immediate area.  You can go out to the desert but if you get caught you will probably lose your rifle, so for me that is not an option.  For me it is very convenient as I live in the Temecula area and work in Vista.  I can hit the range on the way to work or on the way home several days a week.  Great in theory but I really don't get out that often. I would have to agree that Accurate Arms is a bit overprice, especially in gun prices.  I usually wait until the gunshow at Del Mar or use Gunbroker, ebay, etc.  I think that the only other range option in the area is Iron Sights in Oceanside.  I do go there on occassion but they only go out to 25 yards.  You can at least practice at CQB distances.

I think I'll give this Rainbow Range a try.  We can shoot our so called assault rifles on blm land now.  The head of the BLM recently allowed us to.  It was discussed in this forum a while back.  Only problem is finding land to shoot on at all.  Any other stuff I should know about the Rainbow Range?  Weird rules etc?  Can a member bring a buddy or does he pay?  Tatsuosan, if you live right by the justice center I work right by you.

If you bring a friend, they pay $5.00 for the day.  Immediate family members pay $15.00 for the year but I think that the sponsor has to shoot with them.  One weird rule that they have that I don't like is that they consider the rifle range a "Cold Range."  This means that if you are wearing a holstered sidearm, it must be unloaded.  Maybe they have had an accident before. It's not too inconvenient as I will sometimes wear a holstered sidearm with 2 mags in a carrier.  I'm weird that way but I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there that has concerns about shooting $1500+ worth of rifle and leaving it unattended, at least temporarily, while I walk out to the target.  They also like most ranges do not allow rapid fire.  What this actually means in practice, I do not know because I have shot as fast as I can reasonably aim and pull the trigger, especially at the 50 yard targets which is pretty fast.  I've also seen people shoot much faster than they could possibly aim (maybe practicing laying down suppressive fire LOL)  and no one says anything to them.

The range also provides target frames with cardboard for the shooters which I like.  It's not a rule but common courtesy when I'm shooting any semi-auto rifle, I try to get to the right side of other shooters who for the most part seem to be a couple of regulars that I see often, shooting some real nice, expensive, custom, bolt action target rifles.  Sometimes I set up a piece of cardboard to keep my brass from flying into them.  I don't want to piss someone off by throwing my hot brass at them and their expensive toys.

I'm going to have to look into the BLM thing.  I think I have a link somewhere for them but they used to be pretty strict about shooting (or not shooting) weapons classified as assault weapons.  It would be nice if they were using common sense and realizing that our "Assault Weapons" are no more than any other semi-automatic, center-fire rifle.   Richard.

Sounds like i will taking a visit to the range in Rainbow, i work in San Marcos so it is on my way too work,  maybe i can get a little range time in on my way to work.........  The swing shift sure is cool..

Just visited Rainbow range to sight in my new, formerly preban upper on my registered California "Assault weapon" and was surprised to see only one other couple on the rifle range. They were just packing up so I had the range to myself for 2 hours. After Improved Battle Sight Zero of my Aimpoint and ARMS #40 at 50 yards and since I had the range to myself, I decided to have a battle with paper badguys at 50. 75. and 100 yards. Shooting from prone, kneeling, standing, and using the awning post as psuedo cover, I engaged the small army of paper badguys at the various distances. They were so awestruck by my Bushmaster's amazing firepower that they never got to return fire.

In all seriousness, I had the most fun at that range that I have ever had simply because I had it to myself. I even asked the Rangemaster if I could walk up closer to the targets since you must shoot at targets on the berms for safety reasons. He said as long as no one else was trying to use the range, it was OK. Now I got to practice at CQB range at multiple targets. Since I was now so close, no more than 10 yards and there were 3 paper badguys, I had to fire very quickly, moving from target to target, double and triple tapping until I burned through a 30 round magazine. Boy it went fast. As I walked back to the benches, I saw the Rangemaster walking up to me from the office and I thought, "Oh crap. I was probably shooting way too fast and now I'm going to hear about it." Nope, he just wanted to see what I was shooting and told me that he also owned an AR15. He asked about the "Red dot" scope because he had read about them in magazines but had never really got to see one up close. Plus he said he had never seen an AR set up like mine and wanted to shoulder it. Mine is set up using an ARMS SIR.  I offered to let him shoot it but he declined. Just said how they didn't have this type of technology available when he was in the USMC.

Don't know how many times in the future that I will get to have the range to myself but I sure had a lot of fun. Maybe I'll hang onto my postban Bushmaster M4 with the mini Y comp and shoot that while it's crowded and hope that the noise clears the range. Man that thing is loud.

Don't worry, you'll see me there too.  Just haven't had the chance to go down and join.  Is there a one time joinging fee or just the $100 a year?  Some places have a joining fee too.

I'm not positive but I climpsed at the range fees while looking at the posting board at the range office and I think it said $125 for new members and $100 for renewal. A plus is that they also had an adjusted membership with lower fees for those joining with only a partial year left. When I joined in August of 1997, I had to pay for a full year plus some overpriced new member fee. The reason I paid is that some other members that referred me to this range said that sometimes the waiting list to join was more than a year because they had a cap on the number of members in any given year. At that time I was a member of the Escondido Fish and Game Association and their wait was over 2 years. It didn't matter to me as my dad had me as a junior member there since I was 15 and I just renewed every year. When I joined the Rainbow Range I wasn't sure if I wanted to give up my membership at Escondido because I was a member for over 18 years but in the end I knew that I wouldn't shoot there much because of the drive and it being out of the way. As dumb as it sounds, I didn't even use my membership at Rainbow for 2.5 years as I did not make the time to go shooting there. I just didn't want to give up one of the few places that I could legally shoot my "Assault rifle" and did not want to take a chance of not getting membership in the future because of a waiting list. I don't know if there is currently a cap or a wait at Rainbow. I'll try to remember to ask next time I'm there which hopefully should be soon as I still have several new uppers to sight in. Got rid of all but one of my postban uppers, bought new "Preban" uppers, never attached them, and hoped that AWB would sunset. I won that bet. Give them a call and let us know. The more the merrier. I like showing up and seeing others with "Black rifles" like myself. A common bond if you will.

I just went there last weekend and had a look around, I liked the place  and they told me it would  be 85.00 for the rest of this year and 100.00  at the first of the year, plus 15.00 or my wife. So we decided we would wait till the the new year and join then. I look forward to seeing some more guys there with    "evil rifles".......    Thanks for info guys...... i cant belive I used to drive that place every time i went out to shoot of the 79 and 371 split, before BLM closed it