Hey,

I'm looking to find a new shooting range to spend my hard earned cash at. But first, let me tell you why I'm no longer going to to the range I used to go to, and why YOU should never darken their doorway either.

I went to the Blue Trail Range in Wallingford CT last Saturday with my older brother (who's a federal agent in CA) who came in for a visit. Though I've been going to that range for a while, I wasn't prepared for the things I encountered when I was there on Saturday.

The range itself is falling apart. The target frames are utter crap, and usually fall over in-between case-fires. The "roof"over the range is corrugated sheet metal with thousands of rusty holes in it that leak water right on your weapon when it rains. Brass and shotgun shells of the last three decades litter the entire place, and much of the time you spend there, you try not to trip over garbage that should have been cleaned up by someone five years ago. There is no standing or prone shooting allowed on the centerfire rifle range at all, which is 100yds ONLY. You can't sight your rifle in at 50yds at first, then go to 100, and there's no farther distance to shoot than 100yds. This brings me to my big complaint.

After shooting my AR and my brother's AK for a while, we checked in with the office, and went to the pistol range, (pistols only, no shotguns) which is 25 and 50yds ONLY. I was shooting my Thompson, my MAC 11/9 and a Springfield armory M6 scout chambered in 22LR. My older brother had his 38 special revolver and his service pistol. About 25 minutes in, the range officer came over and said that ALL my guns must be shot only on the "centerfire rifle" range (A MAC 11/9, a tommy gun and a 22LR all shooting at 100yds) without exception. When I tried to politely explain that these guns shoot PISTOL cartriges, he said that if I didn't like it, I could leave.

I guess he didn't want my business, but he sure could have used it, as we were there almost 4 hours and saw only about 5 or 6 other people during that time. The range was only being used by one other person when this happened, as all the others had left after about an hour each. I guess they didn't want to go home broke, as the fee for the range is $14 per person for the 1st hour, and $6 an hour additional after that. We ended up dropping $64 + ammo + targets, and I can tell you how jacked up the cost of that stuff was.

One would think that in this day and age with the entirity of firearm culture in decline in the US, a range would be accomidating to safe, responsible people that are patronizing it. I guess that the owners / operators of the Blue Trail Range in Wallingford, CT think that because they are the only game in town they can act like jerks to their customers.

Well, this is one customer that's not going back.

I'm looking for someone on this board to help me find a decent range in the NY/NJ/CT area. I live in White Plains, Westchester County, NY. I'd be looking to drive no more than an hour and fifteen minutes at most.

Please help me out! Let me know if you shoot at a place around NY that's cool!

I don't live near the detail area, but your story was pretty funny.

Leaky roof, thousands of rusty holes.  

LOL!

Are you a professional writer?

check your email

Blue Trail is only good for the 200 yard range $16 all day. Skeet shooting is ok too, I think thats $16 all day too. I don't know where in CT you are but try Highrock Shooting Association. Its in Naugatuck. $5 an hour, and no ball breaking.

Just to answer a few things:

1) Nope, I'm not a professional writer. Just a caffene jacked up undergrad student that works nights.

2) As far as I know there IS no 200yd. range at blue trail, and yes, before now I was willing to tolerate all the other Shi**y conditions there because the place was "okay" to shoot at. More than anything else, it was the nasty attitude of the staff there that prompted me to say that I can't bring myself to spent $1 there again.

3) Thanks to the people that turned me on to some new options!

Samhain44

Nope, not a professional writer. He ended a sentence with a preposition.

I can certainly empathize with your story as most of the public ranges out here are about the same: bonehead people and lousy facilities. I wound up getting on friendly terms with a few people who had property and were willing to let me use it. I'm always looking for more, too.

Yeah they do have a 200 yard range, I just checked the web page. [url]http://www.shooters.com/bluetrail/facility.html[/url]

Yes, but so did winston churchill [;)]

That still doesn't make it right. [:D]

Samhain44, when you mentioned you were using a "Thompson" I hope you meant Thompson/Center, and not Thompson as in the Auto-Ordinance semi-auto tommy gun.  If you meant the latter than you can count your blessings your weren't arrested, since the Auto-Ordinance guns are on the CT state AW ban.  Not a flame, just giving you a heads up.  A lot of people forget that CT has its own AW ban.  Here's a link to the law [url]http://forestandfield.com/laws/sec53202a.html[/url]

Try Wooster Mountain on Rt. 7 in Danbury, CT if you just want to burn ammo.  The range isn't too long, but they don't care what you're doing so long as you are safe and not firing shot at their target frames...that really pisses'em off.
You can reach them on the weekends at 203-794-9821.  It's $10 ALL DAY.  Their hours for the Winter are different than the Summer, so I'm not sure what their hours are right now.  They usually have competitions during the week and open pistol/rifle/shotgun during the the weekends throughout winter.

Hey,

I don't care what their website says, I've been going there for about 3 years now, and the 200yd range is nowhere to be seen. That illistration on their website (along with the photos in their pamphlet) look like they were done in the 50's or 60's when they still had plans for the place. Picture it today as if NOTHING has been done to it since. In fact, area #4 on the picture now belongs to some other rod & gun club, it's not even with Blue Trail Range.

Samhain44

Also:

I live in NY, so is my semi auto tommy illegal to bring to a range in CT just to shoot for a day?

Samhain44

I have known the Lyman family who owns the Blue Trail Range for years.  They are primarily into NRA competitive rifle shooting. Their Junior program is one of the best in the country. They also have an excelent woman's pistol program. The covered firing area is kinda old and tired.  They did do a lot of cleaning up and painting this year.  I don't like the plywood infront of the firing points.  Due to complaints from neighbors they had no choice but to put the plywood up to keep people from shooting over the backstop, although I don't see how the plywood is going to stop a .223.  They have always had different areas of the range set aside for different types of firearms.  Just like other ranges they have their rules and there are reasons for those rules.  They do have a 200yd range, you can't miss it.  The Connecticut State Rifle and Revolver Association runs High Power Rifle, Smallbore Rifle and Pistol Leagues and matches there.

The High Rock range is an option to shooters in Connecticut.  The problem is they only have 10 firing points and the hours of operation are limited. Sometime on nice days and durring hunting season alot of people will show up and you will have to wait to shoot.  You can put the targets out at any distance and they don't usually get upset if you shoot your AR rapid fire as long as you're controling your rifle and not shooting up the target frame.

Is this the same Lyman family of Lyman Products?

Nope! It's legal!

Sec. 53-202d.Circumstances where possession of assault weapon authorized.


Subsection(3) While on a target range which holds a regulatory or business license for the purpose of practicing shooting at that target range;

Subsection 6) While transporting the assault weapon between any of the places mentioned in this subsection, or to any licensed gun dealer, as defined in subsection (d) of section 53-202f, for servicing or repair pursuant to subsection (c) of section 53-202f, provided the assault weapon is transported as required by section 53-202f.

Ha...my club is on Rt. 7 too.
Of course
it is so far north
up 7
that it is located
in the last town
before entering
Mass.

Samhain, you may be right but this keeps getting me.  BTW, I'm not trying to bust your chops, I'm trying to figure this out.


53-202d paragraph "d"
(d) A person who has been issued a certificate of possession of an assault weapon under this section may possess it only under the following conditions:

The subsections you mentioned are of the above paragraph.  It seems that without the certificate of possession that had to be obtained back in 1993, people cannot have firearms in CT that are on the state's AW ban. This may be worth a call to the Firearms Unit of the CT State Police.  I would really like to know the answer to this one.

Hey GardenWeasel, can you shed any light on this?  

Hey,

    I know you're not busting my chops, in fact, I appreciate you bringing this to my attention! I only became aware that Tommy Guns are not legal in CT last week when I saw an ad by Kahr Arms (who now owns Thompson) in "Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement" magazine. The ad stated that Tommy guns are banned in CA & CT.

    Despite trying to decipher the legalese in the legislation you referred me to, I'm not sure how the average CT State Trooper would act if he pulled me over for a busted tail light, and then seeing the rifle case in the backseat and asking to take a look, found a Thompson in it. I'm pretty confident that charges would be dismissed in a courtroom, but my day surely would have gone to shit from being arrested and having my NY legal thompson confiscated.

    That being said, here's a shocking comparison for you. I went last April out to San Diego CA, to visit my brother. I brought my AR-15 with me so we could do some shooting. I took it to the airport (sans any ammo, of course) in a locked case, filled out a "red tag" and checked it in. No problems the whole way. Anyone here knows that AR's in California are considered to be as bad as owning your own nuclear missile silo, but be that as it may, the Chippies, San Diego PD and the airport security / police never batted an eye at me. Now, did I luck out, or was I completely legal? To tell the truth, now I'm not sure. I am under the impression that a taking a longarm on a trip with you anywhere in the US is legal, as long as the place you begin and end your travels it is legal to posess that longarm.

    Example: If you own an AR15, and leave NY, drive to California, stay a week there, and then drive back to NY, the possession of that longarm is legal through the entire trip, with the possible exceptions of violating local codes regarding storage of the firearm while traveling.

    Example #2: If however you own an AR15, and leave NY, MOVING to CA, where an AR15 is ILLEGAL, your firearm is now ILLEGAL. If I moved to CT, I think that my tommy gun would be considered illegal. If I owned a vacation home in CT and bought a thompson in NY, traveled to CT and left it at my vacation home, it would be illegal. (though I'd like to see that one get by in court too).

    The truth is that the legislators in CT & CA who wrote this laughable law probably don't even know the answers to these questions. It will only be when some delusional law enforcement officer arrests someone and the case goes to court that the law will be clarified to the point of it being comprehensable. These jerks in Hartford that wrote this thing did so to "protect" the people of CT against criminals using assault weapons in their state. Gee, I guess the law must be really effective, seeing how I could have just left my Tommy gun in CT, or sold it on the black market to a criminal then reported it stolen, just as easily as I drove up to a range and went back to my own state.

SAMHAIN44
"non carborundum illegitimate"
Don't let the bastards grind you down.....

I dont see how you can be going there for 2 years and not notice the 200 yard range. It's right before the 100 yard, right near the pistol ports. It's a seperate range, but its there all right.

These are the same Lyman's as the gunsight/reloading company.  The range was built by the Lyman Co. so people would have someplace to shoot.  When it was owned by the Lyman Co. there was no charge to shoot there.  They even had a 600yd range at the time.  When the Lyman's sold the Lyman Co. Charles Lyman bought out the range and turned it into a comercial range.  Charles passed away earlier this year.  His son David has been managing the range for about the last 20 years .

Since this range is open to the public they get all kinds of people up there from inexperienced and new shooters to people who have been shooting all their life.  You can see the inexperience by the way the target frames are all shot up.  Because of this the range officers don't take any crap.  You follow the rules or get out.  You wouldn't want to go to a range where people just did what ever they want.  Some yahoo would end up shooting someone.

[url]www.knightsrange.com[/url]

100 yard INDOOR range, shop and smith on premises.