I am considering joining this range in north Gainesville, but I wanted to know if anybody had any opinions on the range and how busy it is.  Also how strict they are good and bad.  Any reply will be a great help!!!
Thanks

GTRI sucks.  Don't worry about my opinion though, there will be a LOT of folks adding their two cents soon I'm sure.

That was fast ... and kinda what I expected. Any reasons?

The range is okay. It's the attitude that sucks.

I would recommend Bradford Sportsmen Farm, about a 25 min. drive from GTRI.  Why?  Because the range is really nice, with a 50 yard pistol range with steel targets, a rifle range with a berm at 50 yds and one at 300.  A 4-500 yd range that will probably be closed when the new 800 yd range is completed.  Very friendly, helpful owners and staff who actually want you to enjoy your time there and are willing to help make sure you do.  No silly ass rules, just good sound safety rules.  No dress code (you can wear camo if you want to).  An air conditioned meeting room for classes and meetings.

The range is open Sat and Sun for $12 per person, and on Wed. for a little less.  The annual membership rates are a real deal.

I am not affiliated with the Bradford range other than I'm a member.  Call 352-485-2302.  You'll probably speak to Larry, one of the world's nicest guys.  He can give you directions and you can check it out.

I have only been to GRTI once.  

Check out the Fort White Gun Club, it's a little drive from Gainesville, dues are cheap and they always have something fun going on. Ditto on the Bradford Sportsman Club. I was a member of GTRI for two years but I wasn't invited back due to my association with the right wing radical FDCC group and their evil black rifles and propensity for fun.

you guys are giving me the right info. I really appreciate it.  Anybody got a good example of why they did not like GTRI. I am about to buy a buddy of mine a membership for graduating UF and I don't want to waste the money.  Each membership is $175.00 now. We both like to shoot (and I mean shoot 500 to 1000 rounds per visit).  I don't mind the drive to Ft. White or out to Graham, but GTRI is really close.  My propensity for fun ss equal and my little black rifle has not been shot in 2 years it crys in the safe at night

teveler,  
turn on your IM.

I have a membership with Bradford Sportsman’s Farm. They offer theirs at the beginning of each year, but will sell you a membership now however it will only be good for the 2005 year. It runs around $100 per year.

GTR is okay. I was a member there several years ago, but found the company lacking. BSF is just more my speed. Larry, Andy, and Jan (pronounced "Yawn") are very nice to talk to and shoot BS with.

If all you want to do is shoot close range and don't want to travel very far from Gainesville, GTR will get the job done, but don't be upset when people start giving you looks when you pull out your AR15. Last time I was there, I felt like I was a suspect for some crime and not just a guy wanting to shoot some targets down range. GTR seems to be more geared to the Politically Correct rather than Pro 2nd.

One thing I can say about GTR is that they are safe about it, but just a little too safe for my taste. If you’re new to guns and shooting, GTR will be a good safe place to shoot. The training they offer will give you plenty of food for thought to gain experience from. They also use to offer a RSO course which I took while a member there.

Thanks FL-AR15, that was the info I was looking for without asking, I have been shooting all my life and don't want to be treated like a "Boyscout" at a range, safty is always top of my list but right under that it is FUN.  

Thanks to everyone for the GREAT answers and the help in making up my mind!

P.S . I am not saying anything bad about the Boyscouts, just don't want to be treated like one.

"Being treated like a Boyscout." That's a good way of putting it. I never could really come up with a way to articulate how I felt when I was at GTRI. That line kinda sums it up though.

Thanks for that.

Teveler-

I am life member of GTRI and would like to see if I can clear a few things up about our range.  If you would like, I would be happy to acquire some guest passes and take you and/or your guest to the range, my treat.  We have a nice facility and I am proud to show it off.  Please IM me.

That said, some of the 'info' on GTRI posted above is dubious at best and sour grapes at worst.  I encourage all who are interested to check the web site www.gainesvilletargetrange.com for the latest info on membership.  Any questions on rules/policies should be directed to Ron Shema, owner of GTRI.  We are a private club that emphasizes safety and responsible gun ownership.

GTRI has a 100 yard rifle range which is covered and can accomodate a dozen or so shooters.  We also have two covered 25 yard shooting pistol ranges, one with reactive targets, the other with normal target stands.  The facility is open from 8a-sunset 361 days a year (closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, and Easter Sunday).  We frequently hold training classes, rifle matches, and other events.  In fact, there will be a CMP shoot on October 1st.  Morrigan Consulting (www.morrigan-consulting.com) is also holding some advanced training in the fall.  I took the carbine class with some of the FDCC folks and had a freakin' blast!

I really dunno where some of the misconceptions about GTRI started.  All I can say is, come on out and see for yourself.  We welcome all responsible gun owners.  I would be delighted to have the FDCC folks come join us for a training class or the CMP shoot, and have invited them in the past, but to no avail.

Oh, CS223 - " I was a member of GTRI for a year but I wasn't invited back due to my association with the right wing radical FDCC group and their evil black rifles and propensity for fun"  <-- You've got to be kidding me!  Who said you could not come back because you were an FDCC member?

Oh here we go again.

GTR doesn't want any thing to do with FDCC. The Chief RSO and owner have made it very clear. We are viewed as unsafe, para military, militia, looking to disrupt the peaceful lives of the politically correct community in which GTR is so wonderfully accepted. Wouldn't want the Gainesville Sun to find out about that now would we.

WOW, On the subject of the Gainesville Sun, I would not wipe my Hairy A$$ with it. It is a liberal left winged piece of dog poo (and I am being nice). But that is the problem with Alachua County I have lived here for the last 25 years and bearing with all the leftys has only made me more of a righty  Hope no one is a big Gainesville Sun fan

Nope, definitely not a Gainesville Sun fan.  I have caught them numerous times simply making stuff up in their articles.

On the original topic - if anyone wants to come out and see what GTRI is all about for themselves, feel free to contact me.  I would happy to take guests out anytime.  We strive to be a community asset and a safe fun place to shoot guns.  Any responsible gun owner is welcome there regardless of what club they belong to.

Now, if I hit the lotto tonight.  If I get $35 mil, I will buy GTRI, expand it, and hold the biggest, baddest FDCC/EBR event this state has ever seen!  Whaddya say?

Quoted: Now, if I hit the lotto tonight.  If I get $35 mil, I will buy GTRI, expand it, and hold the biggest, baddest FDCC/EBR event this state has ever seen!  Whaddya say?

If I had a dime every time I heard that I could do the same thing.

On the original topic - if anyone wants to come out and see what GTRI is all about for themselves, feel free to contact me. I would happy to take guests out anytime.

Hmmm, how about Saturday then?  I'll bring a Krinkov, M16, MP5SD, Uzi, and M37 beltfed.  If they aren't cool with suppressors, I'll leave them at home.  That will be OK.  

Quoted: Oh, CS223 - " I was a member of GTRI for a year but I wasn't invited back due to my association with the right wing radical FDCC group and their evil black rifles and propensity for fun"  <-- You've got to be kidding me!  Who said you could not come back because you were an FDCC member?

Oh I'm sure it wasn't because I'm involved with FDCC, can only speculate as to why I wasn't asked to renew my membership. I'm sure my association with FDCC didn't help matters.

Since I was only at the GTRI range twice that year, I can guess that it was because of one of the following undocumented violations:

I was shooting my M48 Yugo Mauser into the berm without a paper target but staying in the specifed bullet impact area as defined in the GTRI Manual. I was there by myself that day. Of course I policed my brass and the brass left behind by others and  I neatened up the benches & stools & target stands that others had left in disarray.

Or the second trip that year to sight in my AR15 rifle using approved paper targets as specified in the GTRI manual and 20 round magazines loaded with five rounds only, from a soft bench rest, I failed to put on the "Orange Vest" because I was the second person on the line and the Range Master chose to point it out to me instead of the first person who was on the line before me who, according to the GTRI Manual, is the person responsible for controlling the line & wearing the Orange Vest as Specified in the GTRI Manual. Or it was because I was sighting in my bolt action .22 silenced rifle at an approved paper target and using a spotting scope and the evilness of my rifles troubled the one other shooter that was there that day. Mind you on both occasions I was wearing clothing as approved & specified in the GTRI Manual, at no time was I there wearing BDU's nor did any of my gear bear any resemblence to a paramilitary equipment, not even an NRA sticker on my vehicle.

For the record, membership at GTRI is reserved for people personally approved by the owner. It is his personal decision which can be influenced by the recommendation of others as to whether to grant or renew membership. As stated in the GTRI Manual, they can deny your membership for whatever reason they desire. Although I was never confronted regarding any violations and I always Logged & and Out of the range log book as specified in the GTRI Manual, I was not asked to renew my membership for the third year.

It could have been because I openly supported the opposing candidate for sheriff & state attorney, challenged Olerich in public forum in the prescense of GTRI's owner. OOooo, I could feeel the evil eye
that night.

If you value your membership at GTRI, I'd advise you never to come and shoot with the FDCC folks, because if you're caught associating with such ilk, you'll stand a good chance of being black-balled as well.

And for the record, and I have the letter to prove it, FDCC folks and their activities are not welcome at GTRI, period. The only exception is when Bill Jeans comes to teach, then they'd like to have our participation and money. Maybe they will allow the class to shoot the night skills maybe they won't never know until the last hour if you'll get the benefit of the training that you paid for. Do I have to bring up Dr. G and the IPSC shooters that were expelled from GTRI as well? Got that letter too.

GTRI is a nice range, one of the nicest north of the Manatee range. It is micro-managed by people who shoot with their support hand on their hip and raise their pinky when they sip their tea and who are worried about their PC image more than the people who financially support them. Folks who play Polo are very much at home at GTRI. Folks who shoot to live, no matter how safe they are aren't welcome in spite of how you want to defend GTRI. Yes, it's a beautiful, nice clean range, a safe range, and most of the rules are reasonable. I especially like the place because folks police their brass but they do that at Fort White. If you want to see an equally safe range but where folks have fun, go to Fort White, hell I'll fax you their calendar.

Quoted: Now, if I hit the lotto tonight.  If I get $35 mil, I will buy GTRI, expand it, and hold the biggest, baddest FDCC/EBR event this state has ever seen!  Whaddya say?

Jebbus Titty Fucking Zulus, when did the owner, RS, raise the price to 25 million?

When RS sent out the flyer and business card package requesting all members solicit at least 5 additional members, ten if possible, or the range would be dismantled & sold,  the price was only $300,000. By the time I consulted some investors, he had raised the price to $400,000. Now $25 million??? THat's optimistic.


Oh, and I got that letter too, bitch!

Sorry, you're on the losing team.


ETA, in all fairness, he didn't outright threaten to dismantle the range, the words were along the lines that he had made a commitment to the shooting community and now it was time for those people to return that commitment or the range was at risk of closing. Since I was close to a few of the core members at that time, I knew a little more of the inside story.

Keep in mind you, could be pressured as a member to solicit new members.

Quoted: On the original topic - if anyone wants to come out and see what GTRI is all about for themselves, feel free to contact me. I would happy to take guests out anytime. Hmmm, how about Saturday then?  I'll bring a Krinkov, M16, MP5SD, Uzi, and M37 beltfed.  If they aren't cool with suppressors, I'll leave them at home.  That will be OK.

Won't be much fun because you'll have to cease fire every time a plane takes off from the airport.

BTW, I'm sure you're you're more than aware that there are no more Heritage Day shoots. I was there when the owner, RS, had his tirade and vowed "Never Again"!

Made alot of sense too when they made all the gun owners wear hearing protection while demonstrating their silenced weapons. What was it, two range officers to every one shooter on the firing line that day? Needed sunglasses to protect your eyes from all the dayglo orange. No thanks, I'll take Hernando for that event.

Hey cyoung, you want my GTRI hat? it's in the closet collecting dust, I won't wear it.

Quoted: Hey cyoung, you want my GTRI hat? it's in the closet collecting dust, I won't wear it.

No, don't give it to him! Let the pink pig wear it.

What no comment cyoung???? Look, I'm not picking on you specifically. Frankly, you had to do one of two things to become a life member, you either paid 10 years range dues in advance or you physically worked in the construction of the range. Frankly, even knowing what I know now, had I known the range was being built, I would have done my part with or without the prospect of a free life membership. I would have been very upset afterwards with the manner in which it is being run. Glad you are happy there.

The range is not run by gun people. It's run by eliteists with their own personal agenda, and discriminatory attitude. Fine, it's a private range, they have every legal right to do so, but don't push it as a community asset because the community isn't welcome. You only need to look at their application where they "Count Doctors -1, lawyers, radio personalities, FBI, LEO's, ...etc" as their members. If you don't fit that catagory, you don't belong there.  

If it were a community range, there would be sanctioned activities for the 4H club, Boy Scouts and other programs to promote shooting sports in the community, there aren't any. There is the UF Pistol & Rifle Club, you'd think they would offer them a reduced student rate membership but they don't. Who wants a bunch of young folks with their cheap SKS's and Makarovs on their pretty range. Not GTRI! Yet I've been there when the little ladys in their tennis skirts and white visors are shooting with the piss poorest weapon control. Handguns nearly jumping out of their hands, shooting one handed, muzzle climb above 45 degrees. I'd loved to have given them some training. But their idea of a group was the folks who they were having lunch with after leaving the range.

GTRI doesn't want any kind of organized events, you think FDCC would be welcome for one match, HEll No. They kicked the Sepsi/IPSC group out. Don't hand me the multiple safety violation bull either, I shot with them many times, they ran a tight ship. You make it sound like they were twirling single action revolvers with the hammer cocked.

BTW cyoung, how do you plan to invite people for a personal tour? Are you going to pay the $10 visitor pass out of your own pocket? You do realize that anyone that has set foot on that range in the past as a visitor cannot visit again, per the GTRI Manual.

Let me ask a few other questions. You're required to log the approximate number of rounds you discharged into the berm on each range. They were workng on a lead abatement program that started by drilling a bunch of shovels so they could sift the lead out of the berm. I presume that were considering making members sift out as many of their projectiles as they could after they were done shooting and someone convinced them it was a bad idea. Tell me, is that big fucking carrot washer machine  that they bought still rusting in the common area? The was some dumbass lead abatement retrofit idea that they dreamed up since the shovel sifter didn't go over.  For such a nice range, I couldn't believe someone would drag that rusting behemoth out there to junk up the place. Don't they know that there are companies that specialize in lead abatement  and it costs the range nothing? What are they thinking?

During the last election, the Range management supported & endorsed anti gun, anti self defense candidates. Even Massad Ayoob wrote about Bill Cervone and the Hecksel case. Why? There was enough range membership that could have elected a pro-gun State attorney and sheriff. I personally know GTRI members that supported the AWB and think at AR15's have no sporting purpose and no place in civilian hands.

Cyoung, I've been there during Bill Jeans training. The range owner treats him like shit and a child. I was there when Bill was giving M4Real one on one training regarding shooting skills with the M16. The two of them were down range, and Bill showed M4Real the proper way to control a full auto weapon and allowed him to perform a mag dump using the technique. Well, Mr. Range Owner was not pleased and made certain that Bill understood that activity wouldn't be permitted. WTF Over? I can understand not allowing F/A fire as a matter of general policy. It's hard on the berms if done repeatedly. But a LE instructor teaching a student in a one time occurance? That's just bullshit.

I can go on. How about certain special members are permitted to draw from holster on the exclusive range C. Yet other members like myself who are CFI/RSO, LFI Graduates, Bill Jeans Graduates are not permitted to draw from holster. Bullshit, sorry. But it's their range & their rules.... Don't like em? there's the gate, don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. Like it or not, that's the attitude at GTRI.

Cyoung, I can appreciate you sticking up for GTRI, I guess you are part of the inner circle so you get exclusive privledges. But no matter how you guild a turd, it's still a turd. They say where there's smoke, there's fire. There's lots of smoke in this thread.  Again, don't mean this as a personal attack.


ETA: cyoung, what about .50 BMG rifles? Range owner told me that they are not permitted, ask multiple times before I joined & during my membership. Nope, not permitted period. Yet I'm out there and the guy from Pickett Weaponry is hammering the berm with his Armalite .50? Gues he is one of the special people too.

I woke up to feed my daughter and read this briefly, I have a response coming to all of your insights ,however it will have wait till tomorrow his
Parshooter IM is now on, thanks I forgot , any input from anybody is great!!!!!

Quoted: Cyoung, I've been there during Bill Jeans training. The range owner treats him like shit and a child. I was there when Bill was giving M4Real one on one training regarding shooting skills with the M16. The two of them were down range, and Bill showed M4Real the proper way to control a full auto weapon and allowed him to perform a mag dump using the technique. Well, Mr. Range Owner was not pleased and made certain that Bill understood that activity wouldn't be permitted. WTF Over? I can understand not allowing F/A fire as a matter of general policy. It's hard on the berms if done repeatedly. But a LE instructor teaching a student in a one time occurance? That's just bullshit.

Chuck is right. That's exactly what happened. Those guys(the RO's) had to change their shorts after they heard my FA fire. Bill was showing me some FA protocal and the range master came running down range as if someone had just shot his dog, and ripped on Bill right in front of everyone. This incident is why I will never take another Bill Jeans class at GTRI.

Chad, you should just give it up bro. The word is out that GTRI's secret handshake leaves your hand sticky and slimy.

Quoted: Quoted: Hey cyoung, you want my GTRI hat? it's in the closet collecting dust, I won't wear it. No, don't give it to him! Let the pink pig wear it.

You read my mind

Here are some samplers of what you can expect from GTRI:



From March 2005:


Hello fellow shooters,

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that GPSA will no
longer be holding IPSC matches at the Gainesville Target Range. All club
activities have been cancelled for the immediate future. Individuals who
paid their 2005 membership dues should have received a refund by the
time this email goes out.

Many thanks to all of you who have supported GPSA during the previous 3
years (almost).
It has been enjoyable and a truly rewarding experience. Best wishes for
continued enjoyment in the shooting sports.

Please, pass this message on to shooters in your area.

Sincerely,
DrPat
(President of GPSA)


From October 2004:


I have no personal experience with GTRI other than what I've heard from a
few friends (Sam being one of them) and a couple of inquiries from folks
over there about conducting some training at GTRI. I've had correspondence
on more than a few occasions with different individuals regarding GTRI
hosting Charity events like the one that we are doing at Gateway in
Jacksonville on December 18th as well as my offering some of the finest
advanced training around that Military and Law Enforcement academies have
contracted me to conduct with nothing coming to fruition with GTRI. I don't
know the reason nor do I hold ill will toward them for it as there are other
options like Bradford Sportsman's Farm outside of Starke where class 3
weapons are in regular use on their 300 yard and 600 yard ranges with no
complaints and Gateway in Jacksonville where we will be running 6 stages
concurrently at the upcoming Charity 3-Gun match or at Jon Kruger's Rimfire
Ranch down in Polk City. The last correspondence I had with GTRI was with
Ron Shema who advised me that I needed to attend a safety course on a
Wednesday evening and join the club for whatever the annual membership fee
is and then I can rent the range. I don't know if that is the deal for
other trainers that hold courses at the facility, but I have more cost
effective and better deals elsewhere.

Long story short though, if GTRI is interested in hosting a course from AAI,
my associates and I would be glad to do it but I'm not joining as a member
when I have a place to shoot for free here in Lake City! Until next time.

Take Care and Stay Aware!

Russ Adler
Executive Director
ADLER & ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL
www.Dedicated-Professionals.com
386.754.9159


From Jan 2003:

Thought you guys might find this interesting, this is from the chief range
officer at the GTRI range.

I will say this as clearly as I possibly can:

At this time, there will be no 3 gun matches held at
GTRI.

Contrary to the belief of one or two members (and a
few non-members) this decision was not arrived at
arbitrarily. It was given careful consideration and
the decision was made to NOT hold these matches.

Range use by members was one of the concerns voiced by
many (not all respond to this group)Claude offered to
use the rifle and one of the pistol ranges. But if 2
ranges are going to be tied up (as we've revised Pat's
set up) we need to keep the rifle range available to
allow the most versatility for shooting. But, this is
only one of the considerations.

I attended the FDCC carbine competition at the Lake
City range at the end of December. While there, I
viewed at least 5 times that shooters walked over from
the rifle range with magazines in, bolt forward and
walking up to the firing line while people were down
range setting up the stages. (Sorry, blatent lie!)I consider this
unacceptable at any range. During the match, several
shooters attempted to shoot the stages without eye
protection. Even after being reminded, one person
insisted on shooting without eye protection (and was
allowed!!). (True, we have many LE and Military folks who do not train & operate with eye protection and refuse to wear it, now that we have steel plates, eye protection is mandatory)

These shooters are among the same shooters that will
show up to compete if we had a match at GTRI. I am
not ready to open the range up to that kind of
liability. Three gun matches are SOMETIMES viewed by
the public as paramilitary in nature and "a bunch of
Rambos running around". This is not the image that
GTRI is wanting to present to the public.


The GPSA (Pat's group) have put on very safe matches
and I'm sure will continue to do so. (That's why they were later kicked out of GTRI) As I said before, I have no safety related problem with Pat's
matches and hope they will continue. I'm saying that
at this time (and in the NEAR future) we will not be
adding 3 gun matches at GTRI.

If we add new range bays in the future. We can look
at proposals for new competitions at that time. The
proposals must address all safety and administrative
issues related to the match and must be presented by a
member of GTRI. The match (if approved) must be run by
a GTRI member. Remember this range in not a public
range and will not be driven by the desires of
non-members.

=====
BRIAN E LANE
Chief Range Safety Officer
Gainesville Target Range, Inc.


Hey cyoung, the crickets are chirping in your corner.

Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll..................... I ‘ve only been to that range twice, both times for ‘Heritage Day’ shoots............ Notice they don’t have those anymore, guess they don’t care for the full-auto like the others mentioned......... The last one I attended, some one called and complained (hunters supposedly) that they where being rained on by stray rounds going over the berms............ I didn’t know there was a hunting club in the vicinity, especially where they where allowed to run dogs. So mr shema came out and said no more rifle or belt feds, only pistol caliber. After that folks started to leave.


The whole time this event was going on (both times I attended) these guys were walking around nervously, I could here comments, from shemas cronies about how this wouldn’t happen again........... They really shit when they set the berm on fire!



On that note.......... My wife bought me a gift certificate for a one year membership for christmas three years ago............... I’m sorry she wasted her money ‘cause that’s exactly what she did!

Quoted: WOW, On the subject of the Gainesville Sun, I would not wipe my Hairy A$$ with it. It is a liberal left winged piece of dog poo (and I am being nice). But that is the problem with Alachua County I have lived here for the last 25 years and bearing with all the leftys has only made me more of a righty  Hope no one is a big Gainesville Sun fan

That's why me and the wife moved.............. We were both born and raised there........... Place sucks and it's unfortunate I still have to travel there for work.......

Quoted: What no comment cyoung???? Look, I'm not picking on you specifically. Frankly, you had to do one of two things to become a life member, you either paid 10 years range dues in advance or you physically worked in the construction of the range. Frankly, even knowing what I know now, had I known the range was being built, I would have done my part with or without the prospect of a free life membership. I would have been very upset afterwards with the manner in which it is being run. Glad you are happy there. The range is not run by gun people. It's run by eliteists with their own personal agenda, and discriminatory attitude. Fine, it's a private range, they have every legal right to do so, but don't push it as a community asset because the community isn't welcome. You only need to look at their application where they "Count Doctors -1, lawyers, radio personalities, FBI, LEO's, ...etc" as their members. If you don't fit that catagory, you don't belong there.   If it were a community range, there would be sanctioned activities for the 4H club, Boy Scouts and other programs to promote shooting sports in the community, there aren't any. There is the UF Pistol & Rifle Club, you'd think they would offer them a reduced student rate membership but they don't. Who wants a bunch of young folks with their cheap SKS's and Makarovs on their pretty range. Not GTRI! Yet I've been there when the little ladys in their tennis skirts and white visors are shooting with the piss poorest weapon control. Handguns nearly jumping out of their hands, shooting one handed, muzzle climb above 45 degrees. I'd loved to have given them some training. But their idea of a group was the folks who they were having lunch with after leaving the range. GTRI doesn't want any kind of organized events, you think FDCC would be welcome for one match, HEll No. They kicked the Sepsi/IPSC group out. Don't hand me the multiple safety violation bull either, I shot with them many times, they ran a tight ship. You make it sound like they were twirling single action revolvers with the hammer cocked. BTW cyoung, how do you plan to invite people for a personal tour? Are you going to pay the $10 visitor pass out of your own pocket? You do realize that anyone that has set foot on that range in the past as a visitor cannot visit again, per the GTRI Manual. Let me ask a few other questions. You're required to log the approximate number of rounds you discharged into the berm on each range. They were workng on a lead abatement program that started by drilling a bunch of shovels so they could sift the lead out of the berm. I presume that were considering making members sift out as many of their projectiles as they could after they were done shooting and someone convinced them it was a bad idea. Tell me, is that big fucking carrot washer machine  that they bought still rusting in the common area? The was some dumbass lead abatement retrofit idea that they dreamed up since the shovel sifter didn't go over.  For such a nice range, I couldn't believe someone would drag that rusting behemoth out there to junk up the place. Don't they know that there are companies that specialize in lead abatement  and it costs the range nothing? What are they thinking? During the last election, the Range management supported & endorsed anti gun, anti self defense candidates. Even Massad Ayoob wrote about Bill Cervone and the Hecksel case. Why? There was enough range membership that could have elected a pro-gun State attorney and sheriff. I personally know GTRI members that supported the AWB and think at AR15's have no sporting purpose and no place in civilian hands. Cyoung, I've been there during Bill Jeans training. The range owner treats him like shit and a child. I was there when Bill was giving M4Real one on one training regarding shooting skills with the M16. The two of them were down range, and Bill showed M4Real the proper way to control a full auto weapon and allowed him to perform a mag dump using the technique. Well, Mr. Range Owner was not pleased and made certain that Bill understood that activity wouldn't be permitted. WTF Over? I can understand not allowing F/A fire as a matter of general policy. It's hard on the berms if done repeatedly. But a LE instructor teaching a student in a one time occurance? That's just bullshit. I can go on. How about certain special members are permitted to draw from holster on the exclusive range C. Yet other members like myself who are CFI/RSO, LFI Graduates, Bill Jeans Graduates are not permitted to draw from holster. Bullshit, sorry. But it's their range & their rules.... Don't like em? there's the gate, don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. Like it or not, that's the attitude at GTRI. Cyoung, I can appreciate you sticking up for GTRI, I guess you are part of the inner circle so you get exclusive privledges. But no matter how you guild a turd, it's still a turd. They say where there's smoke, there's fire. There's lots of smoke in this thread.  Again, don't mean this as a personal attack. ETA: cyoung, what about .50 BMG rifles? Range owner told me that they are not permitted, ask multiple times before I joined & during my membership. Nope, not permitted period. Yet I'm out there and the guy from Pickett Weaponry is hammering the berm with his Armalite .50? Gues he is one of the special people too.

Yea........... Thats how the wife got the Idea on the gift certificate, her boss (an Attorney) is a life member there........ Heck you might even know him.......... Won't mention his name, but you know the big glass building behind, 441, behind the highway patrol station..........

Now he's a nice guy and would do anything for you, he's a black rifle owner.........

Quoted: And the GTRI fans continue to chime in... If you were to go to say, I dont know, a rimfire pistol message board, maybe folks who enjoy that sort of shooting would praise GTRI. I dont know. But come to a black rifle www site and every single person, short of a life member, probably with a vested interest in seeing the range prosper, has had a bad experience there. And I dont think its because of the way we view the range. We've all been there, we wanted to like it. When GTRI was new, FDCC had been around a couple years. I wanted to try and help GTRI by bringing our members to their range. As you can see by the letter posted by CS223, GTRI did not want to associate with us in any way. In order to convince other GTRI members of the same, the grossly exaggerated and flat out lied about our club and our matches. In the end, black rifle folks have had been treated, spoken to, a handled pretty poorly by GTRI staff. If I and the rifle club I have spent so much time trying to build had not been treated so poorly by some members of GTRI, I would love to tell you its a great place to go. It is a very nice range. I guess they feel in order to keep it that way, people like me and my friends ought to stay away. Its a shame.

If the aristocracy continues.............. They're gonna be in trouble in the future!


just my opinion!