Yesterday I finally was able to get out to the Austin Rifle Club’s range orientation meeting.

ARC is a private club; you must be a member. Membership isn’t difficult. You need to attend the orientation meeting where they’ll discuss club rules, policies, how the club and ranges work. You need to have a background check (or a CHL). There’s a range safety live-fire evaluation exercise. Then you pay money, fill out forms, and at the monthly general meeting you’re voted in (or not).

So as of now, I’ve done everything but had my membership voted on. So I’ll know in about a week and a half if I’m truly a member or not.

I’ve wanted to be a member for quite a while. ARC is one of the better facilities in town for shooting. Many pistol ranges, 100 and 200 yard rifle range (they used to have a 300 yard range but that was removed due to the action bays, tho there’s talk of a 400 yard range right now), ranges for silhouette. They are a little weak for shotgun but you can do some basic shotgun, just not a lot for things like skeet and trap due to the sheer space that tends to require. And the brand new action shooting bays. From how they were talking last night, they’re growing at a rate of almost 30 new members a month, primarily due to the action bays. That’s great news. Part of why I’ve wanted to join is the action bays, especially if they get opened up for regular member use (i.e. not just limited to being used in formal matches). I’d like to be able to go there to practice shooting on the move, working with my AR transitioning to handgun and back. I’m not sure they’ll do that because while membership tends to be on the better side of gun-handling (background checks and the range safety eval help), there’s no question that membership isn’t always the best. Witness the holes in the ceiling and eyebrows of the 15 yard plinking range, the fact the target holders on the plinking range get shot to hell (shotguns are prohibited on that range since they destroy the target holders, yet people use them there).

In my class yesterday, there were about 30 people. The age range was pretty wide, from a few teenagers to a few seniors. I’d say probably a third of the people were female. Mostly white folks but a few other flavors as well. I’d say probably half of the people had CHL’s, but I believe I was the only person that was actually actively carrying. I’m not sure what to make of that. Perhaps some of them normally carry but opted to disarm for this function because they weren’t sure how the procedures were to be handled? Perhaps some were carrying but opted to shoot another gun? It didn’t seem like that tho. Most appeared to not be actively armed, except perhaps one other gentleman who had an OWB holster on… but it was odd because his Glock was slide-locked back and in the holster (when did he do this?). Bottom line: if you’ve got a CHL, you ought to be using it for more than an adornment on your wallet.

Glad to finally (well, almost finally) be a member.