Opening Day of Arizona’s Cowtown Long Range Shooting Club - 4-Oct

[Bill Poole]

Long Range Hunters and Shooters!

 

Are you interested in Long Range Hunting or Long Range Precision shooting? Looking for a place to practice long range shots with your hunting/long range gear but don’t have the interest, patience or barrel profile for an NRA style F-class match on a known-distance range?

 

With the support of the owners of Cowtown, AZ (http://azcowtown.com/) we are starting up a club which will give our members access to Cowtown Ranges in Peoria, just northwest of Phoenix!

 

This new club, Cowtown Long Range Shooters, http://cowtownlrs.com/, will be holding a free Grand Opening shoot on Saturday October 4, 2014 - 8AM and till 4PM! The Grand Opening is FREE and open to all safe shooters!

• Bring your favorite long range rifles! We’ll have multiple firing points each with numerous steel plate targets from 100 yds to over 1000 yards! (all rifles must be previously sighted in, leave rifles in vehicles until you have been directed to your assigned range and squadded to shoot)
• Shooting industry vendors & manufacturers displays!
• Long range shooting platform demonstrations!
• Membership information for this new club!
• A chance to meet other shooters with similar interests!

 

If you like the shooting facilities and decide to join, you can expect to participate in monthly shoot days with access to firing points overlooking steel targets from under 100 yards to a planned 2000+ yards. The club also will be running 2 or 3 big weekend-long shoots every year.

 

For more information on the Grand Opening or on joining the club, see our website at http://cowtownlrs.com/ and email us at cowtownlrsmembership@gmail.com. We’re already set up to take membership applications online at: (Grand Opening rate): http://azcowtown.com/events/

 

If you plan to attend, send us an email at: cowtownlrsmembership@gmail.com

If you are a certified Range Safety Officer or want to become one, we need you in our club! Let us know! cowtownlrsmembership@gmail.com.

If you are interested in a vendor booth and having your company represented at this grand opening or other events at Cowtown, please contact Cowtown management directly at: info@azcowtown.com

 

Download this flyer here http://cowtownlrs.com/CTLRS-4oct-Flyer.pdf print a few copies and drop them off with your friends and at your favorite gun shop!

 

Hope to see many of you on the 4^th!

 

 

CTLRS - Cowtown Long Range Shooters

Post questions here or email cowtownlrsmembership@gmail.com .

 

 

Range Location:

10402 West Old Carefree Highway, Peoria, Arizona 85383

Map:

Take Carefree Hwy west from I-17, south 100yds on Lake Pleasant Blvd, then west on Old Carefree Hwy, past the airstrip and 2 canals till you hit the mountains at Cowtown.

 

This is a shooting range! Bring eye and ear protection for everyone in your party! Under 18 must be accompanied by an adult, experienced adult & youth shooters welcome, event may not be enjoyable for very young children.

 

 

Don't want to mess around setting up paper targets? We have lots of steel like this:

 

That canyon has 8 or 10 steel targets out to 1000 yards

[lancetkenyon]

So yearly family membership is $200 (Normally $225 w/o. the $25 off promotion) and $30 per day per adult and $10 for my daughter? The next year membership only $100, because of the "one time initiation" fee paid the first time, correct? And a guest can come for an additional $30 a day?

 

Just trying to wrap my head around this. Looks interesting.

 

What are facilities like out there?

As for "booking" times, how many people would be allowed to book per day? How many people can the range support at one time?

What if the bookings fill up and I wanted to come out and shoot? I am sure weekends will fill fast.

Days/hours of operation?

 

I have done most of my long range shooting at a place I found years ago. I can get to 1700+ yds, but it is about an hour and a half away from my house. This place is all of 25 minutes from my house, so I can see at time and fuel savings benefit already. But if I can't ever go because it is booked, well....

 

And I don't often plan months in advance to go shooting. It is usally a Friday afternoon call to my brother to get together on Saturday to go ring some steel.

 

So, I'm very interested if the facilities allow for last minute range time like Ben Avery does.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

This is out there by the canyon motocross track and car track, cowtown I believe was or is that paintball town, Sounds interesting but luckily we have a spot near my place about 30 minute drive to shoot out to 2000.

I have a feeling this wont last too long, I see Peoria getting closer and closer.

Worth checking out the opening free event to see whats up.

[lancetkenyon]

Here is what I got back in an email from Cowtown:



Cowtown LRS Membership


9:47 PM (18 hours ago)


to me

thanks for replying.


I think you have the stated fee structure correct. More clarity on 4-Oct.

Guests will be welcome, I think the plan is for members to request a guest pass in advance. We encourage bringing guests, but not a group of guys buying one membership and everyone else coming as his "guest" every week. Details still being worked out.

How many days per month we get is dependent upon activity and profit to the landlord. They have commercial training customers on weekdays so we can get some weekends, our initial proposal was one weekend a month. Management can probably give us a lot more than that but unless the club really grows we won't have the manpower to run much more than that.

The club will "book" the range and members will have open shooting for that entire time.

Hope that helps.



CTLRS director team

[HuntHarder]

hmmm...

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

I heard that the commercial training deal is already in place and its some kind of FBI training. So they are already doing some shooting there.

[lancetkenyon]

I was really excited about this last night, now I am not so sure. A $200 membership plus $30/day and I might get to shoot one weekend a month? That is not how the website or initial post was leading me to believe.

 

As for the agencies, the website said numerous 3 letter agencies currently train there, along with LEOs and military.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Might be a good set up for some guys I know its tuff to find a safe place to go long that's not far away.

[lancetkenyon]

Yeah, my long range spot is 90+ minutes from my house.

[HuntHarder]

Yeah, my thoughts too. If you shoot once every month, it comes out to $46.00 every time you shoot. I know there are going to be months where the date doesn't work for me, so then the cost goes up to over $60.00 every time you shoot. Great idea, but will not work for me.

[Bill Poole]

LR Shooters!

 

THANKS for all the comments! I posted the announcement on about 10 different forums and am getting a lot of comments!

 

Some background:

 

Cowtown Arizona, private property owned by Cowtown Management Group, has been there for decades and does a lot of cool photo shoots, movie sets and hosts lots and lots of high end contractor training for LE and DoD. They have also leased a tiny valley to a cowboy group for decades and some river bottom to a paintball operator. They were looking for someone to start a club to get long range rifle shooting going.

 

Some Long Range hunter guys I know started talking to CTMG about forming that club and CTLRS was born. I have helped run some ASRPA (http://asrpa.com/) events out there and served on the board of several clubs so that’s how I got involved.

 

4-Oct is the grand opening, from that we’ll gauge interest and set up a schedule, tentatively one full weekend day per month, preferably the same weekend every month, but that might expand to several full weekends every month and maybe some weekdays (harder to schedule due to commercial usage). Depends on usage. We need volunteer RO’s and shooters filling the range to justify scheduling additional firing points and shoot days!

 

We will have at least that one firing valley in the photo, where about 5 or 10 guys could lay down side by side and shoot, but there are 3 other similar firing points on the property and places to set up more. I picture guys shooting and spotting with a buddy till their barrels get hot, and walking back to the picnic area to cool down both shooter and barrel while others shoot a bit and doing it again till the ammo runs low.

 

Cowtown, the landlord, owns the dirt and the steel. We won’t have to go out and set up steel, we might have to cease fire and paint the steel once or twice a day but there won’t be public range style 15-minute shooting sessions followed by target time… No personal steel, only Cowtown steel will be allowed. Just walk up, sign in, lay down and shoot!

 

We’re not planning competitions. This is NOT a known-distance NRA/Palma/F-class firing line, all 3 ranges in phoenix have 500 to 1000 yd matches nearly every week, check out http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/ if that interests you. Nor do we plan Tactical Long Range Precision shoots, PRGC already runs some of the best such shoots in the US. http://www.phoenixrodandgun.org/ The founders are long range HUNTERS, who want a place to work with their LR elk rifles. But depending on interest of the members the direction of the club may evolve.

 

As to the fees, the feedback is GREAT. It sounds divided between “I just joined online!” to “The numbers don’t add up” I’d strongly encourage all of you to come out to the 4-Oct event! See the facility, meet the management guys, express your opinions, volunteer to help run shoot days, etc. Like I said the direction of the club will evolve to best serve the shooters!

 

Post or email questions, See you all on the 4^th!

 

Poole

CTLRS

http://cowtownlrs.com/

 

 

[lancetkenyon]

Have you guys ever heard of "Rifle Golf"? It is like golf, but with rifles, apparently.

 

You keep track of shots at unknown distances until you get a hit on steel, just like scoring golf. If 3 canyons were available with 10 targets in each canyon, you could easily do something like this. Paint the steel alternating different colors and have a scorecard and walk the course. You could set up "Tee times" for 4-6 shooters starting at the three different canyons (like a shotgun start in golf tournaments) and competitiveness should keep the group from telling each other what distances they shot. I have seen this somewhere up in Wyoming or Montana or somewhere up there. Looked like a BLAST! And could keep teams rotating to keep from getting stale. Once a month would be great in addition to free shooting on other weekends. That would REALLY up chances for membership.

 

"Hole 1: Shoot second orange target on canyon #1" Par 2

"Hole 2: Shoot first white target on canyon #1" Par 1

"Hole 3: Shoot fourth white target on canyon #1" Par 3

Move to canyon #2

"Hole 4: Shoot third yellow target on canyon #2" Par 2

"Hole 5: Shoot first orange target on canyon #2" Par 1

"Hole 6: Shoot fourth White target on canyon #2" Par 3

Move to canyon #3

"Hole 7: Shoot first yellow target on canyon #3" Par 1

"Hole 8: Shoot third orange target on canyon #3" Par 3

"Hole 9: Shoot second white target on canyon #3" Par 2

Move to canyon #1

Repeat with different targets than first round....

 

Par 1 can be between 100-400 yds.

Par 2 can be between 500-800 yds.

Par 3 can be between 800-1000+ yds.

 

You could also have 4-6 different scorecards to give to a group so each guy is shooting at different targets per "hole". Just a thought to help build membership and increase the fun and keep it interesting, while helping improve on the go shooting at unknown distances for hunting practice.

[Bill Poole]

rifle golf inspired this. http://spiritridgeriflegolf.blogspot.com/ unfortunately getting a 6 mile walk out of it won't work on this property.

 

but I like your suggestion lancetkenyon, come out on the 4th, lets walk thru it and start planning something!

 

Poole

[lancetkenyon]

I plan on being there to see the facilities and discuss options. Thank you.

[Bill Poole]

This notice just sent out:

Shooters!

To everyone who has inquired about Cowtown Long Range Shooters!

In about 11 hours our grand opening begins!

Enter Cowtown (map at http://cowtownlrs.com/ ) and after paintball turn right and head towards the "east range", find somewhere to park and head down to the covered picnic area at the end to sign in.

EVERYONE MUST SIGN IN READ THE SAFETY RULES AND SIGN THE WAIVER!

From there, right up the hill we have the east range platform looking out at lots of steel from 100 to 1000+ yards.

Once we get a range safety officer to open the gate, we'll also open up what we call platforms 2 and 3 on the "west range". Lots of steel visible from the two platforms, we have "don't shoot" regions roped off to keep a safety fan.

Limited parking up there, but limited shooting spots too, so it should work out.

Bring your Ear & Eye protection, (we'll have some if someone forgets), whatever water or food you need, but we'll have a cooler full of water. We will have NRA style Empty Chamber Indicators for your rifles if you don't have one, all rifles will be cased or ECI inserted except when shooting!

Bring your rifle(s), ammo, shooting mat, rangefinder and similar gear, all you get from us is dirt to lay on and steel to shoot at! (and lots of each!)

(Don't shoot the cactus, the burros or the yellow house!)

If any of you are a Range Safety Officer interested in doing that regularly for the club, let us know when you sign in!
We'll be ready before the 8AM start and stay into the afternoon as long as interest holds till 4PM.

Vendors, who have signed in with Cowtown management can set up in Bay 6 before 8.
See you all tomorrow!

CTLRS!