Atterbury Shooting Range Closes

[andyrping]

Well, just to be a little supportive of them as I shoot there almost every weekend... and am personaly not affected by this change....They still are the cheapest around without belonging to a private club- as far as I know anyway. But, I fully understand the ill feelings about the cut back, especially if someone doesn't have the luxury of not working on the weekends.

I've never seen it as a dirt pile, but that is essentially what I grew up with and sure do miss that sort of autonomy.

 

[MoparMan]

Crosley is free!

 

[mwilson]

RANGE

Hmmm.... paid for by taxes... have to pay for the priviledge of using it... now they have cut backs and... we can't use it... but we paid for it...

It was better the old way when it just a dirt pile.

beat me to it. sounds just like a gov. agency. we are going to use your money to build it then charge you to use it then decide that it cost to much to run and shut it down tp part time. wish they would have left it like it was. shot there a couple of times a week in the morning before work nobody else on the whole range.

 

[tharlow514]

This makes me wish I had about 100 acres and a nice backdrop to build a range. Someday..........

 

[55spartan]

Yeah my two cents is don't visit it at all. I liked it better when it was free and you could just show up there and have a good time. Damn BS legislators get their hands in it and this is what happens. Let it degrade to nothing like the other member said into a pile of dirt then we can go there for free again!!!

 

[dbd870]

I guess the "raise prices until you run off all of your customer base" business model is working out for them.

That was my first thought when I read it.

 

[bogus]

Anyone ever stop to think that the economy is affecting their business just like the rest of the world? They are no more immune to it than rest of us.

Maybe they should just have staff reductions and take pay cuts like many us and put our SAFETY at risk!? (sarcasm) I don't think so...

C'mon, they are trying to run a business and keep the bases covered. They have to pay decent wages to the employees don't they? None of them are doing it for free. Look at it like this. If 40 people show up and shoot for an hour a piece on Tuesday that's $280 they brought in for the whole day. Now consider almost half of what they brought in that day is going for taxes. That doesn't leave much to pay wages for at least two people and still turn a profit. Averaging the starting wages found on their website at $8 per hour for 8 hours. That's $128 per day in wages per employee. That's when there are only 2 employees. I've seen as many as 4 there at one time. Keep in mind this doesn't take into consideration any other overhead they may be paying. Double or triple the number of people visiting and I doubt they are getting rich off the deal.


I like the facilities

I like the rules. (Especially when people who think they know what they are doing get called out while I'm down range. Happened 3 times to me on Sunday!)

I like the RO's. (I've interacted with all of them and never had anything but courtesy and respect)

I don't mind the price. Considering they are keeping me and my family safe, $7 first hr $5 after is a bargain! I would be scared to death to be down range without them there. Let alone down range with any of my family.

 

[theweakerbrother]

How expensive can it be to run this particular shooting range? I'm with those who said that they've put themselves out of business. I'll still have CERA-land and maybe one day I'll get into the Hoosier Hills Rifle and Pistol club.

 

[bogus]

How expensive can it be to run this particular shooting range?...

I'm not sure what it costs to run the range either, but the last time I was in there the lights were on. So was the AC. They are carrying a significant amount of ammo, cleaning supplies, targets, eye/ear protection in their inventory. Add that to the wages from my previous post and top it off with what they are paying in a lease payment to the DNR and I doubt it's exactly cheap.

 

[mwilson]

range

i am not complaining about prices at attebuery at all. i like and get along fine with all the ro s there. hope they can find something else to bring in income for there families. just saying its just like the goverment to take something that was fine and spend alot of our money on it and screw it all up

 

[boozoo]

I didn't use to complain about it, but I am starting to. When I'm by myself, it's not so bad, but when I took the parents down there, it was pretty steep for three of us to shoot for two hours.

By contrast, me, my son, and my Dad took two lanes for three hours at a public range in Amarillo. Total cost plus a rental on a spotting scope was $22.

At my friend's favorite public range near St Louis, it's $3/hr.


I really like the facilities and the way they run things at Atterbury, but they could stand to restructure those rates a bit and not run off so many people.

 

[55spartan]

Anyone ever stop to think that the economy is affecting their business just like the rest of the world? They are no more immune to it than rest of us.

Maybe they should just have staff reductions and take pay cuts like many us and put our SAFETY at risk!? (sarcasm) I don't think so...

C'mon, they are trying to run a business and keep the bases covered. They have to pay decent wages to the employees don't they? None of them are doing it for free. Look at it like this. If 40 people show up and shoot for an hour a piece on Tuesday that's $280 they brought in for the whole day. Now consider almost half of what they brought in that day is going for taxes. That doesn't leave much to pay wages for at least two people and still turn a profit. Averaging the starting wages found on their website at $8 per hour for 8 hours. That's $128 per day in wages per employee. That's when there are only 2 employees. I've seen as many as 4 there at one time. Keep in mind this doesn't take into consideration any other overhead they may be paying. Double or triple the number of people visiting and I doubt they are getting rich off the deal.


I like the facilities

I like the rules. (Especially when people who think they know what they are doing get called out while I'm down range. Happened 3 times to me on Sunday!)

I like the RO's. (I've interacted with all of them and never had anything but courtesy and respect)

I don't mind the price. Considering they are keeping me and my family safe, $7 first hr $5 after is a bargain! I would be scared to death to be down range without them there. Let alone down range with any of my family.

I can respect your point with you and your family's safety. However, I used to go there all the time before it was taken over and never, ever, had a close call. People would police themselves and each other, worked out fine.

Did you ever go there before the takeover?

From what I see if they had to take it over they didn't have to make it so inventory heavy and something you might find in a larger community like Las Vegas. Now to compensate for that they are cutting the access to it, way to go guys!!!

I notice you say it isn't much fee wise and that is easy from someone who lives right down the road in Columbus. You can access it easy without the extra gas money to worry about or the time travel not like the rest of us who do not have such easy access. Now for us living further away and the restricted days it leaves us with even less options because of the time it takes to travel there. So instead of having free access to it 7 days a week (when it was a dirtpile) now we have paid access 3 days a week-- sounds like our government at work. Oh by the way if you think the fees are going to stay that way, get real.

Your point of the economy affecting them also is a moot point to me. The economy is affecting me too, maybe I should only show up at work in my job in public service two-three days a week so I can save some money in travel expenses and such. NO, now that wouldn't work would it? You just bite the bullet and make due, put your head down and show up. I am sure there are other ways to cut expenses other than eliminating access to it, which is what it was created for. I also think that once these days are cut, they will never come back no matter how the economy improves. That is the government way and we all know it, they will just keep raising rates instead of adding on more days to cover their costs. I really do think this is an outrage and another example of our tax dollars surely not benefiting us.

 

[NHT3]

Hmmm.... paid for by taxes... have to pay for the priviledge of using it... now they have cut backs and... we can't use it... but we paid for it...

It was better the old way when it just a dirt pile.

Ditto on the dirt pile!!

 

[confused89]

I live about four miles from the shooting range in mention. I still do not like to go there. I do go to ceraland, pay my three dollars, and have more fun. I don't have to worry about time that I paid for. Sure ceraland is not as nice at all compared to atterbury, but I like it better. I moved to the area just over two years ago and never knew the "old" range.

 

[55spartan]

I live about four miles from the shooting range in mention. I still do not like to go there. I do go to ceraland, pay my three dollars, and have more fun. I don't have to worry about time that I paid for. Sure ceraland is not as nice at all compared to atterbury, but I like it better. I moved to the area just over two years ago and never knew the "old" range.

Confused 89,
the old range was great man. I never had a problem there and I never saw horseplay or unsafe behavior. Like I stated in an earlier post you policed each other there as well as yourself. It was no nice just to pull up in your car, open up the trunk, get your business, pick a shooting spot, and enjoy. That is what shooting was meant to be.

 

[sporter]

+1 to the old dirt pile. Never had any issues there.

It was free to the public and everyone policed themselves. Sometimes they had a DNR guy there to kind of over see things on the weekends when it got crowded.

 

[bogus]

I can respect your point with you and your family's safety. However, I used to go there all the time before it was taken over and never, ever, had a close call. People would police themselves and each other, worked out fine.

Did you ever go there before the takeover?

...I notice you say it isn't much fee wise and that is easy from someone who lives right down the road in Columbus and can access it easy without the extra gas money to worry about.....

I didn't go to the new facility before the take-over. I grew up in Edinburgh, but only made it to the old dirt pile every now and then.

Glad it worked out for you policing each other. I would hope that it would be that way again. It would scare the crap out of me considering what I see when I'm there now with people and RO's watching.

Point taken on gas $$$. You are absolutely right and I understand your point. Hadn't thought about that.

I do not believe I said it wasn't much fee wise. I said the fee was a bargain. Which means I think I'm getting more than my money's worth. There's a difference.

($7 for the first hr $5 after) or $25 for all day pass is pretty cheap for a little peace of mind when it comes to keeping me and my family safe in my book. I'll agree to disagree with the rest of you who think otherwise.

 

[Zoub]

I guess the "raise prices until you run off all of your customer base" business model is working out for them.

100% of nothing is still nothing, their business model is shrewed but effective................they were toast before the economy ever tanked

 

[Eprobertson1]

Say what you want about the RO's at the new range, but remember the old range and the condition of the shelter roofs. Those roofs looked like swiss cheese. If the RO's weren't at the new one, what would the baffles look like? There is always some dumb dumb going to shoot everything up and show off!

 

[Errkola]

the old range was ok, you just didn't want to be there after dark! Yes, you could shoot after dark and I did it on one occasion to see what kind of fireball my rifle would produce. But much of the weirdness happened overnight. Everybody I met at the range was very polite and observed proper range rules. People were shooting all kinds of objects then, mid-range and otherwise. I suspect homeowners to the east were used to ricochets now and again. I even met the son of commandant of Atterbury with an interestingly enhanced popular semi-auto that some folks from the east coast might consider unlegal. all in all it was a carnival of guns, and I never saw anyone injured. Some of you might remember that some guy dumped the body of his girlfriend/wife behind the backstop on the 100 yard range. They nailed him. ahh, the good old days!