Anyone have any experience with the Renton Fish & Game club? Looks like they have decent outdoor rifle & pistol ranges. They also offer clays shooting. Membership dues are pretty reasonable at $150/year (includes spouse).

The only thing I don't like about their policy is that you can only load and fire one round at a time in a semi-auto rifle. I'm all for safety, but that seems a little crazy to me.

Not just semi-auto rifles . . . any guns on the rifle range.

I've been a member there for a few years. It's a good range, but it has its pros and cons as does any range.

Shotgun range: Very nice.
Action bays: Totally freaking fantastic, but you need to have your RSO certification to use them and they're often booked on the weekends.
Pistol range: Quite good. You can load your pistol to capacity, and cold ranges are called as needed.
Rifle range: Cold ranges are called regularly, generally too often for most people in my opinion. One one round in the gun at a time, which sucks . . . but I understand the issue, it's of paramount importance to keep rounds from leaving the range. The RSOs are quite strict, and I have mixed feelings about that.

I do like Renton . . . but I'm a member at a few other ranges as well. Depending on what I'm doing that day, I'll go to the range that suits my needs the best.

^^^I think I'll join just due the fact that it's fairly close to my house. Maybe I'll run into you there sometime?

Look for the WaGuns shirt or hat!

The one round is a tough one...

But the rationale is understandable - if you look at history.

This club like many of the older clubs were built in the 1930's... RFGC was specifically in 1933.
When they were built (land bought, etc) the focus was fishing... outdoors, shotgun and hunting (bore sight and zeroing for hunting).

Jump forward to today... It's surrounded by homes (Renton has a middle school and a high school less than 1/2 mile away). Homes less than 500 yards away downrange and some right on the border (West, North, East and South). As you drive onto the rifle range parking lot... you'll see a few homes over the fence.

If you do not know... some of the "new" homeowners are now displease with having a "range" as a neighbor - like the range jumped up after they bought their homes.
Remembering RFGC was established in 1933...

So a range "NOW" has to survive in a hostile environment. A law suit or continued complaints to the city, county, state, etc, etc can mean shutting down a range because... simple due to "cost" (because someone has to pay those legal fees/insurance, etc).

A range simply can't afford to have a rifle round leave the range.


Now if you get off the rifle range.
Go check out the pistol range because you can shoot a full mag (pistol caliber on the pistol range) all day long.

Please remember this is not your personal range. It belongs to the membership and is run by members (board). The members enjoy shooting there and are extremely protective of their club... as it should be. If the membership doesn't care for it... it won't last.

It's also one of the few that is both a member and open to the public range.
So try it out... go slow.

Keep the rifle pointed down range at all times. If you think you're safe... make sure you're safe because the rangemaster and range safety officers are there to ensure "everyone's" safety... even the folks that think they are safe - pointing that rifle not down range. (sure it's unloaded - famous last words).

Signed on this afternoon. Official member. I think I'm going to like it there. Put 20 rds through my AR-10. Nice range.

The 1 round at a time rule on the rifle range really isn't so bad. If anything, i think it helped my accuracy by putting some time in between shots.

Good deal.

Yeah, in most cases I really don't mind the one shot thing. It slows me down and makes it more about precision shooting and less about blasting. In fact, even when I go to other ranges now I'll load just one round at a time in many of my rifles.

It helps me savor the experience - kinda like sipping a Drambuie after a great meal with your main squeeze.

Full magazines are more like a dozen Krispy Kremes when no one else is around.

Hit the pistol range for a couple of hours this morning. I like that they allow you to bring pistol caliber rifles onto the pistol range as I have a .44 mag revolver as well as a .44 mag lever gun. Full magazines are allowed in both pistols and rifles on the pistol range. Fired off some of my first rounds of hand loads in .45 Auto and .44 mag. It was kinda scary at first to fire my first 100 hand loads, but they all shot great. Tight groups.

I don't know why I never joined a gun club before now.

This isn't a hard fast exception to the rule but: Once you have established yourself as a member of good standing... the range staff will acknowledge it and permit you to load more than just one round at a time. This doesn't mean you can just load up a 20 -30 round mag and just blast away but 5-6 rounds in a bolt action and up to 10 in a AR. I always ask first even being a RSO at RFGC my reasoning is simple... I like to make sure my semi-auto for competition and bolt action feeds work properly.
Obviously there are determining factors... how many people there are on the range that day.... and your ability to hold a reasonable cadence in firing.

I find the use of chamber flags appears to lower the blood pressure and "touchiness" of RSO's....unless they are truly the uber-uptight type, for those there is no hope of a peaceful coexistence, just go elsewhere to keep your own blood pressure down.