Switch to full style
Know a great, safe spot to shoot? Post it up! Coordinate clean-up effort here as well.
Post a reply

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:18 pm

I was a member at TSC in 2012, was working swing shift so it was awesome having the place to myself on weekdays from 10-2pm or so. Went to a normal job and tried taking my sons shooting on the weekends a few times and it became a huge hassle with the 22 range constantly closed. Let my membership lapse.

In 2016 I joined again because I was tired of driving to BFE gravel pits and not finding safe places to shoot without other yahoos muzzle sweeping us.
Came back the day after I joined with a couple rifles and a 10.5" AR15 pistol and was told no AR pistols allowed on the members rifles range. No bottleneck cartridges on the public handgun range either. So I'd have to shoot my AR pistol on the public rifle range, which eliminates any reason to purchase a membership. Asked for a refund and was told they'd have to ask someone etc. They refunded my money the next day. Haven't been back since

I gave up on shooting locally, and go to a off the beaten path place to shoot an hour and a half away (same clear cut I was shooting in 20+ years ago) and just make a day out of it, take a small grill and do brats and spend several hours shooting with the kids.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:53 am

I have a membership with TSC even though it’s bit of a drive for me. I like the range and it’s pretty clean. The public range goes out to 200 yards and member range is only 150. I usually try and get there as soon as they open on the weekends and never had issues getting a spot . For the most part, the RSO’s have been alright and I can see how some of them on the public rifle range can come across as grumpy but everyone I have dealt with have been helpful. Previous response mentioned that they were told that pistol AR’s were not allowed when they went a couple years ago, I’ve seen some members shoot pistol AR’s recently at the member range. I plan on heading down the next couple of weeks with a new pistol build, so I’ll see if I get ant issues.

I’ve been considering checking out a membership for something closer such as Issaquah.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:17 am

leadcounsel wrote:I've been a member of PB for years and find that the fee is reasonable. I do live close to it. It's probably more expensive in time/gas to drive an hour to the wilderness routinely than to have a trivial range fee. It's $100/year, or 30 cents per day. 1 time application fee too. Might be a wait list.

If you shoot once a month, it's about $8/month.

The hours are generally good. Covered ranges and lights mean year round out-door shooting.

Range masters can hassle you about "rapid fire" or "more than 8 rounds in a mag" or "human targets" which are my biggest issues.

It does shut down from time to time for events so check the calendar and plan accordingly.


That's really disappointing about PB because I was looking for a range I could practice with my concealed carry and load 10+ rounds in my mags on my rifles. I hated living in CA (hence why I moved to WA not too long ago), and could only have 10rd magazines in pistol/rifle.

While I enjoy public BLM cause it's free, but it's not very safe. The BLM I was going to in SoCal had a bunch of idiots who would park literally next to me and shoot at rocks and aerosol cans. It was not very clean and people just left their garbage out there.

Guess I'll keep researching on where I can go besides indoor ranges.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:24 am

kuga wrote:
leadcounsel wrote:I've been a member of PB for years and find that the fee is reasonable. I do live close to it. It's probably more expensive in time/gas to drive an hour to the wilderness routinely than to have a trivial range fee. It's $100/year, or 30 cents per day. 1 time application fee too. Might be a wait list.

If you shoot once a month, it's about $8/month.

The hours are generally good. Covered ranges and lights mean year round out-door shooting.

Range masters can hassle you about "rapid fire" or "more than 8 rounds in a mag" or "human targets" which are my biggest issues.

It does shut down from time to time for events so check the calendar and plan accordingly.


That's really disappointing about PB because I was looking for a range I could practice with my concealed carry and load 10+ rounds in my mags on my rifles. I hated living in CA (hence why I moved to WA not too long ago), and could only have 10rd magazines in pistol/rifle.

While I enjoy public BLM cause it's free, but it's not very safe. The BLM I was going to in SoCal had a bunch of idiots who would park literally next to me and shoot at rocks and aerosol cans. It was not very clean and people just left their garbage out there.

Guess I'll keep researching on where I can go besides indoor ranges.

What you need to do is find out how you can use the action bays. Action bays are for competition, uspsa/idpa/etc. You can practice draw and such in the action bays. PB has them, TSC doesn't. I believe you can fire rifles in them too, but only up to a certain caliber. I'm not sure what that scenario is for PB.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:50 am

kuga wrote:
leadcounsel wrote:I've been a member of PB for years and find that the fee is reasonable. I do live close to it. It's probably more expensive in time/gas to drive an hour to the wilderness routinely than to have a trivial range fee. It's $100/year, or 30 cents per day. 1 time application fee too. Might be a wait list.

If you shoot once a month, it's about $8/month.

The hours are generally good. Covered ranges and lights mean year round out-door shooting.

Range masters can hassle you about "rapid fire" or "more than 8 rounds in a mag" or "human targets" which are my biggest issues.

It does shut down from time to time for events so check the calendar and plan accordingly.


That's really disappointing about PB because I was looking for a range I could practice with my concealed carry and load 10+ rounds in my mags on my rifles. I hated living in CA (hence why I moved to WA not too long ago), and could only have 10rd magazines in pistol/rifle.

While I enjoy public BLM cause it's free, but it's not very safe. The BLM I was going to in SoCal had a bunch of idiots who would park literally next to me and shoot at rocks and aerosol cans. It was not very clean and people just left their garbage out there.

Guess I'll keep researching on where I can go besides indoor ranges.



Don't let those unsafe folks discourage you from using and enjoying public land. Take the time to find a spot that's safe, doesn't get much traffic, or no traffic at all, enjoy it, and be sure to clean up after your self and others. We need more people doing that so that we can keep our public lands available for everyone to recreate.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:39 am

Duke EB wrote:
kuga wrote:
leadcounsel wrote:I've been a member of PB for years and find that the fee is reasonable. I do live close to it. It's probably more expensive in time/gas to drive an hour to the wilderness routinely than to have a trivial range fee. It's $100/year, or 30 cents per day. 1 time application fee too. Might be a wait list.

If you shoot once a month, it's about $8/month.

The hours are generally good. Covered ranges and lights mean year round out-door shooting.

Range masters can hassle you about "rapid fire" or "more than 8 rounds in a mag" or "human targets" which are my biggest issues.

It does shut down from time to time for events so check the calendar and plan accordingly.


That's really disappointing about PB because I was looking for a range I could practice with my concealed carry and load 10+ rounds in my mags on my rifles. I hated living in CA (hence why I moved to WA not too long ago), and could only have 10rd magazines in pistol/rifle.

While I enjoy public BLM cause it's free, but it's not very safe. The BLM I was going to in SoCal had a bunch of idiots who would park literally next to me and shoot at rocks and aerosol cans. It was not very clean and people just left their garbage out there.

Guess I'll keep researching on where I can go besides indoor ranges.

What you need to do is find out how you can use the action bays. Action bays are for competition, uspsa/idpa/etc. You can practice draw and such in the action bays. PB has them, TSC doesn't. I believe you can fire rifles in them too, but only up to a certain caliber. I'm not sure what that scenario is for PB.


For PB the last info I got when I asked about them is that the action pistol bays aren't open to use by the general membership, and the only time you can use them is under the observation of one of their specifically-designated action bay officers. That was a couple years ago though, and I'm not sure if anything has changed since then.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:44 am

Thanks Moktor. For Renton Fish & Game, general membership can use them as long as there is more than one person, and one is a range officer. The RO part can be approved by a match director of one of the sports, or by spending a bit of time with one of the regular range RO's.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:22 pm

golddigger14s wrote:Indoor sucks. Evergreen Sportsman Club. $15 for all day.


:plusone: :plusone: :plusone:

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Sun Mar 04, 2018 7:28 am

I vote PB. I’ve been a member now for a couple weeks. It does get my vote due to being a 5 min drive from my house amongst other things. Range is clean. Th whole place is clean. Able to shoot until 10pm. Covered areas. Wood burning stoves

I even had one or two days of 2 visits in the same day! One pistol and one rifle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:19 pm

golddigger14s wrote:Indoor sucks. Evergreen Sportsman Club. $15 for all day.


Wednesday thru Sunday $15 at the Issaquah Sportsman club. If you want to join for a year it's like a $100

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:11 pm

Classic wrote:
Wednesday thru Sunday $15 at the Issaquah Sportsman club. If you want to join for a year it's like a $100


I'm interested in ISC. I'm curious how the following rule works:

1.3.14. Rifles with automatic shell ejection shall have a spent casing catcher installed or shooters shall use a cartridge deflection screen available from the Range Safety Officer.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:18 pm

DM47 wrote:
Classic wrote:
Wednesday thru Sunday $15 at the Issaquah Sportsman club. If you want to join for a year it's like a $100


I'm interested in ISC. I'm curious how the following rule works:

1.3.14. Rifles with automatic shell ejection shall have a spent casing catcher installed or shooters shall use a cartridge deflection screen available from the Range Safety Officer.


I’m a member at ISC. They have brass catchers available for you.

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:13 am

MauiWowwee wrote:
DM47 wrote:
Classic wrote:
Wednesday thru Sunday $15 at the Issaquah Sportsman club. If you want to join for a year it's like a $100


I'm interested in ISC. I'm curious how the following rule works:

1.3.14. Rifles with automatic shell ejection shall have a spent casing catcher installed or shooters shall use a cartridge deflection screen available from the Range Safety Officer.


I’m a member at ISC. They have brass catchers available for you.


Thanks; good to know. I should check it out. :bigsmile:
(I'm hoping my number at CSF comes up soon, but until then ... :thumbsup2: )

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:53 pm

Classic wrote:
golddigger14s wrote:Indoor sucks. Evergreen Sportsman Club. $15 for all day.


Wednesday thru Sunday $15 at the Issaquah Sportsman club. If you want to join for a year it's like a $100


It's (now) $20 per day. Nice, friendly little place. :thumbsup2:

Re: Tacoma Sportsmans Club Vs Paul Bunyan Sportsman Club

Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:54 pm

ISC is a chill range. The RSO’s aren’t that strict but they do their job very well. I try to go there during the weekdays, less people and I’m able to pick a 50/100 or 25/50 lane if I bring my rifles. My only gripe is the 10rnd mag limit.
Post a reply