Kyle visits the NRA Range

If you've been keeping up with NRAblog.com, you might remember my mother flew in from St. Louis to attend a Women On Target clinic this past Saturday. Mom came along to NRA Headquarters on Friday, and I arranged for her and Kyle to spend a very exciting morning together: they were treated to a tour of the National Firearms Museum by newly appointed Director Jim Supica. They went from the museum to the NRA Range, where talented NRA-certified instructor Vinnie served as their personal range safety officer.

Kyle will be writing a review of the museum as well. Here's his take on the range:

This past Friday I ventured down to get my first experience with the NRA’s indoor shooting range, located right in the basement of the NRA's Headquarters. When I entered I was greeted by the incredibly friendly and helpful range staff at the front desk.

Having never been to the range before, I had to take a short Range Test. It wasn’t too long and anyone with experience handling a gun should have no problem passing. Upon completing the test, I received my Range Card which gave me official access and needed to be presented every time I came to use the range.

The front desk has everything you need (except your firearm, of course). Targets, hearing and eye protection, a wide selection of popular caliber ammunition, cleaning supplies, and various knick knacks you can bring home as souvenirs are all available for purchase at the range. If you still don’t quite feel comfortable to go out after the Range Test there is additional safety and training material to go over or you can ask one of the staff for help, which they will gladly do. After getting everything together and donning the eye and hearing protection, I went out on to the range.

There are 15 lanes and plenty of space to move around once you are out in the main room. Each lane has a small table. Use it to place your firearm and ammunition, use as a position to fire from, or simply move it out of the way.

Once you place your target on the automatic track you can use the programming panel to set the target anywhere from 3 to 150 feet away. The programming panel is easy to use and you can even set it to edge and face the target for timed intervals so you don’t have to interrupt your shooting.

My aim needs a lot of work, and after firing off a good amount of ammunition, I decided I’d had enough blow to the ego for one day. I packed up my pistol and used one of the push brooms provided at the range to sweep my spent casings out onto the floor so no one who came after me would step on them.

I walked out through the exit doors and was able to take off my hearing and eye protection in the lounge provided for people to sit and watch others shoot without worrying about their ears. I returned the equipment I had borrowed from the front desk and thanked them for all their help before washing my hands at the sinks in the main hallway on my way out.

Overall I had a great time at the range and was very impressed with how it was run, especially the emphasis on practicing proper safety. The place is well lit and extremely clean. I will definitely be heading back. With all pistol calibers and centerfire rifles up to .460 allowed at the range, I don’t think I will be getting bored of having to fire the same gun over and over again anytime soon.