Indoor range for shotgun patterning?

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Twice in the last several years I have led a group of Georgia Carry.org members down to the Tom Lowe shooting grounds off of Camp Creek Parkway, and many of us used tactical/combat shotguns with 18 or 20 inch barrels. One trapper said that they discourage the use of such short barrel is because it's louder, but nobody told us that we couldn't do it and since those were the only shotguns we had, with us we used what we brought .

The Tom Lowe range does have a steel plate for patterning --it's at the far left side of the lower firing line. I believe that they coat it with grease to show the pellet strikes. It's good to test patterns at 20 yards or so.

SAFETY WARNING -That steel plate has been heavily damaged by idiots shooting slugs at it, and it may not be safe to fire birdshot at it anymore.


I have used it, personally, twice in the last few years. I brought my own piece of large white paper, I think it was posterboard paper, from an office supply store. And shot that.

Just a few shots, because the purpose of that plate is not for you to spend the afternoon patterning your gun. It's just there to take a couple quick shots at before you go back to your station on the trap line or Skeet or sporting clays .

 

[Adams454]

Tom Lowe is a great place to pattern a shotgun with birdshot. I was just there a couple days ago and had the pattern board to myself. I was shooting all 6 of my chokes to see which one I like better. You can shoot up to 40 yards there if you back all the way up to the road, but I just kept it to 30 for my needs. And I've seen several people shoot shorter barrels there with nothing said to them. I really like being able to go there and shoot without having to spend a fortune too. And, since I live in the hood anyway, I don't lock my doors and don't leave anything in there worth stealing, so I don't worry about my vehicle there either.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[whitehat]

Bullseye marksman in Cumming allows it. Confirm which loads though. That im not sure of.

I've shot here, and they allow birdshot as long as it is lead.
http://www.bullseyemarksman.net/range-info

 

[Yangcs907]

Apparently, range guns and safes on pleasantdale allows birdshot now

 

[gh1950]

I can't imagine that place is going to be there for too much longer. The tree-covered hillside cannot be plowed to up to recover the lead; I'm assuming Fulton Co. is waiting on the EPA to shut it down, so they can get out of the "gun" business. Supposition on my part though.

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Two points:

(1) Tom Lowe is on top of the old City of Atlanta dump. Lead is probably the least toxic thing there. Back n the day, some of the original "big" sporting clays shoots were below the far skeet fields, and in the summer, it could get a little ripe.

(2) One of the anomalies of the EPA regs is that as long as the shooting range is an operating business, and the lead stays on it's property, it is an industrial by product. As soon as the shooting range goes out of business, the lead becomes hazardous waste. Thus, there is every economic incentive to keep the range going.

 

[kuduman]

Two points:

(1) Tom Lowe is on top of the old City of Atlanta dump. Lead is probably the least toxic thing there. Back n the day, some of the original "big" sporting clays shoots were below the far skeet fields, and in the summer, it could get a little ripe.

(2) One of the anomalies of the EPA regs is that as long as the shooting range is an operating business, and the lead stays on it's property, it is an industrial by product. As soon as the shooting range goes out of business, the lead becomes hazardous waste. Thus, there is every economic incentive to keep the range going.

Hey, thank you! I did not know either of those things. Totally changes my opinion-- my suppositions were totally wrong.

 

[gh1950]

Hey, thank you! I did not know either of those things. Totally changes my opinion-- my suppositions were totally wrong.

Every one gets all boogity boo about lead, but what's closed down more shotgun ranges is plastic wads, because they float off the property and pollute "the waters of the United States".

 

[kuduman]

Tom Lowe doesn't allow under 26" barrel though and I don't remember they have any paper stands for patterning.

Most indoor ranges only allow 00 buck or slugs.

This is a much later post.. but I took an 18" Remington 870 Tactical down there today-- 4 shot sidesaddle, ghost ring sights, IC choke. And shot 19 out of 25 on my first round of trap. I'm not good... but 1.) No one there balked at my choice of gun, 2.) I did reasonable well, and 3.) I did better with that one than after I switched to a "proper" 26" O/U Browning. I only did 17 with the O/U.

Fret not about Tom Lowe. Go shoot what you want. It's the nut behind the trigger, mostly. Aiming is key, not having the best possible equipment. I don't discount having better equipment getting you better scores, but it's a marginal improvement. If you can't shoot, you can't shoot-- and if you can, you can. I'm in the middle. Not so good that the "right equipment" makes a big difference. And not so bad that a "poor choice" ruins your day. Far from it.

Go shoot what you want to shoot. Practice always helps. And if you can hit fast moving targets with your tactical buckshot gun, using birdshot, you'll be in good shape to deal with slow-moving targets with buckshot. Plus it's kinda cool to beat folks with rented O/U's... using a very "inappropriate" gun. Or maybe that's just me.

A good time was had by all out at Tom Lowe today; I need to do it much more often.

 

[Lazarus]

Maybe I got the wrong guy when I went to Tom Lowe but I brought my 20” Mossberg with me and was told I couldn’t shoot it as it was too short

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

They told me my 12" barreled 12-gauge was too short to use there, and I agreed with them!