Anyone know of any pistol ranges/USPSA/IDPA clubs down in the SW boonies? Say about an hour and a half drive from marshall?

It'd be good to have a list of all the indoor ranges in the state....

What's wrong with outdoor ranges, the Minnesota weather got ya indoor bound?

Here is a link to start with -

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/shooting_ranges/index.html

Gopher Campfire club in Hutchinson.

Out of the four listed for Hennepin County two don't exist. Used to be more nonexistent ones listed. A couple of years ago I printed them out and drove to the addresses, so I know.

anybody know exactly where the outdoor range in Princeton is??

This one?

Westbranch Gun Club
10604 40th Street,
Princeton MN, 55371

http://tankride.com/

Metro Ranges

Bill's Gun Shop and Indoor Range 4080 W Broadway Ave Robbinsdale, MN (763) 533-9594 Rifles and handguns
Bill's Gun Shop and Indoor Range 3621 88th Ave NE, Circle Pines, 55014 763) 792-4867 Rifles and handguns
Burnsville Pistol Indoor Range 14300 Ewing Ave Burnsville, MN 55306 952-890-6228 Rifles and handguns
Metro Gun Club 10601 Naples St NE Blaine, MN 55449(763) 786-5880 Handguns only?
Dakotah Firing Range 2100 Trail of Dreams NW Prior Lake, MN 55372 952-496-6886 Handguns only
Ahlman's Gun Shop and Outdoor Range9525 W. 230th St.Morristown, MN 55052 (507) 685-4244
Del-Tone/Luth Gun Club Outdoor Range 3322 12th Street SE St. Cloud, MN 56304 (320)251-9873
Westbranch Gun Club Outdoor Range 10604 40th Street Princeton MN, 55371

Most of the out door ranges in the metro are clubs, and most have long waiting lists to join.
Oakdale Gun Club has open hours for the public in the summer http://www.oakdalegunclub.org/
Dakota County Gun Club has open hours only for youth shooting every other Saturday http://www.dakotacountygunclub.org/

Several yrs ago Oakdale Gun Club opened up their membership quite a bit. Last yr I think they took in about 150 new members. Watch the web site in Nov/Dec for info.

They take apps late in the year and bring new members in during the spring.

Well worth it. As a member you have virtually unlimited access and shooting times from 8:00 AM till half hour before sunset.

Thanks for the info, mnhome. Copying to the reference section.

Does it pretty much guarantee you can shoot whenever you show up, or are you competing with a lot of other members and the public?

Other range/club memberships I've had ended up being financial discounts, but I had no better access to the facilities than some guy off the street.

Oakdale is only open to the public on weekends during the summer and during the week for hunting season sight - ins in the fall.

Huge block of non public hours and yes there are other members around.
If you can sneak out during the weekday the place is pretty vacant.

Check the public houts on the website..........non public hours are members only.

At Oakdale, the paying public have priority during public hours (they supply 80% of the budget after all). Scheduled leagues and training have precedence as well. That said, I haven't had any trouble shooting.

There are several different ranges (100 yard, 200 meter, 50 yrd, 25 yrd, air gun, archery...) so you can move place to place if one gets too crowded. About the only thing they don't really have is a range set up for defensive shooting distance. The newsletter says they are going to be setting up a 7 or 10 yard point, but I don't know if that's happend yet.

You could look to Bald Eagle Sportman's Association (BESA http://www.besamn.org) in Hugo too. They have some (limited) public hours and have a 25 yrd range with moveable target frames, so you can shoot at defensive ranges. Their membership waiting list, however, is 3-4 years deep.

That's always been my biggest complaint about shooting at Oakdale. Would be nice if they did this.

I do really like the chicken-wire target holders. Makes more sense that having to fool around with a staple gun and cardboard backers.

I would personally like to shoot at 21 or fewer feet at time instead of the 75ft they have it set for now. With my poor eye sigth seeing the front site clrealy is hard enough as it is.