Dear On Target,

[ripcurlksm]

I am a member at your range, and I really wish I had another range to go to. I have always avoided your range, but since moving further north, you are stuck with me and I am stuck with you.

I rushed home from work last night to make to your range a little after 7PM, only to find a note on the door that they are closing early to do maintenance? Why cant you maintain your range from 7AM-10AM before you open? Why cant you maintain your range from 9-11PM after you close?

Its annoying enough that you don't let any shooters in after 7:45PM when you close at 9PM. Very often by the time I get home from work, I have enough time to get there at 8 or 8:15PM which gives me an 60 min to 45 min of shooting -- I am a member, let me in to shoot for 45 min!

Here are my suggestions:

1) Keep your doors open, always. If you have to maintain your range, do it outside your operating hours.

2) If a shooter wants to come in at 8:30PM and shoot for 30 minutes, let them in. It sucks to be a member, and walk in at 7:50PM and HOPE I will be let in to shoot, when there is still 70 minutes on the clock.

[DVSmith]

I am quite sure that if you contacted Greg Bouslog, he would listen intently to your suggestions.

He is a small business and small businesses tend to be pretty responsive to their customers.

[Hk996]

Try insight in artesia. They are open till 10PM.

[jmlivingston]

He's a member here, might want to try and looking up OnTarget in the member lookup took above.

Who knows, maybe the maintenance wasn't planned?

John

[maschronic]

i'm also a member at on target. i also agree with you about letting people in a little later. i mean...if the range closes at 9pm, they should let shooters in even if they shoot for 30 minutes.

[Greg-Dawg]

Most likely it was an "emergency" maintenance job for them to close at that time.

Also I can understand on not wanting to let customers come at a certain, the staff needs to go home to their families.

Isn't there another range around that area you can go to?

[HCz]

They are open from 10am to 9pm and I don't know how they set up their time structure, but if the staff is there the whole day, I don't blame them wanting to close right at the time. What many people forget is that range staff are also humans and have life outside of the range. While you are enjoying time at the range, workers are technically still working.

On top of that, I bet they have to clean up after every one leaves and that process doesn't start until 9:15 or so when every customer leaves. How long does it take to clean up the range? I think anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. That means they get off at 10pm, and by the time they get home, they have enough time to wash up, check a few things and go to bed.

What happens when they don't enforce the 7:45pm rule is that customers, especially the non-members, will show up at 9pm thinking they can shoot for some time. Believe it or not people don't read that 7:45pm note. By having customers walkin before 7:45pm, they can ensure that they are checked in, and have at least an hour which I assume is their rate.

So what about just setting up separate time for members and non-members? It will not work as non-members will complain about it, even though it is rational to have two settings for two groups and even the members will try to squeeze out a few more rounds at 9:01pm. This leads to rapid fire, and possible safety violation or facility damage.

[ripcurlksm]

good points

I understand if its an emergency and the range needs to be closed.

Its more about the range time, the range closes at 9, shooting stops at 9, let me in at 8PM or 815PM or even 830PM to shoot until 9PM on the dot. If shooting stops at 9, it makes no difference to the workers, who I understand have lives.

[Turbinator]

What many people forget is that range staff are also humans and have life outside of the range. While you are enjoying time at the range, workers are technically still working.

I don't disagree, having worked retail myself and having had to ring up customers past closing (9PM) then count the register, vacuum the floors afterwards, and fix the shelves, but I will put it this way - we customers are the reason why the place even can exist and thrive, so why wouldn't the shop want to cater to the customer in the reasonable requests the OP and others have made here in this thread? They aren't asking to get in at 8:59PM and they aren't asking to stay until 10PM.

Just looking at it from that perspective.

Turby

[HCz]

So how about shooting until 9:15pm? Would that be an acceptable cut off line for someone who comes in late? If so then why not 9:30pm? or about 9:45 pm?

Problem is that once the lines are gone, then the workers get screwed with their life. It maybe reasonable for one preson, but what about the others? Would you say yes to one and no to the other? 'But I came only 2 minutes later' , at 8:32pm, then another shows up at 8:45pm. Why should the person who showed up at 8:45pm not allowed to shoot his 50 rounds, when someone who showed up at 8:32pm can?

The line has to be drawn somewhere and On Target drew its line where it is. Customer's don't own On Target and On Target doesn't own the shooting sport. It is a pure transaction of services and money, and the terms are set forth.

[ar15robert]

sounds like things have changed there.I use to shoot there when i lived in laguna niguel.Got to shoot there the day they opened their doors and did so about 2-3 times a week for a while.Most times it was just 100 rounds of 44 mag.

[ripcurlksm]

I pm'ed Gregg about the range time limit and turning folks away after a certain time.

He and his staff feel strongly that every shooter should have at least an hour to shoot.

I responded that I feel strongly that I should be able to shoot for 45 or 30 minutes as a range member, because regardless I will have to stop shooting at 8:45 anyway, which wont effect the staff/cleanup efforts.

Not looking good, but we'll see. Sometimes I just cant make it in time to shoot for a full hour, but I am there 50 minutes or 45 minutes left to shoot, which is a reasonable time to shoot in my opinion.

If anyone here is a member at this range and cares to send him a friendly message asking for more leniency to allow members in the range, Gregg's user page can be found here.

[jmlivingston]

He and his staff feel strongly that every shooter should have at least an hour to shoot.

I responded that I feel strongly that I should be able to shoot for 45 or 30 minutes as a range member, because regardless I will have to stop shooting at 8:45 anyway, which wont effect the staff/cleanup efforts.

I actually find about a 1/2 is good for me. When I had a membership there (before Greg's time) that's about how long my normal stay was.

John

[ty423]

they should open their doors later on certain days...for the people that have to work...alot.

[Greg-Dawg]

You'll get no where with your comments. Their house, their rules. People will buy guns (especailly in our day and age), ammo and will need a local place to shoot. On Target will not lose their business because of you...but if you choose to persue to protest, then it saddens me to see more ranges being ran out by a shooter's personal angst.