 |
January 16th, 2013
Featured in:
Podcast |
As we were gearing up for a pretty long discussion on modern slavery, we accidentally found ourselves amidst a discussion of local Austin shooting ranges. This is probably because Kevin had recently purchased a new weapon and had been at a shooting range prior to the recording.
We essentially advertise for a few local Austin shooting ranges, discuss our observations of various gun range sightings, and even discuss getting comfortable with the idea of shooting ranges.
Music
Material
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Kevin: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the JK Podcast. If you haven’t yet noticed, we do have a website setup at www.JKPod.com, where we host all of our episodes. Please pass that link around as you see fit to do. This week is a little different from previous episodes. Jad and I wound up getting into a discussion about shooting ranges, namely as I had just returned from one before our show.
I’ve been killing stuff all day, so you know.
Jad: Killing paper targets?
Kevin: And clay pigeons.
Jad: Nice.
Kevin: The episode admittedly turns into a bit of an advertisement for a few of the ranges in the Austin, Texas area – incidentally where we’re both located. But despite that, we thought it would be fun to share the discussion with our usual audience. The other voice you’ll hear is the co-creator, Jad Davis; I’m Kevin Ludlow – welcome back to our show.
I know you’re not a big shooting guy – or I perceive you not to be anyways – I’m not either. But that place that I went to today was badass.
Jad: Yeah, where’s Liberty Hill? I don’t even know where that’s at.
Kevin: Liberty Hill’s a – it’s a town that’s about – probably about 35 minutes from your house. You just – you take 183 to 29 and you go past Cedar Park and past the toll road, all that stuff, and you hit Highway 29. And if you turn left on Highway 29, basically you’re headed towards Burnet, and ultimately Llano, but before you get there, you hit Liberty Hill – it’s just a tiny town. And –
Jad: Oh dude, yeah, it’s like right past that state park – Ink’s[?] Lake.
Kevin: Yeah, by Ink’s[?].
Jad: Yeah, yeah.
Kevin: Not nearly that far, but –
Jad: Okay.
Kevin: – but it’s in that vicinity, yeah. So if you went to Liberty Hill and the next about 20 miles down is Burnet, and then if you continue down 29 past that, you’ll get to Ink’s[?] Lake.
Jad: Right. Right, yeah.
Kevin: Run right into it. And so we were probably about – I don’t know – half an hour, 45 minutes from Ink’s[?] Lake – but anyways, this place there, it was just – I mean normally when I’ve gone to shooting ranges it’s just real tight, it’s real controlled. In this place though, you rent these things that they call tactical bays, and literally what it is is it’s a 50 square yard piece of dirt that has these 20 foot high berms – just earth and berms – on three of the four sides. You just drive your car or truck right into the thing and it’s yours – you do whatever the hell you want.
Jad: That’s cool.
Kevin: In this case, it was just me and my buddy, and you set up targets, you just – it’s basically just like being in your backyard and being able to shoot. So –
Jad: That sounds pretty nice.
Kevin: It was really cool, so I think if your wife wants to tryout her shot; it’s just a way more enjoyable experience.
Jad: Well that other place that you found that’s up near Cedar Park or whatever –
Kevin: Right.
Jad: Leander – how was that?
Kevin: If you’re curious, the other range that Jad is inquiring about is called the Eagle Peak Shooting Range. It’s right next to Cedar Park, but is technically in Leander, as Jad accurately stated.
It’s pretty good – compared to some of the other ones I had been to, that one was really nice. But you know, it does get a little crowded, you know? You’re in close proximity, so I mean there’s just constant compression waves all around you.
Jad: Ah, right.
Kevin: I mean, unless it’s empty, but I’ve never been there when it’s not just packed. They’re really militant, which is good, you know? They have to be, it’s dangerous and all, but it’s just about all the crazy rules that – you know, they make you watch this video just to even go to the place, you have a little membership card – it feels a lot different. This place that I was at today, I mean it was – it felt like going into a day spa where the guys are just like, “how’s it going? Come on in, we’ve got plenty of open ranges for you”, so it was my new golden level of comparisons for gun places.
Jad: Very cool, very cool. We went to Red’s the other day and dude I mean, it is – it could just be because it was packed obviously, but there was like, two people with like 357’s on either side of us, and then there was some guy on the rifle range you know – which is like 30 feet away or whatever – that was shooting some I mean, just like a bazooka or something – it was crazy. They had this giant scope on top, and he only shot like one shot every minute, but every time that shot went off it was just like, absurdly loud and there’d be this explosion against the back wall like, where the you know – the splatter had so much kinetic energy that it would actually like, spark in all directions and stuff.
But anyway, so it was just like, very rattling. I guess it was good if I was trying to like, learn how to shoot in a combat situation or something, but –
Kevin: Under pressure, yeah.
Jad: Yeah, I mean, it was like terrifyingly loud. And like you said, it’s not even the volume because you’ve got headsets, it’s that compression wave thing, like you can feel your body being like, run through with you know, this energy.
Kevin: It takes a while to get used to it. I mean, that’s what I’m saying, like even at this place that I went to in Cedar park – or Leander, wherever it is – you know, you’ve got a guy on each side of you shooting a .45, I
mean, it’s just – never mind like, a Magnum .45 or something – your face is just getting pounded with this wave.
Jad: Yeah.
Kevin: Anyways, that’s why at this place I mean, it was just follow these basic rules so we’re safe, and that’s it.
Jad: Right. Try to shoot over a berm. Yeah, it sounds cool. Another thing too – this is not that interesting, but it was just kind of funny because our gun kept jamming too.
Kevin: Oh, yeah.
Jad: Twice the pin didn’t – it doesn’t look like it was actually able to push the pin on the cartridge.
Kevin: Okay.
Jad: So you know, we’d pull the trigger and nothing happened [?], so we waited a minute to make sure it didn’t like, have a short fuse or whatever. But then [?] popped it out, and it was you know, like untouched essentially. And then the other – and then like three other times you know, it wouldn’t load the next cartridge –
Kevin: Yeah.
Jad: – and so Elise was – [?] and with all the noise [?], I don’t want to like, disassemble this thing here – just trying to make sure I didn’t put it together wrong or something. So – but anyway it was just kind of – well, I looked online and it was like, “that’s totally normal, just clean your gun really good”.
Kevin: Yeah.
Jad: But it was again, just like in that scenario I was like, man, this is – I should learn how to do brain surgery here or something, or work on the computer, and then I could probably eventually do anything.
Kevin: Yeah, I had you know, some similar experiences there. It was one thing when I was with my buddy who’s like really experienced with all that. He’s got a million guns; he just kind of haphazardly takes it apart like it’s a regular tool, right?
Jad: Right.
Kevin: And me, when I [?] I’m like, “uh, it didn’t fire, what the fuck do I do”, you know?
Jad: Right, right.
Kevin: And I feel like the whole world’s about to blow up in front of me.
Jad: Yeah.
Kevin: But honestly, like after a few times of doing it now, I feel pretty comfortable and the guys have walked me through like, everything that you do, and the steps, and how to resolve it, and fix it, and diagnose it and everything.
Jad: Yeah.
Kevin: I feel good. I’m getting my level of comfort a little better, I guess.
Jad: That’s cool, very nice. Is that where you went today, or –
Kevin: Yeah, that was the deal, so that’s why I took off.
Jad: Nice. That’s a good way to spend a day.
Kevin: This friend of mine from Houston, he’s you know, a pretty big shooter. He like – he takes tactical classes like, around the country. He flies around places that have some like, badass class that he hears about and he takes the class.
Jad: Wow.
Kevin: So like, he was in Arizona a couple of weeks ago learning how to tactically shoot Uzis.
Jad: Wow.
Kevin: And – so anyways, he’s really knowledgeable of this, which was great for me, and he heard about this place – he’s like, “man”, he’s like, “I’m telling you, this place is like, renowned in the country. Like, everybody knows about it.” He’s like, “I’m not going to drive a 5 hour round trip for something shitty”.
Jad: Nice.
Kevin: And sure enough –
Jad: [?] Houston, right.
Kevin: Yeah, I mean – so sure enough, it was a hidden gem.
Jad: Nice. That’s excellent.
Kevin: But yeah, definitely highly recommend it. Just make a day trip of it, for sure.
Jad: Okay, cool, yeah. Do you know the name of it, or was it – I was kind of looking for it online just as Liberty Hill shooting – what was – do you remember the name of the place, or –
Kevin: Yeah, it’s called – it’s called Best of the West Shooting Range.
Jad: Ah, got it. Yep, very nice.
Kevin: Basically, what they – for the tactical bay that we had – I mean, they have rifle ranges, and pistol ranges, and skeet shooting – I mean, they’ve got everything. It’s just an enormous piece of property, so it’s really spread out – which is nice in itself. Like, you don’t feel like you’re next to anybody, which is – it’s a good feeling when you’re playing with guns to begin with.
Jad: Sure.
Kevin: But beyond that, there’s – it was $16 bucks per person, so we spend $32 to be out there for I don’t know, like, 5 hours today.
Jad: Nice.
Kevin: And the guy said – he’s like, “well, on the weekends it can get really crowded”, so he said, “basically it’s first come, first serve, and we’ll put you in a 2 hour rotation. So after 2 hours, we’re going to kick you out of a tactical bay and put the next person in the rotation.” They said on the weekdays they hardly get anybody, so you come out here early in the morning on a weekday, you pay $16 bucks, it’s yours all day.
Jad: Wow, cool.
Kevin: So that’s just what we did.
Jad: Sounds pretty fun.
Kevin: Yeah.
Jad: Especially with a dude that’s – how many different weapons did you fire today?
Kevin: Let’s see, I fired 5 different weapons today.
Jad: That’s not too crazy.
Kevin: No, but he didn’t bring that much of his arsenal up apparently, so –
Jad: Right.
Kevin: But I suck, I really do suck at pistol shooting – not at rifle shooting, I’m good at that – but I’ll tell you man, like, my accuracy went sky high today with this guy giving me instruction, it was fantastic.
Jad: Cool.
Kevin: Because it’s something that I wish I were good at, but I’m just not yet.
Jad: Well, sounds like you made a major step in the direction of getting better today.
Kevin: Oh yeah, it was night and day by the – from the beginning of the day and the end of the day.
Jad: Very cool.
Kevin: So I felt good progress.
That’s about all we had on the topic of local Austin shooting ranges. As always, thanks for listening, and we hope you enjoyed the content. We do have a website up at JKPod.com. Please stop by if you haven’t already. If you have any ideas for our show, please reach us at our website, or you can reach us at either of our personal websites. Jad is at Jad-Davis.com – J-A-D dash D-A-V-I-S dot com – that’s Jad-Davis.com – and I am at KevinLudlow.com – K-E-V-I-N-L-U-D-L-O-W dot com. Thank you so much, and we’ll be back again next week.
