Range Report: Fletcher Arms #2, 6/9/22

[BassCliff]

Hi,

From Fletcher Arms in "Lake Country", their second location. I've got pictures from this trip too. It's a nice facility. I'll post pictures when I have more time.

Here's some video of me shooting the B-8 targets in mostly un-timed 10-10-10 drills. You can tell it's Ladies Day at the range. They were all really nice.

Doh! You can see on target #2 that I forgot I was using full capacity magazines. After ten rounds I dropped the mag, loaded another, racked the slide (because my fat thumb often does not let the slide lock catch), and ejected a round. Oops. I need a little more training with the standard capacity magazines. California still has me thinking "only 10".

I'm hoping to get back there to run more timed drills when it's not so busy. I'll just have to figure out when those times are.

If you want a sneak peak at all the pictures, they're on another forum... https://www.xdtalk.com/threads/basscliffs-44th-range-report-fletcher-arms-pewaukee-6-9-22.453424/


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Jfal]

I shot there the day before you...they give you a free hour of range time when you buy a firearm, and I had to use it up...

 

[Annihilator]

Looks like you had a good time, which gun are you shooting in the video?

 

[BassCliff]

Hi guys,

I shot there the day before you...they give you a free hour of range time when you buy a firearm, and I had to use it up...

I was going to go on Wednesday but got too busy. But it's kind of nice shooting there on Thursday. It's Ladies Day. There were eight ladies in line with me when the place opened. I was the only male. They were all very friendly but I told them next time I'll bring my wife so I don't feel so out of place.

Looks like you had a good time, which gun are you shooting in the video?

That's my plain old XD9 4" Service model. It's my all-purpose EDC, nightstand, range toy, etc. I need to go through my log and figure out how many rounds I've put through it.

Let's see if I can get some pictures from this trip posted.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[BassCliff]

My friends,

[Note: You've seen the video already. Here's the blog:]

I had too much going on Wednesday to visit the other Fletcher Arms Range that day so I went on Thursday. Wednesday is "Free Gun Rental Day", not a bad deal but you have to buy ammo there in the store. Thursday is "Ladies Day" and, let me tell you, there were a lot of ladies there. I was the only male on the range when it opened. I was sharing the range with eight female shooters. It was a lot of fun listening to and watching those ladies shoot. Many of them meet regularly for their shooting club as well as train together. One nice lady was an instructor and several had their CCW.

This Fletcher Arms location was once used by a local technical college to train their law enforcement students. They closed the building when a new facility was built on campus. The Fletcher folks bought this one to expand their business. It's a very nice facility and it looks great. The new owners have done a nice job with it.

Right inside is the range check-in. You see a selection of rentals on the wall along with targets and other products for sale.

To the left of the check-in counter is the retail space. There are lots of nice toys in here. I was eyeing a Garrison. I've been wanting a Springfield 1911 for a while now. Someday soon....

To the right of the check-in is sort of a lounge area with accessories for sale. You see the range on the other side of the windows.

I was assigned lane #6. It's my favorite lane.

The lanes are equipped with electronic controls and a staple gun. They give you a short backer to staple your target to. The control can be programmed to move forward and backward, spin, face front, face back, set at an angle, etc, but I just sent it out to 10 yards for most of my session.

I left my little .22 cowboy gun at home and just brought the semi-autos, XD9, CW9, P22, with a selection of ammo. I finally finished the LAX Ammo reloads, then shot the Fiocchi, Blazer Brass, and WWB. For .22 I finished that little box of Aguila and then some Norma TAC-22.

I shot everything at 10 yards today, except for my very last test magazine of SD ammo. I started with five 10-10-10 drills. Unfortunately the range was too busy so I managed to get a good timer reading on only one target. I did video all my B-8 targets so I think you can tell they were all under 10 seconds. Accuracy is another story. Here's number 1, cold.

B-8 target #2. Hey! That's not so bad.

I don't know what happened with B-8 number 3. I'm all over the place.

I'm getting an error about being over 10,000 characters. I'll finish in the next post. Thanks for looking.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[BassCliff]

Hi!

To continue...

OK, number 4 looks pretty good too.

On B-8 number five I managed to get a clean timer. Even with a one second penalty for the 8 ring hit, I think that's still a 97. I think.

I'll have video of me shooting all these targets in the follow-up post. It's not very cohesive. I video these mostly to check my grip and slow-mo the raw footage to catch any anticipation.

Even though I brought full-sized silhouettes today I shot a few 12x18 reactive silhouettes instead. They are kind of more funner. I also shot these at 10 yards. The first one was center mass with my XD9

You'd think I'd do a little better when I slow-fire with my XD9.

Then I backed it out to 10 yards again and tried some head shots. I guess I forgot to eat my Wheaties.

Then I shot a few magazines from the CW9 on a fresh 12x18 silhouette at ten yards. Mrs. BassCliff has been complaining that it shoots left. Now I'm starting to believe her.

Maybe I'll take to to a gunsmith with a laser bore sight and see what he says. Then again, I'll just try to talk Mrs. BassCliff into letting me buy her a new pistol. We have lots more choices now.

Then I ran that same target back out to ten yards and shot at it with my P22, head shots, both dots, and on the right side of center mass. It's fun to shoot but the sights aren't perfect either. Then again, it's probably me.

I saved my most extreme workout for last. I ran a fresh silhouette out to 25 yards! I'm going to shoot a magazine, 10 rounds, of my SD ammo to make sure everything, including me, is working properly.

I tried not to dawdle but I took my time, for accuracy's sake. I've been trying to increase my effective range. I was pleased with the outcome. I see some improvement.

The lane fee is $20 per hour and I was pushing an hour and a half. They won't hassle you too much if they're not busy and the morning rush was over now. Still I packed up, swept up my lane, and made my way to the facilities where they had D-Lead soap to wash up with. Nice.

I spoke with Bob again (he works at both ranges) about how their memberships worked. I think I'm going to get their Platinum membership. I'll still have to take one of their more expensive "defensive handgun" training classes in order to draw from holster on their range. But after that I should be able to take part in their defensive skills classes that meet fairly regularly, and are more reasonably priced. Membership gets you 20% off the price of classes and training sessions. Plus, Mrs. BassCliff can join me twice a month for free.

Thanks to all of you who have been following along. I've enjoyed this adventure so far. Things are a bit different here in the upper Midwest as opposed to Southern California. The people here are nice. The weather kinds of sucks most of the time. Everything is always green! I don't have to water my lawn or fix a sprinkler system. The left hand turn lanes are weird. But the frozen custard, cheese curds, brats, and beer are the best! OK, I'll stop rambling now, except to say that there are a couple more ranges and maybe shotgun clubs I'd like to check out later. I'll let you know.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Annihilator]

Hi!

To continue...

OK, number 4 looks pretty good too.

On B-8 number five I managed to get a clean timer. Even with a one second penalty for the 8 ring hit, I think that's still a 97. I think.

I'll have video of me shooting all these targets in the follow-up post. It's not very cohesive. I video these mostly to check my grip and slow-mo the raw footage to catch any anticipation.

Even though I brought full-sized silhouettes today I shot a few 12x18 reactive silhouettes instead. They are kind of more funner. I also shot these at 10 yards. The first one was center mass with my XD9

You'd think I'd do a little better when I slow-fire with my XD9.

Then I backed it out to 10 yards again and tried some head shots. I guess I forgot to eat my Wheaties.

Then I shot a few magazines from the CW9 on a fresh 12x18 silhouette at ten yards. Mrs. BassCliff has been complaining that it shoots left. Now I'm starting to believe her.

Maybe I'll take to to a gunsmith with a laser bore sight and see what he says. Then again, I'll just try to talk Mrs. BassCliff into letting me buy her a new pistol. We have lots more choices now.

Then I ran that same target back out to ten yards and shot at it with my P22, head shots, both dots, and on the right side of center mass. It's fun to shoot but the sights aren't perfect either. Then again, it's probably me.

I saved my most extreme workout for last. I ran a fresh silhouette out to 25 yards! I'm going to shoot a magazine, 10 rounds, of my SD ammo to make sure everything, including me, is working properly.

I tried not to dawdle but I took my time, for accuracy's sake. I've been trying to increase my effective range. I was pleased with the outcome. I see some improvement.

The lane fee is $20 per hour and I was pushing an hour and a half. They won't hassle you too much if they're not busy and the morning rush was over now. Still I packed up, swept up my lane, and made my way to the facilities where they had D-Lead soap to wash up with. Nice.

I spoke with Bob again (he works at both ranges) about how their memberships worked. I think I'm going to get their Platinum membership. I'll still have to take one of their more expensive "defensive handgun" training classes in order to draw from holster on their range. But after that I should be able to take part in their defensive skills classes that meet fairly regularly, and are more reasonably priced. Membership gets you 20% off the price of classes and training sessions. Plus, Mrs. BassCliff can join me twice a month for free.

Thanks to all of you who have been following along. I've enjoyed this adventure so far. Things are a bit different here in the upper Midwest as opposed to Southern California. The people here are nice. The weather kinds of sucks most of the time. Everything is always green! I don't have to water my lawn or fix a sprinkler system. The left hand turn lanes are weird. But the frozen custard, cheese curds, brats, and beer are the best! OK, I'll stop rambling now, except to say that there are a couple more ranges and maybe shotgun clubs I'd like to check out later. I'll let you know.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

Lol, those targets are in a world of hurt, good shooting

 

[Jfal]

As you have discovered, the Pewaukee range is one of the better indoor ranges in the region. Thanks for the post, it reminded me that I need to clean my Ronin after shooting there earlier this week....I'm just a tad too far away to consider a membership...Weather permitting I might hit McMiller on Sunday for some rifle exercise. I have yet to personally test out the fact that a 5.56 M193 is "close-to-zeroed" at 25yards and 300yards with the same POA (assuming I can even see paper at 300 yards, let alone the silhouette's bulls-eye with my old eyes).

 

[jmcd]

Thanks for the post. Enjoyed it. Nice shooting.