I would hate to be a gun range owner. It sound neat, but people will be shooting there.

Yep. I get the argument that people move around them and raise Cain - but at the same time a bullet leaving the property is a flat out trespass. Heaven forbid if it actually hits something or, worse, someone.

This doesn't even count what might happen on the premises.....

Just a big bucket of potential liability waiting for one misstep to poke a hole in it.

Then again there are professionals who even through trying times continue to run safe gun ranges even in the center of a metroplex ELM FORK

Maybe someone knows how many people have been harmed on a gun range vs. hunting accidents, at home accidents, gun cleaning accidents, I thought it was unloaded, person hit by lighting, drunk driver, etc... Or is "gun range" safety more media driven to shut down the gun industry where the uneducated buy into a myth.

Edit: Found this article: Gun Range Safety

I it isn't a matter of which type of incident is worse or happens more often. It should not happen at all. A lot of the problem ranges are poorly designed, have poor berms, and seem to rely on the space of adjoining properties as secondary bullet traps.

Now a poorly designed range with poor berms, relying on the space of adjoining properties as secondary bullet traps is like opening a bar in the car pure Negligence and should be held accountable. Is Top Gun one of them?

That's being too generous, I'd take that back to 50yds.

I posted a link to their home page above. Check out the pic of all their targets and minimal back berms with no side berms to catch ricochet and such. If you Google the property, you see that it is long and narrow.

The same people thay move to the country and complain about hunters and the smell of cow flop.

Any updates here? I noticed Top Gun's website is down now. Are they still hosting the Cowboy Action club or the shotgun course? So sad to lose such a great place.

From another board....


Apparently the 500 yard berm is too close to neighbors property and not tall enough.
Scuttlebutt is they have to build at least one 30 foot berm at 500 and it's gotta be farther away from neighbors property.
Also heard they may have to move the firing line back farther toward entrance to permit the overhaul.

Then there are the wannabe hunters and shooters who move from the city to the country with their ATVs and YETI coolers who invite their friends to come up and drink and shoot till past midnight while yelling and having a big party on their 5 scres. Works both ways...

Today I was planning to go there and zero my brand new scope (Kahles gen3 6-24). Their site was down. So I call and found out they're close! It ruined my day. It was my favorite range. I knew Thierry and had several bodies over there. Now I need to find another range and it will be very difficult.

Anyone tried out Jacobs plain gun club? Their website says they have a 1100 yrd range for members only. I would like to check it out since its down the road from me.

I've heard and seen rifle bullets hit that pond behind the rifle range over in the shotgun range. LUCKY is the reason that place is still open...well that and the fact the ground it sits on is basically worthless because of being in the Trinity river bottom. I will say since I've seen that I believe they've added baffles to further help prevent it...it's been about 3 years since I've been on the shotgun range with the regularity that I did the 2 years prior to that.

It sucks that another option is gone...regardless of the reason. For what it's worth, I was not a big fan of Top Gun either...but I had shot there a few times.

According to their Facebook page, it seems that it's permanently closed.
I sent them an email last week and didn't get any reply.

I was there today and they are closed and will not be open again. Period.

I was there today and they are closed and will not be open again. Period.

My two visits to Elm Fork I found there was lots of concrete in the overheads but not enough dirt in the berms. As to pro's, maybe the shotgun side but the RO's had nothing going but matching t-shirts.

How's TDSA in Ferris? I'm planning to go there next Saturday. If the rifle range is decent, I'll get a membership.

Just think. As Texas grows further, economically, more people (especially anti-gunners) will come in to encroach and demand forever altering the demographics, traditions, and customs of the great state of Texas. The decades old push for everyone to go to college is the vehicle being used to undertake a systematic and fundamental change to the American way of life; a means to instill the progressive narrative that is rotting the brains of our youth. Soon there won't be any outdoor places to shoot because someone will decide to build a house or playground or strip mall near to or right behind an existing shooting range. Even indoor ranges will become extinct with cities regulating them out of existence while the courts just watch. The independence and pride that made Texas great will be subsumed by the unstoppable wave of drone-like thinking and dependence on government the current Millenial crop of Bernie Sanders supporters exhibit. It feels like it's already happening in yuppified Collin County, and growing daily with each moving truck I see.

All that is necessary is for the range to own the entirety of the backstop and impact area. Thunder Ranch in Texas did this as does the Whittington Center. If you can't do that, then you have to build berms to protect your fellow citizens from possible harm caused by your customers or range members. Gun ranges don't have the luxury or right to allow discharged bullets cross property lines. Just because a range is in operation does not mean it gets to encumber all of the properties around it.

^^Right^^

I suspected this would happen to Top Gun one day. They're extremely close to Collin County, and the building growth is spilling in all directions from the county line. When I was in search of land for y range, it was difficult. I did not want a house, barn, or even cattle beyond my range. The end if my range is a giant creek bottom. No one in their right mind will ever build a house down there. They can't insure it, and there's no utilities.

My berms are small by many standards, at 10' wide, and 6' tall. And my rules are, if you don't possess the skills to keep your rounds on the berms, then I will teach you. I am very selective at whom I allow to practice there. I've been approached by many people, whom I've never met, wanting to shoot there. I tell them all that we need to meet, and you need to show me your proficiency. It's a small portion of the population that know what they're doing beyond 300 yards. I am happy to provide a place to shoot, as long as they can show me they are safe about it. Many have not contacted me again.

I agree with the safety aspect - there are no arguments there. My argument is that there will soon be no place to shoot - safe or otherwise - period. The fact we are talking about finding places to shoot supports that.