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I have been meaning to post up this review for some time and am finally getting around to it. I know there are a lot of folks out there like me who have a lot of money tied up in their long range shooting gear and it is getting harder every day to find good places to put it to use. If you don't have access to private land or membership to one of the few shooting ranges with extended distance ranges your options are very limited on where you can get out past a couple hundred yards. So I started looking around for options to include range membership, travel over to eastern Oregon and setup on public land like BLM, classes, fellow shooters, etc.... Fate stepped in during a trip down to McCluskey Arms when I noticed a flyer for long range days they were putting on outside Crescent. I signed up for their first two range days this year and eagerly awaited for the days to arrive. The rest of this post is going to be about the range, how the day unfolded, what to expect and final thoughts.
Signing up for the McCluskey Arms range days was super easy as I just went onto their website, added to cart, checked out and got my email confirmation. I then just waited for the days to arrive and a couple days before the range day I received an email from McCluskey Arms with location, option to caravan over, agenda and recommended items to bring. I chose to caravan over which left from the McCluskey Arms shop promptly at 8am and had us arriving at the private range at 9:45 outside Crescent. After a short drive down a private dirt road you emerge out onto the range and it is epic. Your greeted to 360 degree views and a perfectly clear 1,000 meter flat range with a flowing river along one side, 20ft shipping container with covered roof to shoot off of, berms from 100M to 1,000M at 100M increments and steel pre-setup at every berm. There were also targets out at 2,200, 2,350 and 2,550 yards and they were working on getting mid-distance targets setup at 1,400 - 2,000 yards. We all proceeded to park at the shipping container end of the range, receive a safety briefing and general overview and then released to start getting ready while our hosts put a fresh coat of white paint on all the targets.
We proceeded to get setup and by 10:15 we were range hot. The hosts were a wealth of knowledge, helped with spotting, had a Garmin chrono if you needed to grab any ballistic data, site in targets setup at 100M and gave you exposure to a lot of gear you don't normally find at your local shop or sporting goods store. One of the best parts is that they limit it to just six attendees so you have plenty of room, never feel crowded and never felt like your shooting time/experience was being impacted by others. We shot non-stop and had no issue hammering targets from 100M to 1000M for a couple hours and then took a range cold break around 1pm for lunch. After about 30-minutes we went range hot again and I took the opportunity to try out the barricades they had on the range and also do some tripod shooting. When your having fun time fly's by way to fast and in no time 6pm rolled around and it was time to call it a day. Everybody came together as a team to help with pack up, do a little end of the day bragging and story telling and then we loaded up and headed out. The McCluskey crew made sure everybody made it off the range and back to the highway before parting ways.
Some final thoughts to wrap this review and post up. I had an absolute blast and epic day shooting long range. It felt like hitting the easy button because all I had to do was show up, unload my gear and start shooting which was such a nice experience. Compare that to the stress of finding a location on public land and having to laser your distances and setup all your targets/steel. A lot of us have thousands of $$$$ tied up into our long range setups and gear, then we get cheap and don't want to spend any money on access to shoot at distance which I was definitely guilty of. The long range day fee was $80 and while not cheap was totally worth it for me. I have now done two range days with McCluskey Arms and will be signing up for more. Hopefully I will see some of you out on the range!
Here are some photos which aren't the best but I was to focused on hammering steel.
Signing up for the McCluskey Arms range days was super easy as I just went onto their website, added to cart, checked out and got my email confirmation. I then just waited for the days to arrive and a couple days before the range day I received an email from McCluskey Arms with location, option to caravan over, agenda and recommended items to bring. I chose to caravan over which left from the McCluskey Arms shop promptly at 8am and had us arriving at the private range at 9:45 outside Crescent. After a short drive down a private dirt road you emerge out onto the range and it is epic. Your greeted to 360 degree views and a perfectly clear 1,000 meter flat range with a flowing river along one side, 20ft shipping container with covered roof to shoot off of, berms from 100M to 1,000M at 100M increments and steel pre-setup at every berm. There were also targets out at 2,200, 2,350 and 2,550 yards and they were working on getting mid-distance targets setup at 1,400 - 2,000 yards. We all proceeded to park at the shipping container end of the range, receive a safety briefing and general overview and then released to start getting ready while our hosts put a fresh coat of white paint on all the targets.
We proceeded to get setup and by 10:15 we were range hot. The hosts were a wealth of knowledge, helped with spotting, had a Garmin chrono if you needed to grab any ballistic data, site in targets setup at 100M and gave you exposure to a lot of gear you don't normally find at your local shop or sporting goods store. One of the best parts is that they limit it to just six attendees so you have plenty of room, never feel crowded and never felt like your shooting time/experience was being impacted by others. We shot non-stop and had no issue hammering targets from 100M to 1000M for a couple hours and then took a range cold break around 1pm for lunch. After about 30-minutes we went range hot again and I took the opportunity to try out the barricades they had on the range and also do some tripod shooting. When your having fun time fly's by way to fast and in no time 6pm rolled around and it was time to call it a day. Everybody came together as a team to help with pack up, do a little end of the day bragging and story telling and then we loaded up and headed out. The McCluskey crew made sure everybody made it off the range and back to the highway before parting ways.
Some final thoughts to wrap this review and post up. I had an absolute blast and epic day shooting long range. It felt like hitting the easy button because all I had to do was show up, unload my gear and start shooting which was such a nice experience. Compare that to the stress of finding a location on public land and having to laser your distances and setup all your targets/steel. A lot of us have thousands of $$$$ tied up into our long range setups and gear, then we get cheap and don't want to spend any money on access to shoot at distance which I was definitely guilty of. The long range day fee was $80 and while not cheap was totally worth it for me. I have now done two range days with McCluskey Arms and will be signing up for more. Hopefully I will see some of you out on the range!
Here are some photos which aren't the best but I was to focused on hammering steel.
