Any rifle ranges within 1 hr of Naperville Illinois.

G

GreySmoke

New member
I'm looking for a new club or public range within 1 hr of the Naperville Illinois area. Or if anyone knows of public land that it's legal to shoot on in Northern Illinois that would be even better. I'm currently a member of the Aurora Sportsmans Club but that may be changing due to personal reasons.
 
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If you live there, you already know within 1 hour of Naperville it is nothing but subdivisions, shopping strips and golf courses.
Shooting in Illinois? Just so I won't get zapped for going political, I'll just say, I am still happy-happy-happy I moved away from there in 1970. (former Downers Grove boy)
Today I shoot in my backyard and any one of several ranges within one hour of my home, or just in the woods. :)
 
I feel your pain Grey. Napervillian here too. I know that Article II Range in Lombard lets you shoot rifles. It's indoor though so it's only about 25 yards.
 
GreySmoke
Any rifle ranges within 1 hr of Naperville Illinois.
I'm looking for a new club or public range within 1 hr of the Naperville Illinois area. Or if anyone knows of public land that it's legal to shoot on in Northern Illinois that would be even better. I'm currently a member of the Aurora Sportsmans Club but that may be changing due to personal reasons.
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Saint Charles Sportsman Club located in Elburn, IL. I haven't been there in years but it's a nice club especially if you do trap. The rifle range is limited to 100 yards I think. I think between initiation & dues it's somewhere around $400 for the 1st year. My old FFL was on their Board.
 
Can you shoot larger than .22LR on the rifle range at St. Charles? From their website, they appear to be a shotgun boutique club with some .22LR pistol and rifle shooting, to not annoy their neighbors. I like their cheaper membership options, I'll have to check and see if I can shoot larger than .22LR rifles.

Sportsmans Park fills the bill for shotgunning in Naperville. The IDNR has Buffalo Rock shut down (at least temporarily). The only public land I know of is a 2 hour drive, no pistols. I was almost thinking of joining ASC this year, but it's just too much.
 
Alas,
Looks like it may be either St. Charles with a Shooters membership and/or Sportsman in Naperville. (I have like 3 cases of lead target shot so St. Charles cause Napervillle is Steel only....) and put the big guns in mothballs till I move to Texas.
 
seanc
Can you shoot larger than .22LR on the rifle range at St. Charles? From their website, they appear to be a shotgun boutique club with some .22LR pistol and rifle shooting, to not annoy their neighbors. I like their cheaper membership options, I'll have to check and see if I can shoot larger than .22LR rifles.

Sportsmans Park fills the bill for shotgunning in Naperville. The IDNR has Buffalo Rock shut down (at least temporarily). The only public land I know of is a 2 hour drive, no pistols. I was almost thinking of joining ASC this year, but it's just too much.
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Holy crap! You're right! Yeah, it's been years since I've been there... It was just no magnum loads at one time.
 
I used to live in Oak Park and traveled about 30-40 miles west to the Fox Valley Gun Club--can't be more specific than that, it's been so long. The range (s) were in an old quarry. I was back in the Chicago area about 20 years ago and shot a 2700 Bullseye pistol match in Valparaiso, IN. In talking with one of the shooters I found out that the Fox Valley range was still active at that time. The Valparaiso club was a very nice one--the only one I've seen where the shooters stayed at the firing line and the targets returned to the shooters. Not a simple system like pulleys and cables at a indoor range but a complex device that ran on a central paved path and had extending arms left and right with maybe 20 or
30 turning targets. After each stage a powerful electric motor brought the whole mechanism back to the firing line and the shooters simply stepped around their "bench"--really just a stand to support your gun box and scored targets. I remember we had lunch in the clubhouse between the Centerfire and .45 aggregates and it was topped off with homemade pie. All in all, a very enjoyable match.
 
I used to live in Oak Park and traveled about 30-40 miles west to the Fox Valley Gun Club--can't be more specific than that, it's been so long. The range (s) were in an old quarry
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That range near Dundee was fantastic and brings back a lot of memories but the liberals moved into the area and had it closed down. :mad:

My son and I went their often and spen a lot of time at the plinking pond. They would let you throw marshmallows into the pond and pop them out of the water with our .22s Then on the far side of the pond, probably about 75 yards, they had a line with a bunch of around eight inch metal targets to shoot at. They also had 50, 100, and 200 yard rifle range.

To add insult to injury for me they closed down shortly after I bought by Colt MT6700. I probably have less than 100 rounds through it.
 
Look on your map at Bristol, Wisconsin just over the border. Finest range around and probably over half the members are Chicago residents.

http://bristolranges.com/

It costs non-members $30 a day to shoot but a years membership is just over $100.

I LIVE there and I live in Racine, Wisconsin.
 
I also live in Northern Illinois, about 45 minutes away from you. I run for the border and just head up to Wisconsin. There is a couple of ranges, hope this helps;

Indoor Range = HP Shooting (McHenry)
Bass Pro (Gurnee)

Outdoor = Just about any in lower Wisconsin, just google it.

By the way, dont bother with Bristol. They make you shoot one bullet at a time and most days are designated for Police Shoots. Waste of time unless they have made a durastic change in the past year.
 
Hp shooting here in mchenry is a good place for indoor pistol. Nice guy to boot. There soposedly putting in another range in crystal lake, but the libs are already trying to shut it down and they havent even broke ground yet. I shoot at my grandmothers house, and we have a pesky law enforcment neighor that dosent like us shooting. We get the sherrifs called on us almost every time, but were being safe and abidding all the laws so theres nothing they can do. Yet.....
 
Luckily I cleared up my issues with ASC. Looks like I'll be there another year and after maybe just maybe I'll be able to move to Texas and shoot in my back yard.....

Thanks for all the suggestions. I was aware of all but a few. For those into 3gun look up "The Hollow" about 2 hrs from Naperville" but.....:cool:
 
(former Downers Grove boy

Some of my cousins lived on Cross Street in Downers Grove. I think they lived there from the mid 60s until around the mid 80s.
 
gunrunner1 - do you remember the Spirit Lounge (disco - yea don't laugh that's where the women were) on Ogden Avenue. I think my friends and I were there every weekend in the late 70's. :eek:
 
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