Firearms tourism in or near Austin, TX?

P

Pond James Pond

New member
Well, my dad, the jammy little so-n-so is off to Austin TX for a week and a half.

He is by no means a huge gun-nut but when he visits me he will not turn down a chance to shoot some of my guns at the range. This means he's had limited experience with 9mm pistols, .44Mag, .38Spl, .223 AR as well as a .308 bolt gun.

When we went to the range for a package deal well before I even got my licence he also tried his hand at an AK semi in the past, a .454 Casull, a DE in .50AE as well as a pump action shotgun.

He's not going to go out of his way just to shoot some run of the mill guns at some indoor range, but if there were something a bit more unusual, I might be able to tempt him so that I can then live vicariously through him!!

So, any suggestions for a European to try? Perhaps some full-auto rental place, perhaps a LR set-up with some big calibres (.50BMG or something like that), perhaps something else that I have not thought of.

Any and all suggestions welcome, just as long as the outfits are save and reputable as he will need taking under the wing.

Go on.
Make me jealous!!
 
I don't know of any full auto rental in Austin.

There is in San Antonio, about a 1 and half hour to 2 hour jaunt. www.nardisgunclub.com

As far as gun stores in Austin - McBrides and GT Distributors are the places to visit. One can also go to Cabela's which is down I-35 aways.

There are many gun matches in the area, if one wanted to observe on the weekends.

Austin also has some great restaurants ranging from fancy, neat Asian and TX BBQ.
 
Somewhat related....
There is a wonderful indoor and outdoor military museum on Mopac Freeway in Austin at Camp Mabry. Displays from the time periods of the birth of Texas up through modern day. You can easily spend half a day there. Open Tuesday thru Sunday 10am - 4pm. Lots of military guns on display and lots of tanks and artillery pieces outside.

Admission is free but they ask for a small donation. Camp Mabry is home to Texas State Guard and Texas National Guard. It is very old (back to the pioneer days). It is a state military installation (not a federal base).

Enter through a guard gate at 2200 West 35th Street with a photo ID (no military ID required). Texas CHL holders can carry on base, but they ask you not to carry inside buildings.

See their website here....
http://texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/about-us/
 
Not in Austin, but I do something similar in Phx AZ, People can pick weapons from different eras of history and I will take them to the range, give a firearms safety course, a history lesson of the firearms they picked and teach them to fire them. Check out my facebook page.
 
As a resident of the greatest city in the world, i.e., Austin, Texas, there is practically no firearms tourism in Austin (by 'firearms tourism', I mean that you can rent guns and shoot, to your hearts content, something that you can't shoot at home). There are no ranges that rent full auto, and only two ranges in Austin even allow you to bring your own full: Texas Firing Line in Walburg, Texas, and Best of the West Shooting Range, in Liberty Hills, Texas. Both are suburbs of Austin, spaced about 45 minutes from the center of Austin. I am a member of both ranges, and TFL is members only, whereas nonmembers can shoot at BOTW.

The closest to firearms tourism in Austin is Red's Indoor Range, which has two locations, north and south. Their rentals are limited to run of the mill semiauto ARs and AKs, and pistols. They do not have anything exotic. I like Reds Range because Reds is the only Austin range that is open in the evening (they close at 9, and call a cease fire at 845pm). $15/per hour, per shooter, or unlimited time if you are a member.

McBrides is just a bigger than average gun store with a wide selection. Nothing really special. But McBrides is just a gun store. They don't have any type of range, real or simulated.

Cabelas is...just another Cabelas.

If you really want firearms tourism, you have to visit San Antonio and go to a place like the Bullethole, which rents full auto, last I heard. Nardis gun club also rents full auto.

However, San Antonio like 1.5 to 2 hours from Austin. The cities are not close and they are two very different cities.

While your dad is in Austin, I recommend that he try Micklethwait BBQ. Much better than Franklins BBQ, which has a fake line that they purposely keep long by cutting the meat slowly and moving the line slowly, to make it seem like their BBQ is more in demand than it really is (which I personally witnessed from the front of the line, when I once sent my personal assistant, who waited in line for 4 hours to save me a spot at the front of the line). End rant.
 
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I've passed on the details of the San Antonio ranges but, given that shooting is not the main aim of my Dad's trip, it probably won't result in an outing unless he happens to travel all that distance.

We'll see what happens. The BBQ joint might well make the short-list though!!

Range-wise, it would be more of a shame for me than him, but then, I would probably make the journey especially!!
 
Well, machineguntony pretty much covered it!

I'm sure someone will try to talk your dad into going to Salt Lick BBQ. It can be a fun experience for a tourist (the original location in Driftwood, TX, a short ride southwest of Austin, not the one north of town), but it's far from the best BBQ that Austin and Central Texas have to offer. Nothing special at all in the department. Some will insist that it's the best, but that just means that they're either from somewhere else or that they have a sad understanding of their local cultural heritage. Point being, if he ends up there, he still needs to try good BBQ, like Micklethwait's.
 
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