View Full Version : Ranges in Des Moines?
Hello, I'm in Des Moines for the next 3 weeks and was wondering if anybody could recommend a range?
Any good gun stores to check out?
Thank you, nick
Closest one I'm aware of is here:
http://www.darylsguns.com/
eightmillimeter
08-12-09, 03:41
Get on the IA DNR site and look up the Butch Olafson range, its by the Saylorville reservoir by Polk City.
It's 4am in Des Moines now, so I'm gonna hurry. There is the Banner area South of DM on US65/69 (east 14th street)about 6 or 7 miles S. of Army Post Road. The is the Badger Lake area West of Des Moines about 12 miles. And the Butch Olofson site. The DNR lists these and has good maps. The first 2 are unsupervised and the first especially has been know to be dangerous--little kids running all over with loaded guns, etc. The Olofson range is a very formal range with a a full time operator, and your best bet. It's an hourly charge, but the safest of the three.
If I hadn't let my memberships in the DMR&RC lapse I'd take you out to Van Meter. There's a pistol range and rifle to 600. Hot and buggy but good place. Locked gate though, so...
Good luck. Oh, don't go in the area immediately northwest or north of downtown. Lots of serious street animal type problems there. Shootings, stabbings, etc on a regular basis.
I had a chance to use the Butch Olafson range while I was home, great guys there running the place! They also sell ammo and have spotting scopes for the 100yard range.
I ended up going to a friend's farm for most of my shooting, but I would not hesitate to go back to Olafson's for all my pistol practice.
EatSleepJeep
08-23-09, 15:49
It's 4am in Des Moines now, so I'm gonna hurry. There is the Banner area South of DM on US65/69 (east 14th street)about 6 or 7 miles S. of Army Post Road. The is the Badger Lake area West of Des Moines about 12 miles. And the Butch Olofson site. The DNR lists these and has good maps. The first 2 are unsupervised and the first especially has been know to be dangerous--little kids running all over with loaded guns, etc. The Olofson range is a very formal range with a a full time operator, and your best bet. It's an hourly charge, but the safest of the three.
If I hadn't let my memberships in the DMR&RC lapse I'd take you out to Van Meter. There's a pistol range and rifle to 600. Hot and buggy but good place. Locked gate though, so...
Good luck. Oh, don't go in the area immediately northwest or north of downtown. Lots of serious street animal type problems there. Shootings, stabbings, etc on a regular basis.
This is all false.
1) Banner is supervised and its run by the DNR. It costs 8/hr to shoot there. There are 3 distinct ranges on the property, 2 for pistol/rifle each with 9 lanes and 4 skeet launchers plus an area for sporting clays. SCARY! (http://www.bannershootingrange.com/index.html)
2) Badger in Madison County is closed and has been for years. It seems the people that lived in the area got sick of their houses taking fire and the police and county supervisors agreed.
3) Olofson Range (http://www.olofsonrange.com/) is also run by the DNR. It's a good range, just like Banner.
4) There is nowhere in Des Moines that any person who isn't afraid of their shadow needs to fear (beyond the Oakridge housing development which you can't drive through nor should you need to).
PS, I live in Des Moines unlike Iowa Don, apparently.
I was surprised to hear about the guy the WDM police shot--I thought the story was in Oakridge the first time I heard it--not Glenn Oaks!
I'll have to check out Banner when I'm home at Christmas.
TO: Eat Sleep Jeep
Your sarcasm isn't needed, helpful, or appreciated.
I said nothing to deserve it. That was the last time I was at Banner, quite a while ago. I saw no reason to go back. I didn't need my wife or I to be shot by some 8 year old kid climbing up and down on the tubes and waving his .22LR at everybody and everything. As you say changes have been made, so much the better.
After I joined the DMR&RC and could use the range at Van Meter, I quit going to Badger, so I had no idea it was closed.
Now as to your comments about me not living in Des Moines. I've been back here since 1974 from Chicago. I drove taxi here about 4 years total. I also drove a dump truck here for two years, and a delivery truck (Priority Express) for a year. I am now retired and live in Windsor Heights. We watch TV-8 and get the Register 7days a week.
You, ESJ, should perhaps take an early Sunday morning walk along east Walnut in the 2600 block. Maybe you'll get randomly shot the way the fellow riding his bike was not long ago. Or go wander around "the block", that area between 6th Avenue and 30th to the West, and I-235 to Hickman Road on the North. Maybe a Crip or a Blood or BGD or LK or LE or some other punk will decide to take a potshot at you. Or go stroll around Mondamin, Jefferson, and Washington between MLK and 16th Street in the wee hours on weekends.
The DMPD STAR (SWAT squad for you unfamiliar readers) sniper/countersniper shooters practice regularly at Van Meter, and I have gotten to know a number of them over the years. We don't socialize outside the range, but we do talk when we're there.Unless they are all liars, and I myself have not seen what I have seen, and we're all in another universe excepting ESJ, I stand by what I said about the areas I spoke of. Like any metro area, a lot of things happen that don't make the media.
I've lived here for a total of 46 years, 7 in Chicago, and 1 total in St. Pete and Ft. Lauderdale both. Each has areas where it is not wise or safe to go after dark, and Chicago has a lot you just plain stay the hell out of altogether. It's my opinion ESJ, you've banged your head too many times against the roll bar, and that's why you come off as a smart ass instead of someone genuinely trying to be helpful, as I was.
If you are looking for gun shops, try Scheels in West Des Moines, Bass Pro in Altoona, and Jacobsons in Story City.
Here's a few to visit.....
www.olofsonrange.com
www.amesikes.org
http://www.wheretoshoot.org/Find_Range/wts_subresults.asp
http://www.iowasportsmen.com/iowa%20shooting%20ranges.htm
Banner was redone several years ago, not sure if it was by the county or state.
Thank you everybody, my job ended early so I didn't get out as much as I wanted but I did make it to Olofson range one time to sight in a new upper.
I hear there is a lot of business coming to Iowa this year so maybe I'll get to come back and try out the other suggestions.
Thanks again, nick
Scheels is actually starting to carry some nice stuff. They had a TRG22, a Steyr SSG Elite, and Nightforce NXS optics. Very good to see them stocking higher end items!
EatSleepJeep
08-24-09, 20:03
TO: Eat Sleep Jeep
Your sarcasm isn't needed, helpful, or appreciated.
I said nothing to deserve it. That was the last time I was at Banner, quite a while ago. I saw no reason to go back. I didn't need my wife or I to be shot by some 8 year old kid climbing up and down on the tubes and waving his .22LR at everybody and everything. As you say changes have been made, so much the better.
After I joined the DMR&RC and could use the range at Van Meter, I quit going to Badger, so I had no idea it was closed.
Now as to your comments about me not living in Des Moines. I've been back here since 1974 from Chicago. I drove taxi here about 4 years total. I also drove a dump truck here for two years, and a delivery truck (Priority Express) for a year. I am now retired and live in Windsor Heights. We watch TV-8 and get the Register 7days a week.
You, ESJ, should perhaps take an early Sunday morning walk along east Walnut in the 2600 block. Maybe you'll get randomly shot the way the fellow riding his bike was not long ago. Or go wander around "the block", that area between 6th Avenue and 30th to the West, and I-235 to Hickman Road on the North. Maybe a Crip or a Blood or BGD or LK or LE or some other punk will decide to take a potshot at you. Or go stroll around Mondamin, Jefferson, and Washington between MLK and 16th Street in the wee hours on weekends.
The DMPD STAR (SWAT squad for you unfamiliar readers) sniper/countersniper shooters practice regularly at Van Meter, and I have gotten to know a number of them over the years. We don't socialize outside the range, but we do talk when we're there.Unless they are all liars, and I myself have not seen what I have seen, and we're all in another universe excepting ESJ, I stand by what I said about the areas I spoke of. Like any metro area, a lot of things happen that don't make the media.
I've lived here for a total of 46 years, 7 in Chicago, and 1 total in St. Pete and Ft. Lauderdale both. Each has areas where it is not wise or safe to go after dark, and Chicago has a lot you just plain stay the hell out of altogether. It's my opinion ESJ, you've banged your head too many times against the roll bar, and that's why you come off as a smart ass instead of someone genuinely trying to be helpful, as I was.
I refute your lies with facts and you come back with personal attacks? Classy! The Des Moines media is so devoid of any real action/stories that every incident is reported ad nauseum. Growing up in Murderapolis, MN there is no neighborhood in Des Moines that anyone need to fear driving through, unless they're the world's biggest pussy. You're not the world's biggest pussy, are you Don?
Come on guys, this isn't the forum for this kinda stuff. :(
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