MO-anyone going to the UD range grand opening?

[blksn955.o]

Grand opening of the UD range in St. Peters looks to be this Sat/Sun.

Looking to stop buy and take a tour and see what the place is like around noon on Sat.

Anyone else going to check out a new range option? The website says they will have vendors there as well.

[rjacobs]

I was up there yesterday for the private grand opening. They are still working on last minute details-getting the shelves stocked, the lanes mopped, etc... They had a metric shit ton of ammo, I think around 200+ boxes of .380acp which I havent seen any in a long time, not that I need any. Tons of 9mm and .40. They also had a few pallets of other types of ammo in their 3rd bay and were expecting more. They had lots of merchandise they were trying to get inventoried and out on the shelves. I think he said he still had 2 truck loads of stuff coming and he had a lot of stuff already.

First shot is going to be at 1030. The only shooting taking place will be the demo hand guns from the manufacturers. I think he said Glock, S&W, Sig, and Springfield were going to be there.

I am waiting to hear back from him on what kind of velocities they are going to want to cut .223 back to. The guy that gave us the tour said they had some low velocity .223 people were going to have to use, not because the range cant handle high velocity .223(it can handle up to .308) but because it will last longer if you dial the velocity down a bit, however I reload so I am not going to buy their .223, but I said I would work up a load for a lower velocity .223 and bring in the chrono results to satisfy them. They are looking into it. If they say our ammo or nothing, then I simply wont shoot my AR there, no big deal. You are also going to have to be approved to shoot an AR there. Not sure what is involved in that process. The main thing for them is they dont want their range being beat up un-necessarily, which I understand.

The range itself is super nice. It sounds like during the week they will have all 12 lanes open, but when they are running classes it will only be 6 lanes. I have a feeling this place is going to get busy and they are going to turn their 3rd bay into a range in short order. While I dont think they are going to be a membership only type of place, they may have to if the demand is high. The two major improvements I saw and liked over Top Gun was that the air system has no vents blowing on the lanes or on the shooting booths. It has a big air duct at the back that is perforated and then down range it has the intake so they are always moving burned powder and what not away from you. Top gun always seemed to blow right on you or on your targets(blowing them around) and they never got the temp consistent it would go hot cold hot cold etc... They said they will not have that issue at all. The other thing I really liked was their target hanging system. Instead of just being on cables and bouncing around and taking 10 minutes to calm down, they run on rails hanging on some rollerblade wheels. So you run your target out, stop it and it stops, no swinging side to side or up and down. Its pretty slick.

Overall I am very impressed with the facility they have developed and I think it will be a great place to train and shoot.

[blksn955.o]

Awsome...I heard S&W and springfield would have something going on. I hope to be there around 11 or so I have a appointment at 10:20 off new ballas. Would hope S&W or Glock has some kind of swag to give out...t-shirt/hat/or hell even a sticker...would love a M&P item to go with my M&P AR or something with the G22.

I was going to tour the place as like I said before I am about 99% sure I want to take my CCW there...was also wanting to take a carbine course down the road so it would be nice to get some info on any "pre-cert" that would be needed. I totally understand about some kind of "dont be a tard" check even more so with a new range. Unless the carbine course will be outside of the range (offsite like busch or something). For me the .223 would depend on price...

A co-worker that I BS with a lot brought up the question as to what will be in stock...if the prices are competitive between wall-marts and Cabelas/Bass Pro...and if they have .380 in stock he will be sitting on a gold mine.

Any word if they will have rentals?

[rjacobs]

As far as the pre-req's for shooting an AR15 at the range, I think they just meant approval to shoot it during normal hours, not anything relating to classes. I am looking into the ammo deal since I have zero desire to pay 3-4x what it costs me to reload to shoot my AR there. I will simply go out to reifschneider to shoot it.

I dont know if they will have their carbine classes at the indoor range or if they will continue to use Busch and the range up in Old Monroe for the carbine stuff.

I dont know what the various rep's will have as far as schwag, but I know he said they would be using 6 lanes to be shooting demo guns in. He wasnt sure on pricing or anything like that on any of the various guns. Day to day the range will have the full range of demo guns to rent from every manufacturer that they stock. I think their prices will be fairly competitive from what I have been hearing, although I know they do not want to steel customers from any other shop because a ton of places(cabellas, bass pro, etc...) all send people to him for CCW classes and he wants to keep that up.

As far as Paul's CCW classes, I highly recommend him. His class was actually entertaining and moved along at a good pace and I never got bored.

[blksn955.o]

I understand not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them. I think if they were on average gun and ammo wise on par with cabela's/bass pro (wal-mart is understandably VERY hard to beat ammo wise) it would be a great option.

[blksn955.o]

I stopped by there around 11:15 or so...it was crowded inside the store...good for them. The range looks nice and I looked at what looks like a classroom or something I assume the instruction would be given for the CCW and other courses. Nice place for sure.

I talked to the Glock guy about the 26 and 19. As I am looking to pick up a 9mm Glock and/or Beretta (eventually both ). The 26 felt a little better to me. Stopped by the Springfield desk also and was looking at their 1911's.

Going to pick up a Walther PK380 this winter and either a 26 or Springfield 1911 in the fall. It was nice to hold the 1911's and see how they felt in my hand and get some info from the Glock guy.

[blksn955.o]

Double post my internet was bugging out....and the entry time is messed up

[rjacobs]

Went up there today and it was pretty packed like I had thought. Had a nice ceremony and the first shot was done. The winner of the auction for the first shot paid 1500 bucks. Springfield donated an XD and I think Winchester donated a case of ammo and the winner got to take the shot with the gun and then kept the gun and the ammo. I thought that was pretty cool except it was a Springfield.

My dad picked up a G26 and I picked up a Gun Vault Deluxe 2000 gun safe, the pricing was pretty dang good on it, much better than cabellas is all I will say. Their gun prices were pretty decent as well, definitely better than Cabelas, but not by a huge margin. They are going to be able to offer LE pricing on every brand they carry eventually, not setup quite yet for it though.

I saw Glock and S&W were there, I think Springfield and Sig where there to, but didnt look around much. I talked to the S&W guy for a few minutes and I am going to call him next week about going to an armorers school for the M&P since there arent any in the STL area, at least not that he thought(except for the area LE rep who covers like 4 states). He said as long as I could get up to their HQ I could take the class for free.

There were tons of people signing up for memberships.

As far as the .223 shooting goes, he said as long as its under 3500FPS since that is what the back stop is rated to, it will be fine. All mine chrono around 2800 or so so I will be fine. He said he has never seen factory ammo exceed 3000, but I guess some reloaders can load upwards of 3700fps, which is crazy.

[bnanaphone]

Has anybody taken one of their advanced handgun or tactical carbine training classes yet? I know the place has recently opened but it is the closest location, for me, to offer formal training in either format and I would be interested to hear from someone who has completed a class or two.

I just want to make sure it is worth it before attending.

Thanks.

[rjacobs]

Has anybody taken one of their advanced handgun or tactical carbine training classes yet? I know the place has recently opened but it is the closest location, for me, to offer formal training in either format and I would be interested to hear from someone who has completed a class or two.

I just want to make sure it is worth it before attending.

Thanks.

My dad has taken both the advanced hand gun courses and he really liked them, but like I have said before, he has zero other training. I am going to take them eventually. I dont know how the class at the range compares to the one up at Moscow Mills since I believe they used the shoot house up there for portions of the course. Not sure how they are going to run the course in the new range. I had heard he was building some moveable walls so that they could "build" different scenarios(hallway, room entry, multiple room entry, etc...) but I dont know how that has progressed.

As far as the carbine course, I dont think he has done one of those classes in about 2 years. I dont know what his plans are for that class at the new range or if he is still going to do it under the old format(renting busch wildlife range for a weekend). I am trying to get together with him on setting up some kind of more basic carbine course that he could do more often than the full course he has done in the past.

[OldGreg]

As far as Paul's CCW classes, I highly recommend him. His class was actually entertaining and moved along at a good pace and I never got bored.

+1

Paul was great!