Paul Bunyan Rifle & Sportsman's Club — Local services in South Hill

This range is exceptionally well managed and maintained. It has been substantially improved in the last few years with new construction and facilities. PBRSC is a hub for all things related to shooting with many events and education classes each month. I have been a member for several years and will continue for as long as I live in the area. The reasonable cost of a membership is a tremendous value considering the great facilities, several ranges and essentially unlimited amounts of shooting to do with as many guests as you want (you supervise). There is a shotgun range, a covered 200 yard rifle range with gongs (expandable to 600 yard for special events), a covered pistol/rimfire range and action shooting bays for hosted IDPA/IPSC shoots. There is also a tomahawk throwing area and supposedly an archery area too (though I haven't seen it for myself).

Make sure you check the calendar before getting your heart set on shooting on a particular day. Individual ranges are sometimes closed for hours or a day because of specialized shooting groups or events, but it's always listed on the calendar.

New applicants to the club must pass a background check, hold an NRA membership and attend a membership/orientation meeting. Access to the range is always gated except for certain meetings and events.

Some of the volunteer range officers are grumpy, but I'll give them a pass since they're old. Follow the rules and you'll always be fine.

The things that aren't so great are 8 round limits on pistol and rifle mags (no loading over 8) and your rate of fire must be no greater than 1 round per second. While I personally disagree with these limits, I understand the precaution as it takes just one lucky idiot being overly reckless to put the range's future in jeopardy. There are many homes and stores that have been built surrounding the range in the last few decades. For blasting and high speed tacticool operations, I shoot in the mountains. For everything else,...

This range is kind of a mixed bag for me. I got a membership after having gone a few times with my Father-in-law. It's a nice, well-maintained facility. The owners and people in charge of the club also do some local lobbying to fight for gun rights which is awesome.

I give it 3 stars because it's just not a very inviting place to go shooting. Most of the RO are jerks and will take any opportunity to yell at you, warranted or not. The rules of the range are quite frankly stupid and not thought out. For example, you are limited to 8 rounds in a magazine. Why you ask? Because that is how many the M1 Garand had and there isn't another reason. Seriously. Some of the ROs say because if your gun "breaks" and starts shooting rapid fire, it's safer. It makes no sense why you would fight for rights and then not afford your members the ability to exercise them.

You are also not allowed to shoot quickly. You do a "controlled pair", you better get ready for a screaming ear full from the nearest RO. You can't really practice your defensive skills because they just don't allow it.

This coupled with the fact that you cannot just join, you have to go to a membership meeting and they only allow people to join so many times per year. They should be begging one and all to join the range, but the old retired guys don't want to grow the sport, they just wanna have something to get upset about.

Also, even if you are a member, better check the calendar EVERYTIME before you go because they are always holding different events for non-members and will close down ranges because of it. Kind of annoying to pay a fee to use it and then on the weekends half of the facilities are closed to the actual members of the range.

If they could just get rid of the stupid rules and be more inviting, this place would be a...

I became a member years ago after using this range to sight in my hunting rifle. I don't know if they still allow it but they had a certain time of the year the public could do that. As I worked full time and long hours (i drove truck and then went back to operating cranes) the only time I had to shoot was on the weekends. As it turned out pretty much every weekend they had some kind of event so I could not use the range. If I remember correctly I got to use the pistol range 3 times and the rifle range twice during my first year of membership. I renewed my membership the following year and used the pistol range maybe twice. It really wasn't worth my money as the range was just never open to someone that just wanted to practice. As for the comments I've read from people that purchased homes in the area, you are no different than people that bought near a race track or airport, those facilities were there before you bought you should have checked the area prior to your purchase, you have no legitimate right to complain. If your neighbor owned a junkyard when you bought your house you might not like the way his/her property looks but they were there when bought your house. You are like the person that has a neighbor with a swimming pool and think you and your kids have a right to use it even though it is a private pool, you have no right to use it or complain about it being used...