motoyuki85 wrote: Sun Nov 11, 2018 11:56 pm
I've heard good things about ISC. We're in Maple Valley, so it has the added benefit of being relatively close. So far, we've only been to Champion Arms in Tukwila (I think?) and Federal Way Discount Guns. Champion Arms seemed like it may be a little sketchy. I didn't feel confident that the stall dividers were well armored. Maybe they are, but didn't seem so. We really liked FWDG.
Cool. I've never been to FWDG. Not super-convenient to me, but I could check it out some day. How is the ventilation? I've been to Champion a few times and that was my main complaint there: their ventilation isn't as good as WCA or Wade's, IIRC. Better than the smoke trap in Tacoma, though!
ISC doesn't have partitions, except for hardware cloth on the pistol line to (mostly) deflect flying brass. Wear tight collars and a brimmed hat over your eyes, since you'll probably still get hit by some cases if the person to your left has a bottom-feeder. However, the lack of physical barriers doesn't bother me much. Since they have no rentals, there aren't any groups of young-uns, foreign tourists, or other noobs who've never even seen a gun IRL before. Safety really should rely on muzzle discipline and the Four Rules, and it's pretty good there. That I can remember, I've never been flagrantly swept by someone. I'm sure it happens, probably even while I was there, but I haven't seen it.
The last time we were at WCA, there were two lanes being shared by about five guys in their mid-twenties whooping and hollering and taking video as they shot progressively-louder rental guns at silhouette targets from 3 to 5 yards. The RSO was keeping a pretty close eye on them, and I think he doubled the knowledge of target shooting technique of the *most experienced* member of that group with about 90 seconds of advice. I was definitely glad to have steel booth partitions there!
Just FYI, ISC doesn't allow any kind of human-looking target, even the abstract type that just have a square head on a rectangular body, although with those they will let you fold the "head" down out of sight and staple the rectangle to the target backer. So, don't show up with a stack of "fun" zombie or Osama bin Laden targets. If you wanted to do a modified "Mozambique drill," you could just put one 8" or smaller bullseye slightly above another 8" bullseye and shoot one at the lower then one at the upper, and that would be allowed. More than two rounds rapid-fire is discouraged, although I've found that to be loosely enforced if you are familiar to the RSO. Or maybe I'm just so old and slow that my "rapid fire" isn't even recognized as such!
I'm up for a meet. Maybe in the spring, when everyone comes out of hibernation? Probably have a better turnout then.
You'll get used to the weather eventually.
I moved here from Colorado (after a stop of just a couple of years in San Francisco) and my adjustment is from the opposite perspective: I still laugh at people who say 46° F is "cold." It's NEVER really winter in Seattle, but you can drive to winter in under an hour. One snowfall does not a winter make: I've been snowed on in Denver in mid-September and early June! Of course, it was around 80 two days before and three days after those events.
I *do* find the winters here dim (more than a couple of days in a row without bright sunshine is pretty rare in Denver), but luckily I'm not too affected by SAD.
IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds
I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.