If you were among the thousands who attended the three Texas Firearms Festivals that TTAG put on in years past, you’ve been to Best of the West Shooting Sports in Liberty Hill, Texas. It’s located bout 40 minutes northwest of Austin.
Best of the West is one of the best public ranges in the area featuring tactical bays, a pistol range, trap and skeet fields and a thousand yard rifle range.
Besides being an ideal venue for events like the Festival, three-gun shoots and more, Best of the West is a great resource and place to shoot for those of us here in the central Texas area.
But thanks to an ongoing dispute with a developer, Creekside Ranch Group, which had bought a nearby plot of land, Best of the West had been forced to shut down its extensive rifle range for the last year.
That dispute escalated recently and BOTW has now been forced to restrict the firearms in use on the property to handguns shotguns only. Unfortunately, that isn’t a viable option financially.
As a result, BOTW sent out the following email to its customers and members:
We were notified that beginning Monday, August 26, 2019, we would no longer be allowed to have rifles of any kind used on the range. Contrary to rumors circulating, no one has been injured or killed by gunfire from the range.
However with this information we will, with much sadness, be closing Best of the West effective on or before, September 29, 2019, as we cannot financially sustain operations.
Over the last nine years, we have enjoyed each and every one of you. Words cannot express how much we thank you for your patronage, loyalty, support, encouraging words, and ideas to help us. We have developed friendships that we will always remember and appreciate.
If you have a yearly membership, we will prorate and send you a refund as soon as possible.
Again, thank you all so much for everything you have done and for growing Best of the West with us. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers, the LTC instructors, and all the law enforcement agencies that use the range for training and qualifications.
Sincerely,
Millard Grantham and staff
There’s more to this story which we hope to be able to bring you in a later post. In the mean time, we’re observing a moment of silence for the loss of a valued resource to the central Texas shooting community. Best of the West will certainly be missed.