You need this essential range gear. Range gear list for beginners to enthusiasts.

Tl;dr: At a minumum, you need eye + ear protection, weather and range appropriate clothes, your gun + transportation method (like a gun case or holster), mags, ammo, and targets.

Whether you’re going just to observe, or you’re just getting started in firearm ownership, there are some critical pieces of gear you should get before you go to the range. These items vary in importance based on how your shooting range works, but some prevent you from learning and training if you forget them.

PPE

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is vital to each individual involved in shooting activities. PPE is important to protect your body physically, but good PPE also helps you mentally and emotionally. Being around shooting without sufficient PPE for the given firearms and environment can be a huge setback in the experience. Coming home with a small burn or hearing damage will permanently mar the experience of shooting or even affect your quality of life.

First, think of your wardrobe. If you’ve worked in a lab environment, some of this will be familiar. You need:

1. Ear Protection (overs + inners)
2. Eye protection
3. Comfortable, closed toe shoes
4. Clothes that can get dirty or even lightly burnt
5. A brimmed cap
6. Gloves and mask
7. D-Lead Wipes

All of these items help protect you from spent brass to the muzzle blast while shooting. At many ranges you will not be allowed in the shooting bay if you do not have the first 3 items.

At indoor ranges, I highly suggest doubling up with in-ear plugs AND over-ear muffs. Due to the small space and hard surfaces inside, the concussion and sounds are trapped, creating a significantly louder experience than shooting outside.

For both inside and outside, if you plan to shoot with any amount of consistency, active ear protection and gel ear cups will be a great first purchase. Active ear pro has all the hearing protection of passive ear protection, but uses microphones that can listen for sounds so you can hear voices and non-gunshot sounds well. Gel ear cups aid in this by increasing the comfort while the muffs sit on your head, and in my experience, allow a better seal over your ears.

Eye protection for a lot of people usually includes their prescription glasses or general safety glasses. For the vast majority of your time shooting, these will suffice. If you want to prepare for catastrophic firearm failures, ballistic rated lenses tend to run a few hundred dollars but are designed to better protect your eyes from massive malfunctions.

As far as your other clothing goes, you don’t need clothing with fire retardancy or steel toe’d boots. Simple closed toe shoes and street clothes that you are ok with getting messy will do. That being said, clothes that cover more of your skin can be helpful in the case that a piece of hot brass lands on your clothes so that your skin doesn’t get burned. A brimmed cap is especially helpful in this case, especially with handguns as brass is often times sent up and behind the shooter. On a couple of occasions, I have gotten a “brass hickey” from a spent casing that landed between my glasses and my face, so I try to bring a cap every time I go.

Additionally, if you are at an outdoor range, consider throwing in rain gear. Specifically, a rain jacket with a hood.

Good to have: PPE

In consideration for lead / particle concerns, wearing gloves or a mask may be useful as well. These concerns are real as over time, the heavy metal accumulation will hinder your quality of life. This is especially true if you predominately shoot high round counts in an indoor range. Similarly, packing Lead Wipes is great to remove those heavy metals from your hands and face.

To round out the topic of PPE, taking a Stop the Bleed Course and carrying an Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) are incredibly useful pieces of gear. The courses tend to be low cost or even free, and IFAK’s can be made relatively cheaply. Many view firearms as life saving tools, and medical gear even more so. A boo-boo pouch with band-aids for small cuts and bumps can also be a great piece of gear for everyday life.

Gun Gear

In addition to all the PPE, it’s good to have a list of gear you’ll be bringing to the range. It’s never a fun time to bring out that new gun to the range only to forget the magazine to feed it.

1. Gun
2. Magazines for that specific gun
3. Ammo (+ 10-20% over what you expected)
4. Speed loader
5. case / gun bag
6. gun cleaning kit / OIL

Naturally, you want to take that new gun out. And there are good chances that you’ll have at least one to two magazines with it. To spend less time loading and more time shooting, it’ll be good to add another three magazines or so. The more magazines you own, the easier it will be to learn with that gun, especially when you take classes. Bear in mind that each gun you acquire will likely require its own set of magazines, so be sure to set up a system to store those magazines as they likely aren’t interchangeable.

Concerning ammo counts for the range, it’s easy to run through more rounds than you expect. It’s common for a lot of shooters to run through around 100-250 rounds per range trip. I’d advised to generally bring around 200-300 rounds for a decent range trip. And if you’re preparing for a class, I’d ask the instructor how many rounds to bring. This can range from 500-1000+ rounds. I’d then add in an extra 10-20% in the event you need to do a reshoot on any drills.

Speedloaders are a huge boost in saving your thumb strength while reloading. While rifle mags may not require it, I consider handgun speedloaders almost an essential. They provide a great improvement to the quality of life while loading magazines by saving time and effort. While an included speed loader is better than using your thumbs, aftermarket speed loaders like from Speed Beez will greatly improve your time at the range.

An actual essential is a gun case or a method of stowing your firearm. Many times, firearms are shipped in a cardboard box, and while that can serve as an adequate storage method when you take possession of the firearm, I’d advise grabbing a proper gun case or bag, as they will last longer, are more ergonomic to carry, and can allow storage of other range essentials, like mags and ammo. As most, if not all, ranges won’t allow the open carry of uncased firearms, a decent gun case is something you should acquire as soon as possible. In this regard, holsters may function a similar function to a gun case. Be aware of your range rules regarding whether you’re allowed to practice from a holster or not, and be aware of any local and state laws regarding carrying of firearms.

Good to have: Gun Gear

To round out firearm adjacent gear, consider throwing a gun cleaning kit or even a bottle of gun oil in your gun bag. Malfunctions from firearms sometimes can be solved by adding some lubricity. A gun cleaning kit can also be nice to have deal with heavy carbon buildup. A wooden dowel might also be a good addition to a cleaning kit to help remove squibs.

Training goods and Firearm Aids

Training goods and aids are things necessary to facilitate training and performing common firearm tasks, like zeroing optics. While not required in the strictest sense of what is necessary to fire a gun, these are essential to make any range time meaningful. If you’re at an indoor range, a number of these may be included, but may be good to have on hand.

1. Target
2. Target Stands / Clips / Stapler
3. Pasters / Paint
4. Sharpies
5. Binocular
6. Range Finder
7. Paint Pen
8. Shot timer
9. Shooting bags / weapon support (pockets/mag carrier / gun belt / retention holster )

Naturally, you’ll need a target. Many ranges offer various paper targets of human silhouettes and such, but I’d recommend picking up some plain cardboard targets, especially USPSA style targets. However, even a paper plate or similar thicker paper target can suffice. The advantage of these thicker targets deal with the ability to produce a clean hole after being shot. Simple paper targets held only by clips tend to move on being shot, resulting in a tear in the paper, which obscures where your shot landed. These also serve as nice backer for any paper targets you would like to apply in front of the cardboard, as many cardboard backers at ranges will be heavily shot.

For practical shooting, plain cardboard targets are great for numerous different drills. I’d also recommend a small number of reactive targets for zeroing. These targets offer high contrast points of aim and leave high contrast holes to allow a higher level of detail spotting from a distance. Some even come with matching pasters to extend the usage of a single target.

Good to have: Training Goods and Firearm Aids

Some indoor ranges provide the attachment methods for these targets but at outdoor ranges, having your own target stands, clips and staples may be necessary. I’d also consider grabbing your own set of pasters for the aforementioned USPSA style cardboard targets as this allows the extended use of those targets for drills.

At outdoor ranges, known distances may not be provided so bringing your own range finder can help confirm the distance to your target is vital. I’d also bring a set of binoculars to help observe target hits. For ranges out to 200 yards, 8x-10x magnification is incredibly helpful.

To round out shooting aids, having some shooting bags and a paint pen will help while zeroing. Shooting bags offer stability to shrink the size of your groups, and a paint pen will allow you to witness mark any optic settings to allow you to determine if your optic is no longer zeroed from a glance.

The last training good I’ll mention is a shot timer. A shot timer is essential for anyone looking into defensive shooting training. A shot timer applies a time pressure that challenges shooters to not only be accurate while shooting, but also to be fast. I’d highly recommend a physical shot timer device as shot timer apps tend to suck overall. Shot timers aren’t a first buy for most shooters, but once you’re comfortable with your firearm’s operation and you can make decent groups while safe, a shot timer is great tool to add to your kit.

An honorable mention would be a gun belt and mag carriers. In whatever form you decide, methods on retaining magazines on your person will help speed up different training activities by preventing you from digging in your pockets for another mag, or from fumbling a mag while grabbing it from a table. I found that a quality gun belt with a couple magazine carriers for my handgun and rifle keep me going by allowing me to keep more ammo on hand.

Human support gear

It’s easy to get wrapped in all the shooting gear, but we’re all human. And humans have needs just as much, if not more, than your guns do.

1. Table + Chair
2. Water
3. Notebook and pen/pencil
4. Headlamp
5. Lunch + Snacks

These items apply a bit more when shooting at outdoors, and are common essential at classes held outdoors.

At any outdoor range or class, a chair and maybe a table are necessary to allow you to take some weight off your legs and rest, while also allowing you to store items in a more er gnomic manner. Loading magazines at a table is much easier at a table than on the ground. These are commonly provided at more established ranges, but may still be good to have for your own needs.

It’s critical that you have breaks and drink water. Bring enough water for a day while you’re outside. Note that if you’re at an indoor range, you should still have water but you’ll need to keep it outside the shooting bay.

A physical notebook is great to have. If you’re training by yourself, your phone can suffice and having searchable, electronic notes can be great if your hand writing is poor. However, having a physical notebook and pen have been seen to improve a student’s memory retention. Something like a simple Rite in the Rain notebook and pen are great for logging notes.

Good to have: Human support gear

Finally, not super commonly needed but a headlamp can be a great help if your class runs a bit late. Holding your phone while digging through your range bag isn’t great, and trying to light your way back to your car while your hands are full makes for a complex task.

For many shooters, most range trips run around an hour to two hours, so a lunch and snack aren’t required. However, if your trips take you further out, or you’re at a class, you should expect to pack a lunch and snacks. Food is energy and you need sustanance to keep yourself going.

Conclusion

For the vast majority of firearms owners, these are items you’ll piece together over time. It’s not necessary to have every bit of gear before you start your firearms journey. Get some good ear + eye protection, wear your plain street clothes, and take yourself to the range. You’ll figure out what gear you need as you progress. The hardest and most important part is to find time to get out there and train.