OK, I'll get serious with this one, too.
What I take typically is based on what I plan to do.
I try to have a plan before I go, so that I don't waste time when I get there - the range isn't expensive ($10/person/hour), but what I don't want is to arrive without an agenda and just send lead downrange in a "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" kind of way......
I almost always take my steel -
^ The WRX is the wifey's - she's got a dark gray '19, now, instead of the white '16 - my vehicle is a '19 Ascent: I wanted more ground clearance.
- along with a few wooden stakes and IDPA cardboards, but in terms of the gun and ammo, that really varies. I've found through the years that if I have an agenda for the day and am focused, I can really also parse down what I take with me so that I get the most out of the session.
It's really only once per season that things get a bit crowded when I need to zero more than a couple of guns, and I need to also pack in my spotting scope, tripods, and a mat to lay on.
The heaviest load-outs occur when I take my daughter to the range. At these times, I really don't shoot much - if at-all - as I serve as her RSO/coach since she's still very much a beginner shooter. Despite now having shot for going on 6 years, she only gets out to the range two to three times a year due to school and her own extracurricular activities. So when I take her, we build up the day by starting with .22LR rifles, then moving to .22LR pistols, then her full-caliber AR, and then finally a 9mm handgun. Taking a gun for each and a spare for each means that there's a lot of guns - and then there's the ammo, too.
Ammo usually just come with me in ammo boxes. I prep mags before each range/class day, and typically have no fewer than 5 fully stuffed handgun mags for each handgun, and anywhere between 10 to 20 fully stuffed mags for the carbines. The .22LRs are the exception - outside of the 15-22, which gets packed with 6 mags, the others only have one to three mags each.
Training classes are where I *really* over-pack.
In addition to the usual gun/backup, I have whatever gear I'm wearing, extra clean clothes to change in to in case of foul weather, and I also pack sustenance for both.....
- myself: a cooler full of water/Gatorade, plus meal(s) and snacks
- as well as for the guns: tools and spare parts
I'm not stupid enough to waste time trying to repair my gun during the teaching day - but I'll work on it at lunch-break or the like...I've yet to need to even go to my backup guns, but hey, it pays to be prepared! And besides, there's nothing that makes a friend of fellow classmates faster than being able to loan out everything from holsters to slings, and being able to at least offer tools to help someone fix their stuff.
Sometimes, I feel like --->
Yup, that LBT Large Wheeled Load Out Bag (
https://lbtinc.com/collections/load-out-bags/products/2467a) really can sleep one, comfortably!
Wait 'till their yearly half-off sale. It's worth the buy.