Park County shooting range to become reality

Interesting read I found through a local forum up here in the hills. Wish it was closer but with all the places to shoot becoming scarce these days what a plus!

From the flume:

Mike Potter
Staff Writer

It took six years for the South Park Shooting Association's wish for a shooting range at King Coal Mine to come true.

Bill VanGundy, vice president of the shooting association, said the site, approximately four miles southeast of Como, was the group's first choice for a shooting range. It had the perfect combination of location and geographic features that reduced noise and increased safety.

But six years ago it was too expensive. The owner of the Tarryall Creek Ranch wanted to sell the entire ranch, and only 200 acres was needed for the shooting range.

That began a long, fruitless search for another suitable location. When the South Park Shooting Association believed they found another adequate location near Campground of the Rockies, community outcries forced their search back to square one.

But a change in ownership of the land the mine sits on has reopened the door for a shooting range at that location, and VanGundy said the shooting association couldn't be happier.

"We're ecstatic about it. After six years of work, it's finally coming to fruition," he said.

The shooting range is now possible because the new owner of the Tarryall Creek Ranch, Montana-based Beartooth Capital Partners LLC, was open to the idea of selling a portion of the property to the county for use as a shooting range.

Park County's Board of County Commissioners voted to approve spending $100,000 of Great Outdoors Colorado money, which is provided to the county from Colorado State Lottery funds. The Colorado Division of Wildlife will provide another $100,000 to the project, according to Colorado Division of Wildlife District Wildlife Manager Mark Lamb.

Beartooth also donated five acres north of the property as right-of-way for a driveway, he said.

When the site is complete, Lamb said, it will have a number of features that can be used by a number of gun enthusiasts.

Construction is planned to be completed in phases, with safety and noise-reducing features to be added first.

Lamb said the site already sits in a natural bowl, and dirt berms would be built around the rim to decrease the chance of bullets making it out of the range.

Then a 100-yard to 200-yard rifle range and 25-yard handgun range is slated to be built in the first phase.

After that, a shotgun range and bow range will be added.

The ultimate goal is to have a building that could house an indoor range or have a classroom for hunter safety education.

There is a plan for a law enforcement shooting area for surrounding agencies.

VanGundy said the Park County Sheriff's Office has been a strong supporter of a shooting range, and the Summit County Sheriff's Office has also offered support for the range.

He said the shooting range will be available to all of the Front Range law enforcement agencies, who often have to wait as long as three months for time at a shooting range.

"We're hoping to get it down to 30 days," VanGundy said.

The final plan of the range is still months away, he said, but in order to make the range as safe as possible, trained weapons instructors will be on-site at all times when the range is open.

The hours haven't been worked out yet, he said, but there is a possibility that the range could be open longer during the summer months.

Special care was also taken to determine if the noise would travel far enough to disturb residents in Como.

Lamb said noise testing was conducted to determine how loud gunshots would be.

He said testing immediately outside the boundaries of the shooting range showed that the gunshots would be no louder than a clapping hand, and testing done near U.S. 285, to the north of the site, was inconclusive because the traffic on U.S. 285, which separates the range from Como, was louder than the gunshots at that distance.

There is a need for a shooting range, VanGundy said, because many residents have been shooting their weapons in forested areas of the county, which isn't safe.

"That was our goal in the very beginning," he said. "Provide a safe shooting range for the general public. We want to get the people out of the forest and onto the range."


Linky:http://www.theflume.com/main.asp?Sec...ArticleID=5599