Just a heads up for you Arizona shooters.

BLM (yes that BLM) Just opened three new shooting ranges (two more coming). They were built in areas that the local "trash shooters" ruined with broken glass, microwave ovens and all manner of other shooting garbage. BLM closed three of these areas and fenced them off.

However, they had signage on the fences that they were building ranges for our use.

They opened a couple months ago. The three area's are called - Church Camp Road, Saddleback Mountain and Baldy Mountain.

Church Camp is the main and most developed one. Typical bermed "lanes" from pistol up to 200 yards. There is a concrete shooting area, a red firing line and steel at all available yardages. There is a Toilet and a rail fence you can pull or back up to and unload your stuff, right where you shoot but no benches.

Saddleback Mountain is less developed but has Steel at ranges from 200 all the way up to 700 yards. You have clean gravel lanes to lay down at. No benches

Baldy Mountain I have not shot at yet.

They are essentially "uncontrolled" and manned by volunteers. Its free and these are really nice facilities. The volunteers ask you clean up your brass and obviously anything else. They ARE NOT RANGE-MASTERS.

The only complaint I have is, you HAVE to shoot at their steel. It's replaced every Wednesday I think they told me.

They are off HWY 74 very close to Lake Pleasant. Great facilities and Kudo's to BLM (for once)



https://www.abc15.com/entertai...ng-ranges-in-arizona


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_LR7tKf5qU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3meaJP0v3-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aok40JY4P0Q

Shooting tables are now for use at Church Camp Road.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cEtYwFV0_wE

Good news for you. Maybe our BLM and or USFS will do similar things in Idaho. Doubt it.

quote:

Originally posted by Navaluk:
Good news for you. Maybe our BLM and or USFS will do similar things in Idaho. Doubt it.

Yes it is. Now I have a safe place to shoot my .50BMG. I actually had/have it listed for sale kinda due to this.

Out local range (Ben Avery) doesn't allow 50's. The Arizona desert has gotten so damn busy, It's hard to find a safe place to go shoot 500-1000 yards.

These places are worry free and far enough to make it enjoyable.

All three are no more than 20 minutes from my home.

The government doing something useful for a change. Refreshing!

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
The government doing something useful for a change. Refreshing!

When I saw the the BLM was "Building recreational shooting areas", my first reaction was....Great.

But they're proper ranges.

Yes, our world class shooting range here in Vegas on BLM land was shepherded through by none other than Harry Reid. Glad you have some more great ranges to go to now! Hope all is well with you and your family, Steve.

With areas for shooting becoming more and more limited (reduced or eliminated), this is refreshing news for sure.

It won't directly help me but maybe it's a good trend that other areas of the country will pick up on!!!

No doubt we are in dire need of more areas like this.

Thanks for sharing,
Zeke

BLM lands in many parts of my ex-home state -- Oregon -- were endless dumps further insulted by careless and uncaring shooters, sorry to say. At one point, I tried filling the bed of my F150 with garbage left behind on BLM land between Redmond and Sisters, if anyone knows the area. I didn't begin to make a dent. All it did was make me even more ashamed of the generic American "recreational shooter."
What the BLM has done in Arizona simply amazes me.

You got it exactly right. I grew up here in Arizona. back when I was a kid and a young man, you could go out about anywhere and shoot. We never made a mess and left stuff.

My dad was very strict and enforced his teachings about such things. We left absolutely nothing behind, no shotgun shells, brass, not even .22's.

Today, things are different. Guys show up, mostly with AR platforms. They shoot at boxes, water heaters, just about any trash they thought would be cool to shoot at.

The BLM has closed access to 5 of these areas that are pretty close to town. They just opened the three linked ranges and there are two more coming.

I shot my .50BMG (for the last time) Friday last week at the Saddleback Mountain range. There were lots of 7.62 x 39 empties laying around. But at least there is no trash.

The "new shooters" (in my opinion) are the guilty ones. They weren't raised with guns and didn't have fathers to mentor them in ethics, morals and just common sense.

I feel priveliged to have free access to these facilities. The BLM AND City of Peoria are doing some great stuff here.

The City has taken outdoor recreation very seriously. They have beed developing a very nice series of parks. Also there is a very, very intensive trail system network for both hiking and my passion, bicycles. All these mentioned ranges are within the city of Peoria.

I'm just a few month away from 70 years old and this trash left at shooting sites has been the norm for as long as I remember.

I too am saddened by the disregard by many shooters!

This is one of the many reasons why I think an organized shooting range is a great idea.

Zeke

There is a great range out side Yuma AZ.

I hardly ever see anybody using the 1000 yard range.

The improvised ranges in the area are just full of trash.

Zeke, I am weeks away from turning 70, and in my recollection it has been an incremental increase in disregard for outdoor ethics -- especially on our sacred public lands, with some places much worse than others. I had parents who absolutely forbade littering of any kind, and grew up in Scouting, which reinforced those values. In fact, my Eagle project was cleaning up a creek adjacent to Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA.
Steve, Peoria looks to be a lovely community.

quote:

Zeke, I am weeks away from turning 70,

Bill: You're a youngster! And, I second all of your comments on the value of good parents and the Scouting program. I too, am an Eagle Scout with three palms (before the days of a required Eagle Scout Project), Vigil Honor Member of the OA, Silver Beaver, Wood Badge Course Director (four beads), Philmont trek leader, a Scoutmaster at one of the National Jamborees, etc. etc. etc. Scouting saved a lot of young men, including me, and taught them character, citizenship, a love of God and respect for others). God bless Baden Powell and others connected with Scouting's formation! But, I digress...........

This is really great news!

I still shoot in the desert but this sounds like a great spot. These days I spend most of my time at my CO place where I can shoot right out my back door past 1000 yards.

I don't understand why anyone in Phoenix would drive 45 minutes out to the desert to shoot pistols at 25 yards when there are three great ranges in the metro area: Phoenix Rod and Gun along South Mountain, Usery Pass, and Ben Avery.

PHX Rod and Gun is like $100/year for unlimited us; can only shoot to 500 yards, but for anything closer, it works. Usery was 300 yards last time I shot there.