S.W.G.C.JBMIII said:
Pascagoula, has a 1000 and 600 yard range, up and running.
Next shoot will be 5-25-13.
When is the next across the course high power or mid range prone matches? I don't see any on the calendar. I also attended their annual meeting and heard the discussion about needing $50k for berm work and that was very much outside their budget.
S.W.G.C.JBMIII said:
No reason for a 3rd in this state, or maybe because, Magnolia wants one.......?
I've over 50 people willing to throw down $300 just to try to get something off the ground, so apparently there are 50+ to 1 that think central Miss needs another range and if I ever come across a suitable piece of land and can find a way to pay for it, we will get it done.
Magnolia is land locked, I asked the surrounding property owners myself and their board is mainly pistol shooters, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm stating that to let you know the club president has no idea what high power, f-class, mid range is about, who shows up or what facilities are needed. On my initiative I investigated property adjoining Magnolia. The far east side past 300 yards is an old oxbow lake so even if the land owner would sell it there would have to be an elevated road to the 600, swamp draining, and tree cutting. This isn't like the old post WWII days when they would send the Corps of Engineers out to build one on the taxpayer's dime. The rest of the property South of Magnolia is owned by a man that does not like the gun range, lives back there, and has spent a lot of effort developing the property into private hunting land. In other words, NOT FOR SALE.
There is a piece of suitable property somewhere, we just have to find it. There have been many more supportive property owners than I ever thought, but the land is just not right, and I'm not being picky, but to be safe there needs to be
nothing downrange (aka a safety fan) for 3 miles to be totally safe, free and clear of any possibility of a bullet leaving the range causing personal or property damage. Doug once put it to me that up in yankee land it's easier to find land because down here we are fond of building a house in the middle of a pine thicket off the beaten track. Up North, they don't do that because they don't want to have to deal with clearing miles of snow to get out of the house.
My plan now is to contact the heads of other ranges that have things within 3 miles and learn what they do, provided it isn't relying on luck. I heard of a range in Lafayette, Louisiana that was closed because someone claimed they caught a round in the wheel of their car, even though no one was at the range that day. We cannot go through the process of building a range to have something similar shut it down. There is also the question of urban sprawl invading the safety fan.