Home on the Range

With fall hunting seasons on the horizon, August is a great time to begin preparing your favorite firearms and archery equipment to be at peak performance in the field. Each year the National Shooting Sports Foundation celebrates National Shooting Sports Month in August, a time to recognize shooting sports’ positive influence on wildlife conservation and the contribution that shooting sports enthusiasts make to the economy. Missourians have a wide variety of public shooting ranges at their disposal across the state.

Staffed Ranges

MDC has two different types of shooting ranges — staffed and unstaffed. MDC has six staffed shooting ranges:

• Andy Dalton Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center (Greene County)
• August A. Busch Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center (St. Charles County)
• Jay Henges Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center (St. Louis County)
• Lake City Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center (Jackson County)
• Parma Woods Shooting Range and Outdoor Education Center (Platte County)
• Rocky Fork Lakes Shooting Range (Boone County)

These ranges are open year-round and offer a variety of shooting opportunities for rifle, pistol, shotgun, and archery. MDC staff members and volunteers are on-site to facilitate a safe shooting environment as well as aid shooters. Each year around 80,000 people visit these ranges to practice their marksmanship skills, prepare for hunting seasons, introduce new people to the shooting sports, and enjoy time with friends and family.

“I remember going out to shoot when I was 13 or 14 with my dad,” said Pat Conley, a frequent user of Jay Henges Shooting Range. “But soon, like many people, a working life took up all my time. When I retired at 70, I thought it would be nice to return to my youth and came out to Henges to shoot a .22 rifle just for fun. Soon, that trip to the range became my form of therapy. This past year, I had some serious surgery, and recovering from it and the grueling physical therapy really wore me out. But going to the range and honing my skills — becoming more accurate at greater distances and with several different types of firearms — gave me something to look forward to throughout the process.”

Conley’s story is one to which many can relate. Shooting sports are truly an activity that can be enjoyed by all, and there are countless opportunities around the state to get out and enjoy them.

“The controlled environments of the MDC ranges ensure a safe and enjoyable experience to come and practice shooting skills,” said Conley. “Nothing beats busting a few clay birds or hitting the bull’s-eye over and over again.”

Staffed shooting ranges are a great place to enjoy recreational shooting and introduce new shooters to a lifelong hobby, but they also serve as a place where hunters prepare for the seasons ahead of them.

For wing shooters, a great form of practice for the field is the sporting clays game five-stand. Five-stand takes the different presentations found on a sporting clays course, but is all held in one spot, like the layout of a trap field. The target presentations are designed to mimic different hunting scenarios that a wing shooter may find themselves in, from decoying mallards and incoming doves, flushing quail and pheasants, and even rabbit targets. Taking the time to practice some of these scenarios in the summer will lead to more success in the fall. The six MDC staffed shooting ranges offer five-stand shooting, so contact the range closest to you for more information. If a staffed range is out of your zone, there are many sporting clays ranges around the state that will have something to meet your wing shooting needs.

Unstaffed Ranges

While the staffed shooting ranges are a great asset for honing your marksmanship skills and preparing for hunting seasons, there are dozens of unstaffed shooting ranges across the state that offer tremendous shooting opportunities — some closer to home than you might realize.

The key to a fun and enjoyable day on the range is to be mindful of firearm safety. Regardless of staffed or unstaffed, it is important to remember these four fundamental rules of firearm safety:

1.  Keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times.
2.  Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
3.  Keep your safety on until you are ready to shoot.
4.  Be 100 percent certain of your target and what is beyond it before firing.

Along with these key safety fundamentals, there are some other safety tips that will help you and others get the most out of a day of shooting. Always wear eye and ear protection when you are on or near the firing line. Clean up after yourself or your group, and only use paper targets on the provided target stands. When holding a ceasefire, never handle a firearm while people are downrange of the firing line. Following these guidelines will ensure everyone can enjoy their time on the range.

If you’re looking to test your long-range shooting skills, Apple Creek Conservation Area (CA) in Cape Girardeau County or Gallatin CA in Daviess County offer ranges stretching over 200 yards. If you want to dial your scope in at a closer distance or even put some rounds through your favorite handgun, there are countless ranges throughout the state that can accommodate both rifle and pistol shooting in the same trip, such as Whetstone Creek CA in Callaway County.

Maybe a shotgun suits you better. Try unstaffed ranges like Deer Ridge CA in Lewis County for a day of breaking clay targets or Gist Ranch CA in Texas County to pattern your shotgun for turkey and waterfowl season.

For those that enjoy archery, what better way to spend a summer day than on a 3D archery course. Several 3D and static ranges can be found across the state, including the August A. Busch Archery Complex in St. Charles County, Reed Memorial CA in Jackson County, and the Grundy Memorial Wildlife Area in Douglas County.

No matter your sport or what portion of the state you call home, you likely have a shooting range in your area. To find a shooting range near you, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/4uJ.

Competitive Shooting

Shooting sports are a great pastime for people looking to enjoy a nice summer day, but for those shooters that want to dive deeper into their favorite shooting sport, competitive shooting may be the next step.

The opportunities for competition are endless — from 3D archery tournaments, sporting clays competitions, and even cowboy-action shooting competitions where participants dress in their favorite western attire to compete. There really is something for everyone. Joining a league at your local gun club is a great way to meet other shooters and shoot in a semi-competitive and friendly environment. Another way to get involved with competitive shooting sports is to attend competitions that are fundraisers for local charities or other organizations. These types of events take place almost year-round for shotgun sports, 3D archery, and many other disciplines. These shoots have the competitive aspect of trying to shoot well and take home either money or a trophy, but the overall atmosphere surrounding the day is very inviting and enjoyable.

On a larger scale, many shooting sports disciplines have their own governing bodies on both a state and national level that handle memberships and coordinate different shoots. For example, the Amateur Trapshooting Association is the governing body for the entire country, while the Missouri Trapshooters Association (MTA) handles things on a state level. The MTA, located at Linn Creek in Camden County, is home to the second largest trapshooting facility in the country and even hosted the 2020 Grand American Trapshoot, the largest trapshooting event of the year.

Other governing bodies include the National Skeet Shooting Association and National Sporting Clays Association, Archery Shooters Association (3D archery), and USA Archery (indoor archery). In recent years, a new discipline of shooting sports has come onto the scene with 3-gun competitions. Organized mainly by the United States Practical Shooting Association, this sport is a combination of rifle, pistol, and shotgun shooting. Shooters will move through stages that require the use of the different firearms in a specified combination, gaining points for the speed and accuracy for which they complete the stage. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or wanting to take your hobby to the next level, there really is something for everyone.

Classroom Work on the Range

MDC staffed shooting ranges and education centers offer free educational programs to the public. These programs range from typical introductory courses, to how to start shooting archery or handguns, to more involved classes covering topics such as reloading your own ammunition. In addition, these facilities also offer free hunter education certification.

These programs allow participants to learn new skills and refine current ones, which is exactly what attracted the Brisby family. Derrell and Jasmine Brisby have attended several hunting clinics and shooting sports classes over the years, introducing lifelong skills the couple never thought possible.

“The MDC programs have made such a huge impact on my lifestyle — it introduced me to the great outdoors.” said Derrell. “Coming from the inner city, I would’ve never thought a person like me would be out hunting, shooting clay targets, even just hiking in the wilderness.

“I first learned about MDC from a gun shop but was never told what exactly was offered. I discovered the registration online and was blown away that there was no charge whatsoever. Not only did this help get me outdoors more, but it gave me something new and exciting to do with my wife and has even provided some great content for my YouTube channel. Since then, I’ve been advocating for more folks like me to take advantage of the resources that’s available through the MDC programs.”

Even though Jasmine had some knowledge on firearms prior to attending these classes, she says the hands-on experience makes the difference.

“Attending these classes helped me better understand and become confident with the fundamentals of shooting,” said Jasmine. “Safety is always the main priority in all the classes we’ve taken, but there’s many basics covered from understanding the correct way to hold a firearm, using the sights correctly, and many more. You can never have too much training and I get to learn about different firearms in a controlled environment.”

Opportunities to learn new skills in the hunting and shooting sports realm are plentiful, and many are closer than you think.

“It blew my mind to learn how many of these programs were in locations familiar to me, but I had never paid attention,” said Derrell. “I never felt out of place when attending the programs especially since most of the time my wife and I were the only black people in the program. All the instructors and volunteers are very friendly and helpful. They have been very patient with me and make sure to take their time until I understand what it is they’re trying to teach.”

To find events in your area, go to mdc.mo.gov/events and filter down to your county or a specific facility.

Funding the Future of Conservation

In the fall of 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, or, as it’s better known, the Pittman-Robertson Act. Named after the act’s two main sponsors, Key Pittman and A. Willis Robertson, the act takes an excise tax (paid for by the manufacturers) on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment sales and directs it back to state fish and game agencies in the form of grants. These grants are distributed out annually and are used to fund a variety of programs each year. These include, but are not limited to, habitat management and research projects, hunter education, public shooting ranges, and other “R3” efforts — or recruitment, retention, and reactivation of hunters and target shooters. In Fiscal Year 2023, the Pittman-Robertson Act broke its annual record with $1.2 billion generated from the program nationwide. When we enjoy shooting sports, wildlife wins. And when wildlife wins, we all win.