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Firing ranges move below grade to quiet concerns
Soundproof - The Tri-County Gun Club hopes building in a rock quarry will keep neighbors happy
Thursday, March 09, 2006
MIKE CADE
Oregon's largest shooting range is getting a face-lift that could significantly improve the club's soundproofing -- and community relations.
The Tri-County Gun Club in Sherwood is adding new in-ground shooting ranges that will descend the equivalent of eight stories and occupy 36 acres. The new ranges will be built into a rock quarry that is being excavated.
Club spokesman George Pitts declined to reveal the cost of the project, but he said the club's ability to sell the excavated rock has been vital.
"Right now, the thing pretty much pays for itself," said Pitts, a competitive handgun shooter. "Where we have marketable rock, it goes to market. Where it's crummy dirt, it goes into building up backstops and side berms."
Providing safety and noise control does not come cheap: Four massive safety baffles at various ranges on the 223-acre property each cost $100,000. But Pitts hopes the ambitious excavation project will help smooth relations with the community.
"With the exception of shotguns, most of the objectionable noise stuff is going down there," Pitts said, adding that the new area also will have room for an outdoor handgun range and a 500-meter high-powered rifle range. No completion date has been set.
A 100-yard outdoor .22-caliber range; 200-, 300- and 600-yard high-powered rifle ranges; a 200-yard black powder range; and all of the shotgun ranges and indoor ranges will remain on the original club grounds.
The club, formerly known as the Sherwood Rod and Gun Club, has about 2,800 members. Many local police officers and sheriff's deputies also train there, and Pitts said the club wants to make the new training areas available to them as soon as possible.
"What we're looking at is trying to be down there in a couple more years," Pitts said. "Ideally, we would like to have (the officers) down there sooner rather than later, just to keep peace with the neighbors."
Pitts said relations with most neighbors are positive, though with continued rapid population growth, the city is moving closer. "There are some neighbors that I'm sure wish we weren't there."
The club reaches out to the community with an annual open house and barbecue, he said. "We invite all the immediate neighbors every year. We invite everybody that's ever filed a formal complaint with us."
New members of the gun club are required to be National Rifle Association members. But Pitts encourages members to make up their own minds about NRA policies and political views.
"You have to be an NRA member to join the club; you don't have to be an NRA member to stay in the club," he says. "It's based on the proposition that we wouldn't have private ownership of firearms in this country if it wasn't for the National Rifle Association.
"We're saying, if you want to be a member of this club, at least try membership in the NRA and see if that's something you're interested in."
http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosout...ro_southwest_news/1141176382257880.xml&coll=7
Soundproof - The Tri-County Gun Club hopes building in a rock quarry will keep neighbors happy
Thursday, March 09, 2006
MIKE CADE
Oregon's largest shooting range is getting a face-lift that could significantly improve the club's soundproofing -- and community relations.
The Tri-County Gun Club in Sherwood is adding new in-ground shooting ranges that will descend the equivalent of eight stories and occupy 36 acres. The new ranges will be built into a rock quarry that is being excavated.
Club spokesman George Pitts declined to reveal the cost of the project, but he said the club's ability to sell the excavated rock has been vital.
"Right now, the thing pretty much pays for itself," said Pitts, a competitive handgun shooter. "Where we have marketable rock, it goes to market. Where it's crummy dirt, it goes into building up backstops and side berms."
Providing safety and noise control does not come cheap: Four massive safety baffles at various ranges on the 223-acre property each cost $100,000. But Pitts hopes the ambitious excavation project will help smooth relations with the community.
"With the exception of shotguns, most of the objectionable noise stuff is going down there," Pitts said, adding that the new area also will have room for an outdoor handgun range and a 500-meter high-powered rifle range. No completion date has been set.
A 100-yard outdoor .22-caliber range; 200-, 300- and 600-yard high-powered rifle ranges; a 200-yard black powder range; and all of the shotgun ranges and indoor ranges will remain on the original club grounds.
The club, formerly known as the Sherwood Rod and Gun Club, has about 2,800 members. Many local police officers and sheriff's deputies also train there, and Pitts said the club wants to make the new training areas available to them as soon as possible.
"What we're looking at is trying to be down there in a couple more years," Pitts said. "Ideally, we would like to have (the officers) down there sooner rather than later, just to keep peace with the neighbors."
Pitts said relations with most neighbors are positive, though with continued rapid population growth, the city is moving closer. "There are some neighbors that I'm sure wish we weren't there."
The club reaches out to the community with an annual open house and barbecue, he said. "We invite all the immediate neighbors every year. We invite everybody that's ever filed a formal complaint with us."
New members of the gun club are required to be National Rifle Association members. But Pitts encourages members to make up their own minds about NRA policies and political views.
"You have to be an NRA member to join the club; you don't have to be an NRA member to stay in the club," he says. "It's based on the proposition that we wouldn't have private ownership of firearms in this country if it wasn't for the National Rifle Association.
"We're saying, if you want to be a member of this club, at least try membership in the NRA and see if that's something you're interested in."
http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosout...ro_southwest_news/1141176382257880.xml&coll=7
