Getting the lead out: Oklahoma Wildlife Department is renovating gun ranges and building more

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has renovated six of the agency's shooting ranges on its wildlife management areas across the state and plans to build new ranges on 11 others.

All of the shooting ranges on Wildlife Department properties will include a 100-yard rifle range and a pistol range, and others also will have a trap range, archery range with elevated platforms and an additional 200-yard rifle range.

About half of the new ranges also will include trap shooting and about one-third should also have archery ranges, said Lance Meek, who has been in charge of the project for the Wildlife Department.

Improving the shooting ranges began in earnest seven years ago, Meek said. Renovations to existing ranges already have been completed on the Lexington, Cherokee, Beaver, Pushmataha, Okmulgee and James Collins WMAs.

Beaver, Pushmataha and Okmulgee also have trap shooting ranges, Meek said. 

Other renovation projects are scheduled at the existing shooting ranges on the Hickory Creek, Optima, Fort Supply, Fort Gibson and Canton WMAs, he said.

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Later this year, the Wildlife Department will begin building a new shooting range at Packsaddle with plans for the same in the future at the Waurika, Copan, Sandy Sanders, Hulah, Heyburn, Hugo, Kaw and Robbers Cave WMAs.

The Wildlife Department also is in the early stages of planning an archery range at its Arcadia Conservation Education Area in Edmond. 

"Including what's already been done and what is on the books, we are projected to spend just over $7 million on new and renovated gun ranges," Meek said. "This could change if we add more new ranges or construction prices go up."

Gun owners pay the freight 

Where is the money coming from? Most of it is coming from the taxes that hunters and shooters pay through wildlife restoration funds that the federal government doles out to state wildlife agencies.

Under the Pittman-Robertson Act, the federal government imposes an excise tax on manufacturers of guns, ammo, hunting gear, etc. That money is distributed to state wildlife agencies based on the state's size and the number of licensed hunters.

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Of the $7 million that will be spent on building and renovating the shooting ranges, at least 75 percent will be from the Pittman-Robertson dollars and the rest from the Wildlife Department's general fund, Meek said. 

Most of the money in the Wildlife Department's general fund is derived from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.

"With the unprecedented ammo and firearm sales lately, we are looking to provide opportunities for those new and reactivated shooters and hunters," Meek said.

Getting the lead out

Before the renovations began, all of the shooting ranges at the WMAs were outdated and some had become littered with trash, he said.

"These ranges were basically created before anyone that works here (Wildlife Department) remembers," Meek said. "They have all been there for more than 30 years. They were just a pushed up berm. A guy got a dozer and pushed a berm up and they would build a little shooting bench."

Now, all the WMAs will have shooting ranges with covered benches that will allow for more shooters at the same time, Meek said. 

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State wildlife officials also cleaned up sites where people would bring such things as old appliances and bottles to use as targets, he said.

Only paper and clay targets are now allowed on the ranges. Ear and eye protection also is required. The Wildlife Department also brought the shooting ranges into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

"We removed a lot of lead (from the berms)," Meek said. "They had years of lead in them. We widened the berms and did a lot of safety things."

Before the improvements, some of the shooting ranges had a county road alongside it with no side berm to block a stray bullet, he said. 

All of the shooting ranges on the WMAs are free to use for anyone who possesses a valid Oklahoma hunting license.

Some of the shooting ranges, like at Lexington and Okmulgee, stay busy all year, Meek said. And all get busy as the hunting seasons near, he said.  

"Come a couple of weeks before deer gun season, I think every one (of the ranges) will be covered up with people sighting in (rifles)," Meek said.

Looking for partners

The Wildlife Department also has been able to use federal wildlife restoration funds to help build the new shooting sports complex at Oklahoma Panhandle State University and to upgrade equipment at Silverleaf Shotgun Sports in Guthrie.

The school in Goodwell hosted the first collegiate shooting sports competition at its new complex last November.

Even though Silverleaf is privately owned, because it is open to the public, the sporting clays range is eligible for Pittman-Robertson grant money, Meek said.

Panhandle State and Silverleaf provided the matching funds required in those cases, he said. 

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"We are looking for places to spend that money," Meek said. "When we have partners like this, it lets us provide shooting opportunities for the public, but we don't have to come up with the (hunting) license dollars. 

"We have a budget and a schedule and can only do so much, but if there are open-to-the-public ranges out there that want to hit us up for money, they are very welcome to do it."

Meek said the agency has allotted all of the grant money available this year, but will be looking for partners next year. 

Reporter Ed Godfrey looks for stories that impact your life. Be it news, outdoors, sports — you name it, he wants to report it. Have a story idea? Contact him at egodfrey@oklahoman.com or on Twitter @EdGodfrey. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.