Shooting in Cheyenne?? (Laramie, Gillette, Pine Bluffs: sales, how much, home)

[BettyWY]

Hi All,
Relatively new to Cheyenne: Can you help?
Where do locals go for plinking or target shooting in the area?
Thanks!

[Brian_M]

Cheyenne Rifle and Pistol Club Home Page

start there...

[sunsprit]

Or head up to the Veedauwoo area off Happy Jack Road and find yourself a comfortable spot where it's safe and away from unexpected folks inadvertently dropping into your "plinking" area.

Or find a landowner close by with a good backstop and a willingness to let you come by and do some shooting in a safe place on their property.

Please remember to pick up your brass and targets, and you'll be doing your part to keep shooting sports happy, welcome, and safe in Cheyenne.

You may also wish to join the proposed gun club facility at Archer. This is in the formative stages, and I think you can still join as a charter member. We're still a few years away from a facility being developed, but it is planned to be a premier all around shooting sports location.

[BettyWY]

Thanks for replying.

Brian_M: Any idea how long a person would be on the waiting list?

sunsprit: It's ok to shoot on the state-owned land out there? I thought that it was a park, and there was no shooting at parks. And... Is there anyplace I can go to get some info about the proposed gun club facility you talk about?

[Brian_M]

Sorry, I don't know anything about that club. I only knew about it as I was the webmaster for the Wyoming State Shooting Assoc. for awhile. Unfortunately, they and I were unable to see eye to eye and I walked away so it looks like they don't have any form of current web page anymore.

But, if you can pull a contact email/phone number from the site and start trying to get a real person, you'll have the most direct route to information available. Someone already in that area and involved with shooting will be able to help you FAR more than anyone here on City Data. Past that, I'd suggest going to one of the gun shops in Cheyenne and asking around, they're the traditional people to hit up with information on shooting and know enough to get you pointed in the right direction.

[sunsprit]

Contrary to the assertion above that "anyone here on City Data" (thank you, Brian M) doesn't know what's going on in Cheyenne, here's the story: (and yes, I'm a Cheyenne area resident, local shooter, and very experienced in using the Veedauwoo area for recreation)

1) The Laramie County Park side of the Veedauwoo area accessed off of Happy Jack Road is indeed open to multiple uses, which include day picnics, trail riding with your horses (vehicles must stay on the marked "roads"), hiking, and target shooting/plinking. Because the area has unrestricted access, it is important that you choose your "plinking" site carefully so that you have a good backstop and aren't in a traffic/trail area where somebody might inadvertently walk into your line of fire. It's legal to carry in the area, it's legal to "plink", it's legal to set up your target on a frame or backstop, and it's even legal to bring in your own clay target launcher and practice with your shotgun.

I can assure you that many such good plinking locations exist in this county park area, as it's a combination of trails, woods, meadows, open space prairie, rock formations, and other sites where folks have set up picnic sites with campfire rings. Since it's also used for hunting in season, it's not a good idea to head up there with a firearm for plinking during hunting season as you might be interfering with the hunters ....

Now, there is a Federal Park side to the Veedauwoo area, which is accessed from the Veedawoo Road exit off of I-80. This is a Federal park, and has very nice (and very infrequently used) rustic campsites that offer a great deal of privacy to an RV'er or a tent camper. The sites are accessible by most cars and pick-up trucks. One of the nicest places I've ever camped. However, it's under Federal regulations and "plinking" is not allowed (although we see the telltale signs of folks that have done so ... piles of brass scattered on the ground); from a practical standpoint, once you hike over into the hills, it's unlikely you'll find anybody else sharing the area with you on a given day. It's still a very nice place to camp out and bring your horse for trail riding, or to hike.

I'd add that the "county" side has no day use fees, while the "federal" side has the standard federal campground day use fees (or annual permit required).

On other fronts, Cheyenne is in the midst of crafting a new County Offices and Facilities complex at the I-80 and Archer exit (east of town) on property recently purchased from the UWYO with an added penny sales tax revenue stream. This property is platted to have a new "shooting park" as part of the development, and a new Corporation, "Cheyenne Public Shooting Park Corporation", has been formed to develop the facilities. In fact, they're holding this years ANNUAL Membership Meeting at the Windflower Room at the Laramie County Library in Cheyenne this SATURDAY FEB 7th from 1 to 3 PM.

The proposed facilities that the Corporation will build include outdoor pistol, rifle (long range as well as 50ft), and shotgun ranges, and indoor pistol and rifle ranges. Along with a "clubhouse" and other associated facilities. I joined as a charter member last year, and I believe that you can still do so until a facility is built, which may be some years off. The delay is due to the funding and development of the infrastructure by the County at the property. However, since we can get by with some minimal site work to prepare an outdoor shooting range, that may happen as soon as access roads are cut in and the platting is approved. These are topics to be discussed at the annual meeting.

Contact for The CPSPC is Tom Armstrong, 9549 Aspen Pointe Lane, Cheyenne, 635-3825.

[mich1tex]

check out the cheyenne regulators site
Shooting Range (http://www.cheyenneregulators.org/shooting_range1.htm - broken link)
this is a nice range,

[sunsprit]

Just back from the Cheyenne Shooting Park meeting, where the proposed facilites at the new County "Archer" Complex were presented, along with the bugets/funding now in place.

The proposed facilities include outdoor 600, 300, 200, and 100 yard long ranges, with shorter outdoor smallbore rifle ranges, and outdoor pistol ranges. They will build a shotgun park area with 12 stations, and an archery range. Also, a pond area for dog training. Indoors will be meeting rooms, offices, bathrooms, an airgun range, and two indoor ranges ... one for smallbore/shorter range pistol use, and a longer one for higher power firearms. Also, shops, conference faciities, a kitchen/catering area, and other related rooms. To give you an idea of how many shooting stations there are, the outdoor long distance ranges have over 36 stations.

The key to this is the change over from a private corporation to a publicly funded facility, which means that the "charter memberships" will no longer be valid. All users will have equal treatment for day use or annual fees.

The 6th penny sales tax revenue stream has assigned almost $3mil to this facility, and anticipates at the current rate of collection a 3 year time frame before facilities will break ground. At this time, they're seeking input as to how to prioritize the buildings/structures. The NRA has donated $29,000 for berms for the outdoor ranges, and there's been additional monies from public sources and donations given to the group. The group is reorganizing as a "laramie county shooting educational facility" to manage the proposed development and operations.

I understand that the public funds used for building the place will not have to be repaid, but the operating budget will have to come out of the user fees. At this point, the planners have designed a facility which they think will have to meet the shooting sports needs of an area population of 300,000+ people over the next 50 years.

Personally, I think they've greatly overestimated the population base and the users, given that there's a lot of places to shoot now which serve the community, including the Cheyenne Gun Club, the Regulators, an AFB gun club, and Pine Bluffs Gun Club, among others. I put this in the perspective that we charter members totaled only 301 paying memberships out of the area population. I think the facilities are great, but way too much facility for the area and demand ... if required to be operating "in the black", the fees will have to be split among too small a group to make it justifiable. For example, the indoor gun ranges require two hermetically sealed ranges operating HVAC units to keep them at a negative pressure so they can capture the lead fumes into air filtration units. Yes, that's TWO sizable units to keep maintained and powered up. Just keeping the lights on for the common spaces and bathrooms will be a sizable monthly bill.

So, on the one hand, I think it's all a grand plan and a spectacular facility. On the other hand, I think it's set up to fail by folks with incredibly optomistic schemes at the public trough. We'll see.

[Brian_M]

Sounds impressive, but I agree with you on the size.... with a big unless. Unless the range can attract large tournaments for different shooting sports through the year. Think Camp Perry at one point, 3x Air (big air rifle/pistol), and I'm sure the shotgunners have one big yearly event too. Those events would not necessarily need to compete with the large, well established ones, but find a way to Compliment those events and you can have a draw.

It'd still be a stretch. I know first hand (work for the library system, we're wraping up a $5.9mil project right now) how much can change between the initial plan and the day the contract is signed. Here's to hoping that the project is scaled back (just because you Have the money, doesn't mean you have to spend it all in construction)... we managed to hold back a little over $1mil for "operation and upkeep" costs.

sunspirit, sorry you took offense to my comment that the best source of information is a local who's involved.

[WyoNewk]

Sounds over the top to me, Sunsprit, but I'm naturally a bit of a skeptic.

Do I understand you correctly, that they're making it this size for a population in the year 2059? If so, that makes little sense. Most public buildings built today won't be around in 50 years, or if they are they'll have had remodeling done that cost almost as much as replacement.

I've been in Gillette for 37 years, and I've seen buildings built, remodeled, and replaced in that time frame. I remember proudly pointing out Gillette's big, new recreation center to visitors. I voted for it, watched it being built, used it, my kids used it, and my grandkids used it. It's now being replaced. The architects say it would cost more to fix it than to start new.

Now if they can use the Shooting Park like Brian suggests, to attract regional or national competitions so that the city benefits from increased trade, that could make it a great investment. I never got into competitive shooting and have no idea what's involved or how many visitors something like that would attract, but I know Gillette's Camplex Park has a monumental effect on visitor dollars for the town. Obviously a gun range wouldn't attract the amount of visitors to Cheyenne that Camplex attracts to Gillette, but the investment doesn't compare either.

That's the only way it makes sense to me. And good point, Brian.