Department owned ranges

Ben Avery Shooting Facility - Phoenix
The Arizona Game and Fish Commission has approved plans to build new Game and Fish Department headquarters at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility; within the next two months, the department plans to issue a Request for Proposals to develop a list of qualified contractors that will later be invited to bid to build the facility. The construction and consolidation of department administration facilities on the Ben Avery Shooting Range property will provide additional long-term protection for the range. The headquarters will be the site of statewide shooting range and wildlife management administration, and hunter and angler education activities.

Sierra Vista Shooting Range - Sierra Vista
The department's Plan of Development for the range is being re-submitted to the Bureau of Land Management as an amended plan that shows only existing improvements. Once BLM receives the amended plan, the department will have completed all documentation necessary for the BLM to forward the plan to the state for review and approval of a patent. Meantime, BLM has agreed in the interim to extend our lease for an additional five years pending completion of our patent. 

Three Points Shooting Range - Tucson
The Bureau of Land Management has accepted the DPS lease as written with minor edits; a letter of concurrence from the BLM was received Nov.15.  The agreement has been sent to DPS for signature.

Usery Mountain Shooting Range - Mesa
Department staff members will prepare an Environmental Assessment checklist for a new, as of yet undetermined type, of waste system to be developed at the range. The existing septic system has been shut down and the department is now negotiating a work plan with the Department of Environmental Quality to remediate chemicals discovered in it. The department is keeping the Salado Sportsman's Club apprised of the talks with ADEQ. 

Shooting programs and other activities

Archery in the Schools
Three introductory archery clinics were conducted in the past month: to a 4-H club, a Boy Scouts groups and to a charter school.

Scholastic Clay Target Program
The program opened registration and began activities at Red Mountain Trap and Skeet Club, where 79 students and 12 instructors joined us. All of our shooting clubs have now started, including White Mountain Trap and Skeet with 22 youths and three instructors, Buckeye Hills Shooting Club with 25 youths and seven instructors, Ben Avery with 22 youths and three instructors, Springerville with 15 youths and two instructors, St. Johns with 15 youths and three instructors, and Pusch Ridge Riders Club in Tucson (based at Tucson Trap and Skeet) with 24 youths and two instructors. Our program now has more than 400 young participants!

The second instructor training course for SCTP was conducted Dec. 11 and 12 at Tucson Trap and Skeet Club. Twenty individuals from Tucson, Sierra Vista, Yuma and surrounding areas participated and these new instructors will begin new programs at Tucson Trap and Skeet, Ft. Huachuca, Yuma Trap and Skeet, Double Adobe Trap and Skeet and other areas of southern Arizona.

Shooting Range Grants
The department has received eight requests for shooting range grants totaling $206,400. These requests will be presented to the Commission at the June 2005 meeting.

Shooting range partnerships

Tri-State Shooting Recreation Center
The department acquired an updated mineral rights appraisal that includes two new comparable sales requested by Newmont Realty, but those new comparables were analyzed by our appraiser and determined to be high. However, the process did result in an increase in valuation and we are now waiting to hear from Newmont Reality whether it will accept the new value.

Upcoming events
Two national shooting competitions that celebrate early American firearms will be held at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in February.

The Single Action Shooters Society national championship of cowboy action shooting, Winter Range 2005, will be held Feb. 16-20. Nearly 700 participants decked out in Old West-style clothing will compete, using a combination of pistols, rifles and shotguns of the late 1800s. Spectators are welcome. Admission is free, and parking is $5. For more information, click here.

The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association will hold its 2005 Western National Shoot on Feb. 23-27, with an awards ceremony on Feb. 28. An anticipated 400 participants, some in period dress, will compete using muzzle-loading firearms. Spectators are welcome. Admission is free. For more information, click here.

If you have any questions on items in this briefing, call Education Branch Chief Don Winslow at (602) 789-3229. Questions about the Scholastic Clay Target or Archery in the Schools programs may call Anthony Chavez at (602) 789-3395 or achavez@azgfd.gov.