Update on the Buckeye Hills Range

[Excoach]

Hi folks,

This is my first post.  My name is Dan Bauer and I am the President of the Buckeye Sportsman Club.  We ran the range at Buckeye Hills for the county for four years.  After the county tore it down to make room for the MCSO range, they built the new public facility next to it.  Unfortunately they took no input from the public.  The old range had burms out to 500 yards and steel out to 600.  The new range has two bays.  The "Training Range" is 50 yards and can accomdate 40 shooters on the line.  The "Rifle Range" is 200 yards and can also accomodate 40 shooters on the line.  The construction was completed at the end of January.  The proposal we submitted back in November was rejected.  The county has just sat on the thing until June when they reissued the RFP.  They had been hoping the Town of Buckeye would open it but they don't have the budget for it.  We are submitting another proposal but even if it is approved, the earliest the county would let us open it would be November.  The county is looking for someone to come in and sink a lot of money into building the rest of the place.  Two clay bird throwers, an archery range, and a hunter education walk.  Their biggest problem with us (BSC) is that we didn't have the big bucks to give them.  I will keep you posted as events occur.  I have wanted to do an appleseed here for awhile now.

Dan "Excoach" Bauer      

[funfaler]

Hey Excoach,

Thanks for the update, and for coming on to the Appleseed forum.

Buckeye sure seems like an ideal location for an Appleseed, with the potential for 6-8 a year, with several Instructor courses.  Do keep us informed.  Appleseed Shoots can be a good source of new members and positive exposure for any club/range.

Good luck, we have been watching the Buckeye range developments for over a year now.

[Excoach]

Thanks FF.  The county today rescinded the RFP and said that they would not accept a proposal to operate the range.  I am guessing (hoping) that means that they have found someone to operate it.  We shall see.  We talked about appleseed tonight at our club meeting and I showed off my newly assembled LTR.  The few members that were there were interested and two are going to build LTRs.  Here is a link to some pictures of the ranges and building that were taken when we had the meeting with the county to discuss the RFP.  

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrumpyInArizona/BuckeyeHillsShootingRange

The saga continues..............

Excoach

[Excoach]

Hello again, 

I am going to resurrect this thread with some good news!  The range at Buckeye Hills will have it's grand opening on January 16th and will be open every weekend thereafter.  It is being managed by the Buckeye Sportsman's Club.   The facility is now named the General Joe Foss Shooting Complex (They haven't changed the sign yet).  The 200 yard range is the John C. Butler range.  I am looking forward to getting a shoot together but please be patient.  We have been and are still up to our eyeballs getting this place ready to be open to the public.  That being said, I believe that a certain date in April is very doable. 

Thanks, Excoach   

[MOGromit]

Hello Excoach,

Thanks for the update, this is great news!

Since the last update to the thread we've gotten a green hat and a red hat in the valley, and we're working on getting the range in Payson set up for April 19th as well.  Potential ranges in southern AZ (near Huachuca City) and in the north-eastern section (Show Low and surroundings) are being scouted out as well.

AZG

[Rumpshot]

I shot on the Buckeye Hills Shooting Range yesterday morning.  Their first day in operation in over two years!  Beautiful range.

Met Dan Bauer and several other members of the Buckeye Sportsman's Club.  They are enthused about the new range and many of them would like to see an Appleseed at the new range.

My experience was less than stellar based upon a poor reaction by me to a blown primer/failure to eject on my AR.  I cycled the bolt and dropped the hammer on the empty and promptly jammed the rifle.  The bolt was locked by the misfed brass.  I ended up removing a disabled rifle from the range and taking it home, where a judicious application of a butt stroke cycled the bolt open and ejected the brass.  No damage done to anything but my pride.

A side note.  I was shooting (trying to use up and put operating cylces on the rifle) some Norinco ammo that I had on hand for well over 10 years.  This ammo has been an issue for me in the past, blowing primers on at least two different rifles.  I was trying also to put operating cycles on the rifle.  The takedown pin is a very tight drive-in, drive-out fit and is "working" in to a better fit with use.

I plan to attend the Buckeye Sportsman Club meeting this Thursday evening and discuss the Appleseed application process and help them select a date.  I spoke with AZRedhawk44 and he expressed an interest to attend also.

[funfaler]

Very Exciting!  Good to see that facility back up and running.

Keep in mind that we can't do too many shoots there.  One a month, twice a month, all good to us.  By the time we get to the end of the year, we can easily have 2-3 Instructor courses there, a solid staff of Instructors to help out and you "grizzled vets" of the Appleseed program can just point and shoot the new folks to do the heavy lifting. 

I also know that some NM and even NV folks are willing to help where needed.  So, don't let your all's schedule limitations restrict the number of shoots we do there. 

Appleseed is a great way for them to gain Free advertising and promotions of their new facility.  We will be pushing the shoots hard with local boots on the ground, forums posts, news letters, SGN, not to mention that the SWAT magazine folks are in that part of the country, we might ever be able to get them featured along with Appleseed, for an article or such.

Thanks for the report, good to hear from you!

[MOGromit]

Hi RS,

Let me know here or by PM what time and where the meeting is on Thursday.  Depending on the work load and timing (and traffic) I'll try to get over.

AZGromit