FOP Range Inc.

Range Upgrades

We have made major changes to the range.  The pictures below illustrate some of the projects we have recently completed.  

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Main Range upgrade

We laid out and poured a concrete pad with a curb at the front for catching brass in front of the pistol shooting area.  After it dried, a new overhead structure was built with 12 shooting positions.  Each is 5 feet wide, replacing the 30 inch wide ones we have had since 2002.  Downrange, I dug out the right side of the range; giving us material to build a berm at 25 yards and letting me move the 50 yard berm right about 10 yards.  Each of the tables are coated with a bedliner material.  Then over 150 tons of gravel went down to give shooters a good clean surface to walk on.  No more muddy feet here.  

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Rifle Range upgrade

The rifle range was too narrow so I cut each side out giving us another 10 yards of width.  The old Rifle range pad, tables and covered area were demolished and removed.  We poured a new pad and a one piece benchrest table the width of the pad.  It has 10 36" wide shooting positions, each separated by screen to keep your brass with you and off your neighbor.  A new overhead structure was built using trusses I build that give us a clear  span 40 foot wide, no poles in the way.  Its nice.  I added more steel plates for your shooting pleasure.  

 

Rimfire Range upgrade.

One of the things I have always wanted here was a dedicated rimfire range.  A place where you could enjoy a 22 without the big guns around.  In a perfect world, it would have nothing but reactive targets like the ones we saw at the fair or carnival as kids... so I built one.  Poured a big concrete pad, build a structure over it that gives us 10 5 foot wide shooting positions, added plate racks with remote resets and a pile of more steel designed for rimfire use.  213 plates now populate this range.  

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Steel Plate Range upgrade.

By fall of 2016, the range was at capacity.  On any given nice weekend afternoon, the place was packed.  Members would show up and not have a place to shoot until someone left.  It was clear to me that we were not using the square footage we have as efficiently as we could.  I took two steel plate ranges and tore out the berm dividing them.  Added over 100 tons of gravel and poured concrete 150 feet wide by 16 feet deep.  This sucker is huge.  When the concrete dried we built a roof over it and 20 7.5 foot wide shooting positions.  Where just a few shooters had been shooting, we could now fit 20 groups of shooters, all shooting at reactive targets, set up at 10, 15 and 20 yards, requiring no one to go downrange.  It was perfect and a whole lot of fun to shoot on.  We now have 162 plates on this range.

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Lower pistol ranges

The lower pistol ranges got rebuilt.  New overhead structures and gravel surfaces.  I made these two ranges paper only as we have all the steel now located in one big range.  You can shoot paper from 0 to 15 yards on these ranges, draw from a holster and move and shoot. 

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Classroom.

Needed a quiet place with AC and heat for teaching classes.  I found a used Birmingham school system classroom on craigslist and drug it here.  I ran power and water, added steps, porches, and a covered area.  This classroom serves its purpose and is used several times a month by law enforcement, private security trainers, church security groups or private instructors. It is available for use by any certified instructor wanting a place to hold classes.  It is also available for private events.

The pics below show our progress...