Wenas Wildlife Area-target shooting

[Rick W.]

Hi Everyone,

I Googled and found an old thread dated from 2009 to 20012 concerning the problems that you have had in the past with WSDFW closing rifle ranges on the west state of Washington State. Now we are having the same problem on the east side of the state from Selah(Yakima Area) to Ellensburg in the Wenas Wildlife Area. They want to do away with some of our ranges completely, then the ones left over they want to reduce them down to a shooting distance of no more than 100 yards. I was wondering if you folks on the west side was able to come to any kind of a solution to your problems that you have had with them over there. So far, we have brought our NRA Representative for our area into the situation and we have gathered petition signatures, but I'm not real sure if this is going to do any good, unless we go to the Supreme Court level.

[kilimanjaro]

State lands in Washington enjoy no public use or access rights, it's literally up to the discretion of the agency managing the lands. Start haranguing your legislators as well as the court approach.

[Rick W.]

Thanks. We already got a hold of some state representatives. I was also talking to a gun rights lawyer today who said that he would love to handle this case! In the meantime, I gave them something to do when I started this by telling them that their wildlife area isn't handicapped accessible, our hero, disabled veterans coming home from the war don't have access to this area and the ADA needs to be contacted! Aren't I ornery! They have been busy fixing roads! I also think what WSDFW has done with this so far is to just create a cluster bomb by threatening to close down the rifle ranges and shorten the other ones! They dropped the bomb and it has broke out into other clusters and in other areas. In the last 2 months, as far as I know, there has been 2 more new rifle ranges started up for the simple fact that WSDFW has been refusing to make contact with the general public or to deal with this in appropriate ways. Then, when I was out there today getting petition signatures and collecting brass, a wildlife worker who was working on the roads told me that there was another new rifle range so that makes 3 new ones now. I still went down there anyway and collected up some reloading brass to help them out with the mess that was made. I picked up about 80% of the brass out there. I didn't have any use for the rest. They want to close down 2 rifle ranges and make the other 2 a maximum distance to shoot at 100 yards. Apparently, they think this distance will still qualify them for federal funding to get their Pittman/Robertson Act Funding. Maybe the west coast might want to access this information to see about getting some more free rifle ranges opened back up. Providing shooting ranges is something that they are required to do to get federal funding. I told the wildlife worker that we would probably be satisfied with just one rifle range if they keep it at 1200+ yards long, but then, that would also be contingent upon what it is that the people want! They are saying that they want to close these ranges because people are making messes out there and not cleaning up after themselves, but I also pointed out to them the massive numbers of people who have been buying guns for the last 10 years. If someone is new to guns, then what makes them think that they know how to behave at a rifle range? I also told them if they keep the main rifle range, then all they have to do is show up and if someone is shooting at something that they shouldn't be, then write them a ticket. But, it isn't going to do any good if they chase these people out into the whole wildlife area and this was exactly what has happened! This was a month ago, so I guess I might just have ESP!

[rickyrick]

I haven't been able to make it to any rifle ranges in WASHINGTON state. I'm not even sure where they are.
I do hear a range on the western side of Vancouver, but haven't been able to figure out where it is located exactly, maybe it's a private range?? But I can hear it from town.

What I do is I go out to the GP national forest and find a safe place to shoot, then I clean up my mess and take it with me.

I would love to know where a decent real range was in SW Washington

[kilimanjaro]

The fact that some folks are making a mess at the DNR range is a laughable excuse for closing them down. All a closure does is disperse the subset of the public that creates the problem to any one of thousands of acres of state lands, rather than the few acres at the DNR range.

They have ample employees, vehicles, and time available to make a reasonable effort to oversee events at the ranges. They will not have the resources to oversee the problem when it is dispersed across the region.

[rickyrick]

Yes, in my trips to the forests, I see but numerous areas that shooters have trashed... Me and my spouse have picked up as much as our vehicle could hold. The problem would spread out into other parts if no ranges were available.

[Rick W.]

I told the game warden the same thing. I told him that if he left people alone to shoot here at the main range, then all he has to do is to show up at this range and if someone is out there shooting up a TV(ect.), then write him a ticket. I told him that they also need to get over their fear and start running background checks on people out there and run serial numbers on the guns that some people are shooting out there and that would help the situation out there too, but he don't want to hear anything from me! I think they are too scared to come around though and communicate in a friendly way with the general public to get to know who is who. Or maybe they are just too busy stuffing their faces at the donut shops to bother coming around. But, they have absolutely no relationships with the general public! Now, they have people getting mad because they have just heard the rumor that they are threatening to do what they want to do with our ranges and we have had new rifle ranges opening up all over the place, just like I told that game warden would happen. I hope they are ready to have the whole 105,000 acres of the Wenas Wildlife Area completely trashed up! I'm thinking that pretty soon, there might be all kinds of various aspects of vindictive behavior going on like crazy too! I think I'm just going to continue to clean my messes up at the rifle ranges(that they already have established)and keep my head and my butt down in the fox hole so I don't get shot in either place! But, by the same token, I am LOOKING at some topographical maps of the area too!

We also have the option to drive 20 miles one way to a membership range, but I don't really like them too much. It reminds me too much of being back in the Army. I already did my time there and don't want to re-enlist! We also have the option of going to the Nation Forest too, but that is also another 20 mile drive, one way, in the other direction. Then, I don't really see the sense of driving that far when I just have a few test rounds to fire with new reloads!