Bygone Range

The San Diego Police Range was a premier Bullseye range for many decades. The matches were called the Southland Matches. I shot on this range 5-6 days a week (closed Mondays) from 1988 to 1994 unless I was traveling to shoot a match. The backstops, overhead cover and shooting benches are gone. Concrete/Shotcrete retaining walls are now in place, and overgrown with weeds. Used to have a beautiful lawn behind the 25 yd line. Twice a year (Dec and Apr) they held matches that required 3 relays. Separate 50 and 25 yard lines allowed for a fast match. To make it even faster, the club had individual targets and swapped out all targets quickly and they did the scoring. If you had a protest the targets were available. If you set a record you could have your targets. 25 yd line targets had a pit. They changed those targets as well. Fastest matches in the US if not the world. The stat house and clubhouse were built by prisoners in the 1940’s I believe. Clubhouse was used for air pistol matches. I first broke 2650 here. I miss this place……
Jon

50 Yard Line

Star house on left and clubhouse on right

25 Yard Line

It would still be there had it not been destroyed by City incompetence.

I trained there with Ruby and Art in 1995. Fond memories of that trip; what an opportunity for a young man to train 1:1 with Ruby and be coached by Art.

Fun fact: that same trip, I won the California State Air Pistol Championship at Black Mountain in Poway, beating Don Nygord, who was one of the top shooters in the US at the time.

Little did I know that it would be my first of many CA State Championships. I did not see that in my crystal ball at that time.

I remember shooting the State Pistol match there in 1976, with the Mare Island Pistol Team. Great range and I still have the individual medals that I won.

Nicest range, with nicest clubhouse, I ever shot at was at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, FL.

Still have a coffee cup and belt buckle from the mid 80's.
Picture of the 50yd. line.

BE Mike wrote:Nicest range, with nicest clubhouse, I ever shot at was at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, FL.

Were they moving targets?

KB2MBC wrote:

BE Mike wrote:Nicest range, with nicest clubhouse, I ever shot at was at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, FL.

Were they moving targets?

No and also interesting is that they didn't have prisoners hold the targets!

BE Mike wrote:

KB2MBC wrote:

BE Mike wrote:Nicest range, with nicest clubhouse, I ever shot at was at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, FL.

Were they moving targets?

No and also interesting is that they didn't have prisoners hold the targets!

They do in China:

Wobbley wrote:It would still be there had it not been destroyed by City incompetence.

IIRC, the range was closed due to Navy housing being IN the iranges' mpact area.  Yes, the range was built first, but housing was built above the range, behind the primary impact berm.  The danger of ricochets was not an issue until (IIRC) the early 1980s, when range templates were apparently redrawn to include a larger "bat-wing" extension to the ricochet template.  At first, mitigation efforts involved a roof over the impact area, and limits on calibers and velocities.  The "final solution" was closing the range.  Seem to recall there also being some sort of legal dispute between the City of San Diego, and the Department of the Navy over ricochets.

The 1990s were a bad time for ranges, both in and out of SoCal.  The USMC rifle range at Miramar (closed for some calibers, due to part of the impact area for 7.62 NATO being sold back to a local city for a park, only to have them redesignate it for residential use) is one example, and the 1000 yard range at Camp Withycombe in Portland, OR being closed due to ricochets of .300 Winchester Magnum rounds from the range landing in the bases' vehicle maintenance facilities being another.  Trying to remember the name of the indoor range near Poway, CA which closed due to a lack of business - a sad loss, as the place in question specialized in ISSF type shooting.  Note that only ONE of these facilities (Miramar) was affected by "CIty Incompetence."


Hmmm, wonder what the impact area is for golf balls?  

SD PD Range was not upkept very well. The backstop berm overhead cover had gaping holes at the juncture of earthen backstop and timber overhead cover. Bullets could easily get out. So there were complaints. I was told by former range master that lead levels were the final reason for the closure.
Jon

While lead levels were an issue, the city went on a multi-million dollar renovation with metal bullet traps and otherwise a complete re-build.  But they then siphoned off over half the Money for other projects and never completing the renovation.  I understand the property was originally deeded to the city for the police range and now that it is closed, the heirs to the family have tried to reclaim it.  Now it is in some legal limbo and nothing is being done.  

The city government here in San Diego are corrupt and incompetent.

Wobbley wrote:While lead levels were an issue, the city went on a multi-million dollar renovation with metal bullet traps and otherwise a complete re-build.  But they then siphoned off over half the Money for other projects and never completing the renovation.  I understand the property was originally deeded to the city for the police range and now that it is closed, the heirs to the family have tried to reclaim it.  Now it is in some legal limbo and nothing is being done.  

The city government here in San Diego are corrupt and incompetent.

 Aren't they all ? Elected city governing officials : start out making the advertised wage, end of term a millionaire.
Stan

Asa Yam wrote:Trying to remember the name of the indoor range near Poway, CA which closed due to a lack of business - a sad loss, as the place in question specialized in ISSF type shooting. 

I believe you're thinking of Black Mountain.

Black Mountain was located in Poway, California. Charlie Jackson, a former Marine Corps officer had the range built. He started a grassroots program where juniors could come and shoot, and he would provide the Pistols, the ammunition, so that they could train. After a short period of time, the parents were required to sign an agreement. The agreement was at the end of 12 months the parent was supposed to purchase, pistols and equipment and the ammunition for their child to continue shooting. The majority of them after making that agreement would not step up to the plate as they had agreed to and were taking advantage of Charlie. Finally, Charlie was tired of it and he closed the range.  It was probably the nicest indoor range I have ever been in, in the United States. I was coaching juniors a couple nights a week.
Jon

I remember a range I used to shoot at in SoCal located east of I-15 in the San Bernardino area (Fontana?) back in the mid 80's. For the life of me, I cannot remember what it was called, however - it was in the middle of town in a city park on the south side of the main drag, and I think it was a police range, where BE matches were held once/month. Anyone remember that one?
Is Desert Marksmen still around in the Palmdale area? Used to be member there for a long time shooting both BE Pistol and High Power. 600 yard Rifle range had manned target pits and they closed down the main range to hold 1000 yd matches couple of times a year.

Tony,
San Bernardino Police Range. It used to hold monthly BE matches. The city never really supported it/us. Range masters had to volunteer their own time to run the match. The range was very dilapidated and run down. Range had pits for both 25 and 50 yards. The concrete retaining walls were severely out of plumb and truly in need of condemning, but we looked the other way because we wanted to shoot. The range had gotten a new range master (Sergeant) and he didn't like civilians and he banned us from shooting on "his" range in the name of insurance. We offered to get our own club insurance and he would never change his mind. We had a group of shooters who visited him religiously at his office and tried everything to keep our matches going, but he wouldn't budge. The City filed for bankruptcy and things just got worse. Last time I looked the range was overgrown with weeds. Pretty horrible mess. The range masters used to weed eat the property. I believe matches were held there from the 1950's to about 2013. Had a concrete Ransom Rest pillar as well. Was a good match, we'd get shooters from all over the west who'd shoot it.
Jon

BE Mike wrote:Nicest range, with nicest clubhouse, I ever shot at was at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, FL.

Ole Raiford, Thats where ole Sparky is at

Jon, 
That was it! Thinking back I do remember some of the noise you describe in the background. Thank you for filling in the blanks, that was a year or two ago…

Makes me think of the old Nashville Match Masters range at the NGMTU and the ANG base at the Airport in Nashville.  The Tennessee Trophy  Match was shot there every spring leading up to All Army, Inter Service, and Camp Perry.  Like shooting indoors!  Good memories...  NGMTU moved to Camp Robinson Arkansas, Match Masters moved to Columbia TN.

Thanks for sharing this, Jon-I have a lot of happy memories from the SDPD range. I've mainly been a USPSA shooter but got interested in bullseye at the matches Fred Hoyle used to run there. I actually did the Saturday portion which included the International style events; I shot Standard, Center fire, and Rapid Fire. I was really disappointed when they stopped the matches there-I seem to recall Black Mountain went away about the same time. The Clubhouse and Score Shack were WPA projects from the Depression era; I wonder if they qualify for some kind of historic status. Sad to see it all go.

Fred Hoyle was Police Chiefs right hand man/bodyguard. His wife Annie ran the matches. The PD Shotgun Team scored and changed the targets and made money to support their shotgun habit. They used to shoot/compete at Miramar range.
Jon

I knew Fred was involved with the PD, but not the details of his work there. He and his wife were very nice and gracious people. I actually shot quite a few matches at the PD range after the bullseye matches stopped; some PD personnel ran what was basically an "outlaw" USPSA style match there for quite a few years; no radical "race guns" allowed, and there were some holster restrictions too. Great fun; we got to use a black and white for a prop a few times.

What irks me no end is that for about the same money as they squandered, the city could have bought and renovated this building into a complex of ranges for PD and civilian use.  It has been vacant for several years since Fry’s Electronics went under.  I quick survey and dimension exam from aerial photos indicate there’d be enough room for multiple 25 yard 10-15 target ranges and a 50 yard plus 100 yard indoor range.  They could have even had a local. Comercial
 range operator run the retail” and public use side.  The PD gets a top level training facility, other smaller PDs get to use it, and the public get another range.

I remember a range alibi on the 25 yard line due to a squirrel popping its head up.