Yellowstone public shooting range to close for maintenance
FITCHBURG, Wis. - The Yellowstone public shooting range will be closed for maintenance and repairs startingJune 9 for approximately four weeks allowing crews to reshape the bullet backstops for improved capture of bullets.
"We've been pleased at the level of use at the Yellowstone range," said Bruce Folley, wildlife biologist and property manager for the range. "Visitor use at the range has been constant since the remodel was completed and the range opened for shooting in September 2013.
"We've been watching Yellowstone closely for wear and tear and evaluating the design features we put into it. One of the design choices made at the time included a stepped backstop design with the portion of the backstop directly behind the target line being slightly closer to the shooting line than the rest of the backstop. After observing this design we've decided to add an extra measure of safety to the range by regrading the backstops into a single continuous slope, from bottom to top, to more efficiently capture the bullets."
Another improvement crews will make is anchoring the target stands so they can't be moved closer to the firing line. This modification is intended to ensure that any bullet striking the ground short of the target will still hit the backstop rather than possibly deflect over the backstop.
Yellowstone has worked out great," said Keith Warnke, shooting sports coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources, "but we are not going to just sit back when it comes to this kind of facility. We will continuously monitor it to identify any potential improvements we can make or incorporate into other ranges we're involved with. We've learned a lot about range design and construction at Yellowstone and we will be using that knowledge and new technology that comes along as we design and build additional new ranges around the state."
Shooters can stay up-to-date on the Yellowstone work including reopening dates and find other shooting opportunities by searching for "shooting ranges" on the department's website at dnr.wi.gov .