Slated for completion sometime in September

Slated for completion sometime in September

Renovation is ongoing at the Tranquility Wildlife Area Shooting Range and according to the construction site manager, their work should be complete in September. Although some landscaping and dozer work is still needed, the backstops and shooting areas are complete. Construction on the shooting benches and overhead shelter is complete on the shotgun-handgun range and is nearing completion on the 100-yard rifle range. Concrete sidewalks are staked out and being poured. Weather has put construction at the range behind, but it is progressing.

From the old backstop the dirt and lead fragments (bullets) have been removed and mixed with an environmental mix that locks in and seals the lead from bleaching into the surrounding ground. The dirt and mix containing the lead fragments are at the bottom of the earthen side safety mounds. All the drainage issues have been addressed which necessitated raising the level of the entire range a couple of feet with fill dirt.

The sheltered shooting benches are similar to the kind of shooting benches at ODNR’s top of the line Spring Valley shooting range. The shelter roof extends out quite a bit beyond the bench to stop any shots from being fired at an upward angle above the backstop.

Land purchases for the Tranquility Wildlife Area begin in 1956 and now comprise over 4,250 acres of public land. The gun range was originally constructed by the Ohio National Guard in the early 1960’s. Big improvements came to the range in 2002 when new shooting benches were built, draining issues addressed, new fencing, and the backstop improved at an estimated cost of $35,000. The range reopened in October of 2002, and later as a scout’s project, a roof was added over the shooting benches. Fourteen years after those initial improvements the old range began showing its age and due to safety concerns, erosion at the backstop and lack of maintenance, it was closed in 2016. There were questions if it would ever open again.

However, the range received a new lease on life when in 2019 the State Controlling Board approved $575,000 for improvements to the Tranquility gun range. Total cost for the complete renovation at Tranquility will tip the scales at roughly $2.3 million with 75 percent of the funding cming in the form of a grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife.

In 2020 Tranquility range underwent site assessment and a geotechnical survey. Plans called for the range will be updated with proper grading, drainage, a reconstructed backstop, new shooting lanes and benches to safely accommodate increasing numbers of shooters.

According to Eric Postell, at the time, Program Administrator for the Division of Wildlife, lead removal and reworking the road/parking lot were large part of the plans. The range has been redesigned to accommodate as many shooters as safely possible, basically a totally new gun range at Tranquility once construction is completed this fall.

Tranquility is a Class B gun range and a $24 shooting range permit is required to shoot at all of Ohio’s Class A (supervised); Class B (unsupervised); and Class C (unsupervised clay target shotgun range) gun ranges. ODNR has 25 archery ranges throughout the state, 13 shotgun/clay target ranges, and 9 rifle/pistol ranges including Tranquility.

The range is located on Township Rd. T-96D (Wildlife Rd.), Seaman (Scott Township). For more information contact ODNR’s Wildlife District 5 at (937) 372-9261.

Location: 25 Rice Drive West Union, Ohio 45693 E-Mail: info@peoplesdefender.com Call: 937-544-2391 Fax: 937-544-2298