Massive New Shooting Complex in South Dakota Hits Setback

If you like shooting sports, there is a bill in this year's South Dakota legislative session you ought to be following.

The enormous South Dakota Shooting Sports Complex north of Rapid City that has been proposed by the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department has hit a snag in the legislature. House Bill 1049 would allocate $2.5 million in GFP budget for the $10 to $12 million dollar project. The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee said no to the bill as it is by a vote of 8 to 5 and deferred it to the 41st day of the session.

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According to KBHB radio, several neighboring landowners and ranchers are opposed to the project and so did the South Dakota Stockgrowers. Several legislators said that they like the project but that the proposal is incomplete and other factors have to be figured out.

As for the range itself, it would be one of the largest public shooting sports facilities in the nation, the kind of range that would be worth making a weekend trip to the Black Hills to enjoy.

Sitting on 400 acres seven miles north of I-90 on Elk Vale Road, it would feature shotgun sporting clays course and trap, 13 different rifle ranges in lengths from 50 yards all the way to 1,200 yards. Another 17 action shooting bays for practical shooting sports and law enforcement training, and also air rifle and archery ranges. The complex would also include a hunter education building and plaza.

A source close to the project told me that even if the legislature does not vote to approve funding, the project will happen anyway.

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