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If you’re a shooting enthusiast, you might want to visit Hillsdale State Park this fall.
A major shooting range is now under construction there. Barring weather delays, it’s expected
to have its grand opening in September. The facility, set below Hillsdale Reservoir
Dam near Paola, covers about 40 acres and is complete with paved and curbed parking
and automated technology. It includes a variety of baffled ranges to suit most firearm needs.
Virgil Corbin, Park Ranger at Hillsdale, tells how matching funds made it possible to construct
the new complex: “The total project, we’re looking at close
to a million dollars. And fortunately, most of it is going to come from the Feds with
the matching grant from Pittman-Roberts money. “It will have a 100-yard rifle range, a
50-yard pistol, then the trap-skeet area, a 200-yard range, and then a shotgun skills
area back behind that where you come and sit on the ground and shoot your shotgun at a
turkey pattern. It’s all up to NRA specifications.” This range, in the planning and funding stages
since 2008, got a tremendous boost when matching grant monies from the Pittman-Robertson Act
suddenly came available during the process. The allocated $200,000 cash was utilized in
a 25-75 split to provide a total project of more than $800,000. With more matching funds
ahead, the fully developed range will cost about 1.5 million. It’s proximity to a large
urban population should make it a highly popular state park facility.
The range, located on state park property, will have regularly scheduled open hours to
include a rangemaster and safety officers at each station. The trap and skeet area will
have automated throwers. The facility will be day use only, and will require a park permit
for use. Daily use fee is $10, with inexpensive family annual memberships available.
When finished, this range should be the best public shooting facility in Kansas – another
way that Kansas Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism is working to keep you connected with our
great outdoors heritage. I’m Mike Blair for KDWPT.