I try to keep a good list of places to shoot for my students. In Northern Utah it’s pretty much Impact Guns at either their Ogden or Salt Lake City locations, Rangemasters in Springville (Utah County), or finding a SAFE area away from other shooters west of Utah Lake – which is becoming more and more difficult.
In Southern Utah (St. George area), there aren’t any indoor ranges. I’d really love to see that resolved, but I have customarily recommended heading out South and West on Navajo Road (west of Bloomington) and going down by the Arizona Strip. It’s nice to be able to go out whenever you want.
This last weekend I was down there and wanted to verify the zero on an XPS 3-0 on a PS90. I had moved the position of the optic which meant I needed to get it zeroed back in. We were in the Hurricane, UT area, and decided to check out the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park. I found their website and it turned out that they were open on Friday morning.
The Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park (SUSSP) is located by Quail Creek Reservoir, at the Fairgrounds off of Highway 9. Just turn right at the Driver’s License office and keep going straight past the fairgrounds. There are signs to direct you.
There are actually several venues there – including the rifle and pistol range, a sporting clay shooting range, a cowboy action range, a tactical range, and an archery range. Each one seems to operate on an independent schedule, and on this trip we visited the rifle and pistol range.
It’s a controlled range with at least one RSO.
When we got there, we got signed in quickly and got a lane.
For those of you from the SLC area – this is NOTHING like the controlled range at the Lee Kay Center.
They had shooters on the line firing everything from a black powder rifle, Ruger 10/22’s and defensive caliber pistols to AR-15’s and my PS90. Everyone is welcome and they were very nice people.
For those of you not familiar with the Lee Kay Center, it’s an outdoor controlled range just west of Salt Lake City. It’s primary focus is Hunter Safety Education. The people that work there have a (deserved) reputation for being very unfriendly to people shooting non-hunting arms and pistols. It has been often reported that they make derogatory comments about anyone shooting anything they consider to be non-hunting related such as AR-15’s, AK-47’s, FAL’s, etc.
Even though they have a pistol range at Lee Kay, they do not permit firing more than one round every couple of seconds. I interviewed some of their folks a few years back, and they openly stated that…
“There is no legitimate reason for anyone other than the police or military to practice “double taps” or any other rapid firing.”.
I hope none of them are ever in a defensive shooting situation. If they practice what they preach, they may not survive the encounter. I haven’t been there since that interview, but I hear from folks all the time that say it hasn’t changed.
Enough about those people. Let’s get back to the GREAT experience at the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park.
There are plenty of lanes, and they are equipped from 100 to 200 yards. They have target stands, sandbags, and well marked ranges out to 25 yards, with longer distances marked as well and longer-range target stands available. When they call for – and have established – a “cold range”, you are free to position your target stand wherever you need to.
Once everyone is off the range and they go hot, you are free to load and fire. They use the NRA standards for range safety, and did a good job of it.
I positioned myself at the bench and used that to steady myself as I sighted it in. I dialed it in over about 15 shots, and then went to town. I made a few minor adjustments and had it right on the 1 MOA dot at about 20 yards. I fired a few rapid sequences alternating between two 8″ Shoot-N-C targets and had no issues with the RSO.
During the next cold range, I placed two more 8″ targets out there, and at the start of the next hot range period I fired off some slow shots into the 1 3/8″ Shoot-N-C dots I placed around the 8″ targets. I was able to hit each with 1 shot.
I then fired 50 as fast as I could into the top target. All 50 were inside that 8″ circle. I consider that very effective for the intended purpose of the PS90. The RSO was looking on, and when I was done he was smiling and said “It looks like you have it dialed in just right”. I had to agree.
If you are looking for a place to practice your shooting skills in the Hurricane, UT area, I recommend that you check out the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park. It’s a fantastic facility run by some great, professional people. They are open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 08:00 to 12:00. They are also open on Wednesday from 17:00 to 20:00. Their hours change seasonally, so check out their website at http://sussp.net/public/index.html