News Banner (St Tammany News) write up on Honey Island Shooting Range

[Bearco]

From Sunday's St Tammany News

(if you have not been there, the rifle range is 100 yards, not 1000 as shown in the article.)

Right on target
Honey Island Swamp Shooting Range offers a little bit of everything
By Erik Sanzenbach
St. Tammany News
Published on Monday, June 8, 2009 12:35 PM CDT

“This is our little hunk of heaven,” said Don Hackford, president and one of the range masters at the Honey Island Shooting Range located in the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area just east of the town of Pearl River.

Underneath the towering pine trees, in the back part of the PRWMA, hunters, gun enthusiasts, and sport shooters practice their marksmanship three days a week at one of the parish’s best kept secrets.

The range, Hackford said has been around since the fifties. However, once the area was set aside by the state as a wildlife refuge, it was closed down in 1993. Hackford and others put together a group called Southeast Louisiana Firearms Safety Inc. and negotiated with the state to reopen the range. Now they have a lease, and for the past 16 years, the range has been teaching gun safety, and helping people improve their marksmanship skills.
Buck Vinson takes aim with his rifle at a target 100 yards away during marksmanship practice. “Our main purpose is to keep shooters safe,” Hackford said. “We have a perfect safety record, no one has ever been shot even though millions of rounds have been fired here.”

The state and the National Rifle Association certify all the instructors and range masters, Hackford said.

Two man-made hills are set at perpendicular angles to each other with shooting stations in front of each hill. There is a shooting range for rifles with targets set as far back as 1,000 yards. The other range is what Hackford calls “the pistol line,” though he said people can fire whatever gun they want on that range. Mostly handguns are used for the targets that are set up closer. There is also a skeet range where shotgun enthusiasts can practice shooting clay pigeons.

Even though the range is not highly publicized, Hackford said there are days, like during hunting season when there are lines of people waiting for a chance to shoot at targets. He said attendance is increasing with 13,000 shooters coming to the range in 2008.

“We get the entire gamut of people out here,” Hackford said. “Entire families come out here.” He added that a special area for .22 caliber rifles is very popular with families.

Because of the lease requirements, the Honey Island Shooting Range is open three days a week. On Fridays, the range is open from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The price to shoot is inexpensive.

For anybody over the age of 16, the price is $6 to shoot all day. Hackford said that price also means someone can leave to go buy more ammunition and come back without paying another $6.

“It’s a cheap thrill,” Hackford said with a smile.

The range is run by Southeast Louisiana Firearms Safety Inc., which is a non-profit. Hackford said the range gets no money from the state, and all the improvements are paid for with the admission price and from the pockets of the SLFSI members.

He said sport shooting is a good way to have fun and relax. The people at the range are personable and friendly. He said it is very common for people to allow others to shoot their rifles.

Range masters are specially trained to make sure that all safety rules are followed on the range. The range masters walk around with bright orange vests and a megaphone, ordering when people can fire, or to stop all shooting so people can walk out and get their targets.

“We stress safety here,” Hackford said. “Those that don’t follow the rules don’t come back.”

One thing the range does not allow are shooters using photographs, cartoons or any other graphic depiction as targets. They can only use standard shooting targets.

Hackford said running the range is fun, and he said sport shooting is great way to relieve stress and have fun.

“Everyone comes away from the range smiling,” Hackford said.

For more information and instructions on how to get to the range, either call, 643-3938, or go to the Honey Island Shooting Range Web site at www.honeyisland.org.

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[whbonney26]

Pretty good write up with that one yardage exception.