The Ben Avery Shooting Facility is a public outdoor shooting range located in northern Phoenix, Arizona. At 1650 acres (668 hectares) it is the largest public operated shooting facility in the United States. [1] It is operated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) and is identified as one of the Phoenix Points of Pride. [2] The facility is named for Ben Avery, a local outdoors activist.
The Ben Avery Shooting Facility began as an effort on the parts of Ben Avery, Glenn C. Taylor and Jim Beaman, prominent outdoors activists in Arizona in the 1950s, to provide a public shooting facility in the interest of safety. In a letter to the Maricopa County government, Avery summed up the trio's concerns that the desert around the city had become a "battleground" with recreational shooters and it was a concern for public safety. [3] Upon selection of the current site, Avery helped finance the initial construction with a $5,000 personal loan and $3,000 in local contributions. Construction began in late 1959, and the facility was completed and operations transferred to Maricopa County in 1960.
In 1961, Mr. Avery appointed the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association, (State Arm of the NRA since 1909) to help run the financial aspects of the range. This partnership ended in 2009 although the ASRPA still is active in supporting the range, competition, and the State Game and Fish Department in its efforts to grow competition, firearm safety, and hunter education. ASRPA Education and Training Division.
Originally named the Black Canyon Shooting Range, the facility underwent further expansions with the cooperation of the AZGFD. With the assistance of the National Rifle Association the facility was selected as the 1970 host of the ISSF World Shooting Championships, bringing worldwide recognition to the region as well as the facility. Preparations for the competition required further development and expansion of the facilities, which saw additional involvement and support from the AZGFD. Phoenix became only the second US city to host the international competition, and was the third and thus far last time it has been hosted in the US.
In 1992 the facility was renamed to the Ben Avery Range. In 1995, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors decided that it would not renew its obligation to operate the facility. AZGFD took over operation of the range and in 1996 it was given its current name, the Ben Avery Shooting Facility.
From its beginnings as primarily a rifle range, the range has expanded to include a number of facilities catering to various outdoors activities. These facilities include:
The range also hosts a number of gun safety education courses run by the NRA, ASRPA, and hunter safety education courses run by the AZGFD. A number of other specialty courses as well as competitive events are held at the range during the year. [4]
The Clay Target Center is a specialty facility located within the overall Ben Avery complex, catering to clay target shooting. Originally constructed as a part of the Black Canyon Shooting Range in 1964, the facilities were leased by a private company in 1996 and heavily remodeled. [5] In 2006 operations of the facility were turned over to the AZGFD and underwent another round of renovations, expected to be completed by spring 2007. [6]
The center hosts the all traditional clay target shooting games, including skeet and trap shooting as well as newer games including sporting clays. A number of competitions are held in the facility, and special youth shooter programs are available.
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged firearms, mainly referring to man-portable guns and bows/crossbows.
Plinking refers to informal target shooting done for pleasure, typically at non-standard targets such as road signs, tin cans, logs, bottles, or any other homemade or naturally occurring target.
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting using projectile weapons to shoot at high-value targets at longer-than-usual ranges.
Arizona State Prison Complex – Phoenix is one of 13 prison facilities operated by the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). ASPC-Phoenix is located in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes a minimum security unit near Globe, the Arizona Correctional Facility for Woman (ACW), and ASPC-Aspen.
Camp Perry is a National Guard training facility located on the shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio near Port Clinton. In addition to its regular mission as a military training base, Camp Perry also boasts the second largest outdoor rifle range in the world after the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, NM. The firing is done in the direction of the open water of the lake, that lies just beyond an earthen berm and the targets.
A shooting range, firing range or gun range is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military or law enforcement agencies, though the majority of ranges are privately owned by civilians and sporting clubs and cater mostly to recreational shooters. Each facility is typically overseen by one or more supervisory personnel, variously called a range master or "Range Safety Officer" (RSO) in the United States, or a range conducting officer (RCO) in the United Kingdom. Supervisory personnel are responsible for ensuring that all weapon safety rules and relevant government regulations are followed at all times.
Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at steel targets representing game animals at varying distances, seeking to knock the metal target over. Metallic silhouette is shot with large bore rifles fired freehand without support out to 500 meters, and with large bore handguns from the prone position with only body support out to 200 meters. Competitions are also held with airguns and black-powder firearms. A related genre is shot with bow and arrow, the metal targets being replaced with cardboard or foam. The targets used are rams, turkeys, pigs, and chickens, which are cut to different scales and set at certain distances from the shooter depending on the specific discipline.
There are shooting ranges in the United States open to the public, both indoor and outdoor. Either privately owned firearms or those rented from the shooting range may be used, depending on the range rules set by the owner. Some ranges rent their own handguns and provide instruction in use of rental guns at shooting ranges by a range master or similar individual to help one to easily learn use of any rental firearm in just a few minutes. Major tourist destinations in gun-friendly U.S. States have such "rental ranges" to cater to the domestic and international tourists that want to try their hand at the shooting sports. Each shooting range facility in the United States is typically overseen by one or more range masters to ensure gun safety rules are always stringently followed.
The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), also known as Maricopa Community Colleges, is a community college district in Arizona with its headquarters in Tempe. It is one of the largest, serving more than 220,000 students each year in Maricopa County, Arizona. The district serves Maricopa County, the county that includes and surrounds Phoenix and is the most populous of the state's counties. The district's administrative headquarters are located in Tempe, Arizona.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department is a state agency of Arizona, headquartered in Phoenix. The agency is tasked with conserving, enhancing, and restoring Arizona's diverse wildlife resources and habitats through aggressive protection and management programs. It also provides wildlife resources and watercraft and off-highway vehicle recreation. The department's mission is: "To conserve Arizona’s diverse wildlife resources and manage for safe, compatible outdoor recreation opportunities for current and future generations."
North/Northwest Phoenix is a region in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. While the area with this name has no official separate status, it usually refers to the Urban Villages of Paradise Valley, North Mountain, Deer Valley, Desert View, and North Gateway.
The Scottsdale Gun Club (SGC) is an indoor shooting range located in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
Shooting sports in Canada are practised in various ways across the country. Canadians enjoy the sports at recreational and competitive levels, including international and at the Olympic level. Each province has its own organizations that govern the various disciplines. Many of the disciplines are connected nationally and some are part of larger international organizations.
Billy Gene Hicks was an American moving target shooter who distinguished himself in competitions around the world and the United States from 1955 to 1981. He was considered to be one of the foremost moving target shooters in the world.
Hezekiah Leonard Clark Jr. is an American citizen and a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army who served during the Korean War and Vietnam War eras. He is a champion marksman, and as of 2014, one of only thirty-four triple-distinguished shooters: Distinguished Rifleman, Distinguished Pistol Shot, and Distinguished International Shooter.
Cowboy action shooting is a competitive shooting sport that originated in Southern California in the early 1980s, at the Coto de Caza Shooting Range in Orange County, California. Cowboy action shooting is now practiced in many places with several sanctioning organizations including the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), Western Action Shootists Association (WASA), and National Congress of Old West Shooters (NCOWS), Single Action Shooting Australia (SASA), Western 3-Gun as well as others in the U.S. and other countries.
Shooting targets are objects in various forms and shapes that are used for pistol, rifle, shotgun and other shooting sports, as well as in darts, target archery, crossbow shooting and other non-firearm related sports. The center is often called the bullseye. Targets can for instance be made of paper, "self healing" rubber or steel. There are also electronic targets that electronically can provide the shooter with precise feedback of the shot placement.
Sgt. Sherri Jo Gallagher is an American soldier who holds 22 United States national rifle records. In 2010, she was named the U.S. Army Soldier of the Year.
The National Shooting Centre located near the village of Bisley in Surrey from which it takes its colloquial name "Bisley ranges" it is wholly owned by the National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom (NRA). The NSC is the trading name of the facility.
The NRA Whittington Center in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Colfax County, New Mexico, is one of the largest and most comprehensive shooting facilities in the United States. Ten percent of the 33,300-acre (13,500 ha) site has been developed to include twenty-three shooting ranges, an administration building, a cafeteria, a museum, a library, classrooms, and full-service hookups for 175 recreational vehicles. The remainder of the site provides wildlife habitat at elevations above 6,300 feet (1,900 m) with primitive campgrounds and remote back-country cabins for hunting, bird watching, wildlife viewing, photography, hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding.
