Volunteers spruce up rifle range

Volunteers spent most of Sunday cleaning up the The Carson City Rifle and Pistol Range.

"We come out here at least twice a year to clean up the area," said Arlin Detke, a member of the Carson Rifle and Pistol Club and one of the people who helped design the range as it is today. "If we didn't do this it would be a mess."

Detke said the range, at 4000 Flint Dr., has been cleaned in the spring and fall of every year for the past five years.

Usually, he said, crews find old appliances and televisions that people, "drag out here to shoot up."

This year's odd find was a bullet-riddled Sea Doo the volunteers had to haul off.

"Other than that, we didn't find any refrigerators or washing machines this time," he said.

Mary Kay Aufranz another Pistol Club member from South Lake Tahoe, was on hand with her husband all day to help clear away the trash that was either blown in by the winds or left by random shooters.

"They guys that are out here cleaning up aren't the ones that are making the mess," she said.

Aufranz said members of gun clubs are sensitive to picking up their trash because they appreciate the use of the facility.

The Parks and Recreation Department helped with the cleanup by sending over a backhoe and driver and a dump truck and driver.

The range is open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The club does an amazing job with this range," Aufranz said.

Detke said future plans are to put permanent buildings on the land and to have a full time range master at the site.

Two years ago improvement were made on the 40-acre site that added a four-bay pistol range. The bays are separated from each other by roughly 8-foot dirt berms.

Other improvements include drainage improvements and making the area handicap accessible. Berms between shooting areas that were eroding were also reconstructed.

These improvements were part of Phase I of the Rifle and Pistol Range Master Plan. Future improvements will be made as money is available and include elements such as a hunter training safety course. The course would be used to provide a practical environment to teach people what situations they could face when hunting.