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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mid-Missouri shooting sports enthusiast and hunters have a newly renovated place to practice their shooting skills. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) welcomes the public to come and view the modifications recently made to Rocky Forks Lakes Conservation Area’s (CA) unstaffed shooting range in Boone County. MDC will hold a dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, at the shooting range, located approximately six miles north of Columbia on Highway 63, and one-half mile east on Peabody Road.  

The Rocky Forks Lake Shooting Range now sports a pistol range with a two-person shooting booth with moveable targets set at 7, 10, and 15 yards. It now also offers two rifle ranges with shooting benches and seats for shooters, with shooting distances of 25, 50, 75 and 100 yards. Additionally, shotgun shooters will no longer need to stand in mud after wet weather thanks to new concrete pads installed on the shotgun field. This will also help improve the shooting experience by making it easier to position portable clay target throwers to throw between two red barber poles in the field.

Safety modifications made to the range consist of re-facing the main backstop to prevent erosion and to reduce the potential for ricochets, and increasing the height of the berm to the recommended 20 feet. Other conveniences now in place include ADA-accessible parking and sidewalks and re-graded grounds to decrease standing water after rain.

“The Conservation Department is happy to provide this new and improved unstaffed range for Mid-Missourians to use,” said MDC Hunter Education and Shooting Range Coordinator Kyle Lairmore. “The improvements made here are the model of what we plan on doing throughout Missouri for future renovations to our existing shooting ranges.”

MDC manages five staffed and 70 unstaffed ranges throughout the state. All unstaffed ranges are safety-inspected at least twice yearly to ensure their maintenance and continued safety. To learn more about the MDC shooting ranges and outdoor education centers, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/node/6209.