Shooters plead for space after Red Mountain Trap and Skeet club closes

SALT RIVER - Shotgun shooting enthusiasts have their lost their range.

Salt River tribal leaders closed the Red Mountain Trap and Skeet club last month, saying they want the 58-acre site along the Beeline Highway for other uses.

"We understand the inconveniences the closure will cause to trap and skeet enthusiasts, but it was in the best economic interest of the community to close the facilities," said Martin Harvier, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community vice president.

Tribal officials would not say how they intend to use the land, which is close to the community's landfill.

Salt River tribal leaders also closed a 5-acre storage yard for recreational vehicles last month near McDowell Road and the Beeline Highway.

The two tribal businesses employed 15 workers.

Shooters lose choices

The decision to close the range leaves thousands of shooters with few options for enjoying their sport. Trap and skeet shooters fire at launched clay targets, which tests their reflexes and shooting accuracy.

Red Mountain, previously Beeline Trap and Skeet, had operated along an unpopulated stretch of the Beeline Highway east of Scottsdale since the 1960s.

It is still remote, but the Salt River community's land values have soared over the past few decades as Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Mesa have grown up around the undeveloped tribal lands.

Now with the trap and skeet range closed, shooters will have to trek more than 30 miles north to the Ben Avery Clay Target Center near Lake Pleasant.

A secondary option is the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club, north of Mesa, which offers clay-target shooting.

Many in hunt for range

"This is a real sad thing," Richard Jordan, 67, of Mesa said of the closure. "Shooting ranges are under fire all over the country."

Jordan has been shooting at the Red Mountain and Beeline ranges for more than 20 years, using a Winchester Model 21 shotgun that dates back to the early 1950s.

On a recent afternoon, he was cashing in $155 worth of red shooting tokens just outside the closed gate of the gun club.

Tribal officials are refunding money to shooters who have tokens, shooting cards or gift certificates.

Jay Cook, Arizona Game and Fish Department education branch chief, said Red Mountain was a popular range for more than 200 girls and boys, ages 9 to 17, who competed on three club teams.

The youth shooting program "gets kids engaged and gets them outside and away from playing video games," Cook said.

Arizona Game and Fish is searching for other trap and skeet locations but it is difficult to find at least 40 acres near the Valley where a noisy range can operate, he said.

"We don't have anything firm at this point," Cook said.

Red Mountain has operated at its site south of the Beeline Highway since 1994 when the tribe bought the club and spent more than $500,000 to build a new shooting range and 123-space recreational-vehicle park.

The original Red Mountain clubhouse on the north side of the highway burned down in 1993. The club relocated because the landfill was encroaching upon the shooting range.