Longer Range shooting in western washington?

Member 36360 · Feb 18, 2015

curious if anyone has some good spots to get out to 500-1000+ yards in western Washington? otherwise if your willing to share some spots on the east side that's fine too. coordinates would be sweet. just finishing up my 6.5 creedmoor build and really want to stretch its legs!

usagi · Feb 19, 2015

http://binged.it/1Le15Jf

usagi · Feb 19, 2015

Wenas is a well known public shooting spot. You could do easily 1km there. You will need a pass as it is within WDFW managed area.

Check wdfw site for bans on shooting due to fire hazards, it happens regularly. Also check the weather, the access road to the parking area is poorly maintained and can get muddy and rutted. 4wd / SUV ground clearance recommended.

This is probably your best bet.

usagi · Feb 19, 2015

Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area

Basically, the wildlife area behind the windfarms east of ellensburg.

VERY WINDY! I scouted a lot and never got away from the wind. It is possible there are non windy areas deep inside the wildlife area (it is huge), but that would be lots of driving.

Roads are rugged, 4wd required. Lots of the back roads are only suited to small offroad vehicles. Driving large 4wd vehicles can be a nail biting experience.

Attached picture. You can see a tiny white dot on the ridge, that is a steel target at about 200 yards.

Member 36360 · Feb 19, 2015

Awesome thanks alot. I need to get out there.

perkantino · Feb 22, 2015

If only the Portland guys could be this helpful!

Morpheus · Feb 23, 2015

perkantino said:
If only the Portland guys could be this helpful!

It seems that due to geography Portland has fewer long range areas. Though, once you get out east of Portland, there are more and more open areas. Just have to figure out which ones are public land, vs private land.

Member 36360 · Feb 23, 2015

My uncle lives in Gresham he usually goes to some spot in burns. I've never actually been able to go with him yet tho

Morpheus · Feb 23, 2015

Oh, and in the Portland area there is Douglas Ridge Range. Though, their 1000 yard range is only open on Thursdays, it still is a 1000 yard range.

Morpheus · Feb 23, 2015

Well, that is a straight up public range. There just isn't something like that around Portland. Most of the places are, as mentioned, private property. Letting someone on your personal range can be a liability nightmare.

clash · Feb 23, 2015

Morpheus said:
Oh, and in the Portland area there is Douglas Ridge Range. Though, their 1000 yard range is only open on Thursdays, it still is a 1000 yard range.

Thursday is a work day.

I actually had a 1100 yard flat place. Perfect! Saturday though, I drive up to the gate, old gate. Now there is a No ATV, No Camping, and also NO shooting sign!

Just built a new rig, and this! A couple of people here have 900 yd spots, as evidenced by other threads. PMed them, but no one is sharing. Here at least within a few posts, someone gave a GPS marker. Like the other poster, I just wish the Oregon people were that helpful too!

ocarolan · Feb 23, 2015

For public lands, how do you prevent people from entering the downrange area?

The downrange zone at 1100 yards is fairly wide, if you assume (say) 8 MOA for flyers. Seems like a backpacker or rock-collecting kid could wander in without being immediately visible.

Morpheus · Feb 23, 2015

ocarolan said:
For public lands, how do you prevent people from entering the downrange area?

The downrange zone at 1100 yards is fairly wide, if you assume (say) 8 MOA for flyers. Seems like a backpacker or rock-collecting kid could wander in without being immediately visible.

Normally I have a group of 3 to 4, 2 spotters at all times looking for people. I also use areas where I can see the whole lay of the land. Which does limit things even more.

pdrake · Feb 23, 2015

JStuck, the shooting range in Benton City http://www.tcsa.info has steel targets set up out to 450 yards, if I remember correctly. It is windy there, too (Eastern Washington, after all). However, this is a real shooting facility, with no worries about people downrange. I know it is a long way to drive, but this is an excellent place to shoot.

clash · Feb 24, 2015

ocarolan said:
For public lands, how do you prevent people from entering the downrange area?

The downrange zone at 1100 yards is fairly wide, if you assume (say) 8 MOA for flyers. Seems like a backpacker or rock-collecting kid could wander in without being immediately visible.

8 MOA is 8 inches. I don't think even drunk I can miss by 8 inches at 100 yards. If you get 8 MOA flyers, you or your gun have no business at 1100 yards. you are just waiting ammo and time! But even with an 8 MOA flyer, you are 88 inches high at 1100 yards. The drop at 1150 from 1100 is almost 100 inches. So even with an 8 MOA flyer, which is crazy, that round wouldn't fly 50 yards beyond your target.

Nonetheless, my 1100 yard spot had two shooting positions. One was slightly elevated from the impact area(picture the opening scene of shooter, but the elevated position wasn't that drastic, I am sure you get the picture), so the round is going into the group even with a 20 MOA flyer. In between was an open area with dead tree stumps. You could put targets there for intermediate distance shots, but walking through the area was a pain. The second position had a hill/small mountain right behind it, so the only way someone could take a round is if they came tumbling down.

Regardless, again at 1100, that round is dropping like crazy, so even on flat ground, the round wouldn't have enough adjustment on the scope to stay airborne. the drop between 1100 and 1150 is almost 100 inches, which is 8 feet. So even on flat ground as long as you can see 50 yards past your target it would be hard for someone to catch that round.

What's more the shooting positions were 100 yards from the gate. So you d just be a few yards from your car! and the gate was just 500 yards from the main paved road, so no driving through the woods for hours to get there, which was the biggest appeal to me! Somehow they had to put a sign there!

clash · Feb 24, 2015

pdrake said:
JStuck, the shooting range in Benton City http://www.tcsa.info has steel targets set up out to 450 yards, if I remember correctly. It is windy there, too (Eastern Washington, after all). However, this is a real shooting facility, with no worries about people downrange. I know it is a long way to drive, but this is an excellent place to shoot.

450 would be boring. The gun produces no more than 6 inches groups at 500 even with sloppy form behind it. With good form, not more than 3 inch groups.
In fact I was able to group 6 inches at 400 with the AR (M4 configuration) with a 4X scope. So 450 just won't do for a precision bolt gun, unless there are sudden 20 mile per hour wind gusts, it would be 100% hits, and after the 20th hit, it d get boring. Anything below 10 miles per hour which this area usually gets would result in a hit even if you were wrong by half, so 450 doesn't help in improving wind calls or exposing marksmanship bad form. Also after you ve shot in natural settings with ridges and terrain features which trick you, the flat ranges with all the rules, access time, competition (can't access the range) become hard to deal with. I also get to go down range when I want, and setup steel along the way so I can shoot combos, like 200, 550 700 and 1100 in a row. Whichever order I want! At the range u would get yelled at, and would have to wait for others to go reconfigure your steel, that is if steel is even allowed!

usagi · Feb 27, 2015

pdrake said:
JStuck, the shooting range in Benton City http://www.tcsa.info has steel targets set up out to 450 yards, if I remember correctly. It is windy there, too (Eastern Washington, after all). However, this is a real shooting facility, with no worries about people downrange. I know it is a long way to drive, but this is an excellent place to shoot.

tri cities, aka rattlesnake. i have heard this described as the most challenging range to shoot at ever, even for professional shooters. the wind is obnoxious and actually blows from multiple directions at the same time, at different points downrange.

if you are willing to go as far as tri cities, why not try chelan. http://chelangunclub.com/

pdrake · Feb 27, 2015

clash said:
450 would be boring. The gun produces no more than 6 inches groups at 500 even with sloppy form behind it. With good form, not more than 3 inch groups.
In fact I was able to group 6 inches at 400 with the AR (M4 configuration) with a 4X scope. So 450 just won't do for a precision bolt gun, unless there are sudden 20 mile per hour wind gusts, it would be 100% hits, and after the 20th hit, it d get boring. Anything below 10 miles per hour which this area usually gets would result in a hit even if you were wrong by half, so 450 doesn't help in improving wind calls or exposing marksmanship bad form. Also after you ve shot in natural settings with ridges and terrain features which trick you, the flat ranges with all the rules, access time, competition (can't access the range) become hard to deal with. I also get to go down range when I want, and setup steel along the way so I can shoot combos, like 200, 550 700 and 1100 in a row. Whichever order I want! At the range u would get yelled at, and would have to wait for others to go reconfigure your steel, that is if steel is even allowed!

Clash, you are correct: If you want to reconfigure your own targets, then the Rattlesnake Mountain range would not be for you. As Usagi says, this is a very challenging range. The 450 yard steel is uphill, and is not an easy climb. I have never seen anybody out on that range during shooting hours.

But don't think this is a "boring" range! The wind is something else. You can shoot at the 150, 250, 450 (I don't remember all of the targets) at the same time from the same position. Not at all easy when the wind is coming up the Gorge at 50mph+, sand blowing everywhere. The closest you will get to the Sandbox on a public range. And did I mention it is cheap? Last time I checked it was $10/person for non-members.

The best thing is the range is on public land. TCSA is a private group, but the land is owned by the county and WDFW, and backs up into the NWR. All public.