La Grande Rifle & Pistol club experiences range rule violations. Pistol bays needlessly damaged by shotguns
By Logan Bagett on Wednesday, April 9th, 2025 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – Common courtesy, and a bit of trigger discipline, shouldn’t be too much to ask of guests at a volunteer-run gun club, but the actions of a few individuals say otherwise. The La Grande Rifle and Pistol club has recently been experiencing issues of range users needlessly damaging or outright destroying targets by carelessly using incorrect firearms. This culminated in three of the range’s pistol bays being hit by shotguns on April 3. In a recent update to members, club president Karl Baum wrote:
“It is not every day I see blatant disregard for range rules. Three of our pistol bays (Bays 4-10) had a shotgun taken to them. The bays are posted with signs “Handguns Cartridges Only”, and shotgun hulls are all over the ground.
As President I get a lot of complaints about the orientation only being good for two years. This is why we require continued orientation.
Also, within the last month I have had an individual use 6.5 Creedmoor on the rimfire trail walk, ruining several of our targets. Another example of why we require continued orientation.
We have pulled the plate rack on numerous occasions because of rifle cartridges being used to destroy the hinges and targets. Another example of why we require continued orientation.
Approximately four years ago we raised the rate at the range to cover the costs associated with the orientation, website, merchant account, maintenance of our electronic database and the sort. We have usually had a surplus at the end of the year that we put back into the administrative back office to ease the burden on our all-volunteer members.
April 26th, we have the swap meet and a range cleanup day, all of this is being coordinated by volunteers. We have had steel to be placed on the 300-yard range time permitting we get time to it after cleaning up the mess from the destruction by a select few.”
Baum later clarified with Elkhorn Media Group that, while the club occasionally experiences some issues of destroyed targets or garbage being left out, such blatant damage as what was found on April 3 hasn’t been reported for around 4-5 years. Even then, someone deliberately moving down the pistol bays with a shotgun is a first for the club.
In addition to overzealous and incorrect firearm usage, the club has also been experiencing some issues with members abusing the guest policy. There is also some discussion about installing a surveillance system at the range, but this up brings complications of volunteers having to take even more time to monitor it. As the update continues:
“Another hot area I have been experiencing is violation of the “Piggyback Rule.” This rule is directed at non-family members who continue to use the range as a “guest.” If you are using the range for free as a guest more than twice a year, do use a favor, become a member. Your $75 fee goes to pay for brackets, mowing, and gravel. If you, as a member, regularly bring “your guest”, STOP. They need to become a member to pay for our infrastructure. You as a member are doing financial damage to your own range.
The Board of Trustees tasked me with the Orientation and liability protection of your range. I have personally invested 100s of hours into administratively protecting our 2nd amendment rights and your free use of this complex without supervision of an RSO at a cost as affordable as possible. We are in discussions of investing up to $10,000 into a surveillance system to monitor the bays and hot areas at the range.
Do we have the money? Yes. However, with an all-volunteer organization it means our time is now used on something that does not directly benefit your shooting experience.”
For anyone interested, the La Grande Rifle & Pistol Club’s range rules can be viewed at https://lgrpc.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=24ffb7fa8165f586c30a30c32&id=590d9686ee&e=83695ed093
