Where to shoot 1000 yards near Edmonton?

dan belisle said:
I heard different from one of the execs about a week ago. I guess we'll see in the spring. - dan
Click to expand...

I hope it works out. CHAS has taken money for 2011 memberships :)mad:), and if the membership was actually 1300 as reported last year, they need to get it together and make this an opportunity to [re]build it to a quality Long range shooting facility. No one can deny that they couldn't see this coming. I hope CHAS has a plan and finally makes the upgrades it needs. With the growing popularity in LR shooting and competition, it's gotta be worth the investment IMO.
 
CHAS bought out Leduc F&G last year from what I was told. I have heard they were a major thorne in side of getting upgrades (read: spend $$) previously, which is a big reason why they were bought out. I guess we will see if it was all for nothing.
 
you should check out Nose Hill range it is between CZAR and CONSORT AB prettyist range in Alberta ranges out to 1300 to 1500 yards. not sure who to get in touch with . quite a ways from edmonton but well worth the trip.
 
It is nice to see all this response to the need for a central Alberta LR range. To be honest, the range always suited my purpose and the community is stellar, it would just be nice if it was run a little more professionally. ie: range clean up days posted, range closure days posted, range updates posted, and other pertinent info should be easier to find. I want to attend the meeting next week but I have to fly to Montana for a management meeting. The only reason I am looking to find someplace else, is because so far, i am not confident that anything will get done. I am waiting to renew my membership until after I find out if the facility will be open. I dont use the pistol range so the LR is all I need. I think Genesse has the potential to be a GREAT facility if the organizers could communicate clearly and get things done in a timely fashion. I dont mind volunteering time and if cost was the issue, why not approach local business for support in some of the repairs. I have already approached Jayco Welding in Nisku about getting armour plate for the gongs, but there seems to be a shortage. The key is planning and implementation, whatever needs to be done should already have a plan in motion if it is to be open for this season. I was out shooting in March last year and would like to be out again this year. If the range will truly be up and going again for April I am pumped, even if the 800m is not up. Shooting less than 300m is for load development and old guys whos eyes dont work!! Thanks for all the support on this thread, maybe with our voices heard something will come out of it. If any board members see this, please know that many of the serious LR shooters will be more than happy to help and support the range in any way we can. We just need the leaders to lead.
 
Well said Schecter. The boards need to run this club PROFESSIONALLY. They need to be more active, come out to the range more than just a couple of times a year. There are more serious and dedicated long range shooters belong to this club then they think. I'm also holding out renewing my membership to see what exactly going to happen.
 
I know its not near Edmonton, but I thought I heard that there is a range opening up near Rockey Mountain House thats around a 1000 yards. Any body know if there is any truth to this?
 
The text is the same size as all other text on that area of the page. Please don't mislead people by referring to it at "fine print".

What is happening at the Genesee range is no secret. The same thing is happening to the Spruce Grove range. If it hasn't happened to your range yet, just wait for your range certification renewal inspection. It'll be a real treat.
 
We have never received any offer to provide a quote for the required work, although I do often hear (second hand of course) about someone's, buddy, neighbor, friend, coworker, cousin, brother, etc, who has supposedly approached the CHAS Board in some unsubstantiated manner to offer said services to CHAS.

Sorry you're dissatisfied with the gun show. I'd love to attend the one you organize & run each year. I'm sure I could get some valuable pointers from the experience. Maybe CHAS could hire you under contract to organize & run our annual gunshow for us in a manner more to you liking?

Thank you for your support & good will toward the club.
 
We'll rebuild as soon as possible. Money is part of it, but a small part. We tried to top up the backstops Feb/March last year & all had slumped below standard when the fill thawed in the spring. A total waste of time & money. We'll wait & do it properly in the spring. We have no intention of letting any part of the range remain closed any longer than absolutely necessary. If you know any interested contractors, or qualified engineers, their input would be welcome. We are planning to put out tenders in the next month or so.
 
How about getting new members there memberships? My friend paid for one at millarm back in the summer and still does not have it. He and I have tried calling and keep getting sent to some guy Jeff who never answers his phone.. And even tells you in his answering machine message that he does not answer his phone. He won't return calls either. I really hope this guy is you.

If your going to be closed for range clean up days than post it in the email u send out at least as well. Some of us live far and that is a huge pain and waste of gas.

I like ur talk but after the last 2 years mostly I'll half to see it to believe it.
 
CHAS was hamstrung by Leduc Fish & Game for many years. LF&G would not permit ANY improvement on the range as long as they were partners in ownership. It cost a huge portion of cash on hand (it took CHAS 5 years to accumulate it) to buy LF&G out. There were fences that needed to be rebuilt, backstops to top up, signage to replace, etc, etc, etc. 2009/2010 was an extremely expenditure intensive year. Now CHAS has to rebuild to the new Canada wide range standards ( read that as: Canadian Military Range Standard) CHAS purchased land far from anyone else in the 1980s. It was chosen for its remoteness & topography. Down in the river valley, in a loop in the North Sask. River. Surrounded on 2 sides by tall clay 'cliffs' (70ft - 90 ft high).

The new rules do not allow for any of this to be taken into consideration. The range is judged on the standard template, just as though it was perfectly flat, wide open, bald faced prairie. According to the powers that be, the clay cliffs don't make the range safe or guarantee that all fired projectiles will be adequately contained on the range, they have no bearing upon the template.

The river, which was once a benefit, is now a detriment, because "someone could be boating or fishing along the river on the other side of that 70 ft hill & a bullet could 'accidentally leave the range property' & endanger their safety."

Please don't blame the CHAS Board. We didn't create the new rules. The RCMP did. We just have to figure out how to work within their new rules & attempt to keep to reopen the closed areas in as timely a manner as possible.

We are now caught in the predicament of spending our money to reopen existing parts of the range rather than to expand & open new planned areas.

Needless to say, as unhappy as some members (non-members) are with this turn of events, the CHAS Board members are far less happy. I personally am furious.

All constructive & realistic suggestions are always welcome.

Two words are constantly used by the RCMP to justify the new range requirements: "Public Safety".

'nuf said?
 
I assume that the name Chaspres represents you being the president of CHAS? I think all we want to know is what is the plan? How can we help? And when can we expect to be able to use our facility again?

The print is pretty fine and to be honest, I would have expected it under the news section. As the president you have to notice and listen to the members who are having a hard time getting information and answers. If it was all properly posted, alot of this posting may not happen.

Can we get a definitive answer on when the long range will reopen, I would like to renew my membership ASAP, but I certainly wont pay if the facilities I use wont be open for this season.

As I have said, I am willing to help where I can. Do you need assistance arranging contractors? Is it a money thing? We just want our facility to grow and are willing to help it do so. I know I am not the only one who feels this way. Please post what you need on the News section of the site and hopefully some of the members who enjoy the use of the range will step up and make it happen.

Can CHAS go to some of the local vendors for support? God knows we all spend enough money at the local gun shops and smiths. Try Leduc county and Nisku businesses? Take a lesson from CGN and start posting your sponsors at the top of the CHAS site or have a dedicated Range Site where interested local business can show their support. We dont need money, but it would sure be nice to have gongs donated, cement work, landscape work, and earth moving. Even if it isnt free a good discount and we put up a sign at the range advertising the sponsors. None of this is that hard to accomplish, lets go.

If all you need is a guy to set this up, I would gladly volunteer to arrange this stuff with your treasurer and get the facility moving.

To be honest, I would pay 200 a year if we had a good facility that was able to hold F-class. Both Sask and BC have active F-Class events, Alberta is supposed to be the redneck gun province and we have the least access to good ranges.

Quote
"What is happening at the Genesee range is no secret. The same thing is happening to the Spruce Grove range. If it hasn't happened to your range yet, just wait for your range certification renewal inspection. It'll be a real treat. "

I want to point out that for it "not being a secret" you sure didnt add any pertinent info.

Can we please get an update?


Edit

Sorry, I posted before finishing the posts.

Thanks for the update.

To address the sarcastic post about the gun show, I may not have a pile of experience running gun shows, but it is apparent that there is way to little "direction" when setting it up. I didnt make this years due to work, but last year it seemed that very few vendors showed up, most booths were guys with old ammo and junk spread out on tables. I dont belong to CHAS for the historical part, but I understand the niche. There are better ways to set up a show than having guys show up and try to sell ammo that is older than me. I dont really understand the historical significance to old 30-06 shells and .22 s. I would like to see properly set up booths with displays, local gunshop and smith advertising their services and products, etc.

I attend pipeline conferences, tech conferences, car show, and other events and I feel like the CHAS show needs to represent modern firearms hobbies, including historical, but make us look like thinking and planning adults. Right now for a non member or a left wing anti gun nut to show up, I think they would get the wrong impression. Hillbilly?

I guess its not to bad if there arent a lot of funds put into it, but I have heard it is one of the more expensive things CHAS does through the year. I think that range upkeep and then upgrades would be more important? Maybe not though as I understand a large percentage of the members dont use the range.

As far as the "hearsay" contractors offering their services, I know for a fact that Terra Tec construction offered to quote and give a deal to fix up the landscaping for the prone sections and the roads that need to be filled and graveled. In fact we spoke directly to a member of the board and nothing came of it. I have spoken to said member on numerous occasions about what we can do to help and there is never an answer. What about the gongs? Have you sourced armour plate? I looked into through a contact and supply was short. That tells me that we should have some on order already. If it is that hard to pack some dirt and lay some grass, are you surprised when we dont have any faith in the berms being lifted. Maybe they need to be reinforced. What type of engineer do you need for the redesign? I work with a few engineering firms that may be able to help if you let me know.

I sent a board member an email about 6 days ago before I started this thread and still havent heard anything, so I though maybe this would get CHASs attention and show that you have members, "and non members", that would like to come out and support the range, not for you to get testy and post sarcastic responses about our complaints. I dont really know why you would expect us members to renew our membership in Jan when it is to cold to shoot and the facility has been closed for 3 months with no news or information as to when it will be back up. I will renew my membership as soon as I know it will allow me to use a facility. If all you want is a donation, maybe you need a good cause and I will give it. As a membership I expect a facility or service, I think that goes for everybody else.

I dont want to start a problem, I want to fix one. I have tried not to be a "b*tch" and show that the members are here to help. Maybe not all, but all the LR guys I have met are pretty decent people and I would hope that more than just me would step up where we can. I dont complain about range cleaning days, it would be nice to know first rather than driving out and being told to clean, but it doesnt bother me to come and help. I was there tearing down the wood targets with the boys, but it would be nice to know first.

Please PM me if you would like to get together for a coffee and discuss what I can do to help. But please dont get so upset that people are concerned for our range. It seems that there is a group of CHAS members who treat it like an exclusive boys club. If thats what the goal is, let people know and Im sure someone else would step up and make a decent facility.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
I'm not Jeff. I'm the president. I assist Jeff in completing the memberships on a regular basis. I know that all memberships received have been sent out as soon as completed. If your friend has not received his membership in that long a time span, it did not get from Milarm to Jeff.

Have your friend contact me directly (contact CHAS President on our website email link: www.chas.ab.ca) & I will see if I can find out where his application was 'lost'. It may have been processed, but be lacking info we need in which case it's sitting waiting for him to contact us or arrange to pick it up.

I don't know where he lives, but there have been several in the last few years that were 'lost in the mail' in Leduc county. I have personally mailed several of them only to need to mail replacement cards by registered mail or deliver them in person.
 
Lots of questions & lots of answers to give.

I am in deed the president. Contact me via the web site & we'll set up a time to connect by phone or meet in person (preferred), or if you're available, come to the meeting Monday & we'll chat for a bit.

All help and constructive recommendations are welcome.
 
steel plate has been delievered and waiting to be turned into targets

The Pres as already mentioned afew of the points, to all CHAS members, come to the meetings. Get involved..the 15 to 20 regulars that do 95% of the work would love it

If it was only about moving dirt onto back stops..that would be easy.....but when then govt is involved, shake your head because its gonna hurt from the crap they want us to do.
 
I received notice of the shut down for the last clean up in an email from CHAS as well as seeing it posted here on CGN (and I actually went out to help). If people didn't see it then they are either not checking their mail or not looking in the events forum.

I am finally trying to get into long range shooting and am dissapointed that the L.R. is closed for now but that is not the club trying to screw people, it's the government playing nerf nanny yet again.

I re-newed at Milarm last week and got a receipt for it. If it takes more that a couple weeks to get my renewal I will phone someone. I won't let it sit for a few months and have a buddy post about it on another website.
 
It is good to have someone from CHAS speak to this matter. I am OK with paying for my 2011 membership, as it will hopefully help get this facility back on track - I am sure every penny will count. I am starting to see it is a complex issue, but the facility is worth rebuilding, if it can be done(?).

Increasingly we are seeing gun ranges being shut down and this trend is getting downright scary - gun control is happening, and the ranges seem to be an easy target (no pun). I will be at the Monday meeting to see how I can help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom