Logan County shooting range built through local partnership and volunteer work

Logan County’s shooting range is not a casual pull-off or an informal patch of ground. It is a county-owned public facility built from 260 acres purchased by the Logan County Commissioners and shaped by right-of-way access from the City of Sterling, volunteer labor, and a long list of public partners. Today, the Logan County Shooting Sports Complex gives residents and visitors a regulated place to practice, with sunrise-to-sunset hours, daily fees or annual memberships, and rules designed to keep firearms use controlled and predictable.

How the complex came together

The project began with land and coordination, not with buildings. On January 22, 2014, the Logan County Commissioners bought 260 acres for the shooting complex, and the City of Sterling provided right-of-way access to make the site usable. Local shooting enthusiasts did the research and coordination needed to pull together agencies that do not often work around a single recreational project, including the Colorado Department of Corrections, the Colorado State Land Board, and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The complex’s own site says that cooperation also included Logan County, the City of Sterling, the State Land Board, the Department of Corrections through Sterling Correctional Facility, and Colorado Parks & Wildlife. It says the site was built on more than 300 acres of sandhills and pasture land and that it took “countless volunteer hours” from a relatively small core group to turn that ground into the facility now in use. That matters because the range is not simply a county amenity, it is a civic project that depended on land access, state permissions, and volunteer work to become real.

The planning timeline shows how deliberate the buildout was. On January 28, 2015, Logan County approved an agreement with JEO Consulting, Inc., of Lincoln, Nebraska, for services and fees tied to the master design plan. Later, on October 6, 2015, commissioners Rocky Samber and Gene Meisner approved a resolution and application for a special-use permit so work could begin. The range therefore emerged through a multi-year process that moved from land purchase to design to permitting before major work could proceed.

Who runs it and how access works

Ownership sits with Logan County, and management is handled by the Logan County Commissioners. The commissioners appointed Dave Appelhans to manage day-to-day operations, which gives the site a clear local point of contact even though the range is not staffed. The county describes the complex as a work-in-progress, a phrase that fits a facility still being shaped by public use, maintenance, and ongoing policy decisions.

Access is limited in simple but important ways. The range is open from sunrise to sunset, and it is closed when the gates are closed. The property is patrolled, and membership and daily use passes are inspected and enforced, which makes the site more like a managed public system than an open field. Visitors are told to practice safe shooting, be considerate of others, and pack it in and pack it out, a reminder that county ownership comes with rules as well as access.

Those rules matter for the people who use the site to train, hunt, or spend time outdoors. Logan County publishes printable forms for the fee schedule, new membership applications, membership renewals, and safety rules, and membership requires reading the safety rules and fee schedule before submitting an application. The county also says annual memberships cover 12 months and may be prorated, while daily fees are included in annual membership fees. Law enforcement officers shooting required work-related practice or training in designated areas pay no fee.

What the facility offers

The complex is more than one lane of fire. The county says the site covers 300-plus acres and includes trapshooting, archery, and rifle and pistol ranges. The range includes 1,000-yard and 600-yard rifle and pistol ranges, along with shorter shooting areas and benches, which gives it a reach that can serve both precision practice and routine local shooting.

Archery has its own place in the layout, and the county says that area covers 45 acres. It includes field archery rounds, 3D animal rounds, a circuit path for the first 14 targets, and a static range, with plans for a public picnic-table area. The parking lot has been graded and numbered, which is the kind of practical detail that turns a rough landscape into a usable public site. The county’s disciplines page also frames archery as a long-awaited facility for enthusiasts, while noting that the pistol range has gone through changes and remains usable.

For local users, the broader point is that the complex gives Logan County a place where several forms of shooting can happen under one set of rules. That helps keep activity off improvised sites and inside a county-managed setting where patrols, pass checks, and posted regulations shape how the land is used. In a county where open space, access, and recreation all matter, that kind of structure is part of the public value.

The safety rules that define the range

The fee schedule and range rules are as important as the acreage. Certain ammunition and target types are prohibited outright, including tracer, incendiary, armor-piercing ammunition, and explosive targets. The fee schedule also bans center-fire rifles over .50 caliber and shot over 7.5 for shotgun use, which sets a clear ceiling on what can be fired there.

Target rules are equally specific. Rifle and handgun users must use paper targets only, and those targets must be placed on stands provided by the complex. Plastic, glass, and other trash, including computer components, may not be used as targets. Those details are not cosmetic; they are the rules that keep a public shooting range orderly, safer, and easier to manage across different kinds of users.

Taken together, the land purchase, the City of Sterling’s access role, the interagency cooperation, and the operating rules show how Logan County turned unused ground into a regulated public range. The complex now functions as a county-run place for shooting sports, but it also stands as a local example of how public land, volunteer work, and clear rules can create a durable community asset.