Angeles shooting ranges and Moore N’ Moore Sporting Clays Range ravaged by Creek Fire

By JIM MATTHEWS

www.OutdoorNewsService.com

Most of the range facilities at the Angeles Shooting Ranges in Little Tujunga Canyon, including the Moore N’ Moore Sporting Clays range, where nearly all structures burned to the ground this past week by the Creek Fire, still burning in the Angeles National Forest and surrounding areas near Sylmar. The blaze has charred over 15,000 acres, and it was about 80 percent contained Saturday morning. The fire destroyed 105 structures and residences and damaged 70 others, including most of the range facilities.

Combined, the shotgun, rifle, pistol, silhouette, and tactical training ranges are where hundreds of thousands of shooters from across Southern California compete and practice each year. While all of the facility managers say they will be rebuilding, the loss of the ranges – even temporarily – will have a serious impact on recreational shooting in the region.

Of all the buildings at the ranges, only the Reloading Store and Hunter Education Classroom trailer weren’t burned to the ground in the fire. At the main range, the range office and all the benches burned. At Moore N’ Moore Sporting Clays, all the buildings and trailers were burned (photo is of the clubhouse going up in flames), and the club lost a about half of its target throwers. There is currently no electricity to the entire complex.

Despite the destruction, the main rifle and pistol ranges are tentatively slated to reopen the first of the year, and the silhouette targets and pads are all intact and should be back up and running quickly. Moore N’ Moore saw about half of its target throwers survive the flames, and Cory Moore has been encouraged by regulars at the range to have an “Out of the Ashes” shoot in January.

While are facilities were insured, there are two Go Fund Me pages that have been set-up to help with other costs and expenses not covered by insurance, including staff salaries for those who have been laid off the by the fire. Here are the links to those pages:

https://www.gofundme.com/angeles-shooting-range-fire-loss

https://www.gofundme.com/supportmoorenmoore

Shooters can check the status of the range facilities, work parties, and projected opening dates by going to the ranges’ websites and Facebook pages. The main range website is www.angelesshooting.com, and Moore N’ Moore’s is www.moorenmoore.com. There are links to the Facebook pages from those two sites.

Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill

passes House of Representatives

The National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act (HR 38) passed the U.S. House of Representatives and will ensure “that our citizens’ Second Amendment rights do not end at the state line,” according to Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which lauded the passage of the bill.

The bill also adds provisions to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to make sure that all applicable records that would prevent the sale and transfer of firearms to people prohibited from ownership are mandated of states, municipalities, and federal agencies (including the military) to the FBI’s database for NICS checks.

The biggest impact the bill would have is allowing Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) holders to carry their firearms in all states without fear of running amuck of state and local laws.

Interior review of large Monuments

recommends trimming size of four,

and the creation of three new units

Ryan Zinke, secretary of Interior, recommended that four of the huge National Monuments created by past presidents be reduced in size. Those monuments are Bears Ears, Grand Staircase, Cascade-Siskiyou, and Gold Butte, but all the lands are to remain under federal ownership and managed as they had been before monument designation.

The review was mandated by an executive order from President Donald Trump earlier this year.

Zinke also recommended the creation of three new nation monuments: The Badger II Medicine Area (Montana), Camp Nelson (Kentucky), and the Medgar Evers Home (Mississippi).

The reports also calls for an ongoing review of monuments to ensure ?public ?access? and to encourage more hunting and fishing, which has encourage California hunters that the Castle Mountains Monument will be reopened to hunting for the 2018 season.

The Interior Department issued a fact sheet to debunk some of the media statements about the review process. Some of the highlights include:

Myth: No president has shrunk a monument.

False: Monuments have been reduced at least eighteen times under presidents on both sides of the aisle. Some examples include President John F. Kennedy excluding Bandelier National Monument, Presidents Taft, Wilson, and Coolidge reducing Mount Olympus National Monument, and President Eisenhower reducing the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado.

Myth: The monument review will sell/transfer public lands to states.

False: This is not true. Zinke said he adamantly opposes the wholesale sale or transfer of public lands. The Antiquities Act only allows federal land to be reserved as a national monument. Therefore, if any monument is reduced, the land would remain federally owned and would be managed by the appropriate federal land management agency, such as the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or the National Park Service (NPS).

Myth: The monument review will close/sell/transfer national park lands to private or state ownership.

False: No national parks are under review, and changes would require action by Congress.

Raahauge’s offering shotgun lessons

with world champion Dan Carlisle

Dan Carlisle, an Olympic medalist and world champion sporting clays shooter, will be giving 1 1/2-hour shooting lessons at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Corona Jan. 8-12.

Carlisle is a 13-time National Main Event Sporting Clays Champion and has been inducted into four different shooting Hall of Fames. He was an Olympic bronze medalist in the 1984 Olympic games in the international trap event at the beginning of his shooting career, and is considered by many to be one of the finest shotgunners of all time.

A hard-nosed competitor for over 45 years and a full-time instructor for more than 30 years, Dan has spent his career developing and perfecting the shooting system that bears his name – the Carlisle Triangle Method.

The carefully designed routine emphasizes six indispensable elements – the break zone, hold points, speed, placement, feel, and focus. And in 20 years of applying this method he has coached and produced Olympic, World, and National Champions, including hundreds of All-Americans.

Cost of each session is $250 plus targets, and the lesson is good for two shooters. For more information or reservations, call Raahauge’s at 951-735-7981.

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