I’ve secretly been working on either buying a gun store or a gun range for the last few weeks. Found the perfect property and closed on it today. Backfire is gonna have a range where we can shoot 1 mile!!! So excited.
It’s near Beryl Junction Utah in the middle of nowhere. Gonna be cool to build it out.
Congrats. Wish you success in your new venture.
Congrats Jim! If I am ever 1200 miles closer, I’ll stop by.
Sweet! Congratulations.
Oh yeah…southern Utah road-trip forthcoming! LOL
Congrats @backfire
Congratulations! Can’t wait to see how the project unfolds as you build it out.
I am 14 hrs away - close to 900 miles. That is a long day and one tank of fuel in my truck. I could do 2 days of driving and two days of shooting by book ending a weekend. Now for a rifle to shoot one mile. I have a 6.5 prc with a 6-24 scope or a 4-16 300 wm or the 3-18 7 mm PRC. Maybe I rescope the 300?
Kind of amazing to find a spot to shoot one mile. That is quite a poke.
It’s about 10 1/2 hours away for me. Very doable over a weekend. As for my current stable of rifles, I’d have to go with the 300 WSM, but like you, I’d probably want to rescope. I’m running a 4-16 at the moment. Of course, I would either need on-site instruction or figure out how to shoot to a mile in the mean time, lol. Indeed, that is quite a poke.
Jim, sounds like you need to have a Backfire Members weekend at the range. Is there camping or motels near by?
Beryl Junction, UT is about an hour north of St. George, so it’ll be out in the UT desert. Probably plenty of options to do “dispersed camping.”
About 9-1/2 hours away from me…!
That makes it 6.5 hours away from me. St George is only 5.5 hour drive from my current location. I am not short of any rifles that could muster a mile, if not more with a 5-25 scope on most of them. I can do 300WM, 416 Barrett, or a few 338LM. Just let us know when you are up and running.
That’s awesome Jim! Congrats! I too may have to take a round trip, I’m not that far north.
Hotel about 30 mins away. First event definitely needs to be members only as a thank you to everyone in here.
you know you gotta start saving those milk jugs now…
Jim Congrats! I am excited to come shoot. I am in AZ about 30 min from a thousand yd range . I think before I come embarrass my self at a mile i need to get consistent at 1000.
Lessons ??
Any update on this? I am sure everyone would love to hear more about it.
Hopefully theres room to park the RV
Just recorded a podcast with lots more of the story which will be out on the 12th.
The land cost $92,500 for 160 acres since it’s very remote. It’s an hour from the St George airport, 3 hours from Vegas and 3.5 hours from Salt Lake. It’s just north of the gas station that is aspirationally called the “city” of Beryl Junction.
Right now I’m waiting on approval for the county to use the property as a gun range, which will take 30 days.
Then, we’ll get shipping containers delivered, create the shooting line and construct berms.
I’m hoping to be using the range by mid-October.
We are going to start doing monthly challenges out there and y’all are invited. There will be a sign up page and Plus members will get first crack at it. No cost, but limited to 5 people each month.
The first challenge will be 10 shots. One shot each at 100, 200, 300 etc out to 1,000 yards. You can go for 1 point on the 2 moa target at that distance, or 2 points for the 1 moa target.
No time limit, cold bore to start. Any rifle any cartridge.
Jim, i was curious to know how large of a land (acres) is your new property that can accommodate up to a mile range?
And what what are the dimensions, if you can share?
Thanks in advance.
It’s 440 yards wide and just shy of 1 mile long. 160 acres. You have to shoot a little diagonal to get the mile.