RANGE CLOSURE..... SILVER CREEK CONSERVATION CLUB... SELLERSBURG, INDIANA DEC. 31, 2021

[colt22man]

OUR LEASE WILL NOT BE RENEWED. SCCC HAS HELD MONTHLY USPSA, IDPA & STEEL CHALLENGE MATCH'S FOR 2 DECADES. 

WE HAVE 15 SHOOTING BAYS AND A 100 YARD .22RF RANGE FOR OUR 475 MEMBERS. REPLACING OUR RANGE WILL BE A DECADE LONG PROJECT.

WE LEASED OUR PROPERTY FROM A GLOBAL CEMENT COMPANY. THEY HAVE INFORMED US OUR LEASE WILL NOT BE RENEWED. 

PROPERTY IS FOR SALE FOR $2,500,000.00.  SCCC HAS HELD MANY LEVEL 2 AND LEVEL 3 USPSA MATCH'S AND LEVEL 2 IDPA MATCH'S SINCE 2004. 

WE ARE ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR A NEW PROPERTY TO RELOCATE. 

A SAD DAY FOR THE SHOOTING SPORTS, MEMBERS AND THOUSANDS OF GUESTS WHO HAVE ENJOYED OUR RANGE . 

[Racinready300ex]

That sucks.

 

I was talking to a MD at a near by club that's having similar concerns. That club is planning ahead and has already purchased land to move to if they can't get the lease again. I think they can see the writing on the wall with the current land owners. 

[ima45dv8]

That is a sad shame.

 

Had it happen to one of my favorite matches -- Cool Springs Gun Club. They were there for a long time, and then one day they didn't have a lease any more.

[Jim O'Young]

Will the Global cement company or potential buyers be willing to deal with the cost & effort to clean up the 2 decades of lead???

[Dirty_J]

That’s a bummer…. But always the risk when you lease. Suburban encroachment towards shooting ranges happens all the time… the property becomes too valuable to not sell and/or you start getting zoning harassment from your neighbors. Good luck. 

[colt22man]

13 hours ago, Dirty_J said:

That’s a bummer…. But always the risk when you lease. Suburban encroachment towards shooting ranges happens all the time… the property becomes too valuable to not sell and/or you start getting zoning harassment from your neighbors. Good luck. 

 

18 hours ago, Jim O'Young said:

Will the Global cement company or potential buyers be willing to deal with the cost & effort to clean up the 2 decades of lead???

SCCC acquired a commercial appraisal.  Range cleanup, wetlands, operations as a quarry for decades before opening as a conservation club are factors 

addressed in the appraisal. The appraised value was 1/10th of the asking price. SCCC offered the appraised value. Our offer was rejected. 

We discussed with the owners the cleanup process. The conversation fell on deaf ears.  

Potential buyers will no doubt have a cleanup contingency in a purchase agreement. 

           

[Racinready300ex]

Cleaning up the lead can make you money depending on what the club has. Skeet and trap rangers are where the money is. Dirt berms for rifle and pistol shooting not so much. 

 

I was in a club years ago that made pretty good money mining the lead on the shotgun fields. We hired a company to come in and get it. They sell it and keep a % of the value. You basically do nothing but get approval from the state and county etc. They do all the hard work. 

[colt22man]

On 9/9/2021 at 12:55 PM, Racinready300ex said:

Cleaning up the lead can make you money depending on what the club has. Skeet and trap rangers are where the money is. Dirt berms for rifle and pistol shooting not so much. 

 

I was in a club years ago that made pretty good money mining the lead on the shotgun fields. We hired a company to come in and get it. They sell it and keep a % of the value. You basically do nothing but get approval from the state and county etc. They do all the hard work. 

Do you have contacts for lead removal? We have an active trap range which has never been cleaned as far as I know.   

[Racinready300ex]

14 minutes ago, colt22man said:

Do you have contacts for lead removal? We have an active trap range which has never been cleaned as far as I know.   

 

It's been way to long since I was involved with that, so I'm not sure where you point you now. If it's never been cleaned you could make pretty good off of it. You also should monitor your soil. We started spreading lime I think it was to keep the acidity right so the lead wont break down in ground. 

 

Talk to other skeet and trap ranges some body should be able to point you in the right direction. Make sure the company does everything not just the sweet spots. And you may be able to work something out with other ranges in the area so they can come do all of you fields while they're in the area that may help get a better deal. 

 

Make sure you check with the county, the state and the EPA. We checked with every agency we could think of and we still ended up getting into a little trouble with the State EPA because we didn't know we needed to get their approval too. They ended up making us stop before we were completely finished. They didn't fine us or anything. It really made a lot of sense for the EPA to stop a project meant to clean up the environment. But it shows you that you need to make sure to cover all the bases. It's pretty common for anit-gun types to see you doing work and report you to who ever they can think of. Our ranges were right on the road and easy for everyone to see what we were doing.