SCDNR range is centrally located in South Carolina
Centrally located in Eastover, SC, SCDNR’s Wateree Range attracts shotgun, rifle, and handgun shooters from across the state. It’s one of the state’s newest ranges, and it’s expanding this year to include the State Shooting Complex located about half a mile away.
“The Wateree Range is a facility run by the South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources,” said Richie Boykin, Program Coordinator II and Range Safety Officer. “We’ve got skeet, trap and a sporting clays course, as well as a 5-stand. We also have our rifle and pistol range here.”
The state opened the shotgun facility in February 2017, and followed it up with the rifle and pistol range in June 2019. Years ago, it operated as a private range known as the Indigo Gun Club, which opened in the 1960s.
Using funding designated for hunter education and shooting projects, SCDNR purchased the 140-acre property off of US 76/378 in 2016.
“Our goal was to provide safe recreational shooting opportunities for people in the Midlands,” said Maj. Billy Downer, SCDNR’s Hunter Education Coordinator. “There were no public shooting facilities in Richland County at the time, and we saw an opportunity to provide that.”
The response has been big from shooters across the area and beyond. Aside from hunters trying to stay in shape for shooting doves and waterfowl, recreational shooters and tournament shooters alike have found a shooting home in the Wateree Range.
“On the shotgun side, our shooters come from all walks of life. We’ve had a 94-year-old out here shooting, on down to 10-year-olds shooting for their schools and club teams,” said Boykin. “It’s a great place to come out and shoot, whether you are more interested in sporting clays, skeet or trap.”
While the sporting clays course is probably the most popular, Boykin said skeet and trap are gaining ground.
“Especially among the younger shooters. We’ve got a lot of shooters from high school teams and youth clubs, and we hold a handful of skeet and trap tournaments every year for them,” he said. “And we’ll hold even more once we get the new part of the facility up and running.”
The shotgun portion of Wateree Range includes an 8-station sporting clays course, a 5-stand for practicing or warming up, as well as skeet and trap.
“Our sporting clays course is an 8-station, 50-clays course, which takes an average shooter about 45 minutes to complete if shooting alone,” said Boykin. “Shooters bring their own guns, cased and unloaded, and the only thing we charge for is for the clays. Five dollars will buy you 30 clays, so you can shoot the whole course for $10.”
Outside of tournaments, shooters mostly operate the clay launchers, known as “traps,” themselves.
“But we’ll run the traps for new shooters until they’re comfortable doing it themselves,” Boykin said. “We are here to ensure range safety, and to make sure everyone is comfortable with how everything works.”
It may seem like many shooters could grow bored with a sporting clays course with eight stations. Boykin said that’s not the case at all.
“We change things up every few months to keep things fresh and interesting for shooters,” he said.
Unlike the sporting clays course, the skeet and trap games always stay the same, and not just at the Wateree Range. They are universal games, and are consistent among all skeet and trap ranges worldwide.
Rifle, pistol range are free
Shooters at the rifle and pistol range don’t incur any charges. They are required to bring their own ammunition and their own paper targets.
“We’ve got 14 lanes at the rifle range, which is a 100-yard course. And we’ve got 12 lanes at the pistol range, which is a 5-yard to 25-yard course,” he said.
Only one type of shotgun round is permitted at the rifle range.
“We do allow slugs at the rifle range for shotgun shooters. We also allow air guns up to and including .50 caliber and muzzleloaders up to .50 caliber, but we do not allow conventional rifles of .50 or larger,” said Boykin.
Aside from all the shooting sports, the Wateree Range also hosts numerous meetings for SCDNR staff, as well as a host of courses for the public, including Hunter Education classes, Boater Education classes, and occasionally a basic handgun class.
Boykin said individual shooters, couples, and groups of all sizes come out to shoot.
“We’ve had bachelor parties come out and shoot before the wedding, church groups, groups from the National Wild Turkey Federation. Some of them bring a grill and cook out behind the building. We have covered picnic table areas to eat under, and we like having groups of all sizes come out,” he said. “We have a lot of regular shooters, and we’re always looking for new shooters.”
SCDNR purchased the land for the State Shooting Complex, which Boykin anticipates will open in May or June of this year, from Michael Love in recent years.
“Love was looking for a buyer who would continue his tradition of getting and keeping youth involved in the outdoors,” said Boykin. “He held a lot of events for the Gold Star program, bringing in young folks to go hunting on the property. We have a similar program called Take One, Make One to take youth hunting. He was really interested in that, so he worked with our leadership to come to terms so the state could purchase the land.”
The new facility will feature bigger meeting rooms, where they’ll have more SCDNR meetings and outdoors-related classes for the public.
“We will also have duck ponds that are open to hunters through the lottery draws, as well as eight skeet and trap fields, and a new 5-stand,” he said. “We’re hoping to have a lot of tournaments for the youth, and hopefully even for adults.”
The Wateree Range is currently open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Boykin said the hours of the State Shooting Complex will probably be something like Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information about these facilities, visit dnr.sc.gov/shooting, or look for the Education tab at dnr.sc.gov.
Other SCDNR ranges
The Wateree Range is one of six ranges operated by SCDNR (seven once the State Shooting Complex opens). Other ranges include the following:
- Pickens County Shooting Range in Liberty, SC, which features rifle, pistol, manual clay target shooting, and archery.
- James O. Thomason Shooting Range in Spartanburg, which has rifle, pistol, archery, and manual clay target shooting.
- Belfast Shooting Range in Kinards (Newberry County), which includes rifle, pistol, and archery.
- Palachucola Shooting Range in Garnett (Hampton County), which has rifle, pistol, and manual clay targets.
- Twin Ponds Shooting Range in Awendaw (Charleston County), which features rifle, pistol, and archery.
For information on any of these ranges, visit www.dnr.sc.gov/shooting.
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