March 30, 2023
Jim Harris Managing Editor Arkansas Wildlife Magazine
PARAGOULD – Jack Cox Scatter Creek Shooting Range, located within the W.E. Brewer Scatter Creek Wildlife Management Area northwest of here, is temporarily closed for needed repair work.
The AGFC is spending $175,000 on an assortment of repairs at the range, according to Grant Tomlin, assistant chief in the AGFC’s Education Division.
“We know what that range means to the local community up there,” Tomlin said. “We knew it was time to put some money into it and give it some TLC and work to get it reopened as soon as possible.”
Work on the range includes repairing the firing line cover, replacing some of the concrete on the sidewalks and crosswalks, regrading the dirt on the range, adding ground baffles to keep rounds from impacting the sidewalks, and adding a couple of dirt bunkers for stopping pistol rounds. A backstop berm at 200 yards from the firing line is being repacked so that runoff will be diverted away from the sidewalks. Some old target frame pins, which Tomlin said are basically metal rods sticking up, are being taken out as they were a tripping hazard.
Also, a new drainage culvert is going in on the road, and work to smooth out the entrance road is planned.
“It’s just a bunch of little stuff, nothing major,” Tomlin said. “We’re just trying to get the range freshened up and repair what needed to be repaired. It’s needed some TLC for a while. We have the money to do it right now.”
The shooting range was opened in the early 2000s. Some of the wood on site has not been touched since the facility opened.
The work, and when the range will reopen, is weather-dependent, Tomlin said. “They can't do the dirt work when it’s nothing but mud out there,” he said. “Some of the work has already been taken care of. We’ve got 90 percent of the firing line cover replaced. The new culvert on the road is done. We removed some of the baffles that were shot up. As soon as it’s dry enough to do the dirt work and concrete work, they’ll get to that.”
The Greene County range offers a place to shoot for fun as well as to get ready for upcoming hunting seasons. Any legal firearm and ammunition (no fully automatic firearms, armor-piercing or tracer ammunition) may be used on the firing range. Please read the list of rules at https://www.agfc.com/en/explore-outdoors/shootingranges/ before traveling to the range. Youths 15 and younger must be supervised by a responsible adult 21 years or older. All targets, brass and other items used must be removed and properly disposed of before leaving.