Remember in central VA the range at Amelia WMA?

ButchA

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2025
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16
Location
Henrico, VA
Good evening,

I know it's Sept 1st and opening day Dove Season. I don't hunt doves and heard plenty of *ahem* stories over the years about dove hunting at the local WMA's! 😮

I was more or less curious about what the ol' game & fisheries (now called DWR) has done with the 100yd rifle range at Amelia WMA. I heard scuttlebutt that punks would show up, blast the place up, DGIF would fix it back up, punks would blast it all up again. Repeat... Repeat... Over the summer I went there to go fishing at the nice lake and floating fishing pier. While there I drove to the skeet range and rifle range. Everything was still there, all intact, big wooden pavilion and bench rest stations were still there. But what blew my mind, was looking out into the 100yd grassy rifle range. *NOTHING* No rebar frames w/ chicken wire, etc... like they came in with a bulldozer and leveled it all out smooth! I assume if you go there now, you're on your own, as there is nothing to use as a target and/or target holder! Wow...

Check out this image from earlier today before lunch. Look in the distance down along the rifle range. Nothing but grass now! There was a guy there, (DWR employee? Volunteer?) setting out trash bags, checking the bench rests, etc... I quickly snapped a photo from the parking lot and drove away. Hopefully people won't try to destroy it again...

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When I lived up that way in Chesterfield in the early to mid 90s, 3 or 4 of us would meet there every Wednesday and shoot and all day long, go up on Sunday afternoons too. It is where I first started in black powder muzzle loading, but we shot all of our stuff there except hand guns. I lived like 45 minutes away so I would pretty much bring everything I had to shoot, didn't always shoot everything but I had it there if I wanted.

Back then there were these very large concrete drain pipes that protruded out of the ends of the firing line at each station that you shot through to the target area, presumably to dampen the noise and force it down range, it kind of worked in a way.

Had some really good times out there, everybody policed their own trash, brass, etc., we all shared in RO duties, even though many did not know each other we would wait a minute and look around and call cold range to check and re-hang targets and hot to start shooting again.

It is sad to me that we have a bunch of punks out there who never learned the ways of taking care of things for the next person, to keep it neat for the next bunch to come in and enjoy. I am going to have to make a point to get out there and look around. Good times back then. These days I shoot on my own property but I am by myself so it is not the same as having a few folks to swap stories with, talk about load development, what is new in the zoo and all that stuff...
 
They got rid of those concrete tubes years and years ago (thank God!). But I have been going there for decades and it used to be really busy, lots of good guys, ...lots of fudds... and the best, watching a dad teach his 12 yr old son to shoot a .22LR with open sights.
 
I remember watching a fudd shoot a black powder rifle through one of those tubes. I thought the smoke was never going to stop rolling out of the tube....
 
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