Zaleski State Forest Shooting Range — Local services in Madison Township

The new range facility is a huge improvement for the old pistol range. They added a new 80 yard rifle range and rebuilt the pistol range. You no longer have to walk up the hill with your gear with the new handicap accessible stairs and ramps. They also added a handicap accessible porto potty. The rifle range had a steel gong target originally but within a few weeks it was gone because someone shot off the chain it was hung on. But the frame and chains are still there so that you can bring your own steel gong target and use the frame and chain to mount it while you are there. Hopefully ODNR will replace it and add more of them for the rifle range and the pistol range. Since one target is not enough if it is a busy day. I am very happy with the rifle range since there just is not any outdoor public rifle range in the area . Granted that people would just shoot rifles on the pistol range but that gets ranges closed all the time. Thank You ODNR for the modernization of the range. It was needed big time and...

I visited to shooting range weekly before the major overhauls. I cannot use it now. The expect 2x4s standing in “mobile”concrete bases to serve as proper target support. Im sorry, Courtney, but whoever designed this range is a bunch of folks totally out of touch with shooting and the shooter that visited so often. The 2x4s are always shot to hell. And I’ll be damned it I can move those concrete things. I’m a 62 year old retired vet with disks that spend more time out than in. The handicap accessibility idea was a swing and a miss all around. How many folks in a wheel chair are gonna haul the concrete around. And last time I checked there were no ramps. One hell of a roomy port-a-john though.

Anyway, I can’t shoot there anymore. So, is the rest of the park maintenance planned by the genius that designed the...

Decent. It is a class-0 range, so there’s little to no oversight (unless a rare LEO is parked in the lot,) which can make things sketchy if people are being foolish or otherwise not following safety or range rules.

Recommendations: Since there aren’t enough close range lanes on the pistol side (there’s literally one, and it’s always occupied,) and the existing target stanchions are frequently shot to heck: Bring your own freestanding paper targets. Better yet, email ODNR and get permission to bring steel targets. My experience at this range went from “probably won’t return” to “great” with the addition of some...