COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) announced Tuesday that Delaware Wildlife Area’s shooting range hours will change beginning April 12 to allow time for a construction project. 

What You Need To Know

  •  Delaware Wildlife Area's shooting range hours will change in mid-April to allow for a construction project

  •  The project is to install new safety baffles and target positions on the 100-yard lanes

  •  The 100-yard lanes will be closed for the duration of the project, other shooting ranges will have temporary closures, and archery ranges will remain open

According to ODNR, the construction project is taking care of safety baffles, which are barriers that re-direct stray bullets, and target positions for the 100-yard lanes.

Construction is estimated to take up to 12 weeks. The 100-yard range will be closed for the entire duration. Other gun ranges will be periodically closed, and archery ranges will remain open. 

Delaware Wildlife Area has Class A, Class C and Class D ranges. Class A ranges are supervised rifle and pistol ranges, Class C ranges are unsupervised shotgun ranges and Class D ranges are unsupervised archery ranges. 

Shooting range users 18 and older are required to have shooting range permits. Users 17 years and younger are not required to have permits but must be accompanied and monitored by a permitted adult.

Delaware Wildlife Area Shooting Range reopened in December 2020 after an $8 million improvement project. Previous and current renovation projects are paid for by taxes on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment.