Shooting Range Grants
Goals
The shooting range grants program is intended to encourage the development and improvement of Wyoming ranges in order to:
- Support safe and accessible access to ranges for those who participate in hunting and shooting sports
- Support hunter education by providing spaces for live-fire education activities and encourage hunters to become more proficient with their hunting equipment
- Provide opportunities to recruit, retain, or reactivate a diverse audience of people into hunting and shooting sports
Eligibility and requirements
Project grants are for shooting ranges that provide recreational public shooting. To be eligible, the project or organization must meet one or more of the following:
- Be located in Wyoming
- Have a meaningful impact on the general public
- Provide a place for hunter education students to learn and practice safe handling of firearms and archery equipment, and to complete live-fire exercises for hunter education.
- Ranges must be open to the general public; the range must post the days and hours the facility is open for public use.
- Project sponsors are responsible for the maintenance of grant-funded range improvements for their useful life.
Eligible projects may include:
- Berms
- Sound baffles
- Shooting benches and covers
- Trap and skeet houses
- Walkways
- Signage
- Fencing
- Other capital items necessary to the operation of a shooting range
*Grants for general operating expenses, promotional or advertising activities, improvements considered not directly linked to recreational shooting opportunity, ammunition, expendable items (e.g. targets) or improvements considered in excess of basic facilities required for the range will not be approved.
Application Process
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Answer
Application period: Applications will be accepted July 1 through January 31 of each year. Projects will be reviewed by a committee consisting of agency and partner organization members in February. The commission approves the annual budget in March, and approved project grant funds will be available once a grant agreement has been fully executed or July 1st, whichever is later.
Application format: The application is hosted online, and is not required to be completed and submitted at one time. An application can still be edited after submission, up to the deadline. After the application has been submitted, the applicant will receive an email. This email will include a link to the application for editing.
Grant funding amount: Up to $25,000 in shooting range grants will be awarded each year through a competitive application process, as funds are available. Organizations may only apply for and receive one grant per grant cycle. All grant requests, no matter the amount, must be approved by the WGFD director’s office.
Application Overview The following information will be required in the application process:
- Description of the need, objective, and expected results and benefits of the project
- Details regarding the location for the proposed project—including the plans to enhance safety, hunter education, shooter access, facility use by a variety of groups or availability to the public
- Description of the amount of grant funding being requested and a detailed cost estimate (including match funding or in-kind support)
- Description of how the project meets local needs and what support it has (including letters of support)
- A copy of the organization's lease or deed for the property where the project will occur
- Applicants must have liability insurance.
- Contact information for the project and organization leaders
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Answer
Applications will be selected for available funding based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:
- Proximity to population centers
- Proximity to similar facilities near the proposed project
- Benefits to the community
- Number of days the facility is open to the general public
- Fees to be charged to the general public
- Public events offered
- Number of partner groups supporting the project
- Match funding or in-kind support secured
- Impact to the hunting and shooting community
*Applicants who have defaulted on prior WGFD shooting range grant projects are not eligible to apply