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Popular shooting range reopens in San Luis Obispo County

March 1, 2026

By KAREN VELIE

After being closed for more than a year, the state owned public shooting range located in San Luis Obispo County off Highway 1 between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay reopened on Friday under new management.

The new operator, SLOFAST, will not allow memberships at the San Luis Obispo Shooting Range. Amenities include a long range, a trap and skeet range, an action  pistol range and an archery range.

The former San Luis Obispo Sportsman’s Association lost its lease with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Dec. 31, 2024 because of violations with its state contract. Violations included a failed to charge the agreed rate and to provide disability access.

 


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Did it end up getting hand delivered to a DEI forward management company? I say that because it was a documented stipulation in the new management search.


3

F&G kept changing the contract, while keeping many of these changes uannounced to SLOSA too often. As for charging memberships in order to shoot at the range, SLOSA did no such thing.


SLOSA sold memberships to SLOSA.


There was NO requirement to be a SLOSA member to shoot either at the public range, nor at the Action Pistol range, nor on the back ranges for Muzzle loaders, Silhouette, or Cowboy Action. The back ranges were only used for sanctioned and scheduled matches, same with the Action Pistol range. Anyone could participate, and ALL shooters paid the match fee…member or not. All participants were charged a fee for all of the State and World Championship matches held regularly.


As for F&G saying SLOSA didn’t charge enough, well, exactly what was the going rate? F&G never articulated what was the proper rate to charge! SLOSA only wanted to charge enough to break even on salaries of the Range Masters, target replacement, power/water bills, and maintenance. F&G said no, you have to charge more.


F&G put out zero expenditure for maintenance or target repair/replacement. F&G also put out zero expenditure for range improvements, that, arguably, created one of the best ranges for multiple venues on the West Coast. F&G did put up barriers to access, including declaring the dry creek as a “steelhead spawning stream”.


All the nice steel targets, target revetments, cleaning of the range, lead mining, steel and concrete shooting benches, high end shotgun venues, and the nice archery range with standard targets of arrow catching fiber block, and whimsical dinosaur targets, were all purchased, acquired, or built from scratch by the volunteer members of SLOSA.


The Army stated in the contract to the state, that giving the property over to California, it MUST remain completely accessible to the public at all times. Anyone could see, that F&G failed for at least a year, to violate that contract.


SLOSA did all they could to keep up with F&G demands. But, when the goalposts kept being shuffled around the field, our team found itself losing the game.


Our team, is you and me and all citizens of California.


17

Army has it right. The san luis obispo sportsmen’s (& women) was organized in the later 1930’s. The initial improvements at this range location were paid for by a $52,000 fund developed primarily by the annual fundraising which included the annual wild game BBQ held at Cuesta Park in SLO for many years. I was life member until the CF&G forced closures. All of the improvements were funded by private entities. This painful story is told by Chloe Jones in 2024. https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article291398470.html

FLAPZ


3

It’s true that everyone paid, but SLOSA members paid less, got a discount. I remember paying $5 to shoot on Thursday nights and non-member friends paid $10. Just a fact.


0

Still waiting for San Luis Obispo Sportsman’s Association to refund the membership they sold me. It’s impressive that no one has faced criminal charges or a civil suit for defrauding the State by selling “memberships” for all those years.


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You didn’t buy a membership to the shooting range. You bought a membership into the association….unless your being sarcastic?


1

Ha! It was hard enough to find the membership money at SLOA. It had a habit of being poorly accounted for.


-3

REEEEEEEE!


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