Police shooting range will move south of Boise

Sounds of shooting range gunfire near the Boise Foothills trails in Military Reserve Park will become a thing of the past as the Boise Police Department works to move the range south of town.

The city of Boise closed on April 1 on the $550,000 purchase of 120 acres at 5958 W. Kuna Mora Road at Pleasant Valley Road for the new police shooting range, about 10 miles south of Boise Airport.

“It’s challenging to have a shooting range with the neighborhood and nearby hiking and biking,” city spokesman Mike Journee said.

The East End neighborhood abuts the park. Ridge to Rivers trails criss-cross the foothills near the shooting range.

Boise police has had its shooting range near the end of Mountain Cove Road since 1960 and was shooting there before then, long before foothills trails became weekend and after-work getaways.

The police department has considered improving the foothills range for years.  Boise Police Association built the range and owned it until 2008, when the city acquired the property.

“Do we invest in the facility or do we try to mind a more appropriate property that is large enough, remote enough, but still within a reasonable driving distance?” Journee said.

The Kuna-Mora range will initially include a pistol range with three stations with targets 50 yards away, a rifle range with an unspecified number of stations and targets 250 yards away, and a third range.

Journee said specific details or a budget to build the new range have not been determined, nor has a construction timeline been established.