Where can I shoot airguns in Oregon (part 2)

In my search for places to legally shoot airguns in Oregon, I've compiled a list of firearm shooting ranges that list airguns shooting as an accepted feature. One of those closest to me, is the Public Safety Training Center in Clackamas Oregon (just east of Portland). Which by the way is an excellent facility that should as an example for others around the nation. I was some what surprised that they listed airguns as this indoor facility's range caters primarily to handguns. However, I had a new .22 cal Ruger Charger that I wanted to test and sight so decided visit.

The range is excellent with top notch air filtration, target retrieval and shooting stations. It is a 25 yard+ range, which is large for an indoor. However there are only perhaps 10 shooting stations, and during standard hours of public access the range tends to be very busy. On a range like this that also translates to very loud. Shooters of various skill levels also can be distracting. I had a fairly good lane which I started on with the .22 Caliber Pistol and was getting phenomenal groups after sighting in a Red-dot site I'd mounted. Not long in to the session I was surrounded on each side by very new handgun shooters one of which seemed to think they'd do better by leaning an the wall between us and then leaning further out and close to her target. While I didn't feel it was to far out safety wise, it did place the muzzle of her auto loader next to and in front of the blast shield such that I got an awesome muzzle blast of her high-power defense loads. On the other side was a equally distracting as a fellow struggled to get on top of a pistol that seemed a bit much for him (hand cannon). So there was a lot of retrieving and resetting of his target (pretty much every shot).

Don't get me wrong, I believe this type of public facility is the right place for them to be. They belong here (as do I when shooting fire arms), but is this a decent place to shoot airguns?

I'd have to say no. It's to loud and to busy, teaching a child or new shooter would be somewhat difficult here and it certainly does not promote accuracy or a teaching environment. After shooting a while I was able to chat with a couple of the range officers (these guys are great) about whether or not there were other more appropriate ranges in the facility that might be better suited for airgun shooting? Also I inquired about any existing or future scheduled time for airguns only.

They explained that the facility was simply overbooked and already running at full capacity and needed to be expanded as it was. Should that happen, we might see an improvement then.

Well, the short version is that airgun shooting is ok'd at the Public Safety Training Center in Clackamas Oregon (just east of Portland) but it's noise level and lack or segregation between weapon types can make shooting airguns distracting.

I did get a lead on an extremely airgun friendly range in Oregon. That is the one I'll be checking out next.

Where can I shoot airguns in Oregon ? (Part 1)

Prepairing this post was something I thought would be easy, I'd done similar reasearch a couple of years ago and other than some cities and a few counties there we're not allow of restrictions on Oregonians and visitors looking for a place to shoot their pellet guns (airguns).


The good news is that there are still a number of great places, both organized and informal to shoot. Also I was surprised to see that impressive number of organized clubs that now list airguns on their list of "What can be shot here.

Outside of State & National Parks our remote area's simply have a shoot safely rule (Examples: don't shoot across roads, no damaging property, taking game out of season, and generaly operating in a safe manner.)

With regards to county or cities the State of Oregun tells us that those entities have limitations on the reguation of the discharge of firearms in there borders, and I'm currently operating under the assumption if we can shoot firearms legaly, airguns will be okay as well. (This is something that needs to be confirmed.)

Here is part of the state language that supports firearms.


166.171 Authority of county to regulate discharge of firearms. (1) A county may adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within their boundaries.
(2) Ordinances adopted under subsection (1) of this section may not apply to or affect:
(a) A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property.
(b) A person discharging a firearm in the course of lawful hunting.
(c) A landowner and guests of the landowner discharging a firearm, when the discharge will not endanger adjacent persons or property.
(d) A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery or other area designed and built for the purpose of target shooting.
(e) A person discharging a firearm in the course of target shooting on public land that is not inside an urban growth boundary or the boundary of a city, if the discharge will not endanger persons or property. [1995 s.s. c.1 §2]

166.172 Authority of city to regulate discharge of firearms. (1) A city may adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within the city’s boundaries.
(2) Ordinances adopted under subsection (1) of this section may not apply to or affect:
(a) A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property.
(b) A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery or other area designed and built for the purpose of target shooting. [1995 s.s. c.1 §3]



I intend to put together a concise table of the shootin areas part two or three of this series. I need to get some official guidance on a few of the updated ordinance's.

A point of concern of all airgunners.


It seems that many municipalities have rewritten their ordinances regarding the use of pellet guns to incorporate the current air soft craze. As most readers of this blog will know airsofts (as they are commonly referred to) which propel a harmless polystyrene "bb" to short ranges. Originating in Japan, these non-guns (prior to recent legislation - "toy guns") bear resemblances to actual firearms. These resemblances vary from cartoon like mini-guns to guns that almost duplicate the originals they were based on.

Part II will be an example of how Beaverton, OR substantially amended the ordinances in response to airsofts and caught pellet gun shooters in the cross-fire.

Also, as you seen in the State Code above (any designated shooting range/target area public and private) may be used to safely discharge these devices. We even have a local school that turned part of their gym in to a shooting range for target practice. As such it may be possible for a group of Oregonians to construct an informal target course on private land and be free from ordinance violations.

Part III will include a table of gun clubs and ranges which are now supporting airgun shooting.

More to follow soon.