Indoor shooting range approved in Ponderay

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff

The Ponderay City Council approved a special use permit for an indoor shooting range Monday. It will be the first range of its kind in Bonner County.

Wrenco Arms on Boyer. Photo by Ben Olson.

The facility will be an extension of Wrenco Arms, the armory on Boyer in Sandpoint. It will serve as a new retail space, repair shop and gathering place for instructional and group gathering purposes.

“The biggest benefit I see is it’s a place for the safe application of firearms,” said Wrenco Arms owner Brandon Terry. “It gives people a safe venue to come and train.”

The new shooting range will be located on Highway 95, south of Bronx Road. As of right now, Terry said he believes the range will be somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 square feet, with 10 firearm shooting lanes and five archery lanes. He said the nearest shooting range of that size and modernity is in the Post Falls/Spokane area.

Terry noted the range will also be useful for local law enforcement, who will train there.

In response to concerns that the range would mean the constant sound of gunshots in the neighborhood, Ponderay Planning and Zoning assured residents that the facility would contain most firearm noise and keep any escaping noise within city decibel limits.

The range will tentatively open later this year or early 2019.