Clintonville Range and Training Center held an open house Oct. 19, inviting the public to tour the state-of-the-art shooting range facility.
The owners plan to serve the public and provide training opportunities for law enforcement.
The shooting range is on property that formerly housed Murphy Concrete at 100 Paulina St.
The property had sat vacant for more than 20 years. Wayne Oestreich and his daughter Chris Oestreich purchased the property in 2021.
“Dad wanted an indoor (shooting) range, and that’s kind of how it started,” Chris Oestreich said.
Matt Wright, who has been involved with turning the property into an indoor shooting range, and is also a member of the Clintonville Police Department, said the Oestreich family originally contacted the police department with their idea.
“There was a possibility of our (shooting) range being shut down, our outdoor range. And they wanted to help us out with an indoor range, and it kept on morphing into this,” Wright said. “There’s been many different options and additions, ideas that were thrown around and done and handled until we finally came to this.”
Wright said there isn’t a facility like Clintonville Range and Training Center nearby. What puts this facility above other indoor shooting ranges is the virtual reality (VR) opportunities that it offers.
The facility
The renovation of the property to create Clintonville Range and Training Center began in 2021 and continued until just recently.
Oestreich said the process required major demolition, but the building was able to be saved and renovated. The areas for the shooting range lanes and the virtual reality room are part of the original building. The meeting room area was an addition.
Since the renovation started during Covid, Oestreich said getting materials was a challenge.
“You couldn’t get people in to work on it,” she said. “We thought we were going to have to completely rip out the floor in the range, and we didn’t have to. That was probably one of the biggest things, getting people in here to help us renovate it. We did a lot of it ourselves. Most of the demo we did ourselves.”
The shooting range area includes a six-lane, 25-yard gun range. With an eye on safety, the shooting range area is double concrete walled, steel lined, and includes double sound boards down the entire length of the shooting lanes to limit the noise that can be heard outside the building.
“We had a company from Georgia come up and design it where you can be standing at the firing line and as long as you are facing down range not a single round will leave this building,” Wright said. “As long as you follow the rules, it’s not going to leave the building.”
The VR training is done in a separate room, which includes monitors mounted on a wall.
When asked why they decided to build a state-of-the-art shooting range facility, Wright said, “Part of it was helping out law enforcement, and helping out government agencies. In law enforcement there’s not a lot of training around this area and places don’t have the VR. At night we’re open to the public, but during the day we’re open for law enforcement agencies to rent it out and to use so that they can get their training, and the best training they can possibly have.”
Oestreich added, “And also to help the community. If we have different trainings and things here, we’re hoping that people will see what we have in Clintonville as well. If they’re from out of town, they can stay in our hotels and eat at our restaurants.”
There was a training held during the summer, and law enforcement from as far as Duluth, Minnesota participated in that training.
Public use
The public will be allowed to use the shooting range and participate in VR classes. Memberships will be available.
Those under the age of 18 need to be supervised by a parent or guardian.
Police training
Both Wright and Oestriech hope area law enforcement agencies use the facility for training.
“There’s been a lot of interest in it,” Oestriech said. “There are some agencies that have already been involved in wanting to use it, and have already rented it out for using the VR.
An open house was held Oct. 24 for law enforcement agencies around northeast and central Wisconsin.
“We’re trying to do something for law enforcement,” Oestriech said. “My family has always backed law enforcement and this is just another way to do that.”
Oestriech added that the facility is perfect for smaller law enforcement agencies that don’t have a large training budget. Agencies can rent the entire facility, use the shooting range lanes, the VR, and have classes in the meeting area.
Virtual reality
Oestriech said having the VR available at the facility wasn’t in the original plan. When the company from Georgia came to create the shooting range area, they informed Oestriech that a VR system could also be added.
“My father said bring it (VR) up here and we’ll take a look at it,” Oestriech said. “When he brought it up, Matt (Wright) was here, and he said this would be awesome for training. We all ran through it, and you could see, because a lot of the times officers get the raw end of the deal. If ordinary people don’t know what they go through, and the split-second decisions they have to make, this is something we can show people. They can say ‘Oh, I understand why they do what they do.’”
With the VR, Wright said almost any scenario can be created, including traffic stops, domestic situations, active shooters, just a stray dog, to someone who’s not acting right.
“The best thing about that is it’s got a push to talk feature, so the person running the scenario is talking as the suspect, so there is not a set ending to each scenario,” Wright said. “It’s based on how the officer reacts for the de-escalation for how officers handle it on the streets. But you can talk to them and it better enhances the communication to deescalate any situation.”
Wright added that he knows technical schools are looking to add a VR system similar to the one Clintonville Range and Training Center has, but he isn’t aware of a tech school that has one set up for law enforcement to use.
“It’s just going to enhance training for law enforcement,” Wright said.
Oestriech said she hopes the facility benefits all of Clintonville.
“My dad’s from Clintonville,” Oestriech said. “This is our home and we want to make it as good as we can. If we can help out in that way, then that’s what we want to do.”
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