The Koko Head Shooting Complex is expected to ring out with even more gunfire this weekend as the island’s only city-run firing range is set to reopen its skeet and trap ranges.
Operated by the Koko Head Skeet Club, the skeet range reopens today and will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
The trap range, operated by the Honolulu Trap Club, will reopen Sunday and will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays only.
Hours of operation for both ranges — meant for the similar sports of shooting at clay targets hurled into the air — are subject to change, based on the discretion of the range safety officer, the city said.
Due to an ongoing staffing shortage, the shooting facility at 8102 Kalanianaole Highway implemented a weekend-only operation. Shooters are required to apply on the city’s free online reservations system to shoot their licensed weapons.
“The extended closure of the trap and skeet ranges was required to conduct ballistic testing of projectiles discharged at the southern end of Koko Head Shooting Complex,” Nate Serota, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation spokesperson, told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. “This recent ballistics report concluded that crater is more than sufficient height to contain all lead shot fall within the confines of the shooting complex.”
He added that more work on the shooting complex is pending.
“The silhouette range and cowboy action range remains closed at this time,” Serota said. “We are working with additional agencies such as the Honolulu Police Department and the state Department of Public Safety on improvements to those ranges, as they previously utilized these ranges.”
Improvements include repairs to the backstop on the silhouette range, he added.
“Currently, our other big obstacle to making the complex more available to the public is staffing,” Serota said.
To that end, the city is looking to recruit a full-time range attendant to supervise, coordinate and direct the ranges’ activities. The job pays about $50,000 a year plus benefits, the city said.
Reopening gun ranges at the Koko Head complex marks the operation’s slow but steady return, which follows discovery of health and safety issues there late last year.
On Sept. 16, 2022, the shooting complex shuttered after the city received notice that blood test results for 12 range employees indicated elevated levels of lead.
The city claimed those lead levels were well below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and medically established levels of concern.
However, the employees were relocated out of an abundance of caution, the city said.
Due in part to lead contamination as well as the age of the World War II-era facility, the shooting complex underwent both contracted and in-house repair work.
That work, which the city estimated at $400,000, included a berm renovation with 300,000 cubic yards of sifted dirt for the pistol and rifle ranges to reinforce backstops along the complex’s northern targets to prevent ricochets.
In August 2022, within the northern berm, a high- caliber bullet hit a dormant firearm slug that ricocheted into the window of a parked car. No injuries were reported in that incident.
“We won’t have any ricochets for the pistol and rifle ranges,” Serota said during an April news conference at the range.
Other updates included new roofing, painting, installation of new signage and partial removal of a damaged wall separating both ranges.
The planned regular cleaning of the range’s pistol and rifle bays — to rid them of lingering lead dust and other possible toxic contaminants — was also to be done, the city said.
At the initial reopening of the range in April, Mayor Rick Blangiardi said the need for a second city- operated gun range could be considered for West Oahu.
“There’s a lot of conversation about whether or not we can replicate this finally on the West Side, and we are already beginning to look at that to see what the feasibility would be so people wouldn’t have to come that far,” Blangiardi said, adding that West Oahu’s growing population warranted such a facility. “It would be nice if we had a couple of these.”
The mayor, however, stressed any future location or funding source for a second city-run firing range was still unknown.
“If we had the land, that’s a big benefit right there,” Blangiardi said. “But I think it makes a lot of sense … and if we could get it done, it would be very gratifying (and) a lot of people would be really happy.”
The mayor’s comments followed the discovery of at least one illegal gun range in a Waianae neighborhood.
In February, following residential complaints over daily, hours-long gunfire occurring at a Hakimo Road property, the city Department of Planning and Permitting, with assistance from HPD, responded to the scene.
They would eventually shut down and impose fines on a property owner allegedly operating an illegal gun range on a 7-acre parcel zoned for agricultural use.
This week the city remained unclear as to whether a second city-run firearms range for legal shooting would materialize in West Oahu.
“I am not sure if there are any updates regarding having a second city shooting range,” Serota said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean these discussions have not progressed.”
Meanwhile, due to limited staffing, the pistol and rifle ranges continue to operate only on weekends, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m..
To register, shooters are asked to use pros.hnl.info to book one-hour, 20-minute time slots. Walk-in use of the ranges during regular hours of operation is available as well, the city said.
