Gun Club’s Customers Give It Their Best Shots

It sounds like war in the hills above Irvine. Seven days a week the gunfire rings out as bullets fly and clay pigeons explode at the South Coast Gun Club, a public firing range in Irvine.

“Now listen up,” ordered an assistant range master over the loudspeaker to shooters lined up at the club’s 100 firing stations. “You will fire the final shell in your gun and then stand back of the red line. There will be absolutely no handling of fire arms during the cease-fire.”

Range master Ray Dinnan, a retired Marine who bosses a crew of 25 at the pistol range, watched as targets were retrieved from the hillside during the cease-fire.

“There’s a lot of people who like to shoot guns and come here to practice in the outdoors away from everyone,” Dinnan said. “We figure 30,000 sportsmen stop by here every year to shoot pistols and rifles.”

Members shot about 1 million clay pigeons last year, and the firing spots at the outdoor range generally have waiting lines on weekends and sometimes during the week, he said. About 800 adult and 200 junior club members regularly shoot targets with rifles or trap and skeet with shotguns.

“Shooting is one of the most challenging sports there is, and to many others it’s a form of family and individual recreation,” Dinnan said.

No one has suffered a shooting injury since the club opened in 1952, Dinnan said. Shooters must demonstrate safety skills before they are allowed at the range, he said. Those not willing to take and pass a safety course “are people who just want to pack a gun. They’re the ones who go to the desert to shoot where they’re not controlled.”

Club member Joe Phillips of Mission Viejo, a former Midwest police officer who was instructing his children aged 19, 17, 14 and 11 in target shooting, said, “People only get hurt when they don’t understand or know how to use guns.”

Phillips’ four are members of the club’s junior Olympic shooting group, “and that gives them a chance at a spot in a future Olympics,” Phillips said.

Looking at one of the targets and passing it around, Phillips said, “Kids get instant reward for their effort.”

The South Coast club is on barren land eight miles north of the San Diego Freeway on Jeffrey Road. Its closest neighbor is an orange grove.

The club, a competition shooting site for the National Rifle Assn. and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. based in Garden Grove, grossed $500,000 last year through its admission fee, Dinnan said. The daily fees are $4.25 for members and $6 for others.

“We don’t make much money from selling bullets,” he said, “because most members load their own shells,” which is about 75% cheaper than buying them preloaded.

Lem Dirting, 48, a Huntington Harbour graphic designer, was firing his old muzzle-loading rifle, which he hand-loads with black powder and a single bullet. It takes at least a minute to load the gun.

“You know,” joked Dirting, “I imagine anyone who used one of these (muzzle loaders) in the old days also carried a white flag with him.”