The Collegian

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: News

Richard Varner II and his son Richard III shoot at Lost Nation one Sunday afternoon. Lost Nation is owned by the state and has been around since the 1970s.

If you don't know where this shooting range is, you probably won't find it. And even if you do know, it's easy to miss. With a name like Lost Nation, you can't help but wonder whether that's on purpose.

The state-owned shooting range has been around since the late 70s. In those 30 years, it's become part of rituals passed through generations.

Hudson native Richard Varner II sometimes takes his son, Richard III, to the range, as his father did for him.

"I've been coming here since I was a kid with my dad," Varner II said. "We got out of church and Dad said, 'Okay, load 'em up. Let's go shooting.'"

Lost Nation strays from the shooting range stereotype: there's no membership fee, no papers to sign, no workers monitoring the site. Bring your own equipment, load up and fire away.

Its features are limited. Two picnic tables barely fit beneath a plywood roof supported by four wooden beams. Shooters lay their gun cases on these tables like menacing picnic baskets.

To one side of the range, a trap thrower is set up for skeet shooting.

To get there from Hillsdale, take M-99 south until you reach and continue on 34 east. Take a right on Tripp Road, a left on Way Road, and you'll find it on your left.

Varner said he's passing his inherited knowledge on to his son. He recalls one of the first times he took his son shooting.

"He takes the gun and sticks it in the ground and I go, 'Son, we gotta talk.'" One of the first rules of gun safety, he said, is always point the barrel of the gun up into the air.

Varner said the range's free-for-all setup depends on the responsibility of those who use it.

"Use it, don't abuse it," he said.

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