ASHLEY - Rick Garunovic settled himself on the bench and lined up the sight on his rare, Mosin-Nagant Russian military rifle to zero in on his cardboard target 100 yards away.

ASHLEY � Rick Garunovic settled himself on the bench and lined up the sight on his rare, Mosin-Nagant Russian military rifle to zero in on his cardboard target 100 yards away.

The blasts rang through the Delaware County countryside, again and again. Not every one was a bullseye but some were, and the others were awfully close.

And stepping back during a ceasefire so that others could pin up their paper targets at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' outdoor shooting space at the Delaware Wildlife Area, Garunovic looked around at the aging and outdated range and smiled.

"I've been coming here for a decade," said Garunovic, 42, of Delaware. "It's a little disappointing that it is going to close but hopefully it will all be worth the wait. I'm glad I got to come out and shoot here one last time. I'm looking forward to it opening bigger and better."

The range, which always closes for the season on Dec. 31 will do so this year, too, but it won't reopen in the spring of 2017 as usual because of a $6 million renovation and upgrade. The work will be extensive, said Eric Postell, outdoor education supervisor for ODNR's Division of Wildlife. Currently, there are six shooting positions at the 100-yard range. The new space will have 30. A pistol range will at least double in size and a new field area for trap shooting will be expansive. In total, it will go from 16 shooting positions to 90.

And though the space will be nice, the amenities might get the most attention. The portable toilet in the corner of a parking lot will be replaced by real restrooms, and a new education and training center will include an indoor archery and air-gun range, classrooms and a kitchenette. A new range master's suite will include video surveillance and intercoms to increase safety.

"This range has been here more than 40 years and it was designed for hunters," said Postell, who started his career with ODNR 18 years ago by working seasonally out of the same small and bare-bones office trailer that still is used at the supervised range. "But demographics have dramatically changed. Most gun buyers now are interested in self-defense or recreational shooting. We need to accommodate them with better space. This will become family friendly."

The renovations at the range were expected to happen this year or last but the property, along Route 229 east of Route 23, is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and environmental work delayed the project. Before the range can be rebuilt � it will relocate further back and east from the existing range � there must be soil samples taken and studies done to gauge the environmental impact of the ammunition on the property. That will take place in early 2017 and any necessary remediation on the land will take place after the new range is built.

The state hopes to reopen the range in 2018, said Korey Brown, district manager for the Division of Wildlife.

The money for the project comes from a federal excise tax collected on all guns and ammunition that is passed down to the states to be reinvested in fish and wildlife management and programs, including shooting sports, Brown said.

As gun sales have skyrocketed nationally in the past decade, the division has reaped the benefits. In 2007, the Ohio Division of Wildlife received $5.9 million as its share of the excise tax; this year it received almost $15 million.

As a result, the Delaware range (with almost 8,500 visitors this year) is not the only one getting a facelift. Upgrades either are planned or have happened at other archery and shooting sites, including ranges in Brown, Fayette, Harrison and Jefferson counties. Major work also is underway at Spring Valley range in Greene County, the division's largest, with nearly 24,000 annual visitors.

As part of the Delaware project, the state also will relocate a remote and unsupervised archery range from about four miles away to the Route 229 property. In addition to moving the static targets that are at that archery range now, a 3D walk-through course that better simulates a hunt will be added.

For Garunovic, these renovations cannot come too soon. He visits the range as often as he can, and said the $24 annual fee makes it a deal. For 2017, he is considering paying for membership to a private club in Zanesville. When Delaware reopens, though, he will be back.

"There aren't enough spaces like this," he said. "I can't wait to see what it will be like."

hzachariah@dispatch.com

@hollyzachariah