TargetTalk

I recently explored a WW1 rifle range at Ft. Flagler, in Washington State. I was quite surprised to find that very few locals were aware of it's existence. Interestingly enough, "the pit" of 1917 is virtually the same as the pit we use, today. On this particular range the high tide brings sea water over the range. I have felt like I was standing in the sea, at Camp Perry, at times,...

All of our ranges soon.

Was the range set up to fire out to the water?
That seems to have been common range design.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I regularly used the train going into Toronto, Ontario. One of the stops on the line was "Long Branch", named after the armory once known for making WWII era Canadian Lee-Enfield rifles. I'd heard the facilities and range infrastructure was still standing. So, one day I got off at the station and found it.
The place was long abandoned and in a state of disrepair. Locals used it as a walking trail.
The rifle range backstops were basically tall walls consisting of two layers of bundle tree branches woven into panels with a thick berm of earth in between. The woven tree branches reminded me of pictures of British WWI trench reinforcement.

Yes, the range is aimed over the Straits. In the photo below the range is in the top right, near where the high tide has left a small pond- up near the cliffside and trees.

Here is a link to a great deal of information about these forts....

https://www.historylink.org/File/7524

Very nice.
In the 1980s I had to re-qualify with the M16 at the rifle range at Mare Island in Vallejo, CA.
The range backdrop was the San Francisco tidewaters..
The range officer was in a elevated tower and when a boat was coming, he ceased fire.