State shooting facility said to be one of the premier ranges in the Southeastern U.S.
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
As a boy growing up in central South Carolina I had a passion for shooting-sports and hunting (mostly deer and wild hogs, some rabbits and I enjoyed dove shoots with some of the older guys). I remember often driving the approximately 30 minutes from my boyhood home in Forest Acres (Columbia), S.C., out to the Wateree Gun Club on Highway 378 to refine and perfect my shotgun (skeet shooting) skills and then stalking or still-hunting deer across the highway on land owned by Walter Williams, an old collard-green farmer who also worked as a tire-changer and warehouse man for my dad at R.H. Clark Company in downtown Columbia.
That was 50 years ago. I was 16-years-old then and armed with a brand new Remington 870, 12-gauge pump-action shotgun (which I paid for with my own hard-earned money). I’m 66 now (and I still own that now-storied 870), which brings me to the grand opening of (and the ribbon-cutting for) the new Love Shooting Complex, one of seven public shooting ranges owned and operated by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).
The Love Shooting Complex (aka the SCDNR Skeet & Trap Facility at the Love Farm Wildlife Management Area) officially opened Friday afternoon, September 19, near Eastover less than five minutes from my old Wateree Gun Club, today known as Wateree Shooting Range, also one of SCDNR’s seven pristine ranges: Two located in the Upstate, three in the Midlands, and two in the Lowcountry.
What brings the Love facility even closer to home for me is that it has been built and developed on farmland previously owned by the Love family: Two of the Love sons – Michael and the late Johnny Love of Love Chevrolet – and I went to high school together, yes, back when I was shooting at the Wateree Gun Club and hunting deer in old Walter’s piney woods directly across the highway from the club.
Fifty years later, Michael and I both attended the September 2025 ribbon-cutting wherein Michael pointed to three old buildings hundreds of yards beyond the range; one of which was an airplane hanger next to a private airstrip his father used to fly in-and-out of.
My good friend Dr. Tom Mullikin, the world renowned global expedition leader, former U.S. Army officer, retired S.C. State Guard commanding general, and S.C. Floodwater Commission chair, was also in attendance and presiding over the ceremony: Tom is now the director of SCDNR (since February) and as of this month the ranking game warden in all of South Carolina.
Other attending VIPs included S.C. Speaker of the House Murrell Smith, S.C. Rep. Robert Reese, former S.C. Sen. Thomas McElveen, members of the SCDNR board, and S.C. Lt. Governor Pamela Evette, who was given the honor of shooting the first clay pigeon (disc) of the day which she accepted and proceeded to “smoke” from the sky with ease. By the way, Lt. Governor Evette is running for Governor and – as of this writing – is doing quite well in recent polling.
In his guest-welcoming remarks, Director Mullikin – like me, a lifelong hunting and shooting enthusiast – said: “Shooting ranges are about far more than marksmanship. They are about responsibility – about learning the right way, safely, ethically, and with respect for people and wildlife.”
Mullikin added: “These ranges [speaking of SCDNR’s seven sites] provide citizens with a safe, well-managed place to sight-in a rifle for deer season, learn the fundamentals of shotgun sports, or spend a Saturday teaching a young person how to handle a firearm correctly and confidently.”
The new state-of-the-art complex at the Love Farm Wildlife Management Area features eight skeet and trap fields, a beautiful outdoor pavilion with a grand fireplace, and fully tech-equipped classroom spaces. The 780-acre Love Farm WMA was purchased from the Love family in 2016 and includes a 60-acre public dove field and three waterfowl impoundments.
According to a statement released by SCDNR: “Construction of the facility began in 2022 with the support of the S.C. General Assembly, which provided $750,000 in funding, matched by more than $5.7 million in Federal Wildlife Restoration Funds dedicated to expanding public shooting access. The project was also supported by generous donations of $200,000 from The Boyd Foundation for equipment for the range and an initial $50,000 from the National Wild Turkey Federation towards the purchase of the land.”
The Love Shooting Complex is “truly unlike anything else in the Palmetto State,” said Mullikin.
Indeed, the facility is billed as one of the “premier [shooting] tournament venues in the Southeastern United States.”
Will I be shooting trap and skeet at the Love Shooting Complex (namesake of my high school buddies Michael and Johnny and their family) in the very near future? You bet. It’s been a while: The last time I shot clay pigeons was as a young Marine security force leader (also an expert USMC rifleman and an expert USMC pistol shooter) when fellow Marines and I were skeet-shooting off the fantail of a ship now 40 years ago, that would’ve been 10 years after my 16-year-old visits to the old Wateree Gun Club.
I’ll also return to the SCDNR Wateree Range (my old gun club) to shoot rifle and pistol. I still shoot pistol fairly regularly at indoor ranges and in nearby wooded areas to maintain my expert proficiency, but it’s really never enough.
Located at 1826 Vanboklen Road, Eastover, S.C., 29044, just off Highway 378 and less then one-and-a-half miles from the Wateree Range, the beautiful new Love Shooting Complex is open to the public Tuesday–Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
– W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a New York Times bestselling editor. Visit him at http://uswriter.com.
[Pictured are SCDNR Director Tom Mullikin, S.C. Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, members of the Michael Love family, and SCDNR boardmembers moments before the ribbon cutting for the new Love Shooting Complex in Eastover, S.C., Sept. 19, 2025.]
