no animals involved. just good people and a great sport. here is a brief history of some of my travels over the decades. enjoy. ------------- bass pro cedar lodge, mo. 2021. you could eat off the range. natural hand laid stone traps. wow. the hull was from my semi auto. it was gone in 5 mins!
skeeter trap gun club, harrisburg, ar 2019. no down range target issues here! 16yd line was flooded so we shot behind the trap.
issac walton s&t club, midlothian va 1987... with my trusty sxm1. the range was sold and turned into a housing development. all but a memory.
welcome to ats.com! youre the first to stop in and visit from the other place, or ANY place, for that matter.
last squad at the old langley afb skeet/trap club, va. 1997. after this pic was shot, the range closed forever. currently on this same location, is a deep water port for military ships. there we are. im holding my trusty m12 and sarah has her cosmi.
nas oceana mwr skeet/trap range, VA. what you see here was closed down when the CO complained about lead shotfall issues. i use to work here in 1990.
westchester sportsmans club, cortlandt manor, ny. 1986. primarily international shooters at the time.
Naval Weapons Station China Lake, CA 1989. man was it hot. solid black targets only. too bright for anything else!
inyokern rod and gun club, CA. 1989. all hand traps, with cranks, with trap boys in both skeet and trap bunkers! youd die without shade so shooting stopped mid day. you can see the beginning of the southern most tip of the sierra-nevada mountain chain in the background. thus the reason for so many trees. otherwise its death valley region. it never really rained, so they kept all the sofas outside year round.
NATTC Lakehurst Trap Club, Lakehurst NJ. 1986. these pics were shot just before the air station extended the runways length and took out the club in one fell swoop of a D7 caterpiller. it was so far out, no electricity was used. note the kerosene oil tank used for heat in the club. note the classic rod and bar cocker. a trapper loaded in the bunker. truly missed.
orange county rod and gun club, orlando, fla 1985. shot my first 100 bird ata match and won my first lewis purse here. sadly, its now a ballpark and surrounded by housing developments. you can see seaworld in the distance. when i went to seaworld, i use to be able to hear the shotguns. note the flooded trap. it always rained hard here.
NAS Lemoore CA. Skeet/Trap range,1984. i do have another pic of me in the group, but i cant find it. i was taking this pic of my first bunch of cronies in the trap/skeet sport. these are the oldest pics i have of any range or proof of shooting. dan b.use to come out here on occasion. didnt know who he was, but i do now! he was shooting from the parking lot with the guys one day. i was just a green horn secretary of the club! lol. shot my 1st 25 straight here. still have the hat. 4th man from left is rick powell. he and his wife taught me skeet and introduced me to nssa.
meriden rod and gun club, ct. 2020. one simple modest trap. no one was around when I shot. they all were over fishing at the club lake in a tournament!
2014, (NEARK) northeast arkansas shooters assoc., walnut grove, ar. now defunked. use to be the army aux airfields base skeet/trap range. FAA closed the range due to lead falling on an.....ABANDONED RUNWAY on an ABANDONED BASE. shortly after this pic was taken, it closed.
still looking for more lost and buried pics. will post em' soon. heres the list of ranges i visited but the pictures are lost: ft dix s&t range, n.j campfire club, chappaqua, n.y. blue rock s&t club, little rock, ar rover s&t range, mo top of the ozarks, mo big piney gun club, mo lackland afb rivanna r&p club, va ft eustis, va lafayette r&g club, va dover afb, del oak ridge sportsmans assoc, tn andover sportsmans club, ct groton sportsmans club, ct mountain valley sportsmans assoc, ar prospect hall, wv subic bay MWR s&t range, R.P. salisbury gun club, md
ive given up on a lot of the missing pics I took over the years, so I started revisiting the ranges and will reshoot the locations. since I take all my shots with an old 35mm, in a few weeks, the film will be ready for: Wallingford r&g club, ct Elm city gun club, ct Hamden f&g club, ct pahquioque r&g club, ct harwinton r&g, ct thomaston f&g club, ct
2022 omelagdon range, new castle, del this is the half way point for my trips back and forth to ct from va. I always pop in a few during my rest stop here.
WOW.what a great experience you have had. Thanks for sharing the pics with us. I didn’t know that the Grand entrance had a house on the left side.This was probably before my time.your wife has to be a great person letting you shoot at all of these places.For a few years my wife would accompany me to the shoots.Then after a while she said, see you when you get home.
since im never going to get a chance to visit usmc quantico, va again, allow me to post a pic from their website. i shot here in 1992.
same goes for black canyon shooting range, AZ. its now called the ben avery clay range. i shot my first nssa match here in 1985. i won b class 28ga. i got the worst sunburn i ever had in my life here. the aug heat was unbearable. i dont know how people can retire, move here, and call it wonderful. (photo credit, ben avery home page.)
back in 1995, i was invited to try out for the u.s. olympic skeet team at ft benning, ga. i got waxed needless to say. i will never be down in ga ever again, so here is a shot of the range that i got humbled on, from their website.....
we go more north now when traveling west, to avoid the crazy I-40 traffic in tn, so i'll never see this one again. fairfield glade sportsmans club, tn. i was here in 2019. photo credit to their website.
(photo credit from club website) fredricksburg rod and gun club, va 1995 many enjoyed their famous steamed crab dinners.
i'll never be in ca again, so heres a pic from their website. kingsburg r&g club, ca i use to shoot a 34" 870 here back in 1985. the fun shoot was shot from the back door to the club on this trap. the kern river always flooded.
(a current photo credit to bend in river website) i shot here passing thru tn. in 2009. it just rained then, and station 1 filled with water. (notice the slope where sta 1 is in this pic. it came up to above my ankles.) went straight anyway! i still have the 25 straight pin on my shooting bag too. it doesnt get any more rustic than bend in river. lawn chairs are left under favorite trees year round by the locals.
fresno trap and skeet club, ca 1985. (current photo credit to their website) i use to shoot here when i was stationed at nas lemoore ca./usn saw my first ever winchester super xm1 in the rack for sale outside this club. bought it and still have it.
forest city gun club, savanna, ga 1996. i won the 20ga afsa match here. 100 straight. i beat mike schmitt in a shootoff. im told the world shoot use to be shot here before my time. (photo credit fcgc)
unless i find those old pics of mine, i wont be able to post up the ft eustis s&t range in yorktown va.. its toast. it was another victim of base CO's being pressured into closing base ranges due to the lead shot issue from the epa.
my pleasure. seems my path thru the shooting sports tended to lead me on the path less traveled. some like hype, glamour, and excitement. i seem to prefer the slow, small, personal, less stress, easy to enjoy places.
roockbridge trout farm, mo 2011/2022) the wife and i go here to enjoy a casual moment and have some great trout dishes when we vacation in mo.. i leave my gun home now. last time i shot here was in 2011, it was 10.00 a game. that was double what i charged at my club 30 minutes away. so i said, never again. 11 years later i swing by the club and saw it was up to 25.00 a game! and now in 2023, its up to 30.00. and for what you get, youd think theyd serve you drinks, clean your gun and wash your car to go with it. (pic credit courtesy the trout farm website)
Portsmouth R&P Club, Portsmouth, Va 2024 busy little one trap operation. just 10 minutes from my home.
im going to try to re-shoot the following while im in mo.. i cant find the old pics from when iws there long ago: rover s&t range, mo top of the ozarks, mo big piney gun club, mo