My Dad dragged me out pheasant hunting when I was about seven, threatened me when I got ahead of him and the dogs in the field. I imagined the back of his hand whipping me across the face to keep me behind the gun, but it never happened. I learned fast. At twelve, he took me out to our gun club and handed me over to some All Americans like John Dalton and others of his ilk. Dad seldom had to buy my second box of shells, the other shooters taking care of that chore. We always had a house full of setters, even though it was sometimes just one. By the time I was in college, I was the manager of our club and still had setters. Home from the Army in 1969, I still had setters as well as a great pointer, and still shot targets for money as well as a few box pigeons when I could afford them. A few years ago, we closed our eighty some year old club and I was honored as the senior member with the bronze plaque that had adorned the entrance. I continued my Parker addiction that had started when I was fourteen years old and that gravitated into PGCA Life Membership and a trip to Ilion with the PGCA Research Committee, the highlight of my shooting and collecting life. Now, at seventy four, I have to worry about liquidating my collection of guns and paper at an honorable price. Oh well, there is one in the mail, due Tuesday!

Was the gun club of which you speak the National Capitol Club that was in Damascus thirty or so years ago ?

Every year on the third weekend of June backwoods Quail Club Hosts The Junior U.S. Open. No adults, young people 5th grade to college. I have volunteered the last seven years. We have teams come from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and the shotgun team from the University of Alabama. We average 300 competitors. As mentioned above in this thread, the safety, manners and sportsmanship are second to none. It is the my favorite event to work and I look forward to it each year. At the first year of this event Rick Hemmingway and two other gentlemen formed the South Carolina Youth Shooting Foundation.

Craig, yes, National Capital Skeet and Trap Club, Darnestown, MD. The Damascus Izaak Walton League is where we relocated the 85 year old North South skeet shoot, the oldest continuously run NSSA skeet shoot in the USA.

Gentlemen, Let's get some of these young people to shoot in our Youth Shoot next year, I realize the logistics may not work for most but maybe some? Young people are the future of our shooting and collecting! Thanks to you fellows for being involved! Gary

Encroaching residential development is what I think sunk the National Capitol Skeet & Trap Club. I shot there numerous times before joining the Izaak Walton League Potomac Chapter in Poolesville. Currently living on Cape Cod and the same residential encroachment is happening around some of the few remaining trap and skeet clubs here. When the clubs were started in the '50s and '60s the surrounding neighbors were farmers with plenty of land as buffer. Now people have bought lots and built homes near these clubs and are complaining to town councils about noise and gun safety. One club, Midway in East Falmouth has prevailed in several lawsuits where neighbors have asked for more restriction to shooting activities.

Fortunately Tom, Massachusetts has a law which states, in effect, that if a gun (shooting) club was there when you bought your house you should have known of its existence, or your real estate agent should have known and disclosed it to you. Consequently, you have no grounds for a lawsuit.






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While that may be true an anti-gun lawyer can find many ways to harass a shooting venue. At my club we can’t shoot before 10:00 am on weekends.

And next it will be noon... then 2pm.... then ????

Volume of property is the solution. Tom Jay mentions a club where I have been a member for sixty years. We started with 365 acres and are now just under 700 acres and looking for more. We have sold all of our transferrable development rights (TDRs) for cash which we used to buy more land. Our property is of no interest to builders with no building rights. Volume of property has been our salvation. We have done all this without any appreciable gifting by dead members. However, the future may change that. Several years ago, we withstood an attempt by a country not friendly to our values to move in very close to us with questionable motives. As members of our community in good standing, our "town" joined us in our attempts to change the plans of this country and its dubious religious values. This took place before 9-11, an event that gave credence to our supposedly racist motives. The end result is that we are still hunting and fishing our property and still shooting rifles and shotguns seven days a week.