Area gun club opens shooting range to public

When one local club opens its doors, it does so with a bang.

The Cape Girardeau County Gun Club welcomed visitors to the trap and skeet shooting range it maintains at the Apple Creek Conservation Area about 18 miles north of Jackson on Saturday. It was the first time the club, in partnership with the Missouri Conservation Department, opened the 4-month-old facility to the public.

"We'd love for people to come out here and give this sport a try because once you've done it, you get into it, it just gets in your blood," said club member Mark Presnell.

Skeet and trap, say those who know it, require the same elements: a shotgun, clay targets and "traps" to launch the targets. But they are vastly different sports.

The skeet range features two automated traps called a "high house" and a "low house." A companion to the shooter launches the pigeon from the 10-foot-high location or the 3-foot-high location or even both at the request of the shooter. Targets maybe outgoing, incoming or crossing to test a marksman's ability to quickly track and react from a fixed spot.

At the trap range, the shooter activates the launch with his voice by yelling "pull." The voice-activate trap, about 20 feet in front of the shooter, then hurls a target up in a high, lofting arc away from the shooter. The shooter takes one or two shots before moving on to the next of the five stations in a semicircle around the range. This tests a marksman's ability to shoot long range from shifting points.

"With skeet they can be crossing laterally or doing a lot of different things. With trap the birds are always going away from you, but you're the one that's moving," Presnell said. "That's sort of what makes it fun. Each angle, each station, each bird is a different situation."

There are a lot of variables, said Presnell The 12-gauge shot is leaving the gun at 1,200 feet per second and the target is traveling at 45 miles per hour. A good marksman, for example, will aim about four feet (estimated by four finger-lengths) ahead of a target moving laterally.

Gun Club operations manager Gary Robbins was happy Saturday to show novices the basics of skeet and trap shooting. He said the club is overjoyed to have a range again.

"We're coming back as a club. We're growing. Because basically for a while there we had died and are just now being resurrected," he said.

Robbins said the more than 50-year-old club was homeless since its previous range near the intersection of Highway 34 and U.S. 61 in Jackson was closed in 2004 because to surrounding development. After club members petitioned the Missouri Conservation Department, the state agreed to pay for the $240,000 range at Apple Creek. For its part, the club must staff and maintain the range, which also must be open to the public two days weekly.

Today the club has just under 40 members. Robbins feels that number will quickly grow.

"Our goal is to get people that don't know anything about trap and skeet shooting out here. Give them the opportunity to shoot with assistance and show them that it's safe and a whole lot of fun," he said.

The range officially opened in November to club members and is now open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. The group will hold an open house March 24.

Department of Conservation outdoor skills specialist Dee Dee Dockins hopes to get people involved as well. She has a number of activities in upcoming months, including a tutorial for young people about turkey hunting in which they will learn both shooting and conservation.

Dockins has a warning, though, for those looking to get into the sport: It can get expensive. A low-priced semiautomatic shotgun still costs $500 or more, and every box of shells costs $5. But she says people that invest in the sport are rewarded by it.

"You have to have the right equipment for anything you do. If you want to be a trumpet player, you can't be Wynton Marsalis with something you bought at Wal-Mart," she said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245