Sportsmen's Club wins national award

by Martha Quetsch

            For promoting shotgun sports and community involvement, St. Charles Sportsmen's Club in Elburn recently was named Gun Club of the Year by the Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA).

            “It's a big deal for us,” Sportsmen's Club president Bob Schor said.

            More than 20 shooting organizations from throughout the nation competed for the award from the ATA, the national rule-making body for the sport of trapshooting.

            The award recognized the St. Charles club's leadership in promoting shotgun sports through its ATA-registered shooting programs including large leagues, hunting safety events and participation in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources wingshooting seminars.

            “We discharge more than 1.5 million targets (trap, skeet and sporting clays) each year,” Schor said. “There aren't a lot of clubs that can say that.”

            The ATA award also noted the Sportsmen's Club's active support of community organizations, club vice president Cle Rector said.

            The club offers free gun safety and trap shooting clinics monthly from June through September, donates hams and turkeys to the Elburn Food pantry, and supports local Little League and Scouts, Rector said.

            “We also host an annual Service Day, when we invite local police, firefighters and other (civil servants) to the club,” Rector said. “We give them each two boxes of shells and all the targets they need.”

            The ATA, headquartered in Vandalia, Ohio, has more than 50,000 members. It sanctions more than 6,000 registered shoots annually at shooting clubs across the U.S and Canada.

            Among those events is the Northern Illinois Zone Shoot at St. Charles Sportsmen's Club on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 13 and 14.

            In addition, the ATA sponsors large regional shooting competitions, as well as the Grand American Tournament each August at the World Shooting and Recreation Complex near Sparta, Ill.

            Rector received the award on behalf of St. Charles Sportsmen's Club during this year's Sparta event.

            The St. Charles Sportsmen's Club, located on Keslinger Road on the south edge of Elburn, is an 80-acre, shooting sports and recreation facility. Its trapshooting and sporting clays ranges are open to the public.

            Members also can use the skeet shooting range, fishing pond and the small bore rifle and pistol ranges.

            St. Charles Sportsmen's Club is open Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and on Saturdays and Sundays. The club maintains a 400-acre wingshooting facility south of Yorkville used by members during the upland bird season.

09/05/2008