About Us

Point Pleasant Gun Club History

In the Beginning 1959 to 1967

The Gun Club, dba Point Pleasant Gun Club, was formed on September 21, 1959 in the State of West Virginia and has always utilized the mailing address P.O. Box 130, Point Pleasant, West Virginia 25550. The founding members included Pete Boggs, Chris Bauer, Ellis Faudree, Chuck Fisher, Bill Freeman, Rex Garrison, Harry Rhodes, Kenny Roush, Kinzy Smith, Bob Whittington, Keith Sayre and Joe Fierbagh.

The original shooting range was located off Sand Hill Road on the Harry Rhodes farm in Mason County. Club records indicate that an annual tournament was held there on September 1, 1963 and approximately 30 members were present. This location was used for 7 years, however, on March 10, 1966, a new piece of property was purchased to build a new gun range for the Club. The existing members secured a loan at a local bank and purchased the existing 27 acres located at 5289 Jericho Road from Pearl and Beulah Jones for $7,500.00. The deed was filed in the Mason County courthouse by Sam Littlepage, a prominent local lawyer and member of the Club.

After the purchase of the Jericho property, work began on building a block building for Club activities complete with bathrooms, a kitchen, an office, and storage area. All this construction was accomplished by our Club members who had the necessary skills to lay block, pour concrete, build interior walls and install roofing. Other members volunteered their time to perform electrical wiring and plumbing. The construction of the new location was truly a team effort. The building has been used for many years in conducting club meetings as well as organizing trap shooting contests. During this period, range improvements included three trap houses plus outdoor stadium lighting to allow nighttime shooting. At a later date, two additional trap houses were constructed for a total of four trap houses for shooting competition and one for practice shooting. A modern PAT TRAP was installed in Trap House Number 1 and the remaining houses were equipped with mechanical single-load throwers. An news article in the Point Pleasant Register documented that the Point Pleasant Gun Club held its first shooting event at the new gun range in 1967. The article also mentioned the Club’s annual steak dinner was to be held at the Club on Sunday at 1:00 pm. The article explained that the move from the Club’s previous location was necessitated due to the Club’s growth in the previous two years. In 1966, the local media highlighted that Point Pleasant Gun Club member, Kinzy Smith, took first in State in Trap Shooting at the Carbide Gun Club in St. Albans as well as clinching the Championship for Singles. The Point Pleasant Gun Club had many top-class shooters.

1972 to 2012

Our Secretary’s minutes show that in 1972, the Club had 54 voting members and 17 associate members. Associate members were allowed to participate in gun range activities but did not have voting rights.

Several West Virginia State Trap Association meets were held at the Point Pleasant Gun Club in the 1980’s. These State Meets brought hundreds of shooters and spectators. During this time, the Club conducted official monthly meetings. The meeting on May 9, 1986 indicated the club officers nominated during this meeting were Richard Paxton, President; Ron Lathey, Treasurer; Geneva Reed, Secretary; and Board of Directors included Leo Calandros, Wilson Rusk, John Kauff; and Phillip McGiffin.

The new shooting range was not completed without difficult and trying times. Around 1982, when our Nation was experiencing economic difficulties, the Point Pleasant Gun Club fell into financial hard times forcing the unpaid property taxes to the Mason County Court House Steps for a deed sale. Once again, the loyalty and spirit of the Club Members kicked into gear and one anonymous, able member personally paid the past tax bill which allowed the Club to get back on its feet. This was another example of our members’ commitment and love for the sport of shooting and our community.

During the 1986 period, the Club utilized a Club Manager who oversaw and managed the entire club even having possession of the drink machine and kitchen. He bought and then sold all target to Club Members and paid the Club a fee of 2 cents per each registered target thrown.

The Club minutes indicate that Club Member, Chris Bauer, played a significate role in building the concrete rifle and pistol range with a full shelter and 5 concrete tables. This area allowed for shooting distances from 50 yards, 100 yards and 150 yards.

Early Club Dues

The original Club dues from the beginning were approximately $30.00 a year for a full voting member and $20.00 a year for an associate member. In the later years from 2000 to 2012, the membership dropped to under 40 members and once again the economics of running the Club presented a challenge.

Around 2012, the Club gained a financial boost when a lead removal contractor made an offer to recover and remove all the lead from previous 35 years of trap, rifle and pistol shooting. The contractor paid for all the labor and machinery to mine 15 inches deep across the Club hillside and recovered $114,000.00 worth of lead. The typical deal nationwide in 2012 was the lead removal contractor would bare all the risk and cost of performing the mining and would pay a gun range 25% of the amount mined and sold.

The Club received a check for $28,500.00 and the contractor earned around $85,000.00 before his expenses of transporting his heavy mining equipment from Georgia (which included several large haulage trucks, end loader, large dozer, and a special mining machine all with a crew of 5 men for 3-4 days’ work). The company was named Windmill Enterprises from Georgia. If you would like more information on this process, the link is windmillenterprisesllc.com

2016 to 2020 Improvements takes a New Direction

From 2012 to 2016, the Club continued to decline to under 30 members due to a number of reasons including the cost of shooting clays and rifle ammunition had increased. The new Club President, JT Holland, Board Member, David Shinn, and Secretary, Tim Martin, developed a marketing plan to increase membership and club revenue so that Club’s bills could be paid. The dues were increased to $80.00 a year and Club Brochures were developed and placed at all gun stores within a 50-mile radius to recruit new members. This plan was met with great skepticism and actually 2 members resigned in protest of the dues being raised from $30.00 to $80.00. Considering that most other local range memberships today are $150.00 to $200.00 a year, it was felt the $80.00 fee was reasonable. In the long run, the Club membership increased from 39 members to 170 members and the Club again had the funds to pay all expenses in a timely manner.

In 2016, several individuals with business experience (Dave Shinn, JT Holland, Paul Simon and Tim Martin), established an improvement plan to take the funds gained from the lead recovery to make modernizations to the trap shooting section and the rifle and pistol side. A new $12,500.00 PAT TRAP was installed in Trap House Number 2 and groundwork was initiated to install a new pistol range and to place safety berms between the pistol, rifle and trap ranges. In all, a total of $24,000.00 was spent to install a pistol range with a shelter and 4 shooting tables; five stationary target stands were built along with a metal target stand containing 5 steel plates for the 150-yard position; six mobile target stands were built for closer range shooting; needed repairs were made to the Clubhouse including plumbing, ceiling repairs. Once again, a club member, Tommy Mayes, through his company, Alltek Environmental Services, donated the removal of mold in the Clubhouse that was valued at $3,500.00.

Inside the Clubhouse, new classroom tables and chairs were purchased and installed to conduct meetings and shooting safety classes. A new refrigerator was purchased and installed along with extensive cleaning and reorganizing. Repairs were made to the Club tractor used for mowing our 27 acres thanks to Dave Shinn and John Null (who almost totally rebuilt our old faithful 25-year-old Kubota).

2020 to 2022 Improvements and Club Memberships Continue to Increase

Like elsewhere in the world, the Club experienced the pandemic of COVID 19. New club officers were President, Larry Coleman, Secretary, Shelia Coleman and Treasurer, Tim Martin with Board Members Phil Bonzo, Heath Denney, Steve Slone, and John Null.

In 2020/2021, the Club was approached by two Gallipolis Youth Shooting groups looking for a new home. Gallia Academy Trap and the Gallia Shooting Aces 4-H groups became a wonderful addition to the Club and have revived our Club’s Trap Shooting activities. Today, there are approximately 50 young members along with their parents shooting trap here at the Club. With the addition of these groups, we immediately gained 50 good, well-behaved young adults to help with Club maintenance and improvements (anything from cutting the grass to cleaning the Clubhouse to unloading pallets of clay targets to painting and general clean up). These groups have also conducted several fund-raising events here at the Club. “Jingle Bells and Shotgun Shells,” has now become an annual event held before Christmas each year and as well as a turkey shoot in the spring.

Today many improvements continue. First our Board Members, Eric Clary and Heath Denney, submitted for a Midway grant through the Gallia County Aces of $35,000 and did indeed receive a $17,500.00 improvement grant which was ear-marked for improvements to fence installation, groundwork, stone for roadways and parking lot, Clubhouse bathroom improvements, 2 Conex boxes installed for clay storage and tractor/tool storage.

Club Members and their families worked many long hours to install our fence and sliding gate, rebuild our Clubhouse women’s and men’s bathrooms, install a new shelter near the parking lot for the trap shooting field to better organize shooting safety and management activities, plus a new clay thrower has been installed in Trap House Number 3. This now brings the Point Pleasant Gun Club to three trap houses, 5 rifle shooting tables with a 50-yard, 100-yard and a 150-yard target and a pistol range with 4 shooting tables with one stationary target and three mobile targets.

Our current improvement project to modernize our Club is the installation of our new website being built by ClubExpress of Chicago, which will allow members to view our calendar of activities which are open to members and/or the public, allow new members to join and/or current members to pay dues online. Members can access inside member-only information such as recent meeting minutes and participate in club forums. This new technology available through our website will improve club communications and membership information and potentially increase membership while decreasing some management expenses of the Club.

As an interested reader or Club member, if you have information or photos about the history of the Point Pleasant Gun Club, please contact us as our history will always be a work in progress.

– Tim Martin, Treasurer

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