Clay Target Nation, April 2019

q An expansive RV park allows shooters to spend a week or more in their motorhomes or campers APRIL 2019 CLAY TARGET NATION 37 the sport internationally and the trend to spread interest in this fashion continued during the Korean War and Vietnam At the end of the war skeet shooting was ready to pick up where it left off in the U S However Homer and Louis Tilton the owners of National Sportsman publishing and owners of the NSSA had lost interest One hundred shooters gathered and offered to buy the NSSA A powwow was held and terms of agreement laid out The Tiltons turned over their rights to the association and the new NSSA with the beneficial help of the NRA took charge as a non profit organization on December 16 1946 In 1948 the Nationals were held in Las Vegas During the business meeting a decision was made to find a permanent home for the NSSA offices The decision was made to move from NRA headquarters in Washington D C to Oak Lawn Avenue in Dallas The Dallas Gun Club deeded 92 acres to the association and 18 new skeet fields were developed in anticipation of the 1949 Nationals This was the new home of the Nationals from 1949 to 1952 Records were set shotguns improved and membership grew The 50s and 60s were boom years for skeet Then the inevitable happened again The Dallas facility was outgrown and a new permanent facility was needed In 1971 what had become the World Skeet Championships was held in San Antonio at the Texas International Gun Club By 1973 the decision was made to buy the facility and move the NSSA to San Antonio The name shifted to the National Gun Club and additional parts and parcels were purchased at different times over the years to form the 671 acre property we have today However the World Shoot continued to rove until 1993 when it finally settled in San Antonio to stay In 1997 the name of the facility changed once more and today it is known as the National Shooting Complex NSC Meanwhile sporting clays was becoming a popular shotgun discipline in the U S and several attempts had been made by other groups to establish and grow a national governing body for the sport NSSA with the advantages of a home club and organizational infrastructure already in place founded the National Sporting Clays Association as a division of NSSA in March 1989 Presently all the NSSA and NSCA business and historical documents are housed at the National Shooting Complex While NSSA NSCA business is conducted as a non profit the shooting complex is a stand alone entity unto itself The activities on the property pay the expenses and overhead for the events on the property says Executive Director Michael Hampton Jr It was an absolute miracle that this property was bought as a skeet venue but then has the terrain for sporting clays also Its a shotgun facility that hosts skeet trap sporting clays international skeet modified trap and Olympic style bunker trap We have a shoot off stadium that seats 700 people and doubles as an awards venue and weve got more than 150 RV spots Then part of the property has an agriculture exemption and we lease grass to a nearby rancher Its a worldwide organization but one reason it works is because of the strong relationship we have with the local community San Antonio The complex is in a western suburb called Alamo Ranch It has hosted and continues to host many events unrelated to shooting sports such as the Junior Olympic Cross Country The NSC has been host to Boy Scout troop campouts the Texas Trophy Hunters BBQ Cook Off an Insane Inflatable run event Classic Car Show and two American Legion groups and it is the meeting place for the local homeowners association We also have a great relationship with the Catholic church across the p Vendors row hosts some of the biggest brands in clay target shooting and its always bustling during large events