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History of provo gun club
Provo Gun Club started as an accommodation for the employees of Geneva Steel, Provo City, and surrounding towns in the early 1940s. The club was meant to facilitate a variety of shorting sports and was organized by individual shooters who wanted a place to exercise their sport, house the club, and provide a safe field of fire.
The organizers of Provo Gun Club met with the leaders of Provo City and were given a couple of acres of alkali salt grassland east of the small Provo Airport with a 99-year lease. The club members went to work draining and grading the ground. At first, there was only one mounted trap thrower that was borrowed from Geneva Steel. Shoots were held, and through the efforts of club members, members of Provo City, and other volunteers, electrical power was soon extended to the club. After a couple of years, the club was able to save enough money to put in two trap bunkers. A hand-set Winchester thrower was purchased on credit and installed. Power lines were run to both trap bunkers, and organized shoots were held. With donations and the modest proceeds from these competitions, members of the club were able to construct a clubhouse. By the early 1960s, the Provo Gun Club was becoming known in the state of Utah as one of the best clubs with some of the most challenging targets. During the next several years the Provo Gun Club produced several State Amateur Trap Association champions and had established itself as an important facility in the community for providing firearms training for church groups, Boy Scouts, mutual groups, veterans’ organizations, and NRA-sponsored training groups.
In or about 1975, Provo City awarded the area directly north of the Provo Gun Club to a helicopter company to house several hangers and offices. Noise complaints and allegations that shots might be coming too close to the helicopters prompted Provo City to force the closure of Provo Gun Club.
In 1985, Provo City motioned to annex the property above the city watershed to facilitate the placement of the Provo Gun Club and fulfill their responsibility to the lease contract. After personal donations and untold man-hours, four trap bunkers were installed, access was improved, and the foundation of a new clubhouse was poured. Soon the walls were erected and wiring was buried. Traps were installed and the club was ready to start up again. Slowly month by month the club members and officers completed the clubhouse.
By the late 80s, the club was back. Buddy shoots were held weekly, open to all comers, and Round Robin shoots were held every April to encourage new shooters and members. The Provo Gun Club has worked tirelessly to create a safe and inexpensive place for citizens from all across the county to come and enjoy shooting sports. With every dollar that was made, the Provo Gun Club officers have worked with their limited location to create new and inventive ways to provide shooting challenges. During the last decade or so volunteers club members have put in two state-of-the-art skeet ranges, one of which has been designed in such a way as to provide a 5-stand range. Responding to the needs of Sporting Clays shooting, Provo Gun Club officers, volunteers from DNR, and private companies like Judd Excavating improved an abandoned roadway below the club and installed temporary trap throwers creating one of the best Sporting Clay shooting ranges in the country. In 2010-11 the state Sporting Clays shooting organization requested the state championship be held at our temporary range and a three-day event was held. Positive comments about the shoot and location were highly praised by the participants and the state.