Juneau gun club aims for diversity

Last Thursday night at the Juneau Gun Club, Lindsay Birk walked up to the clubhouse carrying a large rectangular case. Seen on the street, the high school senior might have passed as a band student lugging around an instrument - such as a trombone her music teacher insisted she take home to practice.

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But there was no trombone in Birk's case. It was a shotgun. A Ruger Red Label over/under with a 26 inch barrel, to be precise. And Thursday, Lindsay used her gun to destroy as many bright orange clay pigeons as she could.

"I guess it's an adrenaline rush," Birk said after hitting about 30 out of 50 targets.

Birk was joined by about 130 people who came out to kick off Juneau Gun Club's 10 week long winter trap league.

Shooters take turns trying to hit clay pigeons from distances of 16 and 20 yards. The team of shooters that hit the most pigeons, wins.

According to the Amateur Trapshooting Association, the sport began in 18th century England using live birds and has been popular in the U.S. for more than 100 years. Clay pigeons were introduced in 1880.

The trap shooting league in Juneau has been around for about 50 years, but only recently has seen a change in the demographic of its users.

"It was a good old boys club," said Jay Davis, a longtime trap shooter and one of the club's most accurate members. He said 10 years ago there were no women members in Juneau and few young people. Now, he said, those days are long gone.

"That went by the wayside," he said.

"In the last 10 years there's been a miraculous change," echoed Craig Dahl, the club's vice-president.

Juneau Gun Club

Off Montana Creek Road

Public Hours: Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m, Wednesday 6 p.m. to 9 p.m

Cost for round of shooting: about $12

Loaner guns are available to new shooters

For more info: call 907-789-9844 or visit http://www.juneaugunclub.com/

To be sure, men still far outnumber women at the club by about a 6 to 1 margin, according Steve Bennett, the club's treasurer. But members said the current membership numbers show a positive change.

Most at the club Thursday attributed the turnaround to the efforts of a handful of people who made it a priority to make the club welcoming to new members. Tammy Kramer, the Gun Club's president is one of them. She began coming to the club about 10 years ago with her husband and was the only female there. She said she sat on the club's porch for six months before a member finally took notice of her and taught her how the rules and etiquette of trap shooting.

"It was kind of tough to break into that group," Kramer said. The rough experience motivated Kramer to become an instructor and recruit more women and youth to the club.

"When I took over as president my goal was to make it a more family friendly atmosphere because of what I went through," Kramer said.

To that end, the clubhouse has been remolded to include a kitchen so that there can be more social events there.

The changes at the Juneau Gun Club mirrors a national trend, according to Stacey Hodkey, director of marketing and communications for the Amateur Trapshooting Association. While overall membership in the national group has stayed steady at 35,000 to 40,000 members, Hodkey said there's been a marked increased in both young and female trap shooters.

"It's another thing that they can do with their families," Hodkey said.

She said her organization has been actively recruiting a more diverse clientele for the last few years to keep the sport viable and growing beyond the market for older men.

"There's just more introductory programs now that target the women and the kids and try and get them involved," Hodkey said. "We saw a need to tap into some new markets."

As for Birk, she said she doesn't feel like she's at the forefront of any movement. She said she just enjoys the moments on the range where her mind is clear, free of distraction and focused solely on a bright orange pigeon spinning away from her.

"It's not really revolutionary or anything," she said. "I guess it's just a cool little weird thing that I do."