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Pennsylvania State Shotgunning Association
PSSA
Preparing for Future Generations
Between 2006 and 2017, the number of participants in Shooting Sports in the United States has grown by 32.5% overall.
Introduction.Initiated in 1890 as the Pennsylvania State Sportsman’s Association, the Pennsylvania State Shotgunning Association (PSSA), is the premier sportsmen’s and shotgun shooting association of Pennsylvania. The Northeast Shooting Complex, located in Elysburg, PA, is home to the largest and most prestigious state trapshooting competition anywhere in the U.S., although providing 22 days of trapshooting events. Annually this schedule draws more than 5,000 people and generates more than $4 million in economic impact. PSSA seeks to raise a total of $4 million to develop a year-round facility that includes all of the Shotgunning Sports.
This facility will continue to house the ATA trap tournaments that it is well known for, expanding to include a daily Sporting Clays and Skeet complex, including a new vendor building area. The goal is to increase the number of targets thrown and to create a destination where the public can participate in all of the Shotgun Sports.
This transition will also allow the junior programs such as SCTP and ACUI to hold their championships at one facility on a given weekend and shoot all three of their state or college championships. This complex will provide the PA State Sporting Cays Association and the PA State Skeet Association a home for their championships as well, if desired.
When completed, the facility is expected to draw 20,000 people annually and achieve $15 million in economic impact. The expanded facility includes:
• New sporting clays club house• New sporting clays course• 10 skeet fields• Renovations of the main clubhouse to allow for year round usage• 15 additional full-service campsites on existing property• Improvements to the complex roadways and parking• Build new target building• Permanent vendor buildings• Eventual purchase of additional acreage
The construction plan includes seven phases:
Spring 2019 Phase 1: Sporting Clays• Engineering plans, permits, parking area, construction
of shooting course, water control
$800,000
Phase 2: Sporting Clays• Installation of traps, stands and automated targets system
$640,000
Phase 3: Target Barn, Golf Cart Barn & Carts $600,000
Phase 4: Renovation of Existing Club House & Infastructure• Pave parking areas and road | Inside and outside painting• Heating and air conditioning | upgrade electric in campgrounds & vendor row
$750,000
Phase 5: Vendor Buildings $300,000
Phase 6: Sporting Clays Club House $400,000
Phase 7: Skeet Event Upper Club House $510,000
Total Project $4,000,000
According to the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF), shooting sports are one of the fastest growing sports in high schools in the country. Tom Wondrash, national director of Scholastic Clay Target Program, a branch of the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF), thinks that the sport’s rapid growth is due to its inclusivity and opportunity for participation. The SSSF has programs in 42 states and has seen participation grow from about 6,000 students in 2010 to 13,000 in 2014. Competitive shooting is also an Olympic sport. The SSSF feeds into the United States Olympic shooting team and the program has produced gold medalists. The USA State High School Clay Target League has seen their membership jump from 30 kids to almost 10,000 in the past eight years. They now have leagues in three states: Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota and are expanding to three more in 2016. They expect to double the number of states each year over the next few years.
Example of how new club house may look.
3PSSA Preparing for Future Generations
Demand for sporting clays and clay target shooting requires new, modernized and expanded facilities on land currently owned by the PSSA. It is estimated that 60-70% of new shooters are gravitating to sporting clays and newer forms of competition.
These planned improvements are the foundation of a strategy to keep PSSA vibrant, growing and attractive to the current as well as future generations of shooters and their families, while ensuring that we continue to support our traditional shooters. Pennsylvania currently has the most competitive shooters and trapshooting organizations in the US. The investments in the Northeast Shooting complex will enable PSSA to maintain its leadership among shooting venues.
PSSA shoots are the largest in PA and we have the largest state shoot in the country. In 2018, PSSA threw 2,446,350 targets in 22 days of shooting. That was 24,464 rounds of 100 targets. Our largest event is the Krieghoff Challenge on Friday of the state shoot. The 2018 attendance for this event was 1,244 shooters. PSSA expects to throw approximately 2.9 to 3 million targets in 2019 in only 23 days.
PSSA expects to attract other associations to use the facility We can host the SCTP Championships as well as the ACUI Championships for all 3 disciplines. PSSA will also be capable of hosting the state and regional Sporting Clays tournaments.
PSSA currently has approximately 3,000 active Trap Shooters who shot a minimum of 500 targets at PSSA in 2018. About 60% are from PA. The balance of the shooters are mainly from NY, Conn, Mass, NH, RI, VT, ME, MD & DE, with a few from the Canadian provinces and other foreign countries, notably Brazil. Once built, the plan is to have the facility open 7 days a week all year long (weather permitting) to provide some type of shotgun shooting.
The PSSA currently owns, on a virtually debt free basis, over 215 acres. The intent is to construct the sporting clays facility on the land outlined in green on the northeast corner of the map below. This land is not currently being used by the PSSA and historically had been leased to local farmers. The clays course will be safely out of the shot fall zone of all existing trap fields so as to allow simultaneous use of both venues. The plans are to establish portable skeet fields in front of existing trap fields on Banks 1 thru 5, commonly known as the “top line”. These skeet houses would be removed for ATA registered trap shoots. In addition, the PSSA has been in purchasing discussion with landowners to the east of the existing facility.
Contact:Mike Schuler, PSSA PresidentE: [email protected]: 814.598.2186www.pssashotgunning.org
Skip Klinger, Executive DirectorE: [email protected]: 717.867.4269www.pssashotgunning.org
5PSSA Preparing for Future Generations
