Lance Frazier from the Herald Journal has a good interview with the manager of the Cache Valley Public Shooting Range in Logan, Utah, who recently received a grant from Friends of NRA to construct a new range facility.

Logan shooting range manager talks about future of facility

The Cache Valley Public Shooting Range opened in 1991 on Logan’s west side. Known at the time as the Cache Valley Hunter Education Center, the range was small, but over the years it has grown to include shooting options for virtually any type of weapon, and a variety of shooting events for adults and youth.

More on NRA's grant to a Utah Shooting Range ...

Zak Failla of The Shoshone News Press has an article about the Silver Valley Friends of NRA committee helping a local shooting range expand to accommodate more shooters.

Friends of the NRA Foundation Donates to Shooting Range

As shooters continue to flood in from outside the Silver Valley, the need for the Shoshone County Public Shooting Range to expand and continue growing has become more important.

Courtesy of a $12,000 grant from the Silver Valley Friends of the NRA Foundation, the public range will be able to offset “the construction cost for electric power, and to enclose the shooting range building.”

Larry Jennings, the secretary and treasurer of the range said that the new enclosure will allow other groups to more actively use the range and will start to maximize its current potential.

“This is going to be a great meeting place, and nice to have the enclosed gun range. It will be available for any outdoor activity organizations. It won't be anything fancy, not amenities, but it will be a nice clean meeting room,” he said. “We're run solely on donations, and it's just due to the support of the NRA that we can go forward with these improvements.”

Read the rest of the article on The Shoshone News Press' website here.

Rocky Granzella from The Chaffee County Times has a great article about a Colorado gun club receiving a grant to improve their facilities thanks to Friends of NRA.

Gun club adds 5-stand course to shooting range

This past August, the Buena Vista Sportsman's Club has added a new five-stand sporting clays course to its facilities south of the rodeo grounds in Buena Vista.

Jerry Steinauer of Buena Vista explains how this all came about.

"In October 2010 we held a meeting to discuss the possibilities of creating a sporting clays course on the grounds of the gun club. A National Rife Association grant was available for application so we made the decision to apply for the grant. Total value of the grant was $19,437. There wasn't much time to prepare the grant, but I managed to get all of the documents and plans put together, in a short amount of time, and get them sent off to the NRA. We were notified that we had been approved for the grant around January of 2011. Notification of funds wasn't given until March of this year and the grant funds were received in July," he said.

Read the complete article on the Friends of NRA grant at The Chaffee County Times' webpage here.

Tomorrow marks NRA's first Club Leadership & Development Webinar. Covering everything from recruiting to range development to grant applications, you can sign up now by clicking on this link.

"We're going to start everything at 1pm eastern time and run about an hour," explained Clubs, Associations and Range Services National Manager Elizabeth Bush. "This is our first official online workshop so it should be a lot of fun. Best of all – it's free!"

Joining Bush for the webinar will be Marketing Manager Son Nguyen and Marketing Coordinator Melissa Betts. And if you have any questions after hearing why an NRA affiliation is good for your business or how to raise funds for your club, you can ask through GoToMeeting's chat functions.

So why not take an hour or so out of your day. Sign up for Club & Association's Leadership & Development Webinar and find out how working with the National Rifle Association can help improve your operation.

One of the primary vendors and sponsors here at the 2011 NRA National Junior Air Gun Championship is Crosman®, a company known for their high-quality competition air guns.  Crosman® is a Gold Sponsor for the competition and has given two Challenger® PCP air rifles to be given as prizes.

Crosman® representative Mark DeBoard has a table set up in our vendor area where he has the Challenger® PCP competition air rifle on display.

The Challenger®, which came out in 2009, is a Dual Fuel® air rifle, meaning that it can shoot using either compressed air or carbon dioxide. It also features a three-position stock, a match-grade adjustable trigger, and a floating Lothar Walther™ barrel.

Although it was designed for the Sporter Class, DeBoard told NRAblog that some Precision shooters use the gun as well due to its superior accuracy.

“It’s a great entry-level Precision gun and you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a rifle,” said DeBoard of the Challenger®.

For the club price of just $475, the Challenger® is reasonably priced and is a good choice for either new shooters or seasoned Sporter competitors looking to transition into Precision shooting.

The Challenger® meets the requirements of a competitive air rifle for both CMP and NRA-sanctioned competitions and has become a popular rifle amongst shooting clubs, some of whom purchase them through NRA.

“We sell a lot of these through the NRA grant program,” said DeBoard.

If you’re here with us at Camp Perry, be sure to stop by the vendor area to thank Crosman® for their support and to check out the Challenger®. 

Each year, the NRA Foundation gives out grants to support various areas of the shooting sports, including our Youth Cooperative Organizations like 4-H. Here's a story about how one of these grants is helping young people excel in archery in New Mexico:

NRA grant boosts Valencia County 4-H archery program

Elijah Pena places his feet by the shooting line and pulls the bowstring back on a compound bow as he aims at the target 20 feet down range.

The 10-year-old 4-H member releases the string and the arrow flies toward the target, ending with a thud as it penetrates the second ring.

Like the parents of many first-year participants, Kevin and Mary Helen Pena were not sure if archery was going to be a good match for their son, Elijah. They didn't really want to invest in the equipment if this was to be a short-term interest of his, so they borrowed equipment from another 4-H family.

More

Today marked the opening on the Belfast Wildlife Area rifle range. While it’s true that there’s probably a handful of ranges opening across the United States every week, the Belfast range is significant for two reasons … first it’s an unmanned public range and second it was financed completely through NRA Grants and the Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Program.

We’ll have more on this next week, but many thanks to NRA Board member Herb Lanford, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director John Frampton and Emily Cope – the SC DNR’s Assistant Director of Special Projects and National Affairs.

The honor of the first shot was bestowed upon Emily for all her hard work in making this the first of many public unmanned ranges helped financed through Friend of NRA Grants.

From The Taft Independent:

The Taft Sportsmen

The Taft Sportsmen's Club was the recent recipient of over $20,000 in grants from the NRA Foundation. The NRA Foundation is a non-profit organization which raises funds for local and national firearms related projects through their Friends of NRA dinner events.

The Taft Sportsmen's Club was awarded a $5800 grant for their annual junior pheasant hunt generally held in November. This is the eighth year that the NRA Foundation has awarded the TSC a grant for their pheasant hunt.

More

"We need you to get more involved."

Those were the words of Arizona Field Representative Donna Cassity during her portion of the NRA's Club University here in Phoenix.

"The time you spent and the money you raise is vital to the continued success of shooting sports for our community and our kids."

With almost two hundred thousand dollars in grant money provided to Arizona clubs and operations over the past year, it's understandable why Cassity is so passionate about her work.

"Have you ever attended a Friends of NRA dinner? Did you enter the raffle? Do you serve on a committee? These are all things we can do to help ensure that our sport continues to thrive in the Grand Canyon State."

Because of Cassity's hard work, as well as all that of the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association and local NRA affiliated clubs, groups like the Rio Rico His School Army JROTC, the Globe Miami Gun Club, Mohave Top Guns, and Big Shots 4-H all received sizable grants for 2011. But it doesn't stop with grants. But as a Field Rep, Cassity is involved in more than just NRA grants in Arizona.

"We have a Friends Banquet tonight in Mesa, Arizona and a Women On Target® Instructional Shooting Clinic at the Casa Grande Police Range the first Sunday in April. Come out, it'll be fun!"