By Shane Reynolds
The Gun Club at Cordillera Ranch is a ‘blast’ for the outdoor enthusiast! We have a 10-station sporting clays course, wobble trap, five-stand field and flush and a 3-D archery range.
The Gun Club is no stranger to activity. On any given week, the secluded creek canyon on 200 beautiful acres hosts members and their guests for fun shotgun shooting and target practice on the handgun range.
People often ask me what I enjoy about working at Cordillera Ranch in the outdoor recreation areas. My first response is always the wonderful members we have on the ranch, and one thing I most enjoy about our members is their conservative outlook and their appreciation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The spectacular Texas Hill Country and premier location of Cordillera Ranch makes our Gun Club one of the most beautiful in Texas. The sporting clays course offers a variety of shooting scenarios and target presentations, along with instruction, practice or competition. The course is designed for either walking or cart use. In addition to our 10-station sporting clays course, we offer a wobble trap station with five shooting positions, a five-stand field and flush, a handgun range and a 3-D archery range.
Teaching people about gun safety and how to shoot are both important aspects of what we offer at our Gun Club. We offer members and their guests opportunities to learn to shoot shotguns, take personal safety classes using handguns and the Texas License to Carry course and help people scope in rifles. Protecting the environment is just as important to us as safety, therefore prior to designing and opening our Gun Club in 2007, we developed a comprehensive Environmental Stewardship and Management Plan.
We have a traditional 10-station sporting clays course, offered year-round, where targets are launched in a variety of ways approximating a different hunting scenario at each station. Shooters rotate through ten different stations, and clays of varying sizes are used, approximating the different sizes of birds and targets found in hunting. The course is a great training tool for shooters who enjoy wing shooting. A trapper accompanies every squad of shooters that enters the course to ensure safety and appropriate operation of the traps for consistency of targets. The course features novice-friendly targets since the fun is in breaking targets, not missing them. For competition shoots, the traps are adjusted to separate the great from the good shooters. In addition to sporting clays, we offer a beautiful wobble trap, five-stand and flush station with fun targets that spring out of the oscillating trap in a direction unknown to the shooter.
The clay target game of five-stand is very similar to sporting clays in that a wide variety of targets are thrown in an effort to simulate situations commonly encountered when hunting upland game and waterfowl. Five-stand is a great way to get a sporting clays-like experience in a small amount of space, with very little walking. No two five-stand ranges are exactly alike, but they have one thing in common: there are five “stands” or stations from which you shoot. The five-stand has six traps, each of which throws a different target. Participants shoot in turn at five targets at each of the five stands, for a total of 25 shots per round, and various combinations of targets are thrown from the traps. Our outfitter staff will advise the shooter of the sequence of targets so they know what to expect, and the staff has the ability to change the menu set so shooters can experience a wide variety of scenarios. You can shoot our five-stand course with one to five shooters as it is also perfect for a group activity. Our five-stand range is a great addition to the already outstanding facilities at our Gun Club, and is a great range to get “tuned up” for your hunting endeavors.
Cordillera Ranch maintains a network of local shooting instructors for beginning to advanced shooters. If you need some instruction before beginning your next hunting trip, or are interested in learning advanced self-defense handgun techniques, our friendly staff and instructors are here to help. Shooting sports are fun and economical when it comes to entertaining a large group of shooters. We offer packages for our members and their guests that can be developed for shooting events that include instruction, a competition course, prizes, meals and beverages.
For any questions about the Gun Club at Cordillera Ranch, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Shane Reynolds is the Outdoor Recreation Director at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at outfitter@cordilleraranch.com or 210.616.6051.
