Part 2

Texarkana Gun Club- The Early Years
Part 2 – The Range
By Dennis Shirk

By the year 1969, the club had acquired enough Deeds to the property to give us “color of title” to the entire 105 acres. Once we had an ownership interest in the property, we took possession and proceeded to pay the delinquent taxes. Although the unpaid taxes covered a number of years, they were minimal due to the very low appraisal value. At this time, the portion of the property which now comprises the pistol range was covered in new growth pine trees. About 10 or 12 members had a tree-cutting party, and in a long day, we hand-cut and piled enough trees to open up a section of the property between the present location of the railroad tie barrier and the north bank to be used as a very
primitive rifle range. As there were practically no pistol shooters in the club at the time, the range was used exclusively as a rifle range. Volunteers then erected a very rudimentary rifle shed allowing the members to shoot south to north into the north bank. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was a place to shoot.

There was very little formal activity on the range during most of the 1970’s. IPSC was still in its infancy and both pistol and rifle shooting were largely without rules or organization. As I recall, the first “organized” pistol match probably was held sometime in the late 1970’s. An event that really gave a boost to the local pistol scene was a bowling pin match sponsored by the Texarkana Arkansas Policemen’s Club on April 28, 1979. The match was held at a temporary range somewhere on the Arkansas side of town and drew 53 shooters, with many local merchants awarding merchandise for the prize table (including Jim Nelson of Knapp Shoes, now Nelson Shoes) who donated a gift
certificate won by yours truly, who used it to buy a Chapman holster, belt. And mag pouch). Jim is still a member.

That match created massive interest in both the range and the killing of bowling pins. On April 26, 1980, the Club held its first annual Bowling Pin Match at the range, with 74 shooters showing up in spite of very wet weather the night before. Included in the entries were Bill Wilson and Mike Plaxco, who placed second and fourth respectively. The club went on to host annual pin matches for a number of years until interest waned and they were discontinued, although we would hold an occasional club pin match to use up all of the left-over bowling pins. By the early 1980’s, we were affiliated with USPSA. For a few years, a second club, East Texas Practical Shooters, was formed as an off-shoot of the main club, consisting mostly of TGC members. The main purpose of the second club was to increase “mission count” to allow more members to qualify for the Nationals. The TGC matches were held on a Sunday and ETPS matches were held on a Saturday to please the church crowd. At that time our had clubs formed in Beaumont, Redlands, Nacogdoches, Bossier City, Longview and Tyler.