History:

The Bend Trap Club was originally created as an auxiliary organization of the Bend Rod and Gun Club in the early 1900’s. The Bend Rod and Gun Club was formed by a group of hunters, fishermen and shooters and was actively involved with helping the state and local officials manage game, create preserves, stock rivers and recommend hunting and fishing regulations. Earliest documented activities of the Bend Gun Club were newspaper articles from January 1913 mentioning that the club had supported the 1912 state trap shoot. J.N. Hunter was president of the 40 member club at that time. Trap shooting during the 1920-30’s was held at field a few miles south east of Bend in the Pilot Butte vicinity.

Sometime around 1923, the Bend Trap Club split from the Bend Rod and Gun Club, which became the Deschutes Rod and Gun Club. This organization would later morph into the Deschutes County Sportsman’s Club. The Bend Trap Club continued shooting at their field holding practice shooting and many merchandise events, today’s “Turkey Shoots”. A youth shooting program was started in 1936 to assist young shooters by mentoring with experienced members and having the club supply free ammunition.

Relocation to a new shooting site, also known as the American Legion Aviation Field in Carroll Acres, began in 1935 with one quarter interest in a 40 acre property south of Bend for $10. The property is now known as the Brosterhous site. The remaining portion of the site was obtained in September 1937 for $20. A skeet field and equipment was built in February 1935 and remained in use along with trap through 1937 when a project to overhaul the site to add more trap fields reconfigured the grounds layout.

Intensive work on the existing 3 trap site had the goal of hosting the PITA Oregon State Trap Shoot scheduled for June 9-12, 1938. By the time of the shoot, the 8 trap Brosterhous facility was proclaimed to be one of the best shooting locations in the west. The shoot had 244 registered shooters vying for the $5563 in cash and trophy prizes. Oregon’s Secretary of State Earl Snell turned in a perfect score of 25 on the first day. Field lighting was installed in July of 1950.

The club maintained an active shooting presence until May of 2006 when the site was turned over to Pennbrook for development of the site into residential homes. The club relocation finally settled on the present day Millican site, 280 acres, which is about 28 miles east of Bend. The new facility has a trap layout with 10 regulation fields. The first registered shoot was held in July 2008. The ATA Oregon State Shoots for 2009 and 2010 were both held at Bend during the month of July. A combination Skeet/Trap field overlay was completed in February 2009 and a 5-Stand/Skeet field added by July 2010..