Ft Bragg Clay Target Center
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 5:07 pm
Program was received in the mail with invitation to attend the inaugural registered trap shooting tournament at the Fort Bragg Clay Target Center in March 2002.
This was exciting news. A brand new shooting facility had been constructed just off of Manchester Blvd in Spring Lake, NC. At the time, there were 6 trap fields and 12 skeet fields laid out on just about as level a line as you will find anywhere. Today you can see a 5 stand lay out has been added, centered in one of the skeet fields. This place has also been host to the National Skeet shooting championships.
The pine trees that today shield the view of Manchester Blvd were literally only knee high, if that. You could see all the traffic on Manchester as you were shooting. The roadway in was just as dusty….. The secondary clubhouse and bathhouse had not yet been constructed.
Fred Redmon and I had determined to drive down the preceding Friday afternoon to see the facility and shoot a practice round or two then spend the night in local motel. The place was immaculate as expected and the attending MWR personnel were very accommodating.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny. A perfect day to christen the new facility. The shoot was very well attended with a host of shooters from around the state along with people from out of state. Several of the NC “Big Dogs” were there including Charles C Brown Jr., Sherwood Jenkins, Berk Stephens and several others. I don’t remember what the winning scores were or who had them, what I do remember is that everyone agreed that is was a great place to shoot with a lot of potential.
There are a few quirks that you need to learn to deal with when shooting there. One of the biggies is when a C-5 or C-17 lumbers by in front of you. Pope AFB is/was right across the main road and these monsters are very low and very slow as they prepare to land.
Another is the reverberation you experience from the skeet field overlays when shots are fired. Never really an issue, it can be distracting until you learn to ignore it.
There have been some interesting times at FBCTC. There was the winter time shoot when we shot frozen bio targets….they had absorbed moisture and froze rendering them literally unbreakable.
There are the Thanksgiving shoots when Marty puts on a great feed for those present.
Then there was the time Marty lost Radar (this was too funny after it was over). Marty has a history of picking gender and species confused pets.
Marty came out of the clubhouse in an absolute panic. WHERE’S RADAR!!!!!???? ANYBODY SEEN RADAR????!!!!
Radar was a scrappy little (6 lb) long haired Chihuahua that had a Doberman attitude. I had seen Radar regularly tell much larger dogs that he was going to grease back their ears and swallow them whole.
Everybody dropped whatever we were doing to look for the hapless little fellow. We went from one end of the property to the other. Searching back behind, looking out front. We began to speculate that he might have fallen victim to one of the resident hawks that would frequent the grounds.
Search efforts continued for at least 30 minutes.
Then the AAAAHA moment. Marty, look in your car!
There was Radar, sitting on the console watching all of us looking for him. The little turd!
We had all determined that Mr. Hill was quite relieved that Ms. Margaret wasn’t gonna do him bodily harm. Not sure if he ever even told her………note to self…….
There have been several mangers taking a turn a FBCTC. Chuck and Sandy Patterson always come to mind for several of us when Ft Bragg is brought up. They took care of the place for many seasons before moving to California to be closer to family. They are truly wonderful people and are sorely missed here in NC
Frank McFall (RIP) basically took care of the grounds as well as shot some. My youngest son took a real liking to Frank and would always seek Frank out to ride around in the Gator with him.
For the last several target years Marty, regularly assisted by Greg High, keeps the facility going to provide us with a quality place to shoot. Thank You.
See you next time wherever it is, Travel Safe. Dan
PS.
I will be out of town over the Labor Day Holiday and hope to experience another adventure to share at some point
Mash on the link below for some old Ft. Bragg pictures.....
https://photobucket.com/share/8521c8c1- ... ef36f6ec97
This was exciting news. A brand new shooting facility had been constructed just off of Manchester Blvd in Spring Lake, NC. At the time, there were 6 trap fields and 12 skeet fields laid out on just about as level a line as you will find anywhere. Today you can see a 5 stand lay out has been added, centered in one of the skeet fields. This place has also been host to the National Skeet shooting championships.
The pine trees that today shield the view of Manchester Blvd were literally only knee high, if that. You could see all the traffic on Manchester as you were shooting. The roadway in was just as dusty….. The secondary clubhouse and bathhouse had not yet been constructed.
Fred Redmon and I had determined to drive down the preceding Friday afternoon to see the facility and shoot a practice round or two then spend the night in local motel. The place was immaculate as expected and the attending MWR personnel were very accommodating.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny. A perfect day to christen the new facility. The shoot was very well attended with a host of shooters from around the state along with people from out of state. Several of the NC “Big Dogs” were there including Charles C Brown Jr., Sherwood Jenkins, Berk Stephens and several others. I don’t remember what the winning scores were or who had them, what I do remember is that everyone agreed that is was a great place to shoot with a lot of potential.
There are a few quirks that you need to learn to deal with when shooting there. One of the biggies is when a C-5 or C-17 lumbers by in front of you. Pope AFB is/was right across the main road and these monsters are very low and very slow as they prepare to land.
Another is the reverberation you experience from the skeet field overlays when shots are fired. Never really an issue, it can be distracting until you learn to ignore it.
There have been some interesting times at FBCTC. There was the winter time shoot when we shot frozen bio targets….they had absorbed moisture and froze rendering them literally unbreakable.
There are the Thanksgiving shoots when Marty puts on a great feed for those present.
Then there was the time Marty lost Radar (this was too funny after it was over). Marty has a history of picking gender and species confused pets.
Marty came out of the clubhouse in an absolute panic. WHERE’S RADAR!!!!!???? ANYBODY SEEN RADAR????!!!!
Radar was a scrappy little (6 lb) long haired Chihuahua that had a Doberman attitude. I had seen Radar regularly tell much larger dogs that he was going to grease back their ears and swallow them whole.
Everybody dropped whatever we were doing to look for the hapless little fellow. We went from one end of the property to the other. Searching back behind, looking out front. We began to speculate that he might have fallen victim to one of the resident hawks that would frequent the grounds.
Search efforts continued for at least 30 minutes.
Then the AAAAHA moment. Marty, look in your car!
There was Radar, sitting on the console watching all of us looking for him. The little turd!
We had all determined that Mr. Hill was quite relieved that Ms. Margaret wasn’t gonna do him bodily harm. Not sure if he ever even told her………note to self…….
There have been several mangers taking a turn a FBCTC. Chuck and Sandy Patterson always come to mind for several of us when Ft Bragg is brought up. They took care of the place for many seasons before moving to California to be closer to family. They are truly wonderful people and are sorely missed here in NC
Frank McFall (RIP) basically took care of the grounds as well as shot some. My youngest son took a real liking to Frank and would always seek Frank out to ride around in the Gator with him.
For the last several target years Marty, regularly assisted by Greg High, keeps the facility going to provide us with a quality place to shoot. Thank You.
See you next time wherever it is, Travel Safe. Dan
PS.
I will be out of town over the Labor Day Holiday and hope to experience another adventure to share at some point
Mash on the link below for some old Ft. Bragg pictures.....
https://photobucket.com/share/8521c8c1- ... ef36f6ec97