Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) information

Rifle season starts soon.  Click here to get the latest information from Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks on Chronic Wasting Disease.

Summer/Fall events.

Below are the events for this summer.

There will also be trap shooting Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings.  Check the calendar for the time on the day(s) you are interested.  Trap shooting is open to the public. 

The rules for trap shooting are:

Eye and ear protection required

$5 per round of 25

Maximum shot size is 7 1/2

 

 

Trap shooting starts Sunday!

Trap shooting starts this Sunday June 10 at 12 noon.  We will also be bringing back the popular Wednesday evening trap shoots at 6 pm starting on June 13.  Check the calendar on the website to be sure we are shooting on the day you would like to shoot.  Don't forget to bring some mosquito repellent.  Trap shooting is open to the public.
Rules trap shooting are as follows:
$5 per round of 25
Ear and eye protection is required.
# 7 1/2 shot is the maximum size.
Come on out for a fun afternoon or evening!

Range is open!

We are happy to announce the range is now open, the new lock is on with this years combination. The road has firmed up but still has some soft spots. Let's try to minimize ruts by not driving in the same tracks as others and slowing down in the soft areas. Have fun out there.

WYSSA

Range is currently closed

The range is currently closed due to road conditions. 

A lot of work was put into the road last year to smooth it out and it is already badly rutted by people trying to run out to the range.  There is too much water and the road is extremely soft.  The Forest Service is going out tomorrow and may re-close the road completely.

It looks like probably at least a week before the road is in shape.

Thanks for your patience, we are all eager to out there,

WYSSA

Charging Bear Education

West Yellowstone Shooting Sports association is excited to announce we will be having a charging bear education day at the shooting range on June 16th, 12 noon. The Southwest Montana Bear Education Working Group is bringing their charging bear simulator.

Join us for an afternoon of practice and skill-building for bear encounters. Learn how to use bear spray, how to react to an encounter, and how to prevent a bear encounter. We'll also be going over special suggestions for hunting in bear country.

There is a short bear education talk then you will be able to practice against the simulator with inert bear spray. They will also have some mounted bears and skins along with information to check out. This program is open to the public and free of charge. If you like to hike, hunt, fish or just wander in the woods, this a great program to attend. Directions to the range are on the Contact Us page.

 The range will be closed to shooting activities until the event is over. 

We look forward to seeing you there,
WYSSA

2018 Presidents Letter

Hello again everyone,

Below is the 2018 Presidents Letter.  We hope to see you out there.

Dear Club Member:

I hope this letter finds you doing well as we look forward to the opening of the range on May 1^st weather and road conditions permitting. For those of you that aren’t aware, Jason Pond tendered his resignation as President at last year’s annual meeting as he and his family have relocated from West Yellowstone. Jason served as our club president for over 3 years and will be sorely missed as he was instrumental in helping drive a lot of the recent improvements you seen out at the range.

We still have a very active and involved board that continued to focus on range improvements in 2017. With the help of dedicated volunteers we were able to get a weed barrier and road mix installed around the perimeter of the rifle/handgun benches, add a wheelchair accessible path from the parking lot to the range, install weed barriers and stone improvements in the trap range, improved the parking area, and pour a concrete pad for an ADA compliant restroom.

Range Improvements Scheduled for 2018

• Install new ADA compliant restroom
• Install ADA ramp to the shooting benches
• Install mechanized gate and controller
• Install a fee tube to collect $5.00 fee when non-members join members at the range
• Paint the club house
• Work with Forest Service to burn the slash pile

At the end of the 2017 season we conducted a couple of mid-week trap shooting sessions to gauge interest from the members. I’m glad to report that there was substantial interest and as a result this summer we will be conducting an evening trap shooting session on Wednesday’s in addition to the Sunday afternoon session.

Our annual board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday June 27, 2018 at 6:00PM. We are close to finalizing the location and will be providing that information on our club website at www.wyssa.club. By pushing the meeting to the end of June and scheduling it on a weekday evening we hope this will allow more of our members to attend. We do currently have 3 open board positions so if anyone is interested in joining please reach out to me or any of the other board members.

We’ve included a page with updated range rules. Please review it and let us know if there are any questions. For that matter if you have any other questions, concerns, or suggestions please reach out to us as well. We value your input and are always discussing it during our board meetings. I look forward to seeing you at the annual meeting or out on the range.

Sincerely,

John Kuc
President, WYSSA

Range closed for the season

The shooting range is now closed for the season.  The road is closed at the intersection of Iris Dr and FS 1700.  The range is scheduled to reopen May 1, 2018, possibly a few days later depending on road/snow conditions.
We had a very successful season at the range.  Our first ever raffle was held which we will do again this following year, we had our most successful trap shooting season which included a couple of late season, mid week shooting day which were very popular and we will continue starting next spring.
Road mix was laid down over weed barrier around the shooting benches to ease brass cleanup, a path was made to the handgun range with the same, the parking area has a new layer of road mix and the area between the trap stations was cleaned of weeds and weed fabric with a layer of clean gravel was laid down.  A concrete walkway was poured behind the shooting benches to facilitate wheelchair access and a ramp will be poured next spring.
Check back this spring for a couple of exciting new projects planned for the range for next year.

Range improvements

This afternoon we poured concrete for the upcoming ADA compliant restroom and a walkway that is wheelchair accessible behind the rifle and handgun benches.  It was a frantic couple hours as rain moved in and we had to cover the work as we went along.  We would like to thank the people who were out there today and those who helped us form up and prepare the area last week.  In no particular order they are, Clyde Christensen, Bruce Fox, Dick Greene, Ed Geiger, Ron Freeze, Robert Leasure, Mark Freedman and last but not certainly not least, KC Tanner, our spearhead for projects at the range. 

Hunters must expect to see bears

Hunting 

This is a post from last year, but do to recent events we felt the need to post it again

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

With a spate of bear attacks recently in southwest Montana, it is important to remember that slow moving, quiet and camouflaged hunters are sharing the landscape with the state’s even stealthier bears, which may be stalking similar prey.
All hunters and recreationists must be prepared to encounter a grizzly bear and should consider all of western Montana grizzly bear country, not just the Rocky Mountain Front, Bob Marshall Wilderness complex and the Yellowstone ecosystem.
To safely hunt in bear country, hunters should:

• carry bear spray and know how to use it
• hunt with a partner and let someone else know your plans
• get harvested big game out of the woods quickly
• upon returning to a site where harvested game is left unattended, study the site at a distance for any movement or changes and signal your approach by making plenty of noise
• never attempt to frighten or haze a bear from a carcass
• contact FWP if a bear has consumed a carcass or covered it with debris rendering it unsalvageable.

For more on bears, visit FWP's website at fwp.mt.gov; then click Be Bear Aware. Bear resistant products are described on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee's website at www.igbconline.org. A “How to Hunt Safely in Grizzly Country” brochure is also available at FWP regional offices.

Thank you to our friends at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for allowing us to post this article.