BRGC memberships and gift certificates for memberships are available!
Contact the Club Caretaker at 406-259-0006.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGES
November 2024
Hunting season is in full swing. I hope you all have had good luck this fall and, if you haven’t had any luck that at least you’ve been having fun. Hunting season is a great time for making memories with family or friends, and I hope you’re all taking advantage of the terrific opportunities that we have in Montana. You may have noticed the new trauma kits that have been placed on the different ranges around the club. These kits are intended for major wounds and include tourniquets, clotting agent, and bandages. These are not first aid kits so please don’t raid them for bandaids or aspirin but use them if necessary. Hopefully they are never needed. Also as a reminder, the annual Club membership meeting and elections will take place on December 4. Please attend this meeting to learn about club events and make your voice heard.
October 2024
By the time you are reading this message, October will be here with all the excitement that another hunting season brings to many of us in Montana. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to visit the big bore range to check the zero on your rifle before heading into the field. We want to be responsible, ethical hunters and knowing where our bullets hit at different distances is important for making that clean shot. We will have range safety officers on the big bore range on weekends through October to oversee the range and to help out. This is also the time of year when the BRGC divisions and the club itself begin holding elections. Each of the four divisions – archery, rifle/pistol, skeet, and sporting clays – will hold elections for division officers over the next month or two, and the club election of officers and directors will take place at the beginning of December. Watch the newsletter for the dates of the elections and please consider taking a more active role in the club by attending these meetings. Even if you are not yet ready to run for a position, the club is always looking for new people to become more involved.
September 2024
It’s hard to believe that summer 2024 is nearly over and Labor Day is here. It seems like I blinked on Memorial Day and the summer flew past. It’s been a very busy year at the Rod & Gun Club with a wide range of events and continually increasing use of the ranges by members and guests. The fall is shaping up to be just as busy as the summer was, with our focus shifting to the archery and rifle ranges so that we can get our tools tuned and our skills honed for the upcoming hunting seasons. On September 8, we will again be offering a free, open-to-the public range day on our big bore range. If you have friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors that are considering joining the Club, please have them visit on the 8th for a chance to use the rifle range. Range Safety Officers will be onsite to offer assistance. We are also getting to the time of year when we will be staffing the big bore range with RSOs. We are always looking for more people to help with the range duties and we are working on scheduling an NRA Range Safety Officer certification class. The class will be offered free of charge to people committed to working on the rifle range and will likely be held in November; if you are interested in taking this class, please send a note of interest to (contact the Rifle/Pistol Division). RSOs working the rifle range are paid for their time.
August 2024
As I write this monthly message, we are in the hottest part of the summer but before we know it hunting season will be here. Some of you are likely getting your bows tuned up and will be hitting the range frequently to get ready for archery season. Before long the weather will be turning colder and the rifle range will be getting busier. As we look forward to these late summer and autumn activities, this seems like a good time to look back on the year that we’ve had so far. The club has enjoyed a tremendous amount of activity this year with much more on the calendar. Speaking for myself, I have spent as much time behind a trigger as I could, but not as much as I would have liked. Other things come up and it is important to keep all things in balance. So as we approach fall, I hope you all continue to enjoy your activities, whether on the range or off.
July 2024
With the onset of summer, the Rod & Gun Club gets to be a busy place. Over just the last couple of weeks, the Skeet Division hosted the NSSA Yellowstone Open, Sporting Clays hosted the NSCA Jim Trythall Memorial event, and the action pistol program put on the Treasure State USPSA Championship. Upcoming events include the Cowboy Action state championship and numerous Big Sky State Games competitions. The variety of shooting opportunities at BRGC is amazing, and I encourage everyone to get out and participate.
A friend from a Wyoming range recently asked me about the cost of membership at BRGC and what a member has access to for their dues. In putting together an answer for him, I realized that there is too much to list and ended up pointing him to the member handbook that’s available on the website. While the cost of membership at BRGC is comparable to the other area ranges, the amount and diversity of shooting disciplines here is unsurpassed. We’re very lucky to have this facility and it is something that we should enjoy as much as time allows and share the experience with others.
June 2024
The BRGC Board is excited to be able to make the move toward a dedicated, paid Member Services position. For the past many years, the Member Services duties have been split between the Caretaker, Treasurer, and other personnel. Offering a dedicated position will both improve service to the Club’s members and will allow for cross-training and redundancy. Please review the job description through the link above and encourage someone that you know to apply.
While other gun clubs may be comfortable with the status quo, in the 20-plus years that I have been a member of BRGC the scope of improvements that have been made is exceptional. While many of the advances made over the last five years or so have been for safety and for expansion of the range, the addition of a dedicated Member Services position is more of an inward change with the goal of improving service to current and prospective members.
May 2024
We’ve had some terrific spring weather so far and can look forward to much more in the coming weeks. With summer just around the corner, I want to encourage all of you to get to the range and enjoy the outstanding facility that we have at the Rod and Gun Club. This is also a great time to try something new. The Club has a lot to offer, and you never know what you might enjoy until you try it. The people in the different divisions are always looking for new shooters and are very welcoming. Don’t be afraid to approach any of them and ask them to show you around; they are always willing to give you a tour and explain what is going on. Even better, bring along a buddy and introduce them to the Club and to the shooting sports that we enjoy.
April 2024
With the arrival of spring weather, most of us will be spending more time on the range. This is a good time to ask yourself if you are prepared for a medical emergency. Do you have a first aid kit in your range bag? Do you carry a tourniquet or a complete trauma kit? Just as important, do you know how to use it? Do you know where to find an AED? Do you know the street address of the Club to communicate it to first responders? We all hope that we do not have to deal with an emergency on the range, but hope is not an effective plan. I’d encourage everyone reading this message to give some thought to carrying basic first aid supplies with you on the range and to taking a first aid or CPR class. Several local providers are offering free or low-cost classes.
There is an AED device located inside the door of the main clubhouse; this door is always unlocked, and the AED is available for use by anyone needing it. These slick devices are easy to use and will guide you through the process.
The street address at the main Club gate is 2931 Rod and Gun Club Road, Billings, Montana 59106, and the latitude and longitude are 45.815 North, -108.589 West. Write this information down and put it in your wallet or enter it as a note in your phone.
March 2024
Spring is just around the corner, and that means the return of construction season to Montana. This year, Billings area construction will likely include finishing the inner belt loop connecting Zimmerman Trail with Wicks Lane. This new road runs close to the BRGC property on the north and may result in significant development over the next decade or so. We, as members of BRGC, need to do what we can to make sure that we are good neighbors going forward. One of the reasons for the improvements to the rifle and pistol range berms over the last few years is to minimize the chance of an errant round leaving our range. One thing that is important for everyone using those ranges to understand is that targets must be placed against a suitable backstop. This means a backer board on those ranges where they are available or placing your target against an end or side berm in the field bays. Doing so will help prevent bullets from ricocheting off the bay floor and leaving our property. We, as shooters, are responsible for every bullet that leaves the barrel and we need to take measures that none of them land where we don’t want them to.
February 2024
As we wait to learn whether the groundhog sees his shadow, our thoughts turn to warmer weather. For most Rod and Gun Club members, this means spending more time on the range. That might be trying out a new toy that we got over the winter, or taking out an old friend that hasn’t been out of the safe for a while. For other members, it means looking forward to the spring and summer leagues and other competitive opportunities available at the Club. If you have not participated in one of the competition events, I’d encourage you to give it a try. Competition is an excellent way to hone your skills and to try new ones. There are a couple of excellent upcoming opportunities for new shooters: the action pistol program is offering a new competitor clinic on March 2 and the sporting clays program is hosting a tutorial for new shooters on March 30. The skeet and archery programs have regular events throughout the year as well and would be happy to teach someone the ropes. The competitive programs at BRGC are extremely helpful and are always looking for new shooters. Watch the upcoming newsletters for more information or reach out to the division contacts.
January 2024
Greetings and Happy New Year, Rod & Gun Club Members! As we begin a new year, it is common to reflect on the past year and I find myself thinking back over the last year at BRGC. What a great year 2023 was! BRGC was home to several large competitions in 2023 that brought well over a thousand people to our Club. The people that I talked to who had not been to our range before were amazed at the terrific facilities we have, and 2023 saw numerous improvements to those facilities. Work continues on the Sporting Clays North Course and saw the completion of the first phase of the new Five Stand. Improvements at the pistol range included the addition of sunshades on the bays and the expansion of the parking area. The Skeet and Archery groups continue with their efforts to maintain and improve the ranges. The new year promises to bring even more improvements with continuing work on the new Five Stand and planned improvements at the big bore range bench area. It is a relatively small group of volunteers that spearheads all the work done at the range; please join me in thanking these members for the generous donation of their time to improve this club for all of us.
Please remember also that the rules posted on each range are there for your safety and it is important that we all read and follow them. When on the range, we are all safety officers and if you see someone committing an unsafe act, a polite reminder of the rules is appropriate. If you are on the receiving end of such a reminder, please be polite in return and take it as it is intended – firearm safety is for everyone’s benefit.
Matt Waite, President
December 2023
Season’s greetings fellow members. John Collins, a long-time board member, and tireless worker on the Archery range and all other parts of our club called and brought important information to our attention: The Rod and Gun Club is 125 years old this year!
Amazing! Originally our clubhouse sat at the foot of Black Otter Trail next to Boot Hill Cemetery, close to where Applebee’s is now. In 1953, Sherm Cowen bought the property where the Billings Trap Club is from the Rod and Gun Club and he and other members split off and formed the Billings Trap Club by Lake Elmo. Shortly after that in 1966, the remaining members moved the clubhouse from Boot Hill to the present location. Your outgoing President took hunter education in our clubhouse when it was still on Boot Hill, the benches we sit on were the same benches then, and that mountain lion was up there too! We owe our gratitude to those long-gone founders who started BRGC and the Trap Club. We also need to pay a little back by pitching in and volunteering to help maintain and improve our club. We are always looking for young guys and gals to help and keep us old guys from becoming grumpy old (fellows)!
In closing, a safety note, while on the Bench Rest Range, keep those muzzles pointed down range, do not allow your muzzle to point west, anywhere near the vicinity of our neighbors. If you do see someone committing an unsafe act, please gather the information concerning the unsafe act and bring it to the attention of the Board of Directors. We will take it from there. Follow our safety rules, they are there for a good reason. The fun ends when an accident occurs, don’t end the fun! As always, stay safe, be kind, and shoot straight.
is complete without at least one firearm, bow, or fishing rod! What better way to celebrate Christmas Day than a family trip to the range to test out the new bow or firearm. A quick trip to the range is a good excuse to get outside in the crisp air and enjoy family time doing the things we love. And last but not least, maybe there is someone who would appreciate a gift membership in our club, what better way to create a new shooting buddy or help a friend make the jump to being a member. In all things holiday, pause, reflect, take a moment savor every minute, it all goes very fast. Stay safe, be kind, and shoot straight.
Mac Clark, President
