Arizona and U. S.
Cowboy Mounted Shooters are working with the Arizona Game and
Fish Department to develop a World Class Mounted Shooting Center
at Ben Avery Shooting Facility in far north Phoenix. This will be
the world’s first facility specifically designed and constructed
for Mounted Shooting!
In a time when firearms sports
participation is stagnant, Cowboy Mounted Shooting is bringing in
a generation of diverse people new to gun sports. New
participants are drawn by the loud, racing excitement and
celebration of the American Old West legend. Many competitors
have never fired a gun before starting as a Cowboy Mounted
Shooter.
The sport has participants ranging
from cap gun wielding 8 year olds to grandmothers on mules
shooting Colt 45s. Most competitors compete with family members,
some including 4 generations! About 40% of competitors are
women. Even though the ammunition is a blank, the revolvers and
rifles are real firearms.
No other gun sport or equine sport
has the spectator potential of Cowboy Mounted Shooting. Other gun
sports and equine sports are certainly fun for the participant,
but none have the spectator excitement of mounted shooting.
Crowds are coming out to see the exciting action and hear booming
firearms as they cheer for their favorites. The safe and
entertaining use of firearms is creating new and positive opinions
on gun rights amongst spectators who have never fired a pistol or
ridden a horse.
Unfortunately, it is getting more
difficult in Central Arizona to find a place to practice and hold
Cowboy Mounted shooting events. There is intense competition from
other horse sports for arena time. Further, many arenas in
populated areas have excluded mounted shooting for political
correctness or noise reasons. That is why the partnership of
Arizona Game and Fish Department and Mounted Shooters has
incredible synergy!
Arizona Game and Fish Department, AGFD, brings convenient and valuable land to the partnership.
With Department funding limited to license fees, grants, use fees
and negligible income from the State General Fund, money for
mounted shooting facilities is just not available in the amount
needed. Arizona Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association, Inc
asked AGFD to set aside land in the Ben Avery Master Plan to give
Mounted Shooters a chance to find the money and volunteers to
build a World Class outdoor facility. That Plan was adopted in
December, 2007 by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. It shows
over 10 acres of land with two Arena Ranges and convenient RV
camping.
The finished facilities will be the
dominant structures at Ben Avery in a location of high traffic
near both the new Department headquarters and the huge Clay Target
Ranges. The finished structures will be visible from Carefree
Highway providing a high visual impact to passing traffic.
Now Cowboy Mounted Shooters are
mobilizing to raise the funds to build two covered arena ranges in
a phased approach. The goal of the shooters is to have working
facilities suitable for practice and local matches’ in early 2009.
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Funding will come from:
·
Tax Deductible private and
corporate donations to AGFD, which is a Qualified
Organization under IRS regulations
·
Grants
·
Support from the parent Cowboy
Mounted Shooters Association
·
Sponsorships
·
Licensed naming rights on the
Facility, which has been approved in principle by the
Arizona Game and Fish Commission.
·
Fund raising events by local
Mounted Shooters
·
The Arizona Game and Fish
Department
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Please help us by volunteering
and donating to the development funds at
Arizona Game and Fish. Note Account PC A04087
on the check
