History of the San Angelo Gun

compiled and written by Bill Wynne

As with any piece of history, the story is not yet finished. The information below is only just the beginning.

If you know a piece of our history, have any records, letters, targets, photos, etc. you would like to share; please contact Bill Wynne

The Beginning Years of the San Angelo Gun Club

By Bill Wynne

Preface

The actions of the members of a club make the club. If they do good things and work together the club will be respected and grow. If the members quarrel among themselves and only work for their own interests the club will wither and die.

Our club has been successful since 1946 and it is still alive and vibrant. The forming members would be surprised at all the different shooting disciplines found at our club today. Over the years the membership has changed several times. The San Angelo Gun Club is a living ever changing thing.

The club has had three ranges and a long legion of members. It has provided entertainment, education, safety instruction, and healthy recreation for many.

Most of this history for this study is remembered through minutes of regular meetings. These minutes do not tell the whole story and they are incomplete. There are years of good minutes and there are years without minutes. Some were simply lost over the years. Memories are sketchy at best and there are few of the early members who are still with us. My personal experience with the San Angelo Gun Club started with the Junior Gun Club in about 1953 when I was 13 years old. I can remember many of the men who were members in the middle to late 1950’s. Some of these guys helped raise me and keep me straight. There were three that I must mention. George Gann, Jim Bean, and George Curry taught me how to shoot and hunt and how to enjoy the outdoors and appreciate fine rifles.

I am attempting to record this history in segments. I believe that others can do better work of some of the more recent times. If we continue to improve and build on the work of those who have come before us, the San Angelo Gun Club will continue long after us and others will have to write about it.

---

In the summer and fall of 1946 a group of San angelo men who liked to shoot and hunt were talking to each other about an idea of forming a a club for rifle and pistol shooting. To understand the forming of the San Angelo Gun Club we should try to understand the mood and the conditions of the country and our area at that time.

The country had just emerged from a world wide war in which every family had been involved in one or more ways. World War II was a fight for our freedom and our way of life and. It was preceded by the great depression of the 1930’s. In 1946 the war was over and the sons, brothers, and husbands of this country were coming home. They were the victors.

After four years of destroying things and driving the enemy back and seeing their friends lose their young lives far too early, they were ready to get on with their lives. These people wanted to build things and to improve their way of life and that of their families. They were tired of waist and now they just wanted to improve.

The times in which the San Angelo Gun Club was formed were unique. Consider what that generation had. There had been few automobiles sold in the depression and there were none built in the war years. The veterans had some cash and they wanted families, houses, and cars.

The normal was one car per family. Houses were not air conditioned and neither were automobiles. Standard shift was all there was. Speed limits were 60 miles per hour. There were no interstate highways.

Downtown San Angelo was the true heart of the city. The center was the intersection of Beauregard and Chadbourne Streets. You might have to drive around the block several times to get a parking space. All new car dealerships were within three blocks of those corners. M. D. Bryant and
Houston Harte were men and future San Angelo Gun Club members not streets. Around the edge of town there were windmills and even a few out houses.

There was no television and radios were big and had vacuum tubes instead of transistors. People set of the front porch on warm evenings. The Standard Times and The Evening Standard were where people got the news.

The few commercial airplanes had propellers and many had tail wheels. Trains and buses were common cross country transportation. San Angelo had passenger train service. City bus service was very good and people used it.

During the war there had been two major Army Air Force Bases here. Goodfellow Field and San Angelo Army Air Field. Goodfellow was a fighter trainer base and San Angelo Army Air Field was a bomber training base that later became Mathis Field.

Under these conditions there was a lot of support for organizing a gun club. There were returning veterans and men who were to old for the military who wanted to help the men who were called to serve. It is interesting how many of the early gun club members were from the same family.

From an article that appeared in the San Angelo Evening Standard on October 17, 1946 in the sports section.

Gun Club To Be Organized

Immediate organization of a San Angelo Gun Club was voted last night by about 15 members of the National Rifle Association, who met at the Hotel Cactus.

Invitation was extended to all local rifle, pistol, and shotgun enthusiasts to attend the next meeting Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the St. Angelus Hotel.All who join the club and pay their quarterly dues at this session will be considered charter members.

Membership in the National Rifle Association is not necessary. however, all must be members of the West Texas Game and Fish Association, which is the parent organization of the San Angelo Gun Club.

Lewis Tatum was elected temporary chairman of last night’s meeting and Glenn Taylor was named temporary secretary.

Officers, Including chairman, secretary-treasurer and chief instructor, will be elected at the Nov. 5 meeting for one year terms.

By-laws, adopted last night, call for annual dues of $12.00 payable quarterly. The annual meeting will be held on the first Tuesday each November.

It was indeed started with that meeting held on October 16, 1946. The minutes of that meeting reflect that a motion was made by Herb Straach and seconded by J. E. Benson that the name of the organization be known as the San Angelo Gun Club. Motion was approved unanimously.

A second meeting was held a few weeks later in the on Tuesday evening, November 5, 1946 in the St. Angelus Hotel. Thirty-eight people had been enrolled as charter members of the new San Angelo Gun Club. Dr. Jack Taylor was elected executive officer, Glenn Taylor was elected secretary-treasure, and Albert Barth was elected chief instructor. Mr. Barth considered this to be the founding meeting of the San Angelo Gun Club and later made a note to that effect on the minutes of the meeting. Out of respect to Mr. Albert Barth, who was there, we should accept the date November 5, 1946 as the birthday of the San Angelo Gun Club.

At a meeting on December 10,1946 another meeting was held. Dr. Jack Taylor, wasting no time, announced that the targets for the use of the club had arrived. he also announced that a Turkey Shoot would be held at the Mathis Field range Sunday afternoon, December 22, 1946 starting at 2:00 o’clock.

Early members of San Angelo Gun Club in 1947

There is not a charter list and this list may not be complete

Bankston, Thomas H.
Barth, Albert R.
Bell, Dean
Benson, J. E.
Borders, J. F.
Bradley, T. C. Pfluger, J. G.
Bradley, William H. Jr.
Conerly, O. N.
Connell, C. C.
Coppin, Roland E.
Couey, M. L.
Dilworth, Roland M.
Edmondson, A. L.
Eubanks, J. A.
Ferguson, James P.
Fowler, W. M.
Glover, E. Taylor,
Goss, Dallas J.
Griffin, Jim
Hair, D. W.
Hardman, O. G.
Jackson, George
Jones, Robert R. Dr.
Kollmyer, Harry
Love, Thomas F. Jr.
Martin, Sam H.
Mathison, Grady
McClure, John R.
McGarr, H. J.
McGarr, Wilbur R.

During the year of 1947, the Club was incorporated and secured a lease on the rifle range at
the San Angelo Army Air Field from the War Assets Administration. Today that air field is
known as Mathis Field.

The range was a 100 yard range that shot into an earthwork embankment about fifteen feet
high. The remains of the range can be viewed on Google Maps. It is at the South end of
the airport. The embankment runs East and West just to the East of the end of the present
runway.

During the years at the Mathis Field range, the club held Turkey Shoots and club championship matches with both pistols and rifles.

For a while the gun club had an indoor range. In January 1948 the club was granted the
use of the old college building for an indoor range for both rifles and pistols on Tuesday and
Thursday nights at 7:00 PM.

A very amazing event tool place that changed The San Angelo Gun Club forever took place
on September 12, 1950 at a regular club meeting. A motion was made by Albert Barth and
seconded by Lewis Tatem that John I. Moore be appointed as a committee of one to investigate the possibilities of securing a lease from the city or other parties, for a site for a club rifle range and to propose expenditures. A second motion by the same parties gave Mr.
Moore the power to contract for a lease and provide necessary services for the construction
of a 50 point firing range. An interesting clause in the motion that should be noted was that
expenses not to exceed club funds.

John I. Moore was a very successful oil man. He had a passion for hunting and rifles of all
kinds. I have heard that the oil patch just South of Big Spring was his deal. He hunted all
over the world. He had a large number of fantastic trophies. He had lions, tigers, elephants,
cape buffalo, kodiak bears, and many others. At one time, many of these trophies
were on display at Bateman’s Sporting Goods store on Twohig Street. He built the high rise
on the South side of the Concho River, on Avenue D, overlooking the Santa Fe Park know as
The River Terrace. He lived on the top floor and had his trophies in an area known as the
“Boar’s Nest”. John I., as everyone called him was a great help to the San Angelo Gun Club.

When he passed on, his trophies and guns were on display at the Lone Star Brewery in San
Antonio for many years in a special “John I. Moore” room of the Longhorn Saloon.

He collected some of the finest guns in the world and would bring one or two at a time to
the club range. He would gladly let some of us shoot one. He gave me a several collectable
cartridges that I still have. One day he had a .600 Nitro Express and a .416 Rigby with he
and he gave one each to me and another young friend of mine. On a flip of a coin, I have
the .416 Rigby. I know of no one who had anything bad to say about John I. Moore. Like
most of the members of the club in those days, he was a true gentleman. I know enough
about him to know that he was a good man.

Mr. Moore once said that flying in and out of Mathis Field across Lake Nasworthy he could
see this large header facing the North side of the lake. In 1950 the southern part of City of
San Angelo was just a few blocks south of Avenue N, several miles away. That header became the location for the range of the San Angelo Gun Club.

On November 11, 1951, a Turkey Shoot was held at the new rifle range at Lake Nasworthy.
Mr. Moore, as a committee of one, was all the committee the club needed.

1951 and 1952 were very active years at the San Angelo Gun Club. In May of 1952 a motion
was passed that any one who donated 100 hours of their labor to the gun club for range improvements in the year of 1952 be given a Life Membership. By November 7, 1952, there were 56 Life members. Some of the names are those who paid for the lifetime membership, but many were earned by work.

I have been told by one of the members who were there that while John I. was indispensable
to the club in getting a first class range built, so were the members of the club who gladly turned out and gave of their labor to erect the canopy, build the frames, pour concrete
blocks to hold the frames, build the benches, and many other jobs to make a good gun club. Many of these people were highly skilled in various fields and many were people who did not work with their hands. They all did a good job. The benches and the targets were set at a distance of 6’-8” apart for a length of almost 100 yards.

Albert Barth owned a machine shop on North Chadbourne. Albert cut and welded
the drill pipe that John I. had delivered. And he was not alone in doing the work. Many of
the members devoted time working on the range.

Mr. Loyd Bell tells of a bunch of members working at the Barth Machine shop on the
wood benches that were built for the club. John I. Moore encouraged a bunch of his
friends in the oil business from Midland and San Angelo to pay for the material for the
benches and the club members built and painted them. There was an aluminum marker
that had the material giver’s name on it attached to all benches.

This is end of part one.