26-05-2025
Canton Sportsman Club looking for members
May 24—CANTON — The Canton Sportsman Club, on Nickerson Road, is seeking new and active members to ensure its continued operation for future generations, according to a letter from club President Kent Pratt.
Established in the late 1920s, the 62-acre club aims to foster shooting sports and gun safety and provide a family-friendly outdoor space. Pratt emphasized that a small number of dedicated individuals have carried out the club's upkeep, including maintaining the trap range, shooting benches, ball field and driveway.
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"As a member (owner) when you take your teenager or go yourself to shoot your new gun or your grandfather's gun that has been in the family for years, look around, walk around and realize that what you see. ... These things have been maintained by a very few people for the past several years. Thank you to those people," Pratt wrote.
The club used to be a focal point of social life in Canton. Its log cabin clubhouse hosted banquets, weddings and more.
"We used to have canoe races, hit and miss engine shows, snowmobile groups, and state tournaments for horseshoes. It was really something back in the day," Pratt said.
The horseshoe pits were home to the four-day New York State Horseshoe Championship in 1980.
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Four clubs, a trap shooting club, a snowmobile club, a CB radio club and a horseshoe club called the grounds home.
Pratt said that now many members only use the club's shooting range in the fall to sight in their deer rifles.
"There's just a lot of potential, but it needs work, it needs help," Pratt said. "We're just trying to figure out how to breathe life into it."
The old log cabin is gone, with nothing left but a concrete slab and a chimney, but a new clubhouse offers an ample gathering space, a big kitchen and bathrooms.
Members are encouraged to attend monthly meetings on the second Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. to share their ideas for expanding the club's potential. Currently, the club offers occasional trap and pistol shoots for members. Its facilities include a ball field, horseshoe pits, and a large outdoor pavilion. The club is also in the process of rebuilding the shooting range berm.
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Pratt outlined a wish list for future improvements, contingent on volunteer time, talent, materials, equipment, and money. These include upgrading the shooting range, restoring electricity to an outbuilding, building a roof over an existing concrete pad, repairing the fireplace and an old garage, reestablishing an archery trail with 3-D targets, paving the access road, replacing the ball field's backstop and fence, and creating walking and cross-country skiing trails.
"The biggest thing is just to get more members and get some people active and helping and doing different group stuff," he said.
Information about the Canton Sportsmen's Club can be found on Facebook. Membership applications are available in a box by the club gate and at Northern New York Firearms in Hermon and in the Canton Historians office on Main Street.
"A membership is $40 a year from June 1 to May 31. It's a pretty good bargain. You can come up, pitch horseshoes, have a barbecue and use the facilities."
