Shooting Sports

About Us

Our History:

      A program of Northwest Dupage, Post 1084, the American Legion. This program was created by members of Wheaton Squadron 76 and Roselle Squadron 1084 of the Sons of the American Legion, who felt that there was a need for an adult shooting program in the American Legion. After a couple of years of kicking the Idea around, and doing some research to get ideas on how to run are own shoot, we starting having our monthly Practical Pistol Shoot. It was not easy to get to that point. It took a lot of legwork to find an indoor range that could accommodate us, and without knowing how many shooters would show up, we had no idea what it was going to cost us. So on a Thursday night in January 2002 we had our fingers crossed that 10 shooters would show up, that shoot was a success with 12 shooters and it has kept growing ever since. In January 2003 we set our attendance record with 19 shooters from five different American Legion Posts!

What is the Practical Pistol Shoot?

      It is an informal fun match that is divided into four stages of friendly competition. The first two stages are loosely based on bullseye type competition, we feel accuracy is very important and these stages help foster that. They both have time limits to fire six rounds of ammunition, the first being 1 min. and the second being 30 sec. We use 50ft slow fire targets at a distance of 25ft. so that new shooters are not overwhelmed and are encouraged to keep coming back. The last two stages are timed action, one using 3-4 IPSC style targets and the other using six bowling pins as knockdowns. The action targets are placed at several different distances and have “A” and “B” hits. Scoring during the timed action stages is accomplished by adding the total score of the stage and then dividing it by the time it took to shoot the stage. Even though this is an informal fun match, we do keep a record of scores so that shooters can see their improvements from month to month. This shoot is challenging enough for experienced shooters to have fun, yet is not to overwhelming for beginners and we have had several first time shooters get introduced to the sport at this shoot. Many thanks go to Gun World Inc. in Bensenville, IL. for  fitting us into their busy range schedule and allowing us to use their tactical range for these shoots.  

What is the Family Fun Shoot?

      After our first Practical Pistol Shoot season was over, we felt we needed something to keep the shooting sports on everyone’s mind, so we decided to get a group together and go out to Buffalo Range Inc. in Ottawa, Illinois and have some fun! This public range has several areas to shoot including a 50-75-100yd rifle range,75ft pistol, shotgun, and a plinking pit. They also have a nice picnic area were you can BBQ (remember to bring a garbage bag!). Everyone that attends gets the chance to shoot both historical and modern military rifles and pistols dating from WWI thru Viet Nam, and we always have plenty of youth sized .22 rifles on hand for the junior shooters. This is a great time to bring the family to an outdoor range and have some fun.  

What’s in our Future?

      As of June 1st we have 20 members, six of them are Junior members and four of them are women. As our membership grows so will our programs. We are  currently working on; a High Power Rifle program, a Marksmanship Qualification program for Juniors, and a Firearms Safety program for Juniors. We look forward to working with area youth groups to achieve a greater knowledge and appreciation for the shooting sports and firearm safety. For any information regarding our club please contact us.  

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and Junior Shooting Sports is in the drop down