Ground broken on Olympic range

DALMATIA - If all goes according to schedule, Olympic caliber shooters from across the United States and around the world may be training and competing at a state-of-the-art training center in Lower Mahanoy Township as early as this fall.

Ground was broken Monday morning on a site at Martz's Game Farm for construction of an Olympic Shotgun Sports facility. Allen Chubb, president of Chubb International Shooting Sports, Inc., Donald Martz, co-owner of Martz's Game Farm, Lower Mahanoy Township supervisors and other officials were on hand to break ground for the 16-acre site, and excavation is expected to begin within the next two weeks.

The facility will be a cooperative arrangement between Chubb International and the game farm. Chubb International is a charitable corporation whose officers and board members have a combined 200 years of experience in Olympic shotgun shooting, as competitors, Olympic competition staff, facility directors, competition directors, architects, engineers and consultants.

When complete, the facility will comprise about 16 acres and be the first fully automated keycard-accessible range in the world. Athletes, as well as other patrons, will be able to train at the facility on their own schedule year round.

"The great thing about it is that it will be fully automated," said Chubb. "A shooter can come here at any time and with his keycard and be able to practice. We can actually manage the range via the Internet, and no one will actually have to be here."

The facility will include Olympic trap, Olympic double trap, Olympic skeet, universal trap, automatic trap, sporting clays and Helice, a form of artificial target shooting also known as ZZ (for zig-zags) and Electrocibles, in which shooters must shoot at targets released from one of five concentric traps.

The first phase of the project will include construction of an Olympic trapfield and two Helice ranges, a parking lot and a permanent clubhouse. Phase two will include construction of a second Olympic range and an International skeet range. Chubb estimates total cost will be between $400,000 and $500,000, much of which will come in the form of donations.

Chubb said selection of the site at the Martz facility was a natural for several reasons.

"I live in Elizabethville, and my dad and Don's dad were good friends who played baseball together," Chubb said. "I've been coming here for years to hunt. It just seemed like a natural."

The farm's remote location offers the natural terrain and solitude that Chubb was looking for, yet is accessible for those who will use it. It helped that the farm had a piece of land which was just about perfect for his needs.

"It's north facing, which is mandated by the governing body for Olympic shooting (because the sun is at a shooter's back most of the day), it has a slight incline, which gives the shooter the background he needs, and that broadens into a flat area," Chubb said.

The natural attributes of the site also helped keep the estimated cost of construction down, Chubb said.

"We looked for a place where Mother Nature had already done a lot of the work and use it," he said.

When completed, the facility will have 15 traps which can accommodate five shooters each. Each trap will be 60 feet in length, eight feet wide and eight feet underground.

"That's another of the pluses," Chubb said. "When it's completed, most of the actual operation won't be seen, because it will be underground."

There is a similar Olympic training facility in Kerrville, Texas.

"A man and his wife opened that place, and they have a nice operation, but it's also not open every day," Chubb said.

Olympic shooting differs from American trapshooting, such as takes place at the Valley Gun and Country Club in Elysburg, in that it is a little more challenging. Targets are released at faster and differing speeds, and fly in wider directions and at differing heights.

Chubb has entered an agreement with Mattarelli, of Bologna, Italy, and Eletronica Progetti of Rome to equip and electronically operate the facility. Underkoffler Trucking and Excavating, Lykens, will do the initial excavating, and J.H. Rissinger and Sons, Dalmatia, will do initial construction work.

The range also will have no detrimental effect on the day-to-day operations at the game farm, which is officially known as Martz's Gap View Hunting Preserve, according to Martz. He said there would be very little impact on the preserve, its animals or their habitat.

Chubb said he's hopeful that by this fall, serious training and competition will begin at the facility. He's presently working on a deal to bring the Italian national team in for a competition and clinic.

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