At Lake of the Ozarks, shoulder season is year-round, thanks to the new sporting clay course at the Missouri Trapshooters Association in Linn Creek. Opened in 2021, the Blackberry Ridge Sporting Clays course has quickly grown in popularity, drawing shooters to Linn Creek who had never been to the sprawling MTA facility before. 

Right now, the 12-station course features two traps at each, but MTA hopes to expand the experience by doubling the number of traps. That’s where the community comes in.

MTA recently obtained their 501(c)3 status, making donations to the organization tax-deductible. And for individuals and business owners who love shooting, that’s pretty appealing. MTA General Manager Skip Klinger is reaching out to the shooting community with the pitch: $3,000 buys a new trap, so MTA needs $36,000 to add one additional trap to each station, and $72,000 to add two.

Businesses who donate enough to buy a new trap will be given a one-year corporate membership ($750 value), which includes 2,000 targets and a discount on additional targets (28¢/ea — 40¢/ea is the non-member price). MTA also plans to publicly recognize individuals or groups that donate to purchase a trap.

Interested? Contact Skip Klinger at ‭(573) 346-2449‬.

Opened in the summer of 2021, the Blackberry Ridge course at MTA has been welcoming expert and amateur shooters alike. From charity events to an afternoon of shooting with friends, the sporting clays course is drawing plenty of interest among the sport shooting community. Klinger is amazed by how many new people the sporting clays course has brought to MTA. “The number of people that have called and/or visited us in the last month or so, that have never been here before — from even inside the Lake area — is just unbelievable!” he told LakeExpo.

He hopes more from areas like Kansas City and St. Louis will come down to experience the sporting clays course. Once they shoot through a round, he says, they might just be inspired to help this excellent facility go even farther.

Contact Skip Klinger for more information on donating to MTA’s sporting clays course: ‭(573) 346-2449‬

Ready to become an MTA Sporting Clays member? Join here. (Membership is not required to shoot at MTA, it’s just a good idea!)

MTA in Linn Creek is the second-largest shotgun shooting complex in the country, drawing trapshooters from across the state, Midwest, and even the nation, as the venue hosts large tournaments annually.

With sporting clays, MTA saw the opportunity to welcome an entirely new crop of shooters. The “Blackberry Ridge” course is just the first of several courses MTA plans to build in the next few years.

MTA is open to the public, but it makes the most sense to join as a member. Sporting Clays Annual Memberships are $125/person or $150/family, and corporate memberships are available for $750. A membership includes 200 targets (clays) and a 12% discount on targets. Deeper discounts for clays are available for bulk-quantity purchases. Corporate memberships include 2,000 targets and the deepest discounts on clays.

View Membership Pricing

View the Membership Form Online

What It’s Like…

Arriving at MTA, you travel past the lengthy line of trapshooting fields (this place really is huge) before you reach the sporting clays course. You insert your card at the first box, allowing you to operate the clay-throwers (and thus only charging you for the clays you use), and, per sporting clay etiquette, allow all shooters to see one clay thrown from each of the two throwers. At each station, clay throwers are set up differently — and MTA even moves them around from time to time. So it won’t just be two clays coming in a standard pattern right in front of you: no, sporting clay courses can send a clay looping sky-high, or one skittering across the ground (known as a “rabbit”), or one flying toward the shooting box.

The variety and the fact that it really simulates how critters might act in real hunting situations make the whole experience a blast (pun definitely intended) from start to finish. Shooters can vary the difficulty by sending the clays one at a time, or as “true pairs.”

It’s exactly the kind of fun a group of friends wants: not overly demanding, amid the picturesque Ozark hills, with plenty of space for competition and camaraderie.

MTA’s sporting clay course is proving what many shooters had been thinking for a long time: the Lake of the Ozarks needs one of these! And now it’s got one.

Check out the MTA sporting clay course at 51 Trapshooters Rd, Linn Creek, MO 65052. Call them at 573-346-2449

View Membership Pricing

View the Membership Form Online