Montlake Shooting was built about 34 years ago on 26 acres. It was sold about four or five years ago and the name changed to Classic Clay. The acreage for this club now contains
57 acres. This is more than twice the original.
This club now adjoins at least six more property owners and the loud noise, of course, bothers so
many more of the residents of Mowbray.
Several houses existed before the "old" gun club was
built and several built since. As far as I know there were not any complaints until Classic Clay expanded the gun club by approximately 31 acres.
B.L. McClendon
Soddy-Daisy
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Sorry, Mr. McClendon, I am not buying it. Montlake Classic Clays, as it is now known, has been in business as a sport shooting facility since the 1970s. Anyone who lives nearby knew of its existence when they bought property.
I personally have used the facility before and after the new owners, Craig and Dawn Scheaffer, took over the facility. There is a nice article about them in this month’s issue of Chatter Magazine. The new Sporting Clays course snakes its way back through the property away from roads and houses. The old skeet shooting range is and always has been near the road. I doubt very seriously that you can even hear the shooting from the Sporting Clays course except for the first couple of stations.
It is a shame that county officials wait until a new business owner makes a substantial investment in a business in Hamilton County and then take action to shut it down. Apparently, the county has also now changed the zoning ordinance while the Sheaffers' zoning application was pending that will make it difficult for them to ever reopen.
Fred Skillern, you should be ashamed of yourself. Have you ever been to the Montlake Classic Clays site? A more appropriate site for a shooting facility could not be found in Hamilton County.
Every citizen and business owner in this county should be concerned. The court ordered closing of the Montlake shooting range is a tragedy not only for the Sheaffer family, but for all county citizens who participate in shooting sports.
Jeff Billings
Signal Mountain
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I think if you will do a little research you will find that when the new owners bought the facility & had an article in the paper regarding their plans for expansion they received a letter from Pat Payne with Hamilton County Building Inspection advising them what they would need in the way of permits for their proposed addition.
It is my understanding that they built the sporting clay facility without obtaining any of these permits which is probably a large part of why the judge ruled against them. You can verify these facts with Hamilton County Building Inspection at 209-7860.
Gary Pickett
GaryP@mail.hamiltontn.gov
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Mr. Pickett and anyone else who cares to weigh in,
People who suggest that Montlake Classic Clays has been treated fairly in all of this mess are kidding themselves. This is a hatchet job - plain and simple. I don't think a lot of people know that the neighbors of the gun range were allowed to speak at a commission meeting while the Sheaffers were left out. I also remember when dozens of people made arrangements to get off of work during the day to attend a scheduled zoning meeting in support of the gun range and that meeting never took place, being canceled at the last minute.
The Sheaffers had volumes of legitimate signatures on a petition that went ignored. I can't name a single person (and I have talked with many about the issue) who knows anyone that has tried to really work with the Sheaffers. I have spoken with a lot of people in an effort to find a place for our scholastic shotgun team to continue to shoot, and everyone I have talked with all across the county is of the same opinion, the Sheaffers are being railroaded.
Give me a break, people have been shooting there for decades and it's just now a problem? Recently a lady wrote in that people shooting at the range were using "hot loads." That's laughable. Shotgunning is an expensive sport and most shooters try to find the lightest loads possible to keep things cheap and avoid recoil. In fact, the club will not allow you to shoot anything larger than 7 1/2 shot.
Let's not disguise the issue here and say that the gun range has been closed because of permits, zoning, noise, or anything else other than personalities clashing, bickering, and politics. In the end, it is gun owners and the community who lose out.
Trevor Fuller
Soddy Daisy