On October 10, 1972, the first meeting of the MacDougall Sportsmen’s Association, Inc. was held at Dennis Landis’s home. There were seven members: Dennis Landis, Eldon Larson, Allen Larsen, Ed Wolf, Bob Gams, Tom Olsowske and Ken Colegrove.

The objective of the Club as gleaned from the first minutes “was to conserve, restore and manage the game, fish and other wildlife and its’ habitat in Seneca County and its’ environs; to seek, to promote and maintain friendly relations with landowners and sportsmen; to cooperate in obtaining proper respect for and observation of the fish and game laws; and as far as possible to spread knowledge of useful wildlife among the residents of Seneca County.” Meetings were held monthly, and meeting location rotated from one home to the other and was held usually in the garage.

Bob Sherman encouraged the members to try trapshooting, which they did and still do. The club bought a couple of shell reloaders and they reloaded shells for those who shot trap. One gun was used on a squad and passed on to each shooter. Today each trap shooter loads his/her own shells. Our members were part of the South Seneca Sportsmen’s Club Trap Team the first year in the Finger Lakes Area Trap League. After that we have always had our own team. Some women showed interest in shooting so several men shooters from MacDougall and South Seneca gave the women pointers at the South Seneca Sportsmen’s Club.

Around 1975 Eldon and Kathy Larsen offered the Club the use of a building out by their barn (a Quonset hut) on Rt. 336 for their first home. Partitions were put up; insulation and electric installed; stone put on the floor; booths, a bar, a cooking stove, and a wood stove installed; an outhouse added, and the first MacDougall Sportsmen’s Club was created.

With the cow pastures fenced off, an area was created for the trap field out in back. The first trap house can be seen out in front of this club. We purchased our first handset trap from South Seneca Sportsmen’s Club. One person sat in the trap house on cinder blocks and loaded the birds. It is quite different from our present trap houses, automatic traps, and voice pulls.

The Club bought and tore down the old South Seneca Sportsmen’s Club and used what materials they could, for example the wood around the bar area. Used traps were also purchased from the Dryden Sportsmen’s Club and the Seneca Army Depot. Eventually we could afford to buy new trap. It should be noted that purchases of land, building materials, and equipment were made possible by loans and donations from Club members.

We joined the Seneca County Federation of Sportsmen’s Club on April 4, 1976. On September 25, 1976, a function for National Hunting & Fishing Day was held at the Big N and the theme was “trap shooting”.

After searching for land for six years, the men finally found land at 3800 MacDougall-Waterloo Road in 1978 and bought if from Keith and Dot Tomkins; another 11 acres were purchased in 1985. Brush was cleared and the land leveled with a bulldozer, stones were picked, a pond was dug, and then it was ready to start building. The Grand Opening of the Club was in 1979. The first trap shoot there was held on March 25, 1979. Skeet fields were built, and the first skeet shoot was held June 27, 1993.

We have had trap teams, bowling teams, Christmas parties for children, Turkey, and Ham Shoots, donated turkeys to needy families for Thanksgiving, donated extra Christmas presents to Geneva General Hospital Pediatrics Ward, benefit dinners, sent member’s children to DEC camp, 20-week Club parties, Clam Bakes, 50-50 Raffles, Booze Raffles, Chicken BBQ’s, Hawaii Fling Vacation Drawings, sold candy bars, gun and truck raffles. Romulus Central School Community Sports held events at the Club.

We have also held several Pig Roasts thru the years where we buried the pig in the ground at midnight on Friday and dug it up on Saturday night, sometimes cooking as many as four pigs at one time and a turkey or two. It was always a well-attended event when the pig was dug up.