March 28, 2024

Jackson wins county championship

Jasper County Gun Club home to central Iowa trap shooters

On any given Saturday, you can hear the sounds of repeated gun shots echo throughout the west side of Newton as members of the Jasper County Gun Club trap shoot on farm land owned by the Maytag family.

Many shooters, primarily men but a few women, participate in trap shooting at the small facility on the outskirts of the city limits.

Groups of five stand in a row and one-at-a-time shoot a clay pigeon released from an automatic trap. The shooters rotate after five pigeons until they’ve each shot at 25 and then the flight is over.

The JCGC was first organized more than 80 years ago by Fred Maytag and although participation has declined, it still has more than 40 members who meet on Saturday and Sundays to shoot and socialize.

Newton resident Gordon Jackson, 84, has been shooting at the club since the late 40s when he started going with his uncle Bill Kreager.

“It’s the type of thing you get hooked on,” he said. “I usually go every Saturday but not so much in the spring and fall.”

Jackson has spent his life working on the farm. He farmed more than 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans on his land in southwest Newton and is still farming 200 acres to stay busy. But when he’s not farming, he enjoys the sport of trap shooting along with the company of other club members.

“We got a pretty good group of guys here,” he said. “They come from all over.”

The JCGC is home to the sport for central Iowa shooters from cities like Des Moines, Marshalltown, Knoxville and, of course, Newton.

Every year the club hosts an annual competition to determine the best shooter in the county. Gordon Jackson won the 2014 Jasper County Gun Club Trap Shoot Champion trophy, his seventh county championship, on Sept. 13. He won the first Jasper Country trophy in 1950, before heading to Korea for the war in 1951.

Once president of the JCGC, Jackson now acts as a trustee and a respected shooter among his peers.

“Gordon has an unnatural appetite for Model 12 Winchester shotguns,” secretary/treasurer Dale Ballard of Marshalltown said. “He’s a great guy and shooter, been coming here since I can remember.”

Club member Ilene Jones agreed.

“Gordon’s a real nice guy. He’s been here forever,” she said.

“He’s always taking home five or six trophies,” club president Walt Gaskins of Des Moines said.

Gordon, who many friends refer to as Gordy, has seen changes over the years at the gun club. Jackson remembers the days when Fritz Maytag and his boys would come out and shoot at the club in the 50s. The increase in the number of competition targets, the variety of gun models and the use of the automated trap.

The Jasper County Gun Club isn’t just a place for sport but it’s a place for old friends to socialize. Many shooters come early to get settled in, drink coffee and visit with friends before getting ready for a flight and often times stay into the late afternoon.

Older shooters who are not able to shoot anymore come out to take score or grill hot dogs over the lunch hour, still involved in the sport.

“It’s been a good old gun club over the years,” Jackson said. “I really like it.”