The Forest Lake, Sportsmen’s Club, traces its roots to a 1916 photo in a Forest Lake newspaper article describing how its members helped the DNR stock fish in Forest Lake that summer.
Local shooters founded the Forest Lake Sportsmen’s Club to create a safe, private, and user-friendly place to shoot firearms with their families. The club acquired A small parcel of land, and the members carved out a trap & rifle range. The Forest Lake Sportsmem’s Club was incorporated in 1937. However, during the war years of the early 40s, the club curtailed its activities, directing its focus on winning the war.

When peace was won, its members could again enjoy their sport on their land. A clubhouse fire seemed to doom the club. However, in the latter ’40s, & early ’50s, a rebirth of the club found membership shares being sold for $100 each to current members and new ones to bring new life to the club and help pay for the growing costs of further improvements to the grounds including a clubhouse. Five trap fields, including two skeet fields, were eventually built where the six fields are located today. A 300-yard rifle range was also incorporated into the area, superimposed on the trap & skeet fields, making it difficult to enjoy both shooting venues simultaneously.

It was found in the 50s that a larger clubhouse was needed, and a construction add-on more than doubled the size of the clubhouse. The modification can be seen today in the two different levels of roofs on the existing building.
In the late ’50s and early ’60s, more land was purchased west of the clubhouse, where the tall pines grow today. Club members and the boy scouts planted these.

Through the 70s and 80s, many improvements happened to the club, and the membership grew. Then, as the demand increased due to the rise in membership in the early 90s, the members built the Rifle range like it sits today, with the longest range out to 300 yards.

In the late 90s, the lot to the east of the clubhouse became available. The board purchased the land, increasing the property’s size to 102 acres. With increased land and the need to secure the property for safety, a perimeter fence was installed shortly after.

In the early 2000s, the club saw many improvements, such as a new Archery range, adding a 5-stand, and building the rifle range to 400 yards. However, in 2012 it became apparent that the club needed a full-time manager shortly after the board hired one. Under the guidance of the manager, the club started to build Action shooting bays to expand the ability to shoot additional shooting sports.