The year-old Hidden Brook Sporting Club attracts sporting clay fans to Wilkes County.
For three years, Kelly and Tracey Dickson explored five North Carolina counties in search of the perfect piece of land to build a club offering sporting clay shooting, archery, hiking, biking and fly fishing.
They gave presentations at city council meetings and knocked on farmers’ doors. Most people loved the project, but they didn’t want guns in their backyard.
In 2024, the Wilkes Economic Development Corporation invited the couple to view the southern portion of a 500-acre tract owned by the town of North Wilkesboro, less than four miles from downtown. It was the only invitation the couple received during their quest.
Before the pandemic, officials in Wilkes County created the Great State of Wilkes Outdoor Action Plan, a 15-year plan to develop outdoor recreation infrastructure projects.
“We wanted to leverage our outdoor assets for workforce retention, worker recruitment, tourism and public health,” says Thomas Salley, the former executive director of Wilkes County Tourism. “We wanted people to know about and be able to access our outdoor spaces. We identified several parcels that we knew were available that could have been used for outdoor recreation. Hidden Brook was the first one to come along.”
Eight months later, after a zoning text amendment, the Dicksons purchased 285 acres of the land for the Hidden Brook Sporting Club.
“(It) draws people into the community that are part of our target audience,” Salley says. “It’s a great tool to begin the conversation about visiting Wilkes, relocating to Wilkes or starting a business here. It kicks that door open.”
SPORTING CLAYS
Sporting clays simulates hunting by using a shotgun to hit colorful “pigeons” made from limestone bound together with petroleum-based pitch. A target machine launches the clays.
The sport attracts a devoted following, with more than 40,000 members and 466 clubs making up the National Sporting Clays Association. That includes 1,274 North Carolina members and 13 clubs in the state.
The group gains about 7,000 new members a year with the Southeast among the most active regions, says Michael Hampton, executive director of the San Antonio, Texas-based NSCA. “They have the most participation from membership to clubs to targets being thrown. They host the biggest shoots in the United States.”
Tracey, who worked in NASCAR, and Kelly, who was a marketer, have been shooting clays for more than 30 years. The husband and wife team became certified instructors and in 2019 launched Mooresville-based Sporting Clay Xperiences, to offer clinics, private lessons and trips to various sporting events.
With retirement nearing and their adult children out of college, the time seemed right to start the business.
In addition to land costs, about $10,000 to $15,000 per acre, the Dicksons invested in 34 automatic target machines for the sporting clay course’s 14 stations and a Five Stand, which is a line of five shooting stands. Each machine features a delay mechanism for solo practice and voice activation. The angle, direction and speed may be changed, and Tracey moves the target machines often, so guests get a new experience each time they visit the course. Guests insert a card to track how many targets are launched.
In building their own course, the Dicksons wanted to provide a course that complemented the land’s rolling topography.
Hunters come to “knock off the rust” before the official season, while competitive sporting clay shooters like to practice in an everchanging environment.
“[The course] emulates the flight of birds, more so than just flying away from you,” Kelly says. “It is like duck hunting or quail hunting. We offer something that just doesn’t exist everywhere.”
From the May opening through December last year, Hidden Brook welcomed 1,000 visitors from 24 different states and four countries. That included sales meetings and other corporate events. Overall, more than 150,000 targets were thrown by folks between the ages of 10 to 85.
HITTING THE TARGET
Sarah Phelps, a retired banker from Cornelius, met Kelly and Tracey during the pandemic through Sporting Clay Xperiences. She was familiar with sporting clays through her husband but had never had any formal training. Phelps and her high school-aged daughter have had shooting lessons with Kelly.
Projects such as adding a second sporting clays course, an event center, a members’ clubhouse, tiny houses for overnight accommodations, a restaurant and a wedding venue will be introduced in phases.
“It was a dream they talked about,” Phelps says. “I look forward to seeing how it all evolves in the coming years. It’s a fun place to spend an afternoon right now, and I could see in the next couple of years, it might be a nice place to spend a weekend.”
Original article publsihed on businessnc.com