THE HALTER SHOOTING SPORTS EDUCATION CENTER: GLOBAL REPUTATION AND LOCAL CONNECTIONS

By Elyse Apel

The mission of the Halter Shooting Sports Education Center, which is located right outside the city of Hillsdale, is to share shooting sports with the next generation while bringing “the ideas of liberty to life.” First established by Hillsdale College in 2008, the center has steadily expanded over the years and is now home to the USA Shooting National Team.

“Our first mission is to teach,” says Matthew Little, the range manager at the center. “This is where all kinds of people are going to be educated. We train anyone from a 12-year-old student to a USA Olympian, and everyone in between.”

Little explains that the shooting center stands out internationally for its facilities, which include indoor and outdoor ranges, bunker trap fields, an archery course, a 23-station sporting clays course, and a lodge with space for meetings, classes, and events.

The center has lots of big plans for expansion moving forward.

“We are in the process of building cottages out here for people to stay on site,” Little says.

One of the cottages is already operational, while three others should be completed over the summer. Eventually, the Center hopes to have eight cottages.

“We are also hoping to break ground on a 67,000-square-foot inside and outside pistol, rifle, and archery building sometime this summer,” Little explains.

Over the last few years, the center has been focused on expanding its educational and outreach programs to both high school and collegiate students.

“We host six different club teams for high school trap,” Little says. “We’ve got three USA shooters on our staff and our 16 young athletes that are on our collegiate teams.”

Those teams compete across the state, nation, and, in some cases, the world.

Little added that working with the high school club teams has been a really unique opportunity to connect with local communities.

“It’s kind of word-of-mouth through parents,” he says. “They may or may not be sponsored by a school, but they will name their team for their particular community.”

The center also regularly hosts Olympic athletes and training camps.

“We primarily focus now on our shotgun program,” Little says. “We partner with USA Shooting for shotgun.”

This July, the center will host the Junior Olympic Nationals, and in September, it will be hosting the USA Nationals, which will be one of the first selection rounds for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The center will also hold training camps in the weeks surrounding the nationals.

“During our nationals, typically a lot of the athletes will come in a week or two in advance,” Little says. “Last year at nationals, I think we had about 240 shooters attend.”

This year in June, the center is also set to host a Paralympians Shoot.

“We’ll see people from all over the world—from Brazil, from France, from Italy, from Egypt, from the Far East, from Europe—come here. We’re hoping to see somewhere between 75 and 100 shooters for that event,” Little says.

Little emphasized that he wants the surrounding communities to remember that the center is also here for them.

“We are open to the public, and everybody is welcome.”

For more information about the center and its hours, visit shootingsports.hillsdale.edu. You should call ahead at (517) 610-5593 to check range availability.