Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club

The Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club is 600 acres of shooting grounds, hunting fields and a lodge on 220th Street East south of town, open since 1985. Despite the word club, the clays, the archery range, Trigger's Bar and Restaurant and the ticketed events are open to the public. Only the rifle and pistol ranges and the hunting fields need a membership.

Clays are the core of it: six sporting clays courses, four trap ranges, two skeet fields, a FITASC course and three five-stands, some heated. Non-members pay $33 for 50 sporting clays or $16.50 for 25 trap or skeet, rental shotguns and shells are sold on site, and walk-ins are fine. In winter the heated five-stand runs Cosmic Clays, glow-in-the-dark targets after dark, by reservation. The archery range has 16 lanes from 20 to 60 yards.

Trigger's does wild game and house-smoked dishes alongside the usual, with chef-carved prime rib on Saturdays. The grand hall and the open-air pavilion hold 250 each and host weddings, but also the public nights I list below: line dancing most months, dueling pianos, tribute concerts, comedy nights, beer dinners, the Deer Therapy craft fair in early November and holiday brunches. The horse part is real too: a boarding stable with 25 stalls and a heated indoor arena, plus dog kennels.