Members of a long-standing gun club are trying to hone their sights on an uncertain future.

The Grand Meadow Rod and Gun Club will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday to determine the club’s future.

Because of lagging membership and increased property taxes, the club is struggling to make ends meet and keep its property. Along with economic troubles, someone is needed to step up and run the club, located at 75206 on Highway 16 east of Grand Meadow.

“Our membership numbers have been dwindling, and it takes membership to keep the place active,” said member Greg Lamp.

Greg’s father, Robert, has been a vital part of running the club, but he said he is too old now to prepare the club for shoots and maintain the property.

The club opened in 1939 with 65 members, but in recent years has struggled to maintain membership.

The Grand Meadow Rod and Gun Club had about seven members from Grand Meadow last year — three from the Lamp family — and about 20 to 25 total members, according to Greg.

Concerns about participation aren’t limited to Grand Meadow, as Greg said the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has expressed concern with participation in many outdoor sports.

Greg said the club and its property are up-to-date. The gun club has a small kitchen, modern plumbing, range for small-caliber weapons and a trap range for clay discs.

“The place is ready to roll today,” he said. “We just need some activity.”

The meeting Thursday will be to see if there’s any way to keep the facility going.

“Nobody wants to see this place lost,” Greg said.

Along with membership, more hardship came when the gun club’s tax classification changed, causing an increase in property taxes.

“From 2007 to the present, the taxes have gone up about 800 percent,” Greg said.

Up until 2007, property taxes hadn’t surpassed $158 a year, but 2011 taxes are estimated at $1,194, according to Robert.

“We can’t take in that much revenue,” Robert said.

The club had been classified as seasonal recreational residential-commercial, but Assessor Rich Peterson said the classification was changed, along with many other area gun clubs, when his office found the clubs’ classifications were incorrect.

“Them and several other gun clubs were changed that same year,” Peterson said.

The property tax increase had nothing to do with value, it changed because of classification.

“A lot of people in the county were reclassified and suffered the results,” Greg said.

Thursday’s meeting will bring together club supporters to see if anyone wants to step up. Best case scenario, according to Greg, is someone offering to help run the gun club and keep the property and range operating.

Another solution would be for someone to buy the gun club and keep it operating as a private gun club, according to Robert.

“I’d like to sell it to somebody that would keep it open as a gun club and do a little remodeling and upgrading,” he said.

While it wouldn’t be member-run, Greg said it’d be better than losing the permitting that goes into a gun club.

“If you were to lose this facility, you’d never get it back,” he said.

The worst-case scenario, according to Greg, would be allowing the property to forfeit on taxes.

Though membership has dropped in the past, Robert said the club has long been a staple in the Grand Meadow community.

“That was the social night of the week,” Robert said of the club years ago.

On Thursday, they’ll look to keep that tradition going.

“We are really hoping that we’ll get a solution,” Greg said.