An Aurora gun club is being tossed from its prime location at the edge of Buckley Air Force Base after a 45-year tenure during which the group has never paid to use the 39 acres it occupies.

But the military says the Tri-Service Sportsmen’s Club might still have a chance: Pony up lease payments to stay — estimated at about $6,000 a month — or take a hike.

The group — created in 1969 from U.S. Air Force rod-and-gun clubs at Lowry, Buckley and Fitzsimons, the three air bases active at the time — says it can’t afford the costs and is likely to fold.

“It truly is unfortunate,” said 2nd Lt. Trevor Zakrzewski, public affairs officer for the 460th Space Wing. “No one solution we were able to come up was able to address all the concerns equally, except for the potential for a lease.”

The club will be taking — probably in Dumpsters — all the improvements built on the federal government’s property through the years, including two trap-shooting ranges, five skeet-shooting ranges with towers, various storage facilities and a neat little clubhouse.

“For some reason, the Air Force can’t fit us in for any reason under their current list of regulations,” said club vice president George Youngwirth, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army.

The club got the word Wednesday in a letter from Col. Daniel Wright III, the base commander, after a face-to-face meeting with Youngwirth and club president Ralph Utley, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral.

In the letter, Wright notes “security, safety and environmental barriers” that couldn’t be overcome in a long negotiating process.

With a number of shootings at military installations in recent years — Fort Hood, Texas, and the Washington Navy Yard among them — coupled with heightened security since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a private firearms club located on a military installation is likely to raise an eyebrow no matter the situation.

“We know their level of dedication to safety,” Zakrzewski said. “They teach children hunter safety. This is a no-kidding, legitimate sportsmen’s club. But it’s not good enough to overlook that there have been no incidents. We have to mitigate what we can.”

Wright’s letter left open the chance to lease the property in a open-bid process that would require a fair-market-value assessment and a number of other expensive studies, club members said.

Wright’s decision was somewhat of a surprise, especially since the all-volunteer club has worked hard to be good stewards of the property — at the northeast section of the air base, just northwest of St. Simeon Catholic Cemetery on East Sixth Avenue.

“We’ve been good custodians and have done anything the base commanders wanted from us,” club treasurer Phil Mills said.

The club has been the site of the Colorado State Skeet Shooting Championships several times through the years, has hosted a number of different events specifically geared to families of deployed airmen based at Buckley, allows for free membership to any active military, and runs a number of youth programs, such as the Buckley Bears, and hunter training sessions.

But through the years, memberships by active or retired military, as well as veterans, have waned.Today, about 47 percent of the nearly 300 members are civilians with no current or prior attachment to the military.

Even though each member is required to undergo a background check, there are still concerns.

“The big thing today is security and liability,” Youngwirth said. “And they don’t have control of the civilians, who have never served. That would scare me if I were the commander.”

The group says it has never had an incident at the base and has spent thousands of dollars dealing with environmental concerns, such as cleaning up the lead pellets left from the shotgun shells and toxic hydrocarbons found in the clay targets they used.

In the end, it seems it was mostly about economics.

Tri-Service was the best gun-club deal in town. With no overhead costs for leasing the property, and an all-volunteer staff, dues were only $60 a year and a round of shooting — about 25 targets — was just $3.

That’s a fraction of what other clubs charge.

“It was dirt cheap,” Youngwirth said. “I remember when I started, and to shoot for that price was like a gift.”

Said Mills: “That was the incentive to join. It’s at least half the cost of other places.”

No longer.

David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or twitter.com/davidmigoya