4-H trap shooters practice at Plains Trap Club
<p>Marsada Sweet, left, fires her shotgun at a clay pigeon as Taralee Ryan and Aaron Collins from left to right, look on during 4-H trap shooting practice.</p>
About ten 4-H participants gathered at the Plains Trap Club to practice blasting clay discs out of the air with shotguns on Saturday. Shotgun in hand, students as young as 11 years old stepped up to a microphone, yelled “pull” and fired 12 gauge rounds at a clay “pigeon” travelling approximately 90 miles per hour.
With skill ranges from experienced to having never fired a shotgun before, instructor Mike Blake made his way from student to student providing advice on how to better track the discs.
“You don’t move the rifle. You move your head and the rifle naturally follows,” said Blake.
The first group was comprised of novice shooters, some firing the weapon for the first time. While they had fired air guns and BB guns, the recoil of the much larger caliber shotguns appeared to rattle a few students at first. However, after a few rounds, most seemed to get the hang of it and began to blast discs out of the sky.
After 25 rounds, the novice group relinquished the firing line to a more experienced group. These five students had fired the shotguns at clay pigeons before. Demonstrating just how difficult the sport of trap shooting can be, there were still a few misses from the group with experience but they began to dial in to the “clays” as they are called.
According to Blake, “It is much harder than you think. You are looking at a target that is travelling over 90 miles per hour. You have to follow it with your eyes, catch up to it with the rifle, follow through and pull the trigger all in less than two seconds.”
Blake said the 4-H trap shooting program is the only one of its kind in Sanders County. He said the Plains Trap Club had been instrumental in allowing a program like this to exist.
“The Plains Trap Club has bent over backwards to help us. They let us use the facility whenever we want. They lowered their membership dues for the 4-Hers and sell us shells at a discount,” said Blake.
The Plains Trap Club is located just outside of Plains on Highway 200 travelling westbound near the golf course.