News

Trap Shooting Gains Popularity in Arkansas Schools

PARAGOULD, Ark. (AP) — A rapidly growing sport at rural high schools requires equipment the kids who compete cannot even bring on campus without fear of expulsion. Trap shooting is a sport where round disks called clay pigeons are tossed through the air and competitors shoot at them with shotguns.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has been promoting this sport in recent years on school campuses and through 4-H clubs as part of its Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program.

Rob Asher, a network systems technician, coaches a team of trap shooters at Paragould High School. He said the Arkansas program is "one of the largest, if not the largest, youth shooting program in the United States." When asked how he came to coach the team he said, "Since I opened my mouth, I was the lucky victim. Our superintendent was discussing other activities we could sponsor for the kids that weren't participating in other sports programs. I came from Corning where we had a shooting program, and I suggested it for here."

He said there was surprisingly quite a bit of interest in the club. "We only have a senior division and we had 54 kids sign up this year, and 35 of those did all the paperwork and completed the requirements to compete." The state requires the participants to have a current hunter education card and make it to a least five practices, although the Paragould High School club has more mandatory requirements.

If a student can't bring a shotgun on campus, how do they practice? Asher said they have solved that problem two ways. They have several shotguns that have been rendered inoperable and then equipped with a laser system that ties them into an overgrown video game. A red dot travels across the screen, imitating the clay pigeon and the student attempts to hit it with a laser beam from the gun. Such things as windage or shot size can be changed to simulate actual shooting range conditions.

The negative is you don't get the bang or the kick of a real shotgun. "From my standpoint, the big advantage with the laser is safety," Asher said. "You get the kid involved in the shooting sport and you keep them out of trouble."

Keeping the kids out of trouble is big on Asher's mind. "I was lucky enough to have older people who were willing to take me hunting and fishing and keep me out of trouble," Asher said. "If it hadn't been for that, I'd have been the biggest thug in Northeast Arkansas. My passion became hunting and fishing for weekends or idle time. You know, the devil plays with idle hands."

The second way they practice is off-campus, where they use live ammunition, guns that will really fire and real clay disks. The Campground Methodist Church allows them to use land behind the church and they have a portable trap thrower to toss the clay pigeons. "The portable trap thrower is something we purchased this year." Asher said. The program is funded in part by the school, by fund-raisers the kids do and by the Game and Fish Commission.

"We do get quite a few kids who have never even held a gun before and aren't comfortable holding one, " Asher said. "This is an introductory sport and we don't get into the technical things about shooting such as gun fitting." He said the technical aspects of the sport and the expensive shotguns are for the clubs that are into winning. "We're here to get them into something they might enjoy and be responsible for," Asher said. "We give them something to get them started."

The students shoot with 12- and 20-gauge shotguns. The club is co-educational and Asher says girls often make the better shooters if they have never fired a gun before they get into the program.

Article Pages