Every Wednesday, the “trap club” will meet to work on their aiming skills. They either will meet at the Freeland or Bay Conservation Club. Anyone can join at any time. The club consists of both DHS and MHS students. Since it is a newer club, it advised to be opened up at both high schools so all high schoolers have the same chances to experience the art of trap shooting. The students compete against other clubs from around Michigan and in the Great Lakes Bay Region.
“The shooter will call pull 25 times and the score is literally what you hit out of the 25 clay pigeons,” adviser Brent Chambers said.
The object of trap shooting is trying to shoot the clay pigeons as they are released from a machine when the shooter yells “pull”.
“Shoot the clay pigeons” is the advice given from DHS student, Andrew Kaiser.
Each clay disk, or pigeon, is worth exactly one point.
“Back in the day, it was literally a trap that had a live bird in it and the shooter stood behind the trap which was out in front of him, and when he (the shooter) would yell pull, literally somebody pulled the door open and the bird flew out and shot it,” Chambers said. “Well, obviously it’s not very politically correct to shoot live birds anymore, nor is it politically correct to have a person stand in front of you and pull the cage open when you say pull.”
Thanks to Chambers, there now is a great club that anyone can participate in. This whole idea came from his love of the sport. However, it is not considered a sport by MHSAA. A handful of students partake in this club and enjoy it a lot. Thanks to the love of trap shooting, it can now be shared with high school students around Midland.
By: Anna Blasy
Great story, like the amount of quotes in the story especially what Mr. Chambers said.
I really enjoyed reading this article! I like how you included the rules of the activity and how it works. Before I read this I didn’t know what the term “pull” came from, but after your in depth explanation of the origins of trap shooting, I do. Clearly you didn’t receive a quality quote from the student but I like how you added it separately so it didn’t interfere with any paragraphs.
I’ll be publicizing this sport more in the future. This season is the first for high schools in the state of Michigan, while in others, like Minnesota, there are dozens of teams and over a thousand student athletes. Female and male shooters compete equally. Loaner shotguns are available to interested students who do not have an appropriate target shotgun. Both the Freeland and Bay clubs give student athletes a very reduced range rate, and Jays Sporting Goods in Clare is giving a nice discount to students on target ammunition. To learn more please visit the team’s Facebook page or the Michigan league’s webpage. As I said, more information will be coming after we get farther into our first season. Thanks- Mr. Chambers
https://www.facebook.com/Great-Lakes-Bay-High-School-Trap-League-788227387976641/?ref=settings
http://miclaytarget.com/