The steady pop of shotguns can now be heard at the Andrew Wood Trap and Skeet Range a few minutes east of town every Wednesday and Thursday evening and on Sunday afternoons as league shooters blast clay pigeons from the sky.
Newcomers are welcome, said Athabasca Gun Club member Roland Lord, and you don’t necessarily have to join a league team. There’s time just to try it out: spring league shooting ends June 18, but there’s time between team shoots, and the range is open until it’s too cold to use.
So far, the club has 11 league teams of five members each. A team shoot, Lord explained, is somewhat like a choreographed dance.
Team members stand in a row at designated shooting stations and shoot targets lobbed into the air by the same trap. They always shoot in the same sequence as they rotate through five different shooting stations, each equipped with a speaker.
“When you’re ready (to shoot), you yell, ‘Pull,’” said Lord, explaining the devices that launch the clay pigeons are voice activated.
Scoring is straightforward: a hit is a point. During each round, each member fires five shots at each of the five stations. That’s a box worth of shells per shooter, or a maximum possible 25 points each.
“Shells are sold here probably cheaper than anywhere else,” Lord said, noting that $11 will buy you a round of shells plus the accompanying clay targets.
After the first round is completed, the team’s handicap is calculated: basically, the higher the team’s score as a whole, the further back they must shoot from.
“I look at it as somewhat like golf,” said Lord. “The only thing I’m trying to do is better than what I did last time.”
Lord said he especially enjoys seeing parents bring their children out to get comfortable with a gun in a safe environment. There’s no age limit per se — if you can safely handle a gun, you can come, said Lord, adding that where kids are concerned, it’s usually at parents’ discretion.
Lord has helped teach some of those junior shooters.
“I guess I’m relaxed at this,” he said with a laugh.
He sees the sport’s longevity as being tied to youth interest.
“You see the younger shooters? That means this sport is going to continue,” he said, adding that the gun club gives prizes to strong junior shooters. Junior shooters are also exempt from registration fees and will have their shells and targets provided to them by the Athabasca Gun Club.
Junior shooters and guests of any age at the range must wear earplugs and safety glasses, said Lord (members are encouraged to wear them, too). Sundays are a good day to come try it out. A shotgun and safety gear will be made available on site. As this reporter learned, most of the guns don’t kick too hard in the moment — but you may feel it a little the next day.
If newcomers get the bug and want to join, membership is $70 and soon going up to $100, said Lord.
The perk? Cheap shells, camaraderie and, “You can come here and shoot a $1,000 gun,” he said.
Lord said skeet shooting is obviously good practice for bird hunting, but many do it for the stress relief.
“At the end of the day, you come here, and everything stops,” said Lord. “You get your head out of everything that happened.”
Todd Dutchak has been a member for three years. Prior to that, “I had never fired a shotgun once in my life before.”
Now, he has eight shotguns.
Like Lord, he cites the stress relief as the main reason he comes. Both agree: once you start, it’s easy to get hooked.
“I’ve shot all day in the rain shooting targets,” said Lord.
