By Jase Jones, Reporter
The Islander Trap team’s season has just kicked off, having their first meeting a few weeks back. The team meets every Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m., and Sundays 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Heartland Shooting Park.
The team competes in a few different events, the teams compete in Trapshooting, Handicap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays. These are all different forms of a similar concept of a bird hunting simulation. These shotgun sports have become increasingly popular all over the world and are now an Olympic event.
These events have some small variations but all of them involve a shooter trying to hit some kind of a moving target out of the air. The differences in the events mainly lie in the way the target is launched into the air, and the distance from the target. The rules of the events can also change based on the location. For example, American skeet shooting has no delay from when the shooter calls for a target. The international version will have a delay.
This Sunday, Feb. 26, the team will be meeting at their usual practice to talk about getting ready for their first shoot on March 4. The team has several events planned for the next few months. The shooters also have the chance to go to the National Championship Cornhusker Shoot April 26, 27, and 28.
Trap is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country right now, and the team is feeling that growth. They are gaining new members and the team even has its own clubhouse at the Heartland Range. The team does lunches here and has it stocked with coffee and snacks for their meetings.
The reason for this rapid growth of shotgun sports is the high skill required, says Ashton Marshall, a member of the trap team.
He said, “I’ve done lots of sports, soccer, basketball, track, powerlifting, just about anything you can think of. But traps are by far the most skillful. Every day is different, clays thrown differently, changing your stance for the weather, changing the choke for the spread of the shot, there’s so many variables in trap it’s insane. That’s what makes it so appealing to me. I like being challenged in different ways every time we go out to shoot.”
As the date of the first meet comes closer and closer, the members of the team are getting excited for competition.
Marshall said, “Trap is by far the most fun sport I’ve ever done, especially going to the events.”
Marshall and the rest of the team said they will continue to work hard at their practices to prepare for the event they are so excited for.
The Islander 