Some of the best shooters from all across Western Canada converged upon the North Okanagan Trap and Skeet Club (NOTSC), for the annual Labour Day Classic.
“This is the big event, as it comes with the big trophy,” said director Lisa Salt. “I don’t know how many years we have been doing it but it’s been a long time.”
The four day event saw 70 competitors come from across B.C., Alberta and Washington to compete.
During the competition, all shooters use 12-gauge shotguns. Competitors are lined up, five-wide and placed a varying degree away from the target.
“There’s a handicap, like golf,” explained Salt. “The farther back you shoot, the harder it gets.”
Then, each shooter will fire one at a time, five times, before moving to a different position.
“It is all voice activated,” said Diana Williamson, a scorekeeper at the event. “The competitors have a microphone with them and yell ‘pull’ each time they are ready to shoot and the trap (which is the device that holds the clay target) throws out a clay target at one of three areas each time, middle, left and right.”
Shooters then have to fire their gun to hit the target prior to the target falling to the ground.
During the event, Salt remarked at the precision of the shooters, where some can hit 100 out of 100 targets.
“We had seven people come here to fire their milestone targets,” she said.
Those milestones include 50,000 to 200,000 registered Pacific International Trapshooting Association (PITA) targets. PITA is the governing body of major trapshooting competitions.
“We, at NOTSC, do two big shoots a year,” said Salt. “Then we do a multiplex once a month, where people from everywhere shoot at their own club, and then the scores are tallied, and you win depending on how your scores stack up against all the other shooters.”
New shooters are always welcome, and you can visit shootnotsc.com for more information.
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bowen.assman@vernonmorningstar.com
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