Outdoors Club hosts first trapshoot competition
Junior Chris Whempner decided to put his accounting books down for a few hours Wednesday for a hobby he doesn’t usually have time for while attending the University of South Dakota.
The junior loaded his gun and stepped up for the Outdoors Club’s first trapshoot competition at the shooting range around Clay County Park four miles southwest of Vermillion Oct. 15.
“Didn’t win, but it was a good time,” Whempner said.
There were seven competitors at the contest, and although it may seem small, members of the Outdoors Club said the event goes with the club’s mission to bring people together with similar interests.
“It was actually a very nice event,” said Tanner Comp, Outdoors Club president. “Everybody had a great time, mainly because we were targeting people that already have shot. Those people already had shotguns, had shells and got going.”
The event came just one week after a friendly first-timer trapshoot took place. About eight people participated in the first-timer event where some students handled shotguns for the first time.
Muhammad Ali Suria is the vice-president of the Outdoors Club, and he had his first shotgun experience with the club.
“Everybody told me ‘You’re going to have recoil,’” Suria said. “But I just got up, took a deep breath and shot. It was surprisingly fun.”
He missed the clay pigeon — a small clay disc thrown for a shooter — his first shot, but that wasn’t a big deal, he said.
“That first-timer event was put on through the Game, Fish and Parks,” Comp said. “They supplied the beginner guns and the shells, and kept it low cost for students.”
For the competitive trapshoot event, shooters paid $15. The structure of the competition was standard to most trapshoots. The standard trapshoot has 50 clay pigeons with one shell shot per pigeon. The scoring is based on how many are hit out of 50.
Trapshooters can shoot any type of shotgun they wish, including a 20-gauge, 12-gauge or 10-gauge.
“It’s pretty simple,” Whempner said. “Just (have to) get in the right mindset when you step up. Go up with a box of shells and say a prayer.”
Comp said the night worked into what the Outdoors Club is trying to do with trips around the state and outdoor activities.
“We have two objectives with the Outdoors Club. One is to get people outdoors and educate people about the outdoors,” he said. “The other is to get people to actually be socially active, get people that hunt or enjoy the same things together.”
(Photo: Junior Matt Shore fires at a clay target Oct. 15 at the Clay County Park firing range as fellow junior Chris Whempner watches. Trap shooting is one of multiple activities in which members of the Outdoors Club participate. Malachi Petersen / The Volante)
