Gunning to be the best: Teens take part in local shooting league

Standing with her feet hip-distance apart, Flathead Valley Pheasants Forever Youth Shooting League member Abbi Townsend leans into her slightly bent, forward-facing leg. Resting her cheek against the buttstock of her double-barreled shotgun she shouts, “Pull.” 

Two neon orange clay targets are released into the gray sky. She fires — the clay target bursts into pieces. A scorekeeper shouts, “Dead!”

Without missing a beat, she shifts her shotgun to the right, aiming at the next clay sailing in the opposite direction. She fires and misses. The scorekeeper shouts, “Lost.” 

With a hop, she pulls her legs together and lowers the shotgun to reload. She then watches her teammates, waiting for her next shot during a round of doubles trap at the Flathead Valley Clay Target Club on Feb.24.

“I’ve had three guns. I shot with this one last year and had my amazing season with it,” Townsend said.

Later in the afternoon, she would go on to win a shoot-off in the teal event, while her teammate, Rylee Galle would earn the top girl’s score in doubles.

“I’ve had several different guns over the years, but I’ve always come back to the over-unders,” she said, noting an advantage of having two barrels instead of one is the ability to use different chokes, especially for an event like doubles.

In addition to awarding the top scores for individual boys and girls, teams compete for the highest score and are put into classes. 

For each event, competitors shoot 50 targets. At finals next week, that increases to 100. A full day of competing takes physical and mental stamina. 

For the season, competitors have the opportunity to shoot a total of 480 targets. Last year, she shot 321 with Pheasants Forever.

“This year, I kind of fell out of shooting over the summer. I came back and my technique was just messed up. So, we’ve been doing a lot of working over the weekends and going to a personal trainer to get back in my groove,” Townsend said.

Rook Smith, who was also preparing for a shoot-off later in the afternoon in the boy’s 16-yard trap shoot event, has improved over the four years he’s been a member of the Pheasants Forever Youth Shooting League. Competitor Grayson Calles ended up winning the shoot-off.

“It’s really a practice-makes-perfect type of sport. I think I shot close to 5,000 rounds last year,” said Smith, who has been a member of the league for four years.

“I’ve just kind of progressed shooting with them and it gave me that motivation to compete,” he said.

His family raises birding dogs, which means they go out hunting.

“One thing I’ve noticed, when I started hunting I was always getting outshot by my dad. He’s always the first to get the birds, and now I’m a much better shot — a lot faster,” Smith said when asked how shooting sports skills translate to hunting.

Many competitors have routines or rituals to stay focused.

“You have to have a routine,” Townsend said, smiling. “I’d say I’m out of routine, but I’m trying to get back into it. I kind of go through the process of pulling my gun out … I try to breathe and stay relaxed while shooting. Not get in my head too much. Some people when they’re out there they’ll keep track of their score in their head, but I learned that messes with me a whole lot if I try to keep track of my score.”

FOR SMITH, his routine is to take deep breaths to ground his focus and tune out all the noise from competitors shooting at other stations.

“I think you find a way to get into your zone. Just try and tune all that out. I’ve been here on competitive days at 7:45 in the morning and we’re just watching the practice birds fly and it just kind of transports you into your own world,” Smith said.

For many competitors, shooting sports is a family event. 

Townsend and teammate Rylee Galle also compete on a Flathead Valley Clay Target Club winter league team with their dads. In winter league, they only do trap shooting, whereas Pheasants Forever shooters compete in 16-yard trap, teal, crazy quail, crossers, doubles trap and sporting clays.

“You get to test more ways of shooting,” Townsend said, which she enjoys. “I love trap, but sometimes with changing things it makes it more fun and challenging.”

Siblings Braidy and Rhett Billington and Jubilee, Jayne and Isaiah McLean make up the Clay Commanders from the Bigfork-Creston area. 

The McLean’s older siblings competed and they said they wanted to try it out too.

“Every week you shoot something different,” Jubilee McLean said. “I like true pairs. It’s where two come out at the same time and you have to shoot them both.”

The Billington’s said they enjoyed the challenge of the competitive aspect.

Mike Kiel, director of youth shooting, comes over to go through the target presentations they’ll be shooting.

“I like seeing these kids excel,” Kiel said. “I’ve seen so many of these kids go from their first year to their fourth year and it’s just unbelievable. For a 50 target event they would start out maybe shooting eight to 12 birds out of 50, and after four years they’ll be in the high 30s low 40s.”

Team members have progressed over the season. The Billingtons noted their first scores were in the single digits and are now toward the end of the season in the mid-20s to 30 range.

The McLeans and Billington said anyone can assemble a team and try it out. The team recommends having coaches, which Pheasants Forever provides. This season, six coaches, including Dan Seliger of Columbia Fall, keep events running smoothly and stand out at the stations giving tips and instructions to shooters to help individuals improve.

Each shooting range or course offers a slightly different feel although the event remains the same. 

“Basically, when you talk about sporting clays, it’s golf with a shotgun in a sense,” Kiel said. “All these courses offer something different because the terrain is different.”

The Flathead Valley chapter, which is in its 27th year, is open to youth ages 11 through high school. Members need to complete a hunter safety course through Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks prior to joining. 

“At first you’re going to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing at all but over time, you’ll start to understand where you need to aim and like the tempo you need to have,” Townsend said. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. I feel like a lot of people, including myself, are way too hard on themselves. And if you get too hard on yourself you’ll get too in your head, so just have a good mindset if you come out here.’

The Flathead Valley chapter travels to the Big Sky Sporting Clays shooting range in Polson on March 10 to compete in the season finals. Forty-seven members are expected to compete. The competition is open to spectators and will be held from 10 a.m. to around 1 p.m., followed by a break for lunch and awards ceremony.

For more information contact Kiel at 257-8519.