Young shooters stay on target

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This article was published 24/06/2019 (2508 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eyes focused, finger on the trigger, Rylan Bower stares down the clay target.

It’s a motion he goes through hundreds of times a week — but on Sunday, there was a little more at stake for the Manitoba Junior Shotgun Association Provincial Championship.

The intense concentration shooting requires has kept the 18-year-old involved with the sport.

“I just enjoy what your mind can do for you,” Bower said. “Like you’re looking down at the trap and you’ve got to be focused. I enjoy that.”

Bower hit 49 out of 50 targets during the first half of the championship Sunday, with 50 still left to go. Since his last provincials, he has had success at the national level, winning the Canadian Trap Shooting Junior Championship in Brandon.

He has improved with time, he said, better able to keep a clear head and the gun steady to hit the desired target.

“As long as you keep practising, you get better and better,” Bower said. “It’s a learning experience.”

Bower was one of 39 shooters who came out to Brandon from across the province to compete, with kids from Pembina Triangle, Winnipeg, Lundar and Portage la Prairie. They were grouped into two classes, with those who had shot at provincials before in one, and those who had never been before in the other. They each shot 50 targets in the morning and 50 in the afternoon.

Although Lorne Ross, chairperson for the Manitoba Junior Shotgun Association, said he was pleased with the number of kids that came out, the turnout has gone down over the 30 plus years the championship has been going on for.

They simply have more activities to choose from now, Ross said, which wasn’t the same when he was younger.

“I grew up hunting and fishing, baseball and hockey and we had one (TV) channel, we had CBC and no Xbox,” Ross said. “I’d crawl across broken glass to shoot. It’s just not the same (now) because there are just far more options, so you now compete for the kids as opposed to before it was just something to do.”

However, the talent level of the athletes has stayed strong, Ross said.

“Manitoba actually produces some of the best junior shooters in Canada.”

Shooting is great for people who don’t enjoy a team sport, but still want some friendly competition and to spend some time outdoors — or to improve their hunting skills, Ross said.

Graysen Humphries, 12, got into the sport to get better at bird hunting.

“I just like the feeling when you hit a bird and it just pops,” Humphries said.

At the competition, Sunday, he shot 32 out of 50 of the targets.

He has steadily improved since he started shooting two years ago, he said. He has gotten better at holding the gun, and “grown into it.”

“Now that I’m a little older, it’s like the right size for me,” Humphries said.

Ross said he always hears positive feedback from parents on their kids who picked up the sport.

“I’ve actually had a lot of parents tell me that their kids become more mature and responsible because they’re handling a firearm. Given that responsibility of having a firearm, it just makes a better kid out of them.”

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