Trapshooting provincials return to Brandon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2024 (544 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rylan Bower has a pretty good sense of where the Brandon Gun Club stands from a national perspective.

The facility, which is located two kilometres south of the city off Highway 10, is hosting the Manitoba Trapshooting Association’s provincial championships that will draw dozens of shooters this weekend.

“We know how a shoot should be run properly,” Bower said. “In all of Canada, I don’t want to be biased, but I think we put on just as good a shoot as anybody.”

Jason Sparwood of Virden is president of the Manitoba Trapshooting Association. He agrees with Bower.

“This is probably one of the best facilities, I would say by far, in Canada,” Sparwood said. “I’ve shot in Vancouver, Alberta, Manitoba, I haven’t shot in Ontario yet but from what I hear from friends, this is definitely in the top five if not the top three in Canada.”

Brandon draws its fair share of the big events because of its size. It’s the largest trapshooting range in Manitoba with 10 stations, plus two for practice.

“That’s what enables them to host nationals, because it’s such a large facility,” Sparwood said. “They have such a good base that they’re able to host here.”

Last summer, Brandon hosted the Canadian Trapshooting Championships, an event that saw Brandon Gun Club president Pat Lamont inducted into the Canadian Trapshooting Hall of Fame.

The Brandon Gun Club has hosted so many large events that there’s a familiar choreography among the committed volunteers.

“We’re always looking for more volunteers but we know what we’re doing,” Bower said. “Everybody has a role to play.”

Bower’s job is operating the program that quickly inputs results into the computer.

The championship was awarded to Brandon in February, with most of the work done during the final few weeks.

“We’re thinking about it during the year and what needs to be done, but the actual work for it is a month prior,” Bower said.

The shoot drew 32 competitors on Friday, and should be up to more than 50 on Saturday, a number that will drop slightly on Sunday.

The three-day event, which ends on Sunday afternoon, is the final event on a provincial calendar that began in late May with the Virden Pasture Open.

“For Manitoba, this is it,” Bower said with a chuckle. Sparwood said trapshooting lost some participants during the two-year COVID break but is doing better now than in 2019.

“I don’t know if it was fear of COVID but we did lose shooters at that particular time,” Sparwood said. “We had some we didn’t lose but they just didn’t come. But we’ve gained shooters, and we’re working on gaining shooters all the time.

“We’re actually fairly close to the same,” he added. “From 2019, we’d maybe be down five to eight shooters. We’ve got not all of them back but some of them back and we have more entering, which is exciting. Compared to 2019, it’s a lot better now.”

A big factor has been the Manitoba High School Rodeo Association, which brought trapshooting into its fold. That’s fuelled interest in younger age groups.

“It’s really done a lot for us,” Sparwood said. “They maybe don’t realize how much it’s done for us. That’s anywhere between 10 and 20 kids, and that’s a lot for a sport you only have whatever you have here today, 40 or 50 people. That’s a lot.”

Trapshooting has a handful of hotbeds in Manitoba, mainly centred around its clubs in Brandon, Virden, Winnipeg, Lundar, Portage la Prairie and in the Pembina triangle between Morden, Winkler and Carman.

“A lot of those kids when they’re starting, all you want to instil in them is the fun factor,” Sparwood said. “If you’re having fun, the scores should come. You just have to make sure it’s fun, just like any other sport.”

Saturday is the big day for juniors, with $3,000 to be distributed among the winners in three age groups. A shotgun will also be given away by draw, with every junior who hits a minimum number of targets eligible to enter.

Every sport needs its aspirational figures to motivate youngsters to get better, and Manitoba has two of the very best in Pat Lamont and Arborg’s Katie Jones.

Lamont recently won his 12th career ring at the Amateur Trapshooting Association’s 125th Grand American Trapshooting Championships in Sparta, Ill., placing him third all-time in the Super Bowl of the sport.

Jones has also had national and international success.

“Between her and Patrick, it’s not hard to show people what can be achieved,” Sparwood said. “They shoot very well.”

Sparwood grew up in the sport because his dad, Jason Sr., also shot. The younger Sparwood didn’t take it up competitively until about a decade ago after the devoted angler had the resources to devote to the sport.

“It’s a somewhat costly sport,” Sparwood said. “When you’re young, you’re starting life and making a family and sometimes that gets in the road. I knew it was here, I just didn’t have a chance to do it all the time. “I put my fishing rod away and grabbed my shotgun.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson