Shooters from across Alabama descended on Redstone Arsenal for the first time the Alabama Skeet Shooting Association has held the state championship on post.
Competitors shot across five fields at two different locations – the MARS Skeet and Trap Club’s range and the new Redstone Arsenal Clays Range.
Shooters represented a wide range of ages and skill levels with the youngest shooter being 15-year-old Jack Yates.
Yates said he started skeet shooting about a year and a half ago. He said it’s helped him become a better bird hunter, which is an activity he and his father enjoy.
John Lawson, who took up the sport when he was 65, has been shooting skeet for about 13 years.
“This is the only sport I know of that people will help you beat them,” he said.
Jim Abernathy, another competitor, said this was either his 39th or 40th year shooting birds.
The clay targets used in the sport are often referred to as birds.
A bit of history happened on Saturday at the Clays Range. Tim Miller, a two-time high overall winner at the state competition, shot the first perfect score recorded on the field.
Miller has been skeet shooting since 2008 and like Yates, got into the sport because he enjoyed bird hunting and said it would be a good way practice.
“And then, at the end of the day, I enjoy this more,” Miller said. “I don’t have anything to pluck, skin, clean or butcher when I get home.”
According to its website, the association has several more events scheduled for the Redstone and MARS ranges this year.
The next one, on Sept. 26-28, is the Rocket City Open, a three-day, five-gun shoot. Then the last shoot scheduled for Redstone, the Falling Leaves Open, will take place Oct. 17-19.
For information about using the Redstone Arsenal Clay Range, call 256-876-4868.
For information about the MARS Skeet and Trap Club visit marsskeet.wixsite.com/marsclub.
For information about the Alabama Skeet Shooting Association visit https://alskeet.org.
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