USA Clay Target via Twitter
Image via USA Clay Target via Twitter.

Imagine a school sport where anyone and everyone can participate on a relatively equal footing. A sport where kids in wheelchairs can beat the school jocks, where girls can outscore the guys and where freshmen can compete alongside seniors.

America’s clay shooting program hits all those points and maybe that’s why it’s America’s fastest growing school sport.

In basketball or football, where the better players get most of the time on the court or field, and everyone else warms a bench. However, in clay shooting, everyone on the team participates 100% of the time. Even less popular, less athletically inclined people like David Hogg.

Speaking of David Hogg…he likes to represent that young people don’t like guns, shooting, or the gun culture. How is it then that clay shooting programs are experiencing almost exponential growth in schools across America? Maybe it explains why the organization Mr. Hogg allegedly help found was funded by a tiny handful of dark money donors, not millions of school aged kids. And certainly not millions of dues-paying members like the NRA.

Maybe in addition to all of the above reasons, clay shooting ranks as the safest sport in schools today.  That certainly seems to reassure non-gun owning parents nervous about the idea of their kids competing with those icky guns.  And even new shooters who have never touched a gun before can listen, learn and improve their competitiveness in pretty short order.

The National Rifle Association touts the success and rapid growth of school clay programs in a piece at the American Rifleman:

Student athletes representing 651 high school and college teams—11,783 of the young enthusiasts, to be precise—are participating in USA Clay Target League (USACTL) programs this fall. In all, 34 states are represented. More than 7,800 local volunteers will serve as coaches, range safety officers and team staff.

“Despite constant challenges both last year and this year, we are pleased to have our largest fall registration numbers ever,” said John Nelson, president of the USACTL. “The record-setting participation this fall is the result of the incredible efforts of coaches and families to overcome ongoing issues with the pandemic and ammunition shortages.”

The League’s co-ed and adaptive nature are key attractions to schools nationwide. The League is fully Title IX compliant with both male and female athletes competing on the same team. Additionally, it’s an ‘adaptive’ sport, which allows students with physical disabilities to take part. The League is also the safest sport in high school and college, with not one reported injury since the inception of the League in 2001. Each athlete must complete firearm safety certification before participation.

 

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51 COMMENTS

    • Perhaps one day the 3 Skeeters pictured will head the NRA. Certainly could do no worse than those running the show today. Nonetheless shooting is a discipline. If taught right those little girls will acquire the sense not to wind up spending their lives with a deranged gun grabbing pig like d. hoog.

    • Minnesota, especially up north and away from the Floydiots, are heavily into the clays program. Males and females and what ever there is in-between. Compared with other “team” and individual “sports”, shooting clays is a lifetime activity. I also suggest that shooting clays is a “gateway” into more advanced shooting with other implements.

      This is what we gun people really need to push- a reason to shoot, learn marksmanship and learn safe firearms operation for a variety of reasons besides personal protection and to repress our ever-tyrannical government.

  4. Clay shooting is fun, but those damn things are hard to cook and they don’t taste too good.

  5. Speaking of which, I’ve got a dozen quail I shot today I’ve got to do something with before it gets dark.

  7. “…clay shooting ranks as the safest sport in schools today.”

    Glad to hear it!! However, when I was in high school, the team with the least injuries and the most wins was the chess team. I played third board, which meant I was the third best player in on the team.

    I remember, at a pep rally, after the football team, the basketball team, the wrestling team, the track team, and the tennis team, we, the chess team were introduced. Everyone laughed at us until our coach grabbed the microphone and mentioned we had more wins than any other team in the school. After a few seconds of silence, the jeers turned to cheers.

    I remember we played Admiral Farragut high school. They had the ‘home’ advantage that day, which meant they got to choose the style of boards and pieces. My opponent chose a Playboy chess set. I was a freshman and he was a senior. Walking in, I had been prepared to lose since he had much more experience. HOWEVER, when I saw that chess set, I knew he was weak, otherwise he would not need such a distraction. Actually, he was not weak, just a jerk. It took me 42 tense minutes to crush him.

    Anyway, imagine a chess team with shotguns!!

    • Oh, yeah, I also ran cross country in the fall and was a mile-er in the spring. Never number one but a reliable placer.

      I wish our school had shooting sports.

    • Interesting story there Lifesavor.
      And to think now your a shootzer too.
      Our school had football, basketball, and track, that’ was it.
      I cant remember if the girls even did track, I dont think they did by golly.

    • I was in a Chess club in junior high. For one day. My first game, I managed to lose with the legendary “Fool’s Mate.” Decided that maybe I wasn’t cut out for the game.

      • I had a pal in high school who took up chess one summer, came back in the fall thinking he was some manner of a natural, or something. I hadn’t played much for several years when he talked me into a game, I hit him with a “fool’s mate” 3 times in a row. I was gonna quit, but he was beside himself insisting on another game. So I slowly demonstrated what I was doing, he just could not believe it.

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    • ….. this will allow you to spend more time on Facebook and TicTok, while sticking it to the “smart” kids doing their own work. Then someday, you too can run a website that lets shit like this run while deleting and moderating actual related posts .

  9. Local gunsmith was closed for a couple of weeks last year; he was helping out at a school-age clay shooting training session. When he came back, he said they had run over 5,000 kids thru the course.

  10. Gee Mr. Boch, I see Mr. Hogg lives rent free in your head. Too bad you had to go sour grapes on an otherwise positive and encouraging topic. Get help.

  12. Could it be that girls and their parents looking for new school sports where they aren’t at a disadvantage competing with transgender she-boys?

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