By Kevin J. Sabo
For the Advance
Twenty-eight shooters all from around the province descended on Castor over the weekend of June 18th to 20th.
The shooters were in town for the 34th Annual Trophy Shoot hosted by the Castor Trap Club and came from as far away as Cold Lake and Grande Prairie.
Seven events were hosted over the three days, with trophies awarded for five of them.
Trap is a firearms-based sport, where shooters try to shoot clay ‘pigeons’ out of the sky which are fired from a machine in a low building known as a trap-house.
The pigeon launcher moves back and forth along an arc, and when the shooter says “pull” the pigeon is launched. The shooter, at a station a pre-determined distance away from the trap house, then must sight the pigeon and try to shoot it down.
Various events are held, such as singles where one pigeon is launched; doubles, where two are launched at the same time, or handicap, where shooters are moved closer or further from the trap house depending on shooter level.
Each competitor will shoot at 100 pigeons per event and whoever gets the most gets the trophy for the event.
Each shooter is ranked “A”, “B”,”C”, “D”, based on skill level.
The first two events, held on June 18th, were singles and doubles events, though no trophies are presented.
Event three is a singles event, which was held on June 19th, and had 21 competitors.
Ken Kupsch of Edmonton won the “A” class singles event, hitting 93 of 100 pigeons. Closer to home, Adam Fuller of Castor area took the class “C” prize with 90 pigeons and Kathy Oram of Castor took the “D” class with 72.
Event four was the handicap event, which had 19 entries.
Ken Hammel, of Edmonton, won the long (further away) handicap event, hitting 62.
Doug Leong of Vauxhaul took the “mid” class event hitting 80 of 100. Kupsch was back on the scoreboard with the “short” class, hitting 88.
The fifth event, doubles, again had 19 entries and it closed out the Saturday.
The champion was Jesse Smith of High Prairie hitting 84.
Class “A” winner was Kevin Hammel of Grande Prairie, hitting 81.
Class “B” was taken by David Shiers of Edmonton, hitting 81 as well. David Wark of Mossleigh Alberta took the “C” event with 72. Fuller was on the scoreboard again as well, taking the “D” class with a score of 72.
After the shooting concluded for the day, a steak supper was held for the competitors.
Events six and seven were held June 20th. Event six was another singles - with 27 entries event - which again put Kupsch on the board for the “A” class, hitting 95.
Darrin Schuller of Camrose took “B” class with 93. “C” class was won by Ken Reid of Stettler, hitting 89.
Class “D” was won by Sandy Evans of Cold Lake, hitting 57.
The final event was another handicap event, with 23 entries.
Hammel took the “long” category with 74. Mid was taken by Jerry Houchin of Bowden with 87. Short was taken by Ken Reid of Stettler, hitting 79.
Overall champion of the weekend for both singles and handicap events was Kupsch, who hit 188/200 pigeons in the singles event and 167/200 in the handicap.
The Castor Trap Club shoots regularly on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. For more information, call Don Checkel at 403-882-3238.
