Montana sporting clays championship held
Berl Tiskus
Randy Nelson, a Hayden, Idaho, competitor, calls, “Pull,” for a clay bird.
Berl Tiskus
Participants in the five-stand competition enjoy good weather as they wait for their clay birds.
Berl Tiskus
Shooter J.D. Owen, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, calls for a bird.
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
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POLSON — If you noticed pickups around Polson with a lot of dust on their bumpers and maybe out-of-state plates, they may have been in town for the Big Sky Sporting Clays Montana State Championship, held May 21 to 24 at Big Sky Sporting Clays on Irvine Flats Road west of Polson.
With 168 shooters signed up, Big Sky Sporting Clays was a busy place over the weekend. Wheeled carts, some modified strollers and some designed specifically for sporting clay use, bristle with shotguns and were loaded with ammunition, bottles of water and other necessities on the course.
Participants shoot in the preliminary event, the main event, sub gauge, FITASC — federation internationale de Tir Aux Sportives de Chasse — and five-stand.
On Friday, the red course at Big Sky Sporting Clays was the prelim — a 100-bird shoot, according to Sheryl Van Voast. She and her husband Rick own the business. On the blue course, shooters were downing orange clay birds with sub-gauge guns, while FITASC competitors are a couple of miles to the west and five-standers are about a half a mile down the road. Saturday and Sunday will be the main event, with shooters traveling over the course and shooting at different stands. All the events have referees.
The good news is the course is pretty flat, except where it isn’t, a shooter said, laughing.
J.D. Owen, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, explained that there are three gauges of shotgun used in the competition — the .410 bore, “which I call a bb,” and 28, 20 and 12 gauge. The .410 and 28 and 20 gauge are used in the sub gauge shoots.
FITASC is a French game, according to Rollins shooter Mike Taylor, who also teaches competition shooting. The course consists of four or more layouts of 25 targets, or parcours, with three or four shooting positions on each parcour.
The five-stand has five “stands” or stations to shoot from, and anywhere from six to eight traps that throw targets, according to claytargetsonline.com Participants take turns shooting from each of the five stands.
Bernie Foster, a lady shooter from Everett, Washington, competed Friday.
“I do like shooting. There’s something about busting that orange target into pieces up in the air that makes you feel good,” Foster said, adding that it’s a family sport since she and her husband both shoot.
