IDAHO FALLS – Boom!
Pull!
Boom!
Pull!
It’s loud as the orange clay targets glide across the afternoon sky only to shatter into a million pieces.
Seconds later, the next target is up.
Boom!
This time the orange disc survives, spinning like a wayward Frisbee before landing about 100 yards downrange in a field.
Welcome to shooting practice for the Skyline Trap Team, which features 27 members from Eagle Rock Jr. High, Skyline High School and Idaho Falls High School.
On this day, the team is practicing for Saturday’s state championships.
Coach Scott Johnson noted that the team’s roster varies in experience. Some shooters have grown up handling guns, likely starting with BB guns and eventually hunting. Some have had no experience with guns until they joined the team.
“I was a little surprised when she came home and said she wanted to do this because she was always a girly-girl,” said Tracy Wilson, whose daughter Emily is practicing. “But she was passionate about it.”
Emily, a Skyline student, is in her third year with the team.
“This really gives these kids some confidence,” Tracy said.
Emily Barton is going to be a senior at Skyline and decided to try her hand at trap shooting last year after her two brothers had already been competing.
“It’s the first time I ever held a gun,” she said. “I wanted to just do something else and try something new. I ended up loving it.”
But don’t call it a sibling rivalry.
“We’re more or less even-ish,” she said of shooting with her younger brother Brigham.
Brigham will be a sophomore at Skyline in the fall and has been trap shooting for three years.
“Before I started doing this my seventh-grade year I had never shot a gun in my life,” he said. “Maybe a little BB gun. It was a new experience for me but somehow I got the hang of it.”
Brigham said he wanted to try it because his friends were involved with the team.
“The first year at the beginning I wasn’t expecting a lot out of myself, but once I got the hang of it it made really happy,” he said.
And that sibling rivalry?
“Sometimes I feel really bad when my sister shoots better than me, but that rarely happens so I don’t really have to worry about it.”
There are 19 teams in Idaho that compete in the USA Clay Target League, Idaho State Division.
The Skyline team finished second in state last season. This year’s squad features 10 girls and 17 boys ranging from seventh to 12th grade. There are six seniors on the team.
Each member goes through classroom training and hunter safety courses.
Johnson noted that while there is a school tie-in with the team, it’s not a sanctioned sport and relies on sponsorships and fundraisers.
“It’s 100% self-funded,” he said.
Some of the members have their own guns, but there are shot guns available for others to use.
Jace Pendlebury from Idaho Falls High, said his grandpa started him in the sport in seventh grade.
“It just makes me so happy,” he said. “I’ve shot guns my whole life and this is a new sport. I like to try new stuff and this stuck with me.”
Pendlebury said he’s expecting to challenge for a top-3 spot in this weekend’s state competition.
Top shooters typically hit more than 90 targets in 100 attempts. Last year’s winner hit 98 out of 100. Pendlebury has hit 93 out of 100.
Did someone say sibling rivalry?
“Most of the time I don’t see it as competitive,” Brigham Barton said. “I don’t care too much about my score. I just want to shoot well in general. If my sister shoots better than me or I shoot better than her I don’t really care that much. It’s just a fun thing that we get to do together.”
And the silence is broken.
Boom!
