Tis early practice …

The National Sporting Clays Championship in San Antonio, Texas is the high point of the American sporting clays championship circuit. For over a week in mid-October, more than 2000 shooters hailing from every state in the union come gather to measure themselves against the best. While we were there, we met Blaser F3 shooter Mike Wilgus, who had traveled down from Washington State with his daughter Kayla. This was Kayla’s first time shooting the championship at, believe it or not, the tender age of 11. It was our pleasure to accompany them to several stands during the long match.

It was truly moving to see how Mike doted upon his daughter. And, of course, we could see the great pride he had in Kayla’s more than respectable showing. Mike did his best not to let on how closely he was watching her. After all, he did not want to put her under any undue pressure to succeed. And indeed, Kayla showed no sign of nervousness. She shot her rounds in a relaxed and astoundingly routine manner and did not let the occasional miss upset her in the least. All who watched her are absolutely certain that, in a couple of years, Kayla will one day find herself far ahead in the standings.

Not only the overall mood but also the pace of the match markedly resembled that of the well-known European Sporting competitions. Absolute discipline, yet a fully relaxed and loose atmosphere marked each sunny day. But with one ‘small’ difference. In Texas, everything is bigger – and that includes the countless golf carts, some of which approached the size of a typical German off-road vehicle! On the other hand, there is no way for anyone to navigate the 660-hectare (1630-acre) shooting grounds solely on foot. The sight of the armada of motor homes the size of tractor-trailer rigs, however, made it hard to deny that Texans really do like everything bigger. This also applies to the number of competitors, since a match with 2000 shooters makes perfect organization an absolute prerequisite.

We were especially astounded at the totally relaxed relationship between the shooting sports practiced on the grounds of the complex and its neighbors. Unthinkable in Europe, the National Shooting Complex San Antonio is located in the middle of a newly-built housing subdivision. You can look in vain for signs protesting the noise even though we ourselves could hear the regular “pop, pop” clearly from inside our vehicle as we drove in. In any case, we are curious how it will look here in a few years. Not even the whitetail deer are disturbed by the tens of thousands of shots fired daily. They popped up everywhere and showed complete familiarity with the light and noise, especially on evenings when the shooting took place under floodlights.