Former Olympian enters to Trapshooting Hall of Fame

Jackie Garrigus said it will be an emotional moment when her late husband, Thomas Garrigus, is inducted into the Amateur Trapshooting Association’s Hall of Fame. Garrigus, silver medalist in Men’s Trap at the 1968 Olympics, passed away in 2006. He is being inducted Aug. 7 in ceremonies at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex’s Events Center along with Fred Nagel, Gary Sherrod and Pat Stacey. “Oh gosh, he loved everything about trapshooting,” Jackie Garrigus said. “I didn’t know him when he was in his heyday. We probably met in the late 80s. He just loved trapshooting and the camaraderie. “He loved to help people tweak their game a little bit. He really enjoyed helping the kids that were beginning to shoot. He would have just felt that this would be a pat on the back for all the effort he put into trapshooting.”...more

Evanston’s Nico Elardi claims trap shooting titles

To call him a prodigy might be a bit of a stretch but Nico Elardi is definitely a young buck for the promise he has shown and the success he’s already achieved in the sport of trap shooting. He already has a few titles under his belt including Wyoming Class B state champion for hitting 195 out of 200 targets and then going 25-25 in a tie-breaking shoot-off in Torrington. Elardi is a 2015 graduate of Evanston High School. He is entering his senior year at the University of Wyoming pursuing his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering after attaining his associate’s degree at Western Wyoming College. Trap shooting may be a departure for the Elardi name associated with athletic prowess in motorsports like motocross, drag and snowmachine racing, in which Elardi, like his father and brother, has enjoyed his fair share of triumphs, not to mention injuries...Trap shooting differs from its cousin skeet shooting in a number of ways. Chief among them is skeet shooting utilizes two throwing machines and the target’s tragectories go from left to right and right to left; whereas, in trap shooting, the four-inch clay pigeons are tossed in a forward arc from a single machine. Trap shooting has five stations, aligned in an arc formation, from which competitors will shoot, according to Elardi. Station one would be on the extreme left with station three directly behind the trap machine; station five is on the extreme right. Elardi also detailed the three disciplines involved in trap shooting: singles, handicap and doubles. In singles, competitors fire rounds of 25 from the five stations. A box of shells equates to 25, as well. Handicap competition will have shooters firing from different distances depending on skill level, age and experience, with expert divisions shooting from farther back while beginners are closer. Doubles competition entails shooting at two targets. If a shooter is involved in all three disciplines, which Elardi most often tries to do, they will fire 300 rounds of shotgun shells per competition...more

Shooting for the stars: Waterford-area woman an international trapshooting competitor

When Maddy Bernau first shot a gun at age 9, she didn’t like it at all. She didn’t like the kick or the feeling, and she had a strange way of holding the gun that meant it recoiled into her face, resulting in some nasty bruises. “I had a welt on my face for the first year I shot,” she said. Eleven years later, Bernau, now 20, is an international trapshooting competitor with her sights set on the 2020 or 2024 Olympics. This year has been jam-packed with competitions. Bernau, of the Town of Waterford, has shot in four tournaments already this year and has three more on her schedule before the biggest of them all: the International Shooting Sport Federation World Championships in Changwon, South Korea, scheduled for Aug. 31-Sept. 15. In May, Bernau won the gold medal in women’s trapshooting at the International Junior Grand Prix in Porpetto, Italy. She represents USA Shooting’s national trapshooting team in competitions...more

NMGA Trophy Winners

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Aztec team wins top honors in trap shooting league

A team of Aztec High School students this spring dominated the first season of a new statewide clay target league, with two students earning top individual honors. The school's shotgun team had the highest overall score for the first trap shooting season hosted by the New Mexico State High School Clay Target League, according to a press release from the league. Aztec High is one of three teams in the league, in addition to Rio Rancho and Sue Cleveland high schools, both in Rio Rancho. During the competition, five students are positioned at five stations and take turns firing their shotguns at clay pigeons launched into the air by a spring trap from a "house" in front of the shooters. Each student fires five rounds at one station before moving to the next one, firing a total of 25 shots in each round of the competition. Two of the eight members of the Aztec High shotgun team earned top honors for scoring the most points during the season...more

Trapshooting competitors converge on Albuquerque

The Brandls were two of 159 competitors entered in events that started Thursday and run through today’s state handicap division championship at the southeast Albuquerque shooting range near Broadway Southeast and Interstate 25. RVs and pickup trucks lined the dirt parking lot along the southern side of the Albuquerque Trap Club on Saturday morning, while bright orange pieces of mostly broken clay targets were covering the high desert growth of the north-facing shooting range. Men and women, many with colorfully tinted sunglasses and playing card-like shooting blinders on the sides of their faces, mingled about between rounds talking with one another, reminiscing about past shoots or catching up on lost time. “It’s a community here, that’s for sure,” said Lubbock’s Jeff Renegar, one of the better trapshooters in the region for years who has to his credit dozens of wins, including the 2014 Texas Handicap division state championship. “We all get to know each other and look forward to seeing each other at different events.” That community is more than just the 159 competitors, who, by the way, will easily tear through more than 100,000 clay targets and shotgun shells this week, says Albuquerque Trap Club President Frank Geiger. Many also bring in friends and family to local hotels or RV parks. This year’s event, which has open divisions for competitors from all over the country, includes entrants from 12 states, including some from as far as Pennsylvania. “There are shoots all over year-round, but for New Mexico, this is the biggest event of the year for trapshooting,” said Geiger, who estimated about 20 paid employees and volunteers were working this week’s event. The ages of competitors range from 12 – as it was described to a reporter by no fewer than three people as the age a kid is strong enough to lift a shotgun 100 times per event – up to about 80...more

2018 marks the 15th year of youth shooting sports team in El Paso

El Paso, TEXAS — The Desert Valley 4-H shooting team has been around for 15 years, and they are ready to introduce more people to the sport as the team prepares for the upcoming state championship. "We would love to introduce more people to the sport of competitive shooting," says Eric Clark, President of the Adult Leaders Association. Clark says youth who routinely practice may receive full scholarships to universities and colleges with shotgun shooting teams. Clark insists all kids on the team take a gun safety course before stepping out onto the range. He also encourages a hunter education course for youth. The team routinely practices at El Paso Skeet and Trap Club. Coaches include Tess Clark and Phil Chacon. Clark is the archery coach for the team and also the co-manager of the club. Audra Tellez is another manager of the team, who speaks fluent Spanish. The Desert Valley 4-H shooting team frequently competes in New Mexico because of El Paso's location. But the team focuses on the Texas state championship each year, which includes archery and shotgun games. The El Paso Skeet and Trap Club will host a variety of events as part of fundraising for Desert Valley 4-H. If you need additional information on any of the below events, call (915) 859-7325...more