Page 25 - 2020 May/June Outdoor Oklahoma

these schools, from 7th grade through 12th grade, com-
pete in regional events with the hope of advancing to the DON P. BROWN/ODWC
annual state shoot, which has been held each spring at the
Oklahoma Trap and Skeet Association in El Reno, Okla. Of
the 180-plus schools that begin regional competition each
spring, the top 16 senior teams and top eight junior teams
advance to the state shoot.
“This program is amazing,” said Damon Springer, Senior
Information and Education Specialist with ODWC, and coor-
dinator of OKSSSP. “These kids really enjoy this program,
and it promotes firearms safety as well as healthy competi-
tion. Many of them have even gone on to earn scholarships
to be on a shooting team at the college level.”
Schools wanting more information about OKSSSP may
call Springer at (405) 317-6316.
For some, shooting sports have been a part of their A scorekeeper is sometimes on hand to keep track of hits and misses on the
lives forever. For others, the introduction comes later in life skeet or trap field.
but has had a profound impact. Suzi Rouse, president of
Oklahoma City Gun Club, is one such example.
While her father and two brothers went on hunting trips,
Rouse and her sister were left behind.

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SKEET SHOOTING

The game of skeet has each shooter on numbered stations in a semicircle between structures called the high
house and the low house. The target throwing machines are in these houses, and clay targets are thrown through
windows from each of the houses. Much as their names suggest, one target is high, and one target is low, and they
always travel the same paths and always travel toward each other. The shooters move around the field, producing
different shooting angles for each of the targets. At some of the stations, shooters must shoot at a “double,” when
targets fly from the high and low houses at the same time and cross over the middle of the skeet field.

MAY/JUNE 2020 23