Shooting sports

Their first time may ensure your future times!

The following article, written after OWAA’s 2004 conference in Spokane, Wash., appeared in two Pennsylvania newspapers: the Reading Eagle and Easton Express-Times.

By Terry Brady

It was the last bus headed out to our destination, running late, and I was stuck far in its rear. Still, looking back to that late June day, I don’t think a bus ever gave me a more enjoyable ride.

Tongue in cheek, my wife refers to my fellow travelers as my “little shooting harem.” I should be so lucky. All were fellow OWAA members headed to the annual conference Shooting Program in nearby northwest Idaho. All were athletic, outdoors oriented and up for a challenge. And, yep, all just happened to be women.

Ranging in age from 21 to 40, my fellow riders shared similar backgrounds. Most had never fired a gun before; all were looking forward to trying. They came from Save Our Wild Salmon (SOWS), Campaign for America’s Wilderness (CAW) – groups one bumper-sticker crowd is quick to label “greenies” and “tree huggers.” They brought to the firing range no preset conceptions of who we are and why we hunt or enjoy spending a day at the trap or rifle range.

Instead, they came with a commitment to the wild outdoors that many hunters share, open minds and a heck of a lot of questions. This aging bus rider and hunter lucky to be among them was looked upon not as a Cretan who craves “blood sports” but as a source of answers to nagging concerns:

“What do you folks do at these events?”
“Will someone show us what to do?”
“What about recoil?”

I had just one answer for so many questions: Howard Communications President Kevin Howard, a true gentleman and excellent shotgun instructor who’s been representing Winchester on the OWAA Shooting Program trap range for more than a decade. His specialty is taking the uninitiated, especially women first-timers, under his skilled, patient wing and easing fears, building confidence and teaching them how to break clay birds.

Howard’s line swells a bit each year with my recruiting efforts, but he never complains. We both know it’s a sound investment in the future of the shooting sports. If they enjoy it and look forward to coming back, seeds of understanding are planted. You see them take root when one of Howard’s novice charges high-fives another after smoking a clay bird. You hear them later down the firing line when another juices a tomato with a handgun and lets loose with a whooping “all right!”

Meet some of his students. They are our investment in the future of hunting and other shooting sports:

• Erin Barnes, public information officer, SOWS, Portland, Ore.:
  “Growing up in the city, shooting sports seemed foreign and beyond my comprehension,” said the then-21-year-old Charlottesville, Va., native. “My father and brother went away on weekend hunting trips, but I never asked to be included in the boys’ club, so I stuck to fishing for flounder, striped bass and bluefish.
  “I enjoyed Shooting Day, and I’m definitely trying it again. I’ve always said that I don’t think it’s fair for me to eat anything I couldn’t kill myself. It’s about time I lived up to that mantra.”
   

• Jen Schmidt, field director, CAW, New York City:
  “As a youth I just never made a connection between shooting sports and enjoyment of the Great Outdoors,” said Schmidt, then 27, formerly of Fremont, Calif.
  “It wasn’t until I was older that I learned a deep respect for those people, in particular backcountry hunters, who have found a deeper connection to the natural world through shooting sports.
  “Shooting a gun for the first time was scary, but I think it was good for me to overcome some of my fears. Although the 12 gauge was exciting, my favorite was the Daisy air gun. I will try shooting sports again – at next year’s Outdoor Writers Association conference!”
   

• Kathryn Seck, deputy director of communications, CAW, Washington, D.C.:
  “I’ve never been antigun or anti-shooting sports. I just never had been exposed to it.
  “Growing up, shooting sports never were introduced to me,’’ said the then-27-year-old Ellicott City, Md., native.
  “My dad often went trout fishing in Maryland and Pennsylvania streams, and occasionally I joined him. I was never any good at it, but I seem to recall reeling in at least one trout during my childhood and enjoying the peacefulness of the trickling water, rustling leaves of the trees and the fresh air that cleansed your lungs with every breath. That was the beginning of my love of the outdoors.
  “It wasn’t until I went on a work trip out West in 2002 that I shot my first shotgun on a clay pigeon course,” said Seck. “At the 2004 Outdoor Writers conference I took this challenge to a new level by firing a 12-gauge shotgun and hitting the clay pigeon with my first shot. Now, I’m bragging to all of my work colleagues with the satisfaction and knowledge that I will target shoot again in the future.”
   

• Janet Thompson, marketing director, Sawyer Products Inc., Safety Harbor, Fla.:
  “I stayed away from shooting because I never was introduced to it,” said Thompson, then 40. “As a child, guns were dangerous and only used by ‘bad guys.’ Growing up in Tampa, Fla., my family had no exposure to a ‘hunter.’ The only exposure to guns was their misuse – in the hands of murderers and children getting ahold of their parents’ guns and killing or injuring one another.
  “After that day on the ranges I hope to learn to shoot, and, even more importantly, I’m very interested in teaching my two boys, 19 and 17. There are so many accidents with guns around here. I want my boys to know and respect them.”

Bottom line? Young or old, male or female, they won’t know what the shooting sports are about until someone shows them.

An OWAA member since 1986, Terry Brady is deputy press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. He has served as an OWAA board member and as OWAA’s treasurer.