Community

Sport a hit even with shooters who miss

A husband and wife conduct free clinics to introduce clay pigeon shooting to women and kids, who are enthusiastic participants.

By MICHAEL KRUSE, Times Staff Writer
Published August 29, 2007

Melody Shores takes shots at clay pigeons with the instruction of Roger Gascoigne at Deer Creek Sporting Clays. This wasn't the first time Shores handled a shotgun, but after Gascione's help she says that she feels much more confident and plans on practicing a little more to surprise her coworkers at their annual shotgun competition.
	[Times photo: David Degner]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: David Degner] Anne Arthur takes her first shots at clay pigeons at Deer Creek Sporting Clays. Arthur says she felt comfortable using the guns throughout the workshop because Gascoigne presents it in a very safety oriented manner.

LAND O'LAKES - The group of about a dozen women and children walked off the porch of the main building one recent Sunday afternoon at Deer Creek Sporting Clays and headed toward the tin-roofed firing range.

They were a jumble of ball caps, skate shoes, hand bags and yoga pants. They had been fitted with ear plugs, safety glasses and shotguns. Now they were ready to go blast orange-ringed clays out of the high blue sky.

Taylor Doan, 13, of Tampa had on braces and blue-tinted shades.

His brother Daniel, 11, had on high tops and a red Quiksilver T-shirt.

Weston Reynolds, 10, of Brooksville had on a camo-patterned Florida State cap and a monster truck shirt.

Anne Arthur, 41, of Tampa had on a red shirt and black sweats and was trying to get ready for a trip to hunt pheasant with her brother.

Jacqui Russo, 46, had on gray short shorts and carried a blue and white handbag. She had come with her sons.

"Okay," shooting instructor Roger Gascoigne said. "Who's going first?"

Roger and Cathy Gascoigne, the husband and wife who run Deer Creek on Ehren Cutoff up in the thick woods and remaining ranch land of north central Pasco, put on these free sporting clays clinics for women and children the third Sunday of every month. They do it as a way to introduce nontraditional shooters to the sport.

It matches national trends.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation says women make up not quite 20 percent of this country's nearly 3-million sporting clays shooters. But that number is going up. The National Sporting Goods Association says the number of women in target shooting sports has spiked 50 percent in just the last five years.

This July's sporting clays youth national championships, meanwhile, were the biggest in history, according to the NSSF.

"To be very blunt," Gascoigne said, "it used to be fat, old, white guys like me.

"That's changing. We're seeing a whole new range of people taking up the sport."

The schedule at Deer Creek includes corporate events, networking events, charity shoots, even wedding parties. The way Gascoigne puts it: "golf with a shotgun."

"We don't check people in by gender or anything like that," he said, "but we see who comes through, and the interest is growing."

The kids went first in this clinic.

Taylor Doan cracked shut the shotgun and got in his stance.

"Pull!" he hollered.

That man running the machine that spits out the clays pulled. The clay came floating through the sky.

BOOM!

The clay blew apart.

"Good job," Gascoigne told him.

The rest of the women and children clapped.

"Pull!"

He missed.

"Pull!"

Another miss.

Beginner's luck?

"Pull!"

The fourth clay exploded into three.

Then it was Daniel Doan's turn. BOOM! Up after him was Darion Burke, 8, of Land O'Lakes. BOOM! And up after Burke was Weston Reynolds from Brooksville, then Jesse Ritchie, 11, of Lutz. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sun was hot and the air smelled like gunpowder.

Anne Arthur was up first for the women. She had heard about the Deer Creek clinics from a coworker at Hillsborough County's Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

"Pull!" she said.

BOOM!

"There you go," Gascoigne said. "First shot."

"Look at that," she said.

Then she hit the second one.

She missed the third and the fourth.

Then she hit the fifth.

Next up was Jacqui Russo. She's a commercial designer for Gresham, Smith and Partners in Tampa. She said she hadn't fired a gun since she was about 5 years old and her brother taught her to use a BB gun to shoot cans off a fence.

"Pull."

Hit.

"Pull."

Hit.

"Pull."

Hit.

She got a high five from Gascoigne. She took off her sunglasses and wiped some sweat from her forehead. She walked over to her husband, Lou, and stood under the range's tin roof.

She was asked how she did what she had just done.

She said she plays tennis a lot. That involves eye-hand coordination. Her husband said she also was a really good skier.

But she threw out another theory.

"I've heard women are good sharpshooters because they have better concentration than men," she said.

She looked around to make sure the right people had heard.

The right people had.

"Appreciate that," Lou Russo said.

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 813 909-4617.

FAST FACTS

Take your best shot

The next free clinic for women and kids is Sept. 16 from 1 to 4 p.m. Deer Creek Sporting Clays is at 10514 Ehren Cutoff in Land O'Lakes. Call (813) 996-1970 to reserve a spot or go to www.deercreeksportingclays.com for more information.

[Last modified August 28, 2007, 21:38:02]