PLAINS - Just an hour prior to the thunderstorms that swept through the Clark Fork Valley on Saturday, teenagers between the ages of 12-16 gathered at the Plains Trap Club for an afternoon of shooting and instruction.

The teenagers took part in the National Turkey Federation’s first, “Jake Shoot,” which was an afternoon designed for interested young adults who wanted to become better at shooting.

The event was scheduled for 1:00pm to 5:00pm.

Tony Colombo, the trap club’s secretary and Chapter President of the Turkey Federation, describing the event, said, “It just gives kids an experience to the realms of hunting, whether it is shotgun shooting, .22 shooting, or archery.” Colombo then explained in greater detail about the afternoon. He said that the Turkey Federation hosts Jake Shoots for kids of all ages, but the one on Saturday was the first one and they wanted to make it easy.

As part of the event, Colombo also expressed to the students the opportunities associated with belonging to the National Turkey Federation, such as scholarship opportunities and the chance to enter in a nationwide drawing for a “hunt of a lifetime”.

As part of the setup for the shoot, at each shooting range groups of students were taught safe weapon handling, how to aim and how to increase accuracy. Members from the trap club and Turkey Federation acted as instructors.

Some of the students, out of the group of nine in all, were members of either a 4-H Trap shooting League, such Aaron Collins, or were members of the trap club.

Treydon Brouillette, one of the students, said, “I’ve never shot shotgun, but I do shoot .22s and bows,” as he waited to begin the bow section. Another student that waited to shoot at the bow station was Esuin Reyes. He said, “I have, but I don’t think I am really good at shooting bows.”

By 2:00pm the students had all gone through the stations and a couple of them were showing off their .22 targets to each other or discussing the number of clays they had hit. Marsada Sweet and her friend Tressa Lyscio both laughed as they compared their .22 targets next to each other, expressing how hard it was to use the sights on the guns.    

Almost as if it was planned, as the stations were packed up and the ranges were closed, the thunderstorms hit and everyone headed for the trap club cabin or moved on home.