Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The Haines Sportsmans Association and Haines Hotshots are finalizing work on a brand new skeet shooting range at the association's Mud Bay property. Organizers say the new range could be ready as soon as the end of October.

Currently, the association has a trap shooting range, but skeet ranges develop different skills.

Skeet ranges have two machines that throw clay discs about the diameter of DVDs through the air from opposite sides of a 20-yard semi circle. Competitors stand at different spots along the semi circle and try to shoot the discs, which are shot with a mechanical thrower in alternating patterns.

"There's a lot to it. Every station you got to have a different lead you have to make on the target. It's a little more complicated than trap, but it's a lot of fun," said Sportsmans Association president Jim Stickler. "

Stickler the new range will Haines Hotshots youth succeed in shooting competitions.

"We do really well in the competitions in trap. We don't do quite as well in the other stuff."

The work is funded with a $13,000 grant from the National Rifle Association and $30,000 grant from the Midway USA Foundation. Community members have donated labor to flatten the field by carving hundreds of cubic feet of soil, build two plywood houses to hold the throwers, and push gravel across the field. The group acquired two machines that throw the clay pigeons, including from the Tok Shooting Club, which donated a machine for free.