Utah-Trap shooting is a sport that isn’t widely known across the US, but it is becoming a bigger sport especially with the youth. There are many teams around Utah, including Riverton Shooting Team. Two athletes, Madison Hutchings and Tyler Hodges, they are starting the season with confidence. Madison Hutchings is a vice president of Riverton Shooting Team representing Herriman High School, and Tyler Hodges who is a shooter for Riverton representing Kearns.

Madison has been shooting for Riverton for four years and one of the top girl shooters in the state. The Cougar Claw interviewed Madison and asked her what is trapshooting in her own words, “A sport that helps build your confidence and make some amazing friends.” Madison said. She loves to compete because it helps her calm down after a long day, “It is nice to shoot at clay pigeons,” she replied when asked how it calms her down. Have you ever heard of Trapshooting? How about clay-pigeon shooting? Trapshooting is a sport that was originated from England in the 18th century and later came here to the US.

Trap shooting was invented to help hunters with their marksmanship. You shoot from yardage of 16 to 27, (it really depends on how good you are and how comfortable you are on the line). These people are shooting with a shotgun, it doesn’t matter what caliber you are shooting, the most popular are 12 gauge and 20 gauge.

This year is Tyler’s first year shooting with Riverton, but he has been shooting trap independently for two years and he enjoys doing it. “I am happy to have this opportunity to get out of the house and start something new, getting a chance to see myself progress,” Tyler said when asked if he was excited to join Riverton Shooting Club 2018-2019.

Riverton Shooting Club is open to all youth shooters in the state. This team is ran by two main coaches and many other volunteers who want to help out the shooters. The two main coaches that the Cougar Claw would like to recognize are Mike Stuart and Trent Vandam. These two men have started out with only ten members in the team 2016-2017, but now they have 35 members in 2018. They both enjoy volunteering to coach these shooters. Hopefully they will get more shooters in the future.