Cold, Windy Conditions Make Trapshoot Seem Like Nothing They’d Seen Before

Cold and windy is an understatement for the weather Spokesman-Review Trapshoot participants endured last Sunday.

With temperatures in the teens and wind gusts up to 40 mph, shooters did their best with numb fingers and watering eyes.

The trap boy at the Washtucna Gun Club counted 17 wads that blew back into the pit after shooters had fired over the trap house. One target was thrown from the house into a gust that whipped it into an orbit that ended behind the trap house.

“I couldn’t stand to wear my glasses because there was a freezing point right above the center bar that gave me an incredible headache - just like snowmobiling without a face shield,” said club member Jack Guske.

“You would think that with the birds standing there, scores would be higher,” he said. “But the only way we could get on them was to try to shoot as soon as they left the house or else just wait until they stood still. Hard rights blew backwards and hard lefts lit in the next district.”

Upon firing, the wind would blast the shooters’ eyes with ice crystals, even though snow wasn’t actually falling from the sky.

“We were creating snow from the moisture condensing from our shots,” Guske said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”