South Dakota 4-H kicks off the fall shooting sport season in Mitchell. Contestants show their skill in trap, sporting clays, and skeet shooting. Muzzleloading is its own competition.
John Keimig is the SDSU Extension Youth Safety Field Specialist. He said he’s seen steady growth in the sport.
“I think we are kind of a continuous growth but not giant leaps. We’ll go from 3,500 kids to 3,600 kids to 3,700 kids, so we pick up about a hundred a year give or take depending on the year. COVID we dropped down to 2,000 and came back up to more than that. Mostly during the COVID time we couldn’t have our competitions. Whether or not that’s the most important thing or not, kids want to do this so they can see where they match up against their peers,” said Keimig.
Keimig said 4-H originally did not include shootings sports but grew widely once they were included.
He said the senior shooters are competing for a national spot.
“In 4-H we take nine senior teams down to Grand Island Nebraska every summer. So the kids that are shooting today will actually be competing to go next June to Grand Island to the 4-H Shooting Sports National Championships,” said Keimig.
Qualifying younger shooters will now move on to represent their home county in qualifying match held in September.
