Newsletter - Winter 2026
Salem Trap & Skeet Club
Home of Mid-Valley Clays & Shooting School
The objective of the Club shall be to further the common good and general welfare of the community by providing well maintained facilities where individuals have the opportunity to learn about the safe use of firearms and to develop skills in the shotgun sports.
https://www.salemtrapandskeet.org
welcome to the quarterly newsletter!
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President’s Message
Dear Members,
I hope everyone had a very safe and prosperous holiday season and New Year celebrating with family and friends.
As we look forward to the start of a new year, I want to take a moment to highlight the progress, improvements and accomplishments made by your board last year. At the annual board meeting held on December 6th, we acknowledged the departure of two of our long serving board members: Art Heitlauf, who faithfully served as our Treasurer, and Brad Carbaugh who spearheaded our Stewardship Program. Although we’ll miss their contributions, we’re pleased to welcome two new board members: Roy Elicker and Sarah Meder. Both bring experience and a wealth of knowledge to our board as we look to position the club for the future. I would like to thank all the board members who work hard behind the scenes positively and proactively making our Club better.
Last year, we began our initiative to raise the Club’s profile by updating our logo and introducing a new website which I encourage every member to visit. Our second annual Member Appreciation Day was a huge success with a large percentage of new Club members attending. Easily the most obvious accomplishment was getting the skeet houses and support structures painted and upgraded! There has been nothing but positive comments from club members about how it has enhanced the appearance of the facility. Behind the scenes, additional financial controls around the operating budget and capital reserve structure were both formalized and a new HVAC unit was installed on the clubhouse roof. As we continue to make improvements to our structures and grounds, we will keep you posted.
Lastly, I want to thank you, the members who help make Salem Trap and Skeet Club what it is today. It takes not just long-standing club members but also new members to be a great club. By renewing our memberships, we all partner together and work to make STSC a club we are proud to belong to!
“Break em all..”
William Turner
STSC Board President, William Turner, at the Holland and Holland Shooting Grounds.
Save the DateS!
2026 Member Appreciation Day
Sunday - August 23rd, 2026
More info coming!
2026 Oregon State Shoot
July 16-19th, 2026
Mid-Valley Clays/STSC - Prelim & Side Events
Tri-County Gun Club - Silver Buckle & Oregon State Sporting Clays Championship
Around The Club
Winter Maintenance
Historically, we have not had much going on from November through March. However, this year, it just hasn’t let up. Brad Carbaugh and now Brook Douglas have been working with the county to clear the ditches along Concomly Road. This in turn keeps the drainage manageable on the Club property. Brad has also been instrumental in creating and maintaining the screen system to keep the ditches clean. Nice work Brad!
You may have noticed that many of the Skeet fences are braced up. The high winds in December knocked down several panels and we initiated a temporary fix while we wait to receive approval on a range development grant from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The grant in question will cover the majority of the cost to replace all of the safety fencing and improve the covered Sporting Clays stations. We will definitely keep everyone posted on this item!
Interested in volunteering? Please fill our interest form! All skills welcome.
Clay Crusher News
The Mid Valley Clay Crushers are gearing up for the USAYESS Western Regionals in Las Vegas March 20th - March 22nd. Prior to that, the team will also make a trip north to Seattle Trap and Skeet February 28th - March 1st for a tournament.
We’re proud of our youth team! Keep up with their adventures on their Facebook page.
New Corporate Member: JH Kelly
JH Kelly is a fourth-generation, family-owned construction and industrial services company founded in 1923 in Longview, Washington. It has grown from a small plumbing business into one of the Northwest’s largest multi-trade contractors, offering mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fabrication, HVAC, and general contracting services across a wide range of markets. The firm is known for planning and executing complex projects while emphasizing safety, innovation, and long-term client relationships. It serves clients throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
In October 2025, JH Kelly became STSC’s newest corporate member. The firm maintains a significant office and fabrication presence in southern Washington, and was enrolled as a member by Executive VP Jason Shaw from the Vancouver office. The Vancouver location focuses on commercial plumbing and HVAC services as well as pipe fabrication, supporting projects across southern Washington and northern Oregon. We’re delighted to count such a prestigious Northwest company among our members. Look for their banner at Skeet Field #3, opposite the clubhouse.
Photo courtesy of JH Kelly
Interested in having your business become a corporate member? Learn more and find our application form here.
STSC Vice President Jonathan Hussain
Shooting tip of the quarter: Train at Home
By Jonathan Hussain
About a month after my first registered sporting clays event, a nationwide emergency was declared, followed by months of lockdowns and social distancing. That was the year I learned to train at home, and it proved to be a crucial period in my growth as a shotgunner. Since then I’ve advanced to Master class and enjoyed some local success, most recently taking Resident HOA and HOA Runner-Up at the 2025 Oregon State Championship.
In my opinion, training at home is the epitome of training efficiently. It’s free, can be done in short increments, requires no travel, and is unaffected by bad weather. Perhaps less obviously, it’s also extremely productive because of the number of “reps” you can fit into a 15- or 20-minute session. While some shotgunning skills can only be developed with real targets and live ammunition—and others require shooting in competition—year after year I continue to train at home. This is especially true when bad weather or other commitments keep me from practicing on the course.
If you’ve spent any time on YouTube searching for shotgunning content, you may already know the flashlight mounting drill and the three-bullet drill. These are both great exercises that are worth your time, but I won’t rehash them here. Instead, I’ll share a simple variation on these gun mounting drills and explain why I find it so valuable.
The Pointing Drill
For lack of a better name, I’ll call this the pointing drill. The primary function is to improve your gun mount and train your hands to point the shotgun precisely. I often use it to train for low, going-away targets when starting from a low-gun ready position. In FITASC these presentations can be challenging because you need to mount and fire the gun quickly to give yourself a higher-probability shot; however, rushing the mount often causes you to blow past the target. The desire to mount quickly also tends to produce excess tension in the hands and shoulders, which in turn makes accurate pointing more difficult. To succeed on these targets your mount needs to be fast yet relaxed, controlled, and accurate.
I start by selecting a small object or feature in my practice room—about one square inch or smaller—to serve as my target at the break point. Since this target presentation requires essentially no lead, this is also where I’ll be pointing the gun and pulling the trigger.
Next, I visualize a low, going-away target and mentally project that image onto my chosen break point. I then run my pre-shot routine, starting by deliberately placing my feet and orienting them relative to the break point. Once my barrels are at my desired hold point, I move my eyes to the appropriate visual hold point and engage soft visual focus. Finally, I call for the bird, point straight to the break point as I mount the gun, and pull the trigger when the comb reaches my cheekbone. Simple enough, right?
Post-Shot Analysis
After each rep, I conduct post-shot analysis by asking some combination of the following questions:
Did I point the gun accurately? If not, in which direction did I make the error? Was it caused by a rushed or sloppy mount, lack of visual focus, or simply a bad point?
Was my mount and trigger pull fast enough to break the imagined target?
Did I trust my mount and pull the trigger as the comb hit my cheek, or did I hesitate and check the bead before “firing”?
Did I mount the gun smoothly, or did my barrels dip? If they dipped, was that due to a poor hold point or bad mechanics?
Did I pull the trigger with hard visual focus on the target?
When you’re new to the drill, conducting your analysis of a single rep will take some time. Be patient and keep at it! If you’re making multiple errors, prioritize one skill and continue running the drill until that skill is consistently correct before moving on. If you’re performing the drill to your satisfaction, select a new “target” (maybe with a new imagined presentation to match?) and start again. Difficulty can be increased by speeding up the mount or decreasing the size of your reference object. If starting with a low gun feels overwhelming, switch to a cheat mount or a soft premount.
The Power of Repetition
What I like about this drill is that it allows me to train several skills in combination while also practicing the routines that anchor my shooting. By incorporating mental visualization, pre-shot routine, attention to visual focus, and post-shot analysis, a simple mounting drill becomes a robust compound exercise.
That said, you’ll only get out of this drill what you put into it. The “secret sauce” of training at home lies in the opportunity to maximize repetition, which not only makes future execution more unconscious but also sharpens your perception of small variances in your body and movement. I noticed improvements in my live-fire gun mounts after only a few weeks of running this drill, but a sharpened self-perception took much longer to emerge.
I had to perform the pointing drill thousands of times before I started “seeing through the matrix” and gaining a deeper awareness of my own shooting. It was a totally unexpected outcome, but once that happened I could self-diagnose and self-correct more effectively. In a game like sporting clays that combines novelty and repetition, I think self-correction is one of the most important skills. How lucky that you can start developing it just by training at home!
Club Dog Corner
Every newsletter, we’ll feature dogs at the club and their doings!
Winter 2026:
Introducing Jet, Dizzy & Milli
by Brook Douglas
All three Black Labs have run competitively in the AKC (American Kennel Club) Hunt Test. Jet (or Jetty as we call her) is retired, enjoys short runs and looks for couch potato options in empty laps. Dizzy (be careful what you name your dog) can’t run straight—her head is usually in one direction, butt in the other, and her tail never stops wagging. Milli goes everywhere with a toy or bone in her mouth and figured out that dropping a fake bone with marrow from atop a chair will break said bone wide open. No toy box is safe, either—Milli’s ready to empty it out as soon as the toys are cleaned up.
I train my dogs for duck hunting using a Marsh Stand so they don’t have to sit in cold water. First, I completely lower the stand and make sure it’s stable. I encourage the dogs to get on it with treats, a bumper, or petting, then ask them to sit. I make it a fun game by repeating it often. I throw bumpers for them to retrieve and have them return to the stand each time. I use the “place” command to teach them where to go after bringing back a bird or bumper. A similar training program works for a dog blind, too.
I also train these girls for Upland Hunting. We go to a grassy field like one where pheasants, chukar, or quail live. I thaw a piece of bird from my freezer and tie it to a long string. I drag it through grass, brush, and around logs to make a scent trail. Then I cut the meat off and hide it. Each dog starts near the trail and searches for the prize. I use my whistle to keep them in the shooting area, and they really seem to enjoy the training!
Jet (12 Years Old): 52 AKC Master Passes
Dizzy (6 Years Old): 34 Master Passes, 1 Master Amateur Plate, and 2 Master Nationals Plates
Milli (5 Years Old): 25 Master Passes, 2 Master Amateur Plates,1 Master Nationals Plate
Have a fantastic winter, and we hope to see you around the club!
