What is a Still Target Shoot, and why should you care? Well, you probably shouldn't unless you're a shooter or a hunter. If you're a turkey hunter, you've already benefited from what's gone on in the last 22 years at the World Championship Still Target Shoot.
Still Target shooting began as a way for gun, choke, and ammo manufacturers to showcase their products in head-to-head competition. The National Wild Turkey Federation, then a very new organization, wanted to encourage all those manufacturers to develop better products to lessen the crippling of turkeys and to use the event as an educational tool for hunters.
Still Target contestants shoot at a 3” circle, 40 yards from the muzzle of their gun and are not allowed to use any type of rest. They shoot from a “low boy” stool, just as you might when hunting turkeys. The contestant who gets the most pellets inside that circle wins.
Today, much as a result of this contest, we have better turkey chokes, better shotshells, and guns more adapted for hunting turkeys.
What happens at the World Championship? Stay tuned for the next chapter.
MOSSBERG NOTE: the World Championship Still Target Shoot was scheduled to happen October 3 in Edgefield SC; however, the impending hurricane Joaquin had similar plans. The event was "suspended" and will be rescheduled. The author tells us it "was the first time they've ever had to suspend this event, and they truly agonized over doing it but it certainly was the right thing to do."
By Clark Bush, Director of Development & Media at All About Shooting