Travel 20 miles southwest of Platteville and you will find 30 members of the UW-P sportsmans club doing what they love, clay shooting. Clay shooting is becoming more popular these days with different verison for everybody and the Sportsmen’s Club is giving students the chance to experience it.

The sportsmen’s club gets together once or twice a week to shoot clay birds 20 minutes southwest of campus. The club fees are $40 not including the clay pigeons, which run $2.75 a round and come in a pack of 25. They commonly shoot two different rounds each visit to the range.

“We started the UW-P Sportsmen Club because this is a smaller school in a rural area, and we believe that other students would be as interested in clay shooting as we are,” Casey Hauer, senior industrial engineering major and member of the club and one of the masterminds behind getting the club started, said.

Brent Shipman, senior building construction management major and another student responsible for helping to start the club, shares the same passion for the sport.

“We go shoot clay birds because its fun, and once you have all the materials its not too costly, which is especially important for college students” Shipman said.
The club is sending a five-member team down to San Antonio, TX to the Association of College Unions International Clay Target Championship to compete over spring break.

According to the ACUI official Web site, there are about 300 students participating from 40 different colleges around the United States. The club has raised more than $450 for the event to use towards gas, registration and hotel stay.

The club is always looking and welcoming new members. If you are interested in membership or just to see what its all about you can contact Hauer at hauerc@uwplatt.edu or Shipman at shipmanb@uwplatt.edu.