SWOOPE - Cameron Stroop admitted that his first couple of attempts at shooting skeet Saturday didn't go so well.
The 16-year-old missed both high and low as he tried to shoot a clay target launched into the air. While not everyone has been skeet shooting, most have probably heard the familiar refrain of "pull" just before the target flies into the air. The goal is to blast the target into pieces before it falls to the ground.
"But once I got the hang of it, I was doing good," Stroop said.
Skeet shooting was just one of several stations available to youth Saturday at the 2018 Blaine Short Memorial JAKES Event. Held at the Shenandale Gun Club, the event was sponsored in part by the Augusta County Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF).
JAKES stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship.
"They get to know what guns are, the safety part of it," said Wayne Erskine, a 5-time Virginia state champion in skeet shooting and one of the instructors at Saturday's event. "And they enjoy it."
Erskine has been competitively skeet shooting since 1954. He's also a member of the Virginia Skeet Shooting Association Hall of Fame, inducted in 2012.
Why does he enjoy the sport?
"Because of the people involved, they're great people," he said. "They accept everybody. It's just a really nice situation."
In addition to skeet, stations were available for crossbows, archery, introduction to shotguns, air rifles, and trapping and turkey hunting.
Stroop's second stop of the day was at the crossbow station. He's been coming to JAKES events for the past four years, since he was a sixth grader. He's also been a deer hunter since he was 6.
"The main thing is safety," Stroop said of the lessons taught at JAKES. "It also teaches you about the outdoors."
The event organizer, Lennie Tolley, spent most of the day Friday on snow removal detail to get the Shenandale Gun Club ready for the event. Nearly a foot of snow fell in the Swoope area, leaving Tolley to wonder if he'd have to reschedule.
With the help of his four-wheeler equipped with a snow plow, and some sun on Thursday and Friday, the event was held as planned, with the road into the private club clear of snow, as was most of the parking area. And while there was still plenty of snow on the ground, each station was open and ready for business Saturday when families began arriving.
Tolley estimated that there were 80 kids at Saturday's event. He said in recent years the number has hovered closer to 100, but he felt like the snowy weather kept some away this year.
This was the 17th year that the event was held at Shenandale Gun Club. Before that it was held in Raphine.
In addition to the youth participating, there were 20 instructors helping at the various stations.
"They realize what we're doing and trying to help the youth of the community," Tolley said. "It gives back something to the community."
Tolley said that, while many of the participants Saturday were hunters, some just enjoyed shooting skeet and trap. His daughter has never wanted to hunt, but she loves skeet shooting and it's a sport the two of them can do together.
"It's a whole lot of different ways to look at shooting sports," he said.
Reece Weller, 6, is a kindergarten student at Hugh K. Castle Elementary School. Saturday was the first time she attended a JAKES event.
She has shot a gun before Saturday, although never without her dad. But on Saturday, her dad was unable to attend, so mom, Crystal Weller, brought Reece. She enjoyed watching her daughter, who was at the air rifle station Saturday morning just before lunch break.
"We are an outdoor family and we are hunters and fishermen," said Crystal Weller. "She is anxious to participate as much as possible. We are big proponents of getting the kids outdoors."
And while most of the youth at Saturday's event came because their parents have an interest in guns and wanted to share that with their children, that wasn't the case for all.
Josh Cole said he's never been a gun enthusiast, but his 10-year-old son, Nick, has picked up an interest in guns. Cole brought him to Saturday's event in hopes that he can develop that love and learn how to safely handle guns.
But there were other lessons to learn also.
"I'd like him to learn a respect for Mother Nature and respect the wilderness," Josh Cole said. "I'd like for him to appreciate the outdoors."