Nearly 200 shooters pulled together on a sunny and warm Saturday for the first of what they hope will become an annual event to support Southeast Texas youth.
The inaugural Salt Bayou Shootout, which took place at The Lodge at Pipkin Ranch off Big Hill Road in south Jefferson County, gave participants a chance to raise funds for Future Outdoorsmen of Southeast Texas.
“For a first-annual thing, it has been a tremendous turnout, and I have a feeling by next year that it will probably double,” said Event Volunteer Shae DeBerry of Anahuac. “(Event founder Justin Leggett) has already had people offer a sponsorship for next year.”
Participants paid to shoot skeet, play games, eat food from The Crawfish Place and Cattleman’s Kitchen and, later in the evening, listen to live music performed by Chip Oliphant. All shooters were asked to sign a liability form and to keep track with a scorecard.
The participants were split into two flights with 25 teams in the morning and 25 in the afternoon. The cost was $150 per shooter and $600 per team.
“It was a great experience, a great layout, it was a great shoot with a really good turn out,” Winnie resident Cade Barrow, 36, said after competing in the Duck Blind Challenge game. “The weather couldn’t be really and truly any better this year. It’s just a really good thing.”
Barrow said that storms over the years have put a damper on skeet shooting in the area, including Hurricane Ike, which wiped out the headquarters at Smith Point where a similar event previously was held.
“Having it brought over here, having it start back up, it’s been a really, really good event,” he continued.
Longtime Anahuac resident Kaitlyn Bennett, 22, studies political science and participates on the Trap Skeet team at Texas A&M University where she is now a senior. She came out to the event with her parents, who supported her shooting hobby, but she said some children do not always have the proper support and education.
Now, she hopes to support other youth by participating in the event. The proceeds from Saturday’s shootout will go towards 4H and Future Farmers of America’s skeet shooting programs in Southeast Texas.
“Those teams don’t get a lot of support sometimes — your showing or cooking gets more of the support. So, just to have something that directly benefits them is cool,” Bennet said. “It’s been amazing. It’s been amazing, great people, great food, the people who put this on — it ran so smoothly.”
She said participating in programs like these can benefit youth in a number of ways.
“There’s scholarships. There is so many opportunities to meet like-minded people when you find something that you are a part of and enjoy — with anything, not just shooting. It teaches safety and responsibility and team building,” Bennett said. “It teaches you a lot of personal stuff about yourself. Sometimes, you are shooting on a team and sometimes you are shooting as an individual — it teaches you to be responsible and mature.”
“Sometimes when you go out there and have a bad day, you go out there and leave it on the course and you come back and shoot tomorrow,” she continued. “It can be a better day. You don’t have to carry that with you. It teaches young kids a lot of skills that they need whenever they grow up.”
Youth also had a chance to participate and learn about gun safety on Saturday. Kraehnke brothers 12-year-old Teal and 11-year-old Kolt, both of Winne, gave the Annie Oakley game a shot.
“It was a great skeet shoot today,” said Teal, who was one of the final shooters in the game and learned to shoot the skeet at different angles.
Kolt learned a few things too and said he would recommend to his own friends.
“Back people up,” he said. “It’s a fun opportunity. It’s pretty fun, and I would go to it more often.”
The brothers joined their father, Jesse Kraehnke, 46, who owns Riceland Outfitters guide service. He brought his sons, who already duck hunt, to get introduced to the group of shooters.
“It’s a great fundraiser,” Jesse Kraehnke said. “It’s a great opportunity for kids to learn gun safety and what guns are all about.”
The 13-hour event had 20 sponsors, according to event information shared on social media by event coordinator Madey Pipkin.
“We would like to give a HUGE thank you to all of our amazing vendors, sponsors and contestants,” Pipkin said.
Sponsors included Anahuac National Bank, The Crawfish Place, Dispatch Supply Group, Neches Management Services, Signature Group, United Rentals, Jeri’s Seafood, Filters Unlimited, Tidal Services, Dusty Turner Dirt Work, Dave & Gena Wilcox, Giglio Distributing Inc., Porter’s Wild Game Processing, A.P.S. Building Services, Gulf Coast Pipeline Services, Five Enterprises, LLC., Strattons Inc. True Value, Bubba Daniel, Chainsaw Artist, The Luke Arnold Foundation, and Legacy Home & Ranch Realty.
For more information, visit saltbayoushootout.com.
meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com
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