Welcome to the Michigan Trapshooting Association. Located in Mason, Michigan in the heart of the beautiful Great Lakes State, the MTA home grounds are easily accessible on a major highway, with restaurants, motels, airports, stores, and a wide variety of cultural and recreational opportunities nearby. The MTA hosts 4 major trap shoots per year with a facility that includes 44 trap fields, over 150 campsites, and over 300 acres of gorgeous Michigan landscape. The MTA also hosts A.I.M., S.C.T.P., & High School events including State and Regional Competitions. MAP

Board of Directors Corner
Post Great Lakes Grand Edition

Towards the end of each big shoot we always get questions like, “Are there more shooters here?” and “Are you throwing as many targets as last year?” so I thought I’d try to answer these questions with some real data now that the Great Lakes Grand is complete for 2017.
In 2014, we had 483 shooters and threw 268,600 registered targets with 13 Events.
In 2015, we had 515 shooters and threw 316,700 registered targets with 13 Events.
In 2016, we had 557 shooters and threw 289,100 registered targets with 13 Events.
In 2017, we had 587 shooters and threw 303,800 registered targets with 16 Events.

During this Great Lakes Grand, 794 practice rounds were shot. These 19,850 targets are not included in the data above.

So, in 2017, the first two days had lower attendance than we had in 2015 or 2016. By the time of Event 10, participation is even with 2015 and a bit (11 shooters out of 272) behind 2016. 2017 participation peaked with Event 13, Saturday’s 200 Singles, with 403/405 (first hundred/second hundred) shooters. This was 50/53 more shooters than 2015 and 15/13 more shooters than 2016. Event 16, Sunday’s Championship Handicap, had 255 shooters, 53 fewer than 2015 and 46 fewer than 2016.
It’s always risky to draw too many conclusions, but it seems that threats of rain kept the participation lower the first two days. Both the Championship Doubles and the Championship Handicap on Sunday had fewer shooters despite good weather. Why is not clear. But the bottom line is we threw more targets than last year.

Krieghoff came to the Great Lakes Grand. Don and Jacqui Baughman from Ottsville, PA were quite busy with gunsmithing and demo guns. John, from Pacific Sporting Arms East, the Indiana Gun Club folks, and Hampels had high quality guns for sale and demos. There were more vendors selling a wider variety of things than we’ve had at recent GLG’s.

Any shoot, especially one with this many shooters takes a real team effort. Thanks to all who volunteered to help the MTA and the Hall of Fame.

JB