A shooter walks up to the end of a solid concrete walkway. The sun is beating down on his face, as he wipes the sweat off his brow. A few breaths are taken slowly and steadily as he raises his gun to his shoulder. With a final breath, he shouts a single word, “Pull!” As he says, that orange disk is launched from a slingshot and the shooter pulls the trigger. Bent on making that target explode into a million fragments.

Freshman Noah Hanny is a specialist in a very unique sport — trap shooting. A sport that few get involved in. And fewer pursue it far enough to go to national tournaments to show off their skill among the best. Trap shooting a sport that consists of five shooters that stand at five different locations along a curved walkway. One by one each of the shooters have five shots at each station before they must rotate. At the end of the round the shoters have each shot at total of 25 shots

Noah has been trap shooting ever since he was ten years old at his step-brother’s grandparents house. He now practices every day, shooting a total of 100-200 shots at a single practice. His practices mainly consist of him going to Powder Creek shooting range or stepping off his back porch, and practicing at home, taking advantage of his family’s multi-acre lot.

“For me I have to go to practice whenever I like if theres one and I miss it I know im not going to do good the next tournament.”

And all of that practice paid off. Noah has attended national championships in Nebraska and countless other tournaments in and out of state. In his first official round of shooting he hit 24 out of 25 targets. That’s when he knew that he might have a talent for the sport.

Noah was an avid dove hunter before he took up trap shooting. He used the skills that he learned for dove hunting and applied them to his new sport. Dove hunting and trap shooting are roughly the same sport. The only difference is that in dove hunting the hunter can’t predict where the target will go, where as in trap shooting you know the vicinity of which the target will fly.

“I love trap shooting because it is not only a sport itself, but the fundamentals that it teaches me helps me when I go dove hunting,” he said. “I do a lot of dove hunting and stuff like that and I love just the I love being able to shoot at stuff in the air”

The tournaments that Noah attends start out with a few rounds of 25 shots. If the shooter makes it in the top of those rounds, then he or she gets to go into the finals, which is 50 shots. On average, Noah gets into the finals and places around second or third with 49 hits out of 50 total targets. And all of that practice paid off. Noah has attended national championships in Nebraska and countless other tournaments in and out of state. In his first official round of shooting he hit 24 out of 25 targets. That’s when he knew that he might have a talent for the sport.

“Getting into the finals is what I look forward to at every tournament,  and after you get really good you start to think that, ‘I have made it this far so I am going to keep on doing this,” Noah said.

When Noah goes shooting he always take his equipment with him, which includes his team shirt, team pants, a couple hundred shells and last but not least his shotgun, a Mossberg 500. But Hanny cannot forget the safety equipment that is needed for every shooting day. He always takes his ear protection and safety glasses because if a shooter doesn’t have his or her safety equipment, then the coaches won’t let he or she shoot.

Noah’s parents have always supported him and his trap shooting passion and his hopes of going to the Olympics some day. They attend his tournaments and help him in any way they can.

“I thought that he was getting into a good start to a new future,” Noah’s father David Hanny said.

Trap shooting is not for everyone. It is a strategy oriented sport that takes time, effort and skill to be successful at.

“The hardest part for me is the few seconds before I shoot because I have to concentrate, and I need to stay positive,” Noah said.

Like most competitive shooters, Noah has developed a calming system that works for him. He takes are three deep breaths, and on the third breath he exhales slowly and squeezes the trigger.

“Most of the time it helps a lot,” Noah said. “It calms me down and gets me ready for the next shot.”

When Noah took lessons he could always remember his coach saying, “Don’t shoot too fast.” Noah said that that phrase stuck with him during all of his tournaments because he has seen so many people shoot at the target as soon as the clay pigeon leaves the house.

“I have learned that if you wait three or four seconds, and wait till it (the target) gets out to be right in front of you.” Noah said, “Then shoot it.”

When Noah advances into the finals, he has a tradition of putting a sleeve over the stock of his gun with five shells on it. These shells are special because they are empty  shells that his dad used at one of his biggest tournaments where he hit 200 targets.

Noah’s plans are to continue trap shooting through high school and look for scholarships. He wishes to be on a college trap shooting team because he is devoted to the sport and wants to be involved in it as much as possible. After college if he still is interested in trap shooting, he plans on looking into doing the sport professionally and possibly even competing in the Olympics.

“I think about what it will take to make it to the Olympics” Noah said “ “I train every day”, and my main goal is to get into the Olympics.”

Noah believes that he could have a future in this sport. He is glad that he decided to picked up his gun and give the sport a try on that one summer day at his grandpa’s farm many years ago.

“If you get into trap shooting, it’s a committed sport,” Noah said. “It’s not something that you can do half-way, but it’s a whole lot of fun.”