Sporting clays added enjoyment to Valentine’s Day

When deciding how to celebrate Valentine’s Day you generally won’t find shotguns and clay pigeons among the list of options. So imagine my surprise when my sisters were cheerfully nudging all of us menfolk out the door.

Perhaps that wouldn’t have been the case had we actually been celebrating Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, but we weren’t. My siblings, a few other family members from as far away as Texas and I had gathered to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. Thanks to help from his very supportive employer, we pulled off a successful surprise party for Dad the afternoon before, and had originally planned to spend Valentine’s Day playing table games and gathering information about our family history.

So imagine our surprise when my brother-in-law and nephew walked into the living room of the Southern Utah farmhouse we had rented and announced we had an appointment to shoot a round of sporting clays. At first I thought it was time to duck and cover, but it soon became apparent there was support among the female members of the family for such an adventure.

As it turned out, my nephew’s father-in-law, Ken Jones, is a member of the Purgatory Clay Sports shotgun range. The range is just one component of the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park (SUSSP) located at the west end of Hurricane, Utah, and just 15 minutes from St. George. Even though he was already participating in a skeet shoot that Saturday, Jones invited us to join him for a round of sporting clays on one of the facility’s two courses. He provided the shotguns, and all we needed was a couple of boxes of shells.

Shotgun shells were easy to come by at the local discount mart. By the time the clerk rang eight of us through the register, I am sure he was wishing he worked on commission.

With my family ties in Southern Utah, I had been aware of the SUSSP, but had never been there and wasn’t sure what to expect. What we found was a simple yet very nice facility. As we drove in we passed the Red Rock Bowmen archery range and the Red Cliffs Rifle and Pistol Range with its 24 shade-covered shooting stations and shooting distances up to 200 yards. There are a variety of pricing options for shooting at Red Cliffs, but basically nonmembers pay $8 a day and members $4. Memberships are $50 a year.

The Red Rock Bowmen archery range, whose name originates from the local archery club that maintains and operates the venue, includes a seven-target sight-in range with distances ranging from 20 to 80 yards. You will also find a 14-target walk-through field course that takes advantage of the natural terrain. Nonmembers can shoot on the second and fourth Saturdays for just $5. For members there is no charge beyond the $60 annual fee for individuals and $75 for a family. They can shoot every day of the year.

Like its neighbors, the Purgatory Clay Sports range is operated by an all-volunteer club. Its offerings include two fully-automated sporting clay courses, a 5-stand, two skeet fields and four trap fields with voice command. The pricing structure is generous but too extensive to list here, but as an example, a 25-bird round of trap is only $4.25 for members and $6.50 for nonmembers. A 50-bird round of sporting clays is $13 for members and $16 for nonmembers.

In our case, Jones and Aaron, my nephew, generously treated us all to a round of sporting clays. The course had 12 stations that began with fairly easy presentations and progressed to more difficult presentations along the course. I managed to hold my own on the first half of the course, especially against my brother with whom I have a lifelong friendly rivalry when it comes to hunting, fishing and shooting sports. But some mischievous person planted multiple land mines in the form of crossing shots on the back six stations. All I can say is “That hurt.”

In the end, Aaron schooled us both. It seems that his father-in-law has spent some time coaching him up, and perhaps that is as it should be. Then again, maybe it just means I need to get myself to the range a bit more often.

For anyone who spends time in the St. George area, the SUSSP is something to keep in mind. The cost is right and it’s pretty convenient for people who might be camping at Quail Lake or Sand Hollow Reservoir. If you have family or friends in the area, so much the better.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.