Lined up in a row, Cole County 4-H members shot their shotguns one by one at the orange, clay disk targets flung into the air from many different angles.
Cole County 4-H members competed in the first part of its annual shooting sports match Wednesday. Children ages 8-18 competed in events including shotgun trap shooting, archery, and shooting at paper bullseyes with pistols and rifles Wednesday evening at the United Sportsmen's Club.
Normally, shooting sports teams from other Missouri counties come to compete during a day of matches in mid-July. This year, only Cole County 4-H members competed, and it was pushed to August due to COVID-19. It's also two days this year to correspond with the members' normal weekly practices. Thursday will be the second evening of shooting sports matches.
Trap shooting instructor Scott Suthoff became an instructor about 12 years ago because his son, who was 8 at the time, wanted to join Cole County 4-H Shooting Sports, but they didn't have an instructor. Although he knew nothing about shotguns, he and his wife became certified instructors and learned by doing - which is the 4-H motto.
"When we went and got certified, we didn't get certified to teach the kids how to shoot - we got certified to teach the kids how to become better people - the shooting comes second," Scott said.
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He volunteered so his son could participate, but he grew to love working with the members and teaching them life skills such as professionalism, safety, teamwork and integrity through shooting.
"The beauty of it is it doesn't matter how fast you are, how big you are, how small you are - you get to participate," Scott said. "It doesn't matter. That's what I love about it."
He also enjoyed getting to watch his son excel at the sport and meeting people from across the country at national and world shooting competitions.
"By doing that and going places and shooting and talking to people, you learn more and meet some wonderful people," Scott said.
Instructor Tim Riley said that while the instructors teach the children these life skills, it also helps the instructors grow and succeed personally and professionally.
"As we watch these kids get better, we find that we get better, and it carries over into professional lives," Riley said.
Scott's daughter, Molly Suthoff, 15, has been participating in Cole County 4-H Shooting Sports for about four years.
"Seeing my brother doing all that cool stuff with guns, I was like, 'Hey, that looks kind of fun, and a girl doing that? That's even cooler,"' Molly said.
Molly said participating in shooting sports has taught her sportsmanship, responsibility and respect.
"I have competitors, but they're not really competitors - they're people who are working with me on a goal of becoming better, too," she said.