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Show I , , I rt v, - Page 7C Lakeside Review Wednesday, July 17, 1985. I ( I i ti i t I' i r I I A TARGET If' explodes with a perfect hit. i i i i i fi 0 , t f j? ? r " is i WARREN JOHNS heads back to the after a round of trap. An adage flying among the trapshoot-er- s of the Ogden Gun Club says the targets are easy to hit, but theyre not hard to miss. Thats one theory no one yet has shot full of holes. Warren Johns, however, condensed the saying to one word, his byword concentration. And when Johns shoots, he labors to personify that motto. If your mind is thinking of anything else at all while you are shooting, your chances of missing multiply geometrically, Johns said. So far, his mind must be clear. The Layton trapshooter was named Rookie of the Year for 1984 at a meeting last month by the Utah amateur trapshooters association. What makes Johns accomplishment even more impressive is that at the beginning of the year he had picked up a gun only once in some 15 years. Most people ease into a new sport, Ogct Gun Club testing themselves little by little before entering a competition. But not Johns. He was an occasional game-bir- d hunter 15 or so years ago, and an extremely average one at that. But he hadnt hunted since, or even as much as picked up a gun until Christmas a ago. year and At the prodding of his brother in law, who owns a sporting goods store in Odgen, Johns and a few others went to a turkey shoot where they had to hit a number of clay pigeons to win a turkey one-ha- lf or ham. By the time we were done we had several turkeys and hams and we thought this was sure an easy way to make a living, Johns said. Although he has since found out trapshooting is not easy, Johns went shooting the first Wednesday after Christmas and hasnt missed a week since. WARREN JOHNS, Utahs rookie trapshooter of the year, sights He soon entered his first competition, hitting only 73 out of 100. He was already better than that, but the pressures of the competition got to him. Part of that (low score) was not knowing exactly what would happen during competition, and not understanding the pressures. My knees were knocking each other that first time, lohns said. But I soon learned to compete. If youre going to compete, youve got to hit the targets, Johns added emphatically. Youve got to be better than everyone else. Easy to say, hard to do. To Johns, a Certified Public Accoun- tant employed at the Salt Lake City branch of an international accounting firm, trapshooting is more than a hobby. He considers it a second vocation, and being the best is the bottom line. in his Year won $5,000 for hitting 100 out of 100 in the handicap division of a meet over in Vernal." But even though the prize money is an incentive to Johns, the pinnacle of his brief career was at a benefit shoot. The highlight of my career is when I shot 100 straight single targets at the Utah Cancer Society shoot in Murray. I had pledges from friends, fellow employees and Ogden Gun Club members that amounted to $13 per target Johns wife is a former cancer patient. We think shes cured, he adds. Shes been my best support all along. Shes traveled with me, cheered me up and chewed me out. Trapshooting is such a mental game and she has meant as much to my success as anything, Johns added. Johns has no ready explanation why he. is so accurate at hitting clay pigeons he currently averages 95 and now hits out of 100 attempts when he was so poor a hunter many target top rookie in the state by maintaining the highest average points scored in the three events of a trapshooting contest: singles, doubles and handicap. In the singles and handicap categories the targets are thrown randomly in any of five directions while the shooter stands in one of five places in a semicircle behind the launcher. In the singles division the shooter stands 16 yards behind the launcher in each of the five positions. In the handicap division the contestants stand at different distances from 16 yards up to 27 yards, depending on their rating. Johns is now at 25 yards away in handicap and hopes to be at 27 away soon. In the doubles division the contestant stands at a distance of 16 yards be- hind the launcher, which lets fly two targets in a set direction. one-ha- lf Especially when not being the best means operating a bottom line in the red. The sport is so expensive that you have to win. Ive heard from several separate sources that it costs about $1 for every registered target you shoot at in competition. By the time you pay for targets, practice targets, shells, fees, travel and things like that, youre going to spend a years ago. knew what the difference was, package it, bottle it and sell it, he If Id I said. Johns earned his recognition as the Photos by Robert Regan Story by Gary Hatch lot. Even .though the costs are high, the prize money can be good also. There are people in this state who can actually make a decent living at trapshooting." The guy I beat out for Rookie of the 3 i CONCENTRATION is the key to Johns success. u |