ESTEVAN — The Estevan Oilfield Technical Society's (OTS) fourth annual Top Gun trap shooting event attracted over 120 participants from southeast Saskatchewan, as well as a few from Manitoba, on May 3 at the Estevan Wildlife Federation's shooting range.
Matt Stuart with Tundra Oil and Gas claimed the individual championship with 93 points.
Stuart and Grant Matthewson with Tundra, along with Mike Browning, Zack Graham and Aaron Simpson with Swift Supply were the team winners with a total of 333 points.
The event saw 125 people participating, bringing in all levels of trap shooting skills.
"We have everything from guys that competitively shoot … to some guys that have never held a gun before and come out and have some fun," said Jordon Blanchette, the chairman of the event committee.
The organizers provide everything necessary for a nice day at a trap shooting range.
Blanchette said they had great participation and a good day out at Boundary Dam.
"We filled up again, that's four years in a row here that we've had a full event. We had a good turnout, lots of guys that have been there year after year, and a couple of new teams have showed up over the past couple years," Blanchette said.
"Everything went off very well. Beatz Eatz did supper for everybody, and it was really good. And it was good to see a bunch of local oilfield guys all having fun and letting their hair down a little bit."
He noted that with a few more people participating, they started the event a little bit earlier and had one team shooting a bit later, but the format of the event remained the same in general as previous years.
"The nice thing with this event is that it's just a one-day event. So, you don't need to worry about not being able to go see your kids play baseball on a Saturday. It takes up a Friday, and that's about it," Blanchette noted.
The Estevan OTS introduced a trap shooting event to add variety to their offering four years ago and had nothing but success with it. While networking wasn't the main point, there is still some happening, Blanchette said.
"Networking is not really the purpose of it, but it automatically comes and that's a nice thing. A lot of the guys were saying, when you go to the golf event with the OTS, you have people from Calgary, people from here and all over in the oilfield. With this event, it's pretty much just locals and it's nice just to get out with some local guys and not have some head management," Blanchette said.
He also noted that May is a nice month to host the event as it sees more flexibility in the industry.
"It's just a good day of getting away from work, and it's a nice thing with being at breakup, too. Not everybody's busy and tied up, so guys have a little bit more time to get away. And the networking wasn't our goal, but when you have that many guys that own companies or work for companies locally, it always just happens," he said.
The event is expected to continue, and some participants already expressed their willingness to register for the next edition. And the only thing the organizers hope will change in the future is the weather.
"The only thing that we need is we need some better weather to show up. The only good year that we had for weather, it was +30, but it was the COVID year, and we couldn't stay and hang out. Last year it was rain and wind, this year was wind and little sun. But no matter what, the guys still come out and have fun," Blanchette said.
