Can a youth shooter find value in every shot?

Posted On: 03-21-2025

In a short period of time shells have gone from $5 a box to $10.  In a sport that requires perfection, practice always pays off, but the cost of shooting is often the elephant in the room.

I know teams access funds through their Midway USA Foundation accounts and through other fund-raising activities.  The bottom-line though is this can be an expensive sport. 

 As an example, think about how many shells one might shoot in a week.  A 100 rounds at practice and another 100 rounds at an event.  Two hundred rounds or about eight boxes of shells for a weekly cost of about $80.  I would guess this is typical but differs as teams purchase shells.  But somehow shells must get purchased.  Add into this the cost of targets at roughly $7.50 a round and those eight rounds now escalate to $140 per week during the season. 

What I provide above is simply an example of what one might consider the minimum cost of shooting in an event culminating week.  Should this practice say double up, our weekly cost could rise to $160 a week just for shells and one is just getting started in a concerted effort practicing multiple rounds each week.  Those eight rounds of practice can move to 20 rounds or more as passion for the sport equals dedicated effort to get good. 

I titled this article, “Can a shooter find value in every shot?”  The answer is they must.  Pulling the trigger is great fun, but hitting targets is more fun.  To hit more targets practice must be functional.  I mean practice must be more than going to the range, shooting 100 targets and going home.  Each and every target to have value, should be a learning experience.  As you watch your youth shooter, make sure they are practicing AND learning.  Use each target and each shell as a learning opportunity.  Why did you hit the target and why did you miss.  What is the lead on a hard right target on Station V?  What was the wind like today?  Could you tell if you broke targets with a lead or were you behind all the targets? 

Finally, maybe we look at shells as a bonus.  Instead of a box of shells costing us $10 consider each one as building a way to $10 worth of learning.  Not the cost of shells but the cost of learning and learning correctly.   Say to yourself these next five shells or next 10 shells will help me better understand the critical lead on a hard right target on Station V.  Handle those shells as if they are vessels of knowledge waiting to pass something on to you.  Don’t rush rounds but instead savor each and every shot of the round.  And always finish practice with a broken target.

To have value, one must use each shot to grow and learn.  Eventually, those shells will become so valuable your shooter will treasure the ones that create success.