An Oughterard teenager is rapidly making a name for himself in the world of clay pigeon shooting – leading his country into European and World competition.
Shane D’Arcy has just turned sixteen but he has already established his reputation in what is a growing sport – and he recently crowned that by winning the Munster clay pigeon championship.
BY PATRICK D’ARCY
That led to his selection as captain of the Irish Under-21 Junior Down The Line International Team in Northern Ireland for this month’s Home Championships in Northern Ireland.
He was also selected as Irish Team Captain for the European DTL Championship and the World Championships, which took place at Esker Shooting Grounds recently on the East Galway side of Banagher.
The Irish team of Shane, Brian Shanahan and Daniel O’Hara came third in the European Junior Competition at Esker – an area very familiar to Shane since he first took up the sport.
“I used to go shooting with my dad Mike when I was younger and watch him and that kind of got me into clay pigeon shooting,” he says.
“Then we then went to Esker, to Pat Donaghy who has been a great coach to me since; he runs it and gives coaching lessons to people if they want to try it out.
“He brought me into the more kind of competitive side of Trap Shooting and it pretty much just followed on from there,” he continues.
Clay pigeon has many different types of shooting but the main one Trap Shooting consists of firing a clay, four and a half inches in diameter at speeds of up to 48 mph.
This is fired at a distance of 52 yards from the Traphouse in a variety directions, and at different angles and elevations unbeknownst to the shooter with special guns made specifically for this type of shooting.
The shooter who is 16 yards away from the Traphouse moves from five different positions along a line so as not to be in the same position when the clays are shot from the Trap house.
In a relatively short time in the sport, Shane has already accumulated an impressive list of achievements.
These include the Oughterard Trap Cup, the Esker S.G. Midwest Classic and his Green Jacket for making the Irish Junior team after finishing second in the Home International Tournament hitting 97 out of 100 clays and British Open Championship hitting 98 out of 100.
Recently he has been promoted from a grade C shooter to a grade A, this is due to over his 92% hit accuracy that he has achieved at a consistent level – and yet he is among the youngest participants at this international level.
“I tend not to think about that because you have to compete against them in the first place; if you think about it, you’re only bringing yourself down and you’re not concentrating on what you supposed to be doing and you will lose focus.
“I’ve never been intimidated by them I try to get into a mind set to just beat them,” he says.
Key to success is getting into the right mind-set for competitions.
“It’s hard to explain on how I do it because you have to nearly think of nothing, if you think of something before you call the clay you your mind you’re not going to shoot it because your mind is not on the clay.
“Your full concentration has to be on the clay, that is the only way I can explain it but someone else may be different everyone has their own way on how they handle it,” says Shane.
It may not have the high profile of football or rugby – but there’s a growing interest in clay pigeon shooting. And Shane is quick to suggest that it’s always worth giving a try.
“I would say try it out first; it’s a great sport to get into, but maybe if you were looking to get competitive, it can get a bit expensive with the gun and price of clays.
“But it a great sport at the end of the day. Some people may think it may be unsafe but we all have gone through safety and handling course’s when you become a member of a shooting ground so it is quite safe also,” he concludes.
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