Dozens of shooters honed their skills at an International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) shoot in Williams Lake held Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16 at the Williams Lake Sportsmen's Association gun range on Bond Lake Road.
"We have people shooting a mixture of handguns and PCCs, which are pistol calibre carbines," said Tyler Hamm, a member of the Williams Lake Sportsmen's Association.
Eighty-nine people were participating on Saturday, with some coming from as far away as Terrace, Salmon Arm, Kelowna and the Fraser Valley.
"Williams Lake does one a year, but we are going to try and do more," Hamm said. "Other places like Port Coquitlam put on three or four a year."
Shooters are trying to gain points as they go through the different stages, he explained.
"If you hit two alphas, that's five points each. At the end you get what's called a hit factor, which is how many points per second you are earning."
Participants aim to emerge from the shoot with a classification, but not everyone is successful.
"There are several unclassified shooters here today who are new," Hamm said. "My son, who is 12-years-old is here, and he just qualified this morning."
It is a work-shoot program, which means all shooters have to work and shoot while in attendance.
"If you don't stick around and work then they penalize you and you have to pay a fine," Hamm said.
When asked if most of the shooters at the event hunt, Hamm replied, most of them don't but enjoy the sport of shooting.
Hamm has been shooting all his life, but only started shooting IPSC last spring and took his black badge.
On Sunday, 79 people were registered.
"We change the stages a little bit or we add some different targets such as a 'no-shoot' target to make it more difficult," Hamm said.
