The July Helice shoot at Cottonland Gun Club was held this weekend. I didn’t shoot in the competition, but hung out yesterday and shot a few photos of the event. The weather worked out great for what could have been a very hot day. Scattered storms rolled through the area and kept things cool yet the only rain occurred right during the lunch hour. Fantastic shoot.
Below are a few photos from the event. Click here to view all event photos.
In full disclosure, Cottonland Gun Club has been a client of ours for a few years now. I’ve attended several helice shoots as a photographer and I’ve managed the Cottonland Gun Club website for about a year now. However, last weekend was my first chance to actually shoot a round of helice with a shotgun.
I’ve loved shooting and especially shotgun sports or anything you can hunt with a shotgun since I was a kid. Growing up, duck and dove hunting were my favorite things to do. Sporting clays became a favorite past time during college. I’ve entered a few competitions but never really been into competitive shoots. Just shooting for fun with some close friends and family can be a lot of fun.
In about 2001 or 2002 shooting clays became a weekly event. A couple of good friends in college gathered up almost every weekend to shoot skeet or trap. I even made a brief attempt to start a college trap club at the University of Central Arkansas, but it never really got off the ground good.
These days I find myself filming someone with a shotgun from behind a camera more often than with a shotgun in front of the camera. However, Shooting is still something I really enjoy. So when I found out Glynn Kipper was having a practice shoot, I had to go shoot a round of Helice for myself.
Practice shoots are much more informal than the large US Helice Association sanctioned shoots the Kipers host each quarter at their range. These shoots are more or less pulled together a week or so ahead of time depending on weather and other schedules and pretty laid back. Perfect for my preferred shooting style.
With a good bit of trap shooting in my back ground, I have to say Helice is similar but much more difficult than traditional trap. The main thing is there are 5 different traps that can throw a target instead of one. On top of that, each trap is in constant oscillation so even if the far right trap is released, it may fly all the way to the left or it may go right. You just don’t know and you have to see the bird and resist the urge to move to it until you’ve identified which direction it is going. I feel like I did an ok job of handling these targets but with this on your mind, I found it easy to miss the targets that presented more like a normal trap target. It is very much a mental game.
A factor that compound the target difficulty for the day we shot was the wind. It was very windy and on top of that, the wind was at our back all day. This meant that the targets were moving even faster and more random than normal. As soon as the light plastic propeller shaped targets caught the wind, those suckers were gone.
With helice shooting, the white center target has to be knocked out of the target and fall within a fenced ring in front of the traps. The day we shot, the wind was blowing so hard that we actually suspended this rule because almost none of the white caps were falling inside the ring. Even with a near perfect shot, the wind would carry the white center cap beyond the fence.
I had a great time shooting helice. I may be a little rusty but at the end of the round, I had hit 15 of 30 targets. Mr Kiper said this was pretty decent for my first time shooting. He said a typical first time score is usually in the 8-10 range. There were definitely some targets that I think I should have hit but didn’t so I’ll take it. I believe the high score for that round that day was 25 or 28 targets. Of the matches that I’ve been to, there have been few perfect scores.
I’d love to shoot again. It was challenging and fun. The targets really do fly a lot more like live birds than pretty much anything i’ve ever shot but live birds while hunting. I think that’s really what makes this sport so appealing and why its growing here in the US.
The big question on my mind though is “will I keep shooting Helice?” As I mentioned earlier, i’m not really a competitive shooter. For me personally, the competition aspect kinda takes the fun out of it. That is not to say that you shouldn’t take up the sport. If you like competition and a competition that is a challenge. You’ll love the sport of Helice. For me personally, I’ll defiantly shoot again. The next time I’m free on a practice day, you may see me again with my shotgun and a camera.
Glynn and Mindy Kiper are North East Louisiana farmers with a passion for shooting sports. Like a lot of hobbies tend to do, their love of shooting the various disciplines of sporting clays grew into a business. They first built skeet and trap fields on a section of their farm near Mangham, Louisiana but were soon introduced to the sport of Helice shooting.
Helice shooting is an off shoot of live pigeon shoots that were popular for a time across Europe. Helice or ZZ birds as some call it, is some what similar to trap although 5 different target throwers with random presentations replace one trap machine. Helice targets are also not made of Clay used in traditional sporting clays targets. Instead they are made of orange plastic propellers with a center white cap. When a target is called for, the targets are already spinning and a single random target is released. If the shooter hits the target, the white center cap must be knocked free and fall within a ring or fence marked on the ground.
From the random nature of the targets to the materials used, All of these factors create a target that flys more like a live bird than any other form of competitive shooting. Where as a Trap tournament may require hundreds of targets to declare a winner, Helice tournaments are typically decided with just 30 targets.
Cottonland Gun Club now features four Helice rings of their own as well as Skeet, Trap, and soon a traditional Sporting Clays range. They’ve grown and continues to be one of the nations leading Helice tournament locations. The spring 2021 Helice Open tournament sanctioned by the US Helice Association was held at Cottonland Gun Club. Below is our most recent video produced for Cottonland Gun Club which features this event.
Starting in 2014, Riverbank Products was asked to film a short video highlighting a Helice tournament held at Kiper farms. The video was, at the time, one of the few Helice videos that could be found online. There were only aproximately four Helice rings found in the US. Since then, the sport of Helice has grown as has the Cottonland Gun club.
In 2020, Cottonland Gun Club’s website had become very dated and was due for a refresh. Mindy Kiper contacted us and we began developing a new web presence for their business. The new website incorporates their branding and provides better information, about the Shooting Range and upcoming events. Riverbank Products was also able to take current photos from their events. This makes sure guests actually know what to expect when planning to visit for their next tournament.
Riverbank Products also takes great action shots and event photos. Below are a few of the images caputured from the 2021 Spring Helice Open Tournament.
Do you need help promoting your business? From Photography and Video creation to print and web content, Riverbank Products can help you better market your business and reach your customers.