Story and Photos by Daphne Chen

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On Wednesday, March 24, the first group of approximately 30 Outdoor Education students went on a field trip to Elm Fork Shooting Sports, a shooting range on Luna Road in Dallas.

Outdoor Ed teacher Bill Parker started taking his students to Elm Fork about five years ago.

“They really want young people to get involved in shooting sports,” Parker said. “They are really pushing for youth shooting so I wanted to do something different but still apply to hunter education.”

Students paid a discounted price of $35 each to go the range and were loaned the use of several types of guns and ammo, among them Beretta 12-gauge and 20-gauge shotguns, Beretta 92FS pistols and Beretta CX4 Storm carbines.

The Beretta shotguns were used for skeet shooting and were among the priciest guns that the students used, with each one costing, as the instructor informed the class, upwards of $1400. Students shot at clay targets that were propelled into the air and went 25 rounds.

“I liked it, but [the shotgun] was hard for me to use because it was heavy,” senior Jeanie Choi said. “My favorite part was lunch.”

Students used the carbines to shoot at steel targets and knock them down, often with two people “dueling” at one time to see who could knock down the most.

“My favorite was definitely the CX4 Storm,” senior Arshia Ladha said. “It was really smooth and there wasn’t much of a kick.”

The pistol was perhaps the most difficult to aim. Students were allowed to take home their paper targets riddled with bullet holes as a souvenir.

“I was surprised the pistol was so hard because it took time to perfect your aim,” Ladha said.

Overall, the students seemed to have fun on this field trip that was the first time for many to learn how to load and shoot a gun.

“It was a lot of fun and a good experience,” Ladha said. “I’ve always wanted to learn how to shoot a gun, so this was it. I might even come back sometime.”