Last week the Herald ran a story about Bulloch Academy trapshooter JT Osborne and his success on the national trapshooting circuit. 
    However what wasn’t mentioned is he isn’t the only shooter on BA’s team who has national acclaim. Colin Davis has the credentials to match that of Osborne, though it comes through a different discipline of shotgun shooting.
    Davis’ claim to fame is much different than trap shooting, which was explained in detail in Osborne’s profile from last week. Davis’ discipline is “sporting clays”, which sounds like the generic name of the overarching sports of clay shooting but is actually one of the three sub categories of shotgun sports alongside skeet and trap.
    “Sporting clays is basically golf with a shotgun,” said BA shooting coach Barbara Conners. “You move from station to station like you would holes on a golf course. And just like each hole has different terrains and challenges, so do each shotgun station in sporting clays.”
    Whereas in a regular skeet or trap shooting you stand at one station and perhaps move back and forth between distances, sporting clays sees the shooter travel over a large area of terrain to 12 or 15 different stations. Each station may have a different elevation and trees blocking the view, making each spot a different challenge for the shooter.
    The shooter gets to watch on sample clay shot over the horizon to analyze the flight path, then the next time around attempts to shoot the target.
    “I generally shoot around 85 in sporting clays events,” Davis said. “The best I’ve ever done is 92 which was at a tournament back in March with around 500 people.”
    That would be 92 out of 100 targets to clarify. But much like his teammate Osborne, Davis started shooting when he was in middle school around the time BA added their shooting team. Being a seasoned hunter from an early age, he already had in interest in shooting. But since he’s been indoctrinated in the sport, he’s only grown more serious and better at shooting sports.
    However unlike Osborne, who competes out of school in the ATA (American Trapshooting Association), Davis travels the country competing in the NSCA (National Sporting Clays Association). Davis has been to Georgia, South Carolina, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio so far to compete and has done quite well in his national competitions.
    “I started this year in ‘B’ class in January, which is the fourth highest of the seven classes you can be in for NSCA,” Davis said. “I’m currently ranked fourth in the country in “B” class.”
    Davis has jumped all the way to master class since January, but since you stay ranked in the class you started at the year’s start the ranking remained in “B” class. Conners was quick to mention just how impressive a feat that was.
“With all of that improvement is really shows me how his mental focus and concentration been much better over the course of the season,” Conners said. “He’s really honed in on the aspect of perfection, which like Colin said last week is what drives a lot of the shooters in this age group.”
    Davis’ accolades don’t stop there. Davis is currently ranked No. 1 in the NSCA Southeast All Region Points race and was the 2017 team captain of the Blaser All-American FITASC Sub Junior team. To go along with that, he tied  for first as the Sub Junior FITASC Championships and was the Sub Junior FITASC Main event champion.
    “The most important award I have came at the Cardinal Center in Ohio when was I was No. 2 in the nation for individuals out of 2400 kids,” Davis said. “That was scored out of 600 targets.”
    Safe to say with Davis and Osborne on the roster for another two years, the future is bright for BA shooting sports.