With a mechanical whir, a trap machine launched a small, orange disk into the air.

It arced across Tuesday's pale blue sky - 10, 20, 30 yards out.

Shooter Bo Bohannon squinted down the barrel of his 12 gauge Beretta shotgun, traced its path.

Crack!

The gun kicked into his shoulder. The clay target shattered and showered the ground like a million fire sparks.

Spectators at Casper's Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays club cheered.

Talk about getting more bang for your buck.

But Bohannon's bang wasn't always so spectacular.

Several years ago he went duck hunting with some guys from work. He couldn't hit anything with his shotgun, at least not anything he was supposed to hit.

"Afterwards, I told my wife I'm going to learn to shoot his darn thing," he said.

He bought a cheap clay thrower, welded it to a post in his backyard and aimed for respect from his duck-hunting buddies.

Eventually, he earned it.

He shot his way into the "Holie Cap" club, an honor reserved only for those who can shatter at least 25 targets in a row without a miss. He tossed his cap into the air, graduation style, and his squad promptly shot it full of holes. It hangs with other holey caps on the north wall of the shooters' clubhouse.

(Many of the caps don't survive the ritual. They are gathered in sandwich bags and displayed in all their shredded glory.)

Some shooters at Casper's Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays club want to keep their skills sharp for the fall hunting season. Some want to become better competitors in the fastest growing division of shooting sports. Some just like the bang.

"The main focus is that everybody loves the game," said club president Robert Meyer. "But we try to challenge the good shooters and still give everyone a chance to break some birds."

Tuesday was a good day for practice. The only complaint was the sun was too bright.

Compared to Saturday, the club's usual day for shooting sporting clays, it was a pretty wimpy complaint.

If it had just been raining, if it had just been snowing, members would have shot.

Wet guns aren't a problem. They have oil for those.

It was the wind that kept Casper's shooters indoors Saturday. Well, not only the wind. The chunks of ice flying horizontally through the air at 50 mph, coating all north-facing windows and spectacles, played a part, too.

So, despite the complaints, Tuesday's sun was a vast improvement.

And it kept few shooters from shredding their clay.

People who use sporting clays to practice for hunting season have more clean kills of game birds, Meyer said. That's a good thing when the population is small.

"As scarce as birds are in Wyoming, when one comes up, you want to believe you can bag it," said John Brooker, who has shot trap and skeet for almost 25 years, sporting clays for 10. For eight of those years, his wife, Peggy, has joined him.

Peggy doesn't look like an avid hunter. She is a petite woman who works as an office assistant at Kirkwood Oil and Gas.

But, looks can be deceiving.

In the sporting clays cage, she pulls her 20 gauge shotgun tightly to her shoulder and sights her target with confidence. When the Brooker's three dogs point to a bird, she has the ability to hit it, she said. And that's really all she wants.

Dane Sorter, a member of the "Holie Cap" club, brought his family into the sport two years ago.

His 14-year-old son, Andy, has muscular dystrophy. When shooting sporting clays, Dane takes him from station to station on the back of a four-wheeler and helps him walk into the cage. Andy leans against the cage for balance, and then he fires away. And he's good.

"This sport doesn't limit people with a disability," his mother, Paula, said. "It shows their ability."

Andy just wants to try to do everything he can while he can, he said.

He says he shoots only for fun. But he is being modest. Last fall he killed a six-by-six elk, a buck deer and several geese and duck.

Now that's more bang for your buck.

Or maybe it's more buck for your bang.

**Reach Hannah Wiest at (307) 266-0535 or hannah.wiest@casperstartribune.net.

To watch the skeet shooting video, click here.

The Casper Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays Club will host a sporting clays shoot Saturday at their location just north of the Events Center. All levels of shooters are invited to participate in the 100 target main event. Registration begins at 8 a.m. and shoots begin at 10 a.m.

Sportsman's Warehouse will award shotgun shells to the 100 target main event winner. Registered National Sporting Clays Association shooters will be eligible to win awards in their class. Hunter class shooters (non-registered) will be eligible for awards based on the Lewis Class System.

Registration is $50 for NSCA registered shooters, $40 for non-registered hunter class shooters. An optional 100 target re-entry will cost $30 for registered shooters, $20 for hunter class. Lunch and awards are included.

Sporting clays shoots are also scheduled for June 23 and July 14.

For more information call Chris Boger at 235-9958, Robert Meyer at 234-7147 or visit http://casperskeetclub.org.