The Rangers Gun Club, which has not hosted a sporting clays tournament in over two decades, will be pulling out all the stops to stage its first shoot since the 1990s.

Approximately 150 shooters, along with family members, will trek to the True Juice complex in Bog Walk, St Catherine, for the return of the Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays & Family Day today starting at 10:00 am.

The 17-station driving-course is being set, but the club’s top shooter and four-time national shotgun champion Christian Sasso will shoot the course, but his score will not count as per the tradition of course setters’ scores not being tallied with the other competitors.

Though he will not be on the score sheet, some of the club members to look out for include Peter Mahfood, Danzel Knight and his brother Zaniel, and Zacchary Chen.

Competition for top honours will be stiff as some of the Jamaica Skeet Club’s best shooters will be vying for top honours. They include nine-time national shotgun champion Ian Banks, six-time national shotgun champion Shaun Barnes, in-form shooter Chad Ziadie, his father Geoffrey, Ryan Chen and Bobby Chung.

Also, down to perform is the high-performance family team of female McMasters — Aliana, Wendy (four-time national shotgun champion) and Abigail along. Other top female down to perform are Renee Rickhi, who is part of the Jamaica Rifle Association’s Super-Six lady shooters, Marguerite Harris and Tara Brown.

Shooters in various classes from A-E, Hunters or Beginners, Juniors, Sub-Juniors and Ladies will be competing hard in order to win their classes and in some cases move up to high more challenging classes.

The club will be using the shoot to honour coach and former President Khaleel Azan as well as give out a trophy in his name for shooters 16 years and under. Azan has taught and mentored most of the shooters in that age group and has contributed immeasurably to the growth of the Jamaica Skeet Club through his coaching programme.

There will also be a five-member gun club team trophy and that should heighten the level of competition among the clubs, for a trophy which will be given out for the first time.

Part proceeds from the event will be donated to the Food For the Poor organisation.

The lead sponsor for the Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays and Family Day is Sterling Asset Management, while Worthy Park Select is gold sponsor.

The club has rich history of young businessmen and some of their fathers who loved shooting getting together in the mid 1980s to start the Rangers Gun Club at their Salt Gully base in St Catherine.

They initially focused on bird shooting then took on sporting clays, which is currently the most popular form of the sport and is said to be the favourite of the younger shooters.