The best instinctive shooters in America will compete for the U.S. Helice Association National Championship at Prairie Wildlife near West Point this summer.
The event, set for early June, is open to the public. There is no admission charge for spectators. The venue, Black Prairie Helice, is part of Prairie Wildlife, a sporting destination specializing in upland bird hunting, shotgun shooting and corporate retreats.
Helice is a shotgun game that blends the accessibility of clay targets with the true, erratic unpredictability of wild birds. The game was invented in Europe early in the 1900s, but it’s recently found a home in the United States, especially in the South.
A helice range bears some resemblance to a trap range. The shooter stands at a determined point and calls for a target that launches from some distance to his front going away, but that’s where the resemblance ends. The targets themselves consist of a white plastic witness cap mounted inside an orange ring with two propellers. As the shooter takes position, five launchers, facing away from the shooter and standing in an arc 26 meters away, each spin a target up to 5,000 revolutions per minute. On the shooter’s call, one randomly-chosen machine releases its target, which takes flight on a truly unique path. The shooter must break the witness cap free of its wings and have it fall to the ground before crossing a two-foot-high fence another 21 meters to their front. The time from release to successful shot can only be measured in heartbeats, and only then because the challenge is so intense.
“The thing about helice is, you have to shoot instinctively,” Xavier Fairley, director of shooting sports at Prairie Wildlife, said. “With traditional skeet, through practice, you can time each shot and settle into a hold point and a break point with each position. Helice is extremely random. The targets truly fly like birds. There are no set leads and no predictability.”
“It’s the hottest shotgun game being played today,” said Becky Briggs. She and her husband Eddie, a former Mississippi lieutenant governor, have been helice devotees for more than 10 years. They’ve both represented the United States in world helice competition. “We want people to come out and see it. It’s hard to appreciate it until you’ve seen it done, but helice has a tremendous appeal. It’s a family event. Boys, girls, husbands and wives all enjoy it, and it’s accessible to every age group under the sun. Shooters as young as 10 and as old as old can be are all drawn to it.
“Prairie Wildlife’s venue is second to none. It’s a grand spot, with a facility of unrivaled quality. Helice is a fast-growing sport. Jimmy Bryan and his crew have worked very hard to make their facility what it is.”
To learn more about the upcoming national championship, visit ushelice.com.
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