An increasingly popular shooting event is among the many ways members of Nashville, Tenn., Local 429 are connecting with growing numbers of young people and telling them about the benefits of a union electrical career.

At the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s 15th annual sporting clays event in March, sponsored by Local 429 and the other unions in the Nashville Building and Construction Trades Association, 185 shooters showed up at the Nashville Gun Club, a dramatic increase from just two years ago. More than a third were middle and high school students.

“When we bring youth shooters to these events, we consider it an opportunity to organize,” said Local 429 Business Manager Joel Brauchi. “Those young men and women are meeting and connecting with all of our trades, and we hope they see the opportunities and choices we have to offer for a career path.”

Every year across North America, the alliance hosts more than two dozen sporting clays, skeet and trap shoots. A recent improvement to the shooting tours was the opening of opportunities for locals to sponsor youth teams. The alliance said the Building Trades’ sponsorship of 32 youth participants helped make overall turnout at the Nashville event the biggest on the current shooting tour and the second-largest ever.

“This happens because of the relationship and solidarity we have with the alliance and the building trades as well as some of our contractors,” said Local 429 Assistant Business Manager Kim Sansom. “We may have a jurisdictional dispute on occasion, but we don’t bring that to the shoot. The shoot is all about fun, a little competition, and bringing youth shooters to it.”

Sometimes described as “golf with a shotgun,” sporting clays is a challenging expansion of clay pigeon shooting that attempts to replicate the irregularities of a live-game hunt, with participants moving over a natural terrain course from one station to the next.

“The mental part is the hardest part,” said Clay Rougemont, a first-year Local 429 apprentice who got interested in sporting clays when he was 10 and started participating — and excelling — in alliance shoots and other competitions shortly afterward. “Anyone can go out there, shoot and break a couple, but being consistent and just knowing where to hold your gun when this bird’s coming out, it’s just a mental game.”

Rougemont’s father, Calvin, is a Local 429 journeyman wireman and foreman who also enjoys taking part in shooting events like these.

“It’s like any other hobby,” he said. “I waited to see if my son was going to be interested in it, and when he was, I invested in a gun and bought him reloaders.”

Clay Rougemont said he tries to practice every weekend. “I’ve always grown up outdoors and hunting and stuff like that, and I just like the adrenaline rush of pulling the trigger. It’s been a passion all my life.”

He worked landscaping jobs in high school, and shop classes helped him get welding certifications. But after graduation, his father told him that with lots of electrical jobs opening up, he should try out a pre-apprenticeship.

“In my 35 years, I haven’t been out of work a month,” Calvin Rougemont said.

Father and son both work for IBEW signatory contractor Kiewit. Until recently, they spent six months together pulling wire, before Clay Rougemont moved on to another crew to gain experience in other aspects of the trade such as working with conduit.

“I’ve come to enjoy doing electrical work and the people I’m around,” he said. “I’m not waking up and dreading my day at work.”

Besides shooting events, Sansom said, Local 429 supports other Union Sportsmen’s Alliance activities such as family fishing and camping. “The families can secure a cabin for an overnight stay and bring their kids,” she said. “They learn to fish, and it’s all free.”

Long supported by the IBEW and nearly 350,000 members strong, the conservation-minded alliance’s mission is to preserve North America’s outdoor heritage. Shoots, conservation dinners and other such activities help support the union-operated nonprofit, which strives to bring together union members and others who are passionate about a variety of outdoor activities. Alliance members frequently volunteer their time and skills as well to help build, maintain and improve habitats and facilities like boat ramps and docks.

Membership in the alliance is free for life for IBEW members.

“The IBEW believes in the outdoors and conservation, and we’re always connected to our communities in every way,” said International President Kenneth W. Cooper. “The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance is one of the best ways for our members to give back, but the most important piece of all the outdoor things we do is the camaraderie that we have, the relationships and the fun.”

Visit sportsmensalliance.org to learn more.