Thousands Gather at NWTF’s Palmetto Shooting Complex for Youth Shooting Event
EDGEFIELD, S.C. — The sound of shotguns could be heard in every direction at the NWTF’s Palmetto Shooting Complex on Saturday, as 774 youth shooters, their families, coaches and volunteers from the South Carolina Youth Shooting Foundation descended on the 300-acre world-class shooting facility for a day of camaraderie, fun and competitive sport shooting.
“It is so great to see so many young people and their families engaged with the shooting sports,” said Rhett Simmons, NWTF Palmetto Shooting Complex manager. “We love seeing this place filled with so many enthusiastic young people, and we are proud to support the SCYSPF with this event.”
The event is part of the SCYSF’s 2025 Tournament Series. Youth were broken into different age divisions, including rookie, intermediate, junior varsity and senior varsity. Accompanied by a coach, each youth shooter shot about 100 clay targets throughout the day. With practice targets included, over 80,000 targets were thrown on Saturday.
“There’s about 86,000 clay targets in a full semi-truck,” Simmons said. “So, we are throwing almost an entire tractor trailer load full of clay targets today, and my guys and volunteers here today will tell you ‘it’s a lot of work.’”
In addition to the SCYSF and the Palmetto Shooting Complex, numerous sponsors made the event possible, including Palmetto State Armory, HEYBO Outdoors, the Double D Foundation, Forest and Wildlife Group, Mossberg, Daniel Defense and many others.
The mission of the South Carolina Youth Shooting Foundation is to support all youth shooting disciplines within the state of South Carolina. The organization’s focus is to provide a safe environment in which youth may participate in the sport of sporting clays. In addition, the foundation works to instill life skills such as commitment, focus, respect, sportsmanship, teamwork and a positive work ethic so that youth participants will become productive, contributing members of society.
With the hundreds of volunteers and hundreds of youth sport shooters and their families, about 3,000 people gathered on the NWTF’s Palmetto Shooting Complex, making it one of the facility’s largest events of the year.
Each of these youth shooters is contributing to wildlife conservation via the Pittman-Roberston Act, which provides conservation funding through a tax on the sale of all firearms and ammunition. The monies from this tax go into a fund that supports wildlife restoration, basic hunter education and safety programs, enhanced hunter education and safety grants and multistate conservation grants.
The NWTF’s Palmetto Shooting Complex is open all year and hosts various events to engage sport shooters of all ages and experience levels, from corporate events to conservation fundraisers. Learn more about the Palmetto Shooting Complex.
About the National Wild Turkey Federation
Since 1973, the National Wild Turkey Federation has invested over half a billion dollars into wildlife conservation and has positively impacted over 23 million acres of critical wildlife habitat. The NWTF has also invested over $10 million into wild turkey research to guide the management of the wild turkey population and to ensure sustainable populations into perpetuity. The organization continues to deliver its mission by working across boundaries on a landscape scale through its Four Shared Values: clean and abundant water, healthy forests and wildlife habitat, resilient communities, and robust recreational opportunities. With the help of its dedicated members, partners and staff, the NWTF continues its work to provide Healthy Habitats. and Healthy Harvests. for future generations.