Every fall, the National Sporting Clays Association holds its national championship at The National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas, and thousands of sporting clays shooters from across the world come to compete for titles. Watch our “American Rifleman Television” feature segment above to see how the shoot comes together and how you can participate.
“This is the culmination of our whole year. This is like our Super Bowl,” said Michael Hampton, executive director, National Sporting Clays & Skeet Shooting Association. “We’ve got shooters from all over. We’ve got 49 states here. We’ve got 17 countries. There’s just a ton going on. And this is actually the largest sporting clay shoot and clay target event in the world.”
In 2025, nearly 2,700 shotgunners showed up to compete in different disciplines and take advantage of the many opportunities available at the NSCA championship, which outside of the competition shoots, range from meet-and-greet events, silent auctions, beginner shooting clinics, banquets, parties and more. For first-timers, an an attendee reception and NSCA membership meeting was held at the complex’s House on the Hill, sponsored by the National Rifle Association.
“NRA is fully committed to the shotgun sports. NRA’s the title sponsor here, the National Sporting Clays Championship,” NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford said. “We’re a title sponsor of the World Skeet Shoot. You can find us the Cardinal Center in Ohio. You can find us at the Grand American. I mean, shotgun sports are one of the fastest growing recreational sports out there. In the shooting world, there’s a lot of places where you can shoot trap. There’s a lot of places you can shoot skeet. And sporting clays is growing faster than all of them. So NRA is fully committed to that.”
The 2025 NSCA National Championship included more than 60 different vendors, too, giving both newcomers and experienced shooters the opportunity to shop for guns, gear, ammo and accessories all related to the shotgun sports.
“Well, the great thing about nationals is it’s open to everybody. All you got to do is be an NSCA member, you sign up to be a member, and you can come down,” Hampton said. “So from the, we’ve got members that have been members for six months that said, ‘Hey, I’m all in, I want to come see this.’ And we’ve had members since the inception of the sport that are still coming here. So if for anybody and everybody of all levels, the best shooters are here, but also a lot of new shooters, they just love the game out here.”
While thousands show up to the NSCA nationals every year, for most people who are members of the National Sporting Clays Association, it’s enough to just shoot at their local clubs and matches. Overall, the association claims nearly 39,000 people as members, most of whom shoot locally or regionally at NSCA-affiliated ranges.
“If you don’t have a sporting clays range next to you, you can start with skeet, you can start with trap, and then you can move up to sporting clays,” Commerford said. “You can go to the NSCA National Sporting Clays Association website and find a range.”
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/videos/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
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