Prairie Wildlife shooting instructor delights in learning without end

“This is a hospitality business,” Fairley said. “I enjoy meeting and engaging with people, experiencing success for myself through them.”

Fairley, from Columbus, Miss., worked in the paper industry for 27 years before joining the team at Prairie Wildlife, a conservation-driven shooting and hunting destination on the rolling, backland prairie of Clay County. Fairley grew up in the country, working with horses and cattle, fishing and hunting whenever he could. As a child he pursued every game bird and animal that runs or flies. Still, when he brought his own lifelong familiarity and competence with the shotgun to the formal shooting grounds, he discovered there was quite a bit more waiting to be learned.

“I was like every other country boy,” he said. “I thought I knew what to do with a shotgun.”

There’s quite a bit of difference between structured shooting and shooting off the cuff. The reflexes and instincts born of a lifetime afield can be trained much further for those eager to learn.

“Formal shooting instruction is not just what to do, but why it makes you more efficient to do it that way,” he said. “I learned the fit on a shotgun is very important. It’s not a one-size-fits-all matter. I learned a lot about stance, focus and muscle memory. They all make an awful lot of difference in being effective. Then I learned how to look for those things and how to help people apply them in both field shooting and target shooting. It takes a good foundation to become good at anything.”

Today Fairley is certified both as a Level 1 National Sporting Clay Association instructor and an Orvis shooting instructor.

Along with helping individual shooters improve their foundations for future success, Fairley is helping the team at Prairie Wildlife build their facility into a foundation of competitive shooting on course to be, not only the best in the South, but among the very best in the world.

Helice, the hottest and fastest-growing shotgun game in America, has its foundations in Europe. Unlike clay targets thrown on predictable arcs, helice targets are propeller-driven. 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,” Fairley said.

In the four years since its initial foray into the sport, Prairie Wildlife has grown its helice operation into the largest such facility in the nation. The 2022 U.S. Helice Association National Championship will be hosted by Prairie Wildlife July 21 through 24. By the time the event’s festivities open, Prairie Wildlife will be home to six officially-sanctioned helice rings and a practice ring. Two of the rings are lit for nighttime shooting, and all are supported by a first class lodging and service operation.

“Helice is the most instinctive form of shotgun shooting you can do and not be shooting at game,” Fairley said. “What I like best about helice is, it’s not monotonous. 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 completely random. The targets truly fly like birds. There are no set leads and no predictability. You can go to the same helice course every day and shoot any number of targets and it’s going to be a different game. You’ll never cease to see targets that surprise you or wow you.”

Clay targets, whether in skeet, trap, 5-stand or sporting clay games, are thrown by a mechanical arm. From the moment it’s launched, a clay target is slowing down. Helice targets, on the other hand, are spun and released. Just like live birds flushed from the ground, they’re speeding up from the first instant they’re seen until they’re well out of range. It’s a scenario guaranteed to humble every shooter sooner or later, probably sooner than later.

“This game has taught me you’ve got to be a gracious winner,” Fairley says with a smile. “You’ve got be be absolutely focused on the game. It’s about as mental as it is athletic.”

The national championship, which begins Thursday, July 21 and continues through the weekend, is open to the public. Admission is free and concessions, along with everything else imaginable in the hunting and shooting world, will be available for sale.

“It’s going to have a game fair atmosphere,” Fairley said. “There’ll be lots of vendors, lots of beautiful guns. You’ll see some of the finest shooters in the world with some of the most beautiful shotguns in the world, most of them custom fit. Russell Moccasin will be here taking measurements for their custom-fit boots. Country Pursuit will come put on a display of Holland and Hollands, Purdeys and more. You name it in the shotgun world and it’ll be here.”

Raffles, auctions and the culinary creations of five world-renowned chefs will add to the scene as well.

Prairie Wildlife hosted the helice national championship two years ago. At the time, the facility was home to three helice rings. Today, they have six sanctioned rings and a practice ring. Along with on-site lodging and a host of other amenities, the facility demonstrates remarkable growth, just like the helice game itself.

“We’re awful proud of it and we want people to come here and see it, to experience it for themselves,” Fairley said.

Prairie Wildlife is located at 3990 Old Vinton Road near West Point. For more information, call 662-494-5858 or visit prairiewildlife.com.