He’s 95 years old, but when trap and skeet shooter George Headey takes aim with his .12-gauge Remington he doesn’t waste his ammunition.

Headey celebrated his birthday Sunday by taking part in a tournament shoot in Lac Le Jeune hosted by the Kamloops Trap and Skeet club. He’s working on a 300,000 goal.

His son, Gord Headey, 48, was there along with some other family members. Gord has accompanied his dad on shoots most of his life, but only took up the hobby about a year ago.

“It’s a lot more fun shooting than watching,” said Gord. Headey smiled and nodded.

There was a time Headey could stand for the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to shoot at a round of 25 traps as they are fired into the air. Now he sits on a stool, which is supposed to make it harder to hit the targets.

It’s easier to stand, pivot the body and aim at a target as it is launched through the air. But Headey, who uses a walker to get around, finds it hard to stand that long, he said.

But sitting hasn’t hurt his aim. He hits an average of 22 or 23 targets out of 25. At a tournament a year ago he got 24, he said.

“That’s pretty consistent shooting,” said Headey. Gord agrees.

“That’s better than a lot of young guys,” he said. His average is 19 out of 25. “I think he wishes I could hit a few more.”

Headey started shooting as a boy on his parents’ farm in Langley. He doesn’t remember how old he was, but remembers his first targets were pheasants.

“I shot at five and I got the littlest one,” he said. “It was just going up over the trees and turning just right.”

He learned to shoot just ahead of a moving target and take into account how far away it is, how fast it is moving, and which direction it is going.

He eventually gave up shooting at live targets and took aim at trap and skeet shooting. The sport involves people using shotguns to shoot at disks, often called “pigeons” or “birds”, which are launched into the air.

Since then, Headey has blasted 217,000 tournament targets and won numerous honours at shoots across B.C. and into the United States. His trophies and medals decorate his apartment at the Renaissance Retirement Residence.

Gord said the total doesn’t count the number of non-tournament disks his dad has hit.

“It’s inconceivable,” he said of the amount.

What’s important is Headey has hit every milestone disk he’s aimed at. To miss his 100,000, 150,000 or 200,000 “bird” would be bad luck for future shooting, said Gord.

Headey intends to keep shooting for as long as he can.

“I take it as it comes. I’m used to it. It comes naturally,” he said.

Gord plans to continue shooting with his dad. Out of five siblings he’s the only one who took up the sport, so it’s important he stay with it, he said.