My name is David Mylnikov. I have been an actively competitive member of Team Canada’s High Performance Team for 6 years, primarily competing and medaling in Olympic Skeet regionally, provincially, nationally, and internationally. I have devoted over half of my life to studying and competing in the various sports within clay shooting including Sporting Clays, American Skeet, ATA Trap and — my favourite — Olympic Skeet.

I’ve taken a step back from competing now and have decided that sharing my passion for the sport is the next destination on my journey.

With all of the cross-disciplinary education and experience I have had, I can confidently say one thing: if you have an amazing understanding of fundamentals and can handle a shotgun well, then you can hit any target in any shotgun sport.

By not being locked into one discipline, your general knowledge about shotgun and firearm handling will unlock your versatility and allow you to be a good shot. It won’t matter if the target(s) are static, dynamic, fast or slow, close or far, crossing, coming towards you or going away from you, running on the ground, falling from the sky, being launched directly upwards or slowly rolling towards you. I will teach you that you are able to hit them all.

It is not a secret that clay shooting, and the shooting sports in general, are dying out. Not many millennials or Gen Z find their way to the range, and when asked why they all respond with pretty much the same answer, “I don’t have a license and I don’t know where to go.” How can this sport be shared with people if there is no one to introduce it? I want to change that.

I want to share my love of shooting sports with anyone willing to be adventurous and try. It’s not like what you see in video games or movies. The blast of the shotgun, the puff of smoke the clay target turns into, it’s very exhilarating. Sometimes it even leads to cathartic release. Shotgun sports are not only fun, but they are also physically stimulating, mentally challenging and many times therapeutic. 

Hunters who are looking to improve their shots and hit their daily bag limits faster are also encouraged to come by and take a lesson or two. I’ll take you around sporting clays and teach you how to shoot targets from all angles. Rabbits, ducks, quail, pheasants, geese, whatever is in season can be trained for on our Sporting Clay course. You’ll never have to lie about how many ducks you gave to your friends on the way back ever again.