As we head deeper into the week, it’s definitely noticable that thousands of people are coming to Alexandria for the 9-day Minnesota State High School Clay Target League Trapshooting Championship being held at the Alexandria Shooting Park (ASP). The growth of the sport itself continues in the state of Minnesota. The MSHSCTL was started in Minnesota in 2008 with 3 teams and 30 students in total. This year’s tournament sports a new record high number of participants with a total of 8,576 registered to compete. Thursday, June 13th has the highest single-day number of high school shooters with 1051 registered for the Class 4A round. Last year the tournament had 8,080 total participants. Traffic estimations indicate the event brings close to 35,000 people to town from June 10 – June 19th.

The league has been the largest shooting event in the world since 2014 and has not relinquished that title since. Last year there were events in 37 states and nearly 50,000 participants, thanks to the work of USA Clay Target League. Alexandria Shooting Park is able to host campers on site and the event also has food vendors. For more lodging options in the area, check out our lodging page. There are also lists of restaurants, shopping venues and other attractions in the area on the front page of this site.