Harry Humby began trapshooting in 2006. His love for the sport was immediate. As with all his previous hobbies, Kung Fu, amateur radio, Kendo (two black belts), swimming (National Lifeguard), and phot...
Harry Humby began trapshooting in 2006. His love for the sport was immediate. As with all his previous hobbies, Kung Fu, amateur radio, Kendo (two black belts), swimming (National Lifeguard), and photography, Harry studied to learn everything he possibly could about trapshooting and he practised enthusiastically.
Harry participated in his first ATA shoot in 2007. During the years that followed, up until the time of his death from pancreatic cancer in 2022, he won more than 160 awards.
Shooting in Manitoba, at his home club, Winnipeg Trap and Skeet Club, and elsewhere around the province, Harry acquired many treasured trophies and, more importantly, many good friends.
In Manitoba Provincial Trapshooting tournaments, Harry’s highlighted wins include the Singles Veteran Championships in 2012 and 2013 and five Singles Senior Veteran Championships between 2015 and 2022. At the Canadian Trapshooting Championship in 2010 he won a Handicap Veteran award and in 2012 received the Handicap Veteran, Singles Class A, and the High All Around Veteran awards.
Harry also participated in American trapshooting tournaments. His most prized awards in Missouri State Shoots were for Singles AA Class in 2012 and Singles Senior Veteran in 2017. At the Southern Grand in Florida, he won a Singles Senior Veteran award in 2014. In Casa Grande, Arizona, Harry’s name was carved on a wooden wall plaque in 2020 because he shot 100 of their unique, green targets, straight.
At the Tucson Spring Grands, Harry’s best achievements were winning five Singles Class A awards and two Singles Senior Veteran awards in the same tournament (2020). In the Singles Championship, Harry was one of only four shooters (out of a total of 587) who shot 200 straight. In recognition of his being awarded the Singles Senior Veteran Champion, his picture appeared, along with those of the other winners, on the front cover of the April 2020 Trap & Field magazine.
Harry competed in 11 Grand American World Trapshooting Championships, winning a total of 22 awards. His most prestigious wins there were the Grand American Handicap Veteran Championship (2011), the high Canadian award (2011), a Champion of Champions Runner-up (2015), and two Singles Senior Veteran awards in 2017.
Between 2010 and 2020, Harry shot 100 straight 37 times and 200 straight four times. He attained the 27 Yard Line in Handicap in 2013. By 2019, he had shot 50,000 ATA registered singles targets, and, by 2022, he had shot 50,000 ATA registered doubles targets. Trap & Field magazine wrote and published an article about Harry in their November 2017 edition.
Harry’s love of trap shooting and the skills that he developed as a high-school teacher and vice principal (28 years), a weekend wedding photographer (20 years), a volunteer swimming instructor (15 years), and a member of the Canadian board for a Christian orphanage/boarding school in Uganda (17 years), helped him make a meaningful contribution to the sport of trapshooting.
From 2014 to 2022, Harry was a working member and the trap chair of the Winnipeg Trap and Skeet Club board. During the last three of those years, he was its president. He also served on the board of the Manitoba Trapshooting Association for four years and then, for two years, as its president.
Harry was a certified ATA/NRA Level I coach. In 2019, he taught a coaching course in Brandon and in Winnipeg. The shooters who completed this course received Level 1 Trapshooting Coach certification which was recognized by both MTA and Sports Manitoba. For Harry, a highlight of every week during the spring season (from 2014 to 2022) was helping to coach sub juniors and juniors at Winnipeg Trap and Skeet Club.
Harry and his wife Francine, his three children and their spouses, and his seven grandchildren, were delighted when his name was added to the Manitoba Trapshooting Hall of Honour in 2022. The Harry Humby Silver Shoot that Winnipeg Trap and Skeet Club held, in Harry’s memory, was wonderful. The Humby family are also truly honoured by Harry’s 2023 induction into the Canadian Trapshooting Association Hall of Fame.