In pursuit of gold: Northlake Shooting Sports fuels Olympic dreams – Cross Timbers Gazette | Southern Denton County | Flower Mound

As the Paris Summer Olympics approach, athletes around the world are preparing for what may be their only chance at glory.

All over the planet, tracks, fields, courts, pools, gyms and practice fields allow the cream of the crop from every sport to hone their craft to compete with the best the world has to offer.

One sport that still produces its fair share of American Olympic medalists is shooting, where the United States won six medals (3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) in Tokyo 2021.

One shooting range that has produced its fair share of elite shooters, including Olympic champions, is Northlake Shooting Sports in southern Denton County.

Range owner Jeff Pray lives in Bartonville and grew up with a father who was an avid gun collector, hunter and competitive shooter.

Pray, 64, said he believes it's a combination of factors in the southern Denton County area that has allowed Northlake Shooting Sports to cultivate and host such great shooting talent.

“The climate is conducive to training all year round,” Pray said. “The high school sports environment is extremely competitive and families are involved and supportive of their kids here. We have 500 to 600 kids a week and the parents are there to support them.”

“We’ve created an environment where teams support each other. It’s really rewarding to watch the play-offs in tournaments where teams are cheering each other on.”

And that was the idea from the beginning.

Northlake Shooting Sports was originally founded as a non-profit organization to help local high school teams find a place to practice.

It offers a shooting range for all shotgun sports including trap, skeet, five stand and sporting clays.

The shooting range's elite reputation was recently enhanced when four-time Olympian Vincent Hancock, who won three gold medals, joined Northlake Shooting Sports as a partner in April 2022.

“Vincent has since brought Austyn Smith and Conner Prince to train,” Pray said. “They are three of the four members of the U.S. Olympic team. This will be Vincent’s fifth Olympics, and he will be competing to add two medals to his collection. The co-ed team was added this year, so he and Austyn will be competing together for that medal. We have an Olympic skeet range for those athletes. We also have several other Olympic hopefuls from around the world who come here to train.”

Two other athletes who had the opportunity to compete together were recent alumni Brett Pray (Jeff's son) and Peyton Seay, both of whom were part of the Lindenwood College team last school year that won the ACUI-SCTP Collegiate Clay Shooting Championships in March.

Pray said he is sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of shooting talent that regularly passes through North Texas Shooting Sports.

“I get goosebumps when I see the fields filled with these athletes six days a week,” said Pray. “They are all great kids and we are excited to give them this experience. Vincent’s two daughters will be joining the newly reorganized Argyle team and Brett will be home for the summer, so we will be proud parents!”

Northlake Shooting also recently signed a corporate sponsorship deal with Beretta USA and has a number of new features on the horizon.

“Their support will help us continue our growth,” Pray said. “It seems impossible that we opened our first skeet range in January 2023. We will open our third range in March 2025. Upcoming improvements include the addition of a sixth trap/skeet range, lighting on the trap and skeet ranges, an Olympic trap bunker, a new clubhouse and additional skeet ranges.”

Northlake Shooting Sports is located in the DFW Adventure Park and all of its shooting ranges feature easy-to-use remote-controlled target launchers.

Visit northlakeshootingsports.com for more information.