Butler resident enshrined for trapshooting
To say trapshooting and H.Y. “Mac” McAllister go hand in hand is stating the obvious.
“It’s been his whole life,” his wife, Mary, said.
A 48-year career in the sport culminated last weekend with the Butler resident’s induction into the Pennsylvania Trapshooting Hall of Fame. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the annual state shoot held in Elysburg.
McAllister, 78, served as a delegate on the Amateur Trapshooting Association board for 15 years (1992-2006), the longest term ever served in the ATA.
He also serves on the Pennsylvania State Sportsmen’s Association’s Classification Committee and has done so since 1983.
“Mac is a true gentleman of the sport,” PSSA publicity chairman Tom Austin said. “He has tremendous people skills. Mac greets everyone with an infectious smile.”
McAllister was raised in Iowa and grew up as a bird hunter. The transition to trapshooting was easy for him once he came to Butler.
“My neighbor was going to a shoot and asked me if I wanted to come along,” McAllister said. “He had the guns and shells. I tagged along ... That was the beginning of my demise.
“I fell in love with it practically from the first day.”
A retired biology professor from Slippery Rock University, McAllister also taught trapshooting at The Rock for a number of years.
He said a friend of his — Vic Rienders — once told him he had reached hitting 100,000 targets in his trapshooting career “and I couldn’t imagine how anyone could reach that high a number.”
“Now I know, because I’m at more than 450,000,” McAllister said.
McAllister began his registered shooting career in 1964 and by the end of the 2011 target year, he had amassed 150,550 singles, 156,250 handicap birds and 147,550 doubles.
He has won trophies at every PSSA tourney in the Eastern Zone. At the Grand American, McAllister won the Senior Veteran All-Around Championship in 2005. He won that same award at the Pa. state shoot in 2007.
“As long as I’m healthy, I’ll keep shooting,” McAllister said. “I shot 1,500 targets in seven days at the state shoot this year.”
The nine-day PSSA state shoot is the second-longest trapshooting state tourney in the country. Only Ohio has a longer one.
“I’m honored and humbled to go into this Hall of Fame,” McAllister said. “It’s an amazing feeling, especially since I’m the only one to be inducted this year.”
His wife wasn’t surprised by the induction.
“Honestly, I’m surprised he wasn’t already in there,” she said. “For years, we’ve travelled to shoots all over the country, along with local shoots in Butler, Harrisville, Saxonburg, Moraine, Evans City ... you name it.
“Even when we go to Arizona, Michigan, California, Toronto, everyone seems to know Mac.”
Austin said McAllister was inducted into the Hall of Fame “for his dedication to the sport, the time he’s spent fostering the sport and his longtime achievements as a shooter.”
