Young people often have their talent for football, rugby, hockey or athletics nurtured through school.
But not many young people can claim to have their talent as a shot developed by their school.
So Molly Hall – who hopes to represent Team GB in clay pigeon shooting at the Olympics – is a rarity.
Her gun skills have been honed in Strathallan School’s Shooting Academy, the only facility of its kind in Scotland and possibly the UK.
When she’s not studying for her A Level exams she’s at the independent Perthshire school’s shooting range firing cartridges.
Despite only taking up the sport two years ago, Molly, 18, has been selected to join Scotland’s development squad.
The hope is to compete in the 2026 Commonwealth Games or the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
She said: “I’m addicted to shooting. Initially I was addicted to shooting on its own and now I love the winning!
“My dad says you shoot to have fun and I do, but winning is an added bonus.”
Shooting is a family tradition
Molly’s gamekeeper father Willie Smith has also shot for Scotland.
So that family tradition inspired her to give it a try.
She said: “In 2022 I shot my first competition after six weeks of shooting.
“I started doing sporting, which is what they shoot at school, then I moved onto DTL –Â which stands for down the line – which is what my family do.
“Now I’ve moved onto Olympic Trap, which is what I’m on the [development] programme for.”
Trap is said to one of the most difficult disciplines of shooting due to the speed and distance of the clays. Six shooters compete at once, with 15 traps hidden in a trench firing ‘birds’ at varying elevations.
Molly, a boarder at Strathallan, won a ladies’ event at that first competition at Scone Game Fair.
Strathallan shooting team spotted Molly’s talent
Her talent was spotted by a teacher and fellow pupils from Strathallan, who were also competing.
Molly said: “They recognised me from Strath and said ‘come and shoot with the academy’.”
So Molly began shooting in free periods at the range, which has nine radio-controlled traps and a team of coaches.
As well as shooting practice, she benefits from tuition in technique, fitness, nutrition, strength and conditioning and sports psychology.
Since then she has racked up a collection of trophies and medals.
Last month she won the British Shotgun Series in Cambridge, setting a new Scottish record.
In March she was part of the winning Strathallan team at the British schools clay shooting championships in Buckinghamshire. Shooting 48 out of 50 clays she also took the ladies’ top prize.
In 2022, she became the first Scottish female to win the junior high gun title at the Welsh Open Championship.
Strathallan School Shooting Academy head Paul Vallot said Molly was nervous when she joined, particularly as she was surrounded by boys.
He said: “Since taking over as ladies’ captain she’s helped develop that side of things, so we now have a much more robust programme for the girls.”
Molly helps mentor the younger pupils. Strathallan takes children as young as five, and junior pupils can train using smaller bore guns.
And she has a female Strathallan alumni to look up to. Polly Lightbody, of the Class of 2017, is one of seven internationals to emerge from Strathallan School Shooting Academy.
Shooting alongside her is another rising talent, Alasdair Turnbull, who has also been selected for the development squad.
Challenging the shooting stigma
Countryside sports are more commonplace in the rural area where she lives, near Aberlour in Banffshire.
But elsewhere, people are often intrigued when they learn what Molly does. Although she takes pride in it, she believes there is still a stigma attached to shooting.
She said: “It’s not like athletics, people definitely think it’s a more unusual thing to be into.
“They are interested to know about it.
“I think a lot of people are wary about guns. They don’t really appreciate that it’s not a violent sport. You are more likely to get hurt in rugby than you are shooting.”
Being female makes it an even more unusual pursuit. Molly is one of only two junior girls competing in Scotland.
She said: “I think a lot of the jobs related to shooting are male dominated.
“I was introduced to shooting through family but normally you take your son out shooting.”
From Strathallan Shooting Academy to Molly’s Olympic dream
After the summer holidays, Molly hopes to study anthropology at Glasgow University.
She said: “There are shooting grounds not far from the university, and that definitely influenced my decision to go there!”
While she continues her studies she will continue to chase her ambition.
She said: “It’s a while away, but the Olympics is the dream.
“It’s a long process and I’m at the very bottom of it just now.
“But I like having something to work towards, having a goal and seeing the steps I need to take to get to it.”
Paul is hopeful that his student will achieve that ambition.
He said: “The obvious word to use [for her success] is meteoric, because Molly only started a couple of years ago.
“She balances her academic work and her shooting really well. It’s never easy when you are trying to reach that level of competition with the amount of hours you have to put in.
“People talk about going out and hitting 300 or 400 golf balls. They [shooters] have to go out and put 200, 300 cartridges through the gun, which is also expensive because you get golf balls back but you don’t get cartridges back.”
That expense has created another challenge for Molly in ensuring she has sponsorship.
Good temperament makes Molly a top shot
Paul said: “That’s made her really step up and take on board the whole management side of her carer as a shooter as well.
“So I take my hat off to her.”
Shooting takes precision and focus and is physically and mentally demanding.
What makes Molly such a talented shot?
“She’s quite understated but she has a good temperament,” said Paul. “She doesn’t tend to show if she gets flustered.
“At the first competition we took her to she was quite nervous but she shot well.
“That gives her the opportunity to believe in herself more and build on her experience as she gets better and better.
“We’re very proud of her.”
Conversation