NC Shooters at the VA State Trap Shoot July 4th Weekend
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 11:06 am
I flew in to Cary, NC from NYC on Thursday afternoon after a 2 1/2 hour late flight from LGA, hurried home to re-pack and grab Addison for the long trek up to Winchester, VA for the VA State Trap shoot. We got to the hotel after 12:30AM Friday morning. Wow, what we will not do to smoke 4 inch orange targets!
The weather was nice and sunny but a bit windy, which actually kept scores relatively in check but everyone comfortable. Personally I think I prefer comfort during a long shoot to everyone getting high scores, as everyone gets the same wind.
I told my wife that we were going up to win the VA State Parent/Child trophies and bring them back to NC. We were not aware that we would run into other NC shooters with whom we normally shoot and were delighted to see several familiar faces that included Charlie Brown, Jim & Jeri Wilson and others.
Friday's Virginia Singles Class Championship 200 target event got the best of both Addison and I, as we delivered 185 and 171 for a slow start. I guess being the first squads out after a long night is not the best plan. They really do not permit late squadding in the traditional way up there. Seems everyone in the know kindda holds back to squad at the last minute to get late squads.
The Friday afternoon Federal Handicap 100 target event treated us a bit better with Addison delivering a respectable 87 to win the Sub-Jr category and take home his first gold and sliver belt buckle. Dad delivered an 86 (keeps his confidence up ).
Saturday brought overnight rest and the main event...the Old Dominion Clay Target Championship 200 target state singles event. The Parent/Child is what we came for and what we left with after a 354 on a close race with a few other families...one sporting an A Class Dad. When the final scores were tallied, in addition to the Parent/Child trophy, Addison got to take home the Open Sub-Jr title and a nice leather bag that is the traditional trophy for the big shoots. I was very happy with the matching Parent/Child leather bags and will treasure this experience for a long time. We also understand that some other NC shooters also walked away with a few trophies as well. We saw Charlie Brown in a few late afternoon shoot-offs!
The Virginia Doubles Championship on Sunday brought less than stellar performance from either of us. Addison delivered a 78 and I an 82 and neither were our best performance nor were either good enough for class. It was a thrill to watch Clay Floyd pound these at lightening speed though and watching him really for me made the event wonderful to watch and attend. Quite a crowd gathered around to watch the AA shooters smoke pairs again and again.
The final Sunday event was the Virginia Handicap Championship 100 target bet the horses competition. Perhaps the most curious thing to watch on this event was the confused look on people's faces as the various exotic ways of betting on winners on the modified Calcutta was explained.
This was a long event for me...sort of like one waits for torture to end. On the first trap the loaders had left my first field on straight-aways to a quater left. On post #2 after 10 shots I halted our squad and asked the scorer to have the trap checked for manual straight-aways. Sure enough. Someone left the Pat Trap on manual. I hate to say it but my pointing this out might have blown the entire squads rounds. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut...but even as a rookie I felt compelled to point this out in fairness to the other shooters.
I have never heard so many losts in a big event than I heard on my squad after that. By the second field I had pretty much forgotten how to mount my gun and nothing felt right and my sight picture just looked wrong. My 73 tells the tale in spades. Everyone else had a rotten 4 rounds as well. I guess mojo does not follow the honest citizen.
Addison on the other hand had wisely decided to ditch his Dad for the entire week of squads and was able to deliver a nice 90 to win the Sub-Jr title on the last event. He got his picture taken with one of those nice engraved pewter plate things that had a scene with a full 5 person squad. The kids really get a blast out of the swag. I know the big shooters do not care about this, but for kids and new shooters it helps keep em in the game!
We headed off to Boy Scout Camp with a car packed with nice VA State trophies. My favorite, as a parent, was the Parent/Child that we came to take back home to NC.
Smoke em all gang.
Jim Callan
The weather was nice and sunny but a bit windy, which actually kept scores relatively in check but everyone comfortable. Personally I think I prefer comfort during a long shoot to everyone getting high scores, as everyone gets the same wind.
I told my wife that we were going up to win the VA State Parent/Child trophies and bring them back to NC. We were not aware that we would run into other NC shooters with whom we normally shoot and were delighted to see several familiar faces that included Charlie Brown, Jim & Jeri Wilson and others.
Friday's Virginia Singles Class Championship 200 target event got the best of both Addison and I, as we delivered 185 and 171 for a slow start. I guess being the first squads out after a long night is not the best plan. They really do not permit late squadding in the traditional way up there. Seems everyone in the know kindda holds back to squad at the last minute to get late squads.
The Friday afternoon Federal Handicap 100 target event treated us a bit better with Addison delivering a respectable 87 to win the Sub-Jr category and take home his first gold and sliver belt buckle. Dad delivered an 86 (keeps his confidence up ).
Saturday brought overnight rest and the main event...the Old Dominion Clay Target Championship 200 target state singles event. The Parent/Child is what we came for and what we left with after a 354 on a close race with a few other families...one sporting an A Class Dad. When the final scores were tallied, in addition to the Parent/Child trophy, Addison got to take home the Open Sub-Jr title and a nice leather bag that is the traditional trophy for the big shoots. I was very happy with the matching Parent/Child leather bags and will treasure this experience for a long time. We also understand that some other NC shooters also walked away with a few trophies as well. We saw Charlie Brown in a few late afternoon shoot-offs!
The Virginia Doubles Championship on Sunday brought less than stellar performance from either of us. Addison delivered a 78 and I an 82 and neither were our best performance nor were either good enough for class. It was a thrill to watch Clay Floyd pound these at lightening speed though and watching him really for me made the event wonderful to watch and attend. Quite a crowd gathered around to watch the AA shooters smoke pairs again and again.
The final Sunday event was the Virginia Handicap Championship 100 target bet the horses competition. Perhaps the most curious thing to watch on this event was the confused look on people's faces as the various exotic ways of betting on winners on the modified Calcutta was explained.
This was a long event for me...sort of like one waits for torture to end. On the first trap the loaders had left my first field on straight-aways to a quater left. On post #2 after 10 shots I halted our squad and asked the scorer to have the trap checked for manual straight-aways. Sure enough. Someone left the Pat Trap on manual. I hate to say it but my pointing this out might have blown the entire squads rounds. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut...but even as a rookie I felt compelled to point this out in fairness to the other shooters.
I have never heard so many losts in a big event than I heard on my squad after that. By the second field I had pretty much forgotten how to mount my gun and nothing felt right and my sight picture just looked wrong. My 73 tells the tale in spades. Everyone else had a rotten 4 rounds as well. I guess mojo does not follow the honest citizen.
Addison on the other hand had wisely decided to ditch his Dad for the entire week of squads and was able to deliver a nice 90 to win the Sub-Jr title on the last event. He got his picture taken with one of those nice engraved pewter plate things that had a scene with a full 5 person squad. The kids really get a blast out of the swag. I know the big shooters do not care about this, but for kids and new shooters it helps keep em in the game!
We headed off to Boy Scout Camp with a car packed with nice VA State trophies. My favorite, as a parent, was the Parent/Child that we came to take back home to NC.
Smoke em all gang.
Jim Callan