Good morning and it is Wednesday morning and yes, a tad bit late with the Smoke Report. No registered shoots in NC over the weekend and one event on the horizon this Sunday at Fort Bragg.
The Grand American is over for another year, and it looks like the attendance was down plus or minus 4%. The weather for the most part was tolerable with the Thursday CTC shot in the rain. At one time I looked up the line from bank 14 and you could barely see the shooters on the line.
Scoring was performed by a young crew of local guys and gals, and they did a great job for the limited number of events I participated in. Targets were good and I actually had to turn a right-hand flipper down on one trap. Minimal target breakage and the 4-trap format worked great!
One item to discuss and that is the carts and 4x4’s zipping up and down the parking lot and the grassy area between the line and the parking lot. You literally had to keep your head on a swivel to keep from getting run over. I parked my 4Runner with the back away from the road just in case someone collided with another car or cart. Oh, you can forget watching the shootoffs from the seats in front of the buildings because the carts are 4 deep and 6 fields wide.
We ate at some new places while at the Grand including Tiff’s Café in Sesser Illinois and Joe’s Pizza in Pinckneyville. The events center has a café, and we dined there two nights just to be able to stick around for the shootoffs. Isaac McCoy went extra rounds Thursday night to secure 3rd in A Class with his 198. Colson Allen went extra rounds on a hot Saturday afternoon to secure 5th in his yardage group. I believe Colson also secured an award for a double’s carryover earlier in the week.
Lodging for the Grand has always been an issue, and some must drive 30-50 miles each day to attend. Our AIRBNB was a 25-mile drive that included views of solar farms, corn and soybean fields. Our trip out included witnessing two tractor truck accidents that had to be fatal in both locations. They were on the other side of the road and one back up stretched for 15 miles.
The NC group picture was taken at 4:45 on Thursday afternoon and they have a new-fangled way of producing it. Gone are the days of everyone posing outside and scrunching in to make sure everyone is in the shot. Now they take a picture of each person individually and use technology to blend everyone together in a perfect picture. And you pay $20 bucks a person to get in the picture. I will scan my copy and post it at some point.
I did run into some folks that I had not seen in awhile and one was Bernie Warnowicz. He was in a cart behind the practice traps when I flagged him down. We talked a bit about Charlie Ackroyd’s last days and they were great friends. Bernie won’t make the Dixie due to a three-week plant shutdown on his job. I also ran into about 5 of my Konne-Yaut Indian friends and it was great to see them. Scott Holdren was in a shootoff Saturday, and I believe he took RU in the Vet category.
All in all, I had a great time, learned a few things and was reminded that you need your A game to participate in the Grand American. It also makes you appreciate shooting at your state shoot and local shoots (shoots in a smaller scale). I attended in 2006 when Dave Daily placed 4th in the GAH and Jeff Galloway broke his first 200 in the CTC. I also attended in 2024 and now in 2026. Hopefully more NC shooters will plan to attend in 2027 and some for the first time. You just don’t know how many more Grand Americans you have left.
Fort Bragg shoots this Sunday, and the program is probably posted on the TarHeelTrap facebook page. Weather looks like mid 90’s and 50% chance of rain. Always a good time at Ft. Bragg and those all-orange targets light up in the sunshine.
I had the opportunity to shoot with ex ATA president Jim Jones in the CTC. Always a fun time with him and found out he knows Phil Davis and spoke rather highly of him. I also shot with 2021 GAH Champ in the CTC and the GAH Duane Thomas. I also shot with a few youth shooters including one that refused to acknowledge he was ready on post 1. Hopefully someone will learn him on how that actually works.
That should do it for this week and apologize for the delay in posting. Sunday night after a 750-mile drive I wasn’t feeling that creative and had to work Monday. Monday, we found out the roofers were starting on our house Tuesday and it was just hard to find a quiet moment to prepare the SR….We did call a few folks on our trip up to Sparta and they included Steve Morgan, Danny LOBO Lloyd, Tommy Brown, Bill Fryye, Sandy Wyatt, Dave Hollingsworth, Phil Berkowitz and a few more. Hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Mac, John, Art, Barron, Mark C, Mark S, Dan, John W, Jimmy D, SPY2, HGIII, Fish, Thea and Anne and until next week…………..smokem