August is just about gone and here comes September. One shoot over the weekend and one more this weekend before the end of the target year. For those of you that enjoy shooting in extreme heat I admire your stamina. For those of us that prefer a cool crisp temperature that allows the smell of Red Dot powder to permeate your nose membranes – it is coming.
This Saturday the Durham County Wildlife Club will host a 300-target program. Weather at this time looks like mid 80’s and winds are light and variable. Scarlett and her crew do a great job, and we really need to support these clubs that take the time to throw registered targets. Here is the link to the program for Saturday. https://shootata.com/Portals/0/pdf/prog ... leName.pdf
I had the opportunity to take a ride up into the North Carolina mountains and partake of the Glen Miller Memorial shoot at the Watauga Gun Club in Boone NC. I left about 6:30 and the weather looked dreary with dark clouds and misty rain. I stopped in North Wilkesboro for a quick bite and hit the road again.
As I climbed the mountain the fog got a little worse and the visibility also. As we passed under the Blue Ridge Parkway, we broke through the fog and encountered clear skies and bright sunshine. At that moment I realized it would be a great day to shoot at Watauga. We got to the club, and a crowd was already there with a registration time of 8 and shooting to begin at 9. That was delayed a bit so that the fog could burn off and Morgan took minute to talk about the man the shoot was named after. Glen was a pivotal figure in NC trapshooting for many years and instrumental in adding three fields at the Watauga Gun Club. Glenn is also a NCHOF member and also involved in the early stages of the NC Homegrounds. Squads were called to the line and they commenced to shooting.
Three traps were used and I had the pleasure of officiating on trap 3 with the MEC. Weather was great with clouds passing by and wind flowing in and out of the valley. I witnessed some great shooting on this trap and only three 25’s were broken on the trap I call the “Caretaker”. This trap has a smoking left hand target and BIGD got 5 of these whistlers and when he moved to post two, he got 1 more…… One shooter managed to outbest the rest with his 195 and the next best score was a 193 and they were related. None other than Caleb Mathis and his father Shannon and Shannon was one of the three folks that ran trap 3. SubJr shooter Cameron White broke his first 25 Saturday with a borrowed BT99 supplied by Barron Church. Handicap was held on trap 1&2 since folks had probably had enough of the “Caretaker” trap 3. When the dust settled two shooters had 95’s that included Caleb and BIGD Tollison. I really enjoyed scoring and watching all these great NC shooters compete. Barron informed me that BIGD outlasted Caleb after three rounds in a shootoff (21-24-23) (21-24-22). BIGD is on the 24.5 the next time out and on his way to the 27. I packed up and headed back down the mountain hoping to return in either September or for the Wing Fling in October.
Sunday the program was 300 doubles, and it looks like they slid in 100 handicaps at the end. Event 3 100 doubles Shawn Reese broke the event high 96 and George Sudderth registered his 75,000th doubles targets. He is only 6,800 targets away from 100,000 singles targets and 1,100 away from 75,000 handicap targets. Event 4 & 5 doubles were won by Caleb with 93 in both events. One little twist is that the doubles was considered and a marathon and the winner was based on the 300 total and that made Shawn Reese the winner with 96/93/91. Caleb won the HOA with a 565 with Shawn Reese a close second with a 562. Art Bodell drove down from Virginia to shoot Sunday, and he said he had a great time. Also good to see Phil Berkowtiz, Larry High and Bill Howe in the high country.
I was alerted to the fact that at the end of this target year a young man will no longer be able to declare the Junior Gold category. Starting September 1st Caleb Mathis will be considered an “OPEN” competitor and will start his new journey into the record books and will be competing against all yall……
That should about do it for this week. I hope everyone has a great week and for those of you that have children going back to school stay safe. 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