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Just a few more days left in March and there is no threat of future cold weather in the forecast. Several shooting events over the weekend and three shooting events in North Carolina this week.

CCLEOA shot Friday and Richard Evans was nice enough to send me his report. Doyle Thigpen won the singles, doubles and the HOA with Richard Evans taking the handicap. Their next BIG50 will take place on April 17th so please attend if you can.

The Rockingham County Gun Club hosted a BIG50 Saturday and the weather was great! Two squads stepped to the line for singles and the wind was minimal at best during the event. Cody Lyons was hi-gun with a 50 straight with Allan Davis a close second with a 49. Handicap commenced with 13 entries and Cody was top gun with a 48 and Les Long with a 47. Allan Davis shot a strong 45 to secure the doubles and Cody Lyon won the HOA with a 138x150. RCGC shoots a BIG50 next on April 4th right before turkey season cranks up.

The Florida State shoot is over, and it looks like they had great weather and a great turnout. Matt Trammell won the singles, doubles and the HAA. Dominick Reale won the state caps and Cody Meredith won the HOA. No NC shooters as far as I can tell brought any hardware back to the tar heel state. I noticed former NC residents Kim and Doug McKinney shot well at their state event!

April 23-26 the 103rd Georgia State Shoot will take place at the South River Gun Club in Covington Georgia. If you take a look at the program several preliminary events are dedicated to the 2025 singles, doubles, handicap, HOA and HAA winner Ethan Ledford. That is correct Ethan won all the GA State Events in 2025. Unfortunately, he lost his father Andy last year and he will be sorely missed. One event is dedicated to Andy in honor of Ethan. Check out their website for the program and for location information. https://www.gatrap.com

April 29th – May 3rd a week after the GA State shoot the South Carolina/NCHOF will take place at the North Carolina Homegrounds in Bostic NC. Pre-Squadding is available through https://www.sosclays.com I have not looked at the pre-squad but I would imagine you better get signed up soon because Friday & Saturday could be crowded. As far as I know there is a program and I will post the link to it as soon as I get my hands on it. Also, from what I am hearing lodging is getting scarce and if you have not made reservations you might need to find lodging in Shelby 20 miles from the club. Remember the HOF banquet to honor Jim Hughes and John Miller will be on Saturday night and the money for the banquet is due by April 15th.

Three shoots this week and here they are. Buckhorn BIG50 Wednesday, Watauga 300 bird Saturday and Old Hickory Rocky Mount 300 bird Sunday. I have no programs to post and maybe they are on the Facebook page. I will post the programs when I get them. The weather looks good in all locations and Boone might be a little cool with 50 degrees and winds 10-15.

Most of you know that Dan Johnson picked up and left and moved to Ash Flat Arkansas. He has already picked him up deal on shooting supplies and loaders and found him a place to whip up on the locals. Independence County Shooting Sports is the place he shot Saturday and he wound up with his first Arkansas 100 in singles and his first Arkansas HOA. He did run into a situation when he was shooting doubles, and it involved his youth squadmates coughing targets out to get their spot for their first target. What made it worse was that the coach was on the squad and doing the same thing. Unfortunately, I have seen that same thing in North Carolina over the years and that needs to stop and oh did I mention chucking shells? Looks like he is having fun in Arkansas and shooting well.

That will about do it and I hope everyone has a great week. Hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Mac, John, Art, Barron, Mark C, Mark S, Dan, John W, Jimmy D, SPY2, Thea and Anne and until next week……smokem

March 24th Smoke Report 2025

Here we are with a week to go in March and here comes April. Pollen and bugs and sweat and shooting in and around North Carolina! This is a great time of the year when the state shoots start and money starts getting spent.

The Florida State shoot just wrapped up and NC had four shooters registered including Tiffany Decker, Brad Barnett, Bob Schultz Dan Johnson. Not sure of the attendance but they had a bunch of folks shooting. Tiffany won Lady I Runner-Up in the Sunday doubles and Dan Johnson broke a 197 Saturday only to lose in a 5-way card off for AA Singles. Former NC resident Kim McKinney won Lady II singles Saturday and great shooting. There were only three 200’s broken Saturday and one was by PA shooter Richard Milbert and it was his first 200. I shoot with Richard at the Konne-Yaut Indian shoots in July in PA. Congrats to Richard on some great shooting.

Two shoots over the weekend including a CCLEOA BIG50 Friday and Old Hickory Rocky Mount on Saturday. Looks like Karole Miller won the singles with a 96, Tim Gallagher handicap 86 and Allan Davis doubles 83 and HOA 261. Marty would like to thank everyone that showed up to shoot and help run the event. Hopefully we will get a shoot report from CCLEOA and we will report that next week.

Charlie Brown is hosting a BIG50 this upcoming Sunday the 30th. There are still folks that have never shot at Charlie Browns and this is the week to get that off your bucket list. The program is posted on this site so take a look. Weather is looking good with mid 70’s and winds 5-10. Also, I was just informed by Horace Best that Charlies son passed away so keep him in your prayers this week.

Put Tommy Brown on your prayer list this week. He has been dealing with ongoing medical issues and has a meeting with the VA in a few weeks. He has been having issues shooting and his condition might be what is causing it. Tommy would really like to get back to shooting and we hope he can real soon.

April 24-27, 2025 is the Georgia State Shoot. It will be held at the South River Gun Club in Covington Georgia. I got to shoot there one year and went with Ronnie Manuel. That is a big trap club on a big hill is all I can say. We had a great time and would really like to attend this year. For more info here is their great website. https://www.gatrap.com

Then pack up and head to the North Carolina Homegrounds for the South Carolina & NC Hall of Fame shoot April 30th – May 4th. Last year the SCSS/NCHOF was held in April before the Georgia State shoot and was well attended. I mean I like to shoot in Spartanburg but at the Homegrounds you don’t have to walk up that hill. And I do miss the fish fry on Saturday night that was delicious. Pre-Squad is open for the event so go check it out.

Update from the Watauga Gun Club. Morgan reached out to me Sunday night and let me know they were able to clean out trap 3 and that trap is chucking targets. The weather cooperated and allowed them to get some real work done. Now all they are waiting on the PAT traps and some equipment from Bob Schultz and they might get to do some practice before the SCSS/NCHOF.

That is going to do it for this week. It looks like rain early in the week and the weekend looks better. Have a great week and hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Mac, John, Barron, Art, Will, Tim, Thea and Anne and until next week……smokem