September 7th Smoke Report
Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2026 10:15 pm
A hint of cooler weather slipped into North Carolina Friday, and it resulted in significant damage in the triad area. Saturday was a nice weather day with numerous motorcycles on the road and Sunday was cooler and cloudier. It remains to be seen how the Labor Day weather will turn out.
One three-day event at the Buckhorn Gun Club and some good scores were posted. 12/11/8 shot Saturday with Cayson Clayton the singles high score with a 97. Three 92’s in the handicap including Jennifer Nuti, BIGD Tollison and Russell Nuti and not sure who the winner was. Billy Soper and Russell Nuti tied in the twins with 91’s. When I got the scores, I noticed a name that was familiar and it was GA SubJr shooter Tommy Nuti. Great to see him shooting and he has a great coach to guide him.
Sunday rolls around with 13/13/7 attending and chopper pilot Mike Stanton broke the high singles score with a 97. James Fisher took the caps with a 92 and Mark Spoon posted an event high 95 in the doubles. Mark also won the HOA with two others tied, including James Fisher and Mark Cox. Buckhorn shoots Monday and will offer 100 singles and 50 pairs of doubles.
Durham County Wildlife Club shoots this Saturday and I have included the shoot program link. I talked to Scarlett in length about how they manage to man the scoring benches and loading traphouses. They have quite the membership and require their members to volunteer for a set number of hours per year. When Scarlett plans her shoot dates she reaches out to the folks on the trap committee to sign up for the events. If members don’t donate said number of hours their access to the club is restricted to the weekends. They also have another level of guidelines to deal with folks that volunteer and don’t show up. Interesting but trapshoots don’t run themselves and competent refs are hard to find and hopefully they can actually see.
https://shootata.com/Portals/0/pdf/prog ... leName.pdf
I reached out to Tammie Wilkins (former manager of the Spartanburg GC) to ask about Clay Jones aka the “Chicken Man”? She did not have a number, or did she know how he is doing. Back in the day when he came to a shoot, he said his wife didn’t even know he was there. I did call former SC delegate Jim Faber, and he didn’t know anything either. He did mention that he and Doug Stenback were both scheduled for knee replacement surgery on the 19th of this month in two different locations. I mentioned last week that SC State Singles Champ Tom Elbertson was on the mend after another eye procedure. He is taking it day by day and the road to recovery looks a little longer for this eye. We are praying that everything heals up and when it does lQQk out. Update to the BIG50 in Spartanburg Saturday and Tammie said it was hot. Maybe 8 singles, handicap and 5 or 6 doubles shooters and no score report.
I get emails from trapshooters.com when articles are posted and one popped up yesterday. Something about an accident at the Grand involving one of the ATA brass with an ATV accident and a false police report filed. The article was published in the local paper and gave a name. I am sure it will all get ironed out. I did mention that the ATV activity at the Grand was interesting. Golf carts and ATV 4x4’s on steroids jetting around in the parking lots and on the grass between the cars and the fields. Someone someday is going to be critically injured sad to say. I imagine big changes are coming in 2027.
That will do it for this week. Enjoy the day off and hope to see some of you at the Dixie Grand. Hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Mac, John, Art, Barron, Mark C, Mark S, Dan, John W, Jimmy D, SPY2, HGIII, Fish, RN, Thea and Anne and until next week……smokem
One three-day event at the Buckhorn Gun Club and some good scores were posted. 12/11/8 shot Saturday with Cayson Clayton the singles high score with a 97. Three 92’s in the handicap including Jennifer Nuti, BIGD Tollison and Russell Nuti and not sure who the winner was. Billy Soper and Russell Nuti tied in the twins with 91’s. When I got the scores, I noticed a name that was familiar and it was GA SubJr shooter Tommy Nuti. Great to see him shooting and he has a great coach to guide him.
Sunday rolls around with 13/13/7 attending and chopper pilot Mike Stanton broke the high singles score with a 97. James Fisher took the caps with a 92 and Mark Spoon posted an event high 95 in the doubles. Mark also won the HOA with two others tied, including James Fisher and Mark Cox. Buckhorn shoots Monday and will offer 100 singles and 50 pairs of doubles.
Durham County Wildlife Club shoots this Saturday and I have included the shoot program link. I talked to Scarlett in length about how they manage to man the scoring benches and loading traphouses. They have quite the membership and require their members to volunteer for a set number of hours per year. When Scarlett plans her shoot dates she reaches out to the folks on the trap committee to sign up for the events. If members don’t donate said number of hours their access to the club is restricted to the weekends. They also have another level of guidelines to deal with folks that volunteer and don’t show up. Interesting but trapshoots don’t run themselves and competent refs are hard to find and hopefully they can actually see.
https://shootata.com/Portals/0/pdf/prog ... leName.pdf
I reached out to Tammie Wilkins (former manager of the Spartanburg GC) to ask about Clay Jones aka the “Chicken Man”? She did not have a number, or did she know how he is doing. Back in the day when he came to a shoot, he said his wife didn’t even know he was there. I did call former SC delegate Jim Faber, and he didn’t know anything either. He did mention that he and Doug Stenback were both scheduled for knee replacement surgery on the 19th of this month in two different locations. I mentioned last week that SC State Singles Champ Tom Elbertson was on the mend after another eye procedure. He is taking it day by day and the road to recovery looks a little longer for this eye. We are praying that everything heals up and when it does lQQk out. Update to the BIG50 in Spartanburg Saturday and Tammie said it was hot. Maybe 8 singles, handicap and 5 or 6 doubles shooters and no score report.
I get emails from trapshooters.com when articles are posted and one popped up yesterday. Something about an accident at the Grand involving one of the ATA brass with an ATV accident and a false police report filed. The article was published in the local paper and gave a name. I am sure it will all get ironed out. I did mention that the ATV activity at the Grand was interesting. Golf carts and ATV 4x4’s on steroids jetting around in the parking lots and on the grass between the cars and the fields. Someone someday is going to be critically injured sad to say. I imagine big changes are coming in 2027.
That will do it for this week. Enjoy the day off and hope to see some of you at the Dixie Grand. Hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Mac, John, Art, Barron, Mark C, Mark S, Dan, John W, Jimmy D, SPY2, HGIII, Fish, RN, Thea and Anne and until next week……smokem