2012 Weekly Blurbs

The ongoing saga of the gun purchased in Boone and shot around the Country!
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smokem
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April 2nd 2012 Smoke Report

Post by smokem »

If you are planning on attending the Azalea festival in two weeks the azalea's will be gone. Strawberries are early and the pollen it is a falling! If you suffer from allergies this is not a good time to head outside for sure. For those of us that love to shoot it is getting about just right!
We had two registered shoots over the weekend and we have two shoots in NC this week. Marty Hill was nice enough to post his shoot report and thanks again Marty. Hopefully we will get the shoot report for the Charlie Brown event and we will post as soon as possible.

Ft. Bragg experienced some rain that lasted till noon and it looks like John Miller won the singles, Andrew Carroll won the caps after a flip with John Miller and Karole Miller won the doubles after a shootoff with her hubby John! We had considered going to Bragg but the weather looked a bit iffy for sure. When we woke up Saturday morning we knew the rain was moving East. We will get down there before July because we need to shoot some all orange targets!

Old Hickory@Bostic will host their monthly BIG50 this Thursday the 5th of April. Bill Howe has been doing a great juob getting me the scores from the hill. Buncombe County will host their first registered shoot of the new year Saturday the 7th. Buncombe is a great place to shoot and we had a great time the last time we shot there. They throw a WF bio target and when you smoke that bio it looks like breaking a big sweet tart.

JC Slipped out to the Rock last week to practice him some doubles. Ever since he had that nib soldered onto his barrel he doesn't have to worry about hitting me upside the head with hot shells. Mark your calendar's for JC's 89th birthday the 13th of July . I believe we will be at the Indian Shoot in Bradford PA at that time and not in the Tarheel state. I still have the "100" candles I used on his cake in South Carolina one year. When we brought the cake out he said "I am not 100 years old" and I said but you would like to break a 100 right and he just laughed.

We rode out to the Rock Sunday afternoon and watched Jeff Galloway working with Zax Tate. He is a new junior shooter and shot his first registered targets a few weeks ago. Zax is a natural with a shotgun and Jeff brought about 6 different guns out for him to try. Zax has great form and just about every gun Jeff game him to shoot he was mashing the targets. We gave Zax parents some info about where to look for a trapgun and also suggested that they get him around to shoot at some other clubs!

Jeff and I shot some singles after the Tate's left and we tried to shoot my AL-391 for a few shots. I mounted the gun - set the trigger - called for the target and got a right angle target. I moved smoothly to the left and actually flinched using a release trigger. The gun dropped so quickly I thought I was going to shoot the ground in front of me. I told Jeff - that is enough of that and went and got the Kolar off the rack. I ran my last 25 before called I quits for the day. Jeff will be leaving for San Antonio Sunday and we will be looking for him on the leader board.

I don't know whether you keep up with trapshooters.com but folks are still having issues with the Grand being in Illinois. Personal attacks and folks getting called crooks just doesn't seem to be the way to get the attention of the ATA. Now a fellow has started a thread about donations to the Hall Of Fame that is moving to Sparta. I really hope one day those folks north of Kentucky will give it a rest. The ATA might not be perfect but it has managed to hang together after all these years!

I mentioned that one of my Grandfather's trademarks was wearing shorts all year round. I know I have sported some odd knee shorts but my newest pair of knee shorts were delivered by Jeff Galloway. Jackie Roush found me a pair of "John Dailyish" loud knee shorts in Florida and I am looking for a shirt to match them. Look for these shorts to appear for the first time at the NC State Shoot for the Championship Singles! I thought about breaking them out at the South Carolina state shoot but that might be a little too much at the fish fry!

Wow - I got to this point in the Smoke Report and Yahoo asked for me to login because my session had timed out. I was able to select all and copy the text before I logged back in. I have lost blurbs before and it can be a tedious process rewriting paragraphs of information. It is midnight and the 2nd day of April but time sure flies when you are having fun.

I hope everybody has a great week and a great Easter holiday weekend. I will be off Friday and hope to detail three vehicles and get the Nissan ready for the shooting season. Other than that we might slip up to the Rock and get a little practice in if the weather cooperates. I want to give a shout out to our resident Floridian Lou and please come shoot with us in June at the HG! Until the next time..................................................Smokem..
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April 9th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Easter weekend is over and I hope you had a great time at Church and spending time with the family. Buncombe County and Spartanburg GC shot Saturday and I will try to get the scores posted if we get them. I didn't fire a shot and spent time around the hacienda working on the domestic engineering blueprint for marital happiness.
Three shoots coming up this weekend with Coharie and Rockingham shooting Saturday and Buckhorn shooting Sunday. I hope the weather is great for both days of competition and shoot reports will be sure to follow. It won't be long until the Dogwood at the homegrounds and we hope to slip up there one day to compete.

The Southwestern Grand is taking place and Jeff Galloway has already won his first event in Texas. He is in a carryover Monday in AA singles with a 98 and won AA doubles outright with a 95 Sunday. Bob Goodman is there and Charlie Brown is attending also. Jeff mentioned that he would be shooting with Charlie and probably Bob Monday.

The next best thing to be at the Southwestern Grand is havin the http://www.rjstuart.com website to follow the scores. If my arm is twisted I might try to write up the day to day shoot reports like I did for the Southern Grand. I had someone comment that he thought I was in Odessa reporting on the shoot but I was right here in NC.

If you are wanting to attend the South Carolina State Shoot in Spartanburg you better get a reservation soon. Dave Daily had a little trouble getting a room and finally got a reservation at the same motel the Galloway's are staying in. The SC State will be a 4-day event but the local club will be hosting the first day of competition on Wednesday. The programs will hopefully appear in the mail this week and we will see if SC raised their prices like the NC State Shoot did.

Tommy Brown got out to the Rock earlier in the week and shot 22 rounds. He did some tweaking on his LOP and a few more little things. It will be interesting to see if all that works out but you got to admit when Tommy is in the zone he is a tough competitor. JC has been getting a bunch of practice in also and he loves to shoot with JT Brewer. JC shoots a lot better when someone is on the line and there to see those smokeballs he produces.

In case you didn't know the price of pitch targets increased you do now. About a $2 price increase per case and I really don't know what they were but they are around $9.65 a case now. I have heard everything from a pitch factory having issues and also that the paint wouldn't stick to a batch of pitch targets. So depending on what is really happening the increase is being passed along to the shooter. Some folks have talked about going to bio birds (say goodbye to the grass) and God forbid that folks start ordering Lawry targets.

It is really going to be interesting to see how the state shoots fare this year. Last year GA was up don't know about SC and NC was down about 30%. Gas is up - lead is up - shells are up - lodging is up and heck what else could happen? Trapshooting has never been a poor man's sport and has never been more evident than now.

Trapshooters.com is hosting a thread regarding all the "bad" feelings about the Grand going to Illinois. The ringleader is evidently the fellow that runs the Ohio state shoot and he ain't too happy still after what 6 years? And now everybody is whining and crying about the HOF moving to Illinois and the fear that their donated items will wind up in storage. The Grand is the Grand and it is Grand - 20 traps to the left and 100 traps to the right. State of the art facility and quite a site to see if I do say so myself.

I am dissapointed to know that folks will not attend because of whatever reason and all those memories that they will miss. The grandfathers and sons and grandsons that won't attend because somebody has got a burr under their saddle about the move. I am sure glad I went in 2006 because that was the last year that Joe Nimer attended the Grand and I got some of the last pix ever made with Joe and Elmo. My hope is to attend this August with JC and it will be the week of my 57th birthday and 27th wedding anniversary!

Time is flying and before you know it GA - SC - NC - Zone - where does the time go. I hope everybody has a great week and we will be keeping an eye on San Antonio. I want to give a shout out the Lou in Florida and also a big shout out to Master's winner Bubba Watson. Thanks Bubba for not sending out a big fistpump after the win! And until the next time..............................................Smokem:)
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April 16th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Another great weather weekend in North Carolina while the Mid Western states recover from some terrible tornadic activity. We had three shoots in North Carolina over the weekend and a few coming up this weekend. Folks are either back or traveling back from the Southwestern Grand and we will talk about that a little later.
George Sudderth made me aware that Barbara Farmer had passed away and we are truly sorry to hear it. Joe and Barbara shot at the Watauga Gun Club and also traveled to Buckhorn one year with some of the Cartel. They also helped out the year different clubs managed a field at the NC State Shoot. She will be missed and she scored for me several times at WGC. I have no details on her arrangements at this time.

Coharie had a good turnout Saturday and George Brown was in the Zone. He won the singles with the lone 100 and also got a punch for his 91 from the 20 yard line. Greg High won the doubles and there was no listing for the HOA. Mac said that Al had a work issue and had to depart but folks pitched in to keep the shoot running smoothly. Also great news that Mark Lane was back shooting and did rather well in the singles.

Rockingham had a "Marathon" Saturday and offered 500 targets to allow folks to get a few birds. Tommy Brown won the 1st singles event, both doubles events and the HOA. Ronnie Manuel won the 2nd singles event and the handicap event. Danny Lloyd rolled up from the coast and shot 300 targets. He commented that folks just don't realize how bad the hurricane was that hit the NC coast and all of the flood damage it caused. Next event at the Rock is the Lewis Class shoot on the 22nd of April.

Buckhorn hosted a shoot Sunday and we hope to get the scores posted tonight. The weather was great Sunday but I bet that windvane was twirling most of the day. Dan sent me a picture of a group of youth shooters that traveled down from VA to shoot and we will post that with the scores this evening. Mark your calendar for May 6th when BGC holds their next monthly ATA shoot.

Two shoots this weekend with Ft. Bragg on the 21st and Durham County on the 22nd. This will be your last chance to get some birds in before the Dogwood shoot at the NC Homegrounds April 26th - 29th. Ft. Bragg always has a good shoot and we hope the weather is good Saturday. Kim Mckinney posted the DCWC program and they are offering a $18 target fee and that is great. Also, I believe DCWC is doing some work at the club and it would be nice to get some pictures from that event.

Oh - one more non-registered event Sunday at 2PM. The Rockingham Gun Club will host their monthly Lewis Class Shoot. 50 singles and 50 caps from 1 yard behind your God given ATA handicap yardage. That two yard giveaway by the ATA has created some real issues and I wonder now if I should have taken mine:) Oh - Lewis style payouts and also we draw for shooting related door prizes.

We have a new shooter at the Rock these days and he is Junior shooter Zax Tate. He broke into the scene several months ago and came out shooting a youth model 870 and Remington Nitro's. He spent a little time with Jeff Galloway a few weeks back trying to find a suitable gun for his frame and shooting style. Zax shot Lewis Wyatt's un-single Beretta in the caps Saturday and broke a solid 24 with a gun he had never shot before. After the competition he picked up Roger Shaffer's top-single 682 Beretta and might have broke a 24 from the 16 with Roger's gun. His parents are excited about supporting Zax in this new sport and he hopes to get around to a few more clubs in the near future!

The Southwestern Grand is over and Charlie Brown and Jeff Galloway won at the SWG. I posted updates all during the week so I won't go into the gory details of all the wins. Also Bob Goodman shot well and shot with Jeff and Charlie through the week. The weather got super windy Saturday and Sunday and a lone 200 won the singles on Saturday. Garrett Sweeney from Murfeesboro TN broke that lone 200 and man that was some great shooting for sure. Three 96's were the top score in the caps Sunday and the 27 yarder was the eventual top dog in the event. Richard Marshall won the doubles with a 100 and not sure who the other person was that broke the other 100. Sean Hawley won the HAAwith 199-99-94 and Fred Nagel won the HOA with a 1262 nipping Richard Marshall by 1 bird!

A couple of weeks until the Dogwood at the Homegrounds. We posted a link to the program and we hope they have a good turnout for the 4-day event. We are hoping to slip up there one day depending on the weather and get a chance to shoot at the HG before the State Shoot in June. In case you haven't heard you will be paying $30 per 100 and it looks like other State Shoots are increasing their target fees also. Trap has never been a poor man's sport and that is more evident now than ever!

South Carolina State shoot isn't that far off and you can presquad now at http://www.presquad.com. In a perfect world both NC and SC could maybe find a way to fill in their early squads with shooters. I remember one year having to call my squadmates to tell them we were up thinking we were the 4th wave out and we were the first due to nobody filling in the early squads. That was in NC and if you squad early in SC you better wear blinders because the sun is tough early in the morning.

OK I am done and off to bed to endure another week of planning to move into a brand spanking new 1032 bed jail. I guess you can call it job security but the fun never ends... Hello to Lou down in sunny Florida and hope you are doing well. I keep the the smoke report flowing due to one man's comments and he knows who he is....Until next time folks............................Smokem
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April 23rd Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Imagine waking up to 16 inches of snow in your yard this morning? Quite a storm was predicted for the middle of the country with snow up to 16" in certain areas. One of those cities mentioned was Bradford PA and we can only imagine the Bradford GC under that much snow. Our weekend consisted of a great day Saturday and a super soggy Sunday.
I hate to report that Elmo Matkins son Steve passed away on Thursday and he was only 56 years old! He had been having some problems for quite some time and it all finally caught up to him. I have a few pictures of him and I will try to post them in Elmo's HOF section on the site. Please remember the family in prayer and we will publish the arrangements when published.

Three shoots over the weekend including Ft. Bragg Saturday and Durham County Sunday. At the time of this writing I have no shoot reports to post. I will try to get that info up if available and I would imagine both Marty and Kim will post their info sometime Monday. The Rock Lewis Class shoot for April 22nd will take place at a later date.

JT Brewer, Lewis Wyatt, Lane Murray, Scott Shoulars and Ronnie Manuel stepped to the line for a bit of practice and Ronnie and Lewis didn't miss a target. It wasn't "really" raining when they shot but when they geared up to shoot again here it came. Let's face it, a bad rainy day at the gun club is better than any day at work or at the house!

The Dogwood at the Homegrounds is upon us and it will be interesting to see what the turnout will be. Folks usually shoot at the Dogwood to get some targets in before the NC State Shoot in June. You have to admit that the HG is a great place to shoot with PATS and ERADS it can really spoil you! The clubhouse is big and roomy and cool in the hot summer but you better not snooze lest I snap a picture of you!

We took a some time to post info for the 2012 SCTP State Championship at the Durham County Wildlife Club. From the pictures and the scores it looks like they had great participation and everybody had a great time. You can check it out by going to NC SCTP under forums and we hope they will publish many more events during the year!

I spent a little time using http://www.presquad.com to presquad for the SC State shoot. With all of the yardage reductions presquad had me listed as 20.5 and Hunter Galloway as 22.5. I contacted the folks at presquad and got a response about my yardage and also Hunter's. I will try to get all the squads setup sometime this week. I took a look at the presquad for the NC State and noticed that it is filling in slowly and is the $4 fee per shooter to presquad? I know that SC is $2 per shooter and just trying to figure out the difference?

I have been fielding questions from shooters thinking about calling NC home. I know of two shooters with one wanting to relocate in Saluda and the other in the Winston Salem area. The last gentleman needed some guidance about where to live and be around a gun club. Hopefully we will have some more details as they get settled. Also it looks like we have a soldier shooter Curtis Baker that is stationed at Ft. Bragg. Paul Baker posted a question on trapshooters.com about his son attending the shoot at Bragg. "nanuk" posted for Curtis to look up Marty or Frank to take him under their wing. Paul posted that his son had a great time and that Paul would be in the area at the end of May. He asked about the shoot at Charlie Browns and also commented about a 2-day shoot at Myrtle Grove. All I can say is move to NC and the more the merrier!

I won't be at the Dogwood due to being on call with the Sheriff's department and also providing tech support for the department's annual Sniper competition. It will be held this Friday and Saturday with several days of prep prior to the event. I have thought about slippping up Sunday to shoot the caps but we will have to play it by ear. Also - I need help reporting the scores from the Dogwood. A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS and if you have a camera if I could get at least the score boards that they hang in the window - it would be great!

One other neat picture is the view of the mountains across the practice trap and it has to be really clear to get a great shot of that view. I have been snaapping pix of that scene for a few years and probably my best shoot was taken when the flags were half mast when Ronald Reagan died - that was quite a memory.

JC Nunn got out for a little practice last week and he has been working on his doubles. It is going to be interesting to see how good he is shooting in good light and when the wind isn't blowing 5-15 mph. I posted a video of JC and Tommy Brown powder puffing targets on facebook and it was quite a site to see. As many of you know JC doesn't recite the pledge of allegiance before he calls for the bird. It won't be long before we are on the road again and believe me I can't wait.

Dan Johnson is alive and well and the proud owner of a brand new 2012 Honda Goldwing motorcycle. I have a picture of the beast and will try to get it posted sometime this week. He really likes to ride and wow what a great looking bike! I pray that he travels safe and that no deers cross his path and that he stays away from all the crazy drivers in NC.

There are some new trapshooting websites appearing on the web. I will try to capture the URL's and post them on this site. One new site is managed by a shooter in Wisconsin and it has some great features. We have been toying with the idea to update tarheeltrap and that might be happening in the very near future.

It looks like the weather will be good for the Dogwood and also for the Sniper competition. I hope everyone has a great week and if you are traveling and shooting at the Dogwood we will be looking for you on the leaderboard. I want to send a shout out to Lou down in the Sunny state of Florida and I think it was wet in Fla over the weekend. Until the next time.........................................................Smokem
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April 30th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Good morning and what a great end to the weekend after that cold dreary day on Saturday. Most of the shooting action over the weekend took place at the NC Homegrounds. I am not sure of the overall attendance but from all indications it was up over 2011.
There were some great scores overall with two 98's and a 97 winning the last three handicap events. There was a 98 broken to win a doubles event and a single 199 to win the singles on Saturday. The Homegrounds is a great spot to shoot and has really produced some great scores over the years.

There are 4 shooting events - actually 5 shooting events this week/end in NC. Tuesday May 1st Old Hickory@Bostic will hold their BIG50 due to some folks heading to the GA State shoot Thursday. Ft. Bragg and Buncombe will host shoots on Saturday the 5th along with the Rock hosting their non-registered Lewis Class funshoot. Buckhorn will host their monthly registered shoot on the 6th.

Of course after a big shoot there are always stories that drift around that just have to be told.The Watauga Cartel hit the Dogwood with a vengeance. BamBam proved that his hibernation over the winter paid off with his strong 199 in the Saturday singles then followed that 199 with a 77 in caps. He did redeem himself with a good caps scores and dubs score on Sunday.

Tom Pitts nd Tom Shelley squared off and as far as I know Shelley had Pitts on the ropes going into Saturday. Pitts was a no show Saturday due to having to attend a funeral and I will up date the smoke report if in fact Shelley buried the hatchet on Pitts Sunday. Even Morgan Shaw took Miss Kitty out for a walk and congrats to Steve Watson for shooting so good and winning a few events!

Lewis Wyatt slipped up the hill to get a good start on the field and get settled in for the shoot. Little did he know that JC "Da Crippler/Tailgunner" Nunn was plotting and planning to roll up to Bostic Saturday morning. Once JC got rolling he managed to lay the lumber on Sweet Lou in the Saturday singles - Sunday doubles and the Sunday caps. Lew did nip the crippler in the caps Saturday and worked poor JC over a bit and gave JC something to sleep on. All in all they had a great time without a doubt.

Hunter Galloway broke out a vintage Remington 1100 for the weekend and shot it rather well. He shot ok singles and wound up breaking a 94 in the Sunday caps and had to shootoff with one of the Pigg's. They went 100 in the shootoff and I guess they were declared Veteran co-winners after Ray Gaultney won it outright with a 97. Shooting a gun with minimal recoil is a wonderful thing. I remember pulling for Jack King back in the day and he could roll up a bird with his 1100's.

It is the season for the State shoots to crank up. Georgia cranks up this weekend and then comes South Carolina. Ron Burdick got the word out that the Wednesday warmup caps will offer some added monies approaching 1200 bucks. We might try to get JC down there to get a shot at that cash. Then of course the NC State Shoot is right around the corner and will be here before you know it. Both the South Carolina and the North Carolina programs have arrived in case you are still looking for yours.

I slipped up to the Rock for practice Sunday and it was a great day to shoot for sure! We met the Keller family and shot a few rounds in that sunshine. Robin is shooting well and Mark used my 870 that I bought in the 90's. JT - Glenn and Scott Shoulars were practicing and we got to shoot a bit with them. I need to get out and practice before we head down to Saprtanburg in a few weeks. We would like to thank Bill Howe and Lane Murray for sending me pictures from the shoot. It really helped get the info out since I wasn't their on site. We hope that the shoot report will be posted as soon as it is available. This will be a short week for me and then a full week and then off to SC. I would like to send a shout out to Lou down in sunny FLA. Until next week..........................................smokem

Update: looks like Pitts wore Shelley out on Sunday after the layoff on Saturday!!!! FYI
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May 7th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Good morning and sure hope you had a great weekend. Several events to report on with very little info available to report. We have one trapshoot coming up this weekend before the South Carolina State Shoot next week. We are entering into the heart of the trapshooting season so hang on for the ride.
Ft. Bragg hosted a shoot Saturday and they had a relatively good turnout even though Marty reported heat. John Miller won the singles, Glenn Alford won the caps and Winky Mabe won the doubles with Tommy Brown taking the HOA. We hope to get the shoot report from Buncombe and also BGC sometime today and will post ASAP.

We had several NC shooters at the GA State Shoot over the weekend and I cannot find any scores to report the winners from that event. The Callan's, Galloway's and Bill Howe and Billy Thigpen attended. Jeff had a 99 in singles on friday with a pair of 98's on Saturday.He did not fare too well for the dubs or caps with Hunter breaking a 91 in Sunday's caps.

A rather healthy NC shooting contingent is heading to Spartanburg next week. Tommy Brown, Smokem and the Crippler, Lane Murray and Chris Shoulars, The Galloway's and Roger Shafer, BamBam and Spy1 and Spy2 and who knows whow else will attend! They have a $1400 pot on the caps Wednesday and this is a pretty good pot for that one event.

I have even heard tell that Big Jim and Buckeye are going to run South to the Palmetto State for the championship weekend. It will be good to see Big Jim out and pounding some clay and he is so good at it I might add. Even Dave Daily will be attending and spinning some of his yarns for all to enjoy.

We traveled to Ocracoke Island over the weekend to attend my youngest son's wedding. Michael grew up around the trapshooting scene and spent many a mile traveling with my grandfather Jim Brown when I couldn't attend a shoot. He set many a target on the old Winchester Western handset traps back at the old Pinehurst GC. He will be coming back Friday after an extended vacation on the Island.

I talked a little bit to Tom Brown while on the ferry ride to Oak Island. We were working on getting squads together for the SC State Shoot. Sometimes shooting with a squad of folks you know can really help things go much smoother. We also talked about folks approaching you and offering to tell you their score while shooting or between events. Tom told me that NC HOF member Ted Smith told him not to go around broadcasting his score to folks while they were shooting. He explained that it was common courtesy not to discuss scores with shooters while they were competing.

It will be a quick week up coming and we are looking forward to the short week next week. I have a ton of stuff to do between now and then and it takes a lot of planning to do it right. We hope to have the shelters up in SC but please bring your own chair. We have had folks break our chairs and never even offer to pay to replace them.

Have a great week and hopefully we will have some news to report next Monday. We will be reporting from the South Carolina State shoot and we hope they don't run banks for the Saturday singles or the Sunday caps. All banks are not the same in SC and that is just the facts...

I want to send a shout out to Lou down in sunny FLA. Until next week....................................................Smokem
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May 14th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

It is raining this morning in the Piedmont Triad and has been raining since about 5pm Sunday. I want it to rain all it wants and quit Wednesday for the South Carolina State Shoot. We had one registered shoot in North Carolina over the weekend and two shoots this upcoming weekend.
We were surprised to hear that George Ponton had undergone double bypass surgery last week. Bill Howe called from the Empire Grand with some basic info. Ellen has also just recently had eye surgery and this has been a trying time for the pair. We will try to call Monday to get an update.

Old Hickory @ Rocky Mount hosted a trapshoot Saturday and it looks like they had a good turnout. Al Bost sent me the scores and we appreciate the effort! Evidently Al had a couple of folks from out of town to show up and visitors are always welcome. John Deisher won the singles, Walt Rauch won the caps and got a punch with Charlie Brown winning the doubles and Chase Reese taking the HOA. Chase broke a solid 97 in the doubles and a 95 in the caps – Great Shooting Chase!

Two shoots and one cancelled shoot this weekend. Coharie will host a typical 300 target program Saturday and Durham County will host a typical 300 target program Sunday. Rockingham cancelled due to folks traveling and shooting at the South Carolina State Shoot. Hopefully we will have programs posted today or Tuesday!

Folks are gearing up for the South Carolina State Shoot and it will be interesting to see who will show up to shoot some New York Style White Flyers. Yep that is correct they will be showing New York Style in South Carolina. Years back I thought NC was going to throw NYS birds but not sure what happened to that decision?

Right now it looks like the Galloway’s, Lane Murray, Chris Shoulars, Crippler & Smokem, Roger Shaffer, Bill Howe, Billy Thigpen, James Wilson, Bob Batke (OH), Dave Daily (SC), BamBam, Spy 1 & Spy 2 and who knows who else will show up for the event. The weather is as follows – low 80’s with 10% chance of rain each day with minimal winds – OH BOY!

I have shot in SC when it was so hot folks were soaking their shirts in ice water before shooting. I have also shot when it was cool enough to wear a pair of pants under your rain pants. If the weather holds up I would imagine that attendance will be up for 2012. Spartanburg has outlived 3 NC home grounds including Piedmont (Greensboro), Tarheel (Advance) and the famous Pinehurst GC. Of course Durham County hosted the state shoot for several years before the move to Bostic! The last thing I will say about Spartanburg is – FISH FRY!

Folks have been a practicing and the Crippler slid up to the Rock today and nobody was there for him to whip. He broke 24/24 in caps and 24/23 in singles and is feeling like a winner even before he hops in the SUV Wednesday morning for the trip to SC. Tommy Brown took a trip to the Rock and shot about 13 rounds getting ready for SC. He has a Wenig “Harlan Campbell” stock on order and it should be here about time for the Zone.

Talking about new guns there are two shooters that are proud owner’s of some Beretta combo guns. New JR shooter Zax Tate should have his gun for the state shoot and I am sure he will get some help tuning it in from AIM coach Jeff Galloway. Also, Dave Daily broke down and is the proud owner of a new 687 combo. He ran out to Myrtle Grove and broke 24/24/25 in singles and 25/21 from the 25. He is excited about having a gun that is actually built for a left handed shooter.

Got a call from the Bruns Sunday evening and I was glad to hear his voice. I met Jerry and his running buddy Fudd Shaffer several years ago at the Konne-Yaut Indian Pow-Wow at the West Penn GC near Belmont PA. Jerry had both of his eyes fixed over the winter and is looking forward to some warmer weather shooting. He went to the Coon Hunters GC near Batesville Indiana Sunday and it rained them out but card playing took over when they couldn’t shoot. It won’t be long before we all converge on Bradford PA in July for the next gathering!

Word from the hill is that Tom “SPY100” Pitts is fishing and a courting. Yep the fellow has done reeeetired and now has more time on his hands to grow that “sport” belly like his shooting pal BamBam. That weight forward design helps when shooting doubles as proven by a another hotshot in North Carolina and I won’t mention any names other than he likes Carolina Blue snap-crotched round neck t-shirts!

Ok – that is about it for the smoke report and hopefully we will see some of you folks in SC. This is a tough time to be traveling for me since we are about to install about 100 pc’s in a 1032 bed jail. I am going to try to concentrate on shooting while in SC but it might be tough. Shout out to Lou in Florida and will Lou come up to shoot at the NC State shoot – well will you Lou? Until next week……………………………….Smokem
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May 21st Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Monday is over and it went by quickly! Being away from home for five days is interesting. When I got back home Sunday night and walked into the house it seemed to look bigger? I have quite a few things to talk about so hang on and here goes. We had two shoots over the weekend and one has a score report posted. We have two shoots this upcoming weekend with one shoot program posted.
Coharie had a good turnout Saturday with Mac winning the singles, doubles and the HOA leaving only the handicap for George Brown to win. Mac reported that Mark Lane is cancer free and that Chris is getting married this weekend. I remember the days when Chris scored for us with that high pitched voice. We wish them both the best and hope to see them soon. Coharie's next shoot is June the 23rd so mark your calendar's.

We have two shoots this weekend with one in the mountains and the other flatlands. Watauga hosts their first shoot of the new year and I hope that it will be the coolest place to spread lead. George and the boys will roll out the red carpet for all that attend. Charlie Brown will hold their registered shoot on Sunday and if you have never shot there you need to put it on your shoot wish list.

The South Carolina State Shoot is in the books and they had some great dry, cool and windy weather. Along with the wind came the New York Style White Flyer target and it made for an interesting week. North Carolina shooters did well with numerous winners carting nice trophies North across the border. I am not sure of attendance over last year but it should be easy to check out. The fish fry was great as usual and since we shot bank 4 we never smelled it cooking.

We took a lot of pictures this year and still have Sunday to upload and caption. We have 89 pictures to caption from Friday I think and that takes some time. South Carolina has opted to use "banks" for it's championship events and it sure would be nice to spread the misery out to odd even traps. The Saturday singles events would be much more fair for all if all competitor's shot every trap up and down the line. Also the Sunday handicap would be more fair if it were shot 1-3-5-7 or 2-4-6-8. Take a look at my pictures for a good look at who is shooting where - very interesting. Hats off to the Spartanburg Gun Club and the SCTA for putting on a great shoot and we hope to see some of them at the NC State Shoot.

JC shot well and beat me so bad (not hard to do) that I checked to see when the bus ran to get him back to Greensboro. He put up a 93 on Wednesday to collect some added money and hit four more Lewis payouts during the week/end. He only had two boxes of shells left when we got back to his house. He is looking foward to the North Carolina State Shoot and we may roll him up to Watauga for some mountain shooting this weekeend.

Jeff Galloway is about to enter the workforce in the next few weeks. He will be going to work for Remington and we are excited for him. He shot consistently and posted the lone 100 in the singles on Friday in some windy conditions.I believe he averaged 92.6 for the 1000 targets he shot and that is good shooting at Sparatnburg.

Charlie Brown had a great week/end of shooting with a 380 for runner-up in the HAA and winning the HOA outright over New York shooter Brian Luther. Charlie averaged 90 in the three caps events and his doubles scores were a little lower that what he is accustomed to shooting. But what an impressive showing with all the wind that blew for four/five days!

Speaking of Brian Luther did you see that dude shooting the doubles? I have video of him shooting Sunday down on the optical illusion they call trap 8. I cannot really explain how fast he shoots the doubles other than providing the visual evidence to prove it. He shoots a Browning O/U and he shoots it well. I will post a marker to the link when I get it uploaded. Here is a bit of trivia - Brian Luther broke his 1st 200 at the NC state shoot in 2011 - I think that is correct?

Addison Callan showed up to SC with his mom and Addison shot well through the weekend. He won Event 4 SJ/JR Doubles with a 90, Event 7 SJ Singles with a 192 and Event 8 SJ/JR Doubles with a 90. We got a picture of him with one of his trophies and we hope to get that posted this week. Other winners included Jimmy Wilson with a 198 on Saturday for AA Open Singles and also Tommy Brown with a Doubles B Class win on Sunday.

Ok - big week ahead for me and I hope to be able to attend the NC State Shoot. We are currently moving into a 1032 bed jail and we are installing about 150 computers not to mention all the copiers and other essential technology. Not real sure when the go live date is but we hope it doesn't interfere with 99th annual event.

Have a great week and we hope to get back on track with the Smoke Report next Monday. I want to send a shout out to Lou in Florida and also to Crews Walden who was spotted along with Charlie Keiger! Until next time..........................................Smokem
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May 28th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Good morning on this Memorial Day Holiday Monday. Just want to say thanks to all that served and to all that serve today! JC Nunn served in the 2nd WW and was inducted into the military 70 years ago at Camp Croft South Carolina. The same road we used to get to the Spartanburg Gun Club is the same basic road he traveled way back when prior to being shipped overseas!
Three trapshoots over the weekend and we have two shoot reports posted on the site. Hopefully we will get the scoop from Charlie Brown's today! Bill Howe submitted the OH@Bostic report and it looks like M. Poblega won the dubs, caps and the HOA with Mike Harrelson winning the singles. Watauga GC had a good turnout with John Waters winning the singles and HOA, Jim Jacobs winning the caps and George Sudderth winning the doubles.

We rolled up to Boone with the crippler and he shot two events. He managed to hit the top Lewis in the caps and also managed to win a box of shells. Tom Shelley had Tom Pitts on the ropes for the 1st two events but Tom came back in the doubles with a vengeance! Pitts was executing the Harlan Campbell push in the dubs and it was working that is for sure! The Watauga GC is offering $25 gas money for folks traveling over 100 miles and that shoot two events! They draw a ticket out of the hat and of all folks Lane Murray got him some gas money!

We had a couple of new to registered trap shooters show up in Boone. Matt O'Bryant and his son Collin are getting some registered targets under their belt and we are glad to seem them out and about. Collin shot the singles and Mat shot the singles and the handicap! I thought Matt was going to run his 1st 25 in handicap until he dropped a bird late in the round!

The Drake Naylor charity event was held Saturday and Lewis Wyatt and Jeff Galloway participated. It was held at the Shane Naylor sporting clays complex off highway 158. It was well attended and they raised a lot of money! Lewis called me while we were coming back from Boone. He told me to tell JC that if JC had showed up for sporting clays that old JC would have got "skint" up a bit! Lewis also told me that he he would be up at the Rock practicing if JC wanted to come up and get a lesson. When I told JC what he said JC said - did Lewis say he wanted to get a lesson or give a lesson?

Jeff Galloway is starting his job with Remington very soon and will probably only get to shoot the Championship weekendat the NC State Shoot! With my job duties I might not make it until the weekend also. We wish Jeff the best of luck and we know he will do a great job without a doubt!

It is almost here and we hope this years State Shoot is well attended. We are also praying for good weather with NO RAIN and no wind would be nice also! It looks like South Carolina shooter Dave Daily will be able to attend the NC State Shoot and it has been several years since he shot at the Homegrounds!

I hope you have a great week and before you know it we will all be at the NC State Shoot! I want to send a shout out to Lou down in sunny Florida and also Crews Walden was spotted along with his wingman Charlie Keiger at the Watauga GC.....Until next week you might as well........................................................Smokem
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June 4th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

We hope you enjoyed the cooler weather over the weekend! And if the weatherman is correct the 99th Annual North Carolina State trapshoot will benefit from the same type of weather pattern! Wednesday it will be 77 for the high and Sunday it will be 87 for the high with minimal winds and a slight chance of rain each day! If you were sitting on the fence wondering if the weather would keep you from attending, you just lost your excuse!
I was riding down the road and got a call from George Ponton. George sounded great and is on the mend and progressing with his recovery. He cannot lift anything over ten pounds and the doctor has him walking a lot. He really hates not being able to shoot at the state shoot and he has already missed Georgia and South Carolina. He did mention that he hoped to attend the shoot Sunday for a visit! It will be great to see him and of course we will take a few pictures!

From what I hear there are a lot of folks practicing around the state. The Rock was full of folks shooting both Saturday and Sunday! Lewis Wyatt, JC Nunn, Lane Murray, Jeff and Hunter Galloway, Ronnie Manuel and Zax Tate. New junior shooter Zax Tate got his new 682 Saturday and tried it out on singles and doubles. When I arrived he was shooting doubles and doing great! Zax mom will be bringing him to the state shoot and the young man will be shooting through the weekend! Take a moment to say hello to him and his mom!

I got some good news via trapshooters.com the other day! It looks like Florida resident Lou Carter will be joining us for the North Carolina state shoot! I was really upset when Lou moved to Florida because I missed getting a chance to bend his ear when I was around him. It was almost like when Dan Johnson moved to PA, it was rough there for awhile! I am going to look forward to getting a few pictures of father and son and maybe we will get a chance to sit and chat awhile!

Another friend of ours will be attending the shoot and it has been awhile since he has made it. South Carolina resident Dave Daily will be arriving Wednesday and will shoot through Friday. He will be flying out Sunday and will use Saturday as a travel day to get back home. Currently he is visiting friends somewhwere in VA at the time of this writing! Dave is shooting a brand new Beretta 687 combo and wound up winning his singles class at the 2012 South Carolina state shoot!

Jeff Galloway started his new job with Remington today! I talked to him Sunday and he is very excited about this new chapter in his life! He had interviewed with two other gun companies and both would have required him to relocate. This job will allow him to stay close to home and if he has to travel I know that he will welcome that with open arms! I know the shooting community wishes him the best and we will give you an update in the next smoke report June 11th.

Looking back at the 2011 NC State Shoot we find that Charlie Brown won the singles, HAA and HOA. Ray Gaultney won the doubles and youngster Chase Reese won the handicap just like he did in 2010. We have some great shooters in North Carolina and it will be very interesting after the gunsmoke settles at the Homegrounds! It looks like I won't get there until Friday morning so I will be depending on Bill Howe to get me the scores so I can put them on the web!

If you have a digital camera please take it and snap some pix. I will post them on the web for you with your permission. I have been snpping pix since 2004 and now I am taking videos of folks shooting! Remember, got to htttp://www.nctrap.com and looks for the Fred Redmon's Picture link. There you will find pix from the Grand in Ohio and Sparta, Dixie & Southern Grand's, NC, SC, state shoots and many clubs around the state and some in Pennsylvania! Heck I may taken a picture of you or your squad and you didn't even know it!

This will be a quick week for most that are attending the shoot early! It will be quick for me because we are a week away from the ribbon cutting on a brand new 1032 bed jail here in Guilford County! Hopefully we will get to de-stress before we get to pounding clays Friday morning. I would like to say hello and travel safely to Lou and until next time.............................................Smokem.
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June 11th Smoke Report

Post by smokem »

Good afternoon and I hope your start to the week was a good one! Like I said in the placebo smoke report it might take awhile for me to gather my thoughts prior to creating the smoke report after the State Shoot! There are so many things to discuss so hang on and here goes!
First I would like to thank the NCTA and the HOF for the outstanding job they did this year! I sat at both of the meetings Saturday and it looks like the State Association is in good hands for sure! Hats off to outgoing President Billy Thigpen and he did an excellent job during his four years in office! You could count on Billy to get things done and that was a fact!

Our incoming President Roger Bynum is a prince of a man and our new VP Steve Morgan has been around the trapshooting scene a long time! Good luck to them in the upcoming years and you have a lot of work ahead of you! Terry Roush continues as our State Delegate and Ron Wilson and Dennis Taylor are the alternates!

Behind the scenes you have the Duncan’s and the Keever’s with their excellent attention to detail! Thanks for all of the hard work and your effort does not go unnoticed. I say bravo to the scorers and their continued training because their performance was commented on by several out-of-state shooters! Kate Schmidt from Pennsylvania commented on the scorers knowledge of the rules and that goes to show that the staff has been trained well!

Folks let’s face it. North Carolina has a premier trapshooting facility and I would stack it up against any other club of similar size! The target setting crew provided some great targets and the traps worked without a hitch from what I know during the days I attended! ERAD’s are the way to go and man do I dread having to touch a microphone after shooting with the ERAD! Take a look at some of my pictures and you just have to be amazed at the place we call the NC Homegrounds!

Weather – what can you say other than a tad bit of rain for the caps Sunday morning! I was surprised to see the mountains peeking through the cut over the practice trap. There have been some shoots when you never got to see those mountains in the distance! Saturday it was warm and breezy and Sunday it was overcast and there were actually times during the caps when the wind was not blowing!

Attendance – things look good this year and I have not taken the time to do the research. It looks like we are up and I should have a confirmation of that sometime today! It was great to see some new out of state shooters and even some old NC shooters crawled out of the woodwork! I did not do a panorama shot of all the cars and the club but it was packed at the peak of activity!

Now we get to the fun part where I get to talk about the winners of the Championship events on Saturday and Sunday! There are a lot of winners to talk about and I might not get to mention them all but I will do my best! We will discuss the Champion in the Saturday Singles, Sunday Doubles and Handicap! Then I will drill down and mention some of the folks in these events that won other class and place awards!

Saturday Singles – The morning started out bright with minimal clouds and you could tell it would be a hot day! I didn’t put up a great first 100 score so I didn’t hang out around the scoreboard much! All I knew was that there were three 199’s and they included Jimmy Wilson, George Sudderth and SubJr Addison Callan! Jimmy and George had both broken many 199’s and also 200’s along the way! This was Addison’s first 199 and I know he was excited about his score that day! It came down to a shootoff and we got the last five targets shot by these competitors on video! Addison pretty much center punched 25 targets that left Jimmy with Runner-Up and George with AA. Congrats to Addison and his dad for a job well done! I managed to gather Jeff Galloway and Chris Shoulars and took a picture with them and Addison. Jeff and Chris were junior’s when they won the Championship so I thought it was important to get a picture of these fine young men together! Unfortunately I did not get a picture of Addsion with his trophy and I know Jim will provide one shortly! One more bit of info Addison also won HOA SubJr and the State HAA with a 388x400 – super job AC!!!

Sunday Doubles – The morning started of overcast and a tad bit windy! The targets were set and folks commenced to pounding! The birds looked great but folks kept a missing them! When the smoke cleared and the dust settled Watuaga Cartel George “BamBam” Sudderth posted the lone 96 to win the event without an extra shot being fired! I believe he was happy about that and relieved that extra shots weren’t necessary to secure the title. George works very hard to put himself in a position to win and especially in a big setting! Great job sir and well done!

Sunday Handicap – Rain – raining at the Homegrounds on Sunday during the caps? Yes – rain did fall for awhile and folks put on rain suits and jackets and all kinds of clothing! Luckily it didn’t rain when I was shooting and I just figured I would get wet – what the heck! Lewis Wyatt was given the task of putting together a squad that consisted of Lane Murray, Lewis, Ronnie Manuel, Walter “Winky” Mabe and JC Nunn! That was a squad that shot many many times before at the Rock and they were ready to put up some good scores! When it was all over Lewis, Ronnie and Winky all wound up shooting off for HiGun, runner-up and SubVet!

Lewis Wyatt had taken a beating at the hands of JC Nunn the day before in the singles and they wound up tying in the doubles if I am not mistaken. JC had a bit of an off day in handicap and that was just the motivation Lewis needed to get in the zone and get in the zone he did! JC ran his last 50 in the singles Saturday for a 189 and a State Class “C” win. Lewis Wyatt broke 24-24 and then he ran his last 50 in the caps for a solid 98 and it wound up tying him with SrVet Charlie Brown! When they stepped to the line for the shootoff later on in the afternoon Lewis emerged the eventual winner with a 24 with Charlie taking SrVet! I have video of the last 5 shots Lewis shot along with getting to congratulate him on winning the NC State Handicap Championship! We will try to get that posted later on tonight!

We did a little checking and found out Ted Carwile had the top score for HAA out of state and Charlie Brown had the top HAA score for our in state winner! A lot of folks from out-of-state shot well and that includes South Carolina ATA Delegate Jim Faber with a 387 in the HOA and I have a picture of him with his trophy! Junior Gold VA shooter Will Pearce broke his 1st 200 in trap and his friend broke a 199 in a three man squad that included Morg Shaw from Boone! In case you did not know the scores are currently out on trapshooters.com for your viewing pleasure!

I was tickled to see Lou Carter at the State Shoot and spent a little time with him and his son John! John is a lot of fun and was in charge of “mood enhancement” in the rocking chair section during the shootoff’s Saturday night! Hopefully we will get down to see Lou sometime in his neck of the woods! Also I reconnected with Jake Jacobs and his wife from Jacksonville Florida. We met them at the South Carolina State Shoot with Van Seagraves and took a picture of them on the porch! I asked them where Van was and they said that the Alabama State Shoot pretty much wore him out!

Friday night we went to the fish house with the Daily’s and JC Nunn. I left there and went back to the club to get some pix of scores to post on the web. As I was leaving I noticed Jimmy Wilson and a few more folks leaving the club so I gave Jimmy a call. He informed me that that they were going to Fatz and I asked If I could join them for dessert and he said sure why not! On one side it was John Miller – Jimmy – Me and Jeri. On the other side it was Winky – Judy – Karole and Kate Schmidt! Little did I know that Kate Schmidt was Bob Malmstedt’s significant other! We got to talking and I told her that I had taken a picture of Bob and Leo Harrison at the Grand in Vandalia at a Champion of Champions event! She had thought that someone else had taken it and I told her I would send her the original! Karole and Kate are great friends and Kate is a lot of fun to be around for sure!

Am I rambling and I will keep it up for awhile anyway! One thing I forgot to mention were all of the awards that were given out by Terry Roush in the meeting! I won’t list all the winners but I did take their pictures for all of the NC Points and High-Average winners! They also presented Ms. Lillian the shell box holder that Charlie won in 2011! Bob Goodman also donated the trophy that he won in honor of Charlie Smith! I took pictures and I also have video of the presentation!

Chuck and Sandi Patterson participated in the shooting and Sandi worked just like she had never left. She was putting up winner’s scoreboards when I talked to her and she said she would go crazy if she didn’t have something to do! Also, Dave and June Daily rode from VA to the shoot and Dave shot Wednesday through Friday and headed back to Myrtle Beach Saturday! The next time I see Dave will be at the Konne-Yaut Indian shoot in July at the Bradford Gun Club in Pennsylvania! Bernie Warnowicz stopped by for a little shooting with his old buddy Charlie Ackroyd and we got some pix of Bernie in action!

I had the pleasure of meeting John White from Alabama! We got to see him shoot in South Carolina and the young man is like a machine! We talked a little about recoil reduction systems and a few other things and he mentioned that he took a look at my pix from South Carolina. I appreciated his comments and I believe I snapped a few pix and video of him at our NC State Shoot! He did get into a shootoff with Jeff Galloway and I have pix and I think video of that encounter! Richie thanks for coming to North Carolina and please come back for our HOF shoot in September!

It is always nice to see new folks shoot well and one in particular is Walter “Winky” Mabe. Back when I first met and shot with Winky we got off to a little rough start but my intentions have been to always promote the sport in a positive way if at all possible! Winky had some job and family setbacks but one thing for sure this man can shoot a shotgun! I mentioned to him way back when to try to register birds so that he could establish an average and so that he wouldn’t be penalized when he went to big shoots. I mentioned that the goal would be to prepare yourself for the North Carolina State shoot and hope you peaked at that event. Then along came Judy and she is a special lady and has really helped him pursue shooting and shooting well! Well it looks like it all came together for him and he found himself in two shootoffs Sunday afternoon, one for Class C doubles and the other for runner-up in the handicap event. George Brown wound up getting the best of him in the doubles but when they stepped to the line for the caps Winky broke 25 straight to become the NC Handicap Champion Runner-Up!

Two people that were sorely missed included Jackie Roush and George Ponton. Jackie is undergoing some treatment and told Terry that she had better see me in those shorts she got me in Florida! I escaped wearing them Saturday when it was bright and sunny. Those shorts were so bright they made that dreary overcast Sunday seem a little brighter! Yes there are pix floating around of me in those shorts thank you! George Ponton called to tell me that the doc said absolutely no long trips at this time at that was pretty much it for his visit to the shoot! We wish both of them the best and get better soon!

We have two registered shoots in NC this weekend and they include Rockingham on the 16th and Buckhorn on the 17th. Please join us if you can and start getting ready for the Southern Zone the 19th -22nd of July! You can pick Odessa – Berea or Savannah and believe me it will be hot anywhere you go that weekend! Mark your calendar for July 13th – JC Nunn will turn 89 that day and we hope to have a big woop-dee-do at the Rockingham GC prior to us leaving for the Indian shoot the 11th! If you would like to drop him a card please email me for his address – freddydacrusher@hotmail .com – thanks!

Well that is about it – I know I missed some folks and I do apologize! I will try to caption the rest of my pix and get some of the video uploaded tonight! I have some shooting video that will make you laugh and some that might make you cry! I want to say hello to Lou in sunny Florida and thanks for making our shoot a little brighter with your presence Mr. Carter. One of my favorite pix of all times will be Lou and John Carter walking back to their cars with John with the peace sign over his left shoulder!!! Until the next time…………………………………………………………..Smokem
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Smoke Report June 18th, 2012

Post by smokem »

Greetings to you from Jamestown NC and what a great weather weekend in the Tarheel State. This was a rather slow news week and we hope we can cobble some information together to start your work week. We had two shoots over the weekend and we will get the info from Buckhorn sometime today.
Rockingham hosted their “Memorial” shoot Saturday and we appreciate everybody that attended. Ronnie Manuel won the singles after a shootoff with Chris Shoulars. Lane Murray won the caps after a shootoff with Ronnie Manuel and Tommy Brown won the dubs outright. Ronnie got his name on the “Memorial” plaque after posting a 96 in the singles and a 94 in the caps! RCGC hosts their Lewis Class shoot next Saturday…

Two shoots on the horizon for next Saturday and they will be at Coharie and Watauga. Mac had a great turnout last month at CSL and we hope that attendance is good this Saturday also. Watauga will roll out the red carpet for you and the best thing about attending at Watauga is that you get to see George, Tom Pitts and Tom Shelley…..

I got an email from Jackie Roush this week commenting on those loud shorts she bought me in Florida. I told Terry that the shorts were size 38 for a Chinese person and that they were a tad bit snug. Jackie asked me in the email if I had one too many burgers and I guess the answer is yes. If you are shopping and see LOUD shorts sized 38’s and they aren’t daisy dukes – pick them up and I will reimburse you!

The Pennsylvania State Shoot is over and it looks like 2 NC and 1 SC shooter attended the shoot. Looking at 2011/2012 attendance they had 2 less entries than they did last year and that ain’t too shabby with the economy the way it is. Resident Champs were as follows – Doubles WM Hazlett 99 – Singles Steven Huber 200 – Handicap Roger Davis 98 – HAA Steven Huber 392 – HOA Frank Pascoe 1066.

Continuing with Non-Resident winners – Doubles Chris Landon (NY) 98 – Singles Rachel Hopkins (MO) 200 – Handicap John Kirksey (MD) 98 – HAA Ronald Sutton (MD) 392 – HOA Ronald Sutton (MD) 1064. They say that the PA shoot is really a shoot you need to attend and maybe one day we will get there. Dave Daily’s brother Rick was in attendance and shot good but not good enough to win with all those great scores.

Looking into July there are several multi-day shoots and the Finley Bristol “Memorial” the 7th. The Doug House Memorial is the 14th and 15th followed by the Southern Zone the 19th through the 22nd. Three sites will be reporting and they include Berea KY, Odessa FL and Savannah GA. We wish we could attend but we will be returning from Bradford PA and two big trips back to back is a little tough. It will be interesting to see how the attendance shakes out this year.

I don’t know if you have had the chance to shoot the White Flyer New York style target yet. We got to shoot them at South Carolina and they wound up being shipped to our club at Rockingham. I have loaded a bunch of these and got to shoot some Saturday. I didn’t set the woods on fire and had a chance to break a 96 until I stopped paying attention on the last trap. I was using a MOD in the Kolar and Rio 2 ¾ -1 1/8 -7.5’s. I broke a 25 on the second trap and I chipped, chunked, 3 pieced, 4 pieced and I might have smoked one or two. I broke similar scores at the State Shoot and those OD White Flyers seemed to break a bit better than the NYS we encountered Saturday…..Just and observation….

I missed a few things last week after the state shoot and I just wanted to comment on a few things. Charlie Brown sure shot well at the NC State Shoot and he took the time to shake Lewis Wyatt’s hand and wish him well prior to their shootoff for the NC State Handicap Championship. After Lewis and Charlie finished he congratulated Lewis and allowed me to snap a few pix of these two fine gentlemen. That I believe is the sign of a true champion and hats off to Charlie for being gracious regardless of the outcome.

Unfortunately I viewed other shootoffs where handshakes were not given and no attempt was made to congratulate the winner. It isn’t mandatory to acknowledge the person that wins in the shootoff but it sure would be nice if you did. Anyway, just an observation and some food for thought.

Have a great week folks and good luck to all of the folks shooting next weekend! I would like to say hello to Lou down in sunny Florida and it looks like it is hotter in Sparta than it is in the Sunshine State. Until next week…………………..Smokem
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June 25th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

A Little More Smoke To Report
Most of you might have been wondering where JC Nunn was Saturday when he didn't show up to the Lewis Class shoot at the Rock.
Well about 4AM Saturday morning he woke up and it was about 80 in the house. AC problems for sure and it took him almost all Saturday to find someone to fix it.

They got his AC back up and cooling and he hated to miss the shoot but dying from a heat stroke wasn't a good option. I visited him for lunch Monday and got the scoop on all of the drama.

JC recently got a reduction in the mail and is now on the 18.5 yardline. I asked him if he had ever been on the 18.5 and he said no he had not. He said that it took him 48 years to get to the 18.5 and he went out and practiced today at the Rock!

He said he was the only person at the Gun Club and couldn't believe how nice it was to shoot. I asked him how he shot and he said "I was smoking them dudes"..

I know he is looking forward to our trip to Bradford and I just hope he is on them like he was in 2011. So, just a little update on the fellow and have a nice day!

June 25th Smoke Report
Good morning and what a great weekend for trapshooting in the Tarheel State. We have reports from Coharie, Watauga and the Lewis Class shoot at the Rock. Regardless of the “economy” folks are still getting out and spreading that lead!
One shoot coming up this weekend and it will be held at the Ft. Bragg Gun Club in Fayetteville NC. Ride on down and spend some time shooting at a great shooting venue. They hurl an all orange White Flyer and I wonder what New York style targets would look like when they escape the tree line? Just wondering that is all…

Ok here we go with all the shoot reports…. George Brown ran amuck at the Coharie shoot Saturday. After his reign of terror at the NC State Shoot he took his “A” game to CSL. He won the singles with a 97, got a ½ yard punch for his 96 in handicap and that was enough damage. He left the doubles for Greg High to win with a 95 and Mac won the HOA like he does most of the time. Their next shoot is August 4th so make your plans now to attend.

Watauga might have been the coolest place to shoot on Saturday and they had a good turnout. Fred Rutherford won the singles with a 98, Ronnie Manuel “outflipped” John Waters for the caps honors and got a ½ yard punch for his 94. Tommy Brown outgunned BamBam for the doubles honors with a 94. Tommy nipped Ronnie by 1 bird for the HOA and the neat thing about that is that Ronnie is shooting two guns that Tommy sold him. The highlight of the day is the “69” that captured “C” Class Doubles and it was shot by none other than you guessed it (I would rather missem shooting way too fast and looking good than missem shooting way too slow) -----Tom Shelley! There next shoot is August 25th so mark that down in your calendar.

Last but not least the Rockingham Gun Club held their monthly Lewis Class shoot Saturday the 23rd. 27 shooters stepped to the line and when the smoke cleared Walter “Winky” Mabe broke a 97 to win the event. John Miller had the next high score with a 94 and Karole Miller broke a strong 25 in caps on her first field. The other Lewis Class winners were Charlie Rinehart, Jeff & Hunter Galloway with 91’s – Scott Shoulars and Matt O’Bryant with 87’s and Ray Shisler brought up the rear with a 72. We had quite a few 1st time shooters attend and that is the goal of this type of event. The next LCS will be held on July 8th so plan now to attend.

I got a few text messages from a fellow that wants folks to know that he is planning his return to the trapfield shortly. He wants everybody to get all their winning done now because when he returns he doesn’t want folks to be offended when he starts raiding their cookie jar. He has been lying dormant like a sleeping dragon but just recently gave folks a little taste of things to come. So heads up folks and when he gets back on the scene full time he said it ain’t going to be pretty!

I have been getting some feedback about my comments on the NY style target. I talked to James Wilson about it and pleaded my case and he said point blank – you just wasn’t hitting them. Then Saturday John Miller gave me some up close and personal feedback after he hit 49x50 hard at the Rock. I asked him what choke he used and he commented that there was only one choke for singles and that was FULL. Well – I slid a LF choke in Saturday for singles and only had my last two targets to break for a 48 – and I must admit I hit them pretty hard but I shouldn’t have to shoot a LF to smoke a White Flyer target – just saying. PS – thanks for all of the feedback!

Ok – gotta wind this thing down! I hope everybody has a great week and it looks like it is going to be SUPER HOT this week. 101 is predicted for Jamestown Friday and that is killer hot for NC and in late June? What makes this worse is very little or no precip is predicted and God forbid we start experiencing fires like they have had on the NC Coast or out West.

Last but not least please remember Jackie Roush in your prayers and that JC Nunn is celebrating his 89th birthday the 13th of July. Other than that have a great week, stay cool and we hope Lou isn’t floating away with all the liquid sunshine in soggy Florida. Until next Monday morning ……………………Smokem
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smokem
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July 2nd Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Summertime is upon us and hopefully you weathered the heat in the cool comfort of your home or car. Some were not so fortunate and what kind of storm passed over Winchester VA Friday night. Some of the cells that have passed through NC have taken down trees and folks are without power as we type.
We had one shoot over the weekend and folks weathered the heat to break a little NC clay. It was “Miller” time at Ft. Bragg and it must have been those shorts he was wearing that were the charm. John “White Legs” Miller won the singles 98, handicap 91, doubles 89 and HOA with a 278x300. Marty mentioned that he had two new ATA shooters participate – Brian West and Cama Morningstar. Also, Ft. Bragg has postponed their July 21st shoot due to the Southern Zone date conflict.

There are three shooting events coming up this week/end. Old Hickory will host their monthly BIG50 shoot Thursday July 5th. Buncombe County will host the Finley Bristol Memorial shoot Saturday July 7th. The Rockingham Gun Club will host their monthly Lewis Class non-registered shoot on Sunday July 8th – start time is 1PM. Looking farther into the month make plans to attend the Doug House Memorial shoot at the Charlie Brown GC July 14&15. And of course the Southern Zone “telephonic” Berea KY – Savannah GA – Odessa FL July 19-22….

I talked with Dave Daily today and he is checking June into the Mayo clinic Monday for a battery of tests. She will be there most of the week and her birthday is the 6th. Please keep her in your prayers and hopefully they can figure out what is going on. Also closer to home please keep Jackie Roush in your prayers during her time of healing and recovery.

Speaking of recovery please keep Little Jimmy Wilson in your prayers. He got hitched over the weekend and we wish him the best during this new period in his life. I cannot wait for a little grandchild to come on the scene whether it is a boy or a girl. If it is a boy I wonder if his name will be Jimmy? Anyway, I hope to get some pix from the wedding because I always like to see big Jimmy in a monkey suit!

Dan “The Man” Johnson has been doing a little traveling and spent some time in Georgia watching Anthony play baseball last week. Not sure how the tournament turned out but I know Dan was happy to spend some time with the family. Also it looks like they added a new vehicle to the Johnson fleet for Mary. I guess that means it will be a little bit longer before Dan gets back to whipping Jimmy on a regular basis…..

That storm that whipped across the Winchester GC was a 600 mile wide monster. KaLynn Hamilton was at the shoot and her comment was – will it ever end? Looking at the radar it looked like wave after wave after wave of storms. Winchester shoot Saturday using generators to power the traps. John Domas stated on Trapshooters.com that the power would be back on for Sunday’s events.

It is July 1st and the last time I checked the scores for the NC State Shoot are yet to be posted on Shootata.com. I contacted Joy Duncan and she said they were sent and I also emailed the contact at the ATA. Hopefully they will be up this week. There was a question asked about having an “APP” for a smart phone that would allow a classification person use it to determine their class or yardage. I guess if the person kept up with the entry of the data it would be ok. So many times folks do not figure their average for singles or doubles and sometimes omit what class they were classified in the previous shoot. Time will tell if the APP catches on and if the ATA endorses it.

Just 11 days away from JC Nunn turning 89 years young. If I get the ok from work to travel the 11th JC will celebrate his actual birthday at the Bradford GC in Bradford PA. As I mentioned above the Rock will host their monthly Lewis Class shoot the 8th. If you have never attended the Lewis Class shoot it can be a lot of fun and you might get to wish JC happy birthday before we slide North.

I don’t know if you have ever watched international bunker trap. They use a flash packet in the target to accentuate the break when they hit the target. Well – Lane Murray did some experimenting with blue chalk dust and packing tape. I have pictures of the targets prior to flight and also what the bird looks like when it gets lead applied to it. We hope to incorporate the “Blue Bird” into the singles portion of the fun shoot. Once the “rules” are ironed out we will post it.

Ok – lot of stuff going on for me at work and pray that I get to go to PA. It looks like the high temp in Bradford was 81 today and I hope those temps hold up for the Pow-Wow. I hope everybody has a great week and if we have any midweek smoke to report we will post it. I want to give a shout out to Lou down in sunny Florida and until next time………………………………Smokem
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July 9th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Have you had enough of the heat and ready for some cooler weather? It looks like your wish may come true this week with temps in the 80's and 5 inches of liquid sunshine in some areas. I like the cooler weather but I hop that no flooding occurs due to the predicted precip.
We had three shooting events last week with two reporting. We will get the info from the Finley Bristol Memorial at Buncombe sometime today. Bill Howe was high in the singles, caps and tied the high scores in the dubs and won HOA. Winky Mabe led all shooters with a 92 at the Rockingham Lewis Class shoot. Lewis Wyatt and Ronnie Manuel won the mid Lewis and Scott Shoulars brought up the rear.

This weekend the Charlie Brown Gun Club will host the Doug House Memorial shoot. The program will consist of a typical 300 target format each day. They will have a dinner on the grounds Saturday evening and are asking for folks to contact them to be sure they have enough food for the event.

We are just a few days away from JC Nunn's 89th birthday and the folks at the Rock had a little party for him Sunday. We had great food with hot dogs, beans, pasta salad, corn on the cob, cherry cobbler and of course birthday cake. JC had no idea that we had a party planned for him and had no problem blowing out the 89 candles we lit.

The VA State Shoot scores are up and NC shooters did well up North. Charlie Brown won several category awards and also won Open Sr-Vet HOA with 1298x1400. Addison Callan broke a 100 in singles in one event and then had back to back 198's in singles events. I also believe he boke a 99 in a 200 target doubles event. Addsion and Jim won the Parent/Child award for their 384x400.Addison wore out the Sub-Jr category and his trophy case must be bulging. Congrats and if I missed anybody please forgive me.

Folks are gearing up for the Southern Zone and I hope the weather is nice in all three locations. I don't know if I can swing two big trips back to back but you never know what can happen. I have missed the Southern Zone the last few years and will try to get back in the swing of things when it returns to Bostic. If you are from NC and go to Georgia to shoot please take some pictures so that I can post them - Thanks!

Ok - I have a short work week and I think I have a dentist appointment today. We will be reporting daily from the Bradford Gun Club and hope to have pictures and video. Looks like the weather will be great and I hope JC is on his game - only time and targets will tell. I want to say hello to Lou down in sunny Florida and until next time..............................Smokem.
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