2011 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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Weekly Blurb 10/3/2011

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Did you like the cooler weather over the weekend? Wind blowing and trees turning and snow in the mountains is a good sign of Fall shooting in North Carolina. There were registered trapshoots in the mountains and in the sandhills with Ft. Bragg reporting. There was also a non-registered shoot near the VA border in Reidsville.
Buckhorn has a two-day trapshooting event this coming weekend and we hope you will be able to attend. At this time the program is to be determined and we should have it posted by Wednesday. I am not quite sure if they will be throwing on the feedbag Saturday night but Jimmy will let me know soon.

Day 1 at Ft. Bragg found John Carter winning the singles, doubles and the HOA. Rick Zino captured the handicap honors and good to see him shooting trap in NC. Day 2 found John Miller winning the singles and the HOA, Karole Miller winning the caps and Dan Johnson winning the doubles with Jimmy Wilson's smokepole. Marty commented that they will crank up their trap program in 2012 and I sure will miss those deep fried Thanksgiving turkey dinner's at Ft. Bragg.

The Rockingham Gun Club hosted their monthly non-registered Lewis Class Fun Shoot Sunday. The weather was a tad windy and we had two squads of shooters. Ronnie Manuel was the high singles shooter and Gary Daniels was the high caps shooter. Yours truly managed to put two mediocre scores together for the top Lewis prize. Roger Shaffer won the 2nd Lewis and pictures and scores are posted in trapshoot results.

I chatted with George Suddreth Saturday morning and it was spitting snow in Boone. They have one more shoot left on their schedule and I do believe it is the "Chicken Wing Fling". Lane and Hunter Murray went on a scout trip with Troop 244 out of St. Pius. They went on the VA Creeper Trail and they rode that 16 miles downhill in the rain and wind. They camped Saturday night and Lane said it rained heavy during the night but he said it was some good sleeping. Dave Daily called Sunday night headed to GA to work at an Air Force Base. He said he had plenty of work until the end of the year but after that he isn't really sure.

It looks like Remington is really taking a licking on trapshooters.com these days. It looks like the shell rebates that folks sent in have either not been filled or lost altogether. You would think that a business like Remington would pay a little better attention to matters susch as this. With their shells beign sold at a premium price the rebates were certainly an incentive to buy their products. Some folks are vowing not to buy their shells no matter what. I guess that blows the theory of trying to buy American.

I am still thinking about that HOF banquet a week back. I did record the festivities and some of the moments are still funny after the fact. I will be doing some private showings of some of how shall we say "tender moments". One thing Jimmy doesn't know is that we were going to put grommmets in the side of that 1zy and fly it on the flagpole so that he would see it Sunday morning. That Dan Johnson thinks of the some of the craziest things.

Jimmy Wilson got him a new piece of wood for his Kolar. It looks like that other piece of wood was killing his shoulder. Just imagine if he had a stock that didn't kill his shoulder, maybe he would have had a 99.90 singles average last season. Good gun fit is important and a gun that kicks isn't any fun either. I have been wrestling with the thought of getting a Pro-Soft installed on my K-Gun. 3000 bucks is a lot of money for a recoil system but eliminating all recoil might be worth 3K.

It looks like the South Carolina Hall Of Fame Shoot will be held at the Greeneville Gun Club this year. It will be a one day shoot that will be held on October the 8th. If I didn't have so much going on I might have been tempted to ride down there and spread some lead. I am sure it will be a great event and we hope to get some scores from that part of the world.

I hope everybody has a great week and we might try to get down to BGC Saturday for a little fellowship. Got to send a shout out to Lou & John, Sparta Lew, Camper Dan, Big 1zy & Buckeye, Thea & Tim, The Miller's, Baxter & Lt., Solomon Brothers, Charlie Brown, BamBam - SpyTwins - Morg, Derven & Carolina Girl, Winky & Shooter, Cliff In MD, Bob in Ohio.................Smokem
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Late Weekly Blurb 10/10/2011

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Good afternoon and we apologize for not making the deadline for the blurb. I was having problems just trying to post the shoot program for the upcoming shoot at Coharie. I have a few topics of interest this week including day 1 of the Ted Smith shoot at the Buckhorn Gun Club.
Mark your calendar and please try to attend the registered trap shoot that will be held at the Coharie Shooting League gun club near Clinton NC. The shoot for September was cancelled due to a low turnout and hopefully everybody will feel bad for not showing up and have a good turnout the 15th. Mac and Al do a great job running the shoot and the lunch is always delicious. If you plan on attending please let them know so that they can plan accordingly for lunch.

I attended the 1st day of the Ted Smith shoot at Buckhorn Saturday. The event was well attended and the weather was perfect. Ed Stevens won the singles, James Tice won the handicap and Greg High won the 100 pair doubles event. James Wilson was on the mark matching both Tice and High in the caps and twins events. Tim Crabtree cooked up some thick cut pork chops and the meal was delicious for sure. Day 1 scores have been posted and I have a few more clips of video to upload tonight. I have Jimmy, Charlie Brown and Greg High shooting doubles and it is quite interesting.

JC Nunn didn’t make it out of the nest Saturday or Sunday due to a sore throat. I have yet to ask him about how he got the scratchy throat. He might have been yelling at the Yankees when they lost game 5. Also, Lewis Wyatt is on the mend after a little cosmetic surgery and hopes to be out shooting very soon.

The 2011 Sand Gnat Open is in the books and we hear that they had a good turnout for the event. John Crook attended along with Richard “TN” Colley, Trey Wilburn and the Peg Crockett to name just a few of the folks that made it. Weather was great until Sunday with wind gust approaching 60 miles per hour in the area. I have never been to the gun club and according to the locals one of the buildings was surgically removed by a tornado sometime back. The tornado also removed some tall pines on the property also. The club has had extensive renovation and they have a pro-shop and several large outdoor seating areas. They will use 10 program traps for the Southern Zone in 2012 and actually have 24 traps on the premises. All this information courtesy of Jackie Roush on her way back from the Sand Gnat location.

Clubs have submitted and other clubs are working on their shoot dates for next year. Hopefully everybody can get dates established that work out for everybody statewide. I know it is tough planning and some dates can have 2 – 4 shoots on one day. Hopefully 2012 will provide some good opportunities for folks to get their targets in before the State shoot and the Grand. As soon as we get the info we will get it posted on TarHeelTrap.com.

Wednesday starts the gathering of the Okeboji at the NC Homegrounds. Folks from all over the US will attend and I hope they have good weather for all four days. If you Google D.H. Eaton he wrote a book in 1921 about early shooting organizations and it is quite an interesting read. The Konne-Yaut Indians are mentioned in the writings also along with the Atlantic Indians.

I took a walk on the wild side yesterday and went to Shane’s Sporting Clays of highway 158. I broke out my trusty 32” Beretta AL-391 and chased targets up, down, overhead, coming at me and going side to side. I do have video of some of the shooting and hope to get that posted sometime this week. It was a rather humbling experience but I had a great time. Greg Fox invited me over a year ago and I finally got a chance to go experience SC shooting for myself.

One thing I missed at the Hall Of Fame was the fact that George Sudderth reached a few milestones in target attainment. On Friday at the HOF he shot and broke his 50,000th handicap target and on Sunday he shot and broke his 50,000th doubles target. I am sure glad he broke those targets and he also has shot 65,400 singles targets once the HOF scores hit the shootata website. We sure missed the Watauga Cartel at the Ted Smith and hope to see them at the Toys 4 Tots shoot next month.

That about wraps it up for now and we hope everybody has a great week. It will be a busy week for me and I have a little traveling to do to destinations unknown. I would like to send a shout out to Lou, Lew, Camper Dan, Big 1zy & Buckeye, Tim & Thea, Charlie Brown, Solomon Brothers, Baxter & Lt., Derven & Donna, HOF Cliff in NJ, Bob in Ohio & Ed Stevens………….Smokem
Last edited by smokem on Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Day Late Weekly Blurb 10/17/2011

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Hello folks and we apologize for not making my Sunday/Monday deadline for the weekly blurb. One interesting thing is that where I am at it is still Monday evening while it is Tuesday morning in North Carolina. Anyway we are glad the site is back up and we thank Justin and Little Jimmy Wilson for bringin it back to life. In the very near future we will need to change the format for the site and move it to a newer content managment offering.
We had one trapshoot last weekend and it was held at the Coharie Shooting League. Gorgeous George Brwon won the singles, Marty Hill won the caps and Mac Herring won the doubles. There was no mention of the HOA winner but it is usually Mac Herring. We have three trapshoots this weekend with two on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Saturday both Watauga and Rockingham will host typical 300 target programs. Watauga will host their annual "Chicken Wing Fling" with John Waters at the grill. Durham County will shoot Sunday and I hear that they are offering a cheaper target fee with no money returned to the shooter. Not sure if that is what they are doing or not and maybe Kim will post their shoot program this week.

Not really sure what else is going on around the State but I did hear that the Hall Of Fame shoot in Greneville went well. I believe they had some rough weather for the event but everybody had a good time. Clay Jones accepted his HOF induction with humility and it couldn't have happened to a nicer man. I also hear that the Okoboji Powow at the Homegrounds was well attended and I don't have much else to report. We are happy that both of these events were well attended.

Nora Ross will be teaching this weekend at the Coharie Shooting League near Clinton NC. I know she is a one-eyed shooter and I believe her husband Randy is a two eyed competitior. Regardless we are looking forward to reports from shooters breaking better scores after the instruction is over. It is great to see these great shooters coming to NC to share their knowledge in the trapshooting sport.

Oh - just about fogot one really important thing. I got an email from a long lost friend and you won't believe who it was. It was the originator of the original TarHeeTrap.com. Chris Andres aka Shadicus sent me an email and I about fell off my chair. He is doing well and is currently trying to sell his Beretta Combo. He sent me some pictures to post and I hope to get them up very soon.

I would like to send a shout out to the following folks. Lou & John, Sparta Lew, Camper Dan, Big 1zy & Buckeye, Thea & Tim, The Miller's, Baxter & Lt., Solomon Brothers, Charlie Brown, BamBam - SpyTwins - Morg, Derven & Carolina Girl, Winky & Shooter, Cliff In NJ, Bob in Ohio, Shad.................Smokem
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Weekly Blurb 10/24/2011

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Good morning and wasn't that one beautiful Carolina blue sky weather weekend? We had four trapshoots in North Carolina this weekend and three have reported scores - thanks VERY much. We really appreciate folks taking the time to get scores posted in a timely manner. Folks really enjoy reading about shoots that they might not be able to attend.
Hopefully we will get a report from the Nora Ross clinic at Coharie. I would be interested to see who took the clinic and they should be breaking better scores in the very near future. She is a true "one-eyed" shooter and I believe her husband is a "two-eyed" shooter so that they can cover both styles. I thought about going to two eyed shooting but I nixed that idea.

I want you to keep a couple of folks in your prayers in the next few weeks. Andrew Carroll is going to have hip surgery this coming Friday the 28th. I know that he won't be down long and will be doing his rehab just like he is supposed to. Some of the Buckhorn faithful gathered together Saturday to split wood to get Andrew ready for the winter. Those are some true friends that would work that hard to help a friend. Also we were informed that Rockingham trap chairman Tom Cox will be having knee surgery in the next few weeks. He will be down but not out and we have about 6 weeks of recovery time before he is out and about. We wish both of these fellows the best and we will keep you posted.

One trapshoot is scheduled for this weekend with Old Hickory in Bostic hosting their monthly registered shoot. Bill Howe and Billy Thigpen will be assisting Ms. Lillian run the shoots and dot the paperwork. We wish them the best and I hope they have a great turnout this weekend. Looking a little farther into the schedule Buckhorn will host a two day shoot the first weekend of November. I believe that this is their "Toys For Tots" shoot and I believe it is normally a one day event. This is always well attended and we hope that this will be the biggest toy haul ever for the children.

Durham County had a great turnout Sunday and we they had some good scores broken also. John Miller won the singles with a 98, Glenn Alford won the caps with an 87 and Charlie Brown took the doubles with a 95 and the HOA with a 274. It sounds like the lunch was to die for and I am sure shooters appreciate the lower target fees. It looks like Ed Stevens is making the rounds and it is great to see him in this part f the state. Ed Rabenda also showed up to shoot and it has been awhile since we have seen him out and about. Mark your calendars for Novemeber 20th when DCWC hosts their next monthly shooting event.

The Watauga Gun Club held their annual "Wing Fling" Saturday and the weather was nice in the mountains. Tom Pittsl reported frost in the morning and near perfect temps when the sun came out. Tom Shelley managed to outfilp Jim Jacobs for singles honors when they posted 98's. Sparta Lew Wyatt won the handicap with a 92 and outbirded mid-yardage winner Lane Murray by one target. George Sudderth pulled one out of his hat (that wasn't the word Shelley used) and managed to win the doubles with a 96 broken 8-8-10-10-10 - 50 straight. He also won the HOA with a 276. Tom Pitts wanted everybody to know that he beat Tom Shelley by 4 targets in the HOA. Food was delish with John Waters cooking some of his world famous Watauga Wings. I think Lewis took some pictures and we will try to get them posted as soon as possible. Shelley wanted Pitts to know that he better be ready for the Toys For Tots at Buckhorn. So don't magically find something to do so that you don't show up Tom Pitts. It will be a long cold winter for Shelley if you don't give him a chance to whip you at BGC.

Last but not least the Rockingham Gun Club hosted their monthly shoot and the weather was great. Virginia gentleman Charley Rinehart led all singles shooters with a 99. JC Nunn nipped 27 yarder Keith Ansley by one target to win the singles and Ronnie Manuel won the doubles with a 92 and the HOA with a 261. Ronnie struggled with handicap and asked me about the tape I had on my left lense. I told him that the piece of tape on my glasses cost me 350 dollars. He looked stunned until I explained that the tape deal was a suggestion by Phil Kiner when he filmed me cross-firing using the "Magic-Dot". Anyway - he went to his first aid kit and put a piece of tape along the top of his left lense. He went out and broke a 49 in doubles. I believe he said that was the 1st 49 he had ever broken in doubles. Everybody had a great time at the Rock and mark your calendars for the 12th of November.

We had some folks traveling over the weekend and they included Lew Wyatt, Lane Murray, Hunter and Jeff Galloway and Dave Daily. Lewis went camping at Watauga to shoot and visit his son Steve. Lane and Hunter went to Watauga for Lane to shoot and then Hunter had a boyscout camping function in the NC mountains. Hunter and his wife took off to Bald Head Island and Jeff was treated to a Panther/Redskin game by his girlfriends father. Last but not least Dave Daily is on a cruise with about 60 folks that live in his housing development. Also - I left last Sunday for Las Vegas and got back to NC Thursday. We had a great time and did a little traveling that include the Red Rock area and also the new bridge that was built near the Hoover Dam. I will try to post some pictures this week and I will publish the link.

Just a brief note that I read on Trapshooters.com - before the note - I am now posting my NC thread in the section in Trapshooters.com that lists shoots and trapshooting events. It is below shooting related threads and above the for sale section. I read that Harlan Campbell will be inducted into the ATA trapshooting Hall Of Fame. It couldn't happen to a nicer fellow and it is well deserved. It would certainly be worth attending the Grand in 2012 just to see him inducted.

Ok - that is about all I have to share and it looks like this blurb will be on time. Like I have mentioned before, we might be moving to a newer format in the next month or so. It will be just as easy to read and hopefully we will be able to post stories with pictures and video links on the front page. I want to send a shout out to Lou, Lew, Charlie Brown, Camper Dan, Big 1zy & Buckeye, Tim & Thea, CGirl & Derven, Ken & Joy, Jacki & Terry, John & Karole, Solomon Brothers, Braxton & Lt., Cliff in NJ, Bob in Ohio, Ed In Shelby, BamBam - Ms. Kitty - Spy Twins and others too numerous to list................Smokem

P.S. - I am wanting to place an order for shell cutters and will get a $5 discount for orders of 6 or more. If you are interested I have orders for 4 at the moment and we can share the cost of shipping. Send me an email fcr7@yahoo.com soon if you are interested - price to you is $30 and whatever the share of the shipping cost is......
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Weekly Blurb 10/31/2011

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Good morning and what a great weekend in North Carolina. Saturday was a little cool and breezy and I am looking forward to the shoot report from Old Hickory. I slipped up to Rockingham Saturday just took it easy and didn’t even fire a shot.
Buckhorn will host their annual “Toys For Tots” shoot this weekend and this year it will be a two-day event. Please bring a NEW toy or a donation for this worthy cause. The program will be 100 of each discipline each day. It looks like the Watauga Cartel or a portion of them will attend the event. As I predicted Tom Pitts won’t be able to attend for some abstract reason like a friend coming into town – come on Pitts!

It looks like the Ft. Bragg folks will host their “Turkey Shoot” the 19th and we just got it posted this week. There is something odd about eating Thanksgiving dinner at a gun club prior to the actual holiday meal being served. We have always enjoyed this shoot and we hope the weather cooperates. Greg High and Marty hill put on a great shoot and hopefully they will have a great turnout the 19th.

According to Jimmy Wilson, Andrew Carroll came out of his hip replacement surgery with flying colors. They had him sitting up in a chair and he was experiencing some pain which is expected for sure. Also, Lewis Wyatt will be going under the knife this week for a knee replacement and we wish him well. That leaves Tom Cox and he will have one of his knees done the 5th of December. We will try to report on their progress as they recuperate.

We decided to crank the chat room backup and have already drug up Marty Hill, Jimmy Wilson, Terry Jordan, Richard Colley and Don Sutton. We get in the room about 9PM every night and you just never know who will show up. I chatted with Bruce Forbes and he is in Thunder Bay Ontario Canada. He has quit hunting but loves to ride his Harley Davidson motorcycle. We have sent out about 50 invites and if you would like the link please email me at freddydacrusher@hotmail.com.

I want to send a shout out to Lou, Lew, Charlie Brown, Camper Dan, Big 1zy & Buckeye, Tim & Thea, CGirl & Derven, Ken & Joy, Jacki & Terry, John & Karole, Solomon Brothers, Braxton & Lt., Cliff in NJ, Bob in Ohio, Ed In Shelby, BamBam - Ms. Kitty - Spy Twins.......smokem
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Weekly Blurb 11/7/2011

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Another week has passed and another week closer to Thanksgiving. The Holiday season is upon us and it won't be long before we will be stuffed with turkey and the fixings. Both Rockingham and Ft. Bragg will be providing lunches with a Thanksgiving twist. Rockingham will be serving a ham lunch and Ft. Bragg will offer deep fried turkeys at their trapshoot.
Buckhorn hosted a two-day Toys For Tots shoot and many toys were donated for the Marines to distribute this year. Saturday weather was clear and super cool with Sunday a little less windy and temps in te mid 60's by 2PM. Saturday - Ronnie Manuel won the singles, John Miller won the caps and Morg Shaw won the dubs and the HOA. Sunday - Winky Mabe won the singles, Kevin Parrott won the caps and the dubs with Richard Drake winnign the HOA. Buckhorn will shoot next the 4th of December and will open the new year on January 1st 2012.

Andrew Carroll is still in rehab and we hope that he will be able to come home soon. Lewis Wyatt had surgery Friday and we have yet to hear how he is doing after the knee replacement. That leaves Tom Cox who will have his knee done the 5th of December. I also heard that Gail Page was a little under the weather Sunday and we hope she gets to feeling better. I also want you to keep Berk Stephens in your prayers while he is dealing with his illness.

I am looking forward to getting my hands on a shoot schedule for 2012. It will be interesting to see how the shoots line up for the coming year. I have always wanted to create a shoot calendar with pictures that I have taken over the years. There are a lot of places that print those and I guess I just need to bite the bullet and have some done. With all of the smart phones you wonder just how many folks actually still use a wall calendar.

I have been keeping in touch with JC Nunn and he is doing fine. Ever since he quit smoking he has been feeling much better and coughing a lot less. I called him the other day and he said that he got nine letters in the mail wanting money. He was in the process of shredding all the documents and he didn't have any money to send them. I told him that I was going to send him a letter also asking for money and he just laughed. He said he would be at the Rock this Saturday for the shoot.

Rockingham Gun Club hosted a Skeet fun shoot the 5th and it was a 4-gun shoot. If I am not mistaken David Sink won the event and I hope to get a few more details. Winky Mabe shot the event on Saturday and shot and won the singles Sunday at Buckhorn. Buckhorn is hosting a singles league on Wednesday nights and I believ they are two weeks into the event. At this time Chuck Woody is leading the pack with many more targets to come.

Rockingham has two more Lewis Class shoots in the schedule and we have added a new feature this year and we would like to call it the Lewis Class Shootout. All the mothly winners during the year will step to the line in a singles shootout until the last man/woman is standing. It should be fun and it will be interesting to see how many rounds it will go before it is settled. We have had pretty good participation at these non-registered events.

The yearly newsletter that Terry Roush publishes should be in the mail before too long. It will probably confirm what we all know and that is shooting is a bit down this year. Everybody can theorize what the cause is and it could be many reasons. Everything from the economy, high target fees, higher cost for shells & components, folks not playing the options and let's face it the trophies are getting interesting to say the least.

I know folks shoot for a lot of reasons but one of the things folks expect and that is a decent trophy. If some clubs and this includes state shoots published pictures of their offerings prior to the event some folks would save their money and look elsewhere to participate. Hopefully the trophies that we provide at our state events will meet the expectations of the shooters that spend their money to compete to win them.

I hope everybody has a great week and it looks like I have Friday off this week. I want to give a shot out to Lou & John, Lew, Charlie Brown, Dan The Man, Jim & Buckeye, Tim & Thea, John Boy & Karole, Derven & Donna, Duncan's & Roush's, The Solomon Brothers, Addsion & Jim, Charlie & Braxton, Cliff in NJ, Bob in Ohio, Gary in MD, Dave in SC, Morg - SPY2 - SPY1 - BamBam and the McKinney's - If I missed anybody please forgive me...............Smokem
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Weekly Blurb 11/14/2011

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Veteran's Day is over for another year and we would like to thank all that served and all that are serving our great country. Without the sacrifice of our soldiers I doubt that we could enjoy the freedom we have today. It is hard to believe the direction our country is heading under the present leadership. We can only hope that things will change soon before it is forever too late.
Several folks have had surgery in the last few weeks and it looks like everybody is doing fine. I don't know whether Andrew Carroll is out of rehab yet but he is doing well. Lewis Wyatt is back home and sounds great on the phone and hope to be out and shooting by December. JC had a little accident Tuesday and had to head to the doctor in a rush. He is going to be fine and hopefully will shoot this Sunday at the LCS at the Rock.

We had a good day to shoot Saturday and the weather was almost perfect. Ronnie Manuel and Tommy Brown shotoff for the singles with Ronnie breaking 50 straight. Tommy won the handicap with a 93 and the doubles with a 91. Tommy also won the HOA with 97 - 93 - 91 for a 281 x 300. Everybody had a great time and we were treated to a ham lunch with all of the fixings. We wont be holding a registered shoot on the 10th of December as previously scheduled.

There are three shoots coming up ths weekend. Ft. Bragg will be offering some added monies and some deep fried turkey for your eating pleasure. Gastonia will also host a registered shoot the 19th with a typical 300 target program. Durham County will host a registered shoot the 20th with $16 targets and they always have a great lunch.

For those of you that frequent trapshooters.com there is a fellow there that goes by Hap McTweaks. He has been shooting for many years and has been very vocal about the ATA's decision years ago to provide an easier target for the competition shooter. I got the scores from Spartanburg and lo and behold one of his relatives won the singles and the handicap. I believe his name is Lonnie Hapney Jr. and I hope to get to meet him one day. I feel like Hap will come to either NC or SC from his home state of Arizona to shoot - hopefully.

About this time of year the shoot schedule is getting finalized for the upcoming year. Hopefully some thought will go into making sure that shoots aren't on top of each other. Some shoots have seen some increases in attendance but overall attendance has been down. Most folks are picking the good weather days to shoot so that they can get their targets in so they won't have to shoot penalty at the bigger shoots. January - February and March can be iffy for good days to shoot and before you know it the state shoots start cranking up.

We hope everybody is getting ready for the holiday season. I was coming back from the club Saturday and twisted 99.1 up and heard my first Christmas music of the season. For some this is a joyous time and for others it can be pretty tough due to economics and also the loss of loved ones. I try not to take folks for granted and use the holidays to call people that I don't talk to all the time. As a whole our trapshooting family is aging and if you haven't talked to some of your old shooting friends lately call them up to say hello, you might just make their holiday a little brighter.

I hope everybody has a great week and just one week until Thanksgiving week and the holiday weekend. I would like to send a shout out to Lou & John, Lew, Charlie Brown, Dan, Jim & Jeri, Duncan & Roush family, Cornett's, Solomon Brothers, Cliff in NJ, Bob in Ohio, Watauga Cartel, Tim & Thea, Phil Davis and everybody else...............Smokem
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Thanksgiving Blurb 11/21/2011

Post by smokem »

Good morning to all and let me be the first to say Happy Thanksgiving from all of the staff at TarHeelTrap.com. We hope that this week will be a joyous time for your family to give thanks for everything we enjoy in this great US of A. Also our thoughts and prayers go out to all of our service men and women stationed all over the world.
There were four shooting events in North Carolina and I have scores from only one event. Hopefully we will get the shoot reports Monday for Durham, Ft. Bragg and Gastonia. Ronnie Manuel broke a solid 93 to secure his spot in the Lewis Class Shootout the 4th of December. Currenly there are nine shooters that have qualified for the singles shootout.

I will take a moment to report on all our folks that have had surgery in the last few weeks. Andrew Carroll is home and we called him this week and he sounded great. He is hoping to be out and about real soon. We dropped by to see Lewis Wyatt Sunday and he is doing great and looks great also. He hopes to be able to shoot at the Rock LCS the 4th of December. JC's hand is mending well and he shot Sunday matter of fact and shot pretty well but not good enough to get any yardage.

The "tentative" official 2012 shoot calendar has been published and we will try to get it posted or at least a link published Monday. Looks like there will be a whole lot of shooting going on in 2012 and we hope shoots aren't all stacked up on top of each other. I am going to do my best to get out and visit a little more often in 2012.

Sure is a mess over on old trapshooters.com. Folks talking trash with personal attacks and threats of lawsuits, what is the trapshooting world coming to? Evidently there is a feeling that targets are being set easier than in the olden days and folks are wanting the harder targets to be thrown again. I have a hard enough time shooting the easier birds much less shooting harder ones.

The chatroom has been quiet here lately and we hope we see a little more actvity in the near future. It is going to be a long cold winter so jump in the room and I guarantee you can sharpen up your typing skills quick. If you need an invite just drop me an email at freddydacrusher@hotmail.com.

JC and I are putting our travel schedule together for 2012 and it includes a new state shoot for me. We are looking at GA - SC - NC - Konne-Yaut - Grand American - NCHOF. We might get to shoot some local shoots and might slip up into VA for a few events in 2012. I have always wanted to attend the Georgia state shoot and it might be a good start to the season. I went to the Southern Grand in 2011 and didn't shoot too good so a change of scenery might be nice. Also, with NC not hosting a location for the 2012 Zone I am 350 miles from Berea or Savannah I might sit it out again next year. It will be interesting to see the numbers in 2012 for the Zone.

I am getting little sleepy and I am going to call it a weekend. I hope everybody has a great week and please do not overeat and make your self all miserable and lethargic and drowsy. I am looking forward to turkey, ham, dressing, cranberry sauce, chic-fil-a chicken strips, macaroni-n-cheese, green beans, candied yams, squash casserole, chicken casserole, potato salad, macaroni salad, creamed corn, deviled eggs, fatback meat, creasy greens, crescent rolls with honey butter and how about dessert's? I think I will skip the dessert after all of that food:)

To all my friends in the trapshooting community I would like to send a blanket shout out to everybody that takes a moment to read the weekly blurb. I haven't missed a week all year and have only been late a few weeks (some due to technical difficulties). I don't know if I will be able to keep it up in 2012 unless I hear from you. I need input, dirt, funny stuff, sad stuff, crazy stuff, even birthdays with a truthful age reported. I try not to make stuff up but most of you know I can pile it pretty deep pretty fast.
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Weekly Blurb 11/28/2011

Post by smokem »

One down and the big one to go here in a few weeks. Thanksgiving was great for me and my family and we hope everybody had a great holiday. The weather was warm and the skies were clear Friday and Saturday with a few clouds moving in Sunday. We rode up to the Rock Friday and I packed a plate of leftovers and a piece of pumpkin pie. It sure was nice sitting in the sun partaking of that fine food.
We have been trying to keep everybody up to date on the fellows that have gone through surgery lately. Andrew is out and about and actually showed up at Buckhorn the day BGC hosted a group from Duke University. Jimmy said Andrew was walking with a cane and getting around quite nicely. Lewis Wyatt is faring well and hopes to be able to compete at the Lewis Class shoot at the Rock this Saturday. Lewis is aware that JC is getting a lot of practice in while he is on the mend. That leaves one more in line to get a limb fixed and that is Tom Cox and his surgery is the 5th. We will keep you posted on his progress as he goes through the healing and rehab process.

I got an email from Jim Callan with some info about both the Ft. Bragg and Durham shoots. Evidently Addison got his gun back and it was super tight to open which caused him some hand strain. Jim didn't really have a theory for the lower scores at Bragg and my question is about whether they slipped some of those hard as a brick Lawry targets into the traps? Jim mentioned something about a bath house that has been built and I can't wait to get some pictures of that new addition. He also mentioned that Marty outdid himself again with his deep fried turkey dinner and all the fixins. Jim also gave me a bit of info about the Durham shoot since we didn't get a shoot report from the event. I have no idea who won what and that is about it. Jim told me that Addison has a friend that has been sick and in and out of the hospital at UNC Chapel Hill. His friend has Wegener's granulomatosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wegener's_granulomatosis ) and it has been rough on the youngster. So, please keep Cory Vandiver in your prayers and also his family as they battle this illness.

We called a few folks over the weekend and folks were either traveling or really busy preparing the family feast. JC had his son and family over to his house and he was pretty full when I called him Thursday. His hand is doing much better and he was out in his building loading a little magic for the shoot this weekend. Hunter Galloway had about 20 over for dinner Thursday and then headed to Bald Head Island for the weekend. I called him Saturday and he was riding around Bald Head in the golf cart with 78 degree temperatures. I found Dave Daily in Ft. Wayne Indiana visiting his son and he had quite a travel schedule during the holiday. He has been shooting a bit at Myrtle Grove GC and hopes to get a few birds in before the South Carolina State Shoot. Jimmy Wilson was going to do what I wanted to do and that was to eat out for the turkey day meal. With K&W, Cracker Barrel and Golden Corral cooking the bird it sure was tempting. We had dinner here in Jamestown Thursday night and the food was great for sure and no turkey. We are not sure what the menu will be for the Christmas holiday yet but I am sure it will be good.

We had one registered shoot the 26th and it was hosted by the folks at Old Hickory Rifle & Pistol. It looks like they had an ok turnout and it must have been windy looking at the scores. We thank George Ponton for getting me the shoot info and we appreciate him helping Lillian with the shoot paperwork. Please make a note that the BIG50 shoot at Old Hickory@Bostic will be held the 6th and not the 8th as previously scheduled. This coming weekend we have a registered shoot at the Buckhorn Gun Club on the 4th. I haven't checked the weather and I hope it will be nice for the weekend however it might be cooler. I also added the shoot for Spartanburg the 4th after Ron Burdick posted the info on trapshooters.com.

Rockingham cancelled the registered shoot for the 10th and this weekend we will have our last monthly Lewis Class shoot starting at 10 o'clock. We decided to do something a little different to wrap up the season and that will involve a singles shootout for all the monthly winners. The monthly winners include Roger Shaffer, Winky Mabe, Ronnie Manuel, Lewis Wyatt, Lane Murray, JC Nunn, Roger Haney, Tommy Brown, Freddy Redmon and whoever might win this Saturday. The 1st 50 targets in the Lewis Class Shoot will count towards the shootout. If a new person wins the 100 bird event he/she will be included regardless of their first 50 singles target total. It should be fun for everybody and we will get some pictures if possible since I will be shooting also.

If you pay any attention to Trapshooters.com the theme seems to be how to change the ATA to make the targets harder to sort of even the playing field. How could that attract more folks by making them shoot harder targets, not sure of the thinking there. I was reading the job description for the hopefully soon to be hired executive director of the ATA. One of his job responsibilities is to bring more money into the ATA coffers among other important things a director does. I guess my big question is how to attract shooters to a sport that costs more for targets, shells, fees, travel, food, gas and a sport that seems to favor certain people at certain times at certain places. Not to mention the lack of vision of some organizations to provide adequate trophies for competition events. I have never thought trapshooting was a poor man’s sport but something has got to give. My wife asked me how long I thought I would continue shooting trap and my comment to her was as long as I could feel my finger.

Right now I am gathering my information to make reservations for GA, SC, NC, VA State shoots, Konne-Yaut Indians, Grand American and the NCHOF. You may see me at a local shoot here and there hopefully but if I am going to burn gas it will mean I will be shooting multiple days if possible. Sharing expenses with the tailgunner has made travel and lodging less expensive but I can't quite seem to convince him to sponsor my shooting expenses also. I really like traveling and shooting and if I ever hit the lottery I will put a GPS on my tour bus so you can track me traveling around the nation.

The Christmas season is upon us and we have a lot to be thankful for. We have a great trapshooting community and some of the best gun clubs in the nation. I am also thankful for our North Carolina home grounds what a great place to shoot. All of the folks that have sacrificed to make the home grounds possible might be considered to be saints and I sort of like the sound of Saint Ken and Saint Bob and I am sure there are many more others to recognize. I have been organizing some pictures and I always manage to view a picture of some of our trapshooting family that has gone on to their reward. As I mentioned in a previous blurb take the time this holiday season to reconnect with a loved one or a person that meant a lot to you along the way. You just never know when it will be the last time you will either see or talk to that special person.

It is going to be a busy week for me with budget figures to be figured. I hope everybody has a great week and we might get to see some of you at the Rock or at BGC. I want to send a shout out (in no particular order) to Lou & John, Lew, NC Dan, Jim & Jeri, Thea & Tim, Derven & Donna, Roush & Duncan's, Solomon Brothers, Callan's, Galloway's, Woody's, Charlie Brown, Cliff in MD, Bob in Ohio, Ron in SC, Braxton & Lt., Ed in Shelby, George P, Dean E and if I missed anybody please let me know. And as Ike Turner would say on the John Boy & Billy show - Peace out........

I apologize for all the typo errors - just ran a spell check - whew!
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Weekly Blurb 12/5/2011

Post by smokem »

You just can't complain about the beautiful weather we had this weekend. I know that very soon it will get more and more like wintertime and hopefully more folks will show up in the chatroom. There were two shooting events over the weekend and we will talk about that a little later. Before we get too deep into the blub there is one more shoot left in December and that is the 6th at the Old Hickory R&PC. It will be there last BIG50 of the 2011 season.
We have good news to report and it involves Lewis Wyatt and Andrew Carroll. Saturday Lewis broke the highest handicap score of the day and still got whipped by his nemesis JC Nunn in the 100 target total. He looked good and was moving a little slow and cautious on that new knee. Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing Andrew Carroll and he was a little thinner and moving well. He won the singles Sunday with a solid 97 and the top score. He is in good spirits and is sure glad he isn't in that rehab facility anymore. Please pray for Tom Cox because he goes under the knife Monday morning.

Saturday the Rockingham Gun Club hosted their last Lewis Class shoot of the 2011 saeson. 25 shooters stepped to the line to secure the last spot in the Lewis Class Singles Shootout. Ronnie Manuel lead all singles shooters with the only 49 and Lewis Wyatt broke a 47 that lead all handicap shooters. Jr shooter Andrew Kung and Tommy Brown led all shooters with 92's and that got Drew into the shootout. Nine shooters stepped to the line including JC Nunn, Charley Rinehart, Andrew Kung, Tommy Brown, Roger Haney, Ronnie Manuel, Winky Mabe, Lewis Wyatt and yours truly Freddy Redmon. After the 1st 25 two were left standing and that was Tommy Brown and Charley Rinhart. They stepped to the line and Charley wound up dropping two with Tommy running the trap. Everybody had fun and it was good to see all the new faces and some shooting the LCS for the very first time.

Sunday the Buckhorn Gun Club held their monthly registered shoot and the weather was great. Andrew Carroll won the singles with a 97, Ike Branthwaite won the handicap with a 95 and John Miller won the doubles and the HOA. Jeri cooked up some of her now famous Lasagna and it was super tasty. As folks prepared to shoot the handicap Gail, Karole and I organized all of the Toys For Tots toys and it was two eight foot tables full. I got pictures and video of all the goodies and there will be some happy little children Christmas morning due to some thoughtful trapshooters.

Three squads stepped to the line for the handicap and when it was all over Ike Branthwaite had the top score for the event. There were only two scores in the nineties with Gail Page breaking the 90. The wind wasn't blowing and maybe I will balme it on the angle of the sun. Then the fun event began with two squads taking the line for doubles. John Miller won the doubles and went on to win the the HOA with a 267 out of 300. I had a great time and actually shot some doubles and I actually won my class and four bucks.. Everybody had a great time and I got to meet and shoot with Michael Isray from Wake Forest.

I called Hunter Galloway today and he was in Dayton Ohio for a meeting with the ATA. I am not sure of what all they have in the agenda and I believe Terry Roush is up there also for the meeting. The ATA is looking for ways to promote trapshooting and bring more folks into the fold and hopefully keep the members that are currently on the books. Times are tough and money is tight and I believe we are likely to see a decrease in shooter participation even in 2012. We wish the ATA the best and we hope they will come up with ways to bolster our ranks in the near future.

We have published the 2012 North Carolina trapshoot calendar and please take a look at it. There will be some tweaks so be sure to pay attention, we wouldn't want you to show up to a club only to find no shoot is being held. I cut and pasted a shootdate for Buckhorn and neglected to change the doubles info from 100 pair to 50 pair. Typos can really kill you when folks depend on your info being somewhat correct. It looks like there will be plenty of places to shoot in NC in 2012 and like I said I hope to visit a little more next year.

Only 20 days until Christmas and what are you getting for Christmas this year? I would personally like a Pro-Soft stock for my Kolar and 3k to 4k is a lot of money to shell out. It would be nice to find about 10 flats of light 2 3/4 7.5 STS shells under the pine tree. I wonder if Santa can haul a pallet of Estates over to my house in Jamestown. Regardless of what we will or won't get the greatest give of all is good health and that is priceless for sure.

I know everybody read or heard about all of the flooding that hit the NC mountains last week. Then it turned around and snowed abot 2 -3 three inches right after the flooding. What if all of that rain had been snow - how many feet of snow would have been piled up? Tom Shelley tolsd me that the Watauga Gun Club was ok and that Tom Pitts and his son got all the traps out of the houses prior to the flooding! Before you know it we will be back up in Boone shooting - hurry up and come on Spring!

That is about all I have for now and we hope you have a great shopping week ahead. I will be on call for Christmas and I do vividly remember sitting at the High Point jail booking desk working on a check cashing printer problem. It was tough knowing that my family was opening presents and eating dinner with me at work. I thought I had it bad until I thought of all the service personnel all over the world and some in harms way.

Take care and I want to send a shout out to Lou & John, Lew, Charlie Brown, Cup Cake Johnson, Jim & Jeri, Thea & Tim, Donna & Darvin, Roush, Duncan & Galloway families, Karole & John, Solomon Brothers, The Ragan's, Cliff In NJ, Bob in Ohio, The Woody's, ISZY, McKinney's and all ya'll out there in WWW land.................smokem......
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Weekly Blurb 12/12/2011

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Can you believe there are only 13 days until Christmas 2011? It is that time of year again and according to the media the "poor" economy isn't keeping shoppers out of the stores. Scam artists are also at work and it looks like some are raiding accounts when they write checks at Wal-Mart. They get your routing number and make a check that they pawn off somewhere else. I guess you could call that the gift that keeps on giving.
This last weekend was clear and cool and a bit brisk at times. We took a trip up to the Rock Saturday to test out some 7/8's ounce loads using the Alliant powder Extra-Lite. I twisted up two boxes and used the IM choke in the Kolar. I smoked the targets I hit and the ones I missed I just missed. Should be a good load to practice with this winter. JC drove up to give his powder scale to JT to test out and see if it was off in any way. JC asked JT how old did he think the scale was and JT said I have no idea. JC bought that powder scale in 1964 the year I started shooting trap.

As reported last week Andrew Carroll and Lewis Wyatt are out and about after major surgeries. Tom Cox made it through knee replacement surgery and is resting well at home in Reidsville. We will be staying in touch with him to see how his rehab is going. Both Lane Murray and I are fighting some type of winter allergy bug and I hope Lane gets to feeling better. Last week was pretty rough for me breathing and I hope this week is much better.

We took a look at the ATA delegate letter that was published by Terry Roush. I wonder if other state's get this type of informative into on their doorstep every Christmas season? I would personally like to thank Terry for doing such a great job and for also mentioning this website in his articles throughout the year in Trap & Field. Terry also does a great job with NCTRAP.com and maintaining a website can take a lot of time for sure.

Terry and Jackie put a lot of miles on the motorhome this year and I know Terry loves to travel. Terry mentioned all of the improvements on the homeground and now we have showers on the grounds. Bill Howe was the high target attainment leader again this year with 24,800 which eclipsed his 2010 total by a few 100 birds. Eleven NC shooters became members of the 10,000 club which was a decrease from the total in 2010. Tom Pitts did a great job with the NC State Team Points system and he even had George Sudderth giving him a hand.

Two North Carolina shooters were selected for ATA All American honors and they include and Sub-Jr and a Sr-Vet. Addison Callan wound up 8th place on the Sub-Junior First Team with 851 points. Charlie Brown was 2nd place on the Senior Vet First Team with 1443 points. All I can say is congrats to the both of you and North Carolina is proud of you both. I takes time, talent and tons of money to make the AA teams last time I checked.

According to the newsletter North Carolina gun clubs threw over 669,000 targets in the 2011 target year. That was about a 75,000 target decrease from the previous year. Terry's observations point to the contributing factor's of the downturn and believes that the decrease really isn't that bad with the overall economy in flux. He also gave props to the Buckhorn, Old Hickory@Bostic and the Rockingham GC for having the top three target throwing clubs for the year.

Terry also commented on the great job the NCTHOF and NCATA did in 2012 and the great job Bob Keever and Billy Thigpen did during the year. My observation is that we are blessed to have such a great Homgrounds and I know that NC is the envy of other clubs around the country. Terry mentioned that all contributions to the NCTHOF are tax deductible if you are looking for a tax deduction this year.

All this information can be found on http://www.nctrap.com. Our State Team for the year was Captain John Miller, Tom Brown, Jim Wilson, George Sudderth and Ray Gaultney. Women Captain Karole Miller - Junior Captain Chase Reese - SubJr Captain Addsion Callan - Vet Captain Billy Thigpen and SrVet Captain Charlie Brown. Our NC High Average leaders for the year are Jim Wilson 93.7361% - Tom Brown 93.3419% - Jeff Galloway 92.8700% - Brad Barnett 92.7353% and George Sudderth 92.2051%. Women - Karole Miller 88.4906%, Junior - Chase Reese 91.2857%, SubJr - Addison Callan 88.8013%, Vet - George Brown 90.4878% and SrVet - Charlie Brown 93.5122%. Great job guys and gals - real good shooting!

Last but not least it looks like Charlie Brown is only 3,250 targets from reaching 109,850 targets to tie Ken Duncan for the doubles Life-Time High Target Attainmant. Charlie is at the top of the list in singles with 156,400 singles and 131,550 handicap at the time of this writing. Charlie has always been a great ambassador for the State Of NC and for trapshooting in general. That is a lot of shooting and I always enjoy taking the time to watch him shoot in competition!

Talking about target attainment I read on trapshooters .com that our friend Bernie Warnowicz got his 25,000 singles pin and certificate this weekend. That fellow loves to shoot and he has some nice equipment to do it with. He is always fun to be around and he has a very distinct call on the line. I believe he is living in Maryland after looking at his shoot list on shootata.com. Maybe we will see him at the Dogwood this year if he can get off of work.

While you are digging in at work Monday morning Dave and June Daily will be heading to Cancun Mexico until the 23rd of December. He called me the other day on his way to the Atlanta airport for a flight to Myrtle Beach. You would think that his travel schedule would slow down but that might not happen in the near future. The internet is a great thing and Dave got an email from a fellow that Dave took under his wing when the kid was 10 years old. He is a very successful fellow and gets out to the club to shoot once in awhile.

We went to the Rockingham County Gun Club Christmas party Monday the 5th. The meeting was well attended and we had the honor of having Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page speak at the gathering. He is a great speaker and is hoping to add another 2000 to the already existing 3000 concealed to carry permit holders in his county. We also had the pleasure of running into Jim Roland and Jim told me that he always wanted to learn how to shoot trap and I believe his wish might come true this Christmas.

One last thing before I retire and I just watched the Giants whip them stinking Cowboys. Also, The Galloway family including Andy got the watch the Skins get beat by the Pats today in Washington. They got back in GSO about 11:45 Sunday night. I read on the ATA website that the 2011 100,000 challenge that was held in Sparta will be aired December 28th. It will be aired on the "Versus" channel at 4pm - 8:30PM and 12 midnight Eastern time. I will be looking forward to seeing how Jim Scoutten will make trapshooting look exciting to watch to the non trapshooting audience.

Take care and I want to send a shout out to Lou & John, Lew, Charlie Brown, Dan "The Man" Johnson, Jim & Jeri, Thea & Tim, Donna & Darvin, Roush, Duncan & Galloway families, Karole & John, Solomon Brothers, The Ragan's, Cliff In NJ, Bob in Ohio, The Woody's, ISZY, McKinney's and all ya'll out there in WWW land.................smokem......
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Weekly Blurb 12/19/2011

Post by smokem »

I was checking the mail and I didn't see any early Christmas presents from the peanut gallery? Hopefully you have everything checked off your Christmas list and you can enjoy this week wiithout any added stress. Traffic was thick around Greensboro today and folks were out just a shopping. We had the pleasure of getting out of the house Sunday to shoot a bit and we will talk about that here in a bit.
I personally would like to wish all of our trapshooting family a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. I have managed to actually post a blurb every Monday for the last 51 weeks and I am wondering if I can keep it up for the New Year 2012. I get a little feedback from folks and most of it is very positive. Jim Wilson has stated that he thinks I am a very sick individual and what does he know anyway. I have toyed with doing a "1 minute" video update for upcoming events and I might give it a try. What could it hurt? Trapshooting by itself could be pretty boring but when you add the people that is where trapshooting gets exciting!

Ft. Bragg hosted a shoot Saturday and had a pretty good turnout. Lewis Wyatt said the rain held off and the wind would get to whipping around when the clouds moved in. John Miller won the singles, doubles and HOA with Travis Alfrey winning the caps event. Marty said to look for Bragg to be back shooting in March 2012 but to keep and eye on this site just in case they host and early "good weather" shoot. Bragg is a great place to shoot and one of only three clubs in NC that hurl an all orange target. Gastonia hurls an all orange Lawry and Buncombe hurls an all orange White Flyer Bio.

From all indications Andrew Carroll and Lewis Wyatt are pretty much back to normal after their surgeries and that is great to hear. Tom Cox spent about 5 hours at the Rock Saturday and he has about a month before he gets back to the grindstone. JT Brewer feels like he will be the next to get a knee and I told him to go ahead and get it over with. It is really amazing what they can do with hips and knees and shoulders these days!

I slipped up to the Rock Sunday for a little practice and the weather was great. We got to shoot with Hunter, Jeff, Ronnie Manuel and Lewis Wyatt. We shot some singles and 50 pair of doubles and had a great time! I have been working on doubles and got a tip from Jimmy Wilson that he got from Dan Johnson "according to Dan". I use to shoot some pretty good scores and maybe it will get better this season. Looking at the 2012 schedule Rockingham will return to registered shooting in the month of March. We hope to get our Lewis Class shoot schedule posted real soon.

Only 5 weeks until the Dixie Grand at the Silver Dollar in Odessa Florida. I have traveled to the Dixie in years past and I have always had a great time. I remember going one year when Jimmy Wilson broke a 199 and Jeri took runner-up in the Dixie Grand handicap. The trip isn't complete without a trip to the sponge docks to eat some Greek food and get some fudge from the fudge shoppe! Jeff and I were at the sponge docks one year and a space shuttle took off right in front of us - quite an experience.

My next blurb will be written on Chhristmas Day Eve and I will be discussing new year resolution's for the New Year. I might see if I can think up a comical twist for the discussion but I sure wouldn't want to offend anyone! I would like to send a Christmas shout out to Lou & John, Lewis, Charlie Brown, Dan The Man, Jimmy & Jeri, Tim & Thea, Darvin & Donna, Karole & John, Roush & Duncan's, Solomon Brothers, Callans, Ragans, Spy Twins - BamBam - Mrs. Kitty, Cliff in NJ, Bob in Ohio, Bobby Hill, John Woolsey and the rest of you all.....................Smokem
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Weekly Blurb 12/26/2011

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We aopolgize for the delay and we are glad the website is back online....
Good morning and we hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas. Now you get to return the gifts you didn't want or ask for and use the things that you really wanted. Also, you are tasked with eating all of the food that was leftover from the Christmas dinner and leftovers are great. You also get to enjoying the time you are off and wish you had more time off and some are thinking about how good retirement could be. And yes the dreaded new year is upon us and all of the new year resolutions that we make and don't stick too. The Holiday season is great but just might be the season that can push you over the edge. Well hold on because Spring is only 3 short months away and before you know it Christmas time will be here again.

I posted earlier in the week about Royce Ronald "Ronnie" Cofer passing. Royce lived in Georgia and usually showed up at the South Carolina state shoot and also the North Carolina state shoot. He was a great shot and I am not sure just how many years he shot competitive trap. I just took a look and Royce started shooting ATA in 1968 and registered 136,425 targets in his lifetime. He knew my grandfather back in the day and I believe he lived in North Carolina at one time. He will be sorely missed and hopefully we will get to see his son Ronnie shooting once again.

I did a little calling around over the holiday and folks were busy getting ready for Christmas. JC Nunn was cooking a roast and pies for his dinner and I didn't realize he was that good of a cook. Hunter Galloway had his family altogether and it included Jack and Kelsey the two grandchildren in the family. Dave Daily had just gotten back from Cancun after having his flight diverted to Jacksonville instead of Atlanta due to bad weather. He finally got into Myrtle Beach about 3:30 Friday morning. My friend Bob Batke in Ohio was getting ready for his daughter to arrive and told me that he was getting ready for an eye exam to see why he was having issues seeing at night. Tommy Brown was working on his house and now has experience installing metal roofing in case you have ever considered metal roofing. Dan Johnson made it back to Bedford Pennsylvania to spend some time with the family and hopes to be back in NC on the first.

Buckhorn will host the first registered shoot of the new year and I would expect a typical 300 target program to be offered. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I am going to make it down to shoot if I play my cards right. The 2012 schedule has been published and Lane Murray just submitted the 2012 Lewis Class "non-registered" shoot calendar for the new year. Looking at the 2012 schedule it looks like folks will have plenty of opportunities to shoot registered targets in the tarheel state.

Phil Berkowitz is really enjoying his new home in Florida. He has settled in and evidenlty his wife enjoys the location also. He lives pretty close to a number of good gunclubs and I would expect that he will be at the Dixie Grand in January. He also commented that he really wishe they had a site like tarheeltrap.com for shooting information in the sunshine state. I would imagine that he could crank up a site for little or no money and fill it with all kinds of fun stuff.

It looks like a crew is headed to the Rock Monday to spread some lead. Tuesday looks like a wet washout according to the weatherman so Monday has go to do. JT, JC, Lane, Lewis, Tommy, maybe the Galloway's and yours truly. Looks like 54 with wind at 9mph so let's hope the sun is shining bright. I think JC and I are going to practice some doubles if the wind isn't too crazy. I have been trying some 7/8's ounce reloads using Alliant Extra Lite powder. Soft shooting and looks like it pretty clean compared to Green and Red Dot. Sure is nice mashing targets with less lead but come Springtime I am hurling the max at those targets.

Oh, George Sudderth sen me an email with some good news. The Sudderth's daughter Natasha was the recipient of the Benjamin N. Duke scholarship and will start college in the fall of 2012. The scholarship pays for everything and I believe she will be seeking a Divinity degree according to George. I beleive he mentioned that they will have the 1st minister in the family. Congrats and we wish her the best with her course of studies.

I just checked tarheetrap and I cannot get into the site at 12:20 Monday morning. I will get this posted just as soon as the site becomes available. I will do my New Years resolution bit next Sunday night or might even do it Saturday night if I get a moment bringing in the New Year. I want to give a shout out to Lou & John, Lewis, Charlie Brown, Dan, Jeri & Jim, Tim & Thea, Donna & Darvin, Roush & Duncans, Solomon Brothers, Ragans, Callans, Cliff in NJ, Bob In Ohio, Watauga Cartel, Marty Hill, The Wools, Galloways and everybody else out there in www land..................Smokem
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Weekly Blurb 1/2/2012

Post by smokem »

Happy New Year to everybody and we hope you had a great holiday. This is a great time of the year and we really appreciate the day off for sure. I don't have a ton of info to share for the new year but I am looking forward to winter being over real soon. We had one actually two trapshoots over the weekend and we have a report from one of them.
All of our bionic trapshooters are doing well and both Lewis Wyatt and Tom Cox were at the Rock Saturday. Tom is resting better and Lewis seems to be moving around quite well. I had a chance to talk with Andrew Carroll Sudnay and he is pain free and doing great since the new hip. I had a nurse at work ask me how I was doing after my knee replacement and I assured her that I had never had a knee replaced.

We slid up to to the Rock Saturday and never fired a shot. There were a lot of folks shooting and I got some good pictures and video. Lewis had his 7 year old grandson Orion with him and they spent some time together shooting his BB-Gun before Lewis came down to shoot some practice. I had no idea that Lewis had been teaching Orion to score but the little fellow scored 4 rounds, and totaled the scores after the scores were shot. I took some video and we will try to get that posted soon.

When JC got there Leiws told me to tell JC not to shoot to get warmed up until he got finished with Orion. JC slipped out and shot a round and waited for Lew to hit the line. There was some jaw-jackin and some mental manipulation during the rounds and the long and short of it is that Lewis had a bad day. JC was on his game and broke a strong 25 in his last round in the wind. I have video of some of those two and will hope to get it up Monday.

Sunday the Buckhorn Gun Club hosted the 1st registered trapshoot of the New Year and had a good group show up. John Miller broke the lone 100 for the singles, Ed Stevens broke a 91 for the caps and John Miller broke a 91 to win the doubles and secured the HOA with 280x300. The weather was warm but it did get a little dark for the caps and the wind jumped up for the doubles. BGC's next registered shoot is the 22nd so mark your calendar accordingly.

Only 21 days until the start of the Dixie Grand in Odessa Florida. 740 miles into the Sunshine State can be a lot of fun and the Silver Dollar is a nice place to shoot. Several NC shooters will particiapte and they include Jeff and Hunter Galloway and Billy Thigpen and Bill Howe. I am sure there are more "thinking" about going and we wish all of them the best.

Hopefully we will get some scores from Old Hickory@Bostic Monday and we will post them unless one of their members puts them up. In 2012 if you need info posted please contact me via email and the addy is freddydacrusher@hotmail.com. We "TRY" to publish up-to-date shoot dates in a timely manner and if you cancel a shoot please let me know ASAP. I will post it here and also on the single thread I update on www.trapshooters.com.

If you have shoot results and want to post the info you will need to setup an account on the site. If you want me to post them I can do that also. If you can afford a shotgun you probably can afford a camera and please take some pictures. If you have a shoot and you cancel it the day of the shoot due to weather or for whatever reason - let me know. That way I won't be looking for scores to be posted.

We are off into another year and since I posted every week last year I am wondering if I can keep it up for another year. Is it worth the time it takes to patch together the little pieces of fabric that represents the shooting community in our great state? I would say yes and we will try to keep you entertained during the dark and dreary winter months prior to the start of the meat of the 2012 shooting season. I thought about creating a New Years resolution list but figured I might offend folks and opted to can it for this year. I want to start off on a good foot with all of the people.

Most of you know Ronnie Manuel and he has been back shooting for awhile now. Well guess who showed up at the Rock? It was Ronnie's son Greg and the young man is quite a shot just like his daddy. I believe he has the bug and we hope he can get out to shoot and practice more often. We have some Lewis Class Shoots coming up and heck he might even join the ATA. Heck maybe his daddy will sign him up for his birthday or something.

Oh, Jim Bray showed up at the Rock last week and his wife got him a new pistol for Christmas. He looked good and I have no idea when he registered his last target. He has been very busy at work but he has had time to get out and do some deer hunting. He shot a "17" pointer which was really an "18" pointer. The deer was so big and heavy he couldn't even get him in the truck. He had to go home and get a skid steer just to get the hoss loaded. When he took the head to the taxidermist it only had 17 points and the fellow told Jim to go try to find the point that broke off. Jim gave it his best shot but he never found #18. It sure was good to see Jim and we hope he will get back to shooting trap someday soon.

I hope everybody has a great start to the week and it looks like it is going to be super cold come Tuesday. Don't forget about the chatroom we have and if you want and invite email me and we will get you the hookup. I know that I sent a shout out to a bunch of folks but it was hard to remember all the folks every week. So, I am going to suspend that for 2012 except for one person and that is Lou Carter. When I first started the blurb I was hit and miss and Lou never knew when or if I would post the info. Well Lou, if it weren't for you I probably wouldn't be as close to carpal tunnel surgery as I am now. Until we blurb again..........Smokem
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smokem
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March 26th Smoke Report 2012

Post by smokem »

Good morning and what an interesting weather weekend in North Carolina. Some storms produced up to four inches of hail in one part of North Carolina. We had two trapshoots in North Carolina this weekend and we have Ft. Bragg and Charlie Brown's this weekend.
Bill Howe sent me the shoot report for Old Hickory and they had a good turnout despite the threat of rain and windy conditions. Gary Hicks won the singles and Ray Gaultney won the caps and the doubles. Bill Howe managed to take the HOA for the event. Old Hickory will have an active shooting schedule that includes BIG50 shoots on most 1st Thursday's of the month.

Rockingham Gun Club held their 1st shoot of the new year dubbed the "Spring Open". When I arrived at the club it was pretty much socked in with low clouds and then here came the rain. Addison Callan won the singles, with Winky Mabe winning the caps and HOA. Jeff Galloway came out a little late and won the dubs with a 91. We had two shooters registering targets for the first time and they were Jr Zax Tate and Bruce Litaker. Both shot well and Bruce won his singles class and yardage in his 1st shoot. JC Nunn shot well and ran his last 50 in singles for a 96. He also was part of a squad that included Winky Mabe and Roger Shaffer that all broke 24's in their second caps field. Roger Shaffer shot rather well with his singles and caps scores in the 90's.

Two registered shoots in NC this weekend and they include Ft. Bragg the 31st and Charlie Brown the 1st of April. I haven't talked to Marty yet and I would imagine that he will post their program and it might be posted right now. I will try to get their program and also the program for Caharlie's shoot Sunday. Both locations are great places to shoot and we hope to make it out a little more this year to some of the NC events.

We posted a link to the Dogwood Shoot which will take place at the NC Homegounds April 26th - 29th. If you have never attended a shoot at the HG you are in for a treat. 12 program traps with one practice trap and they use ERAD voice releases for all fields. If you plan on attending the NC State Shoot in June this will give you a great chance to get the lay of the land before our State's biggest shoot.Also, be sure to make reservations for the State shoot because some of the motels are a liitle iffy and the Jameson and HI Express fill up fast... Quaility - Ramada and Super 8 are not my favorite places to stay.

North Carolina shooters stuck around for the Florida State shoot and both Charlie Brown and Bob Schultz won early in the week. Other folks that won included Jerry "Flagalarto" Bryant winning resident doubles Sunday with a 98. Ex NC shooter Phil Berkowitz took 4th in the caps Sunday with a 94 from the 18 yard line. Marty's friend Karen Dickman won the LADY 1 with a solid 96 in Sunday's caps. Also GA's Jerry "blade819" Granacki won his yardage in the Sunday caps event. There might have been more and if I missed you we apologize.

Dave Daily flew back from Los Angeles Friday and was sitting in Detroit Michigan Sunday afternoon. He will be back in Friday and then off for three weeks. He is trying to get some birds in and is shooting another gun due to sending his Browning to the factory. I told him good luck on getting it back in a timely manner and at this time he looking to buy a Beretta Combo. He did mention that Myrtle Grove is holding registered shoots and also monthly BIG50's. If you are planning to vacation in the Myrtle Beach area you might consider calling ahead in case you wan to register some birds.

The Galloway's are prepping to head out to San Antonio in the next few weeks. Hunter will be attending ATA meetings and Jeff will be pounding targets hopefully like he did at the Southern Grand. Jeff shot well at the SG and we hope he can get dialed in at the Texas shooting complex. He had some great doubles scores and also posted a 198 during the Championship Singles at the SG. We wish him the best and we hope they have a safe trip.

Some of you may have noticed that I have been taking videos along with pictures of shooting events. Look for more of those as time goes on. I try to take a 1 minute clip at a time and it is fun watching folks mash and miss targets. I do my best not to interfere with people shooting. Many times folks don't even know I got a picture or a video of them until after I took it. If you don't want your picture taken just let me know and we will respect your request.

I hope everybody has a great week and we will try to keep our ear to the ground for info for the Smoke Report. I will be checking with my spy in Boone to see what George is up to. Also might touch base with some other good contacts to see whats what in the trapshooting world. Looks like Lou Carter shot some at the Florida State shoot and we sure hate we weren't down there to give him a little inspiration. Good morning Lou and come shoot with us at the State Shoot. Until next week..................................Smokem..
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