What a beautiful weekend for shooting trap and eating cheesey Lasagna! That is what a group of shooters did today at the Buckhorn Gun Club near Mebane NC. When I arrived at about 11:30 not a soul was outside of the the clubhouse. I grabbed my camera and my coffee cup and headed inside.
When I popped through the door I was expecting the worst from the peanut gallery but was pleasantly suprised not to get a lot of jackjaw. The place was almost strangely quiet and there was a smell of pasta and garlic bread wafting through the air. Folks were dug into deep dish pasta that was freshly prepared by Chef Jeri Wilson. There was lasagna, garlic bread, pie, brownies and Karole Miller's famous "live to die for" cupcakes. I have pictures to prove what I am saying just wait.
Everybody got their belly full and Jimmy got the party started for the handicap event. Jimmy "told" Gail and Jeri to get all the toys organized and placed on the tables for a picture. I took that as a hint and got busy organizing along with Gail and Karole. We quickly got all the toys up and displayed and there are going to be a lot of happy children this Christmas season. I have pictures of the toys and video of Santa's little helpers.
Now back to the shooting fun and let us start with the singles. That event was over when I arrived and lo and behold who was sitting at the top of the heap? Why it was Andrew (fresh from a new hip replacement) Carroll with a lone wolf 97 and top gun accolades. Yep, all that rehab got Andrew right back in the swing of things - fast. I am glad to see him back out and doing what he likes to do even though he looks 30 pounds lighter.
Handicap cranked up with three squads and we got pictures and one video of that action. When the smoke settled Ike Branthwaite topped all shooters with a solid 95 and that was some great shooting for sure. Heck, the only other scores in the nineties was Gail "voodoo" Page with a 90 from 2 yards closer to the PAT trap. The Buckhorn windmill was sitting still and folks had a great chance to break a good caps scores today for sure.
That left the doubles and I even decided to spread some lead and try my luck. There were two squads and I got to lead squad 1. Heck I just noticed that this event was called Karole's "Whoopie" doubles. I shot with Sheldon Englebright, Mike Ismay and Kenny Cox. We whipped through the 50 pair pretty quick and it took me 25 pair to get settled down. The winner of the doubles event came out of the second squad and that was John Miller. One interesting note - this was John and Karole's 1 year anniversary for attending a shoot at Buckhorn. I asked Karole if she was glad to be in NC and she said they wished they had been here 20 years ago.
That leaves us with the HOA race and it was tight until the doubles. Ike, Sheldon and John were all in the running with Ike way ahead after the singles and caps. Ike was a dozen birds ahead of John heading into the doubles and that was where the magic happened. Ike's lead slowly drifted to the tundra one and two birds at a time and it wasn't pretty. Sheldon and John tied with 267's and Ike was only 3 birds behind from the top honors. I would imagine Ike will be working on doubles this week. Oh, you might want to ask Dan for help because Dan told me he taught Jimmy "everything" he knew about doubles.
There is only one more registered event in NC before the fat man flys. No Jeri did not buy Jimmy a rocket pack for Christmas. Old Hickory in Bostic will shoot a BIG50 Tuesday and then the 1st registered event of the 2012 shooting season will be held at the Buckhorn GC January 1st.
Jimmy would like to thank everybody that attended the Buckhorn Gun Club throughout the year and would also like to thank everybody that pitched in to help run the shoots. Jimmy has always stated that he couldn't do what he does throughout the year without the help of his dedicated club members. They certainly are the difference in what it takes to make a good shoot even better.
I will include pictures from the shoot and then links to the slideshow and the videos from today's event. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.
Santa's Helpers - http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... I_1255.mp4
Andrew Carroll Handicap Squad - http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... I_1264.mp4
Ike Branthwaite's Doubles Squad - http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... I_1268.mp4
Mash on link for picture slideshow: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... =slideshow