May 22nd Smoke Report

Weekly Trapshooting Info
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smokem
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May 22nd Smoke Report

Post by smokem »

Good evening and I hope you had a great weekend. A couple of BIG50’s last week and two shoots this Saturday at Old Hickory Rocky Mount and Watauga.

The South Carolina State shoot just wound up and it was well attended. From what I gather attendance was up and 204 folks stepped to the line for the Saturday singles. Championship doubles was held Friday night and the handicap was the lone event Sunday. The weather was interesting with cool misty mornings and hot and sunny afternoons. I thought the weather was great with lower humidity. Hats off to the SCTA and the Spartanburg Gun Club for another great event.

It was great to see all the youth shooters at the event and for some this was their first registered shoot. College kids and 4H kids and sporting clay and skeet kids all shooting trap was a wonderful thing to witness. There were over twenty youth shooters competing in the Sunday handicap but no in-state sub-juniors………Just an observation.

Heard a peep out of Florida Phil Berkowitz and he is back shooting his custom Infinity. He said he was really connecting with the target and that is great. Darrell Parham is still in the hospital and was awaiting tests regarding his heart. Please pray for him and his family at this time. Tommy Brown will be visiting the VA for a procedure Tuesday and hoping that all goes well. MD shooter Dave Shaeffer is back on meds again and hoping he can continue with his regimen. Darvin Cornett has been on the prayer list for quite some time and heard to shot at the BIG50 at Buckhorn. He hasn’t shot in over a year and broke a 25 right off the bat!!!! Lynn Ward might be the most involved, busiest smiling man I know. I don’t know how he gets it all done and with his recent medical procedure he is still getting things done. Prayers for you sir and hope to see you soon.

Old Hickory@Rocky Mount and Watauga shoot this Saturday. Both locations are looking 50-60% wet but who can believe the weather folks anymore. If you are trying to get some birds in before the NC State Shoot and trying to avoid penalty yardage or class, you better get busy.

I shot 200 targets at the SC State shoot and the rest of the time I took pictures and just soaked in the event. I averaged over 12,000 steps a day and it allowed me to see things that I want to discuss. Now these are just things I witnessed, and I will challenge you to think about it.

First thing was hulls and either throwing or deflecting or slapping them to the ground. I know that different shooting disciplines allow different things. Sporting clays are normally shot from a stand and deflecting a shell into the bucket is not a problem. Trap is shot on a squad with 4 more people and shells going forward while the shooter beside you has his/her gun raised can be distracting. Also, if a shell hits the microphone stand well there goes a target. I have also witnessed the backward shell slap/throw which is almost like ejecting a shell but not quite. My suggestion is to stay still on the line and if you have a hull bag, please use it. And that doesn’t even deal with the angry shell hurler and I am just waiting to film someone doing that…just something to think about and coaches are you listening?

Next item…….shell catchers. I have an AL391 and A400 and both have shell catchers. In some disciplines no shell catcher is ok like Sporting and Skeet. In Trapshooting the shell catcher is a courteous thing to do. If your gun is a model that a shell catcher is available buy one and use it. For guns that don’t have factory or after-market shell catchers available here is a suggestion. Ladies use black fabric/rubber bands in their hair to tie it up. These can be bought in packs of 10 and can easily slide from the barrel to the receiver and placed to allow the shell to be caught after the gun is fired. I took a picture of this type of catcher on Billy Sopers Beretta Multi Target shotgun. I have seen it used on the new Beretta Sporting gun and the Benelli Black Eagle. Now some folks would just say get over it and deal with the ejected shells and that would be a hard no to that. Nobody wants any type of gun dinged by a flying shell regardless of what anyone says. I was in a squad where a shooter was getting hit by shells in handicap on the 22-yard line. This person had a shell catcher but didn’t use it. When confronted he stated that not using a catcher was like “duck hunting”. Now doubles are another animal and hopefully you can squad in a squad where everyone is ejecting shells. I am discussing this so folk won’t be surprised if it in fact brought up on a trap field one day.

Last item for the night and that is moving or raising your gun while the person beside you is shooting. I know you say what is the big deal. Unless you have no peripheral vision any kind of movement can be viewed while you are mounting your gun and preparing to call for a target. People say use blinders and blinders won’t block out a moving gun. Folks say that is what I have aways done was to raise my gun to prepare to shoot as the person before them is shooting. My answer is that you need to keep your gun still until it is your turn to shoot. Is it a rule in a book and that would be no but maybe just common courtesy. These are just some of the things you see at shoots and just something to think about and if you’re a coach you might need to figure out how to address it. Check back next week for more astute observations.

June 7-11 North Carolina State Shoot is right around the corner. 17 traps in the NC Mountains and hopefully this will be a good old big one. SC was up it looks like and hopefully NC will see some good numbers this year. One big asset to any shoot is good food and clubs do the best they can to provide food on the grounds. Not sure who the vendor is this year but sometimes you just need to pack your food. Not sure if shells will be available at the shoot and as soon as I know I will publish that info. If you plan on bringing your cart to the HG you need to have proof of insurance and a permit. It can get hot so pack a 10x10 for shade and there are several areas to put it up. Not sure what vendors will be present, and I will publish when info is available. If you travel with a trailer evidently it must be parked in a certain area. A couple of customers found out the hard way at the Dixie in 2022. Several folks have tent camped and there are several spots to put a tent but there are no designated tent camping spots. As far as I know there is no ice for sale like SC so stock up before you get there. Also, a lot of times there are empty squads in the first event some of the time. If you are staying in a motel look for the squad board posted on tarheeltrap on facebook.

Ok that is about it for now……I hope everyone has a great week! Hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Thea and Anne and until next week…….smokem
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