Wyoming State Shoot (part 3)
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2025 6:38 pm
Goshen County Gun Club Torrington, Wy
I put the address into the GPS for the Gun Club and headed out to find the place and see how long it would take from the Air BnB. Pulled out of the driveway onto a very dry dirt road and headed out. There were 3 miles of dirt road before I got on pavement, 8 miles of pavement then another 2.5 miles of dirt road.
I grew up on dirt roads and immediately knew what was in store for the next few days. There was absolutely no way to avoid the billowing cloud of dust that envelopes your vehicle.
Pulled into the club and the first thing noticed was a gradual rise in front of the trap houses that gave way to a pristine blue sky. This was consistent through all 18 fields. Plenty of parking all along the line.
I entered the clubhouse and got classified. On to the cashiering window to pay for the events I had pre squadded for. As I was doing that, the cashier suggested that there was still time to sign up for and shoot the last event of the day, doubles. Eh, why not. I really didn’t have anything else to do or anywhere else to be. Sure, I told him. They were still shooting the last wave of handicap, I was on the 3rd wave of doubles, plenty of time.
Back to the Pathfinder to put the doubles gun together then find a place on the porch to sit, wait and watch. One of the first things I noticed was that the targets looked “tall”. They appear to prefer “tall” targets there. Another constant was the wind. Every day the wind would come up 9:00ish to around 20 mph then gust from there. Tall targets and wind makes for interesting presentations…..
Eventually the 3rd flight took the line and we started. I managed an 88. Not embarrassing but not what was needed. It was a warm up for Friday as the program would be Doubles first followed by Caps with Singles last.
Back to the bunkhouse for a good night’s sleep. Up at 6:00. Eat a light breakfast, pack a lunch and head out around 7:15.
I would shoot most of the remaining events with Beau, Erik, Tyler and Todd. It became quickly apparent that we would get along very well. It’s always a welcome thing when you squad with people you don’t know and discover you share the same ideals and viewpoints.
Doubles were improved from the day before to 46/48 for a 94
Handicap had a mediocre start with a 21. Found a little bit of focus and finished with 91.
Singles was a wash. A 23 on the first and last boxes were bookends for a pair of 25s. Never did care for high targets. Not afraid of the wind at all, but unless the A game is present a tall boy will occasionally rip me of the gun in Singles to look at it. Gotta work on that.
Saturday. Championship Singles. When squadding, I signed up to lead off. Previous years I would often lead off but had gotten away from that. I didn’t really have any expectations for this shoot sooo I thought I’d give it a go again. 75 targets into the first hundred and Beau and I are straight. I let one slip along about number 87 or 88. (gotta break ‘em before you count ‘em). 99.
Beau had started on post 2. He continued to roll smoke right along. I eventually shot my last target on post 5 and turned towards Post 1 to watch Beau finish. He mounted his gun called for a target and……………..lifted his head to watch it……Lost. My immediate thought was that I needed to get ahold of Fred Redmon for a BOZO 99 pin.
Now let me tell you a little but about Beau. He is one of the biggest people I have ever met. Standing 6’5” at least and has to be a minimum of 375 lbs and this guy is solid. Yep that’s the bear I’m gonna poke with a BOZO pin. Old as I am I think I can out run him……… I got the number and address of one of his friends to mail it to him. He promised to video the presentation and share it with me.
We finished out the second hundred that afternoon with three of us posting 196s. Good but not good enough.
The remainder of the shoot was uneventful as well. Sunday Doubles were 91. Championship Caps started of well with a 25 but ended up with a 90 after a 23/22/20………
One item of particular note was the weather. I described the wind but haven’t mentioned the temperatures. It got into the mid 90s every day with only 5-11% humidity. Sounds nice right? Well, I’ll put it this way. Here in NC with the humidity it feels like we’re in a steam cooker. Out there it’s like being in an air fryer. You get “crispy”. I drank more water than ever and just could not stay hydrated.
Anthony and his little family came up Saturday. They got there in time to watch most of the 2nd hundred. My grandsons got to see PeePaw shoot. They thought that was pretty cool. After that we found a nice little local restaurant for dinner.
The return trip was wonderfully uneventful. No drama, no BS. Just a lot of seat time with Willie’s Roadhouse…………………
This was truly an adventure. They rotate the location of their state shoot between Torrington and Laramie. The guys I shot with told me that Laramie is a better shoot. So who knows, this may need to turn into an annual thing.
See you next time wherever it is. Travel Safe! Dan
I put the address into the GPS for the Gun Club and headed out to find the place and see how long it would take from the Air BnB. Pulled out of the driveway onto a very dry dirt road and headed out. There were 3 miles of dirt road before I got on pavement, 8 miles of pavement then another 2.5 miles of dirt road.
I grew up on dirt roads and immediately knew what was in store for the next few days. There was absolutely no way to avoid the billowing cloud of dust that envelopes your vehicle.
Pulled into the club and the first thing noticed was a gradual rise in front of the trap houses that gave way to a pristine blue sky. This was consistent through all 18 fields. Plenty of parking all along the line.
I entered the clubhouse and got classified. On to the cashiering window to pay for the events I had pre squadded for. As I was doing that, the cashier suggested that there was still time to sign up for and shoot the last event of the day, doubles. Eh, why not. I really didn’t have anything else to do or anywhere else to be. Sure, I told him. They were still shooting the last wave of handicap, I was on the 3rd wave of doubles, plenty of time.
Back to the Pathfinder to put the doubles gun together then find a place on the porch to sit, wait and watch. One of the first things I noticed was that the targets looked “tall”. They appear to prefer “tall” targets there. Another constant was the wind. Every day the wind would come up 9:00ish to around 20 mph then gust from there. Tall targets and wind makes for interesting presentations…..
Eventually the 3rd flight took the line and we started. I managed an 88. Not embarrassing but not what was needed. It was a warm up for Friday as the program would be Doubles first followed by Caps with Singles last.
Back to the bunkhouse for a good night’s sleep. Up at 6:00. Eat a light breakfast, pack a lunch and head out around 7:15.
I would shoot most of the remaining events with Beau, Erik, Tyler and Todd. It became quickly apparent that we would get along very well. It’s always a welcome thing when you squad with people you don’t know and discover you share the same ideals and viewpoints.
Doubles were improved from the day before to 46/48 for a 94
Handicap had a mediocre start with a 21. Found a little bit of focus and finished with 91.
Singles was a wash. A 23 on the first and last boxes were bookends for a pair of 25s. Never did care for high targets. Not afraid of the wind at all, but unless the A game is present a tall boy will occasionally rip me of the gun in Singles to look at it. Gotta work on that.
Saturday. Championship Singles. When squadding, I signed up to lead off. Previous years I would often lead off but had gotten away from that. I didn’t really have any expectations for this shoot sooo I thought I’d give it a go again. 75 targets into the first hundred and Beau and I are straight. I let one slip along about number 87 or 88. (gotta break ‘em before you count ‘em). 99.
Beau had started on post 2. He continued to roll smoke right along. I eventually shot my last target on post 5 and turned towards Post 1 to watch Beau finish. He mounted his gun called for a target and……………..lifted his head to watch it……Lost. My immediate thought was that I needed to get ahold of Fred Redmon for a BOZO 99 pin.
Now let me tell you a little but about Beau. He is one of the biggest people I have ever met. Standing 6’5” at least and has to be a minimum of 375 lbs and this guy is solid. Yep that’s the bear I’m gonna poke with a BOZO pin. Old as I am I think I can out run him……… I got the number and address of one of his friends to mail it to him. He promised to video the presentation and share it with me.
We finished out the second hundred that afternoon with three of us posting 196s. Good but not good enough.
The remainder of the shoot was uneventful as well. Sunday Doubles were 91. Championship Caps started of well with a 25 but ended up with a 90 after a 23/22/20………
One item of particular note was the weather. I described the wind but haven’t mentioned the temperatures. It got into the mid 90s every day with only 5-11% humidity. Sounds nice right? Well, I’ll put it this way. Here in NC with the humidity it feels like we’re in a steam cooker. Out there it’s like being in an air fryer. You get “crispy”. I drank more water than ever and just could not stay hydrated.
Anthony and his little family came up Saturday. They got there in time to watch most of the 2nd hundred. My grandsons got to see PeePaw shoot. They thought that was pretty cool. After that we found a nice little local restaurant for dinner.
The return trip was wonderfully uneventful. No drama, no BS. Just a lot of seat time with Willie’s Roadhouse…………………
This was truly an adventure. They rotate the location of their state shoot between Torrington and Laramie. The guys I shot with told me that Laramie is a better shoot. So who knows, this may need to turn into an annual thing.
See you next time wherever it is. Travel Safe! Dan