ClayShootingUSA March/April 2022

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CONTENTS JOURNAL NO. 119

stacey@clayshootingusa.com

MARCH/APRIL 2022

COVER PHOTO: 2022 CARIBBEAN CLASSIC Vero Beach Sporting Clays Photo Credit: Louise Terry

EDITOR DANA FARRELL

THADDIUS BEDFORD DON BRUNT BRUCE BUCK PAUL COOK BILL ELLIOTT MATTHEW GAY JIM KRALIK DEREK MOORE DEE ORR LOUISE TERRY SPENCER TOMB MIMI WILFONG

A GUN FOR LADY AND YOUTH SHOOTERS

CZ-USA SCTP STERLING

56

60 DOMINIC GROSSI

A CHAMPION AND HIS BERETTA SO5

editor@clayshootingusa.com

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS:

56 CZ-USA SCTP STERLING REVIEW

12 THE 2022 ZOLI CLASSIC IT WAS BRAD KIDD JR. FOR THE WIN

64 TECHNOID’S COLUMN

SHOTGUNNING IN THE AUTOMATIC MIND -- A BOOK REVIEW

68 GALAZAN SUPER BIRD REVIEW A PURPOSE BUILT SIDE BY SIDE COMPETITION GUN

2022 ZOLI CLASSIC

12

72 ROSANNE PRUCKA SHOOT

A BENEFIT FOR ONE OF OUR OWN

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38 MORGAN HARBISON THE FACE BEHIND WHIZ BANG

FITASC is a registered trademark.

It is used in the editorial and advertising pages of this magazine to report on such events, promote the discipline and advertise upcoming events by kind permission of the FITASC representative for America.

PRINTED IN THE USA

Technical ballistics and other information provided by our journalists, contributors and correspondents is published in good faith and should not replace established safe practices. Neither the author or publisher accept responsibility for injury or equipment damage resulting from its use.

COPYRIGHT All rights reserved. No part of this ­publication may be transmitted or r­ eproduced in any form without written ­permission from the publishers.

The opinions expressed by c­ orrespondents are not necessarily those of the publishers.

ClayShootingUSA recommends that readers ­satisfy themselves as to the accuracy of advertisers’ claims before any purchase is made, and accepts no responsibility for any loss arising from any purchase.

ROSANNE PRUCKA SHOOT

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74 MATARESE BOOK BILL ELLIOTT TAKES A LOOK

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FEBRUARYKICKOFF

12

T

he Zoli Classic serves as the unofficial kickoff to the new tournament year in Florida and it was great to see many old friends again spending a few weeks down south in February to get their winter clay shooting “fix.” Dave Kelley and his crew at South Florida Shooting Club were ready with open arms and the title sponsor, Zoli’s Norbert Hausmann was there to welcome the 344 shooter field. The club looked great, everything was wellorganized, and it all went off like clockwork. All the targets were set by the “Mick and Rick” tag team (Howells and Hemingway). Mick set the Main Event, both prelims, FITASC and the 50-bird Super Sporting, while Rick set the subgauges, 28 and 20 gauge FITASC, and the 100 bird 5-Stand. Even though the first day did have a few intermittent showers and wind, it was nothing like what was happening to our friends up north that weekend, and it was certainly a big improvement from the South Florida weather the prior weekend which had frost on the ground on both Saturday and Sunday mornings!

Looking back on the results of the weekend, this could have been called mostly the Kidd Jr.-McGuire Show, also featuring a few compelling warm-up acts from Karen Shedd, Ryan Harper, Gebben Miles and Nadim Nasir, Jr.

Thursday The program kicked off on Thursday with 5-Stand, Super Sporting, Sub-gauge 50s and Subgauge FITASC 50s, the 100-bird FTASC and a 100-bird Prelim on the Sandhill course. In the Thursday Prelim, which attracted 105 early-birds, hometown guy CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

ZOLI CLASSIC KICKS OFF

THE ANNUAL FEBRUARY IN FLORIDA SPORTING CLAYS CIRCUIT!

BY LOUISE TERRY

Brad Kidd Jr. quickly set the pace for the weekend. Brad came out of the gate blasting a big 98 on Thursday to show he had every intention of defending his home turf against the visitors. And Bill McGuire’s 96 showed he had every intention of making Kidd Jr.

FEB. 3-6, 2022 earn it.

Atlanta’s Jimmy Warren Mick were, as always, a great mix also shot a very respectable 96 to of presentations across the four take M1 and Karen Shedd posted layouts which were enjoyed by 168 91 to score her first Ladies victory competitors. Parcours 1 and 2 had of a landslide weekend. their share of challenging targets The FITASC targets set by

FEBRUARYKICKOFF

that were up in the air high enough to be affected by the wind when it blew, and on Parcour 2 he threw in a high-speed rabbit crossing quite aways out, screaming from right to left. Parcour 3 had the most of the really big presentations, including a black midi off of a high lift which zoomed away, well over the top of the pine trees. Parcour 4 was where Mick gave everyone the chance to make up some ground because those targets were mostly at a closer range, though they still had some subtleties that required close attention.

Gebben Miles (93), Kidd Jr. (91), and Karen Shedd (84) shot their FITASC on Thursday and their three scores stood at the top of the leaderboard that evening and stayed there until well into Saturday. Bill McGuire also did some more shooting on Thursday to get in his 5-Stand targets, posting a 94. Wendell Cherry was right behind Bill with a 93, while all the other 5-Stand scores dropped off very quickly, well into the 80s.

In the sub-gauge FITASC, Dennis Wagner’s 47 looked very good at the top of the 28 ga FITASC scores for the moment. And while there were three 44s posted in the 20 ga FITASC between Master and AA

5-STAND CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

KAREN SHEDD RYAN HARPER BLAIZE WHITEHEAD BRAD SUTTON JR NATE BLACK STEVE CIANCIULLI JOEY BERARDINELLI ALIANA MCMASTER GARY HOLLETT KAREN SHEDD BRAD SUTTON JR KAREN SHEDD BILL MCGUIRE STEVE NAATJES GARY WALSTROM ED GOTT

5-STAND LAYOUT #3

THURSDAY PRELIM CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BRAD KIDD JR BILL MCGUIRE JAMES WARREN CHAD ZIADIE NATE BLACK CRAIG J KEMPENICH DAVID A GRELL ALIANA MCMASTER DUDLEY LIGHTLE KAREN SHEDD ALIANA MCMASTER KAREN SHEDD BILL MCGUIRE BERT STELLY TOM SMITH RICHARD HERRIFORD

13

98 96 96 95 84 83 88 87 53 91 87 91 96 94 90 78

classes, it was Veteran shooter from Ohio, Darrin Plys, who posted a 45 in A class to top the field at that point.

Friday On Friday, the weatherman came through with a fabulous day delivering balmy temperatures in the mid-80s. All the 50-bird events, 5-Stand and FITASC continued, along with the Friday Prelim which Howells set on the Gator course.

Of the 177 Prelim shooters on Friday, Brad Kidd Jr. put up a good fight carding a strong 97 on that

course, but Gebben Mills was having his day and really lit it up with a hot 99 to win! Denver, Colorado’s Mike Tilley shot a nice 95 thinking he was in third place but was edged out by Florida’s Ryan Harper, landing Ryan his first podium win of the weekend by winning M1 with his 95. McGuire’s 92 tied him with Cherry for M5,

which just served as Bill’s wake-up call, and it turned out that indeed he wasn’t going quietly just yet.

Sub-Junior Aliana McMaster from Miami took full advantage of Karen Shedd’s 80 by posting her own breakthrough 83 to take the Ladies Friday Prelim title. On Rick Hemingway’s 5-Stand layouts, Joseph Pinchin shot a 94 on Friday

BILL MCGUIRE MAIN EVENT RUNNER-UP & SUPER SPORTING CHAMPION

FRIDAY PRELIM 99 96 96 92 89 84 74 85 63 99 92 99 94 94 90 81

CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

GEBBEN MILES BRAD KIDD JR RYAN HARPER CHAD ZIADIE RYAN CHEN GILBERT ROSENSTEIN PAUL BURKE ALIANA MCMASTER JUDITH SZCZYGIEL ALIANA MCMASTER ALIANA MCMASTER JOSEPH PINCHIN WENDELL CHERRY BERT STELLY GARY WALSTROM JIM THOMAS

99 97 95 86 86 79 77 83 44 83 83 87 92 89 94 85

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

FEBRUARYKICKOFF

14

BRAD KIDD JR. WITH HIS SON MILES CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET

afternoon to join McGuire at the top of the 5-Stand leaderboard, and at the end of that day, there were still only 10 of all the 5-Stand scores showing in the 90s. And the Kidd Jr./McGuire contest continued with Bill McGuire posting a 49 on the 50-bird Super Sporting course to Kidd Jr.’s 48.

Dee Orr’s 40 landed her the Ladies top spot as of Friday night.

Saturday Saturday morning the Main Event kicked off with the 8:30 a.m. flight on the Sandhill course. For the first one and a half flights, the weather was sunny and very pleasant, but around 1 p.m. a front started to blow in with darker skies and a temperature that dropped over 10 degrees in just a few minutes. Despite that weather shift, this course presented a great set of targets all day - all visible, all hittable, nothing outrageous, you just had to read them right! To keep things moving and challenging, Mick set 10 of the 16 stations as true pairs. Stations 12 and 13 were great tower targets, and Station 5, as I recall, was one of the toughest – four true pairs: the A bird was a distant trap shot out in front with a subtle left cant and B CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

FITASC CHAMPION NADIM NASIR JR. ON PEG 3 PARCOUR 4

FITASC NADIM NASIR JR GEBBEN MILES BRAD KIDD JR CHAD ZIADIE OWEN HAAS CRAIG J KEMPENICH TERRY LEBLANC RICHARD TODD CHARLES HAAS KAREN SHEDD JOSEPH PINCHIN NADIM NASIR JR MICHAEL NOLAN BOB ZEIGLER

97 93 91 80 86 71 62 61 47 84 90 97 80 76

came in low from behind on the left dropping in quickly. Kidd Jr. (98), McGuire (95), Miles (94), and Shedd (94) set a hot pace again for the field, but things dropped off quickly after that. A master at setting good “separator” courses without totally punishing the rest of the field, Howells’ targets did their job... there were only nine scores shot in the 90s all day, but every shooter I spoke with said they really enjoyed the course.

Saturday evening South Florida hosted their shooter’s party along with an entertaining twist to the traditional Make-A-Break shoot-off.

The top four scores in each class were eligible to compete in these finals for the money but it was contested in each of two divisions: Division 1 was Master/AA top scores and Division 2 was A-E Class shooters. And, just to spice things up a bit, the South Florida club put up an additional $1,000 for the winner in each division. While the final winner of Division 1, Brad Kidd Jr., may have been no real surprise, the winner of Division 2 was South Carolina’s Tamesha Beck shooting in C class!

Congratulations to Brad and Tamesha on their wins and to South Florida for hosting a fun evening!

Sunday

By Sunday morning the warm, sunny weather had returned. It soon became evident that Sunday’s Main Event course set on the Gator layout to the south was a tougher test than Saturday, even though there was one more score shot in the 90s compared to

Saturday’s tally. The two biggest comebacks of the weekend were Ryan Harper and Wendell Cherry, both carding 97s as the highest scores shot on the tougher Sunday course after they each had shot disappointing scores of 90 and 89 respectively on Saturday.

Depending on where you were squadded to start on Sunday, you

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WENDELL CHERRY RAN THE TOWER TRUE PAIR ON GATOR #9 ON SUNDAY

BRAD KIDD JR. WAITING TO SHOOT HIS LAST STATION ON THE SUNDAY MAIN

soon found out that stations 1-7 weren’t too tough, but relatively speaking, stations 8-15 were very challenging. Typical “Mick Howells specials”, many of those targets looked relatively innocent but weren’t. You just had to know how to read them, which the winners were able to do! The toughest station on Sunday was arguably number 9, which was shot from the first elevated level of a three-tiered station at a true pair of off-speed tower crossers high from the left. In fact, two of McGuire’s misses on Sunday happened on Station 9. With both Kidd Jr. and McGuire turning in 95s on Sunday, they ended up with Kidd Jr. (193) taking the HOA honors with the $1500 Championship purse, and McGuire (190) finishing in the runner-up spot with the $1,000

Meanwhile, let’s go back to the weekend of FITASC and 5-Stand.

On the Saturday/Sunday rotation, Nadim Nasir, Jr, was quietly shooting his FITASC event without a lot of fanfare, but he upstaged them all when his final results were posted showing 24s on Parcours 1, 2 and 3, followed by a 25 straight on Parcour 4 to post a stellar 97 for the win! Gebben Miles’ 93 held up all the way from Thursday to be the uncontested runner-up with Brad Kidd Jr. and Bill McGuire tying with 91s for the top of Master class. Karen Shedd easily won the Ladies FITASC with her 84.

Also taking shape over the weekend in the shadow of the Main Event activity, the 128 5-Stand shooters were piling up the rest of their scores, many towards the top of the leaderboard.

However, it was Karen Shedd who turned in a blistering 99, dropping only one target on the second layout. Nobody was able to top that, but Ryan Harper and Blaize Whitehead both punched out strong 96s, with Harper ultimately taking the runner-up honors.

Emmy Zerby won Ladies runnerup with a very nice 93 behind Shedd’s hot 99 for Lady Champion.

Super Sporting also had a

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

second place payout. Harper’s and Cherry’s comebacks landed them in Master 1 and 3 respectively, while Gebben Miles’ 92 on Sunday put him in Master 2nd. Karen Shedd backed up her 94 on Saturday with a very respectable 91 on Sunday to place 4th in Master class and win Ladies handily with a 185. Aliana McMaster got closest to Karen in the Ladies race to take the runner-up honors. Perhaps the coolest story of this Main Event was the fact that Kidd Jr. was able to concentrate on his winning game while squadded with his 10-year-old son, Miles. Miles shot right in front of Brad in this, his eighth registered shoot. Not bad for a 10-year old, and quite a start on the next generation of sporting clays champions! Needless to say, Miles’ access to a good coach is very close to home!

change of players by the end of the weekend after all 199 shooters had finished. Bill McGuire’s 49 held up all weekend at the top of the board, but it was eventually matched by Bert Stelly’s 49. McGuire held on for the win with Stelly taking runner-up. Karen Shedd turned in a respectable 46 for the Ladies title, which bumped Dee Orr back to Lady runner-up.

In the sub gauge FITASC events, 60 shooters took on Hemingway’s targets during the weekend in the 20 gauge, and 65 shot the 28 gauge parcours. Jerry Rackley, hailing from New Mexico, and Heyward Owens from Virginia swapped places in the two events with Rackley taking the top title with his 49 in the 20 gauge to Owens’ 48, while Owens posted a slick 50 straight in the 28 gauge to Rackley’s 49. South Florida’s own Ann Little took both Ladies titles with a 38 in the 20 gauge and a 39 in the 28. Well done, Jerry, Heyward and Ann! In the three small guns, Hemingway again laid out some challenging targets to the fields of 85 entrants in the 20 gauge, 74 in the 28 gauge and 42 in the .410.

Paul Gambal from Washington, D.C. took the 20 gauge event with a 47, closely followed by Texan

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FEBRUARYKICKOFF

MAIN EVENT CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BRAD KIDD JR BILL MCGUIRE RYAN HARPER BRETT STOLZENBERG KEN RUDOLPH STEVE CIANCIULLI TERRY LEBLANC BRANDON LAING CHARLES HAAS KAREN SHEDD BRAYDEN WOJCIESZAK KAREN SHEDD BILL MCGUIRE BRIAN DU QUESNAY GARY WALSTROM JIM THOMAS

193 190 187 167 170 153 155 158 120 185 172 185 190 168 166 155

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Paul McCormick’s 46. Another South Florida member, Rebekah Ryan, shot a very nice 42 to take the 20 gauge Ladies title. The 28 gauge was won by other local area shooters, Julian Branch from nearby Palm Beach Gardens, taking the champion’s spot with his 47 and Edward Lee of Miami taking runner-up with 46.

Alexandra Nolan won the Ladies title with her 37. Julian Branch again found himself at the top of the board in the .410 shooting a 44 to tie South Dakotan Steve Naatjes, with Branch ultimately taking the win. Janet Violissi was the Lady champion.

SIDE EVENTS SUPER SPORTING 20G FITASC 28G FITASC 20G SPORTING 28G SPORTING .410 BORE

BILL MCGUIRE JERRY RACKLEY R HEYWARD OWENS PAUL GAMBAL JULIAN BRANCH JULIAN BRANCH

49 49 50 47 47 44

Dave Kelley and his crew are to be congratulated on hosting a great event, with great organization by Emma Howells and Ed Seissiger, great work on the desk by Lois Neely, great targets set by Mick Howells and Rick Hemingway, and great support from Jim Moses, Sean Power and the Promatic gang. Let’s not forget John Martinelli who was there all weekend providing us all with complimentary “true Florida sunshine in a glass”, Natalie’s Orchid Island fresh-squeezed juices. And lastly, a big thanks to Norbert Hausmann and Zoli for their all-important title sponsorship, and congratulations to HOA Champion Brad Kidd Jr., their Team Zoli shooter!

All 2022 Zoli Classic final results are posted at www.winscoreonline.com n

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2022 CARIBBEAN CLASSIC

NEW PROGRAM AND NEW RECORDS!

V

ero Beach Clay Shooting Sports in Vero Beach, Florida, has undergone a tremendous amount of change since the new owners took over back in early 2020. In the summer of 2020 that included adding new acreage to the north to expand the possibilities for two permanent courses. In December 2020, the club overhaul included bringing on Brian Palmer as General Manager.

After Brian came onboard and had a little time to get to know the club and its capabilities, it was no surprise when last summer he announced plans for a new eight CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

day program for the 2022 Caribbean. Being full of new ideas and not one to back away from challenges, Brian really put his mark on the Caribbean Classic this year. It was an eight day shooting extravaganza! Shooters had the opportunity to come right from the Zoli Classic at South Florida, the week before to Vero on Monday, shoot there through the following Monday, and move over on Tuesday to start the Jack Links Shoot at Quail Creek. And shoot they did! With 559 total entrants and 406 in the Main 200, this was the biggest attendance ever at this

BY LOUISE TERRY event. Brian was assisted with the target setting by his First Lieutenant, Kirk Perkins, and his mentor and long-time friend Ben Wise who made the trek from the mid-Atlantic winter to Vero two months ahead of time to help out.

Lots of planning and attention to detail paid off in a very smoothly run shoot — and the extra help from the weatherman didn’t hurt!

The program Brian laid out for February 7th -14th covered the grounds with a veritable “symphony” of events. FITASC was Monday – Thursday, subgauges, including a 50 bird 12

gauge, were shot Monday – Wednesday, Super Sporting was Thursday – Friday, 5-Stand was Thursday - Sunday, the first Prelim was offered on Tues - Wed, and a second Prelim on Thurs - Fri. The Main Event 200 was Saturday Sunday, and the Federal Challenge was the final Monday.

Mix and match... take your pick! It was like watching a play while the stagehands changed the scenery backdrops between acts.

And with an additional investment this past year in more Promatic traps, along with the final boost from Sean Power and the Promatic

CARIBBEANCLASSIC

team onsite during the weekend, Brian, Ben and Kirk had all the traps needed staged on the courses for all events well before the first shot was fired. This led to very smooth transitions from one day to the next when course resetting was in order.

GUERINI 5-STAND

SIDE EVENTS 20G MICHAEL LUONGO 49 28G STEVE NAATJES 46 .410 BORE DERRICK MEIN 43 SUPER SPORTING BRAD KIDD JR 50 12G 50 BIRD DERRICK MEIN 50 MONDAY CHALLENGE TURNER PARCELL 97

So Many Choices…

So, let’s start at the beginning of the week. Sponsored by Elite Shotguns and set by Ben Wise, the sub-gauges were laid out on one eight station course on the west side. Menus for each gauge were posted on each station, and participation was good in all gauges. By Thursday night there were a couple of shoot-offs needed to decide some ties: a five-way shoot-off of 47s to determine the

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20 gauge runner-up which was won by Derrick Mein, and a threeway shoot-off of 46s for the 28 gauge championship, which was won by Steve Naatjes.

The Rizzini Preliminary, set by Kirk Perkins, hosted 187 shooters

TODD HITCH (L) RU , AND STEVE NELSON (R) CHAMP IN THE GUERINI 5-STAND

on Tuesday and Wednesday on the East course. Station 1 started right out with a close pair of report rabbits, and the next few stations were relatively straightforward, but stations 8 - 15 became increasingly tougher. All in all, it was a great test to get everyone wound up for the rest of the week. Derrick Mein

Long Bird Brian changed up the games venue this year and threw a Long Bird competition from Wednesday to Saturday which attracted a lot of attention. The top 20 were in the exciting Saturday night elimination shoot-out. When it got down to the final three, they made a side deal to split the money but kept shooting for “bragging rights.”

Well, knowing what we know now, it comes as no surprise that Turner Parcell’s hot hand was at work and he won the shoot-off on his last “life.”

Kaitlyn Koenig, B class Junior shooter from Arizona, finished second by breaking a chip off a LONGGGG pair at the end, and Jerry Rackley finished third to claim his piece of the money pool.

posted the high score of 97 for the win, followed by Theo Ribbs with a 95 to secure the runner-up spot.

Dee Orr topped the Ladies field with a 75, Jonathan Rumbarger took Junior honors with a 78, while Bill McGuire landed the Veteran win in a tie of 92s with Virgil Minshew. Malcolm Parker won

RIZZINI PRELIM CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

DERRICK MEIN THEO RIBBS BILL MCGUIRE ANDY SCHOEN MIKE MINTON GEORGE RANTA JAMES SCHMITT WAYNE HUOT JOE PRUSKOWSKI DEE ORR JONATHAN RUMBARGER BILL MCGUIRE MALCOLM PARKER DOUGLAS HESS JIM THOMAS

97 95 92 81 82 74 71 64 70 75 78 92 85 79 79

WHITE FLYER PRELIM CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

JASPER COPELAN MICHAEL LUONGO NICOLAS BERRY ROBERT JANISZEWSKI ERIC FRENCH TERRY LEBLANC TIM GANLEY GEORGE IVERSON JOE PRUSKOWSKI GIANNA SANTO GRIFFIN HOWE TODD HITCH SALIM HADDAD BERT STELLY EDWARD ANGRISANI RICHARD HERRIFORD

95 93 93 86 79 76 81 68 60 79 84 93 87 86 79 69

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Super Veteran, Doug Hess topped the Senior Super Veteran field, and Jim Thomas started his run of Legacy wins for the week.

Elite Shotguns sponsored the 100 bird Gary Gray Memorial FITASC, which was dedicated this year to a special friend who loved to shoot FITASC but who sadly passed away during 2021. Gary’s son, James, and Gary’s brother were there to represent the family and it was very moving to see James acknowledged at the Saturday night awards presentation as the FITASC D class winner! We’re pretty sure that Gary was smiling down from above watching it all.

Brian Palmer set the FITASC layouts in five 20 bird parcours.

This gave Brian the chance to set a little bit of everything. Parcours 1, 3 and 4 seemed pretty straightforward, but were technical and sometimes affected by the wind, while Parcours 2 and 5 each had some salty true pair tower shots. Unbeknownst to the field yet, after the first three days of shooting had concluded, the top five scores had been shot. By Wednesday afternoon, Brad Kidd Jr. was alone atop the field with a 94, followed by three 93s from Virgil Minshew, Nick Berry and

BRAD KIDD JR VIRGIL MINSHEW NICOLAS BERRY ANDY SCHOEN STERLING EANES ERIC JOHNSON STUART SMITH JAMES GRAY PAM RUSSO AMBER BROWN TODD HITCH VIRGIL MINSHEW PATRICK BARTEL SPIKE WAHLEN RICHARD HERRIFORD

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

Dan Glazier. Derrick Mein was sitting 5th on a lone 92. So, Thursday actually turned out to be a battle for class and concurrent places. When all 217 shooters had finished Thursday afternoon, Kidd Jr. remained at the top of the board, with a shoot-off needed to determine runner-up. Late Friday afternoon, when the shoot-offs were called, Dan Glazier hadn’t returned so he ended up M2. Virgil Minchew and Nick Berry proceeded to shoot an exciting full parcour plus one other “sudden death” peg to establish Minchew as the runner-up by outlasting a limping (but still smiling) Nick Berry (M1), who was recovering FITASC TOWER PARCOUR 2 PEG 2

FITASC CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BRAD KIDD JR. TAKES THE RABBIT ON PARCOUR 5 PEG 2 ON THE WAY TO WINNING THE FITASC HOA

94 93 93 87 78 76 73 58 56 81 88 93 87 88 81

from a broken knee.

Finishing on Friday afternoon was the Benelli Super Sporting.

This was a popular 50-bird event with 268 entrants which was set by Ben Wise on the West course where the sub-gauges had been.

Everyone I talked to who shot these targets loved them. It was a fun set of presentations which resulted in nine 50 straights tied for top gun, one of which was Grace Callahan who took the Ladies honors uncontested. To decide this contest, Palmer set a couple of “spicy” true pairs for the shoot-off with Brad Kidd Jr. outlasting the crowd to establish himself as the Super Sporting

Champion, with Derrick Mein winning runner-up.

Also finishing on Friday, were 275 shooters who played the White Flyer Prelim on this Thursday/ Friday schedule, including Josh Taylor, our White Flyer rep for the Southeast Region. Brian Palmer set this course with a few memorable stations: #3 had a close rabbit on the left and an edgy, curving-in B bird, station #7 had a flat, fast B bird which was a speedy midi crosser, station #12 which I thought was the toughest pair of the course was a long, high A bird quartering out and a left-to-right B bird flopping in from behind a palm tree, and #14 which was a pesky rabbue (boo!) and an incoming chandelle. Georgia’s Jasper Copelan pulled away from the field and stayed there with his 95 to take the HOA, while Michael Luongo, Nick Berry, and Todd Hitch were all tied on 93s for runner-up. Again, Palmer set a high-bar true pair for this contest to settle the score. Luongo took runner-up, Nick Berry was M1, and Todd Hitch placed M2, also winning the Junior title. Gianna Santo won the Ladies race.

The Guerini 5-Stand, set by Brian Palmer, had been going on since Thursday morning with past Florida State Champion Steve Nelson topping the board on Day 1 with his 50 straight, followed by Bill McGuire on 49 and Wendell Cherry on 48. By Saturday night, Nelson still had posted the only perfect score, but Todd Hitch had added another 49 to knock Cherry out of the top three. The final standings on Sunday afternoon were Steve Nelson with his lone 50 for the championship, and a shootoff between Bill McGuire and Todd Hitch, which Hitch won for runnerup. Gianna Santo’s 46 had led Ladies up through Saturday night, but Grace Callahan’s 47 shot on

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5-STAND CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

STEVEN NELSON TODD HITCH BILL MCGUIRE DOMINIC ULIANO ERIC GARDNER KAITLYN KOENIG JACK MCKENZIE LYNNETTE THORSTENSEN JAY KING GRACE CALLAHAN GRIFFIN HOWE TODD HITCH BILL MCGUIRE BERT STELLY DOMINIC ULIANO WILLIAM TERRY

50 49 49 44 44 43 38 36 32 47 47 49 49 45 44 34

Sunday morning sealed the deal for the Ladies race in her favor.

Main Event With Sean Mainland from Kolar Arms here for the week, the Kolar Main 200 blasted off on Saturday morning with half the field squadded on each of the East and West courses respectively. Palmer set the East course and shared the

Shooter Party Vero Beach also hosted their shooters’ party again on Saturday night at nearby Pointe West Country Club. It was great to be back after missing that get-together last year because of Covid. A delicious buffet dinner was served with a special surprise birthday cake and cupcakes for VBCSS co-owner, Dan Lewis. It was a fun evening of awards, door prizes, great food, and libations. If they can get past a myriad of delays in local permitting, shortages of materials, shipping problems, etc., etc., we just might see the clubhouse taking shape for next year.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

honors with Ben Wise on the west side. Generally speaking, as the scores started to roll in, the East course seemed to shoot a few birds easier. By Saturday night, Turner Parcell, a Junior shooter from South Carolina, held the lead with his 97, shot on the East course, followed by four 95s and four 94s, most of which had come off that East course. In the Ladies race, Ashley Little’s 90 on East was at the top of the board followed by three 86s from Kiersten Sales, Grace Callahan, and Karen Shedd.

With these results pretty close that first day, on Sunday morning, everyone near the top was going for broke.

Shooting on the West course, Parcell dropped back to a 93, seemingly opening the door for the 94/95 pack from Saturday. Of the TODD HITCH ON MAIN EAST SUNDAY

BRAYDEN WOJCIESZAK TAKES THE TOWER TRUE PAIR ON MAIN WEST COURSE

95s from Saturday though, Thorpe, Whitehead and McLeod all fell

back into the 80s, while McGuire stayed tough, posting a 94 on East.

Of the 94s from Saturday, only Mein (92) and Cherry (95) managed to stay in the 90s with Cherry’s 95 matching the top score shot on West either day. So, when it was all over, Parcell had edged out the veterans by one bird to take the HOA title and Junior champion with his 190, leaving McGuire, Gebben Miles and Cherry in a three-way tie for Main runner-up.

Shooting several sequences of some tough true pairs from the 5-Stand platform, Cherry ultimately prevailed to take runner-up and the Veterans title. McGuire was M1 and Miles M2. Meanwhile, while defending Ladies champ Grace Callahan shot a stout 90 on the West course on Sunday, Karen Shedd shot an amazing 95 on Sunday on the East course to make up ground on all of the Ladies and take top Ladies honors with her 181. Other concurrent winners in the Main Event were Connor Daniel, Sub-Junior champ, Super Veteran champion, Malcolm Parker, Senior Super Veteran champion, Gary Walstrom, and

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WENDELL CHERRY WON THE MAIN EVENT RU SHOOTOFF ON SUNDAY NIGHT

KOLAR MAIN EVENT WINNERS (L TO R) M1 BILL MCGUIRE, HOA TURNER PARCELL, RUNNER-UP WENDELL CHERRY

CARIBBEAN CLASSIC

Legacy champion, Jim Thomas.

On Monday, the Federal Challenge signaled the end of the weeklong program with 156 shooters opting to stay over to shoot for the Federal ammo to be awarded to HOA, runner-up and to class (three deep) and concurrent winners. In addition, shooters and their guests also enjoyed a wonderful, complimentary

CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

TURNER PARCELL WENDELL CHERRY BILL MCGUIRE JACK MARTINELLI DAVID WEBSTER JEREMY ERB TIM GANLEY DANIEL HOAG KEVIN STEPHENS KAREN SHEDD CONNOR DANIEL TURNER PARCELL WENDELL CHERRY MALCOLM PARKER GARY WALSTROM JIM THOMAS

190 189 189 172 165 155 147 138 127 181 184 190 189 174 168 155

Valentine’s Day buffet lunch sponsored by Summit Construction. Proving the old adage that “when you’re hot,

you’re hot,” Sunday’s Main Event champion, Turner Parcell, hammered another 97 of Ben Wise’s targets on the East course to win the five flats of ammo for the HOA award and another flat for Junior champ. Chris Childerhouse’s 95 put him squarely in the runner-up spot to win three flats of Federal shells.

Class firsts won two flats, class

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seconds and thirds won one flat each and concurrent firsts won one flat each. Gianna Santo took Ladies first, Virgil Minshew was Veteran Champ, Bert Stelly took Senior Veteran, Super Senior Veteran went to Gary Walstrom and Bill Terry won the Legacy ammo.

As always, huge thanks are due to our sponsors of this event: Kolar Arms, Elite Shotguns, White Flyer, Promatic, Caesar Guerini, Federal, Benelli, Rizzini, Summit Construction, and Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice. They help make this event what it is, and we couldn’t do this without them. Also, I want to acknowledge the efforts of the host team of Brian Palmer, Ben Wise and Kirk Perkins, Bill Skully, Ashley, Amber, Kathryn, Lois and all the ladies working inside, and special mention to Brian’s wife, Kari Palmer who was the lady patiently manning the ammo barn all week long, and who gets credit for the great plan for the preorder/prepaid ammo to ensure all who wanted to come shoot did so without worry about ammo availability.

VBCSS thanks to all who attended their event this year. “We hope you enjoyed the new program and will make plans to come back to shoot with us next year!” n

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JACK LINK’S CUP

BY DEE ORR

T

he Inaugural Jack Link’s Cup got underway at Quail Creek Sporting Ranch in Okeechobee, Florida on February 15th and ran through Sunday the 20th. There were some things that were familiar, but also some very big changes. In the “same” category, Doug Vine would be setting all of the targets, with the exception of the Red course, where Joe Scull was in to assist. The Scorechaser Dream Team of Casey Chase, Lois Neely and Becky Rogers were in to handle registration and scoring. In the “change/new” category were new owner Troy Links of Jack Link’s Jerky fame, new GM Tim Davis, all CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

the capital improvements of paved paths, the whole new pristine area in the northwest that was opened up for FITASC and 5-Stand — plus, a $150,000 in guaranteed prize monies. Oh, and Flexi-FITASC (more about that in a minute). The wind has been blowing off and on down here all month, and rotation luck of the draw would absolutely be a factor in the outcome of several events.

Rick Hemingway, Eric Dorsey and John Snowden were on hand to supplement mechanical resources with their Promatic traps. Regular course safety manager Rick Pittenger and grounds manager Abraham Torrez

and his team were keeping things running. In the clubhouse, there were lots of new pretty, smiling faces selling ammo and other goods.

Some things seemed quite familiar. The pavilion had Corey and Rick serving great food.

The vendors lined the parking area offering their wares. Frog and his security team were keeping things orderly. Then there was a big blowup Sasquatch towering beside the pavilion, and Jack Link’s tents with snacks everywhere. Each Main Event entrant was given a Jack Link’s/Bass Pro RTIC cooler with goodies inside.

FITASC and Side Events Flexi-FITASC… I like it! You had the option of shooting your 100 targets straight through any day or 50/50 on Tuesday/Wednesday, Thursday/Friday or Saturday/ Sunday. FITASC was now situated in a newly opened area to the

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northwest. If you are familiar with the property, you left the Blue course on the westerly point at Station 10, then followed a road north past the beautiful brown and white steer with enormous horns, through a wooded Eden of forest and a babbling brook, until finally coming to an open area where the competition 5-Stand was located, facing westerly. Just beyond was the FITASC area splattered with just enough trees and palmettos to make it perfect for stashing traps.

Wow, the trip was worth the ride.

Course managers Carol Minshew and Danny Moss were there to keep things rolling along.

I shot the Beretta FITASC 100 straight through on Tuesday. Good squad. The wind was blowing out of the east a steady 12-15 with 23 knot gusts and for three of the four parcours it was at our backs.

Wednesday would be no better.

That said, Virgil Minshew, who was on my squad, managed to post a 91.

Parcour 1 was the nicest with some rising targets that seemed to float, but the F bird was quick and going away. Parcour 2 was to me the toughest, with the over the treetop height of targets that allowed the wind to push them on edge quickly. Further, the low crossing C bird was diving and on CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

the ground in short order. A rabbit, with an untimely hop as the F, was crossing on Peg 1 and hard quartering on-edge by Peg 3.

Parcour 3, also challenging, was “bat” and “bue” land: two battues and a rabbue. The bats were high and crossing perpendicular to the wind, and the bue was slow, close, and crossing. The C bird was a black midi, belly to the wind, crossing left to right and being blown way out.

Parcour 4 was the most fun, with two targets off a huge tower thrown driven into the wind, but because of the wide open panoramic location they could also be shot as falling targets as they stalled on the other side. This option could evaporate if the wind dies. The A was a full spring quartering bird, turned crosser by Peg 3. The E, a fiery rabbit, just the opposite, started as a crosser and turned edgy quartering as you went through. The F was shot facing east and was a low quick crosser. The whole course was mostly a great set of targets with some interesting true pairings. A 94 shot by Mike Tilley early on was leading the pack. I expected to see some higher scores if the wind subsided by the weekend. That became true, as Brad Kidd Jr. was HOA with his 98 shot over the

weekend and Zachary Kienbaum was runner-up on 97. Shelby Moon posted a 93 to claim the Ladies win.

Right across the road was the Elite Shotguns Sub-Gauge FITASC, two parcours, both facing east. Each had five traps and a nice assortment of presentations. Three

47s led the pack: AA Class shooters John Maroulis and Chris Childerhouse and B Class shooter T.J. Hawk for the 20 gauge event, and Christina Loudenslager shot a 46 for high Lady. There were no shoot-offs or trophies, so monies were split. Childerhouse was top

BRAD KIDD JR. WAS FITASC HOA, THURS BLUE AND FRI RED PRELIM AND SUPER SPORTING CHAMP

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FITASC HOA RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BRAD KIDD, JR. ZACHARY KIENBAUM CHRISTIAN SASSO SHAUN BARNES JONATHAN RALSTON CADEN CARTER BRODY SAMSON MARC BARNES SHELBY MOON GRIFFIN HOWE JOSEPH FANIZZI WILL FENNELL JOHN WOOLLEY ROBERT FIELDS RICHARD HERRIFORD

98 97 95 86 85 82 83 86 94 90 95 95 90 83 80

SIDE EVENTS 12G CONSTANTIN NELSON 49 20G T J HAWKS 48 28G LES WAGNER 48 .410 BORE STEVEN NELSON 49

FITASC SIDE EVENTS 20G

JOHN MAROULIS 47 CHRIS CHILDERHOUSE 47 T.J. HAWK 47 28G CHRIS CHILDERHOUSE 49 SUPER SPORTING BRAD KIDD, JR. 48

score in the 28 gauge event with his 49 and Andrea Seefeldt Knight took Ladies with her 46.

The four 50 bird sporting events were also underway over on the main location on the White Course. Set with three or four traps per station over nine stations, scores were coming in strong.

These events would run through Friday and the course would be turned over to Super Sporting for the weekend.

Prelims and More Both the Blue and Red Prelim courses were set over 17 stations.

Sixteen three pair stations and one with two pair accommodated the large crowd nicely. Vine does this CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

often for the monthly shoots here.

The Blue course accommodates this nicely, as it is well spread out, but on the Red it can become a bit of a traffic jam. Fortunately, they had the foresight to not let the next rotation enter the course until the prior rotation is finished shooting, which helps minimize the congestion. Each station on the Blue was overlaid with six traps to facilitate a quick course turnover between events. On the Red only one flip was required, so four per station did the trick. The Prelim participation ran Thursday Blue 302, Friday Red 305, and Friday Blue 309 with almost half of the shooters in Master class. Another interesting stat, Veteran or older accounted for 171, 170, and 147 of the registered shooters, respectfully.

Beretta Thursday Blue Prelim was hard on hard, from the battue on 16 that took a lifetime of lead, to the true pairs on the towers on Stations 10 and 17. A rabbue on 8 was paired on report with a 60 yard high black crosser. There was very little relief, however Brad Kidd Jr. managed to post a 98 to win the event and claim the $1500 prize money. David Radulovich was runner-up with his 97 and pocketed a cool thousand. Money went down three places in each class, $500, $300, $200. No trophies or monies were paid in the concurrents. Only one shoot-off was necessary. Young Gun Knightly Duris won her shoot-off for E-Class 1st against Janelle Slobodnik, both on 58s.

Beretta Friday Blue, and Friday Red Prelims were in deep contrast to one another. The Blue was very tough and the Red had interesting challenges with opportunities to rack up some Xs. Nearly half of the Master class shooters (70/149) scored 90 or better on the Red, whereas that dropped to just over

THURSDAY BLUE PRELIM HOA RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BRAD KIDD, JR. DAVID RADULOVICH MIKE TILLEY SHAUN BARNES JONATHAN RALSTON GORDON BUCKNOR CARTER BURKHOLDER MARC BARNES KNIGHTLY DURIS KAREN SHEDD GRIFFIN HOWE KAREN SHEDD BILL MCGUIRE MALCOLM PARKER THOMAS STORR RICHARD HERRIFORD

FRIDAY BLUE PRELIM 98 97 96 83 81 77 71 72 58 93 91 93 95 85 84 84

10% on the Blue (16/153). Some of the best shooters in the world were there, and can hit whatever you throw, but on the other hand, some of the lower classes could’ve used a break to restore their confidence.

I thought Scull’s Red course was perfect. A 99 by Brad Kidd Jr. was HOA on the Red. Young Gun Bryan Holtkamp punched his way into Master class with an 84 on the Blue.

Friday Shoot-offs: There was a large crowd on hand to watch the big guys shoot-off. On Blue, three 97s shot by Zach Kienbaum, Bill McGuire and Nicolas Berry required a daunting shoot-off to determine HOA, runner-up and

FRIDAY RED PRELIM HOA RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BRAD KIDD, JR. BILL MCGUIRE RYAN HARPER GRAHAM EUBANKS DYLAN THOMPSON JAKE DAVENPORT CARTER BURKHOLDER WILEY HUNTER KATHRYN MARELLI MARIAN ZERBY BRENDAN RIGGINS MARIAN ZERBY BILL MCGUIRE MALCOLM PARKER GARY WALSTROM RICHARD HERRIFORD

99 98 98 94 90 90 86 74 67 97 90 97 98 95 87 82

HOA RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

ZACHARY KIENBAUM BILL MCGUIRE NICOLAS BERRY BRYAN HOLTKAMP DYLAN THOMPSON JACK ANDREWS JUAN ALVARADO MARC BARNES CASSANDRE MCGOWAN REANNA FRAUENS CONNOR DANIEL TODD HITCH BILL MCGUIRE CHUCK DE VINNE JIM BELLOWS BERT BAUMGARTNER

97 97 97 84 80 80 72 67 55 91 85 94 97 89 81 70

M1, and ended in that order. A shoot-off which resulted Bill McGuire, Ryan Harper and Eric Harvey (98) determined runner-up, M1 and M2 for the Red. All other ties were determined by tiebreaker station.

The 50-bird sporting competitions wrapped up Friday afternoon. They were shot over nine stations. Each offered $10 Back-to-class monies, which were spit for ties. Shooters numbered 571 in these events. High scores in each event were as follows. H. W. Constantin Nelson posted a lone 49 in the 12 gauge event for M1. Top honors in 20 gauge went to Class B shooter T. J. Hawk (48). Les Wagner took the 28 gauge M1 win with a 48, and Steven Nelson (AA Class) was .410 high score with 49.

This course was then flipped to accommodate the Super Sporting event that began at 10 a.m.

Saturday morning.

I shot the 100 target 5-Stand on Friday. It was located in the wayback area, just before the FITASC parcours. Four complete layouts with six traps each made for a fun and diversified event. The setting was beautiful with its palmettos and palms. A tower set between layouts 1 and 2 served double duty, and a long high incoming midi on

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5-STAND HOA RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

BILL MCGUIRE BILL DENNIS TONY RIVERA ROMAN TAVARES-FINSON DYLAN THOMPSON AVERY BILES CARTER BURKHOLDER MARC BARNES AVA SHELLY MARIAN ZERBY BRADEN WOJCIESZAK TURNER PARCELL TONY RIVERA STEVE MIDDLEDITCH GARY WALSTROM BERT BAUMGARTNER

98 98 98 93 90 87 86 86 71 95 90 95 98 90 87 78

layout 2 faded left about halfway in.

Layout 3 had some interesting trap shots and 4 had a swift crosser as the 2 bird and lots of air on the 3, 4 and 5. A nice set of targets, each layout was thrown, single, report pair, true pair. This event ran Wednesday through Sunday and 385 shooters found their way through. Three 98s posted by Bill McGuire, Bill Dennis and Tony Rivera finished in that order after the shoot-off. Emmy Zerby was Lady champion with 95.

White Flyer Super Sporting was shot over nine stations and hosted 309 shooters. The targets were a nice variation. Interestingly, on two stations you just had four two-shot singles and no pairs. The rest were the usual Super Sporting menus. In the end, the shoot-off for HOA was eight deep. Brad Kidd Jr. took the win by hitting all three pairs of the very challenging targets. C class Miles Hendrix earned his way to the HOA shootoff as well. He was with some very heavy hitters. Able Spire was runner-up, and another round was needed to sort out M1- M3.

Madison Sharp was high Lady with 47.

Sponsors for these events were Jack Link’s, Krieghoff, Bass Pro Shops, Essentia H2O+ (water), CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

Promatic, Winchester, Pure Gold, Cole, White Flyer, Beretta.

Winchester Ammo was available at a very reasonable rate, however, limits did apply. Several vendors were on-site, including Pure Gold Chokes, Ranger Glasses, and Caesar Guerini with their mobile shop and gunsmith Antonio doing pit stops. Gun dealers Elite Shotguns, Woolley Shooting Clinics and Bad Oscar were set up, as was Shoot the Moon and Barepelt, the new vest company.

Krieghoff and Beretta were housed inside the storefront. A full menu was available in the pavilion from chefs Cody and Rick, and a food truck arrived Friday and was selling tacos. Saturday night’s banquet began at 3 p.m. with a cash bar, followed by complementary beer, wine and appetizers for happy hour. Dinner began at 6:30. Fourteen guns were given away by drawing, including a Krieghoff K-80, a Beretta DT11 and a Jack Link’s logoed Beretta A400.

You had to be present to win.

Main Event Jack Link’s Main Event was shot by 622 shooters. The difference in difficulty between the Red and Blue courses continued into the Main Event. After the first day, there were 30 scores of 90 or better on Red, with Joe Fanizzi’s 99 leading the pack, followed by three 97s. On Blue that number dropped to seven, with David Radanovich’s 93 topping the list. It would be interesting psychologically to see how this plays out. Does the big number relax you for the second hundred, or tighten you up because you know it’s gonna get tougher? On the other hand, does getting through the tough course in decent shape inspire super focus for the friendlier side? Hmmmm?

RED COURSE

Looking at the scores it seemed the whole west side, from stations 10 – 17 on Doug Vine’s Blue course, was very challenging, with their true pairs of far away crossers and tower shots. Where you began could certainly have an impact — that, plus a deluge of rain that came through on Saturday. These targets took a toll on the lower

class shooters and some in the higher classes, as well. Around one third of Master class shooters scored 150 (75%) or lower for the Main Event. In AA - E, only 37 of 366 shooters got there. If it wasn’t for the better results on Joe Scull’s Red course, these numbers could have been even more disheartening to shooters.

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TOWER SHOTS ON THE BLUE COURSE WERE DAUNTING

Once the clays had all hit the ground, it seemed those who had a good score locked in fared better, with the exception of Gebben Miles, who shot a 91 on Blue and followed it up with a 98 on Red to claim runner-up. As I finished my Super Sporting round late Sunday, I noticed a large crowd of people around Blue 12. It turned out that they were all following the Okeechobee Flash, Joe Fanizzi, as he finished his last four stations of his final round on the Main. No pressure Joe. He ran all four to finish with a 95 on Blue, which when added to his 99 on Red gave him an astonishing 194 and HOA by a sweet five targets. Lots of hugs followed. Words cannot tell you how loved and respected this young man is, and he earned every bit of it.

On my way back to the clubhouse, I came across another Okeechobee local shooting her final station. Kiersten Sales had posted high Lady score on Saturday with an 89 on the Red. She went on to run 10 stations on the Blue course for an 84 to take Ladies HOA, over some of the best Lady shooters in the country. Atta girl Kiersten! She is a huge talent and it was fun to have two of our hometown heroes on the podium.

Of note: two of the top five Junior shooters were Ladies.

Sunday evening, once the shoot-offs were complete, the CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

JACK LINK’S HOA JOSEPH FANIZZI EMBRACED BY HIS FATHER FRED AFTER HIS WIN

JACK LINK'S CUP HOA RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET LEGACY

JOSEPH FANIZZI GEBBEN MILES ZACHARY KIENBAUM CHAD ZIADIE BRADY MCCLELLAN EMILIO TEJA CARTER BURKHOLDER CONNER MEHRER TRAVIS BURRIS KIERSTEN SALES MALIC MAGNUSSON JOSEPH FANIZZI BILL MCGUIRE MALCOLM PARKER JACK CONCANNON RICHARD HERRIFORD

194 189 188 172 160 167 160 147 141 173 174 194 187 173 159 146

awards for the Main Event began.

Heavy hors d’oeuvres were served, as General Manager Tim Davis got the awards presentations underway in front of the Jack Link’s banner and the big stuffed Sasquatch for photo ops. HOA and runner-up received lovely silver platters and $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. First through sixth in class and concurrent received plaques. Class monies went $2000, $1500, $1000, $750, $500, $250 and concurrent monies $1500, $1250, $1000, $750, $500, $250, except for Legacy, which paid $300, $100, prorated due to just five shooters. $150,000 guaranteed prize money plus back-to-class and options. Lots of money on the table and 752 Shooters came out to play.

Thank you Quail Creek Sporting Ranch for a fun event and the opportunity to see friends from all over the country. Complete scores are available at scorechaser.com n

OKEECHOBEE HEROES HOA JOSEPH FANIZZI AND LADY CH KIERSTEN SALES

PHOTO CREDIT: DEBBIE SALES

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INDUSTRYINSIDER

38

MORGAN HARBISON

RECIPIENT OF THE MASCH-CHADWICK MVP AWARD NATIONALS TARGET SETTER AND WHIZ BANG COORDINATOR

BY DANA FARRELL

T

hirty year-old Morgan Harbison, of Bryan, Texas was the inaugural recipient of the Pete Masch-Neil Chadwich MVP award at last year’s NSCA National Championship. This behind the scenes award was not given with a great deal of fanfare, but instead is a tip of the hat to standouts on the shoot management/facilities crew who make things run so smoothly each October at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio.

For the past several years, Harbison has helped sets targets at CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

the National championship. This past year he, along with Henry Velazguez, set the A–E 5-Stand course and helped veteran target maestro Steve Knoll set the 20G/ SxS/Pump Gun courses. Asked about his target setting experience at Nationals, he humbly said “I definitely consider myself one of the go-getters for the bigger name target setters who are much better target setters than I [am].” I get the feeling his Nationals coworkers would disagree with his downplayed assessment.

Whiz Bang Morgan’s day-to-day job title is the Central Texas Hunter Education Specialist and Mobile Range Coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife. In addition to the part of his job that teaches new hunters safety, hunting laws and hunter etiquette, he has been heading up the phenomenally successful youth shooting program known as Whiz Bang for the past eight years. Whiz Bang, a clay target shooting program that every year sees more than 1200 kids flow through its

ranks, is a joint operation between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas 4-H. As if that isn’t enough, Morgan is also the program coordinator for another youth centered shooting program, Ag Clays, which the TPWD runs in conjunction with the Future Farmers of America (FFA) for high school students who are enrolled in Wildlife, Fisheries, and Ecology Management curricula. The two youth groups go a long way towards helping ensure a steady influx of new clay target shooters

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Whiz Bang...is a joint operation between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas 4-H join the ranks, and provide youngsters the opportunity to participate in an organized sport outside of the traditional team/ contact sports offered in school.

The Whiz Bang aspect of Harbison’s job entails hauling a trailer full of clay target machines from town to town to outreach

events and setting up courses so kids can participate in this uniquely Texas shooting game that is similar to 5-Stand — but with some interesting twists.

Like 5-Stand, Whiz Bang is shot from five shooting cages, typically using a field of six to eight trap machines. Unlike 5-Stand, all presentations are true pairs, and each stand shoots the same menu before moving. After shooting all five pairs, the shooter on Stand 1 moves to Stand 5, so shooters index to the left instead of to the right, as they do for 5-Stand. In Whiz Bang the Stand 1 shooter always shoots first. Shooters shoot five pairs at each station for a total of 50 birds per game.

Whiz Bang is a cumulatively scored event that is shot

throughout the year, with the goal of making the final championship, held in the stadium each October during the NSCA Nationals at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio. The top five youth in each of four age groups advance to the championship, for a total of 20 kids.

The four Whiz Bang age groups range roughly from age 8 to 18. The age groups are, Junior: third grade through fifth grade, Intermediate: sixth grade through eighth grade, Senior I: ninth and tenth grade, and Senior II is eleventh and twelfth grade.

The Whiz Bang program has seen some very accomplished shooters graduate through its CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

ranks over the years, including helice shooter Mimi Wilfong, World Helice champion Shea Self, Olympian U.S. Army Sergeant Phillip Jungman, Haylyn Hanks, Jonathan Goedrich, and World FITASC champion/NSCA Lady champion Meagan Harrington.

With Morgan Harbison at its helm, Whiz Bang and Ag Clays will continue to introduce sporting clays targets to thousands of Texas youth for the foreseeable future. It is youth programs such as this, and just as importantly leaders in the industry like Harbison, who will ensure future generations will learn the game and enjoy clay target sports for years to come. n

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ACTIONFOCUS

42

THE JOB O

ne topic that I think is massively important, but rarely talked about, is what is the actual job when shooting a shotgun? When I ask the question, “What’s the job shooting a shotgun?” I usually get one of two answers: “Hit the target” or “have fun.” First off, hitting the target is the goal, doing the job is how you accomplish that goal. Secondly, since when is having fun a job?

To accomplish the goal of hitting a target you have to put the gun in the right place. This is the job. In order to put the gun in the right place there are two aspects to consider.

You have to make a move.

You have to see a picture.

By picture in this context, I mean the barrel/target relationship.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

BY ANDY DUFFY, WITH PHOTOS BY DANA FARRELL

Moves and Pictures Moves and pictures are the foundational structures that all good shotgun shooting is built upon. Consider them the process in process focus. I prefer the term action focus to process focus, mainly because it sounds cooler. Would you rather “take action!” or “go through your process?” Believe it or not, how you think about it affects how you do it.

Action focus is thinking about the task at hand. Result focus is thinking about what you want to have happen. As an example, let’s think about the action focus/result focus battle we have with ourselves every time we shoot a station.

The first target of the pair is a crosser, left to right, 20 yards

away, (think high 4 on the skeet field). The second target on report is a straightaway from in front (think post 3 on a 16 yard trap target). These two targets are on a sporting course, but as you view the pair you immediately note the similarities to the skeet and trap birds. At this point your thoughts sound something like this “Okay, the first one is high 4 and I see the same lead on that, with a lateral move. The break needs to happen right over the second trap, so I can drop straight down and gently move vertically to the dome on the second target.” You run this move in your head a few times, maybe take a breath to settle, and then call “pull!”

The targets blow up just as you knew they would. At this point you

load the gun and run the move/ picture scenario again. You call “pull!” and the second pair evaporates.

It is at this point that things start to go awry. Seeing as you’ve absolutely slammed the first four targets, you revert to the thought, “Man, I’m right in the middle of these!” and call for the bird. Notice how this thought had nothing at all to do with moves and pictures, so the direction your subconscious needs to be effective was absent.

You hit this pair, but only just barely, and only because what you did was still fresh in your mind from the previous pair. Coming into that last pair, you’ve had four quality breaks and two one-pellet hits.

R GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN Y FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERIN RETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FAB HTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERE WNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHT M VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING I CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQU CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPU PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY HTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERE WNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUISCAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROW USTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUS UARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI B IS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN R GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN Y FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERIN RETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FAB HTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERE WNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTH M VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING I CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQU RTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHA R GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN Y FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERIN RETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FAB HTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERE WNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTH M VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING I CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQU CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY HTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERE WNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUISCAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROW USTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUS UARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI B IS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN R GUERINI BLASER BERETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN Y FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERIN RETTA BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FAB HTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQUARTSEN KORTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BERE WNING FAUSTI BENELLI CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTH CAESAR GUERINI BLASER BROWNING M VOLQUARTSEN Included atKORTH no cost with the purchase of BERETTA ANY factory new I CHAPUIS SYREN RIZZINI PURDEY FABARM NIGHTHAWK CUSTOM VOLQU shotgun, rifle BLASER or pistolBERETTA from Michigan Shooting Centers.CHA GUERINI BROWNING FAUSTI BENELLI RTH CAESAR

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ACTIONFOCUS

44

ANDY DUFFY AT A PSCA MATCH IN TEXAS AGAINST DOMINIC GROSSI

Emotions, good or bad, hamper your ability to stay connected to the job.

Up to this point the thought process was, first pair: moves and pictures. Second pair: moves and pictures. Third pair: no focus, just a pat on the back, which resulted in two cheap hits. Now you’re in trouble because the situation has changed. The first pair was all about reading the targets correctly.

You did that and were rewarded.

Same for the second pair. On the third pair your brain wandered a bit, which then put you in a bad place. The cheap hits have shaken your confidence, and because it’s the last pair, your only thoughts are, “Okay, hit this last pair and I run the station!” In the midst of shooting a four-pair station you’ve moved from action focus to result focus. Notice that “hit this last pair” has absolutely nothing to do with moves and pictures.

The Last Pair Blues Have you ever had the last pair blues? Straight to the last pair and then dropped one? This is how it happens. It’s difficult to be aware of your thought process in the heat of battle because the desire to do well clouds your ability to process information.

Emotions, good or bad, hamper your ability to stay connected to the job. The last pair is problematic because the focus has changed from the action of moves and pictures to the result focus of “hit CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

the pair.” This is where the emotional component kicks in.

Fear of failure makes its appearance, and instead of making positive, confident moves based on the pictures you know work, you’re now shooting not to miss.

Remember, this all happened in the time it takes to shoot three pairs. You know the outcome here.

Dead/lost is the call. If it happens more than once, the odds increase drastically of repeat occurrences because all you can think about is Please, God, don’t let me do it again! Identifying the problem is fine, but the real question folks want the answer to is how to deal with it.

The key is to go back to the mindset you had for the first pair.

When you viewed the first pair you had a question in your mind.

Essentially it was, “where does the gun need to be?” Prior experience determines the best place along the target’s flight path to deliver the shot and what kind of move is best suited to put it there. Ditto for the second target.

It’s imperative that you ask yourself this question for every pair.

In my mind I see it as a movie.

The words in my head are simple. I say, “This one here, that one there,” and my subconscious naturally picks the hold points for

each target. I think of this a few times and when I feel centered on the job, I call for the bird. At this point the only thing I need to do is see the target. I tell students constantly at this point to “let your eyes have the gun.” The ability to trust this process is what separates the good shots from the great ones.

To recap: the problem of dropping a target in the last pair stems from deviating off the action focus path, onto the result focus… faceplant. To combat the problem simply ask yourself the question “where does the gun need to be?” on each pair.

Think of a carpenter framing a house. Two taps to start a nail, two hard whacks to drive it. Does the carpenter question that the nail is

going to be driven? Of course not.

The same should be how you approach a target. If you can swing a shotgun with the same dispassionate demeanor as the carpenter drives the nail, you develop the ability to process information in a calm, rational way.

In essence, you control your emotions rather than be controlled by them.

The ability to shoot a round of targets dispassionately requires abandoning any hope of winning or losing. Easy to say, tough to do.

Instead of win or lose, make the quality of your moves and pictures the focus. Do the job and let the folks back in the office count the score. n Editor’s note: Andy Duffy’s name is synonymous with sporting clays. The first person to win the NSCA National Championship three times, Andy has been a force in the game since its introduction in the U.S. An NSCA Hall of Fame member, he still maintains an active coaching and competition schedule and is now sharing his decades deep experience by writing a shooting book. This article is an early glimpse at one of the chapters in Andy’s upcoming book.

PHIL MURRAY OF WHITE FLYER (L) AND ANDY DUFFY (R) AT A NSCA HOF BANQUET

NEW

720 SERIES

SEMINOLECUP

46

2022 SEA ISLAND SPORTING CLASSIC

HARVEY SCHWARTZ REPORTS ON THE SEMINOLE CUP

Main Event

T

he 29th edition of the Seminole Cup proved to be an outstanding event. The weather during most of the tournament was terrific with bright sunshine and few clouds.

Broadfield Plantation in Woodbine, Georgia was an excellent venue for the 590 shooters attending.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

The Main event was situated on the Red and Blue Courses. Target setter on Red was Mike Bashaw from Big Red Oak Plantation. Blue was set by Jon Kent, Barry Moore, Mike Bashaw and Leigh Dillard, with MEC traps.

Our first station on the Red course was station 12. It included a black target off a tower with an orange domed teal. There were three true pairs. Several of the shooters opted to shoot the teal first and the tower second. Others

shot the tower first and the teal dropping. The target setter did a great job of making the shooter take one of the targets earlier and a little out of their comfort zone.

Station 1 had an orange domed teal on report with a green left to right crosser. The teal was very visible and not as easy as the crosser.

Station 3 included a 70 mm outgoer with a right to left orange target on report. Station 4 included a true pair from behind the shooter coming directly overhead. One target was low and the other high.

It was one of our favorite stations.

The Blue course had undergone some changes with the path being rerouted on the right hand side of the main path. All new shooting positions of stations 9 – 15 were used. Station 1 provided to be a true test. It included three true pairs from a tower to the right side of the station. Due to our early rotation, the sun was somewhat of a factor with the targets coming off the tower. A pond was built on station 14 with the dirt piled up to create a large berm. Three report pairs were thrown, with the first target a rabbit on the ground in

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SEMINOLECUP

48

SEMINOLE CUP CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET

TODD HITCH ZACHARY KIENBAUM KEITH HIGGINS GRAHAM EUBANKS COLTON EVANS MILES HENDRIX ANDREW DROUGHT JAKOB R. DUKE SAM ANDERSON SHELBY MOON CONNOR DANIEL TODD HITCH KEITH HIGGINS MALCOLM PARKER JACK CONCANNON

194 192 192 186 185 174 166 170 154 187 181 194 192 180 174

front of the berm and a green incomer as the second target.

Main Event HOA winner was Todd Hitch of Tennessee. Runnerup was Zach Kienbaum, with Keith Higgins finishing M1. Lady HOA was Georgia’s Shelby Moon, with a score of 187 with runner-up going to Madison Sharpe of South Carolina.

FITASC The four parcours of FITASC were thrown in an area beginning around the lake. Jon Kent set all four layouts.

Parcour 1 included five traps with an orange dome teal, a green incomer, a high black bottom target, a right to left orange target and a 90 mm outgoer down the tree line. Parcour 2 included an on-edge slider, an outgoing rabbit, an orange target in the sky, an orange domed right to left and a right to left black bottom target.

Parcour 3 had a left to right orange target, a left to right black bottom target, an orange right to left target, a right to left green target and a black bottom 90 mm in the sky. Parcour 4 was held on the pistol/rifle bay at Broadfield. This parcour seemed to be the most CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

MITCHELL KENT WON THE EZGO CART

FITASC CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET

BRAD KIDD JR TODD HITCH ZACHARY GUERRETTAZ ALEX DUNN JOHN RHINE MARK TRAVIS WILLIAM JANKOSK CHASE CHAPMAN CHARLES HAAS SHELBY MOON TODD HITCH WILL FENNELL RANDY RYAN RICHARD MCCREAD

96 94 93 86 82 81 76 74 63 88 94 92 84 83

difficult. It included a left to right orange battue, a going away teal, a high, on edge orange target, a right to left orange target and a 70 mm black bottom target off a tower.

High overall was Brad Kidd Jr. with an impressive score of 96, with runner-up Todd Hitch with a score of 94. Lady HOA was Shelby Moon, with Marian Zerby finishing runner up.

Other Events The EZGO shootout was contested on the Red course. Braxton Oliver was HOA with Rich Pazderski finishing runner-up. After the event, the top three from each class shot off under the lights for a chance to win an EZGO clays cart.

Mitchell Kent of the University of Alabama, son of Jessica and Jon Kent outlasted the other

SIDE EVENTS SUPER SPORTING CH BRAXTON OLIVER 97 20G FITASC CH WILL FENNELL 48 28G FITASC CH WILL FENNELL 50 12G 50 BIRD CH ALEX RYAN CLARK 50 20G CH ALEX SUMNER 48 28G CH RONNIE LACK 48 .410 BORE CH RANDY RYAN 47

competitors to take home the cart.

Needless to say, the hosts of the event were very excited.

The Super Sporting event honoring Shereen Fiorito was sponsored by Daniel Defense. The event was conducted on the Blue course with Zac Guerrettaz of Forest City setting the targets.

Station 2 had a right to left black target off the 80 foot tower. It was thrown off the tower with little spring and arced to the ground. I asked Zac about the target, and he told me he likes to throw targets off towers with little spring as they use gravity for their path. The next station had an eye-level left to right orange battue. HOA of the event was Braxton Oliver, with Zach Kienbaum finishing runner-up.

Lady HOA was Desi Edmunds.

5-Stand was tied with two straight 50s by Braxton Oliver and Kevin Demichiel, with Braxton taking HOA. Lady HOA was won

by Madison Sharpe. Sub-gauge FITASC was won by Will Fennell in both gauges.

Conclusion The Sea Island staff including Jon Kent, Wheeler Bryan along with MEC Outdoors mechanics all pitched in to make this one of the

5-STAND CH RU M1 AA1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 LADY SUB JR JR VET SUP VET SR SUP VET

BRAXTON OLIVER KEVIN DEMICHIEL ALEX RYAN CLARK CHARLES SPRUILL JAKE KINLAW JACKSON MAY JACK MCKENZIE CALLIE EVANS LEE SHERROD MADISON SHARPE BRAYDEN WOJCIESZAK TODD HITCH VIRGIL MINSHEW PAUL MCCORMICK RONNIE LACK (TIE) LANNY GRIFFIN

50 50 49 48 46 43 43 41 39 45 48 48 49 45 43

most enjoyable shoots of the 2022 year. Next year marks their 30th anniversary and should be a most memorable event. n

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SHOOTINGFORCAUSE

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2022 ATLANTA CHARITY CLAYS

BY SCOTT DICKINSON

T

he 31st Annual Atlanta Charity Clays was held March 16-19. Founded in 1991 by Will Lobb and Spike Wahlen, the ACC raises money to support more than 10 children’s charities with connections to the Atlanta area.

Shooters and guests emerged from their covid shelters to socialize and support the cause beginning with the Wednesday night Kick-Off Party. Ryan Seacrest delivered a video introduction and 16-year-old Jack Burke shared his inspiring battle against neurofibromatosis (“NF”), a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves anywhere in the body, including the brain and spinal cord. Jack and his parents, Jake Burke and Beth

O’Brien, have dedicated their lives to Cure NF With Jack, one of ACC’s beneficiaries.

The crowd was energized by Ryan, Jack and a talented auctioneer, channeling their excitement into over $200,000 of

donations in less than an hour!

Entry fees, sponsor donations and raffle tickets brought the total up over $750,000.

After a day’s break, the shooters gathered at Five Arrow Farm in Social Circle for Gold Day,

KICK-OFF PARTY

a 72 target event contested over morning and afternoon rotations, interspersed with entertaining shooting games that demonstrated the talent of the target setters and challenged the ability of the shooters. Chick-Fil-A made sure that a solid foundation of chicken biscuits and coffee prepared the crowd for the day. The weather was threatening from the outset and a strong line of thunderstorms closed the shooting early and sent shooters and volunteers scrambling for shelter under the well-appointed pavilion at Five Arrows.

Low Country BBQ managed to feed over 300 shooters and volunteers in spite of the torrents from the heavens and roaring winds that kept tournament CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

SHOOTINGFORCAUSE

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organizers on the lookout for funnel clouds. Fortunately, no twisters formed, but the natural pyrotechnics continued and the decision was made to bring in the ammunition, close the course and open the bar. A few unnamed hardcore shooters (who respond to the names Jimmy Warren and Spike Wahlen) protested that “the heavy stuff won’t come down for quite a while,” but cooler heads and thirsty attendees prevailed!

Tournament Day at Burge Plantation dawned with low clouds, mist and a threat of more rain.

Fortunately, this menace quickly dissipated and the clouds quickly parted in favor of bright blue skies and perfect shooting weather. The events consisted of an 80 target Main Event and a series of three games—Burge Blast (5-stand), Pair It Up (four challenging pairs) and the always entertaining Make-

BURGE PLANTATION

A-Break. Ed Prechel’s son, Owen, made his ACC debut and proved a “chip off the old block,” right down to the Browning shooting shirt and Magnum P.I. moustache!

The Main Event targets once again proved that the only easy

ONLY THE BEST FASHION AT CHARITY SHOOTS

HOLLAND & HOLLAND BROUGHT THEIR BEAUTIES FOR DISPLAY ON SATURDAY

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

target is the one you just broke, as many a talented shooter walked out of the box muttering about missed “softballs.” The morning and afternoon rotations narrowed the field down to seven shooters, who assembled at the Make-A-

Break stand to commence a “start from zero” shootout consisting of three report pairs and two true pairs. Before getting started, young Mr. Prechel relocated several traps to challenge the best of the bunch and prompt a few

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SHOOTINGFORCAUSE

THE CLAYMATES TEAM

questions like “Is that a midi?”

Ed Anderson, Todd Barnes, Bart Chandler, Paul Googe, Will Hinton, Cole Hudgens and Jimmy Warren took their turns in the stand, with Anderson and Chandler breaking four out of ten targets, Warren and Googe five, and Barnes and Hudgens six each.

Will Hinton closed out the field with an overall score of seven, including smashing both targets in an arduous true pair with a 40 yard trap shot and a 60 yard quartering chandelle.

ACC Co-Chairs Eric Hermanson and Niv Persaud presented trophies and prizes to the individual, team and game winners, as well as the lucky raffle ticket holders.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

Most importantly, the ACC continued its long tradition of providing much needed financial support to deserving causes. 2022 beneficiaries included Camp Sunshine, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Community Advance Practice Nurses, Cure Childhood Cancer, Cure NF With Jack, FACT Relief, Hope Thrives, Jacob’s Ladder, Power Up, Shepherd Center, Skyland Trail, Special Operations Care Fund, and Sunshine on a Ranney Day. n

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PURPOSEBUILTGUN

56

A GOOD OPTION FOR YOUTH AND LADY SHOOTERS, SAYS MATTHEW GAY

A

big thanks goes out to the folks at CZ-USA for making a sample of this innovative target breaking machine available to ClayShootingUSA for a review.

The Sterling came packaged in a heavy-duty ABS case branded with the maker’s name. Upon removing the shotgun from its packaging, it was clear that this was a very different model than I had reviewed before. The stock was obviously purpose built with youth and lady shooters in mind. The accessories case held three additional extended choke tubes and accessories for the adjustable comb. Manual and warranty card were contained within the case.

The Stock There is a lot to unpack here but first and foremost, this configuration was the brainchild of CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

THE CZ-USA SCTP STERLING CZ-USA’s Dave Miller. In order to create the stock dimensions for the Sterling, he measured four separate stocks of youth shooters who had custom made or fitted gunstocks on their target guns.

What he discovered was a consistent set of measurements throughout, increased pitch, more drop at comb and adequate cast.

The SCTP Sterling was the result of David’s observations and fits a category of shooter that continues to expand at record rates.

The Turkish walnut on this sample was nicely figured and sported an elegant oil finished satin sheen, and modern styled laser stippling on the grip and forend, providing excellent grip characteristics. A very comfortable, yet not extreme right handed palm swell makes for a comfortable grip. The forearm is the Schnabel type with the same

stippling in place of traditional checkering and locks solidly in place with a standard lever mechanism which latches securely to the barrel lug. A Southpaw

version is available for lefthanded shooters at no extra charge.

The 3 inch drop at heel is considerably more than many sporters, due to the Monte Carlo

THE STOCK FEATURES A HIGH DEGREE OF ADJUSTABILITY AND ATTRACTIVE STIPPLING

PURPOSEBUILTGUN

style stock. The factory installed four-way adjustable comb on this model is well designed with excellent hardware. With factory provided aluminum spacers to install under the comb, the drop adjustment can be secured without relying on set screws alone to hold it in place. The factory installed rubber butt plate is well fit and ½ inch thick.

The Receiver The Sterling receiver is perhaps where the name comes from for this model. The combination of

mixed polished and brushed finish makes for a handsome contrast, without looking too busy. Although this gun was not designed for a sixfoot-tall, 245-pound man like myself, I appreciate the “all about business” but elegant motif this model displays. A small amount of floral engraving decorates the top lever, while the brand and model designation is engraved on the bottom of the receiver.

CZ-USA employs the time proven Browning style under-lug locking system employed by many shotgun manufacturers for nearly a century, making for a solid lock-up.

The single selective mechanical

trigger had very little play on the bottom barrel and broke at just under 4 lbs. Reset required adequate, but not excessive, forward motion of the trigger blade and broke at 4 ¼ lbs. for the top barrel. The toggle barrel selector is done in the traditional Italian style, located on top of the manual safety switch. One brilliant feature on this model is found in the way CZ-USA secures the barrel selector. Some shotguns with similar designs can fail to fire if the barrel selector gets bumped slightly out of battery or is moved to the middle of the safety tang.

With the Sterling, in order to change the barrel selector, the safety must be engaged. Once the safety is moved to the fire position, the barrel selector is locked in place and cannot be moved.

The Barrels

USES THE TIME PROVEN UNDERLUG LOCKING SYSTEM

When it comes to a sporting gun, barrel construction and design can make or break a model’s performance and reputation. Being cognizant of this marketing and functional reality, CZ-USA tests the barrel regulation of all target guns before they are shipped from their Kansas City warehouse. The barrels on this sample measured thirty inches and were well constructed with a nice dark blued finish. The ventilated mid-rib was well executed and provides capacity to dissipate the heat of those high-volume shooting days.

The 8-millimeter ventilated top rib on this model is best described as flat in orientation. The barrels are

57

finished with a white Bradley style front bead and no mid-bead. The Sterling is provided with five extended choke tubes (CYL, IC, M, IM and Full). The chokes are threaded using the Beretta Mobil choke system.

Shooting the SCTP Sterling Since the SCTP Sterling is designed for youth and ladies, my trap shooter wife Cheryl was the test subject for fitting, shooting and feedback. After some fitting and eye alignment work to get things just right, we headed to the club. The first stop was the patterning plate. A few shots from each barrel with different loads, combined with a little fine tuning established proper eye alignment, confirmed that barrel regulation was excellent and verified point of impact was 60/40. Then it was off to the course.

Out on the course the SCTP Sterling performed well. The accuracy of fit, thanks to the flexibility and purpose-built nature of this model, was an obvious factor in making for comfortable shooting. Although she had no issues shooting heavy target loads, she really enjoyed the one-ounce 1180 FPS loads. Operation was flawless with well-timed ejectors and smooth functioning of all the controls.

At 7 lbs. 12 oz., the weight of this shotgun factors in two major considerations when evaluating a shotgun designed for youth and lady shooters. This slightly CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

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sub-8 lb. gun has enough heft to eat up recoil at a quantifiable rate while not over burdening a shooter with excessive weight out front.

The balance on the sample gun was ½ inch front of the trunnions.

As youth and lady shooters continue to make up a significant portion of participants in the clay target sports, it was important to build a production model which can fit them out of the box.

CZ-USA stepped up to the plate, did their homework and created an excellent option at a perfect price point. For any youth or lady

shooters looking for an awful lot of gun for the money, the CZ-USA SCTP Sterling must be a consideration. n For additional information or to find a dealer near you visit CZ-USA at cz-usa.com Editor’s Note: Matthew Gay is a shooting instructor from Michigan, the Head Coach of the Olivet College Shotgun Team, Vice President of the Michigan Scholastic Clay Target Program and an NSCA Master class competitor.

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BERETTASHOOTER

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DOMINIC GROSSI

AND HIS BERETTA SO5 DANA FARRELL TALKS TO THIS UP AND COMING CHAMPION

I

caught up with 22 year old Dominic Grossi at last year’s National Championship, where he had just turned in a stellar score of 96 in the FITASC event, earning himself an impending shoot-off berth for high gun along with the likes of Anthony I. Matarese Jr., Cory Kruse, and Austin Kiemsteadt.

Dominic was sitting at a pivotal point in his life journey at that moment in time — preparing to graduate from Texas A&M with a degree in Industrial Distribution and making preparatory plans for his not-too-distant wedding to fiancée and Lady sporting clays and FITASC champion, Meagan Harrington. Talking to him that CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

day in October, I couldn’t help but to think of that old saying, “The world is your oyster.” He has already accomplished so much in his short life, but I am quite sure, for Dominic, the best is yet to come.

Born in Pennsylvania, Dominic moved with his family to the Houston, Texas area when only eight years old. He began shooting registered sporting clays at age 11, and under the guidance of his father, made Master class only a year and a half later. He admits he took pride for a long time in the fact that he had never taken formal lessons but realized at some point he had plateaued under his father’s instruction. It was at that point he

began studying under Zachary Kienbaum. His shooting skills accelerated under Kienbaum’s guidance, and he soon found himself competing at a whole new level, including a spot on the PSCA tour. He has made the USA Shooting Team every year since 2015. For him, the honor of making the team and representing the United States in international competition has been the biggest privilege of his career.

Dominic’s gun of choice is a 32 inch barreled Beretta SO5. He’s been shooting the gun for a couple of years and says it moves and shoots perfectly for his style of shooting. He prefers the trap model, which has a 10mm, non-

tapered rib.

“For me, the biggest advantage [of the SO5] is just how well it swings. It’s just the most beautifully pointing gun I’ve ever had the pleasure of handling,” he told me. He confided that visibility is another key point for him, because the gun allows him the ability to see beneath the gun very well for rising shots. He shoots fixed chokes at .033” and .040” (full and extra full) and has a custom Jim Greenwood stock. He told me he has never been able to shoot an off-the-rack gun well, due to “some pretty serious scoliosis.”

Everything else on the gun, he says, is standard and from the factory.

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The 2021 World FITASC and at the 2021 NCSA Nationals Fresh off a score of 96 in FITASC at the National Championship, I asked Dominic to describe the experience. “It was actually kind of a funny story because I had a slight issue with one of the springs in my [SO5] gun, and it was getting worked on the morning before I shot FITASC. I actually was shooting my backup gun — my DT11 that I had shot before I switched into the SO5. I was practicing a little bit with it beforehand and just wasn’t feeling quite as confident, because I don’t know it as well anymore.” As it

turned out, his SO5 was fixed in the nick of time for the FITASC layout, and he was able to put just three practice shots through it before the first peg. “It was enough for me to tell that that was the gun I wanted to shoot for the week,” he said.

The 2021 World FITASC in Hungary saw the Open USA Shooting Team take the bronze medal. COVID-19 pandemic imposed restrictions forced the team to make spur of the moment adjustments to their lineups, in which Dominic ended up played a huge part. Anthony I. Matarese Jr. could not make the trip at the last minute, so Dominic stepped up to fill a spot in the Open team, along with Brad Kidd Jr., Gebben Miles

Dominic Grossi and his Beretta SO5

The Beretta SO5 is a true sidelock over/under competition gun and at a $32,500 price point, is the pinnacle of Beretta’s competition shotgun line. It is offered in 28, 30 and 30 inch barrel length models.

Beretta sponsored shooter Dominic Grossi has been shooting his SO5 for around two years now. Dominic says it’s the best moving shotgun he’s had the pleasure of handling. Shooting his SO5, Dominic has racked up an impressive shooting record, CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

including a Bronze medal shooting for the Open USA Shooting Team at the 2021 World FITASC in Hungary. For Dominic, there is just no better suited shotgun for his shooting method.

Regarding his primary sponsor, Beretta, Dominic says “They’re so dedicated to their products and their shooters, and I really appreciate everything they do. His other sponsors include Able Ammo, Pilla, Renair Shooting Sports and Laporte.

and David Radulovich. Together, the four American men brought home the bronze for the USA. This was Dominic’s second trip to Hungary, having visited the same gun club once before, for the 2017 World FITASC. He thought it was cool to see what all they did with the club since his last visit, and this time he was humbled to shoot on the Open team. “It was an immense honor to be able to shoot with those guys. I had been on the Junior team for several years before but to be able to compete on the Open team with Brad Kidd, Gebben Miles and David Radulovich was just an amazing pleasure. We were fortunate to come out with a bronze medal, which was very cool. I also shot two squads behind my fiancée, [Meagan Harrington] who won the individual Ladies title, which was really cool to witness, as well.”

“It was enough for me to tell that that was the gun I wanted to shoot for the week.”

We then talked goals — both shooting and life. Being able to provide for his future family is paramount for this young champion, and he wants to secure a good job in the engineering field that really suits him. As for the shooting realm, he’s still chasing that elusive first major title. Has been able to gain a several podium placements and has been in close contention but hasn’t quite made it all the way to the top step yet. It’s very apparent to this writer that it’s simply a matter of time before that goal is realized. n Editor’s note: Dominic Grossi, previously known as Dominic Gross, recently took on his ancestral surname of Grossi.

TECHNOID’SCOLUMN

64

OFTEN IN ERROR, NEVER IN DOUBT

BY BRUCE BUCK

SHOTGUNNING IN THE AUTOMATIC MIND A BOOK REVIEW

T

here are more books on shotgunning than pellets in a skeet load, but Shotgunning in the Automatic Mind has received a lot of attention since it was published two years ago, and with good reason. It is one of the few books that I have read that would appeal to the shotgunning novice and to the accomplished shooter both.

The authors are Warren Watson and Mike Wilfley. Watson, who passed in 2020, was a true shotgun pro. An accomplished target shooter and state sporting clays champion, he spent much of his time coaching shooting. He founded the Warren Watson School of Shotgunning outside of Denver, Colorado and his coaching style and ability to communicate form the backbone of this book.

Mike Wilfley, possessor of a J.D. law degree and an MFH (Master of Fox Hounds) has experience in many outdoor sports from riding to racing cars, mountaineering, skiing and, of course, shotgunning. The two made a good team to produce a very readable, yet informative, book.

What do you get for $49.95 sent to Amazon? It’s a hardcover of 227 pages chock full of photos and diagrams to back up its informative CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

text. The “Automatic Mind” which they refer to involves becoming an intuitive shooter who can shoot “in the zone” and make the shotgun an extension of yourself. While the book will certainly appeal to hunters, it really will mean more to target shooters, especially to us sporting clays shooters.

The first of four parts is devoted to Core Physical Skills which include Vision, Posture, Mount, Rhythm, Lead and Basic Shooting Methods. The Vision section discusses dominant eye tests and cross dominant eye cures as well as stock adjustments for proper head alignment. Their

PERFECT POSTURE: PHYSICALLY RELAXED, WELL-BALANCED, SLIGHTLY MORE WEIGHT ON THE FRONT FOOT, HEAD ERECT AND EXTENDED FORWARD, GUN BELOW TARGET LINE

comment that experienced shooters often like the gun to shoot a bit high for better visibility and faster target acquisition was most interesting. A good bit of advice in the Posture section was about “setting your head to receive the gun.” Think about that one you low gun shooters. They make a good case for a low gun-ready position for crossing sporting clays shots and discuss different muzzle ready positions in detail. In Basic Shooting Methods they go into detail as to why perceived leads change with the method chosen to shoot the target, whether it be sustained, pull-away or passthrough.

Part II of the book goes into The Pre-shot Routine, Advanced Techniques and Target Reading.

This is particularly applicable to sporting clays and is where the book shifts to the mental approach after covering the physical. The authors stress gathering as much target flight information as you can before it is your turn to shoot.

Then, as part of your pre-shot routine, choose your shooting method, body position, visual pickup points, gun position and breakpoints. The key is to concentrate on thinking about the entire shot sequence before you execute it.

Advanced Techniques is one of the more interesting chapters. In it they go beyond the basics to discuss pitch, gun cant and hand placement. They mention that you can change the pitch of the gun to make the gun shoot lower for a dropping target by “rolling your trigger hand a little under the shotgun’s grip.” That was new to me.

They address specialty shots in challenging situations in ways that will really benefit us sporting clays shooters. When to use sustained vs maintained lead technique is inserting the muzzle at the exact break point vs starting in front of the target and adjusting the lead as needed. Comments are made on addressing low or short incomers, fast targets where you want to keep the muzzle in front of the bird

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TECHNOID’SCOLUMN

66

and overhead going-away shots.

Pass-through and pull-away methods are also discussed in detail.

The chapter on Target Reading stresses being aware of the target’s speed, line and distance. This will determine your visual pickup point, muzzle starting point and breakpoint. That’s all pretty obvious, but this chapter really does go into the details, which even a good shooter might not be fully aware of. They mention the best ways to deal with right to left and left to right crossers and suggest that the sporting clays shooter might best use the same technique on near and far crossers.

They like the move-mount-shoot technique here. All sorts of target presentations and the best techniques to hit them are covered in detail. An example is that when shooting the chandelle, they recommend swinging straight across to the target break point, not following its arc.

Part III covers the Subconscious, Physical and Mental Skills. This is where they discuss The Automatic Mind. The automatic mind is defined as the combination of your most primitive self and your most educated self working in “the zone.” Huh? I look at it more in the way of doing what you know already how to do and then letting yourself do it. Once you know how to make a shot, shooting becomes more mental than physical.

Part IV is The Rest of the Story.

It offers insights into shotgun selection and gun fit. There was an interesting comment on shotgun length. They say that as a general rule a shotgun’s length should not exceed 70% of the shooter’s height.

If you are six feet tall, that would be a gun length of about 50”. A typical 32” O/U sporter is about 50”. They also feel that a shotgun’s CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

DISCIPLINE YOURSELF TO STAY IN BALANCE

weight should not exceed 4% of a shooter’s weight “regardless of intended use.” If you weigh 175 lbs. that means that your gun weight shouldn’t exceed 7 lbs. Not every sporting clays shooter will agree with this.

When they discuss chokes, they say that “this subject is not as important as the time and ink spent on it.” Amen to that. They recommend improved cylinder for shots inside 40 yards and more for birds over that. If you only use one choke, they recommend IC. They like number 8s for close, open targets and 7 ½s for longer or edge-on birds.

Chapter 12 is devoted to Fieldcraft which you will find worth reading if you choose to hunt. Chapter 13 discusses Competition. It goes into how to prepare to shoot in competitions and what to do when you are in one. I certainly agree with them when they say that if one target of a pair seems extremely difficult, concentrate on killing the other easier target each time for sure to come away with at least half of them. They also emphasize that nothing matters except the next

target. Stay in the present, not in the past.

Chapter 14 is titled Problem Solving. Among the problems mentioned is the Blocked Shot.

This occurs when the muzzle momentarily obscures the target.

This causes a raising of the head and a shot that is too high. They urge that the muzzle always come up to the target, not down to it.

The problem of the “chicken wing gun mount” is mentioned. It is when the shooter raises his elbows too much to make a shoulder pocket for the butt. It will make a right handed shooter miss to the left. They want the trigger hand elbow to hang down at a natural relaxed angle during the shot.

Beginners, Women and Men is the subject of Chapter 15. Author Warren did a great deal of instruction at his shooting school.

If you are training a new shooter, this chapter makes good reading.

Chapter 16 is a one page chapter entitled Surviving That One-time-a-year Shoot. By far their best piece of advice is “Don’t complain. Don’t explain.” Other shooters couldn’t care less about

why you blew a shot.

Chapter 17 mentions the popular shotgun games, both formal and informal. It discusses the large variety of shotgun games available to us.

The last chapter is The Future of Sporting Clays and Personal Reflections. Here they discuss the ways that sporting clays continues to grow. The book closes by mentioning both field and range shooting “In either situation, you are extending your will. You are controlling power beyond yourself which is primitive and exhilarating.

This book is intended to help you do that.”

The last pages of the book are a modest glossary of shotgunning terms and a very interesting reading list of recommended shotgunning books. This list is definitely worth noting and should encourage some purchases.

In all, I think that Shotgunning in the Automatic Mind is a marvelously inclusive shotgun book. Regardless of your level of expertise, you will learn something new, reinforce good habits and break bad ones. n

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SUPERBIRD

68

A PURPOSE BUILT COMPETITION SIDE BY SIDE DANA FARRELL LOOKS AT THE CSMC SUPER BIRD

C

onnecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company President and CEO Tony Galazan opened his business in 1975, in New Britain, Connecticut.

Early on, the company was focused on the used shotgun business and the manufacture of shotgun related gunsmithing tools and gun parts.

In 1991 Tony started manufacturing firearms — initially a sidelock over/under, and later various side by sides. He obtained the rights to make A.H. Fox shotguns, which are recognized by Fox aficionados as true Fox guns, and command high respect in the world of fine guns. Reproductions of the Winchester model 21 followed, as did additional over/ under and side by side models.

In the mid-2000s Galazan began an ambitious project called the RBL Launch Edition — an all American built, 20 gauge round body side by side. RBL stands for round body boxlock. Galazan has in the past offered his new models at substantial discount if purchased on reserve, when first announced.

It’s no secret he leverages the CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

up-front capital for “tooling up” when bringing a new gun model to production.

The Launch Edition was not without its hiccups, as many new products experience when first introduced. It’s said that the kinks were eventually ironed out, and I know more than a couple shooters who own RBLs and love them.

A 28 gauge RBL followed the initial 20 gauge offering a few years later, with 16 and 12 gauge versions after that. The platform has stuck around now for a decade and a half and has been available in a multitude of variations — straight stock, pistol grip, splinter or beavertail forend, single or double trigger, etc. Wood upgrades are always available on CSMC guns, as are enhanced engraving levels and receiver finish options of French grey, and color case hardening.

Recently, Galazan decided to release a 12 gauge side by side competition gun, which he named the Super Bird. Built on the RBL platform, it too is available in barrel lengths from 28” to 32”, with the myriad of enhancement choices

normally available on all CSMC guns. The Super Bird comes stock with a beefy beavertail forend, single selective trigger, and ventilated rib. The gun is choke tubed and has a fairly tight, competition style pistol grip. I took delivery of a 30 barreled version to test, and I admit, I’m very impressed.

A side by side competition gun falls within a fairly narrow shooting market niche, but one that does indeed have its devoted followers.

There is a dedicated cadre of diehard side by side shooters who shoot clays and hunt pretty much exclusively with their side by sides.

Many use vintage guns of various manufacture, but some, especially those who shoot a lot of clays, look for more modern, reliable, purpose built side by sides that can take the pounding of high volume shooting — and standard pressure ammunition. The Super Bird strikes me as just that sort of gun.

It is substantial in the hands, points nicely, and is heavy enough to mitigate the recoil punishment of 100 rounds or more per outing.

Construction The receivers and all internal parts on CSMC shotguns are machined from solid blocks of forged steel and feature no stamped or cast pieces. The Anson Deeley style boxlock action is the foundation of the RBL, and by extension the Super Bird. Buyers have the choice of Turkish, American or Claro walnut and can buy upgrades of 2x, 3x, 4x exhibition grades.

Barrels are cryogenically treated using a trademarked Cryo PatternTM process to reduce stress. After the barrel blank is drilled and turned, the barrels are put into a very deep freeze. The Galazan website further describes it like this. “This releases the stress that is put in the material due to the extreme operations of the forgings that are used for the barrel tubes. This prevents warping, twisting of the tubes, especially when you are shooting many shells repeatedly that reheat the barrels. This is the best method that we have found to make sure the tubes remain perfectly straight.”

Bores are hard plated using

SUPERBIRD

CSMC’s trademarked Tuff Bore™ process. Internal parts feature CSMC’s Hard-GoldTM coating, a gold/titanium coating that resists corrosion (the gold) and offers strength (titanium). The hinge pin is replaceable.

THERE IS NO ENGRAVING TO SPEAK OF, ONLY “SUPER BIRD” ON THE RECEIVER BOTTOM

A BEEFY BEAVERTAIL FOREND, FEATURING AN ANSON STYLE RELEASE

69

Configuration The gun tested was a 30 inch barreled version with a single selective trigger. The barrel selector button was on the trigger, like a Winchester 21. The beavertail forend provided a solid grip and shielded the hand from the heat one would encounter shooting

a splinter forend gun. The forend release was the Anson style, push button variety. The point patterned checkering was hand applied, and of excellent execution. The pistol grip had a fairly tight, competition style radius, but no palm swell, and no grip cap.

I’m not sure what grade wood was used for the test gun, but the walnut was of excellent quality, showing a good amount of feather crotch grain. Wood to metal fit was excellent. Finish was a polished, glossy style — by the looks of it, polyurethane. A ¾” black recoil pad brought the length of pull to 14 ¾”. The recoil pad has a hard heel that resists snagging during mounting. Drop at comb was 1½” and drop at heel was 2”.

The trigger was inertia operated, requiring the recoil of the first shot to reset the second barrel. The ramped style ventilated rib was low profile and tapered from 10mm at the breech to 7mm at the muzzle. Interestingly, the rib was not matted. It featured a front brass bead and no mid bead. The

receiver, forend iron, forend escutcheons and top tang were all color case hardened, using the bone and charcoal method. The rest of the metal was apparently hot blued. There was no engraving, save for intricate patterns on the forend escutcheons. The words Super Bird are etched in the receiver bottom. Chambers were 3”.

The gun weighed in at 8½ lbs., and with more heft than most side by sides, soaked up the recoil very effectively. It performed well on the clays course, with no miscues of any sort. The hefty beavertail forend is a real plus in my mind and eliminates the need for a glove or barrel guard, like is needed for clay shooting with a splinter forend gun.

The Super Bird moved well and felt very substantial and solid in the hands and didn’t have the whippy characteristics of many side by side field guns.

It isn’t cheap with its base price of $4995 (and going north of there with upgraded wood), but

THE RAMPED, TAPERED VENTILATED RIB IS NOT MATTED

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

SUPERBIRD

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THE SUPER BIRD PERFORMED WELL ON THE CLAYS FIELD

SPECIFICATIONS CSMC SUPER BIRD SIDE BY SIDE ACTION ANSON DEELEY STYLE SXS BARREL LENGTH 28”, 30”, 32” (30” TESTED) CHAMBERS 3” RIB RAMPED, LOW PROFILE, UNMATTED AND TAPERED (10MM TO 7MM) FOREND BEAVERTAIL WEIGHT 8½ LBS. TESTED LENGTH OF PULL 14¾” (TESTED) DROP AT COMB 1½” DROP AT HEEL 2” TRIGGER INERTIA RECEIVER FINISH CHARCOAL AND BONE CASE COLOR HARDENED CHOKE TUBES FIVE PROVIDED, SK, IC, M, IM, F BASE PRICE $4995 WITH WOOD UPGRADES AVAILABLE

for a serious side by side clays person, I feel it’s an excellent choice.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

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CRUSHIN'CLAYS2022

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layShootingUSA did a profile on Rosanne a couple of years back, highlighting her perseverance and spirit while fighting through a second bout with breast cancer, yet continuing to participate in sporting events around the country. As Rosanne approached her five year cancer free mark, she received the devastating news that her cancer had returned. Now in her third fight against this horrible disease, Rosanne maintains a positive attitude. I ran into her and her husband Paul at a Detroit Gun Club tournament this February.

She greeted me with that trademark Rosanne smile as I asked her a rhetorical question about how she was feeling.

Rosanne is a special individual, having recently retired as a Lieutenant from the Riverview Police Department in suburban Detroit. Her chosen profession required a level of tenacity and toughness — qualities that have served her well to fight this disease in the past and now again. A little story about Rosanne’s character.

While attending a Kids and Clays event in Ohio this past fall, Rosanne met a very young man who was onsite with his mother to speak in front of the participants at lunch and explain the positive impact the Ronald McDonald House has had on his life. Rosanne took the opportunity to shuttle this little guy and his mother around the course on her cart before lunch CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

ROSANNE PRUCKA

BY MATTHEW GAY

and talk with him about his illness.

Rosanne recounted parts of this conversation with me through scattered tears, showing her level of compassion — undoubtedly one of the things that made her a great officer and benefit to the law enforcement profession.

A benefit shoot has been organized to support this wonderful lady and her family

during this difficult time. Rosanne has many friends in the sporting community and if you do not yet know her, you should. In association with the Pamela Sue Foundation on June 4th, 2022 at Michigan Shooting Centers’ Bald Mountain Shooting Range, a Crushin’ Cancer shoot will be held to benefit Rosanne. The shooting community is a generous group

and tends to mobilize in support of our own community members in need. Rosanne is one of the greatest ambassadors for the sport and certainly worthy of any and all support from so many that have been blessed to share the course with her.

For information on the benefit please visit: rosannepruckabenefit.com n

BOOKTALK

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A NEW BOOK BY ANTHONY I. MATARESE JR.

BY BILL ELLIOTT

A

ny shooter that has been around the game long enough and has hung around registered shoots for a while has heard people mention “Anthony, or Ant.” With that being said, Anthony I. Matarese Jr. has finally put his words to print. With over 110,000 registered targets and thousands of coaching hours and master target setting techniques under his belt, Anthony continues to help grow new shooters, produce new champions, and is always approachable.

While I took time to review his new book, I also wanted to take time to get inside his mind one more time. You see, when he talks, I shut up. His wealth of knowledge and depth of experience is something we all can take advantage of, as he shares in this exchange. As I took time to read through Straight Shooting, I noticed that I could not stop taking notes with my pen. From front to back, from mechanical talk to technical and mental dialogue, this book has it all. Below are questions based on an authentic introspective on Matarese Jr.’s new book.

These are the two most important variables. Basically, if there is a will, there is a way.

n BE (Bill Elliott) To start, looking at a picture of you in the book from the World Sporting Championship in 2016, I could not help but ask, what do you believe is the most important trait someone must have in order to compete at a high level?

n BE Anthony, why the portion on etiquette in the book? Please be candid, by the way — I am glad you touched on this, I feel like this was much needed at this time in our game, for not only new shooters, but also more experienced competitors.

n AIM (Anthony I. Matarese Jr.) Hands down, [it’s] determination and motivation.

n AIM For the most part, the number one reason was we wanted to be comprehensive in this book

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

— all-encompassing of our sport.

We are not saying the sporting clays community is not courteous, it is — it’s just some people don’t know what they don’t know. [It’s important to have a] Basic education, an opportunity to express to others that they may want to do things a little differently while competing or observing. n BE “The gun doesn’t move, you do.” Well, this is going to be a pretty broad question. However, ultimately, where do you believe control in the shot comes from?

n AIM Control in the shot… there can be a misconception even by even some of the best shooters.

This comes from the fact that you need to do everything to match what the bird is doing, therefore the speed of the target matters. If you do everything right with your body, that means the gun will go the same speed as your body. Yes, this give you high odds, but it is not 100% [effective]. Other things like technique (that we talk about in the book) will give you even better odds to be in control.

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BOOKTALK

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another sport, with long sessions of repetition.” With this being said, why do you believe so many shooters ignore this concept? n AIM I think that the main problem is our sport doesn’t have the concept that other sports have.

For example, golf has driving ranges, baseball has batting cages, etc. Initially, it is not the shooter’s fault, but the sport has faults, and it perpetuates itself. Therefore, the shooter tends to just go on the course, and this never changes.

Even a lot of experienced shooters still think they need to learn all the different shots of the game and do not take time on the mechanics of the game. If you practice with repetition of the mechanics of the game, this will help you with any target. n BE So, (laughing)… as your coach, Dan Carlisle would literally ask you to sit when you truly were not looking at the target. How do you think he noticed this in your n BE You dedicate a chapter to eye dominance in your book.

Therefore, you do recognize it as a variable in the game. How do you like to approach the topic with a shooter, if you know it is something you have noticed in his or her game? n AIM It is 100% personal and individual. I can give you a cookie cutter approach, but the book is clear on this, that it is 100% on the shooter. There is not a single answer — it is very complicated.

There are not absolutes when it comes to shooter preference. The book is my best stab at helping people understand the complexity and educate [them]. n BE In chapter 9, titled Your First Shots, what is it about pointing CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

your index finger first with new shooters a few times and saying bang, versus gun in hand, that you like? n AIM It is a way just to get a shooter acclimated. Think of it like in life, how many times we point at things; I want to get new shooters used to pointing at a clay target.

Ultimately, isn’t this what we are doing with our gun anyway? Think about the number of flying objects we have been pointing at since we were kids. What we are actually doing, [is] we are slowing things down and pointing the gun. In the end their hand will be guiding the gun. n BE In chapter 18 you say, “You should remember to approach sporting clays as you would

sessions? n AIM I think that how he assesses this, is he looks at the mechanics of the game, the gun, and the bird. From all his years of coaching, he knows every shot and his skillset is high enough that he sees the inconsistency and notices [you’re not looking at the bird] at the end of the shot, based on feel.

This [looking at the bird] has to come from your eyes. You have to also know the person’s skillset to know if it is part of the problem or not. And yes, he actually made me sit down. He is fun and can be intense. He always gives 110%, — pushing for the best in anyone. n BE In Part 4 of the book, Using the Eyes, you are spot on by mentioning the following, “If we were to compare shooting to carpentry, what you do with your hands and feet to control the gun is like a rough cut or framing. What you do with your eyes is the finish work, the detail that completes the

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BOOKTALK

78

project. But you can’t do the finish work until the rough cut is done.”

Where did this come from? n AIM This analogy came from a client. I was trying to explain to him body position and everything related to mechanics. He had a background in the carpentry field.

I wanted to explain to him in a way that he could relate, therefore making that connection — given knowing what I knew about him…

[I was] relating knowledge of his expertise and past experiences — I do this with a lot of clients.

Straight Shooting: A World Champion’s Guide to Shotgunning will be available for purchase May 1, 2022 on the A.I.M. Shooting School's website at clayshootinginstruction.com n

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MENTALGAME

80

BE WARY OF WHAT YOU THINK

BY JOHN D. SHIMA WITH PHOTOS BY DANA FARRELL

I

n his introduction to The Mental Toughness Handbook, author Damon Zahariades acknowledged the plethora of books and articles published on this topic during the past several decades. Mental toughness, as defined by Zahariades, is simply an individual’s ability to endure adversity. Enduring adversity involves managing the emotional stresses that arise in competition, demonstrating resilience in the face of failure, and exercising the grit necessary to persevere following defeat. According to Zahariades, mental toughness is not an innate trait with which great athletes are born; it is a state of mind that great athletes develop through rigorous training.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

Most individuals become competent clay target shooters with some instruction and after several months of practice. Then they seem to reach a plateau.

That’s because it is the shooters’ mental game that ultimately determines whether they attain their shooting potential.

When shooters plateau, they tend to believe that mental toughness will enable them to exert more effort to break each clay target. I am not going to argue with shooters who achieve consistent success in any clay target sport and attribute it to mental toughness. However, I believe there is a better way to improve a shooter’s mental game.

Most experienced clay target

shooters accept that concentration and focus are key elements of the mental game. However, the operative phrase in the previous paragraph is consistent success. Any shooter can properly concentrate and focus some of the time, good shooters are able to correctly concentrate and focus most of the time, but great shooters discipline themselves to concentrate and focus the right way - every time!

Since I am convinced that how we think affects the way we shoot, I propose that clay target shooters must practice introspection to examine their mental game in a way that allows them to understand the way it works, how it can be improved, and how it can be maintained.

How It Works While earning degrees from MIT and Princeton the famous physicist, Richard Feynman developed a reputation for solving complex problems the brilliant Ph.D. students couldn’t solve.

What separated Feynman from his peers wasn’t raw intellect; it was his ability to view the problem by using a broader set of mental models.

A mental model is an explanation of how something works. Mental models are deeply held beliefs that an individual holds to help him or her interpret the world and understand relationships between things. For example, supply and demand is a

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LEARNING A NEW MENTAL MODEL HELPS SERIOUS SHOOTERS DEVELOP NEW WAYS TO WATCH CLAY TARGETS

mental model for how the economy works.

It is important for serious clay target shooters to understand how mental models work because the model they adopt guides their perceptions and behaviors while shooting. The concept of mental models supports the central theme of my second book, A Method for the Magic: How You Think Affects the Way You Shoot. Learning a new mental model helps serious shooters develop new ways to watch clay targets, which enables them to improve their shooting proficiency.

Every clay target shooter has a favorite mental model they unquestionably believe will ultimately solve their shooting problems. Their worldview of shooting frames their knowledge base. According to Yuval Noah Harari, “The real test of knowledge is not truth, but utility.” Therefore, it is important for clay target shooters to abandon mental models that support shooting the way they want to shoot, and adopt mental models that are the most useful in supporting how they need to shoot.

In his article, “Mental Models: How to Train Your Brain to Think in New Ways” author James Clear wrote, “Creativity and innovation often arise at the intersection of CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

new ideas.” In my role as a shooting instructor, I use my creativity and experience to identify a shooter’s visual deceptions and introduce him or her to new ways to use their vision.

And then, I motivate them to adopt a new mental model using alternative solutions.

1. Your Perception is Your Reality - Philosopher Robertson Davies said, “The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” Essentially, this means the shooter’s eyes cannot perceive what his or her brain cannot conceive to be visually possible. Therefore, a shooter must adopt a new mental model to solve underlying problems with visual perception.

Dr. Sim-Hee Neoh was a retired physician when he participated in one of my clinics in Australia in 2015. Dr. Neoh was having trouble with doubles because he was shooting the outgoing targets beyond the center stake. He believed the outgoers were too fast for him to see any earlier. I had to change this physician’s mental model regarding visual perception by convincing him that altering the way he looked for the outgoing targets would change the way he perceived them. Following the clinic Dr. Neoh sent an email message stating, “I never would

THE BEST SHOOTERS ELIMINATE NEGATIVE SELF-TALK

have imagined I could shoot the double targets at 1, 2, 6 and 7 so quickly. I thought it was only possible with young eyes... It just shows how little I know about life!

Thanks for opening my vision.”

2. Your Score Doesn’t Define You - Lexi Thompson was 27-years-old professional golfer and the leader going into the final round of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open. During the post-round interview Lexi was asked how she felt about finally being on top of the leaderboard in her 15th U.S. Women’s Open. Yes, Lexi was only 12 years old when she qualified to play in the event as an amateur her first time!

“I haven’t played to my standards and what I need, and I just needed to change my mindset,” Lexi responded to the reporter. “It was only hurting me.

Obviously, I needed to work on some technical things in my game... but the mental side was really getting to me. I was just taking it way too seriously, and thinking that my identity depended on my score.”

3. The Ego is Not Your Friend - Ever since Timothy Gallwey published The Inner Game of Tennis twenty years ago the effects of self-talk on an athlete’s self-doubt, performance anxiety, and lapses of concentration has

permeated sports psychology.

Gallwey’s book introduced the concepts of the ego-mind, which is the judgmental talker, and the unconscious mind, which is the automatic doer.

As I stated in my first book, most elite clay target shooters are readily aware that the actual competition is not among the participants in the event, but between the Ego Self and Conscious Self in their own mind.

The Ego Self attempts to define a shooter’s identity by setting unrealistic goals based upon the false assumption that these accomplishments will satisfy some unmet emotional need. The Ego Self often uses negative self-talk to promote the attachment of selfdefeating emotions to random thoughts. By steam-rolling the Conscious Self, and over-riding the True Self, the Ego Self takes over and compromises the shooter’s performance.

4. How You Think Affects the Way You Shoot - Serious shooters must change from the Ego Self’s emotional-based mental model to the Conscious Self’s rational-based mental model. The rational-based mental model involves: clarifying your purpose for shooting, eliminating negative self-talk, and pursuing emotional freedom. In her book Emotional

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MENTALGAME

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Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life, author Judith Orloff made two important statements: 1) emotional freedom involves choosing where you put your attention, and 2) the launching pad for emotional freedom is always yourself.”

Clay target shooters must increase trust in their Conscious Self to rationally develop a mental model based upon what they need to do to accomplish their goals rather than habitually defaulting to what the Ego Self wants to do. Pursuing emotional freedom is the final step in the process of adopting a new mental model. The rational goal is to care less about breaking the target, and care more about watching the target break.

How It Can Be Improved When they are thinking rationally, most shooters will acknowledge that the harder they try to break a troublesome target the worse it gets. Since the conventional “try harder” mental model doesn’t work well for most clay target shooters, I suggest they consider a “stop trying so hard” mental model.

This new emotionally detached mental model for shooting makes it possible to see alternate pathways to your goals. An appropriate mental model for shooting will probably conflict with a mental model that seems to work in other areas of the shooter’s life. This conflict makes it difficult for many shooters to adopt a new mental model because they trust their existing mental model to explain and solve every challenge. The following steps can facilitate the new mental model adoption process:

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

1. Develop a Positive Mindset - According to a study conducted at the Cleveland Clinic the average person has 60,000 thoughts each day, and 80% of those thoughts are judgmental and negative. Repetitive negative selftalk reinforces a shooter’s selflimiting beliefs and all-or-nothing thinking. These ego-based strategies change any game from a “win or learn” growth mindset to “win or lose” fixed mindset.

Adopting a growth mindset that facilitates learning from the experience regardless of outcome strengthens the new mental model. Celebrate the good shots in every round and learn from the occasional miscues.

2. Connect with Your Purpose - Defining your purpose for shooting each day reinforces intrinsic motivation. Shooters with an effective mental game use rational thinking to develop logical reasons to support their short-term and long-term goals. Their reasons for training, practicing or competing defines the purpose that inspires them to succeed.

Connection to a meaningful purpose helps shooters to set practical goals and enjoy the process involved with pursuing them.

3. Find Strength in Unity The fear of missing the next target precipitates anxiety in many shooters. Since the Ego Self uses fear and doubt to disrupt a shooter’s mental game it is important for shooters to find a supportive mentor or qualified instructor to promote the flow of positive energy while adopting a new mental model. Shooting with friends who provide support and encouragement also promotes selfconfidence.

4. Eliminate Setbacks Thomas Edison didn’t experience 1,000 setbacks while striving to

DEVELOP A POSITIVE MINDSET

invent the light bulb, he discovered there were 1,001 steps to the process to build the first one. A setback only relates to a desired outcome. Every shooter has the ability to rationally direct his or her attention toward the process of learning new shooting skills rather than obsessing over his or her failure to achieve a desired outcome. By accepting that ups and downs are part of the learning process any shooter can eliminate the frustration of setbacks.

How It Can Be Maintained Wise effort is the sixth step on the Buddha’s Nobel Eightfold Path and falls under the category of concentration. Wise effort means to strive without striving. By approaching each station with the

proper mental model, I find that most clay target shooters are able to quiet their mind so they can pay attention to the most important thing - watching the next target continuously until it breaks.

When I introduce the “strive without striving” mental model to a client, I sometimes have to literally become their self-talk. Before each shot I whispering in their ear, “Settle my eyes, relax and look to see where the target is going, and then focus and fire.” Wise effort is a mental model that requires shooters to strive to manage their mental and visual games without striving to control the outcome of the shot. In other words, the desire to break the target must be replaced by the intention to watch the target break.

Wise effort is based upon the concept of simplification, which means to eliminate every element

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MENTALGAME

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A QUIET MIND ENABLES THE SHOOTER TO CONCENTRATE ON THE TARGET

in a process that isn’t absolutely necessary. The application of simplification to shooting clay targets is to rely on automaticity to minimize analytical thinking during every shot. Shooters must accept the premise that the more they think, the more they will strive.

I introduced the concepts of the watching reflex and the shooting reflex to help shooters simplify their mental model. The watching reflex is managed by the shooter’s conscious mind, and the shooting reflex is managed by the shooter’s adaptive unconscious mind.

1. Concentration and FocusThe management of the watching reflex requires conscious effort.

The shooter must reduce thinking to just one thought - watch the target continuously until it breaks.

A quiet mind enables the shooter to concentrate exclusively on one thought - watching the target. All other thoughts are mental distractions, which will disrupt the ability of the shooter to properly acquire and focus on the target.

Just as there are specific mechanical elements in the graceful process of mounting and pointing a shotgun, there are specific visual elements in the process of watching a clay target.

When shooters think about breaking a target, instead of just CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

watching it, their eyes will usually hard focus too soon, which compromises optimal acquisition of the target. This is especially true with incoming targets.

The human eye normally functions in soft focus to minimize visual fatigue. I often refer to this as “driving” focus because it expands the peripheral visual field to watch the road while being aware of any sudden movement, such as a ball rolling into the road.

The eye instantly transitions to hard focus in that moment to look for a kid chasing the ball as the foot automatically presses on the brake pedal.

Concentration and focus are key elements of the watching reflex. The watching reflex is responsible for detecting, acquiring and tracking the clay target. The visual cortex processes this data and sends it to the brain stem, which activates the shooting reflex to automatically point the muzzle of the shotgun to intercept the clay target at the break point.

Shooters must consciously strive to manage the watching reflex while unconsciously allowing the shooting reflex to respond automatically (without striving).

2. Patience and Trust - I have described two phenomena that typically distract shooters from consistently using their

watching and shooting reflexes correctly: the tension of execution and the twinge of uncertainty.

The tension of execution is caused by self-doubt, which adversely affects concentration.

The instructive self-talk activates the desire to break the next target.

Since the ego uses the muzzle of the shotgun as a reference point, the tension of execution causes a premature shift from absolute focus on the target to blended focus on the space between the target and the muzzle.

Patience is the remedy for the tension of execution. Instead of preparing to meet a perceived challenge presented by the next target, just relax and ask yourself, “I wonder where this one is going?” In the context of “how you look determines what you see,” I refer to this practice as looking with curiosity.

The twinge of uncertainty affects visual focus. It is a more subtle phenomenon, which makes it more difficult for shooters to identify. The twinge of uncertainty occurs after the muzzle has engaged the target as it nears the break zone. Instead of focusing hard on a specific aspect of the target, they eye de-focuses slightly to check the lead picture. This sudden change in point of focus alters the depth of focus, which changes muzzle speed to cause a weak break or a complete miss.

Trust is the remedy for the twinge of uncertainty. The shooter must patiently wait to see the target clearly and gradually intensify focus on the target as it approaches the desired break zone. Engaging the target too quickly and hard focusing on the target too soon allows too much time for the twinge of uncertainty to creep into the shot.

The twinge of uncertainty is the ego’s last-ditch effort to take over

the shot. Therefore, the shooter must re-imagine the twinge of uncertainty as the sign to fire the shotgun and trust the shooting reflex to maintain correct muzzle speed. After all, proper gun speed is more important than a precise lead picture.

3. Conserve Mental and Visual Capacity - Most shooters have a limited supply of mental and visual energy so it is essential that they use their capacity prudently.

Simplification enhances the judicious use of mental and visual capacity. Thinking causes mental fatigue and focusing causes visual fatigue. Simplification conserves mental and visual capacity.

A new mental model that emphasizes simplification of the pre-station and pre-shot routines facilitates the ability of the shooter’s adaptive unconscious to manage the process of shooting automatically. Automaticity frees the shooter’s conscious mind to just concentrate exclusively on settling the eyes in expanded soft focus to patiently wait for the target to emerge, and then to watch it continuously until it’s time to suddenly hard focus and fire! n John Shima is a former five-time World Skeet Champion and was high average in 12 gauge for two years. John is the leading authority on detection of visual deceptions and prescribing appropriate visual training to unleash the power of reality for clay target shooters. For more information about the Shima Shooting MethodSM, the Clinic Schedule, his new Shima Shooting ExperienceSM, or to arrange a Private Consultation, contact John via email at john@johnshima.com To order his books or view previous articles go to www.johnshima.com/publications

WESTERN REGIONAL APRIL 1-3, 2022

WORLD ENGLISH APRIL 20-24, 2022

U.S. OPEN MAY 20-22, 2022

SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL JUNE 17-19, 2022

NORTH CENTRAL REGIONAL JULY 29-31, 2022

SOUTHEAST REGIONAL SEPTEMBER 9-11, 2022

NORTHEAST REGIONAL AUGUST 19-21, 2022

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS OCTOBER 22-30, 2022

SIMULATEDCLAYS

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TRUE CLAYS SHOOTING SIMULATOR

JOHN CAFFEY TAKES A LOOK AT A NEW CUTTING EDGE PRODUCT

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has, in some form, taken its toll on every shooter I know. During the surges, many clubs were shut down entirely or only offered reduced hours. Shells have been in short supply, and lately I seem to spend more time looking for ammo than shooting it.

When I do find it there is a limit on how much I can purchase, and it costs twice as much as it did a year ago. And I haven’t even touched on the cost of gasoline needed to go shoot.

In order to fulfill my need for clay satisfaction I have begun looking at simulators advertised on various media platforms, as well as CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

those found through an online search. Virtual Reality (VR) games are a fun option, but they are just that — a game. Shooting trap, sporting clays or any of the other clay sport relies on hand-eye coordination, and at this point, Virtual Reality is not exact enough to simulate the real thing.

During my search I found a company based in Sweden called True Clays that manufactures a clay shooting simulator. I watched their instructional videos and was impressed with the realistic presentations, backgrounds, and versatility to switch between several different shooting disciplines, including trap, bunker

trap, skeet, sporting clays, FITASC, compak, helice and even hunting. Each sporting module has several layouts offering various difficulty levels.

To address some questions, I reached out to Fredrik Melin, the inventor of the True Clays system.

Fredrik explained what the True Clays system offered and zeroed in on the major differences found between Virtual Reality and any other shooting simulator. In a VR game your focus is on the clay target — and you only see the target, not the barrel or the background. With the True Clays system, you are using your own gun with a laser inserted into the

barrel and a trigger button mounted behind your gun’s trigger.

When you fire, the system sees the laser and determines where your shot went. When the simulator registers a shot, it has to be quick and accurate. True Clays shows the clay break in real time as if you were on the field, so much so that the clay fragments fly in the direction of the hit. If you hit the target high, the fragments realistically fly downward, thereby helping you learn what adjustment is needed for better accuracy for future shots. An optional add-on allows you to track barrel movement.

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SIMULATEDCLAYS

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TRUE CLAYS SCREEN

The True Clays system also allows you to change the shooting environment and to personalize it for individual eye height and stance. It can be programed to reflect the chokes used on both the top and bottom barrels, barrel length, shell type and ATA yardage. Even such variables as brand of clay target machine, the direction of the wind and outside temperature are adjustable to preference, which I’m told are not options available with other systems on the market.

Fredrik put me in touch with John Perkins, one of the first owners of the system in the United States. John uses his True Clays training system five to six days a week and sometimes multiple times per day. We spoke in depth on the phone about the system benefits and ease in set-up and operation, and his overwhelmingly positive experience with True Clays.

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

*A system with a ceiling mounted setup or, alternatively, a large tripod behind the shooter.

There is a compact version with the projector in front, but it’s limited to trap and helice (ZZ birds). *A complete version with two projectors — a ceiling version and a wall projector that allows you to shoot higher birds. This can be custom built to fit your room size.

A True Hunt module allows you to hunt crows, ducks, pigeons, deer and running moose and boar.

The True Clays shooting system is in my opinion a state-ofthe-art clay shooting simulator.

The price starts at $6700 for the basic set up, which includes a computer, projector and all the hardware. To find out more and see their videos visit TrueClays.com n

True Clays — Where it is Today The first True Clays prototype was produced and sold in 2019, with the first international orders shipped in 2020, just one week

before the announcement of the pandemic. During the COVID-19 slowdown, Fredrik took the time to improve the system to what it is today.

The system now has several possible set ups: TRUE CLAYS ALLOWS MYRIAD CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS

SIMULATEDCLAYS

91

Scan the QR codes below to check out full rounds of different disciplines with True Clays Simulator!

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CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

WINTERSHOOTING

92

WINTER SHOOTING

in the Great Frozen North

T

here is no shortage of shooting opportunity here in the north during fairer weather, as many traveling clay enthusiasts make their way to this beautiful part of the country between April and October.

However, shooting in the winter up here tends to be somewhat rough on the ears, toes and everything else between. One could make the argument that such is the price for living so close to blue ribbon trout streams and some of the best ruffed grouse habitat in the country. Either way, many shooters up here sometimes need a bit of a nudge or motivation, if you will, to bundle up and hit the course. Various clubs have met that challenge and created unique games to keep the game fresh and CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

BY MATTHEW GAY

take a shooter’s mind off the cold.

This article will look at a couple ways shooters and clubs do things here in the northern winter.

Cosmic Clays In 2014, Merriam-Webster officially added the word “Yooper” to its dictionary and defined it as “natives or residents of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.” Some readers may have heard of these mysterious glowing stones called “yooperlites,” which were discovered on the southern shores of Lake Superior in the U.P. These rocks contain a mineral called sodalite, more specifically phosphorescent sodalite, which glows when exposed to longwave

ultraviolet light. A gun club manager at one of Michigan Shooting Centers’ clubs, Island Lake Shooting Range, was curious about the reaction of clay targets to the same kind of light. His experiment consisted of shining a long wave UV flashlight around the target shed loaded with cases of birds. Each time the light passed a box where part of the target was exposed through a void in the box, the paint on the target would glow brightly.

This revelation led to the idea of cosmic clays. The folks at Michigan Shooting Centers saw this as an opportunity to offer shooters a unique experience, while helping to defeat the winter shooting doldrums. Island Lake has created two 5-Stand fields,

served by eight machines each, placed on skeet fields — close to the warmth of the clubhouse. The club has installed longwave ultraviolet lights that can be moved to illuminate the target throughout its flightpath, allowing for new target presentations each week.

Each station is also illuminated with UV light, setting the mood for nighttime shooting.

After taking a couple of shots, the differences were quite clear.

First, there is no background as a point of reference. One may think this is not an issue but when we shoot in the light of the day, the eyes provide multiple sets of data to the brain as it informs the rest of the body how to move the shotgun in order to break a target. When shooting during the day, the

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WINTERSHOOTING

94

YOOPERLITE STONES UNDER NORMAL LIGHT

background as a reference works in tandem with barrel awareness to formulate perceived lead. When shooting cosmic clays, one of the pieces to the puzzle is missing, or at best obscured. In my mind this adds to the fun of this game. The targets in flight look like stars in the black night sky, with the green variety glowing very bright. This innovation has kept things fresh and serves to offer a unique experience for northern clay shooters.

Heated 5-Stands Admittedly, this writer is no fan of shooting in cold weather. It is however important to keep the

rust free from the joints and keep the muscle memory in shape during the off-season. Enter the heated 5-Stand. This is not necessarily a new concept and has been employed for years in the north country but is quite foreign to our friends in the south. Being very particular about gun fit and purposeful practice, the attraction to using a heated 5-Stand is found in the ability to shoot in the same attire as one would wear during the summer shooting season when the weather is more conducive to light shirts and a thin vest. Utilizing a facility such as this makes for comfortable practice and longer outings, in order to fine tune aspects of a shooters’ game in preparation for spring.

HEATED 5-STANDS ARE A THING IN THE NORTH CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

YOOPERLITE STONES UNDER UV LIGHT

FITASC Under the Lights The Detroit Gun Club has held excellent tournaments for many years, offering unique presentations and a quality experience for participants. This winter, the folks at Detroit Gun decided to expand their offerings for us FITASC lovers. Enter FITASC Under the Lights. Scott Behnke is the skipper at Detroit Gun and is known for throwing challenging FITASC targets during registered events.

Well-lit skeet fields offer the perfect location for a pair of night time parcours. This has given a dedicated group of Michigan shooters the chance to pull the trigger this winter on various manifestations from Scotty’s imagination. Keeping squad sizes a little smaller helps to move the shooters through at a pace which keeps the cold at bay and shooters generating heat.

Great targets and top-notch grounds are not where the hospitality ends. After the evening’s festivities and the guns are put away, the club offers shooters the opportunity to warm up with their drink of choice and converse with other shooters.

Weather Envy While us north country shooters envy the Texas and Florida weather in January, yet feel sympathy for the same in August, we still find a way to play the game through the frigid temps. Some clubs have upped the ante with innovative and fun approaches to fend off the scourge of cabin fever, which often inflicts some of us fair weather shooters during the big freeze. While other clubs have provided heated spaces to overcome the objections of those of us who detest the idea of shooting with anything more than a t-shirt and vest (and pants of course). We have figured out a way to get it done. n Editor’s note: Matthew Gay is a shooting instructor from Michigan, the Head Coach of the Olivet College Clay Target Team, Vice-President of the Michigan Scholastic Clay Target Program Board of Directors, a bunker trap junkie and Master class sporting clays competitor.

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96

PEOPLE, NEWS AND EVENTS

IN THE HEADLINES

2022 FITASC ALL-AMERICAN TEAM HONORED

HOST CLUBS HAVE OPTION TO ALLOW RELOADS

NSCA's top FITASC shooters are being recognized as the 2022 FITASC All-American Team, headed by captain, Anthony Matarese Jr. Karen Shedd ran away with the Lady's points race to earn the captain's spot. Other captains are Griffin Howe - Sub-Junior; Todd Hitch - Junior; Bill McGuire Veteran; James Gilman - Super Veteran; Jim Bellows - Senior Super Veteran; and Norman Smith – Legacy

Because of the difficulty many members are still having obtaining ammunition, the NSCA Executive Council voted last week to give host clubs for the Regionals, U.S. Open, and National Championship the option to allow reloads for all sporting events during the 2022 shoot year ONLY. This DOES NOT include FITASC events where reloads are still prohibited.

Each club will be responsible for making their decision known to the participants prior to the start of the event. Contact the club directly with any questions about use of reloads.

nsca.nssa-nsca.org/all-americanfitasc-points-race

CONGRATS TO 2022 KRIEGHOFF ALLAMERICAN TEAM A familiar name tops the NSCA Krieghoff All-American Team, as Zachary Kienbaum earned the position of Captain of the Open First Team for the 9th time in the past 12 years. Other captains include Karen Shedd - Lady; Connor Daniel - SubJunior; Todd Hitch - Junior; Bill McGuire - Veteran; Bert Stelly Super Veteran; Jim Bellows - Senior Super Vet; and Norman Smith – Legacy nsca.nssa-nsca.org/all-american

2022 NATIONALS TO DEBUT SUPER SQUAD ROTATION The 2022 National Sporting Clays Championship format will have a new look that will increase excitement, enhance audience appeal and present new marketing opportunities for the sport’s largest event of the year. With the new Qualified Super Squad Rotation format, shooters meeting strict criteria for qualification will be assigned to the same rotation and same course. Along with making the National Championship a more exciting spectator sport, additional goals of the new Qualified Super Squad Rotation are fairness with weather and wind conditions and enhanced integrity through selfpolicing of scoring. Shooters qualifying for the Super Squad will include Regional, National, and World podium finishers, previous National Champions, and other categories. nsca.nssa-nsca.org/latest-news

SAVE THE DATES: 2023 CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR EVENTS We haven't had the first 2022 NSCA Championship Tour event yet, but we've already started planning for next year's events. Host clubs have been selected and dates reserved for the 2023 NSCA Championship Tour, Powered by Winchester. The events include the five Regional Championships, U.S. Open, and National Championship.

The tour will open in an unusual way: n U.S. Open Coyote Springs Sporting Clays (AZ) March 27-April 2 n Northeast Regional M&M Sporting Clays (NJ) May 17 - 21 n Southeast Regional Big Red Oak Plantation (GA) May 31 - June 4 n Western Regional Longmeadow Clays Club (CO) August 2 - 6 n North Central Regional Northbrook Sports Club (IL) August 23 - 27 n South Central Regional Covey Rise Gun Club (LA) September 13 - 17 n National Championship NationalShooting Complex October 21 - 29 nsca.nssa-nsca.org/nscachampionship-tour

CLAYSHOOTINGUSA

NEWS UPDATES

Product manufacturers, retailers and club managers wanting to submit news for the next issue should email: info@clayshootingusa.com

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