TrapShootingUSA January/February 2023

J A N U A R Y

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F E B R U A R Y

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J O U R N A L

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THE FIRST WOMEN'S TRAP LEAGUE

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CONTENTS JOURNAL NO. 83

PUBLISHED 6 TIMES PER YEAR SUBSCRIPTION $35.95 PER YEAR $70 IN CANADA AND REST OF WORLD ISSN 1479-2885 PUBLISHER

PUBLISHER

STACEY STEPHENS

THADDIUS BEDFORD

stacey@odysseyoutdoors.com

thaddius@odysseyoutdoors.com

EDITOR

MARKETING DIRECTOR

SEAN HAWLEY

editor@trapshootingusa.com

KALEIGH LAWSON

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023

38 NEW PRODUCT

SHOT TRACKER® & CLAY TRACKER® PRO

COVER PHOTO: MONTANA STATE WOMEN'S TRAP LEAGUE Photo Credit: Chris Holguin

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EDITOR'S PAGE

MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS

NEW PRODUCT

2022 NORTHEASTERN GRAND

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40 2022 DIXIE GRAND AMERICAN

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BOSTIC, NORTH CAROLINA

44 STOCK OPTIONS

GRIP PLUS CUSTOM STOCKS

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: THADDIUS BEDFORD JOSHUA BUCHIERE JOHN CAFFEY MATTHEW GAY LARRY GRENEVICKI, M.ED. KARLA HARRISON SEAN HAWLEY SANDRA JO JACK CHERYLL PITTERA JACQUE SNELLENBERGER

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46 2022 AUTUMN GRAND TUCSON TRAP & SKEET CLUB

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18 BIG GREEN GOES BLUE

56 THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

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FIRST OF ITS KIND

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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 ­reproduced in any form without written p ­ ermission from the publishers.

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EDITOR’S PAGE Meet Our Contributors

This stuff doesn’t just write itself, you know. You have probably noticed our family of contributors at the various trap shoots that you attend. They are the ones hanging around the trophy counter and who are always walking around with a camera at the evening’s shoot-off fields. This month we will focus on two of them and they are Karla Harrison and Sandra Jo Jack.

KARLA HARRISON

Karla Harrison doesn’t actually shoot but does consider herself to be a shooter at heart. Having grown up in a family of shooters (Dad, Mom and brother) she spent every weekend of her childhood and family summer vacations at a gun club, somewhere.

Getting married to Leo Harrison III in 1996, just seemed to continue the trapshooting ways of her family’s life.

Her dad, George Herron, served as a director at MTA (Linn Creek, Missouri) for 20 years and held the position of state association president twice, so today she still considers MTA to be her home club.

Traveling the circuit of gun clubs with Leo for nearly 25 years gave her the opportunity to not only see the country, but to fill an endless address book with dear friends. She became a “people person” which TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

has become the focus of most of her writing.

After high school graduation (Valedictorian Class of 1978) she attended community college in hopes of becoming a florist. Over the years, she returned to various college classes as her journey took her down many different roads.

Years of experience working for small newspapers prepared her to eventually accept the offer to become a contributing writer for TrapShootingUSA, a labor of love that occupies much of her retirement.

Leo’s untimely passing in 2013 changed all future plans but family and the friends made during their time together provide strong motivation to move forward on yet another journey.

“I’m writing a new chapter in my life’s story.” says Karla. “I have always loved to travel. Now I have added other destinations to my trips that still include a few gunclubs. Writing about new shooters and the friends who are still shooting is a passion. It’s a pleasure whenever a shooter seeks me out with an interesting addition to their story. I’ve always been a student of history and being able to record the history of trapshooting is an honor and a privilege.”

“Family is the love of my life.

Daughters Laura and Sarah and their husbands have blessed me with two granddaughters (Macy

Caroline and Alice Pearl) and twin grandsons (Andrew Harris and Barrett Timothy).”

SANDRA JO JACK

Sandra’s love for trapshooting began with her dad who also was her coach back in 1986. She took 14 years off from the game but returned to the sport in 2001. Since then she has become one of the top shooters in the Lady II category, having ‘’climbed the ladder” and making the Wisconsin State Team for many years. She has also been a member of the All American team for the past eight years.

She says that winning the Lady II Clay Target Championship two years in a row, as well as the Lady II Doubles championships, HOA and HAA at the Grand American are her best shooting moments. No doubt that she is only getting started!

Sandra shoots a Kolar unsingle combo and has been on Team Kolar since 2016. She also represents Target Shotguns, Inc, sales and marketing at shoots.

She was born in Muenchweiler, Germany to a German mom and an American soldier dad from South Dakota. She attended Schools in Germany, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Montana and went to Black Hills State College in Spearfish, South Dakota. Sandra has two grown sons, Brandon and Shannon, three grand kids and two grand dogs.

“I do love to compete in trapshooting, helping others in the sport and collecting new friends.

Writing for TrapShootingUSA has opened the trapshooting world up even more by reporting about all of you,” Sandra says.

Her future plans are to keep climbing the trapshooting podium and being one of the best Lady ll shooters out there. She has a great attitude and one of her favorite things to say is, Keep smiling because I am.”

The next time you see Karla or Sandra at a shoot, stop by and say hello. Stay tuned for the next magazine when you will get to meet two more of our writers, Jacque Snellenberger and Josh Buchiere. Until then, have fun and shoot straight. n

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SHOOTREPORT

8

NORTHEASTERN GRAND AMERICAN

2022

REPORT BY JOSH BUCHIERE

The 37th Annual Northeastern Grand American was held from Tuesday, September 6, to Sunday, September 11, at the New York State Amateur Trapshooting Association Home Grounds in Cicero, New York. Due to the Heartland Grand American being moved back in its entirety to the month of August, the Northeastern Grand was the first Satellite Grand American of the 2023 ATA target year. The shoot program consists of 1500 total targets, of which the final 1200 comprise the High Over All and the weekend Championship events the High All Around. A total of 360 shooters from 20 different states and provinces were in attendance this year, and the shoot made a competition factor of 4 for All-American Points by a comfortable margin.

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

TUESDAY Overcast skies and a light drizzle were the forecast for the first day of the shoot and, as a result, attendance was light throughout the day. In the first event of the day, the Warm-UpSingles, Deborah Ohye-Neilson was the event Champion with

the only perfect score in the event, Todd Hosbach was the Class AA winner following the lone 99 of the day. Frank Pascoe was the Veteran Champion with a 98 outright and, following a four-way carryover, Donald Neilson Jr. was the Sub Veteran winner, also with a 98. Roman

E

S & JOSH BUCHIER

CURTIS ROBBIN

Barrett and Joe Sissano were high in the Warm-Up Handicap with 96s and, following a forfeit

by Sissano, Barrett was the event Champion, while Sissano fell back to take Senior Veteran honors. John Cook was the event runner-up following a 93, and Donald Neilson Jr. was the

Sub Veteran winner with the same score. Jamaal Brown, Jonathan Hannahoe, and William Wallis were the 3rd, 4th, and 5th place winners following 92s and one shoot-off round. The annoying drizzle from earlier had abated by the start of the Warm-Up Doubles, but the skies

SHOOTREPORT

10

remained dark. Josh Buchiere was the event Champion with the lone high score of 96. Deborah OhyeNeilson was the Lady II winner with 95 and, following a carryover with Carl Chadwell, James Flint was the Sub Veteran Winner, also with a 95.

WEDNESDAY Wednesday was the start of the Northeastern Grand’s 1200 target High Over All and attendance nearly doubled from the previous day.

Deborah Ohye-Neilson and Jordan Ziercher turned in the only 100 straights in the Preliminary Singles and, following a carryover the next day, Ohye-Neilson was the event Champion, and Ziercher fell back to take the Junior category. Michael Fox Jr. and Chad Landon were the Class AAA and Class AA winners, each with scores of 99. Heidi Womer, Carl Chadwell, Lloyd Beecraft, and Keith Miranda were the Lady I, Sub Veteran, Veteran, and Senior Veteran winners, all with 99s.

Sub Junior shooter Cody Meredith was the event Champion in the Preliminary Handicap with the lone high score of 98. Michael Fox Jr. was the event runner-up with the lone second high score of 97, and Carl Chadwell was the Sub Veteran winner with the only score of 96. Following a forfeit by Donald Neilson Jr., James Davis was the event 3rd place winner, and Neilson Jr. fell back to 4th place, each following scores of 94. Curtis Robbins led the afternoon’s Sportsmen’s Doubles with the lone 100 straight and was the event Champion without need for carryover. Deborah Ohye-Neilson was the Lady II winner, and Keith Miranda the Senior Veteran Champion, each with the only scores of 98 and 97 in the event.

Josh Buchiere was the Class AA TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

Champion, Heidi Womer the Lady I Champion, and Lloyd Beecraft the Veteran winner, each with scores of 96.

THURSDAY Attendance continued to increase Thursday, and scores in the Sportsmen’s Singles went up as well. Six shooters turned in perfect scores and the results after carryover are as follows: Deborah Ohye-Neilson (event Champion), David McMasters (Class A Champion), Renwick Parson (Class B Champion), James Cadigan (Class C Champion), Robert Nihtila Jr. (Sub Veteran Champion), and Frank Pascoe (Veteran Champion). Lloyd Beecraft was the Class AAA winner, and Chad Landon was the AA winner, each with scores of 99.

Joseph Breck IV and William Kutch were the Junior and Senior Veteran Champions, also with scores of 99.

The breeze picked up but visibility remained good for the Sportsmen’s Handicap. Brian Luther led all shooters with a lone high score of 97 and was the event Champion. Cono Natale and Kenneth Fowler were the Sub Veteran and Senior Veteran winners with 96s. Joseph Buschynzski and Marc Goldfarb were the event runner-up and 3rd place winners, each with scores of 95 and one shoot-off round. Diane Durant was the Lady II winner with a 94, and Robert Edwards was the Veteran winner with the same score.

The breeze died down and targets were nearly perfect for the afternoon’s Class Doubles. Joseph Breck IV led all shooters in the event with the lone 100 straight and was the Junior Champion. Carl Chadwell and Gregory Smith were the Sub Veteran and Veteran winners with 99s. Andrew Barrett was the Class A winner with a 97,

while Robert Nihtila Jr. and Frank Pascoe were the Sub Veteran and Veteran runners-up, also with 97s.

Michael Fox Jr. and Josh Buchiere were the Class AAA and Class AA winners, each with 96s. Also following scores of 96, Deborah Ohye-Neilson and John Federici were the Lady II and Senior Veteran winners.

FRIDAY Conditions remained bright with a light breeze for Friday’s events. Four shooters out of the field of 242 broke 100 straights in the morning’s Class Singles. Ben Snyder was the Class AA Champion, Daniel McCumber the Class C Champion, Deborah Ohye-Neilson the Lady II Champion, and Carl Chadwell the Sub Veteran Champion. Following carryovers, Lloyd Beecraft and Steve Stella were the Veteran winner and runner-up, Paul Shaw and Peter Grant the Senior Veteran Champion and runner-up, all with scores of 99.

Roman Barrett was the Junior winner with the only 99 in the category.

The Caesar Guerini Preliminary Handicap saw the highest handicap scores of the week and, once the last shot was fired, Daniel Fadden was the event Champion with the DANIEL FADDEN

lone high score of 98. Christopher McEwen was the event runner-up with a 97, and Urb Womer was the Veteran winner, also with a 97.

Richard Mastin was the Sub Veteran Champion with a 96, and John Valenti was the Senior Veteran winner with the same score.

Following scores of 94, Scott Cooper took 3rd place in the event, and Joseph Breck IV was the Junior Champion.

SATURDAY Temperatures increased into the upper 80s on Saturday for the Singles Championship, and the sun continued to shine making for a hot day of shooting. Eight shooters broke the first half of the championship, and three made it through the day straight. William Wallis, Brian Luther, and Antonio Lobo were called to shoot off at the conclusion of the event. Luther was the first shooter to exit the shoot-off following a miss on the first post, and he would take the event runnerup trophy for his score. Wallis and Lobo went four more rounds before the shoot-off was decided. Lobo let one slip away during the fifth round, and Wallis remained straight and was the 2022 Northeastern Grand American Singles Champion for the second straight year (Wallis won the Singles Championship in 2021 with the lone high score of 199). Lobo would fall back to take the Sub Veteran title. Peter Tsementzis was the Class AAA Champion with the only non-category score of 199 in the event. Lloyd Beecraft and Robert Edwards were the Veteran Champion and runner-up with 199s each, and Paul Shaw was the Senior Veteran Champion without need for a shootoff. Robert Nihtila Jr. was the Sub Veteran runner-up with a 199 following Lobo’s fallback from the Championship shoot-off to take the

SHOOTREPORT

12

WILLIAM WALLIS

BROWNING SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH WILLIAM WALLIS NY RU BRIAN LUTHER NY AAA PETER TSEMENTZIS ON AA TODD HOSBACH NY A ROBERT JARVIS NJ B VITALINO VAZ NY C CONO NATALE NY D JOHN MARAGLIANO NY LD1 HEIDI WOMER NY LD2 DEBORAH OHYE-NEILSON PA SUB JR KYLE SMITH NY JR WYATT READLER PA JR GOLD CHRISTOS TSEMENTZIS ON SUB VET ANTONIO LOBO CT VET LLOYD BEECRAFT ON SR VET PAUL SHAW ON

200 200 199 197 196 196 194 189 195 195 191 198 198 200 199 199

category title. Wyatt Readler and Joseph Breck IV tied for the top spot in the Junior category with 198s apiece. Readler would prevail in the shoot-off and was the Junior Singles Champion. Christos Tsementzis was the Junior Gold winner without need for a shoot-off, also following a 198.

Todd Hosbach was the Class AA winner with 197 following two shoot-off rounds with Timothy Corrente and David McMasters.

Heidi Womer and Anna Rawe were high in the Lady I category with 195s and after one shoot-off round, Womer was the Lady I winner and Rawe the category runner-up.

CHRISTOS TSEMENTZIS & LLOYD BEECRAFT

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

SUNDAY The temperature dropped more than 15 degrees and the clouds once again rolled in for the final day of the Northeastern Grand American. Conditions for the Doubles Championship were good with very little wind, but the lack of sunlight made for difficult visibility.

Carl Chadwell and Joseph Breck IV led the field of 176 with 99s and would be called to shoot off for the title later on in the day. Both Breck IV and Chadwell made it through the first 20 targets straight, and they each let one go during the second round and the shoot-off would continue. Breck IV finally

JOSEPH BRECK IV & CARL CHADWELL

dropped a second target early in the fifth round, and Chadwell finished out the round straight to claim the Northeastern Grand American Doubles Championship, while Breck IV fell back to take Junior Champion in the event. Josh Buchiere was the event runner-up with the only non-category score of 98, and Robert Nihtila Jr. was the Sub Veteran Champion with the same score. Aaron Pollak was the Class AAA Champion with a 96, while Heidi Womer and Sheldon Hostetter were the Lady I and Senior Veteran winners, also with scores of 96.

The skies continued to darken and a light rain moved in midway through the Handicap Championship. Once the firing line had cleared and all scores had been entered, Ben Snyder had won the Northeastern Grand American Handicap with the lone high score of 96 from 27 yards. Daniel Fadden was the event runner-up with a 95 and one shoot-off round with Daniel McCumber, who took 3rd place. Cono Natale was high in the Sub Veteran category with a 94, Randolph Thurlow and Sheldon Hostetter were the Veteran and Senior Veteran Champions, each with scores of 93.

DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET

CARL CHADWELL MI JOSHUA BUCHIERE NY AARON POLLAK VT URBAN WOMER NY BRIAN LUTHER NY DANIEL FADDEN NY GUY ROUSSEAU QU DARRIN PADOVANO NY HEIDI WOMER NY DEBORAH OHYE-NEILSON PA CODY MEREDITH FL JOSEPH BRECK IV PA CHRISTOS TSEMENTZIS ON ROBERT NIHTILA JR MA LLOYD BEECRAFT ON SHELDON HOSTETTER PA

99 98 96 92 95 95 92 90 96 92 77 99 94 98 94 96

WINCHESTER AMMUNITION HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP CH BEN SNYDER PA RU DANIEL FADDEN NY 3RD DANIEL MCCUMBER NY 4TH STEVE SMITH NY 5TH THOMAS HOOD PA 6TH PETER TSEMENTZIS ON 7TH MARCO CANNIZZARO QU LD1 NICOLE HOOD PA LD2 DEBORAH OHYE-NEILSON PA SUB JR CODY MEREDITH FL JR JORDAN ZIERCHER MO JR GOLD JAMESON MARTIN NY SUB VET CONO NATALE NY VET THURLOW RANDOLPH CT SR VET SHELDON HOSTETTER PA

96 95 95 93 93 93 92 91 89 91 91 91 94 93 93

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SHOOTREPORT

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TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

HIGH ALL AROUND CH CARL CHADWELL MI 389 AAA PETER TSEMENTZIS ON 386 AA BRIAN LUTHER NY 385 A ROMAN BARRETT MA 374 B JOSHUA BUCHIERE NY 376 C CONO NATALE NY 374 D JAMES WRIGHT NY 362 LD1 HEIDI WOMER NY 375 LD2 DEBORAH OHYE-NEILSON PA 376 SUB JR CODY MEREDITH FL 354 JR JOSEPH BRECK IV PA 375 JR GOLD CHRISTOS TSEMENTZIS ON 375 SUB VET ANTONIO LOBO CT 385 VET LLOYD BEECRAFT ON 380 SR VET KEITH MIRANDA NY 380

Carl Chadwell led both the High All Around and the High Over All standings, with scores of 389x400 and 1148x1200. Peter Tsementzis was the Class AAA Champion in the All Around with 386, Brian Luther, Antonio Lobo, and Robert Nihtila Jr. were the Class AA Champion, and Sub Veteran Champion and runnerup, all with scores of 385. Lloyd Beecraft was the Veteran Champion in the High Over All with the lone second high score of 1142, and Michael Fox Jr. was the Class AAA winner with 1135.

The Northeastern Grand American is a great way to start off the new target year and get one more shoot in before the long winter ahead. The folks at the NYSATA have worked hard over the past few years and have made significant improvements to both

HIGH OVER ALL CH CARL CHADWELL MI 1148 AAA MICHAEL FOX JR NY 1137 AA BRIAN LUTHER NY 1134 A ANNA RAWE MO 1105 B JONATHAN HANNAHOE PA 1107 C THOMAS LANDER NY 1091 D DAVE ABBOTT ON 1055 LD1 HEIDI WOMER NY 1118 LD2 DEBORAH OHYE-NEILSON PA 1135 SUB JR CODY MEREDITH FL 1092 JR JORDAN ZIERCHER MO 1119 SUB VET DONALD NEILSON JR PA 1116 VET LLOYD BEECRAFT ON 1142 SR VET KEITH MIRANDA NY 1120

the grounds as well as the overall target presentation. I always look forward to attending this Satellite Grand American and encourage anyone who has never made the trip to Upstate New York to put the Northeastern Grand American on your list of shoots for next year. n

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18

REMINGTON

GUN CLUB

CURE

BY JOHN CAFFEY

With all of the ammunition manufacturers facing the same problems of shortages of components and distribution interruptions it is refreshing to see a forward vision arise. That is what Remington is doing with its newest addition to the Gun Club product family with the GUN CLUB CURE. The Gun Club Cure is the trusted Gun Club shell that shooters are currently used to using but now with a blue hull instead of green.

But don’t worry the Remington Gun Club quality is the same. It’s made with trusted Remington components including Gun Club Shot, the Remington Power Piston Wad and premier hull construction.

The major difference is that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this Gun Club line will

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

benefit the childrens’ hospitals and disease research around the country. According to Joel Hodgdon, Remington’s Director of Marketing, “These loads give Remington shooters a great opportunity to give back to those in need and the beautiful color of Remington Blue will stand out when you’re at the range showing your support of families in need.”

To launch the new Gun Club line the Remington Gun Club

hosted the inaugural Shoot to Cure charitable fundraiser on Friday, September 23, 2022.The event featured the new Gun Club Cure ammunition and was attended by local shooters, community leaders and business owners with the funds raised going to the Arkansas Children’s Foundation.

With the new Remington Gun Club Cure shell in full production, it won’t be long before stores will have it in stock. Meanwhile, charity shoots and fundraisers use them to double down on their efforts to help in the community. n

UNDERNEWMANAGEMENT

20

ATA PRESIDENT ED WEHKING

BY KARLA HARRISON

There’s a new trail boss riding herd over trapshooting this year. Utah resident, Ed Wehking, after beginning as a Western Zone shooter, serving on the Vernal (UT) Rod and Gun Club board of directors, elected as the Utah ATA Delegate before becoming a valuable part of the Executive Committee as Western Zone Vice-President, is now leading the national organization as ATA President for the 2022-2023 target year.

Wehking comes into office with no particular agenda other than continuing to promote the sport and educating shooters. He is, however, a “stickler for the rules” an attribute that has served him well as the recent chairman of the ATA Rules Committee. Wehking has also worked hard on behalf of the ATA membership as part of the Human Resources and Finance committees. According to Wehking, “work on these committees goes unnoticed, but is part of the backbone of the organization.” It’s a daunting task to get new members while retaining current shooters. One goal he has in mind is to keep the Grand American at the WSRC in Sparta, Illinois. He understands the burden of rising prices involved and hopes that more Big 50s will become a way to reduce shooting costs.

An ATA member since 1984, Wehking has amassed nearly a half million registered targets. He downplays his accomplishments when he says, “I have never been a great shot, but rather just kind of competitive.” He completed his grand slam in 1996 during the Handicap at the Western Grand in TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

Salt Lake City, the place where his shooting career began. It was a memorable event that he shared with his early mentor, the late Frank Hoppe. While shooting as a Utah resident, he earned a placement on nearly three dozen State Teams, over the years on either the first or second team. Wehking admits he has never been on an All-American team, probably because he never chased points.

Trapshooting doesn’t totally define Ed Wehking. Family is key and his friends, on and off the trapline, are a big part of his family.

Over the years, he transitioned from admiring the All-Americans who were dominating the tournaments of the day, to appreciating all those who shoot for the love of the game.

Close to home, he squads with about ten different shooters that regularly include Joe Sudbury and John Vosnos. When traveling to larger tournaments, he tries to connect with Charlie Long and Steve Williamson. Wehking has been a squad member on two 500X500 squads, that included a mix of Williamson and Long. During his years of competitive shooting, he has befriended and shot with

some of the best shooters in the sport. It’s all the friendships that keep him coming back.

Family is the most important part of Ed Wehking’s life. Born in Arkansas, his parents moved the family to Utah when he was just a baby. He is the youngest of four siblings, two sisters followed by his brother Leonard. After graduation from a Salt Lake City High School, he continued his education at Utah State University (Logan) where he received a degree in Range Science.

Following his collegiate graduation, he went to work for the Bureau of Land Management.

It was an unsuccessful duck hunt in 1982, with his dad and brother, that eventually led to Ed’s first round of trap (with his duck gun) at the Holladay Gun Club.

Looking back, he wonders, “Had it not been for that poor hunting day, who knows where I would be today?” That day also began a journey into the sport for his brother, who is the newly elected ATA Idaho Delegate.

His wife, Joy, truly lives up to

her name. They were married in 1989, thus Ed became not only a husband but a father to Joy’s son, Cody Cunningham. Their family has expanded to include daughter Randi and her husband, Brad Kappos, along with granddaughters, Josie (age two) and Maeve (born in September). Joy’s love and support have allowed for lots of travel and shooting for many years.

Family isn’t always limited to bloodlines and for Ed Wehking, his family extends to the firefighters and co-workers within the Bureau of Land Management that he had the privilege to work with, before his early retirement to help care for his mother.

Looking ahead, the newest ATA President is ready to listen to shooters about the challenges involved in continuing to compete.

He is optimistic that trapshooting is alive and well. He promises to work hard on the current problems, so they can be overcome to secure a future for the sport of trapshooting. n

Satellite

Grands

47th Annual Spring Satellite Grand

16th Annual Heartland Satellite Grand

43rd Annual Southern Satellite Grand

38th Annual Northeastern Satellite Grand

19th Annual Empire Satellite Grand

45th Annual Southwestern Satellite Grand

35th Annual Great Lakes Satellite Grand

25th Annual Dixie Satellite Grand

Michigan Trapshooting Assn May 23–28

North Carolina Homegrounds September 26 – October 1

35th Annual Western Satellite Grand

20th Annual Autumn Satellite Grand

Tucson Trap & Skeet Club February 13–19

Silver Dollar Shooters Club March 12–19 New York State ATA May 10–14

Stockdale Gun Club August 21–27

New York State ATA September 6–10

Kansas Trapshooting Association September 11-17

Tucson Trap & Skeet Club November 4-12

Vernal Rod & Gun Club May 30 – June 4

124th Grand american World trapshootinG championships World Shooting & Recreational Complex • August 2-12

2023

2023

ED WEHKING

PRESIDENT

2023

Ed Wehking

2023

Ed Wehking

President

N C

2023

Ed Wehking

2023

Ed Wehking President

f. Darryl ed wehking Hayes - President - President

ALLN NAMERICANS

22

2023 ALL AMERICAN CAPTAINS

BY JACQUE SNELLENBERGER

Ever wonder how the best shooters regain their focus when there is some disruption, whether it be a gun issue, trap breakdown, or the person in front of them taking longer than usual? Curious to find out how your All-Americans handle the financial strain of costs rising in today’s competition? Which of the top shooters make adjustments when shooting from the 16-yard targets to the 27-yard line? Keep reading to find out all these answers and more about your 2023 All-American Captains.

OPEN CAPTAIN

RICHARD MARSHALL JR. Hometown: Lincoln, Nebraska Occupation: Online Sales Manager Gamemasters II LLC., Head Shooting Coach at Doane University, Shooting Instructor at RM Shooting Clinics Singles: 5000 (99.60) Handicap: 5000 (95.82) Doubles: 4000 (98.33) Equipment: Krieghoff K80 Trap Special 34/30 Custom Wenig Stock, Fiocchi Ammunition, Shooting Glasses by L&M Lenses Equipment Modifications: Custom Wenig Stock TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

Disruptions: When there’s any issues on the line with shooters, scorers, targets etc., I don’t let anything bother me! Since I was a very young shooter at the age of 14-15, I shot leadoff so I was always dealing with issues and never let it distract or bother me. We can all use distractions as excuses why we miss targets but at the end of the day you just need to take split second regroup/get focused and call for your target and shoot.

Financial Strain: Since I have my son, Tyler, shooting now, we are definitely more selective on the shoots we attend and do a lot of cooking at the fifth wheel.

Adjustments from 16-27: The only adjustment I make are the shells. I shoot Fiocchi light 8s for Singles and switch to Fiocchi White Rhino 1250 7.5’s for Handicap.

Same hold points for both.

LADY I CAPTAIN

RAYLEE BISHOP Hometown: Ankeny, Iowa Occupation: College Student Singles: 5300 (98.17) Handicap: 5200 (91.08) Doubles: 3900(96.23) Equipment: Browning Crossover Lenses: RE Ranger Equipment Modifications: Briley chokes

Disruptions: Finding something on the ground or in the distance to focus on, concentrating on my breathing or heartbeat, or repeating a positive thought. I use these things interchangeably and sometimes together depending on whatever I feel will best get me refocused.

Financial Strain: I am beyond blessed to have what I believe is the best support system. My parents have encouraged me to pursue my shooting career goals. They have relieved me of the financial burden that so many face in shooting sports now. I cannot express how thankful I am for my family.

Adjustments from 16-27: Handicap seems to be a reoccurring battle for me. It takes much more deliberate and smooth movements.

ALLN NAMERICANS

Something that seems to help more often than not is to take an extra split second for my eye to focus before I call for the bird. Both require me to regularly remind myself to stay focused and avoid being lazy or bored.

23

SUB JUNIOR CAPTAIN

JUNIOR CAPTAIN

JUNIOR GOLD CAPTAIN

WYATT DEBRIE

MITCHELL PIERSON

IAN LAWRENCE

Hometown: Gibbon, Nebraska Occupation: 8th grade student Singles: 7100 (97.58) Handicap: 7000 (89.01) Doubles: 6000 (94.20) Equipment: K-80 Trap Special Suhl Scroll Equipment Modifications: Wenig Custom Stock Disruptions: I regain my focus by turning up my music and making sure I am properly using my fundamentals.

Financial Strain: A year ago, I was fortunate enough to be offered a sponsorship from Remington, which has helped to offset the rising cost of ammunition, along with the lack of availability.

Adjustments from 16-27: I move my hold points closer to the house when shooting handicap, because you do not need to move your gun as drastically to break targets from the 27-yard line.

Hometown: Lincoln, Nebraska Occupation: Student at Doane University Singles: 7950 (97.72) Handicap: 7500 (91.13) Doubles: 6800 (96.24) Equipment: K-80 Trap Special Combo 34”/30” Equipment Modifications: None Disruptions: Whenever I lose my focus I make sure to remain calm and before I continue to shoot I take a deep breath and clear my mind.

Financial Strain: The costs of shooting have risen, but fortunately I have been able to shoot the amount I do thanks to my sponsor Fiocchi Ammunition.

Adjustments from 16-27: When I switch from shooting 16-yard targets to 27, I move my hold point from a high hold to level with the top of the house.

Hometown: Herrin, Illinois Occupation: College student Singles: 5400 (98.80) Handicap: 5600 (95.48) Doubles: 4000 (97.83) Equipment: Perazzi High Tech RS, Pilla glasses, Winchester AA ammunition Equipment Modifications: None Disruptions: When a trap breaks down or something of that sort comes up and it causes a disruption I just go back to my ranger and start the round over again. Like it’s a new box and the disruption never happened. I find that it’s really helpful to not let things like that get in your head. If someone is taking too long in front of me I just remind myself to stay in my own world and not to worry about what’s going on in front of me just to stay focused on what I’m doing.

Financial Strain: As for the cost of shooting it hasn’t affected me all too much because I guide duck hunts throughout the winter and save that money to use for the upcoming season.

Adjustments from 16-27: When I go from shooting Singles at the 16-yard line to shooting Handicap at the 27-yard line the only thing I really change is my hold point. I bring my hold point up higher and off the corners of the house further on 1 and 5.

LADY II CAPTAIN

DEBBIE OHYE NEILSON Hometown: Audubon, Pennsylvania Occupation:Retired Office Manager Kay Ohye International.

Singles: 8000 (98.14) Handicap: 7400 (88.70) Doubles: 6200 (94.42) Equipment: Krieghoff K-80, Federal Ammunition, Equipment Modifications: 34-32 fix choke, fully adjustable Wenig Stock Disruptions: Every disruption/issue is different. I just try to refocus on my shooting and not let the disruption/issue get into my head.

Sometimes I pass that test.

Financial Strain: I have cut back on my practice rounds at times. I also try to find the best deal on shells when they are available.

Adjustments from 16-27: I don’t make any adjustments from shooting 16 to 27-yard targets other than the shells I shoot.

Seems like it’s pretty consistent that the All-Americans don’t see disruptions as much to deal with. It’s still all about doing your own thing and making sure you’re shooting your target! As far as the financial strain, they obviously put shooting as a priority, and accommodate accordingly. The biggest difference was seen when asked about the change from 16-27. Many shooters don’t make any changes except for the shells, a few change their hold points, and a few change their gun which changes their point of impact.

Since your All-American Captains were willing to share their thoughts and strategies, learn from them! If you’re struggling to handle distractions, take a lesson from the All-Americans and treat it as if nothing happened.

Shoot your target! n

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

ALLN NAMERICANS

24

SUB VETERAN CAPTAIN

VETERAN CAPTAIN

SENIOR VETERAN CAPTAIN

CHAIR CAPTAIN

DAVID DEITCH

LLOYD BEECRAFT

WILLIAM VAN NIEUWENHUYZEN

WILLIAM ROSS

Hometown: Tina, Missouri Occupation: Factory worker Singles: 5200 (98.25) Handicap: 4800 (91.48) Doubles: 4900 (93.84) Equipment: MX10 RS Equipment Modifications: Tommy Wilkinson barrels, Prosoft recoil system Disruptions: Block it out, start over with my routine, and get a good look at the target.

Financial Strain: Work more hours to offset the cost. For example, I just worked 18 hours of overtime this past week.

Adjustments from 16-27: I usually raise the comb just a little when I go to the back fence—1⁄16th - 1⁄8th higher if I’m shooting into a north wind. If it’s a normal, calm day, I don’t do anything different.

Hometown: Breslau, Ontario Occupation: Residential Framing Contractor Singles: 6700 (98.01) Handicap: 6300 (89.87) Doubles: 4900 (93.59) Equipment: K80 Trap Special Equipment Modifications: Pro Rib and Precision Fit Stock Disruptions: I go to the line with my results in mind and no one else’s. I do not try to keep track of how other squad members are doing. As someone who helps run shoots, you realize equipment failures are inevitable and you just deal with them as they occur. If by chance you get squadded with a very distracting individual I realize that it is just for 100 targets and try not to put myself in that position again, but remember you just may have to shoot-off with that person.

Financial Strain: The rising cost of shooting and components fortunately for me is something I can handle okay at this stage. The most frustrating issue is purchasing the type of ammunition you prefer.

Adjustments from 16-27: The only change I make from 16-yards to Handicap is on 16-yards I use a light Improved Mod choke with AA light 7.5 or 8s and for 27-yard Handicap, I use a full choke with AA Super Handicap 7.5s.

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Hometown: Harrisburg, South Dakota Occupation: Retired Farmer Singles: 6600 (97.95) Handicap: 6300 (91.87) Doubles: 5500 (93.98) Equipment: K80 Equipment Modifications: Custom Stock Disruptions: I just go back to my normal routine. Look at the target and break them.

Financial Strain: I’ve reloaded shells more than I have in the past.

Sometimes shooting less if I need to depending on what’s going on in our home life.

Adjustments from 16-27: I shoot top single because it shoots flatter for Handicap, and then switch to the bottom so that I can see them quicker and it shoots a little higher.

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Hometown: Newfoundland, Pennsylvania Occupation: Retired Singles: 5500 (95.49) Handicap: 5200 (88.42) Doubles: 4000 (82.95) Equipment: Browning Synergy combo, unsingle, adjustable cheek piece and rib-POI 100% high Equipment Modifications: 6 oz lead in the stock to help reduce recoil and balance the unsingle barrels in the middle of the receiver.

The factory gun was muzzle heavy.

Disruptions: Focusing during a squad or single shooter issue is not generally a problem. My next target is usually an ink spot even when the rest are chunked.

Financial Strain: The financial stress is to argue with my financial advisor! I remind him, this is what I do! I could die tomorrow, and I need to have fun now.

Adjustments from 16-27: The only change I make between Singles and Handicap is hold a lower gun. From the chair, I only hold eight or ten inches above the front of the house in Singles and an inch or two above in Handicap. My visual hold is a foot or 18 inches above that, either discipline. n

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SHOOTREPORT

26

2022 MISSOURI FALL HANDICAP

BY SANDRA JO JACK

Those of you that came to the Fall Handicap know Karla Harrison usually reports this event for TrapShootingUSA, since Karla could not attend this shoot. I was happy to write about this event. Karla, your smile was missed by all at the Fall Handicap.

Club Manager Skip Klinger, in a conversation, did mention to me before the shoot that the grounds looked different, and yes the grounds looked different in a positive cleaned up way. Rock and mulch was spread along the sidewalk by the trap line to eliminate the mud and dust. The clubhouse shone with a glow that welcomed the shooters.

The Missouri Trapshooting Association is located in the beautiful “Fun Shine” of the Lake of the Ozarks. The Midwest’s premier lake resort destination offers boating, golfing, shopping, fishing and of course trapshooting. The 60 traphouses and 12 sporting clays stations at the Blackberry TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

Ridge Course makes the trapshooting facility the 2nd largest in the country.

This year Fiocchi which is located in Ozark, Missouri, had a large presence in ammunition and banners hanging at the shoot and was the major sponsor of the event. Fiocchi kept the ammo house full for the shooters to compete, while Mac and Dave kept guard. Ye,s they were let out at the end of the day for good behavior.

Vendors on the grounds filled up all of the spots available. You could find guns, accessories and even a new coffee vendor. The 20 plus vendors came from all over the country hoping to fill our shooting needs. A big thanks

should go out to them for being there.

MONDAY PRELIMINARY SINGLES, HANDICAP AND DOUBLES With the week’s shooting starting on Monday, preliminary day was a good warm up day and one of the best days of the week weather wise. The crowd was relatively small with 50 shooters taking part.

Setting the Singles stage for the week’s scores was Senior Veteran Jack Futch shooting a 99.

Scott Cochran shot a 97 from the fence to claim Champion out of 54 preliminary Handicap entries. The Doubles event had 38 shooters with Scott Cochran claiming yet another trophy with the high score of 99.

AMMO CAGE WITH DAVE AND MAC

SHOOTREPORT

28

TUESDAY

PRELIMINARY SINGLES, HANDICAP AND DOUBLES Tuesday’s Doubles event started the All American points accumulation granted by the ATA for the week.

Entries of 92 shooters in the Singles shot with six 99s being the high scores. Handicap scores were challenged by 95 entries with a 95 being the high score of the event. This earned David Dillow one yard punch to the 20-yard line. Zachari Nannini broke 97 and was the high score on the board and the AAA class winner in the Doubles. Eighty-six shooters did their best to shine in this event.

WEDNESDAY Trophy gold and silver belt buckles adorned the table in the clubhouse on a fall setting. Wednesday was the start of the High Over All with Singles being held in weather that tried to cooperate, but decided to bring in some wind.

The Singles started with six shooters out of the 200 entries posting 100s. After another 100 in the carryover Herbert Lewis was declared Champion. Kentucky shooter Keith Ditto, shone as usual in the Handicap with the Champion score of 96. The Doubles event, with 145 shooters, saw four shooters card

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

top scores of 98. In the end, Zachari Nannini, shot the only 50 in a carryover for the champion trophy.

THURSDAY This is the Fall Handicap as we know, and the weather did say Fall. The Handicap event had low light, making for tough visibility. 96 was the high score of the day with 238 entries. The lone 96 was shot by Justin Ballantyne from 22 yards and he ended up with a one yard punch and the top trophy. Bradley Jones and James Frost had the next closest scores with 94s and were the runnerup and Senior Veteran winners.

Between events 10 and 12 shooters were able to show off their shooting stuff in a 50 target nonregistered derby. No doubt the payouts were worth shooting for.

Following the derby was Event 12, the Bagnell Dam Handicap and out of the 282 shooters William Newland and Austin Majeske carded top scores of 94 to punch back 1.5 yards.

Newland won the shoot-off for HABE DARR, ROD JOHNSON, DAVID SMITH

Champion with Majeske taking runner-up honors. 93s were given a one yard step back and 92s even were punched a half yard.

If you shot in the “Pump-Um Doubles” then you at least had fun crushing targets. Graf & Sons sponsored this event to end the day with the following winners—1st place Rod Johnson crushing 19 to win two flats of ammo, 2nd place Habe Darr won one flat and 3rd place David Smith won one flat.

There was even a “hard luck trophy” of five boxes of shells that went to Ian Kutilek. Making the end of the gloomy weather day a little better was the hot dog feed sponsored by Bob Schultz/Target Shotguns, Inc. for all that were on the grounds.

FRIDAY The weather decided to be much happier on Friday, with ocean blue colors in the sky that made the targets stand out. Smiling, Dewayne Dummitt broke 99 targets for a 1.5

yard punch to win Champion. The scores were much higher with better visibility and less wind. Donald Isham and Morgan Hodge posted second high scores of 96 to win Senior Veteran and Lady I trophies.

Another 50 target derby was held between Handicaps.Then Event 15, the Bob Graf Handicap got underway with 351 shooters.

No doubt many were also thinking about the fish fry/chicken dinner to be held later. A 98 from the 22.5 -yard line was scored by Curt Prussman to earn the champion trophy. Runner-up David Swigart was not far behind with a 97.

Marg Graf of Graf & Sons hosted the Shooter’s Appreciation Fish and Chicken Dinner which was well attended in front of the club house. The sun was shining for us to eat outside, enjoying each other’s company. Free trinkets were handed out to shooters including wine glasses, towels, pins and pens. This has been a Marg Graf doing for many years and was much appreciated by the shooters.

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SHOOTREPORT

30

JACOB DILLER

SATURDAY

TOM ENDRES SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP

JOLENE DAWSON

SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP Event 16, the Singles Championship was held on a beautiful day. The sun was shining on the 482 trapshooters competing for the perfect 200 score.

Seven shooters shot perfect scores of 200. Jacob Diller from Oklahoma topped the charts claiming the championship trophy to win it in a shoot-off. His score of a perfect 50 straight in the overtime defeated Layne Clubb (MO) who posted a 49 to earn him Junior Gold. Jacob Diller, a AAA Junior Gold shooter, broke his first 200 on this day alongside his Lindenwood classmates. He is a freshman in college and has found the love of trapshooting ever since he could hold up a shotgun.

His inspiration for shooting comes from several people along with shooting friends that encourage him. “What I love the most is getting to spend time with all of my friends and the friendly people in the shooting world”. He is a very humble, polite young man.

Coach Mike Elam selected 15 shooters to attend this shoot, judging them on scores, talent and attitude. Well, being able to score one round for these fine athletes showed all of that. Thomas Fannin (KY) outdueled Anthony Fortino (IL) to snag the runner-up trophy. The two were the only non-category 200 straights in the field.

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JG GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

JACOB DILLER THOMAS FANNIN JASON KRAUSE JUSTIN HARRE ANTHONY FORTINO SCOTT SCHUMAKER ELBERT SHEARER COLTON MCKINNEY JOLENE DAWSON SANDRA JO JACK LEXI HENNING EVAN MAPLE LAYNE CLUBB JON MARSH KIM SCHAEFER FRANK PAYNE ZIGGY TKACZENKO

OK 200 KY 200 NE 199 NE 199 IL 200 MO 199 CO 196 MO 193 NE 200 WI 195 IA 198 IL 197 MO 200 NE 200 IL 198 IL 198 MO 192

score to capture the Junior Gold award.

SUNDAY

DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP

Spotlighting another fine athlete, Jolene Dawson (NE) was the Lady I champion. She shot her first 200 straight on this day and had the biggest smile on her face alongside her other Lindenwood athlete trapshooters.

THE WHITE FLYER HANDICAP Yes, another Handicap event was held in the sunshine and it was shot by 356 shooters. The great weather continued and good scores littered the board at the end of the day.

Eastyn Schutte (IL) was the Champion with 98 from the19-yard line. The Junior shooter also earned a 1.5 yard bump back. Jason Krause (NE) shot a 97 from the back fence to win the runner-up trophy, while Ty Deterding (IL) broke the same

The weather cooperated by being a bit warmer for the 265 shooters who participated in this year’s Doubles Championship. Jason Krause broke 98 and then 20 in the shoot-off over Anthony Fortino and Blake Campbell (AR). Campbell finished as the runner-up, with

MISSOURI DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

JASON KRAUSE BLAKE CAMPBELL KEITH DITTO ANTHONY FORTINO AMOS SMITH GREG VENDETTI CURTIS PRUSSMAN JERRY FORAL LAUREN DUNN SANDRA JO JACK LEXI HENNING EVAN MAPLE RYAN LOVELESS NELS JOHNSON WOODY BARNES STEVEN MALTZAHN ZIGGY TKACZENKO

NE AR KY IL KS CO MO NE IL WI IA IL MO NE AR IA MO

98 98 96 98 96 95 93 92 96 90 88 97 97 96 93 92 86

LEXI HENNING

Fortino taking class AA honors.

Lauren Dunn (IL) and Sandra Jo Jack (WI) were the Lady I and Lady II winners with scores of 96 and 90, while Lexi Henning was the Sub Junior winner with 88. Evan Maple (IL) and Ryan Loveless (MO) each broke 97s to lead the way in the Junior and Junior Gold categories.

Nels Johnson (NE), Woody Barnes (AR) and Steven Maltzahn (IA) were the Sub Veteran, Veteran and Senior Veteran winners with scores of 96, 93 and 92. Missouri shooter Ziggy Tkaczenko was the Chair shooter winner with 86.

HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP 336 shooters entered this year’s Fall Handicap Championship and Amos Smith of Kansas posted the lone 95 to win the coveted title. Runner-up Jerry Foral (NE) broke 94 from 20 yards and also earned one yard.

Ziggy Tkaczenko also broke 94 to win the Chair trophy.

HIGH ALL AROUND Out of the 482 shooters for the week, there were only two shootoffs for HAA categories. Anthony Fortino won the Champion flip, with a 387x400 over Herbert Lewis and Keith Ditto.

SHOOTREPORT

32

WENIG HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU 19-20.5 21-23.5 24-26.5 27 LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

AMOS SMITH JERRY FORAL KODY JOHNSON MIKE LUMETTA SR COREY SPRUILL HERBERT LEWIS HANNAH LATHAM VICKI PARLE MADDOX SCHULTE ANDREW HERBIG HUNTER SPRUILL MICHAEL GOOCH LLOYD TUCKER THOMAS FIERGE ZIGGY TKACZENKO

KS NE MO MO MO KY OH MO MO MO MO IN MO MO MO

95 94 91 93 93 93 87 88 89 92 93 91 92 90 94

HIGH OVER ALL

ANTHONY FORTINO

All of the categories were won outright with no shoot-offs in this year’s HOA Championship. Keith Ditto’s score of 1139x1200 topped everyone by seven targets with Scott Cochran (IN) breaking 1132 to win AAA class.

Another Missouri Fall Handicap in the ATA record books leaves us with a message from the staff: “The staff are forever grateful for the support of all our sponsors in making this a shoot for the shooters. In 2022, the competition factor ended up being a 4 factor, missed by being short 25 shooters.

In 2023, we have every expectation to be a Competition Factor of 5.”

MISSOURI FALL HANDICAP HIGH ALL AROUND CH AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

ANTHONY FORTINO HERBERT LEWIS DAVID SWIGART BLAKE CAMPBELL EVAN MAPLE JERRY FORAL JOHN NICHOLSON LAUREN DUNN SANDRA JO JACK KAHNE PACKER ANDREW HERBIG RYAN LOVELESS MICHAEL GOOCH KIM SCHAEFER THOMAS FIERGE ZIGGY TKACZENKO

IL KY OH AR IL NE OK IL WI NE MO MO IN IL MO MO

387 387 382 397 375 379 366 371 365 370 382 386 382 371 368 372

The MTA throws one heck of a shoot, the facility is great and the folks that run it try hard to put on the best event possible. There are plenty of hotels and restaurants in close proximity to the gun club. So, if you can, please try and make it to the Fall Handicap next year and let’s make that expectation a reality. n

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

KEITH DITTO

MISSOURI FALL HANDICAP HIGH OVERALL CH AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

KEITH DITTO SCOTT COCHRAN ANDREW HERBIG DEWAYNE DUMMITT MAKIN GIRMUS DARREN HORTON DAVID CROSS ANNA RAWE SANDRA JO JACK LEXI HENNING COLE HENNING SETH COOPER MICHAEL GOOCH E SMELSER DONALD ISHAM ZIGGY TKACZENKO

KY IN MO KY NE IA TX MO WI IA IA TN IN TN KY MO

1139 1132 1098 1106 1081 1062 1058 1051 1037 1032 1116 942 1107 1058 1088 1071

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TRIBUTE

QUENTIN “LUCKY” NIGHTINGALE 1939 - 2023

BY KARLA HARRISON

Hall of Famer and ATA Past President, Lucky Nightingale, of Maryland, finally found peace after an extended illness on January 4, 2023 at the age of 83.

Nightingale served as the ATA Maryland State Delegate for many years, eventually serving on the Central Handicap Committee before advancing to the ATA President’s position in 1997.

His 40 years of dedicated service to the sport of trapshooting (1967-2007) earned him recognition in the newly established Maryland Hall of Fame in 2022. His leadership for the Maryland State Shooting Association as president extended for five terms—1971, 1991 and 1995 - 1997.

During his shooting career, Nightingale was a Maryland State Handicap Champion (1971), State All Around Champion (1984) and State Doubles Champion (1994). He became the 180th ATA member to record a Grand Slam in 1996. In 1980, father and son, Kenny, won the Eastern Zone Parent & Child Championship. Over his years of shooting, he registered 517,975 targets (209,350 Singles / 186,925 Handicap / 121,700 Doubles).

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

Nightingale was an ATA Life Member, a member of the Maryland State Sportsmen’s Association and the Carney Rod & Gun Club. In 1985, he was inducted into the Handgun Hunters Hall of Fame, after traveling the world with his wife on many hunts. Nightingale enjoyed many activities including golfing, fishing, hunting, and playing the harmonica and guitar.

Traveling to gun clubs as a family, they worked as cashiers for many state shoots.

Quentin Paul, known by all as Lucky Nightingale, was born in Corning, Kansas, and was married to Carol Sue Mitchell for 31 years prior to her untimely death in 1994.

Their family included daughters Glory Gill, Christine Nightingale and Shelly Knick; and sons Kenneth Nightingale and Jason Nightingale, who preceded him in death in 2002.

Survivors also include brothers Robert and Dean Nightingale; a sister, Meridith Nightingale; sonsin-law; a daughter-in-law; ten grandchildren; several greatgrandchildren; and one great-great grandson. n

TRIBUTE

WILLIS CORBETT 1925 - 2023

BY KARLA HARRISON

Trapshooting’s Hall of Fame 2020 inductee, Willis Corbett closed out a lifelong dedication to shooting on January 3, 2023, following the path of his wife, Jo, who passed just 19 days earlier. Together they were laid to rest in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis, Missouri. Graveside services included military honors for his service in the Navy during WWII. As the first African-American to become a life member of the ATA, he opened doors for future shooters of all races. In 2011, Corbett became the 39th member of the Missouri Trapshooters Association Hall of Fame.

Following his return from military service and his marriage in 1946, he went to work promoting all types of shooting. In 1968, he represented Winchester-Olin rifles on an African big game hunt, sponsored by Trans World Airlines.

National magazine coverage of this trip put a new light on hunters.

Youth shooting was always a passion for Corbett. His dedication to the Missouri Youth Shooting Alliance lasted 55 years. He worked with the Missouri Department of Conservation to develop an interest in various shooting sports among young

Missourians. As a founder of the Missouri Youth Shooting Sports Association (2006) and past president, MYSSA continues to offer shooting opportunities in various shooting disciplines to young gunners.

Corbett had connections with many celebrities, politicians, and corporate giants, including members of the St. Louis based Busch family.

These associations brought in many sponsorships, including the Budweiser Handicap at the Grand American. The Budweiser theme song continues to this day to call shooters to check in for shoot-offs at the ATA’s premier event.

Born in Mississippi in 1925, he was the 6th child in a family of 11 children. His brother Paul Corbett and sister, Mary Ellen Tyler survive him. His marriage of 76 years included the birth of two daughters—Ollie Simpson of California and Barbara Dwellingham, of Missouri. Other family memers include four grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren.

The family suggests that memorial donations may be made to the Frederick Douglas Wildlife and Conservation Gun Club. n

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

NEWPRODUCT

38

&

SHOT TRACKER CLAY TRACKER

BY JOHN CAFFEY

As the continual struggle with finding and affording shells impacts everyone’s time on the range, the need for quality practice is becoming more important. It used to be that a day at the range included shooting a case of shells. Now that has been reduced to only two or three boxes in many cases. I know a number of shooters that are now relying more on dryfire practice to keep their mount consistent. I can’t tell you how many inquiries I have had about other options for practice since my last article on the True Clays indoor training simulator.

New ideas, products and technology are born from necessity. When necessity arises there is someone who recognizes that need and responds by providing for that need. That is what brought Jim Pautler and Robert Noble together. Both of them grew up hunting and shooting. Jim, hunting and target shooting on an Illinois Dairy farm, Robert, a fifth generation Texan and gun enthusiast. Fast forward, Jim gets his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering followed by his Masters in Electrical Engineering as well as his MBA. He spent a large part of his working

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

career designing “Space Laser Communications Systems’’ for the US Government. Robert has his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, along with 40 years and several US Patents creating high technology products and solutions.

When you get people together with a desire to find a better way something good is going to come from it.

Many times I’ve been at the range and heard a backyard instructor answering a new shooter’s question of ‘where did I miss it’ ,with ‘you were behind it’, while I see that the wad was in front and high. Most

shooters can’t afford that luxury to have a coach with them every time they go to the range, but now with Shot Tracker® & Clay Tracker® Pro technology that gap is closing.

TECHNOLOGY When Jim and Robert developed the Shot Tracker®, they took the technical aspects and physics of shooting and incorporated it into a plug-and-play device that any shooter can attach to their gun and have a coach with them every time they shoot.

HOW IT WORKS If you talk to Jim and Robert they will tell you about the gyroscopes and laser technology that’s way above my understanding so here’s the regular answer. The Smart Shot software uses the Shot Tracker's integrated sensors to monitor the motion of the shooter and his/her shotgun. When the sensors detect a shot, the video frames from the onboard camera are analyzed to compute the flight path and speed of the clay target. The flight path and speed of the pellet cloud is calculated to determine the point where the clay target and the pellets will meet. At that point of intersection, the Smart Shot algorithms determine the number of pellets that can impact the clay target and how much kinetic energy they contain. All of this information is used to compute the probability of breaking the clay. After this is done the software computes the corrections needed to make the next shot with success. Technology is a wonderful thing when it can turn the barrel of your shotgun into

NEWPRODUCT

39

a

smart device. The most interesting thing is that the information is sent directly to your smartphone via a program called Clay Tracker® Pro. After each shot the corrections that are needed to be successful are provided visually as to where the clay target was as well as where the shot was. The Clay Tracker® Pro program also provides an audible response describing the shot accuracy as well as the range and speed of the target, and the motion of the shooter, and the corrections that are needed all within five seconds of the shot.

THE DEVICE The Shot Tracker® can be mounted to both semi autos and over/under shotguns in 12ga., 20 ga. ,28 ga., and 410 bore. I found the unit itself to be very compact when mounted with a length of only 6.0” and the barrel mounting bracket being only 3.6” and weighing a mere 6.5 oz.

Physically I could tell no difference in it being attached.

The Clay Tracker® Pro cell phone Application took about 20 minutes to install and can interface with all Shot Tracker® models. It is also available for iOS or Android smart

devices. This Patented Smart Shot technology will provide feedback that includes: • Range to the Clay Target • Crossing speed of the Clay Target • Clay Target's Probability of Breakage • Assessment of where your shot was aimed • Correction needed to make your next shot on target • Records shot History and Statistics of hit and miss data

Additional detailed feedback includes Simple Panoramic Imagery of the entire shot, Choke Configuration along with Shot Shell information including: • P ellet Size •O z. Load • Pellet Type • Muzzle Velocity All are inputted for a full shot analysis. The Clay Tracker® Pro provides feedback on all of the shotgun sports: Skeet & Skeet Doubles, Trap and Trap Doubles, as well as Sporting Clays and FITASC. That’s an enormous amount of information for one portable device and more information than any one person could provide during a shooting session. All this is powered

by two CR-123 batteries that will power the Shot Tracker for several hours of shooting.

The Shot Tracker® / Clay Tracker® Pro is by far one of the most innovative training systems for shooters both new and experienced that I have ever seen. Shot Tracker® removes personal opinion from the learning curve providing the shooter not only instant feedback based on technology but a shooting history for later review. The entire package ships in a portable travel case with everything that you need to start tracking your shots and improving your shooting scores.

Shot Tracker® is the first generation of personal training available outside of military applications. I am looking forward to what advancements Robert and Jim have coming. n To see the full list of Shot Tracker® videos and visit their website click the attached QR code or visit:

www.takeaimtech.com

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

SHOOTREPORT

40

2022 DIXIE GRAND

BY TIFFANY DECKER

The 24th Annual Dixie Grand was held at the North Carolina Trapshooting homegrounds in Bostic, North Carolina, from Tuesday, September 27th to Sunday, October 2nd, 2022. The North Carolina Trapshooting Home grounds has 16 program traps, one practice trap and 80 full hook-up campsites. The program this year consisted of 1300 targets and 307 shooters came from 30 different states/provinces to participate.

The normal 80 degree fall weather in Bostic, North Carolina was interrupted by Mother Nature this year. Hurricane Ian and a tropical storm made for difficult shooting conditions. Shooters had to endure 20 - 30 mph winds Tuesday through Thursday. And because a tropical storm was predicted to pass through Bostic on Friday afternoon and evening, the Doubles championship was moved from Friday afternoon to Thursday afternoon.

TUESDAY Tuesday was sunny but there was a strong North wind. The first event was the Tyler Honnold Singles presented in honor of the Wounded TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

Warriors. Heidi Womer, Mike Moore and Jackson Fox shot 100 straights to win Lady I, Veteran and Junior champion. Debbie Ohye-Neilson, William Mortensen and Michael Burnette had 99s to win Lady II, Senior Veteran, and Sub Veteran.

Donald Neilson, Frank Pascoe, Tim

Fields and Steve Woods had 98s to win AAA, AA, A and B class trophies.

Event 2 was the Tynan Bennett Handicap presented by AllAmerican Woodworking and Awards. Donald Neilson was champion with a 97. Place winners were Ronald Wallace (92) runnerup, Gregory Robinson(92) 3rd , Tim Dean (92) 4th, Mark Spoon (91) 5th, and Randy Raiford (91) 6th. Other winners included Andy Clayton (95) Senior Veteran, Tip Wight (93) Sub Veteran and Lloyd Beecraft (93) Veteran.

OLLIE, LEE TIP WIGHT, RANDY RAIFORD, DARLENE RAIFORD

The last event of the day was the Ryan Bucher Doubles presented

by Pat-Trap, Inc. and Michael Gooch shot the high score of 98 to win Sub Veteran. Tynan Bennett and Jamaal Brown each shot 96 to win Junior and A class. Other winners were Bruce Davis (95) AAA, Ethan Ledford (95) Junior, and Paul Shaw (95) Senior Veteran.

A special note – Frank Ketron shot his 250,000th target during Tuesday’s Singles event.

Congratulations Frank.

FRANK KETRON

SHOOTREPORT

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Wednesday’s program consisted of the Singles Class Championship presented by Brad Barnett and Tiffany Decker, the Carolina Doubles presented by Watauga Gun Club and the Foothills Doubles presented in Honor of the North Carolina Home grounds Volunteers. With hurricane Ian still moving North, the outer bands of the hurricane produced strong winds throughout the day.

Two shooters shot perfect scores in the Singles Class Championship.

Alfred Wright and Michael Burnette were the Sub Veteran and Sub Veteran runner-up winners. Mark Isner (99) won AAA in a carryover, James Flint (99) AA, William Wallis (99) Senior Veteran and Frank Pascoe (99) Veteran.

To say the Doubles were sporty on Wednesday afternoon is an understatement. Still a few shooters were able to post great scores. In the first event of Doubles, Bruce Davis won AAA and Paul Shaw won Senior Veteran with 97s. Carl Caldwell, Mark Isner and Michael Gooch tied in Sub Veteran with 96s. Carl Chadwell prevailed in the carryover to win Sub Veteran and Mark Isner was the Sub Veteran runner-up.

Herbert Lewis (95) won AA and Tynan Bennett (94) Junior. Lloyd Beecraft (94) won Veteran after the carryover and Mike Dennis (94) took Veteran runner-up.

The 2nd event of Doubles proved to be just as challenging as the first, but it didn’t stop Lloyd Beecraft from posting a 99 to win the Veteran category. Other winners were Mason Bartlow (97) Sub Junior, Joe Nalley (97) Senior Veteran, Sheldon Hostetter (97) Senior Veteran runnerup, Frank Pascoe (96) Veteran runner up, Keith Miranda (96) A class, Bruce Davis (95) AAA class, Kevin Polson (95) Sub Veteran and Carl Chadwell (95) Sub Veteran runner-up.

The gusting winds were still a factor on Thursday morning, but there was no rain expected until Friday afternoon. So, with the weather conditions expected to deteriorate on Friday as a tropical storm approached, the management made the decision to move Event 10, the Dixie Grand Doubles Championship presented by Target Shotguns from Friday to Thursday's program. This turned out to be a great decision.

CASSIE HAMMOND

Cassie Hammond outshot the entire field shooting a 93 in the Event 7 Blue Ridge Handicap presented by Rockingham County Gun Club. The 93 earned Cassie a punch back to the 27-yard line. Bill Harrison shot a 92 to win Senior Veteran honors. Places were won by Jamaal Brown (90) runner-up, John Watkins (89) 3rd place, William Mortensen (89) 4th place, and Scott Mouzon (88) 5th place. Kevin Polson (89) beat Daniel Brandeth (89) in a shoot-off to win Sub Veteran.

Brandeth settled for Sub Veteran runner-up.

The Doubles Class Championship presented by Buckhorn Gun Club was the first Doubles event of the day. Alfred Wright and Kevin Polson had the top score with 95s. Alfred Wright prevailed in the carryover to win the

DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

JAMES FLINT NY ALFRED WRIGHT TX DRUCE DAVIS KS HERBERT LEWIS KY DAVID SMILEY NC JESSE BURGHER AL DAVID FEAGA MD RONALD WALLACE ON BROOKE BARNETT TN DEBORAH OHYE-NEILSON PA MASON BARTLOW IL JONAH WYATT TN RYAN BUCHER VA KEVIN POLSON KY THOMAS CAMPBELL SC JOE NALLEY NC BOBBY BILBREY KY

96 92 90 90 89 89 87 84 93 95 92 87 92 95 89 93 62

Sub Veteran trophy. Kevin took Sub Veteran runner-up. Michael Gooch and Frank Pascoe won AAA class and Veteran with 94s. Other winners were Bruce Davis (93) AAA runner-up, Herbert Lewis (92) AA, Michael Burnette (92) AA runnerup, and Joe Nalley (92) Senior Veteran.

Jim Flint of New York was the 2022 Dixie Grand Doubles champion. He posted an impressive 96 in gusting winds. He prevailed over the field of 148 to win the Dixie Grand Doubles Championship presented by Target Shotguns.

Debbie Ohye-Neilson and Kevin Polson won Lady II and Sub Veteran with 95s. Other Doubles championship winners were Alfred Wright (92) runner-up, Brooke Barnett (93) Lady I, Joe Nalley (93) Senior Veteran, Ryan Bucher (92) Junior Gold, and Mason Bartlow (92) Sub Junior.

FRIDAY Friday morning brought dark skies and fierce winds. With heavy rains expected to start by late morning, shooters were called to the line at 8:30am in hopes of beating the rain

41

JAMES FLINT

for the only event scheduled for Friday. Except for the last few squads, Event 9 Caesar Guerini Preliminary Handicap was shot under dry skies. 117 shooters braved the high winds and low light conditions. Bruce Burton posted a 94 to win the Caesar Guerini Preliminary Handicap. Marc Cox (92) won runner-up, Billy Soper III (91) 3rd place, Kameran Duvall (92) Sub Junior, Kevin Polson (91) Sub Veteran, Lloyd Beecraft (91) Veteran, and Brooke Barnett (90) Lady I.

SATURDAY Saturday morning brought sunny skies and light winds after a night of heavy rain and strong winds.

Fortunately, there was no damage or flooding to be found at the homegrounds.

It turned out to be a beautiful day to shoot the Dixie Grand Singles Championship. 187 shooters entered the event. At the end of the day, Doug Damron and Donald Neilson posted the day’s high score of 198. After a one round shoot-off, Doug Damron was crowned the Dixie Grand Singles Champion and Donald Neilson took the Sub Veteran champion. Other winners were Nathan Snyder (197) runnerup, Herbert Lewis (196) AAA, Rick Manning (196) AA, Mark Cox (196) TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

SHOOTREPORT

42

A, Caleb Delp (197) Junior, Sheldon Hostetter (197) Senior Veteran.

SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

DOUGLAS DAMRON WV 198 NATHAN SNYDER NC 197 HERBERT LEWIS KY 196 RICK MANNING FL 196 MARK COX NC 196 CHRISTOPHER MALONE NC 196 MARTIN GAWRON NY 193 ANTHONY BROWDER TN 185 BROOKE BARNETT TN 196 DEBORAH OHYE NEILSON PA 196 KAMERAN DUVALL MI 194 CALEB DELP VA 197 RYAN BUCHER VA 196 DONALD NEILSON PA 198 BARRY TURNER AP 196 SHELDON HOSTETTER PA 197 BOBBY BILBREY KY 191

SUNDAY Sunday was the Winchester Ammunition Handicap and it was another beautiful day. Christopher “Gage” Malone (96) beat Lloyd Beecraft (96) in a shoot-off to become the Dixie Grand Handicap Champion. Lloyd Beecraft became the Veteran champion. Kevin Polson (95) won his shoot-off against Martin Gawron (95) to earn Sub Veteran champion. Places were won

HANDICAP CHAMPSHIP CH RU 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

CHRISTOPHER MALONE NC 96 RANDY PARSON PA 93 RANDY RAIFORD VA 92 DAVID GONYEAU NY 91 ROBERT HOYT FL 91 MEGAN SMITH NC 90 ROBERT ROGAN TN 90 MELANIE FRERICHS NE 94 CASSIE HAMMOND MD 93 ETHAN FERRIS WV 92 JAMES MILES GA 93 ETHAN LEDFORD GA 93 KEVIN POLSON KY 95 LLOYD BEECRAFT ON 96 DAVID SNYDER PA 93 BOBBY BILBREY KY 84

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

by Randy Parson (93) runner-up, Randy Raiford (92) 3rd place, David Gonyeau (91) 4th place, Robert Hoyt (91) 5th place, Megan Smith (90) 6th place, Robert Rogan (90) 7th place, Urban Womer (90) 8th place, Ryan

KEVIN POLSON

DOUG DAMRON

Bucher (90) 9th place, Daniel Tollison (90) 10th place.

HIGH ALL AROUND & HIGH OVER ALL Kevin Polson won the High All Around and the High Over All with scores of 387x400 and 949x1000.

Kevin accumulated an impressive nine trophies at the 2022 Dixie Grand. Seven other shooters won both the HAA and the HOA—Alfred Wright (378, 919) AA Class, Brooke Barnett (380, 910) Lady I, Ronald Wallace (352, 842) D Class, Sheldon CHRISTOPHER "GAGE" MALONE

Hostetter (375, 901) Senior Veteran, Carl Chadwell (381, 923) Sub Veteran, Lloyd Beecraft (379, 938) Veteran, Bobby Bilbrey (337, 696) Chair.

The Dixie Grand is a must to put on your 2023 schedule. The warm fall weather and southern hospitality makes for a perfect end to the summer. Even when you are not shooting, you can sit in a rocking chair on the front porch and enjoy the view of the Blue Ridge Foothills. Or plan to spend a few extra days exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore Castle, Chimney Rock State Park, Lake Lure (where much of the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed) and Asheville, NC. There are lots of great restaurants, shopping, and scenery to enjoy in the mountains of North Carolina. n

HIGH ALL AROUND CH AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

KEVIN POLSON KY 387 HERBERT LEWIS KY 372 ALFRED WRIGHT TX 378 JOE NALLEY NC 373 CHRISTOPHER MALONE NC 370 MARTIN GAWRON NY 370 RONALD WALLACE ON 352 BROOKE BARNETT TN 380 DEBORAH OHYE NEILSON PA 372 ETHAN FERRIS WV 371 JACKSON FOX MI 372 RYAN BUCHER VA 378 CARL CHADWELL MI 381 LLOYD BEECRAFT ON 379 SHELDON HOSTETTER PA 375 BOBBY BILBREY KY 337

HIGH OVER ALL CH AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET CHAIR

KEVIN POLSON KY 949 D. ISNER WV 906 ALFRED WRIGHT TX 919 MEGAN SMITH NC 881 SCOTT SOMERO FL 891 TIP WRIGHT VA 846 RONALD WALLACE ON 842 BROOKE BARNETT TN 910 CASSIE HAMMOND MD 894 MASON BARTLOW IL 896 CHRISTOPHER MALONE NC 885 ETHAN LEDFORD GA 893 CARL CHADWELL MI 923 LLOYD BEECRAFT ON 938 SHELDON HOSTETTER PA 901 BOBBY BILBREY KY 696

WISHING EVERYONE A BLESSED YEAR AND SAFE TRAVELS

STOCKOPTIONS

44

GRIP PLUS

BY JACQUE SNELLENBERGER Most father-daughter stories don’t end with a technological improvement for American Trapshooters, but this one does.

I wanted to meet Sai Chiang after hearing my friends, Carl Chadwell and Steve Ebsen, talking about the Chiang’s Grip Plus (GPS) Stock.

First, a little backstory that you might not have known. After becoming a Marine and serving in Vietnam, Chiang went on to become a competitive shotgun shooter himself for many years. He competed in the Skeet World Cup seven times, Asian Championships four times, and South East Asian Championships as well and garnered his share of medals. So, being an Olympic shooter definitely gives him legitimate credibility to start.

He owned a photography lab business, while he started coaching his daughter, Ali. Ali had aspirations of becoming an Olympian like her dad and she competed in the 2007 Pan American Games. As a junior shooter, she was 3rd in the World Cup and on the US Skeet Team. Chiang said, “I taught my children skeet shooting to have the chance to participate, learn about themselves and spend quality time together.” And spend time together they did, as Chiang went with his TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

daughter helping to train and coach not only her but others as well. It was being with her and her teammates that he got an idea!

Up to this point, the only custom fit stocks available were from Europe. Chiang understood the value of this stock, but also realized that American shooters had different requirements with skeet, trap and sporting clays. In 2001, he set about designing one involving the increase of air volume, inspired by CNC systems and how they work. Initially, the stock was designed for Olympians so they could recover fast with no recoil.

Through trial and error and time, every iteration of the design improved.

The pressure on hands and arms to hold the stock itself is alleviated with the thumb hole, not to mention less muzzle jump. On a conventional stock the bolt is in the back, but on Chiang’s it’s in the front, where it’s parallel to the rib, which increases the pressure of the stock to the cheek enabling the shooter to keep his or her head up

N EW

STOCKOPTIONS

Revel ColorMag Package

Featuring our exclusive ColorMag premium lenses in one complete package: • ColorMag provides unbelievable target contrast and eyes level. The recoil spreads out between hand, cheek, and shoulder. In addition, it enables shooters to have their hand lower than on a conventional stock. For many, this allows for more comfort. There are 7 sizes total-small, medium, and large-but they also come with half sizes to accommodate 99% of all the shooters.

Sai and his team believe, “There isn’t a stock out there that has as many adjustments as the GPS.” The GPS mechanism is a patented design exclusive to GPS stocks only.

The Grip Plus Stock is high tech from start to finish! Technology at its finest coming through to you on the trapline! n

• Choose from three different frame styles • Includes ColorMag Lite-Medium, Medium and Dark lenses with shatter-proof Polycarbonate, prescription or non-prescription lenses • Only at Decot Hy-Wyd

1-800-528-1901 | decot.com TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

2022 AUTUMN GRAND

BY SEAN HAWLEY

The 2022 Autumn Grand was again held at the Tucson Trap and Skeet Club November 2nd through the 13th. It was the 19th annual such tournament and though the format has changed over the years the Autumn Grand remains a favorite for shooters who like to escape the cold weather of the northern states and Canadian Provinces. As has been the case for several years, the first five days were actually a separate shoot called the Pre Autumn Grand. The actual Autumn Grand started on Tuesday, November 7th.

PRE AUTUMN GRAND The Gun Club is located off Old Ajo Highway and so it was natural to name the first day’s events after the historic old roadway. Event 1 Old Ajo Highway Singles saw four shooters break 100 straights.

Anna Rawe (MO), Mark Isner (WV), Art Peyton (AB) and Sean

Hawley used their perfectos to win trophies in Lady I, Sub Veteran, Veteran and AAA class.

The second event of the day was the OAH Handicap and there were four shooters at the top of the leaderboard with scores of 95 at the end of the day. Thomas Krolick (AZ), Nels Johnson (NE) and Nick Digesualdo (CO) were all tied up

in the Sub Veteran category with their 95s, but after one overtime round of 25 straight Digesualdo came out on top.

Sean Hawley was the 27-yard winner with the same score.

In the final event of the day, the OAH Doubles Craig Hart (UT) and Bruce Davis (KS) posted the top scores of 96. Hart took

home the Veteran trophy, while Davis was the class AAA champion.

THURSDAY The Premier Singles got things started on day number two and there were three shooters who were able to break all the program targets. Sandra Jo Jack (WI),David Womack (CA) and Joe Sudbury (UT) used their 100 straights to collect trophies in Lady II, Veteran and Senior Veteran categories.

In the Flagstaff Handicap

SHOOTREPORT

48

MIKE GRADY

ELI WALKER

SEAN HAWLEY

Nick Digesualdo lapped the field with his 98 to win the Sub Veteran category. Dan Alspach (MO) was the next highest score on the board with 92 to win the Senior Veteran trophy.

The Double Adobe Doubles finished off day two and Dennis Johnson of South Dakota had the top score with 95 to win Sub Veteran. Mike Grady (NM), Mark Isner and Anna Rawe were all one target behind to earn trophies in AAA, AA and Lady I.

PRE-AUTUMN GRAND SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP

PRE-AUTUMN GRAND DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP

PRE-AUTUMN GRAND HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP

CH ART PEYTON RU SEAN HAWLEY AAA BRET PREESHL AA MIKE WILLIAMS A DALE FISHER B SANDY DIGESUALDO C GENE MCDANELD D ALAN SPANGLER LD1 ANNA RAWE LD2 SUE HOPPER SUB JR LIANA CERRA JR COLTON PHILLIPS SUB VET JEFF TRAYER VET GERALD DEMULLING SR VET JOE SUDBURY

CH SEAN HAWLEY RU HARLAN CAMPBELL JR AAA JOHN MULLINS AA STAN BAKER A DON RACKLEY B CLAUDE BANYAI C LAWRENCE GILLUM D BILL AUSTIN LD1 ANNA RAWE LD2 MARY ALBY SUB JR LEXI HENNING JR COLE HENNING SUB VET KENT SAKAMOTO VET ELI WALKER SR VET RONALD MCCONNELL

CH ART PEYTON RU JEFF WEBB 19-21 FRED FRAZIER 22-24 TOM LEWIC 25-26 DONALD LABARGE 27 YARD BRITT DALTON LD1 KELLY PARASIDA LD2 CHERYL DEMULLING SUB JR WYATT DEBRIE JR COLE HENNING SUB VET DENNIS JOHNSON VET THOMAS RAY SR VET TIM ROBB

FRIDAY Event 7, the Class Doubles saw Mike Grady win the AAA trophy again, this time with the event leading score of 98. Art Peyton and Eli Walker (NV) knotted up with scores of 97 in the Veteran category, but Peyton posted a 50 straight to Walkers 49 in the carry over to earn the trophy.

In the Class Singles event, six shooters were able to break 100 straights. Lanny Heitz (WY) took some time away from his ice cream vending business to break his perfecto and ended up being the only non-category shooter in the bunch, winning AA class. Mark Isner bested Scott Abo (ID) in the carryover for the Sub Veteran trophy, while Art Peyton was the TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

AB UT MT IN MT CO TX AZ MO TX TX TN OK WI UT

200 199 198 197 198 196 194 186 196 197 166 199 199 197 198

lone 100 in Veteran. Jim Copsey (AZ) and Irv Effinger (CO) carried their 100s over and Copsey came out on top in the Senior Veteran category.

The last event of the day was the Event 9 Pre Handicap Championship. Jason Fujie of Hawaii took home the short yardage trophy with the top score of 95. Bruce Davis, Eli Walker and Bobby Hubble (IN) were the 27-yard, Veteran and Senior Veteran winners with scores of 94.

SATURDAY The Tucson Singles Championship saw 180 shooters take the line on a nice sunny day with just a bit of

UT KS WA CO TX MN IL ND MO NM IA IA ID NV AB

100 100 98 98 95 96 96 89 98 94 95 99 98 98 99

wind. Art Peyton was the outright winner with the only 200 straight on the board. Sean Hawley, Jeff Trayer (OK) and Colton Phillips (TN) all had scores of 199 to earn runner-up, Sub Veteran and Junior trophies. Anna Rawe and Sue Hopper (TX) were the Lady I and Lady II winners with scores of 196 and 197, while Liana Cerra posted 166 to win the Sub Junior trophy.

Gerald Demulling (WI) had a 197 and outlasted Jimmy Heller (AZ) in the shoot-off for the Veteran prize.

Joe Sudbury had the lone 198 in the Senior Veteran category.

SUNDAY There were two 100 straights in the

AB TX AZ WI WI UT OH WI NE IA SD CA AZ

99 98 95 96 98 98 98 97 96 99 96 99 98

Tucson Doubles Championship and they came from Harlan Campbell Jr. (KS) and Sean Hawley. Campbell elected to forgo the shoot-off, taking the runner-up trophy and handing the Champion’s award to Hawley. Ronald McConnell (AB) and Cole Henning (IA) each broke scores of 99 to win Senior Veteran and Junior trophies, while Cole’s sister Lexi Henning (IA) posted a 95 to lead the Sub Juniors. Anna Rawe was the Lady I winner with 98 and Mary Alby (NM) carded 94 to earn the Lady II trophy. Kent Sakamoto (ID) and Eli Walker both shot 98s to win the Sub Veteran and Veteran titles.

In the Tucson Handicap Championship RayThomas (CA) Cole Henning and Art Peyton each broke near perfect scores of 99.

Peyton posted a 24-25 in the

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50

overtime to win the championship, while Thomas was awarded the Veteran trophy and Henning the Junior. Jeff Webb (TX), Eli Walker, Britt Dalton (UT) and Harlan

RAY THOMAS AND ART PEYTON IN PRE GRAND HANDICAP CHAMP SHOOT-OFF

RAY THOMAS

HIGH ALL AROUND CH

ART PEYTON

AB 396

HIGH OVER ALL CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 JR SUB VET VET SR VET

BRUCE DAVIS MIKE GRADY NICK DIGESUALDO DENNIS JOHNSON DONALD LABARGE JASON FUJIE BILL SANDBORG JACOB OHONICH ANNA RAWE MARY ALBY JORDAN ZIERCHER SCOTT ABO ART PEYTON JIM COPSEY

KS NM CO SD WI HI CA OR MO NM MO ID AB AZ

948 947 936 937 929 907 862 847 937 921 933 940 944 942

Campbell broke 98s and after the shoot-off Webb was the runner-up with Dalton finishing as the Long Yardage winner. Kelly Parasida (OH) broke 98 to earn the Lady I title, while Cheryl Demulling (WI) posted a 97 in the Lady II category. Dennis Johnson broke 96 and won his shoot-off with three others for the Sub Veteran trophy and Tim Rob (AZ) was the high Senior Veteran with 98. Wyatt Debrie (NE) broke a 96 to earn the Sub Junior title.

HIGH ALL AROUND Art Peyton broke 97 in the Doubles Championship, and then won both the Singles and Handicap titles with scores of 200 and 99 enroute to his High All Around victory with the score of 396x400.

HIGH OVER ALL Bruce Davis broke 948x1000 to win TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

ART PEYTON

the Pre Autumn Grand High Over All by one target over runner-up Mike Grady. Art Peyton had 944 to secure the Veteran trophy and Jim Copsey came in with the score of 942 to win the Senior Veteran award.

MONDAY The day following the completion of the Pre Autumn Grand was a Grand Week preliminary day and there were two events on the schedule— a Singles and a Handicap. Event 13 was the Prelim Singles and there were twelve perfect scores recorded from the 182 shooters who participated. Richard Bullard (NV), Jesse Smith (AB), William Sowa (MT) and Jason Fujie converted their 100 straights into AAA, AA, A and B class trophies. Anna Rawe,

Dean Townsend (OH), Joe Sudbury and Grayson Stuart (UT) all broke 100s to win Lady 1, Sub Veteran, Senior Veteran and Junior trophies.

In the Prelim Handicap Chad Wiebe (CA) broke 99 from 20.5 yards to win the Short Yardage trophy.

Britt Dalton, Bernie Merchlewitz (SD) and Art Peyton broke scores of 98 to win Long Yardage, Sub Veteran and Veteran prizes. Gary Hill (AB) and Jordan Ziercher (MO) each shot scores of 96 to claim the Senior Veteran and Veteran trophies.

GRAND WEEK Twenty two of the 349 shooters broke 100 straight in the Event 15 Ben Avery Singles. Sean Hawley outlasted ten others in the carryover to claim the AAA class trophy, while Harlan Campbell Jr. had the lone 100 straight in class AA. Jeffrey Duren (TN) broke 100 and needed one overtime round to secure the A class trophy and Keith Baker had the lone perfecto in B class. Gene McDaneld (TX) broke 25 over Mary Alby after the two had tied with 99s in C class and David Schwartz (OH) won his carryover with Eugene Huck (KS) following 97 for D class.

In the Prescott Handicap Justin Debrie (NE) and Jordan Ziercher each broke scores of 98 to lead the

way. Debrie was the Long Yardage champion and Ziercher went home with the Junior trophy. Chad Wiebe broke a 97 to claim the Short Yardage trophy for the second day in a row and Ray Thomas broke the same score to win the Veteran trophy.

WEDNESDAY Ron Bliss (OK) and Frank Haynes (IL) each broke 99s in the Casa Grande Doubles. After the carryover for the Veteran trophy, Bliss was the winner. John Mullins (WA) broke 50 straight in his carryover with Richard Marshall Jr. (NE) and Eric Munson (MN) after the trio had deadlocked with scores of 98 in AAA class. Carl Chadwell (MI), Wyatt Debrie and Jacob Duren (TN) all broke 98 to win Sub Veteran, Sub Junior and Junior Gold trophies.

Tim Robb and Richard Marshall Jr. both broke 99s in the Pleasant Valley Handicap and were the Senior Veteran and Long Yardage winners for their efforts. Former ATA President Mike Herman (CO) was the Sub Veteran champion with a 98.

THURSDAY 393 shooters participated in the Tucson Singles Class

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JOHN MULLINS

Russell (CO) broke scores of 95 and 90 to earn the C and D class awards.

FRIDAY

Championships and Sean Hawley needed seven overtime rounds to claim the class AAA trophy following a 100 straight. Logan Engelman (CA) broke a 100 and then another 25 in overtime to win the AA class award, while Charles Long (TX) broke 99 and then 125 in the carry over to secure the A class trophy. Gary Nichols (OK) and Jorge Ragde (CA) broke scores of 99 and 98 to win the B and C classes, while Dominica Hotchkiss (CA) broke 98 and was the D class champion.

John Mullins broke the lone 100 straight in the Doubles Class Championship to earn the AAA class trophy. Lanny Heitz put a 98 on the board and then needed an additional 49 to outlast Brad Johnson (AB) for the top spot in AA class. Verne Higgs (ON) carded 97 to win A class and Hwa Lee Joon (BC) broke 94 to take home the B class trophy. Rod Hymas (AB) and Lillian WYATT DEBRIE AND CHRIS VENDEL

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

There were 360 shooters vying for the Autumn Grand Doubles Championship on Friday morning and it was going to take a 100 straight to get it done. In the end there were two perfect scores­— Wyatt Debrie and Chris Vendel (PA).

In the shoot-off Debrie let one get away and Vendel closed the door with a perfect 20 straight in the overtime round to become the 2022 champion. Debrie fell back to Sub Junior where he won by eight targets. Mike Grady, John Mullins

AUTUMN GRAND DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU AAA AA C B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET

CHRIS VENDEL MIKE GRADY JOHN MULLINS TYLER BUCHANAN BRIAN CORNEHL TYLER MARSHALL DAVE MANSELL GENE MCDANELD KATIE JONES LISA SALT WYATT DEBRIE CASEN CALKINS HUNTER SEYMORE KENT SAKAMOTO DONALD LABARGE JOHN KELLY

PA 100 NM 99 WA 99 WI 98 WA 97 NE 95 WI 96 TX 92 MB 95 BC 95 NE 100 NM 99 CA 98 ID 99 WI 99 WY 97

and Zach Nannini (MO) all broke scores of 99 and shot off for the runner-up trophy. Grady broke 19-20 in the overtime to win, while Mullins and Nannini finished as AAA and AAA R/U. Katie Jones (MB) and Lisa Salt (BC) both broke 95s to win the Lady I and Lady II trophies, while Casen Calkins (NM) and Hunter Seymore (CA) broke 99 and 98 to capture the Junior and Junior Gold trophies. Kent Sakamoto and Donald Labarge each posted 99s to win the Sub Veteran and Veteran categories, while John Kelly (WY) outlasted two others with 97 to win Senior Veteran.

In the Caesar Guerini Preliminary Handicap Scott Abo led the way with his lone 99 to win the Champion trophy. David Landwerlen (AZ), Britt Dalton and Chris Vendel all had 98s for runnerup through 4th in that order. Justin Slater (PA) was tied with Bill Mullins (OR) and Eric Munson with scores of 97 for the 5th and final place. Following a 24 in the shootoff Slater was the winner. Kristeen Duren (TN) and Lisa Salt were the Lady I and Lady II winners with scores of 95, while Wyatt Debrie had the same score to win the Sub Junior trophy. Carl Chadwell broke 97, Walter Allen (AZ) had 98 and

AUTUMN GRAND SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET

DAVID WOMACK JULES AZZI SCOTT OBENCHAIN GREG JOHNSON DONALD LABARGE CHARLES SCHWAB GREGORY SPICZKA RACHEL STEPHENS SOPHIE NOSTROM PAM WRIGHT WYATT DEBRIE JORDAN ZIERCHER HUNTER SEYMORE JOHN EVICK THOMAS FESTER TIM ROBB

CA CA CO SD WI KS AZ CA AZ UT NE MO CA OH IL AZ

200 200 199 199 199 198 195 194 199 198 200 200 198 199 200 200

David Wickman (IA) had 95 to win the the Sub Veteran, Veteran and Senior Veteran categories.

SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP David Womack of California was one of thirteen shooters that broke all 200 in the Autumn Grand Singles Championship and he was the only one who went 75 straight in the shoot-off to win this year’s title.

Jules Azzi (CA) was the only non category 200 straight and ended up as the runner-up after all of the category shifting happened. AAA class went to Scott Obenchain with 199 plus an additional 50 straight.

AA class was won by Greg Johnson (SD) with 199 and the A class winner was Donald Labarge with the same score. Charles Schwab (KS) was the outright B class winner with 198, while Gregory Spiczka (AZ) and Rachel Stephens (CA) were the C and D class winners with scores of 195 and 194. Sophie Nostrom (AZ) and Pam Wright (UT) broke 199 and 198 to win the Lady I and Lady II championships, while Wyatt Debrie broke 200 to lead the way for the Sub Juniors. Six Junior shooters—Leo Brand (MN), Casen Calkins, Cole Henning, Tyler Honnold (TN), Corey Walker (CA) and Jordan Ziercher all broke 200 straight in the event. Ziercher broke DAVID WOMACK

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50 straight in the shoot-off to win the title. Hunter Seymore was the Junior Gold champion with the score of 198. John Evick (OH) was the Sub Veteran champion with 199 and a coin flip over Mike Herman and Carl Chadwell. Thomas Fester (IL) and Tim Robb were the Veteran and Senior Veteran winners with perfect scores.

HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP Cole Henning and Elaina McCarthy (OH) led the field of 409 shooters with scores of 99 in this year’s Handicap Championship. They knotted up again in the first shoot off round with 24s. In the second

AUTUMN GRAND HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP CH RU 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET

COLE HENNING BRAD JOHNSON SCOTT OBENCHAIN BRITT DALTON SEAN HAWLEY PATRICK MCCARTHY BILL MULLINS ELAINA MCCARTHY JACKIE GARRIGUS ORION COOPER CHET ORICK MITCHELL PIERSON CARL CHADWELL ART PEYTON TIM ROBB

IA AB CO UT UT OH OR OH MT NV AR NE MI AB AZ

99 98 98 97 97 96 96 99 92 95 96 98 98 96 96

HIGH ALL AROUND CH AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET

COLE HENNING SCOTT OBENCHAIN JOHN KELLY DONALD LABARGE JR LONG TAD NICHOLSON RANDY WEGERSKI ELAINA MCCARTHY LISA SALT WYATT DEBRIE LEO BRAND HUNTER SEYMORE CARL CHADWELL DAVID WOMACK TIM ROBB

IA CO WY WI TX OK AZ OH BC NE MN CA MI CA AZ

HIGH OVER ALL 396 394 388 386 378 376 367 383 377 391 390 388 393 389 389

round Henning posted another 24 and McCarthy finished with 22, giving Henning the title. McCarthy ended up as the Lady I champion.

CH AAA AA A B C D LD1 LD2 SUB JR JR JR GOLD SUB VET VET SR VET

COLE HENNING CHRIS VENDEL CORY DALTON VERNE HIGGS JARRETT CARLISLE TAD NICHOLSON LILLIAN RUSSELL ELAINA MCCARTHY MARY ALBY WYATT DEBRIE GRAYSON STUART JACOB DUREN CARL CHADWELL ART PEYTON TIM ROBB

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Brad Johnson and Scott Obenchain were tied with 98s and shot off for the runner-up and third place spots.

Johnson broke a 24 and finished as the 2nd place finisher. Sean Hawley and Britt Dalton had 97s and flipped a coin for the 4th and 5th places. Dalton won the flip. Elaina’s dad Patrick McCarthy (OH) won his shoot-off with Bill Mullins and Tad Nicholson (OK) for the 6th place trophy. Mullins ended as the 7th and final place winner. Jackie Garrigus (MT) was the Lady II winner with 92 and Orion Cooper (NV) carted off the Sub Junior trophy with 95. Carl Chadwell continued his good week of shooting by breaking 98 and winning the Sub Veteran award. Art Peyton and Tim Robb each broke 96 to win the Veteran and Senior Veteran categories.

HAA AND HOA Cole Henning was the High All Around and the High Over All Champion with scores of 396x400 and 1079x1100. In the HAA he had a two target lead over AAA class winner Scott Obenchain and in the HOA Henning had a six bird lead over AAA winner Chris Vendel.

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NEW WOMEN’S LEAGUE

FIRST OF ITS KIND

IN HISTORY STORY BY RAYELYNN BRANDL

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS HOLGUIN

On an early September morning in Kalispell, Montana, 70 women from across the state gathered for the first annual Montana State Women’s Trap League Fun Shoot at the home of Xcel Shooting Sports and Passionate Outlaws. The event was the culmination of a summer spent shooting trap league at one’s local club, and an opportunity to connect with the other women's league shooters from across the state.

Laughter rang out as the women picked a colored shotgun shell, the trapshooting version of a sorting hat, to determine the mix up of squads and shooting order. Overheard at the registration table were comments like, “Oh. So, we aren’t just shooting with our team?” Erin, a member of the Kalispell team, sponsor and a volunteer for the day, smiled and explained that squads were being formed via shotgun shell sorting in order to ensure that women are able to meet and get to know one another. Amy Washtak, a new shooter from Three Forks, Montana laughed out loud exclaiming, “I suppose that is good. I just hope I don’t embarrass myself. I am brand new to this whole thing. I have never competed and it’s nerve racking enough to shoot on league nights.” Words of encouragement ring from several women surrounding her. “We are all in the same boat. This is my first time too. This is just for fun. No pressure. You will do awesome.”

A LOT OF FIRSTS AND A SHOOT-OFF In truth, this is the first fun shoot and competition for most of the women shooting here. During the opening ceremony it was shared that women who had shot a 24.5 average were present as well as those that shot a single digit TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

average (these averages based on 25 birds). The goal of the day was fun, inspiration and no judgment.

Women in attendance represented ages from Libby shooter, Matilda Newton, 12 years old, to 70 plus.

The first shots fired at the event are to determine the winner of Class A. Most of the women attending have never witnessed, let

alone participated in a shoot-off, so the crowd was curious and shared the nervous energy of the two shooters. Tracy Kienitz, Kalispell Club Captain, organized the scorekeeping and referee, gave directions to the shooters, and turned to address the crowd. “Thank you to our shooters, Sherry Stearns and Tressa Doughty. I know that many

MATILDA NEWTON

of you have never seen a shoot-off before, so we thought this would be a great start to our event. It gives us the opportunity to demonstrate what is possible. Both these women are incredible shooters, as evidenced by their score of 196 out of 200. I want you to know that both these women have worked hard and put in the practice to

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FORTHELADIES

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SHERRY STEARNS AND TRESSA DOUGHTY

stand on this line today. Like many of you, they also started out breaking just a few targets out of 25, now they are breaking 100 straights!”

The shoot-off proceeded between Sherry Stearns and Tressa Doughty. The first lost target was felt by the crowd and the shooters as the pair raced through 25 targets to determine the winner. The class A buckle was taken home by Tressa Doughty with a perfect 25 out of 25. Sherry and Tressa hugged each other and posed for a picture, each beaming with pride.

FOR LADIES ONLY In total, the league hosted 132 women, who shot 200 targets at their home clubs between June and August. Participating clubs included Butte, Great Falls, Havre, Helena, Libby, Missoula, and Kalispell. Clubs had from five to fifty shooters participate in their leagues. Thirtyone of these women claimed new shooter status, meaning that they had never participated in a league or other trapshooting competition.

Of the experienced shooters, twelve were shooters who have shot within an Amateur Trapshooting TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

2022. In a triumph for youth shooting, many of the women who did register targets in 2022 were enrolled through the youth shooting sports program AIM. That program, like the women’s league, is hosted by clubs throughout the state in an effort to encourage new shooters to enter the sport.

Annette Reinhart, an experienced ATA shooter described her first experiences shooting in competition. “There were no women shooters. I was the only one and I shot with my brother, who made sure that I was comfortable and not taking any grief from the OPENING CEREMONY

Association (ATA) event.

For trapshooting, ATA events are the pinnacle of competition for most shooters, unless one rises into the professional realm of shooting and/or Olympic competition. Most of the women who had experience with ATA shoots were the club liaisons and team captains for the league. While women have made significant gains in the ATA and more women are now participating in the sport throughout the country, the sport remains dominated by men. As a reference, there were 79 women who registered (shot ATA) targets in the state of Montana in

guys. It was hard sometimes because you compare yourself to the guys and think I am not any good at this, so I think leagues like this are important to help women learn and feel comfortable. I love the camaraderie and encouragement too!”

TRIUMPH, CONFIDENCE AND A FLURRY Stories of moral victories spread throughout the day as the shooters got to know each other and shared their league experiences. Women reflected that their goal to break five out of five on one post was achieved or breaking into the double-digits was an accomplishment. Many women related that this year was their first experience with shouldering a shotgun and that alone was empowering. Still, others related that they finally felt a sense of belonging and that they felt comfortable coming to the club without their male counterpart, that finally their home club was truly their own.

As the day progressed these women shot a variety of different

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FORTHELADIES

60

CLUB CAPTAINS

shooting games paired with women from other clubs. Some that had been nervous about participating in the day’s events walked away with smiles on their faces as they won a game…confidence gained.

Inspiration evident.

To finish out the day, Tracy challenged the shooters to participate in a team flurry competition, the beginning of an annual tradition. Each club selected three members to shoot a round of flurry, which is 25 rapid-paced targets thrown without notice. Each team of three shooters takes aim and attempts to break as many

targets as possible during the flurry.

The most often discussed strategy was “Don’t think, just Shoot.”

Laughter abounded as teams took the line and suddenly the goal to bring home the trophy inspired mild cajoling between teams. The Kalispell team captured the trophy, which will stay on site at Tracy’s shop. The competition between the clubs is now on, and many teams left the line discussing how to practice flurry at home in order to be ready for next year.

MAYA FRANCHI

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

SISTERHOOD A statewide league takes effort and many helping hands, including local team captains, numerous sponsors, a clear mission and a leader. Tracy Kienitz is the owner of Passionate Outlaws. Her vision, creativity and energy fueled the entire project. She holds herself like a mama bear, protective, encouraging, fiercely determined, and proud. The day of the shoot she was filled with joy, but also on high alert, making sure that all things ran smoothly and that her dream for an entire day dedicated to women shooters was inspiring for all participants. When asked why she started the league, why invest energy, money and time in such an event, Tracy commented, “I am simply passionate about women and shooting sports. I love selling women proper equipment, so they don’t get beat up by their shotgun, and they have the right tools to improve their performance.

But my biggest joy is watching the women go from being nervous about a shotgun, to smiling when they hit their first target or run their first 25 straight. I simply love the tribe of shotgun sisters and will donate as much time, energy and resources as possible to help as

many women succeed and find joy while shooting.”

Tracy’s passion shows up loud and clear in the stated mission of the Montana State Women’s League. The mission declares; “to create a community of women who support, encourage, and inspire each other while taking part in the shooting sports. We accomplish this mission by collaborating with trap clubs across the State of Montana to support and implement Women’s Shooting Leagues.” Indeed, those who participated in the first year of this league would check the box as “mission accomplished.”

Leadership comes in many forms and the captains at each club helped to recruit shooters, navigate scoring, and ensure inclusion. Tracy doesn’t take all the credit for the league and openly shares that its success lies with the amazing club captains who helped launch this league; Sherry Stearns, Kashia Herring, Rayelynn Brandl, Dorian Boling, Emi Smith, and Janice Petritz. Tracy also managed the Kalispell team. Many of the club captains implemented theme nights, potlucks and really did a great job creating a fun atmosphere for a girl’s night out.

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HELENA TEAM

“I love being the captain for our club because I get to help new shooters and those ladies that are struggling. Seeing joy in their eyes when they shoot well makes all the effort worth it!”

Sherry Stearns, Great Falls Club Captain

LOTS OF SUPPORT FOR THE LADIES Thanks to more than 30 sponsors, the shooters were fed, their ammo was paid for along with clays, and several thousands of dollars in prizes were given away. Many of

GREAT FALLS THEME NIGHT

the sponsors were business owners but several were individuals who donated straight from the heart at the opportunity to support this league.

Montana Silversmith buckles were awarded to the leagues class winners:

MONTANA STATE WOMEN'S TRAP LEAGUE CLASS A CLASS B CLASS C CLASS D NEW JUNIOR

TRESSA DOUGHTY BOO LEVEQUE BROOKLYN LORENZ CELIA ISON JENNA REITZ SAVANNAH LUCAS

Many other women won cash prizes for hitting 25 straights and other league challenges.

When the day came to an end, the Montana State Women’s Trap League Facebook page had immediate posts from excited attendees, club captains’ phones blew up with excitement, sponsors immediately recommitted for next year’s opportunity to sponsor. As this article was being written, club captains have reported receiving numerous inquiries asking for information to join their leagues, TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

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new clubs are asking to get involved next year and even out of state inquiries have come in asking how to start such a league. n To find out more about the league and/or find a host club in Montana, become a club captain and join the Montana State Women’s Trap League, start a league in your state, or sponsor this league please contact Tracy Kientz by visiting: womenshootingsports.com

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ZACH NANNINI’S TRAP TALK Recently, I was asked to be a guest on Zach Nannini’s Podcast Trap Talk. Now normally I find myself being a terrible public speaker, and honestly, I still do. However I know Zach and his co-host Richard Marshall, Jr. very well and so it was very easy to do what we do just about every time we get together and that is to talk about trapshooting. Anyway I asked Zach if I could use part of the transcript from the podcast, clean up some of my fumbled words, and use it here in the magazine. If you find it interesting you can watch the full show on YouTube at Trap Talk. As of this writing there are nine episodes with different guests including myself, Richard Marshall, Jr., Jason Nash, Keith Ditto, Joe Charnigo, Patrick Lamont and Britt Dalton. I think you will enjoy and probably learn something about the different ways these shooters approach the problems that we face as shooters trying to succeed in our sport.

ZACH NANNINI: Welcome to another episode of Trap Talk. Today we are very honored to have our guest, Sean Hawley from Utah. Also, we have our co-host Richard Marshall, Jr. Here with us. Welcome to the show everyone.

SEAN HAWLEY: Hi. Good to be here, Zach. Thank you.

RICHARD MARSHALL, JR: How you doing everybody?

ZACH: It’s a good day to be here, for sure. In introducing Sean, obviously Ricky, you have some, some great information for us about our speaker today.

RICKY: Yeah. Um, Sean is a 28-time All-American team member.

ZACH: Sean, you can correct us if we’re wrong on anything.

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

SEAN: It’s something like that. It’s so long ago, I can’t remember. So, hey, as I get older, it’s harder and harder to remember some of this stuff.

RICKY: Well, Sean’s been an All Around Average Award winner, I think 25 to 28 times, somewhere in there. It seemed like every year you’d look at the trap field and it would be Sean Hawley, Sean Hawley, Sean Hawley. Which is a good thing. You know, I’ve competed against Sean since I started shooting and we’ve shot together a little bit at times. But Sean is one of the legends in trap shooting.

ZACH: For sure. And for any of our listeners that don’t know what an All-Around Average Award is, it’s a composite of the highest average shooters in the whole country. Sean was the leader in the Doubles average. Now, when you were the leader in the Doubles average,

ZACH NANNINI

SEAN HAWLEY

RICHARD MARSHALL JR

Sean, what was that? Was that a 99.67 or what was that, that you shot?

you get started and what does it take to be a great shooter in your mind?

SEAN: 99.67 in 2003, I believe. So yeah, I missed six targets for the year on 1800 targets.

SEAN: Well, how I got started is kind of funny because I don’t come from a trap shooting family or a trap shooting background. And what happened was, my uncle, my mom’s brother, decided, hey, it might be fun to take the nephew. And he always called me nephew and I always called him uncle. It was actually Uncle Ron, but he always called me nephew. So, I called him uncle.

Anyway, he thought it would be fun to take the kid out to the trap range.

He bought me a little H&R 20 gauge and off to the trap range we went.

Well, that little H&R 20 gauge just literally beat the tar out of me. Well I came home black, blue and bloody and my mom said to uncle, oh my God, what did you do to my kid?

And I was like, oh my God, when can we go again? So, basically, you

ZACH: Yeah, that’s pretty impressive. So, definitely Sean is known as one of the greatest shotgun pointers of all time in trap for sure and in Doubles specifically.

You know, being a ring recipient at the Grand American and also a member of the ATA Hall of Fame, it’s a pleasure to pick your brain today, Sean.

SEAN: Oh, absolutely Zach.

Anything I can do to help.

ZACH: So, one of the questions that we’ve had some feedback from listeners on and what we want to hear from you is, kind of how did

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know, I was hooked. I mean, I was hooked from day one and I just begged and pleaded to be able to shoot more. My uncle never really shot too much, but he always followed my shooting and mom was the one that really kind of took me to all the places and that sort of thing. So, as far as what does it take to be a great trap shooter? I think Rick, you’d probably agree with this, you’ve got to have the desire to be a great trap shooter. And just like anything else in life, you get out of trap shooting what you put into it.

The harder you work, the more effort you put in, the better your results are going to be in the long term. I think part of what makes it hard for people, and especially in today’s day and age where everything is the right now kind of deal, right? I mean, in everything we seem to need to have success right now. My success didn’t come right away. It took a little bit of time for me to get my feet under myself and build the confidence. And so, I had a long-term plan. You know, it was start here, move to here, go to here, and hopefully end up there. So it was, it was a long-term plan, and it was definitely a thought-out process.

RICKY: Now, Sean, I’ve got a question for you. So, did you have goals? That’s the biggest thing I see.

You know, people don’t have the goals now like we had growing up.

SEAN: Well, to me, goal setting is really important, and I did that kind of stuff even as a Junior and a Sub Junior. It was really interesting, my mom worked for a group of psychiatrists, and I know you’ve probably heard this story, right? But it’s kind of a neat story and I’ll give you the short version. Mom worked for a group of psychiatrists, and they were all very interested in golf and so on. So, I would get, you know, some of these little tidbits

along the way about how they thought maybe I should approach the trap shooting game. What were my goals? Well, the number one goal when I first started out was that I wanted to make the 27-yard line and I wanted to be in AA class.

Now, of course, we have AAA but back then it was just AA. So yeah, I wanted to make the 27-yard line, and then, well, I wanted to be AA in Doubles too. And so, then I became a AA 27 AA shooter and the goals needed to change. Maybe I could make the State Team, you know, so if I go to this shoot and that shoot and the other shoot, then maybe I can shoot well enough and have high enough numbers where I can make the State Team. Then it was the All-American team. And so, you know, it’s a, it’s kind of a progression, right? You start out at your local club, and you want to win the club championship, which is great for new shooters. That’s a wonderful place to start. And I did that and then I started shooting ATA targets, and my goals kind of expanded and kind of went a little bit higher. Anyway, goal setting is

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very important and I think that shooters who are able to, set some, some short-term, mid-term and long-term goals, are going to be way ahead of the learning curve in this game.

So, you run a gun club, the Vernal, Rod and Gun Club in Vernal, Utah, one of the best places to shoot, in my opinion. Well, I might be a little biased because I did break the 400x400 at your club.

RICKY: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what I’ve seen, when I teach people. That’s what I always tell them. And they ask,” You have goals?” and I tell them, you have to have goals.

SEAN: Yes, you did.

SEAN: I write them down every year.

RICKY: I used to always write them down. Now they’re just, you know, locked in the time bank. They are usually the same yearly stuff. You know, we all know, you always want to win a ring at the Grand and yeah, sometimes it happens, sometimes It don’t. More times it doesn’t. But, you know, we’ve both been there a lot. I think the newer shooters or even, you know, beginning shooters need to understand that you don’t get in, you get out what you put in. And if you don’t put in, you don’t get out.

RICKY: Sean sets one of the best targets in the country. They’re to the stake, and people always go, well, how can you break targets there? They’re, the background’s kind of crappy.

SEAN: Oh, it is kind of crappy.

RICKY: It is, but we have a great time, you throw good targets and it’s a good atmosphere. So, you know, going into that area, how do you feel, you know, you’re an AllAmerican shooter and you are a Hall of Fame member, State Hall of Fame also. But how do you feel as a gun club manager, about what shooters need to do to put in the game?

SEAN: Well, here’s what I tell the new shooters that come to our club TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

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all the time. They ask when’s your next shoot? Well, we only have two or three shoots a year and that is because we are weather challenged. We only have a few months where folks really can get out and shoot without having to wear six layers of clothing. So, I tell them to travel. Go to this club or that club, go to Tucson, go to Vegas, go to go to the Grand. And they will say well, gosh, that’s a long way to go. Well, yeah, it is. But you know, what you’re going to get out of that is a different background, a different target set, a different intensity or pressure and those things are only going to help you.

The problem is that maybe they shoot really well here and they have an expectation, you know? Hey, I shoot really well in Vernal. And then they take that expectation to another place that they’ve never TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

shot before, and it may be completely different. And they face plant or they don’t shoot real well

the first time they go. “I’m never going back!”. Well, we’ve all said that. But you know, you’ve got to just keep knocking on the door until you break it open. And, once you break it open, once you’ve proven to yourself that you can do something, you can always do it.

And that’s another thing that I think is a mindset situation in trap shooting. If you’ve done it once, if you broke 25 one time, just once, now you can do it again. Before you’ve broken that 25, you thought you could. But thinking and knowing are vastly different things.

So, once you’ve done it and however it happens, whether it be a 25 or a 100 or a 200, once you’ve done it one time, you know in your heart that you can do it. There’s a big difference between knowing and thinking. So,I try to tell these people that, and some of them get it, and some of them don’t. We’ll see what happens, you know? But definitely traveling around and going and seeing and experiencing different places with different pressures, it can’t be a bad thing.

ZACH: Yeah. Well, I agree with that.

One thing I wanted to piggyback on, you said hard work and dedication for a very long amount of time. When you were training back then, obviously that was different from your training regimen now. What was training like then, and what’s training like now? You know, obviously for guys that are moving up the ladder, were there drills that you were doing, were there different things that you worked on that you said, this is why I got really good?

SEAN: Yes, absolutely. You know, I had a coach when I was kid who was the range manager at Redlands Trap and Skeet Range in Southern California. His name was Rick Courtwright. A really, really smart guy and very good with the fundamentals of trap shooting. He wasn’t a super great shot, you know, but really could tell a kid how to do the fundamentals. I think, and I’m sure you do too, Ricky, when you’re dealing with brand new shooters, if they don’t have solid fundamentals, it’s going to make it tough down the road. So that was one thing that Rick was really good about with me

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when I first started. The fundamentals and some of the drills that he had me do which were great because my mom didn’t have a lot of money. She was a single parent ,so I was only able to shoot a small amount as a kid, maybe once a week. If I went to a shoot, that was the practice for that week. And then the next week I could go shoot 50 Singles, 50 Handicap and later on, 50 Doubles. So, what Rick told me, was to go home and do a hundred gun lifts per night. And I’m like, okay, what’s a gun lift? So, I went home, and I did them. He said that if I did them religiously, I would improve.

So, I did. It’s boring, right? I mean, lifting the gun up, and I tried to make it interesting. I’d have my feet, like I was on post one, and I’d shoot five targets. I’d put little sticky dots on the wall. And I would shoot each target. And so, I did that and I shot it like it was a round of trap. And then I would come and shoot another round of trap, and I’d shoot four rounds. And, after a month, my shooting improved so much. And of course, I was that guy, right? If a 100

is good, then 200 would even be better, maybe 250. So, for the first eight years I shot, I did 250 gun lifts a night every night that I didn’t shoot live targets. And that’s the kind of dedication that I’m talking about, who’s willing to do that?

Ricky would do it. Harlan probably did it. You know, there’s probably some others, but, you know, that’s kind of important. And it dovetails back to the basics of trap shooting.

My gun mount and my stance have never changed. It’s the same thing.

It’s the same thing that I was doing when I was 13, 14 years old, lifting that gun in the mirror. I just do it better now than I did back then. And I know halfway through the lift if the gun’s going to be in the right place or not. So that’s important. And the body posture, the stance of your body and how you absorb the recoil to minimize the effects on your face and your shoulder. Those are all things that will keep you in the game for a long time. You know, it’s 42 years now for me. How many years for you, Rick?

RICKY: 35 years.

SEAN: And then, we have Zach, where are you at?

RICK: Yeah, he’s the baby.

ZACH: I started registering in 2004, so 18 years registering. Maybe about 20 years with a shotgun in my hand.

SEAN: So, I mean, that’s longevity, you know? So, I knew, and I’m sure Ricky did too when he started this crazy sport of ours that we were probably going to do this the rest of our lives. Right?

RICKY: Yep. I love it.

SEAN: Yeah. So, you know, you better have some pretty good fundamentals if you’re going to spend the rest of your life doing this thing.

RICKY: I agree with you on that, Sean. You were talking about the gun lifts, that’s the main thing.

Always, at the end of my clinics and personal lessons, I’m like, you’ve got to do gun lifts. And people, a lot of times, they look at me and I tell a story. I had a friend here in town that came out, wanted to shoot, and he was a weightlifter, and he could literally probably pick up the back of my truck. But he couldn’t shoot 50 Doubles. He got tired. Oh, my arms, oh my back. He goes, and I said, watch, just sit on the truck and just watch. And I shot I think 400 Doubles that day, and like a hundred Handicap. And I got done and he just looked at me like, what the hell? And I’m like, no big deal.

But that’s what we trained our body to do. Yeah, but for all the kids out there that are listening, make sure your parents are around. There’s no ammo in the guns, you know, and just you mount the gun, put it down, do your routine. Just like you said, and that will help as long as you’re mounting the gun correctly.

SEAN: Yes, Correctly.

RICKY: You know, get with an instructor that says, yeah, this is the way, because everybody’s different.

As you know, Sean, you’ve taught people. You can’t get someone to shoot like you. It’s like people want to shoot like me, and I always tell them, well, go eat a bunch of cheeseburgers. I also shoot a 16-inch length of pool.

ZACH: You’ve gotta dedicate yourself to that kind of life!

SEAN: <laugh>. Exactly. You do. Yes. ZACH: This is a lifetime of work, effort and dedication.

RICKY: Hey, Zach. That picture I just shared on Facebook of you and I and Big Leo and Darryl Hayes playing cards in the clubhouse of Vernal. You were just a little bit

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smaller. Back then.

SEAN: Just a little bit!

ZACH: Yeah, just a smidge less “Ricky” back then.

SEAN: Yeah, you’re definitely more “Ricky” now ZACH: Exactly. I’m eating my way to AAA.

SEAN: That’s right. Well, you know, all of that stuff, and again, it just goes back to the dedication, but Ricky’s right. You know the gun mounts and getting into shooter shape and the thing that gun mounts are great for, because you have absolutely zero adrenaline going on. It’s boring, I’ll be honest with you. But, because you don’t have any adrenaline going on, you’re going to have to tax yourself. And, you know, when you first start doing this, you’ll be tired after 50 and you’ll be really tired after a hundred. So, you’re building the muscles that we actually use in trap shooting. The thing is, you don’t want to be muscle maxed because this is a fine motor skill sport. If you’re maxed out on your muscles, you’re going to get tight and you’re going to arm shoot,

and you’re going to do all kinds of bad things. So, if you can make it to where you don’t get tired and you don’t max out your muscles, and now we can start dealing with the fine motor skills that it takes to actually be successful in this game.

ZACK: Thank you for sharing that, Sean. And you mentioned fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. The gun mount obviously being very important for this. Are there any other things that you would say new shooters need to work on? Like where they’re holding the gun or what they’re looking for when they’re out training or other tidbits that you can give them to help them advance?

SEAN: Well, look dude, there’s a thousand ways to skin a cat. Right?

So, you know, like Ricky said, nobody kind of shoots like he does.

Probably nobody quite shoots like I do. Although he and I are pretty similar in that we both shoot fairly flat shooting guns.

ZACH: Like 70/30, 80/20, kind of in that zone?

SEAN: I’m an 80/20 guy. I think Ricky, you’re what, 80/20?

RICKY: 80/20, right. In that area. Yep. SEAN: Yeah, and he holds the gun down low on the house. I hold the gun down low on the house. We shoot very similarly. Yes, it’s with the exception of, you know, he’s more across his body when he shoots than I am. The next step would be, you know, where do you look over the gun? With Ricky and with myself, we’re both looking over the gun. We’re not looking, trying to hold the gun up high and look under the gun. That never worked for me. There are people out there, or at least one that has done that for a very long time and shot very, very well. And that’s Harlan Campbell, you know, he holds a high gun and, and has been able to see that target underneath the barrel. I don’t know how the heck he does it, because I don’t see through that barrel very good.

Maybe he’s got X-ray vision. I don’t, but it worked a lot for him. And God bless him. But for myself, I hold the gun down on the house. My biggest thing is seeing the target leave the house so that I can make that instant identification. Is it this one or is it that one? I tell people all the time, you know, it’s easy to recognize a hard angle from a straight away but we need to know if it’s the hard left or the ¾ left and I

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need to know it immediately and be right every time.

If you are interested in seeing the rest of this podcast or any of the other episodes, please check out Trap Talk on YouTube. The guests are all very knowledgeable and highly accomplished and it is interesting to hear about their varying approaches to our sport. n

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GOODCAUSES

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THE OTHER BENEFITS OF

TRAPSHOOTING

BY SANDRA JO JACK

SHOOTERS FOR HOOTERS

EASTERN MONROE WYEVILLE ROD AND GUN CLUB You might be wondering what I am going to lead you into with this introduction. What benefit might you get from this article that has sparked my interest? Think of all of the benefits we get from trapshooting and organizations that also benefit from us shooting. Your benefit might include shooting a high score for the day or hanging out with your friends shooting the bull. But the other benefit for the day will be your support for a cause.

Take for instance the benefit held at a members club called Eastern Monroe County Rod and Gun Club located outside of Wyeville, Wisconsin on October 1st.

This event for the day not only benefited the trap club with 65 EMC WYEVILLE BREAST CANCER SHOOT

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

shooters shooting 100 rounds, but the shooters also enjoyed local donations and walk-around raffles to win prizes. A delicious donated lunch was also served by the Treasured Chest.

If you did not get there early, around 10am you had to wait until later afternoon to shoot as posts fill up fast at this event. While waiting to shoot you had the chance to spend and donate money to the Shooters for Hooters, with all proceeds going to the Treasured Chests, Inc. located in Tomah, Wisconsin. The Treasured Chest's mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of those affected by breast cancer by supporting those in need through

fundraisers and breast cancer awareness. Local donations ranging from $100 to $10,000 have helped to provide meals to hospital cancer treatment patients. It really is a great cause and the donations help these patients to have one less concern to worry about.

Sunshine was abundant for the day shining on the all green targets that headed for the fall green, red and gold colored trees. You would think that the all green targets flying to the trees would be hard to pick out. But, it was just the opposite, most of the time. Some of the lime green targets liked to play peek-a-boo for the 65 shooters flying into the trees. Sure, hitting all of the targets was the goal but having another mission for the benefit made it even better.

WESTON PATRIOTS SHOOT VOLUNTEERS

One of my squadmates, Bob Sylla, was the only shooter to score a perfect 100x100 on the Singles line next to me. Five of us came close to his score with 99s for the event that was shot on two trap houses and run by volunteers of the club.

GOODCAUSES

This annual event is hosted in the first week of October, so plan on

attending and shooting for those Hooters to stay healthy.

HELPING OUR HEROES TRAPSHOOT WESTON HIT AND MISS TRAP CLUB Another Annual Benefit was held at Weston Hit and Miss Trap Club, Weston, Wisconsin that you can add to your calendar for 2023 is the HELPING OUR HEROES TRAPSHOOT. This event is also held in October and brings in shooters from all over the state.

When you drive into the parking lot you will see Harleys and bikers in leather. But don’t let that change your mind on what the event will be about for the day.

The term bikers is used in many ways and these bikers are part of a group called the Patriots for

Warriors. Sure the leather looks great on them while they are volunteering, loading the trap houses, scoring and running the shoot. Their time for this event is donated to help the local Military Veterans.

All of the proceeds they collected at this trap shoot will benefit the group Patriots For Warriors, a 501c3 Military Veteran support group helping local veterans.

I have attended this event for

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several years at the Weston Trap Club and as usual the weather is a factor, but that did not stop me or the other shooters wanting to show support. Shooters could sign up as many times as they wanted to shoot 25 targets from 16 yards & 25 targets from Handicap yardage.

Lunch and drinks were available to purchase or if you were a veteran you received a complimentary meal.

Raffles and silent auctions were held to help raise money.

Kyle Wojoe Wojicechowski, President of the organization, strives to make sure their mission is upheld, “Our mission is to help all veterans with a true need. To give them a hand up, not a hand out”.

All members are volunteers working to provide assistance like helping veterans to pay for heat, new roof, medical bills, snow shoveling, food for the month, etc.

Now you understand the heading, The Benefits of Trapshooting. Trapshooters are a community with lots of members and the members are willing givers with other intentions just like the Patriots For Warriors and The Treasured Chest, Inc. Perhaps your club has a good benefit to donate to, if not, give it a try. n

WESTON PATRIOTS SHOOT VOLUNTEERS

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USA SHOOTING EARNS SIX MEDALS AT 2022 ISSF PRESIDENT’S CUP USA Shooting athletes earned a total of six medals at the 2022 ISSF President’s Cup in Cairo, Egypt, November 28 - December 4.

Caitlin Connor, ranked fourth in the world for Women’s Skeet, earned a gold medal after beating Martina Bartolomei of Italy in the

TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

gold medal match. Connor also took home the Golden Target Award for her victory in Cairo.

Derrick Mein, ranked first in the world for Men’s Trap, earned a silver medal after facing Josip Glasnovic of Croatia in the gold medal match.

Vincent Hancock, ranked first in

the world for Men’s Skeet, earned bronze after competing in the semifinals.

Sam Simonton, ranked 12th in the world for Women’s Skeet, placed third, earning herself a bronze medal.

Alison Weisz, ranked second in the world for Women’s 10m Air Rifle, and Sagan Maddalena, ranked 10th in the world for Women’s 10m Air Rifle, both earned bronze medals in their event.

In addition to being members of the USA Shooting national team, Simonton, Weisz, and Maddalena

are all soldiers in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit.

Athletes with a world ranking of 12 or higher were invited to this prestigious competition to compete for cash prizes and the Golden Target award.

For more USA Shooting news, follow us @USAShooting on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. n

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GUN CLUB RAFFLE

proceeds benefit local gun clubs nationwide T I C K E T S A R E 6 F O R $ 1 0 0 O R $ 2 0 E AC H

Tickets can be purchase online on the ATA website, shootata.com, or by contacting your ATA State/Provincial Delegate, ATA State/Provincial Secretary, or the ATA Office: info@shootata.com or 618-449-2224

Raffle ends August 11 at noon DRAWING WILL BE HELD 8/11/2023 DURING THE 2023 GRAND AMERICAN CLOSING CEREMONY

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NORTH END ROD & GUN CLUB

FORTH WORTH TRAP & SKEET

...AND MORE!

All ticket stubs and unsold tickets must be returned to the ATA office by 7/28/2023. Returned unsold tickets will be available for purchase at the 2023 Grand American. Raffle tickets/entries will not be available once all tickets are sold. The recipient will receive a W-2G form from the ATA, and will be responsible for any federal, state, and local income taxes.

RETURN TO: AMATEUR TRAPSHOOTING ASSOCIATION PO BOX 519 - SPARTA, IL 62286

PITANEWS

76

www.shootpita.com

AFTER 59 YEARS… Back in 1963, Daro Handy was moved to the 27-yard line based on known ability. According to Daro, he had been shooting poorly towards the end of 2021, and was eligible for a yardage reduction which he applied for and was granted. On August 21,

PITA NEWS 2022 at the Myrtle Point Sportsmen’s Club, he won Sunday’s Handicap events with a score of 94 – 400 targets later and he was back on the 27-yard line. Finally earning his 27-yard pin! At the 2022 Fall Classic event held at the Roseburg Rod and Gun Club, Daro was presented his 27-yard pin and a certificate of accomplishment. Congrats! n

DARO HANDY (CIRCA 1996)

DARO (SEPT. 2022)

HISTORY IS MADE IN IDAHO!

J. O. COTANT

ARTICLE RESEARCHED AND SUBMITTED BY KENT HARRIS OF BOISE, IDAHO At the first PITA State Shoot in 1931, the Handicap championship was won by the great J.O. Cotant with a score of 99. He might have thought it wouldn’t be long before someone won it with a perfect score – but nobody did (until now).

The first ATA State Shoot listed was in 1918 and between the combined associations that makes 173 chances for the perfect score.

There have been 26 scores of 99 that won (only one was a woman shooter – Lahoma Turner) but that elusive 100 straight was not achieved until June 26th, when Gwen Houser won the PITA State Handicap Championship with 100 straight.

Gwen’s perfect score kept Stuart Welton from winning all five major championships as he took the State Singles with a 199, the State Doubles in a shoot-off of 97s with Waylon Klundt, the HAA with a 392, and the HOA with a score of 767. n TRAPSHOOTINGUSA

GWEN HOUSER

WE KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO PRODUCE A REALLY GREAT TRAP MAGAZINE!

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INDEX of ADVERTISERS Allem's Guncraft

Value u Quality u Service

Learn Trap Shooting

70

Amasteur Trapshooting Association21,75

Lincoln Traps

53

Blaser USA Inc

MEC Outdoors

13

Cover 3

Briley

49

Passionate Outlaws

61

Caesar Guerini

19

Pat-Trap, Inc.

32

Clay Target Sports, Inc

78

Ponsness Warren

54

Connecticut Shotguns

11

Promatic Inc

5

Dawson Enterprises

67

Recob's Target Shop

33,63

Decot Hy-Wyd Sports Glasses Inc

45

Remington Ammunition

34-35

Shamrock Leathers

62

Federal Premium Ammunition Cover 2, 3

SKB Shotguns

31

Graco Corporation

63

SoftTouch Custom Stocks

76

Gray's Shotgun Cache

51

Spolar Power Load

71

Sportsman's Insurance Agency

33

Fabarm USA

The Best Value For Your Krieghoff Purchase

55

Guns Unlimited

Cover 4

15-17

International Case Company

55

Syren USA

57

Jaqua's Fine Guns, Inc.

69

TakeAIM Technologies

14

Kick's Chokes

71

Target Shotguns

7

Krieghoff

25

The Sporting Life

43

L&M Lenses

71

TrapShootingUSA

77

LadyShooter LifeStyles

59

Wenig Custom Gunstocks

29

WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL

Check out our website for new and preowned guns

www.claytargetsports.com Tel. 609-921-9358 Fax. 609-921-3282 Email: info@claytargetsports.com

© 2020

”For me the F3 trigger is the best shotgun trigger in the world, proven by my 900 straight!“ Joey Charnigo, 2019 Grand American ATAWorld Clay Target Champion and „Straight 900“ Marksman (2019)

100% MADE IN ITALY. SINCE 1900

T R PO

T E P TY

t

KEE S AP R T AYS L C G N I T R PO S T KEE S AP R T AYS L C ING T R O P

N S ELO

S L L A 2

THE 34” UNSINGLE BARREL IS IDEAL FOR SHOOTING HANDICAP AND SINGLES IN TRAP COMPETITIONS.

NEW FOR THIS YEAR, THE FABARM ELOS N2 ALLSPORT LINE HAS EXPANDED. Introducing our Type-T offering, which features a 34” Unsingle barrel to accommodate Trap specialists. The Unsingle barrel is ideal for shooting Handicap and Singles in Trap competitions. For shooters who want a competitive edge in Trap, and still want to compete in multiple disciplines, the Allsport is the most versatile target shotgun line ever created. And the Type-T is the ultimate choice. This impressive model is able to convert into a high rib Trap gun, a low rib Sporting clays gun, and a Skeet gun in a matter of minutes. The revolutionary interchangeable rib system on the over/under barrel, which includes two QRR (Quick Release Ribs) one 50/50 and one 65/35 POI, and the Micro-Metric adjustable stock allows you to fine-tune the gun to your own measurements resulting in a better fit. You can be confident the Fabarm Elos N2 Allsport will provide you with continuous clay crushing performance through all disciplines and bring you to the next level of shooting in All sports.

TRIWOOD™ enhanced finish is water resistant

Adjustable Competition Trigger for light, crisp pulls

410.901.1260

Q.R.R. (Quick Release Rib) System on O/U Barrel

Micro-Metric 3D™ Adjustable Comb comes Standard

5 EXIS HP™ Hyperbolic competition chokes

FABARMUSA.COM