MONTANA STATE SHOOT

MONTANA STATE SHOOT 2021

The 127th Montana State Trapshooting Championships were held at The Great Falls Trap and Skeet Club July 7th through the 11th. The club offers 14 trap fields, nine of which are lighted and all of which use Pat Trap and Canterbury voice releases. There are 60 RV spots with power and water and a nice air conditioned clubhouse. There was a catered dinner with a live band on Friday night and Dan Vogel and Rick Dorr were both inducted into the Montana Hall of Fame.

PRELIMINARY WEDNESDAY

The day started off with a 100 target Singles event and there were four Non Resident shooters that were able to break them all. After the carryover Jason Folvag (ND) was the Out-ofState champion. The Residents had 99s for high scores and following the carryover John Brothers was the winner.

Next up on the schedule was a 100 target Handicap event and Utah shooter Sean Hawley was high on the board with a 98 to win the Non Resident Champion award. John Brothers was the high shooter for the Montana Residents with 95.

The final event of the day was a 100 target Doubles event. TJ Main of Washington led the way with a 98 in windy conditions to win the Non Resident Champion award. John Brothers was high again for the Montana shooters with a score of 95.

THURSDAY

The Budweiser Singles kicked off at 8am Thursday morning and there were only three shooters that were able to break them all. Ethan Brosten, Ciaran O’Neill and Bret Preeshl, all Montana Residents broke 100 straights to top the leaderboard. Preeshl would eventually win the carryover to secure the resident trophy.

BY SEAN HAWLEY

The Budweiser Handicap was next up and Sean Hawley was high on the board with 97 to win the Non Resident trophy. Ciaran O’Neill was one target behind to win the In-State prize with 96.

The Doubles Class Championships were sponsored by Xcel Shooting Sports and there were 120 entries. Sean Hawley had the high score of 99 to win the Non Resident trophy and John Brothers broke a 98 to lead Montana shooters.

FRIDAY

perfect scores turned in came from Montana residents. Garrett Damm (Junior Gold), Hunter Krogedal (Junior Gold), Bret Preeshl and Jerry Tabacco broke them all on the In-State side of things. Preeshl was the AA champ, Tobacco was the B winner and Krogedal finished with the Junior Gold award. The Event 9 Scheels Handicap was the last one of the day and 97s were high on the board at the end. Ciaran O’Neill and Emi Smith (Lady I) shot off for the top prize with Smith breaking 24 in the overtime round to win the Champion’s trophy. Garrett Schlimmer also broke a 97 to earn The first event of the day was the the Non Resident award. Montana State Doubles Championship and Ciaran O’Neill broke a 99 to win the title without a SATURDAY shoot-off. John Brothers broke 96 to take home the runner-up trophy, Event 10 was the first half of the while Emi Smith and Edie Baker had State Singles Championship and five 94 and 88 to earn Lady I and Lady II shooters broke 100 straight. Matt titles. Garett Prom was the Sub Junior Fochs, Wade Smith and Jeff Wagner champ with 88 and Ramey Olsen were the Residents that did it and broke 93 to take home the Junior Jason Folvag and Joe Sudbury (UT) trophy. Garrett Damm had a 95 for were the Non Residents that made it the Junior Gold win and former ATA to the halfway point unscathed. President Jeff Wagner put a 97 on the In the Preliminary Handicap that board to lead the Sub Veteran afternoon Ciaran O’Neill had the top category. Veteran and Senior Veteran score on the board with 98. Justin were won by Terry Barkell and Bill O’Sanile had just one less to win the Camus with scores of 96 and 92. runner-up trophy and Russ Mcelyea Sean Hawley was the Non Resident champ with 99. MONTANA STATE DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP

Event 8 was the Singles Class Championship and four of the seven CH CIARAN O’NEILL 99

RU JOHN BROTHERS 96

CIARAN O’NEILL

AA MIKE ZARAGOZA A MARVIN REHBEIN 95 93

B BRIAN MOE 94

C DAVE PHILLIPS 92

D

JAMES BACHINI LD1 EMI SMITH 87 94

LD2 EDIE BAKER SUB JR GARETT PROM 88 88

JR

RAMEY OLSEN JR GOLD GARRETT DAMM SUB VET JEFF WAGNER VET TERRY BARKELL

93 95 97 96 SR VET BILL CAMUS 92 NON-RES CH SEAN HAWLEY (UT) 99 JOE SUDBURY AND KENT SAKAMOTO

had the same score to earn the Sub Veteran award. On the Out-of-State side of things Joe Sudbury won his carryover with Gerry Williams (AZ) after the two had tied with 97s. Sudbury took home the Champion trophy and Williams, the Senior Veteran prize. yard line. Following that the shooters all shot five pairs of doubles. 39x40 was the top score and after the shoot off Garrett Damm got to have his name engraved on the gold medal.

SUNDAY

THE BUTTE MEDAL

There was an extra event at the end of the day that has a bit of history to it and that event is called the Butte Medal. The event began at the fifth Montana State Shoot, way back in 1898 and has been a part of every Montana State Shoot since. Shooters stood at the 20 yard line and shot 3 targets per post for a total of 15 birds and then did the same from the 22 The second half of the Singles began the final day of competition. None of the shooters that had run the first half were able to repeat the feat, however there were four shooters that did run the back half. Wayne Fischer and Ciaran O’Neill did so on the Resident side of things and TJ Main (WA) and Garrett Schlimmer each broke the second half targets for the Non Residents. When the scores from Saturday and Sunday were combined Wayne Fischer’s

THE BUTTE MEDAL, ENLARGED IN LEFT PHOTO

MONTANA STATE SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP

CH WAYNE FISCHER RU CIARAN O’NEILL AA DAN VOGEL A MIKE ZARAGOZA

B MATT FOCHS

C RUSS MCELYEA

D

JEFF EVANS LD1 EMI SMITH

199 199 196 197 197 194 193 194 LD2 EDIE BAKER 192 SUB JR OWEN PLAGMAIN 189 JR MAVERICK OWEN 192 JR GOLD DYLAN DENNY 196 SUB VET JEFF WAGNER 198 VET TERRY BARKELL 195 SR VET JERRY BROSTEN 197 NON-RES CH JASON FOLVAG (ND) 199

MONTANA STATE HANDICAP CHAMPIONSHIP

CH CIARAN O’NEILL RU DAN VOGEL 3RD R. ELKINS

97 97 96 4TH JUSTIN O’DANIEL 96 5TH JON KRONEBUSCH 96 6TH ANITA FELAND 95 LD1 EMI SMITH 96 LD2 EDIE BAKER 85 SUB JR HAYDEN SOWA 95 JR RAMEY OLSON 95 JR GOLD TRAVIS PETERSON 92 SUB VET JEFF WAGNER 92 VET CORY IZETT 93 SR VET BILL ELLEN 94 NON-RES CH GARRETT SCHLIMMER (WA) 99

199x200 was high on the board for Montana shooters. Jason Folvag needed one shootoff round to earn the Non Resident trophy for his near perfect score of 199.

The Handicap Championship finished off a fun week of shooting in Montana and the top score on the board went to Washington’s Garrett Schlimmer with a 99 from the 27 yard line. TJ Main took home Non Resident runner-up honors for his 98. Ciaran O’Neill was the In-State Champion with his 97 after a shootoff with Dan Vogel.

HAA AND HOA

Ciaran O’Neill was the Montana Champion in both the High All Around and the High Over All. His 393x400 in the HAA was six targets better than Sub Veteran champ Jeff Wagner and his 977x1000 was 33 targets ahead of runner-up Bret Preeshl. Garrett Schlimmer was the Non Resident HAA Champion with 395 and Sean Hawley was the Outof-State winner in the HOA with 975.

The Great Falls Trap and Skeet Club is a great place to shoot. The background is consistent and the targets are well set. The staff seemed genuinely happy to see the shooters that traveled to the shoot and were helpful at every turn. I can’t wait until next year! n MONTANA STATE HIGH ALL AROUND

CH CIARAN O’NEILL RU DAN VOGEL LD1 EMI SMITH LD2 EDIE BAKER SUB JR GARETT PROM JR RAMEY OLSON JR GOLD GARRETT DAMM SUB VET JEFF WAGNER VET TERRY BARKELL

393 385 384 372 365 362 378 387 375 SR VET JERRY BROSTEN 381 NON-RES CH GARRETT SCHLIMMER (WA) 395

MONTANA STATE HIGH OVER ALL

CH CIARAN O’NEILL RU BRET PREESHL LD1 EMI SMITH LD2 EDIE BAKER

938 870 SUB JR GARETT PROM 904 JR GOLD HUNTER KROGEDAL 936 SUB VET JEFF WAGNER 935 VET TERRY BARKELL 924 SR VET BILL ELLEN 922 NON-RES CH SEAN HAWLEY (UT) 975