2004 Shoots Reports

12/11/04 Sporting Clays Shoot

Ten participants (nine shooters) had a great time at the 12/11/04 Sporting Clays Shoot at the Capitol City Skeet & Trap Range.  It was a bright sunny day, and the temperature was perfect.  We shot six stations.  Capitol City once again laid out a challenging (perhaps too challenging) course.

Guest Bret Mercer smoked us with 27 for 50.  He started out with 6 of his 8 and never looked back.  He went 16 for his first 24 but slowed down a bit going 11 for his last 26.  Ron Denison came in second with 20/50.  Ron went 12 for his first 24 and slowed down going 8 for his last 26.  I, Randy Rowley, came in third with 19/50.  I started out ice cold going 7 for my first 24 but warmed up going 12 for my last 26.  Guest David Drell was next with 18/50.  He was consistent throughout the day going 8 for his first 24 and 10 for his last 26.  Mark Dillow was next with 15/50.  He started well with 9 for his first 24 but cooled off going 6 for his last 26.  My wife, Chris, was next with 11/50.  She did the best out of my group on the first target and was consistent throughout going 5 for her first 24 and 6 for her last 26.  David’s son Tim was next with 10/50.  He started with 6 for 24 but cooled down a little going 4 for his last 26.  Ken Miller was next with 8/50.

Ken was consistent going 4 for his first 24 and 4 for his last 26.  Derrich Pollock joined us on station five and went 8/18.  I am confident that if he had shot all 50 targets, he would have at least challenged Ron and me.

10/16/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot

Nine participants (seven shooters) had a great time at the 10/16/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot at the Capitol City Skeet & Trap Range.  It was a bright sunny day, and the temperature was perfect.  We shot only five stations (10 birds per station) because the rest of the course was closed.

Capitol City once again laid out a challenging (perhaps too challenging) course.  Five of the shooters went 0 for 10 on the third station (the seven of us went 5 for 70).  Station one was also tough.  We went 11 for 70.  For the right to left bird at this station we went 4 for 35 with Mark Dillow getting three of them.

Mark registered his first 1st place win with 21/50.  Tim Price and I, Randy Rowley, tied for second, with 18/50.  Isaac Price came in third with 16/50 (the first time that he has placed).  He was followed by first timer Randy Gordon with 14/50, Jesse Price with 8/50, and first timer Ken Miller with 2/50.  Jesse shot his worst score, Tim tied his worst, and I tied my third worst score.

Mark jumped out to a two bird lead over me on station one and a four bird lead over Tim.  On station two he increased his lead to four over me, but Tim caught his one (Mark was still three ahead of Tim).  On station three his lead over me dropped to two birds and he maintained his three bird lead over Tim.  On station four I tied him up and Tim caught him a bird (Mark’s lead over Tim was cut to two).  On the last station Mark went 8/10, Tim went 7/10, and I went 5/10.  Tim and Isaac Price also shot a round of skeet.

7/31/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot

Eleven participants (ten shooters) had a great time at the 7/31/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot at the Capitol City Skeet & Trap Range.  Tim Price came in first place with 32/50.  Jon Vance came in second with 25/50.  Richard Corbin came in third with 24/50.  They were followed by Jason Brelsford with 20/50, Isaac Price with 19/50 (his best ever score), Brian Brelsford, Mark Dillow, and Kevin Wall with 18/50, first time guest Tim Little (Brian’s brother-in-law) with 17/50, and Zach Corbin with 4/50.

6/26/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot

Thirteen shooters had a great time at the 6/26/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot at the Capitol City Skeet & Trap Range.  Larry Dowden came in first place with 29/50.  Eighteen year old Kelvin Cheung and Eddy Chance tied for second with 27/50 (Kelvin’s best).  Derrich Pollock came in third with 25/50.  They were followed by Mark Dillow with his best 24/50, Jason Brelsford with 23/50, Kevin Wall with his best 21/50, Brian Brelsford and Ron Denison with 20/50 (Brian’s best), Ryan Rowley with 19/50 (tied for his best), Ryan Pollock with by far his best ever 18/50 (his previous best was 12/50), and guest Scott Ballenger with 17/50.  Will Pollock also shot at clays.

The last station was particularly hard.  Out of 108 shots fired only 18 clays were broken (17 %).  I’m not going to take the time to compare all the results from this shoot with all the previous Sporting Clays shoots, but I would wager that there never has been a shoot that had a closer competition.

6/12/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot

Fifteen shooters had a great time at the 6/12/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot at the Capitol City Skeet & Trap Range.  Fourteen year old and second time FCS shooter, Jason Brelsford, came in first place with his best 23/42 (27/50 equivalent).  Kenny Hill and Richard Corbin tied for second (Kenny shot 26/50 and Richard shot 22/42 – 26/50 equivalent).  Mark Dillow came in third with his best 22/50.  They were followed by Derrich Pollock with 16/42 (19/50 equivalent), Kevin Wall with his best 16/50, 14 year old and first time shooter Sean Fallon with 13/42 (15/50 equivalent), Charles Cutchens with 13/50 and Brian Brelsford with his best 11/42 (13/50 equivalent), Ryan Pollock with his best ever 10/42 (12/50 equivalent), and first time shooter Zach Corbin with 1/42 (1/50 equivalent).  Manuel Cosio, two of his children, and Will Pollock also shot clays.  Derrich’s group thought that they had shot 50 targets, but they only shot 42.

5/22/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot

Six shooters and two sons (eight participants) had a great time at the 5/22/04 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot on 5/22/04 at the Capitol City Skeet & Trap Range.  I, Randy Rowley, took first place with 31/50.  Derrich Pollock and Tim Price tied for second place with 30/50 (Derrich tied his second best score).  Jesse Price came in third place with 20/50.  He was followed by Isaac Price with his best 16/50 and Ryan Pollock with his best 8/50.  This was the first time that Tim hit 30 since 3/9/02 (when the modern traps were installed at Capitol City), only the second time that I have done so since 3/9/02, and the first time that Derrich has done so since 2/25/94.  It was only the third time that Jesse hit 20 since 3/9/02.  With two “bests” and four of our personal best scores in a long time the course was undoubtedly easier.

There were more loping targets and fewer crossers.  Derrich started out with a one bird lead on me at station 1 and a three bird lead on Tim.  After station 2 Derrich and I were tied (after I went 8 for 8) and Tim was seven behind.  On station 3 I took a three bird lead on Derrich and Tim continued to be seven behind.  After station 4 I was leading Derrich by four and Tim again by seven.  On station five Derrich dropped my lead to two over him and Tim gained one (now being six behind).  On the sixth station Tim came on furiously breaking 8 for 8.  Derrich broke four and I hung on and broke three.  As I had cooled down after station three (going 20/24 on the first three stations and only 10/26 on the last three) Derrich and Tim would have probably beaten me if we had shot one more station.

It was the most closely contested shoot that we have had since 8/25/01 (when two men tied with first and two men tied for second one behind them).

Tim and Isaac Price also shot a round of skeet.

4/23/04 – 4/24/04 24 Hour Sporting Clays Shoot

Two officers and two members (four total participants) had a great time at the 24 hour Sporting Clays Shoot at the 74 Ranch from noon, 4/23/04 to noon, 4/24/04.

Larry Dowden reports that this was a great place,  He stated that we need to do it again next year and take lots of guys back with us.  He said that he was sore after shooting four cases of shells (1000 rounds).

Derrich Pollock reports that this was the most fun that he has had on an outing in a long time.  He recommends, as do Larry, Eddy Chance, and Ron Denison, that this becomes at least a bi-annual event.  All they did was shoot, eat, and play pool and free video games.  The facilities were new, clean, and close to each other.  The food (four meals) was as good as any $20 a plate restaurant and they were waited on hand and foot.  Golf carts took them everywhere they wanted to go.  They had 42 stands with a minimum of four radio remote throwers on each stand.  Some had five to six.  Stands ranged from shooting down in a ravine, pop ups from behind hills, duck stands over water, angle shots through trees, and twin towers that hauled eight throwers up 60+ feet.  He shot 2 boxes shy of 4 cases (950 rounds).  He even caught a fish in the lake that all the stands are set up around.

Eddy reports that this was an amazing trip.  The accommodations were as good, if not better than, a 4 star hotel.  He shot 2 ½ cases.  There were some amazing shots.  Ron shot, three single shot doubles (the breaking of two skeet with one shot).  There were a lot of other amazing shots as well.  One stand earned the name “the snake pit” after Derrich killed two snakes in the water while they were at the stand.  They were safely standing on a nice dock like platform over the water at the time.  It was so nice to just keep trying a shot repeatedly until you figured it out.  Another favorite was what they called the “Jack-in-the-box” throwers.  The skeet would go straight up.  They talked about how they used to miss these types of “easy looking” shots in the past.  Another one was the small “hockey-puck.”  It was amazing to see how they were all able to hit such a small fast flying “puck”.  Another was where they had three or four shooting platforms at one station.  Larry, Derrich and Ron would all take a shooting platform and Eddy would randomly throw using the wireless remotes to send the skeet flying.  It was a hoot.  The “Two Towers” were 100 feet tall with four throwers each.  At first they thought “there is no way we can hit these at that height”.  But Eddy went first and took out the first four in a row.  It was way cool.  Their new motto is “Eating has nothing to do with hunger”.

They fed us lunch and dinner on Friday and breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

Friday

Lunch – Fried Chicken, rice, green beans, and fancy deserts (Cheese cakes, Carrot cake, Fudge cake with caramel and pecans with ice cream).

Dinner – Beef tenderloin, baked fish, with green beans, baked potato wedges.  More deserts.

Saturday

Breakfast – Blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage links, scrambled eggs, hash browns, biscuits, juice, coffee, and milk.

Lunch – BBQ brisket and sausage, potato salad, beans, and more deserts.

The trip was well worth the $200.00 charge (not counting the price of shells).

2/7/04 Sporting Clays Shoot

Nine shooters and one observer (10 total participants – two officers, five members, and three youth members) had a good time at the 2/7/04 Sporting Clays Shoot, despite it being the toughest course ever.  Only one shooter broke 20+ targets.  I, Randy Rowley, and Ryan Pollock shot our worst scores ever and Larry Dowden, Tim Price, Derrich Pollock, Jesse Price, and Mark Dillow shot their second worst scores ever (it was also Mark’s second best score since he has attended two shoots)!  Isaac Price shot his third worst ever (it was also his third best – third highest score of five shoots).  Richard Garrett, being a first time shooter with FCS, shot both his best and worst score.  Larry came in first place with 21/50.  Tim came in second place with 19/50.  Derrich and me tied for third place with 16/50.  Mark was next with 15/50.  He was followed by Jesse with 13/50.  Isaac was next with 9/50.  He was followed by Richard with 8/50.  Ryan was next with 2/50.

We shot the first 6 of the 12 stations, as the second six are always harder.  Larry, Mark, Jesse, Isaac, Richard, and Ryan were the most consistent.  Larry broke 11 targets on the first three stations and 10 on the last three.  Mark shot seven and then eight.  Jesse shot six and then seven.  Isaac shot four and then five.  Richard shot four and then four.  Ryan shot one and then one.  Tim broke 11 on the first three stations and cooled down to 8 on the last three.  Derrich shot 10 on the first three stations and cooled down to 6 on the last three.  I broke only 5 on the first three stations (only 2 on the first two) and got hot and broke 11 on the last three.

Four shooters also shot a round of skeet before the Sporting Clays Shoot.

The weather was bright and sunny although it was cold for about the first hour.