On Friday my Dad, brother, and I shot the 100 target 5-stand event. We shot the first 50 targets in the morning and I shot a 43/50. I missed two targets that were super easy that I'd normally never miss. Not sure why I missed them, but I felt I could have shot better. So then we took a break for lunch, and it started raining. And raining. And raining some more. I checked the weather forecast on my phone... and it said it was supposed to rain all day and even thunderstorm later on in the afternoon. We were told we had to finish our last 50 5-stand targets on Friday, so we decided to just bite the bullet and shoot in the rain. It wasn't so bad at first, but over the last 15 minutes it was raining pretty hard. I ended up shooting a 43/50 in the rain for a total event score of 86/100. It ended up being the winning score in that event, so I guess it worked out even though I didn't feel like I shot to my potential.
On Saturday, we shot two 100 bird events: the subgage and preliminary events. I shot well in the subgage event, hitting 91/100. I hit the last 50 birds straight in that event. Then, I shot a 84/100 in the preliminary. It was enough to win both events.
After I got done shooting on Saturday, I had to rush home to get changed and make it to a friend's wedding. I actually knew both the groom and the bride so it was pretty cool. Their wedding ceremony was much more casual than normal; they still had it in a church with a pastor, etc. but everyone in the wedding was so laid back, it was nice. Then we went out to the Air Base near town to eat dinner and dance. The dance was fun; many of the people there knew how to ballroom dance. I did a bit of two-step dancing as well as swing dancing. It was a great time. After the wedding, I went downtown to some bars with some of my friends that were at the wedding as well. We stayed out till about 2AM then I called it a night and went home.
Sunday, we shot the 200 bird main event. The weather was perfect out, about 75 degrees, not much wind, partly sunny. It was a great day out. The targets in the main event were very, very challenging. Normally, shoots in ND are very easy... they tend to make the targets very close, slow, and generally easy to moderate in difficulty level. These targets on Sunday were seriously world-class targets. Mike, the course owner, did an AMAZING job setting these targets. I was very impressed.
I ended up shooting a 154/200 and I ended up winning ND Resident Champion! I really felt like I shot at a level below what I normally do, but it was enough to win so whatever. I actually figured I wouldn't have much of a chance to win at all while shooting because my hit % was like at least 10% lower than what I normally get. Feels nice to run good and have the competition shoot lower scores than normal as well.
Here are some pics of the loot:
The trophy I'm holding is the traveling trophy for the Main Event. This is the third time I've won the ND State Sporting Clays Championship.
Trophies from all of the events I shot this weekend
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damn! that is a lot of trophy action -- props, man.
ReplyDelete"These targets on Sunday were seriously world-class targets. Mike, the course owner, did an AMAZING job setting these targets."
i'm completely clueless but curious; how is there variation in setting a target? i'd imagine that for your different classes there are set sizes / speeds to give some sort of uniformity of competition from state to state, so is it trajectory / air-time?
Thanks for the question Malfaire. In sporting clays, there are normally 10-14 stations on a particular course. Each station is a different target presentation... it's kind of like golf with a shotgun.
ReplyDeleteEveryone shoots at the same targets, regardless of their classification (skill level). The only thing that is set is the target sizes. The speeds, distances, angles, and trajectories are all varied from station to station and from course to course.
A sporting clays course in ND will have different targets than one in Texas and different course elsewhere will have completely different stations as well.
Each shooting tournament is different, which makes the sport fun and unique. With trap or skeet shooting, the targets are the same no matter where you travel to. That can get boring, as well as frustrating as you need to hit near 100% of the targets in trap and skeet to have a chance at winning.
Wikipedia actually explains the game quite well. Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_Clays
Congrats on the trophy hall. I've never been shooting but I have a friend who's wife used to run events here in England and he says its a great buzz.
ReplyDeleteGuess I should try it sometime