Ten participants (three officers, six members, and one guest) had a great time at the Annual 24 Hour Sporting Clays Shoot on 4/22/05 - 4/23/05 at the 74 Ranch Resort near Campbellton. Eleven shooters had paid to go but Sean Chandler had to cancel to go to his grandmothers funeral. The ranch has 15 stations that are in a circular course around an approximately 20 acre lake. Each station has a minimum of four throwers. One station had eight and another had six. Just about every imaginable target presentation was present including several rising teal, crossing shots, flushing quail, landing ducks, and rabbits. Three stations offered shots down into or out of a ravine. There were several stations over water and several more through trees. There were four throwers on top of a 40 foot tall platform and six throwers on top of twin 100 foot tall towers. Ron Denison shot a box and a half short of five cases. Derrich Pollock shot four cases and some change. Eddy Chance and David Quijano shot four cases. Ken Miller shot three and one half cases. Richard Garrett and I, Randy Rowley, shot three cases. Unlike regular sporting clays, where you shoot anywhere from four to ten shots and then move on to the next station, we were able to "camp out" at stations and stay there until we were good and ready to move on. It was easy to shoot three to four boxes at a single station. Eddy shot an entire case at one water station. Another water station had a wide peer that enabled five shooters to stand shoulder to shoulder and shoot at the same time. We would shoot and then reload as fast as we could and shoot some more. The thrower would just start pushing buttons on the remote throwers. There was no waiting for someone to say "pull." This simulated live bird hunting very well. It was great to just keep trying a shot over and over again until you figured it out. Several shooters shot triples. Ken Miller was definitely the most improved shooter. By the end of the shoot he was hitting at least twice as many clays as he has in the past.
The meals were as follows:
Friday
Lunch - Roast with potatoes and carrots, rolls, deserts (two kinds of cheese cakes, fudge cake, and more), lemonade, and ice tea.
Dinner - NY strip steak, baked potatoes, mixed grilled veggies, rolls, more deserts, more lemonade and tea.
Saturday
Breakfast – Pancakes, bacon, sausage links, scrambled eggs, hash browns, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, juice, and coffee.
Lunch – Beef stroganoff over bowtie pasta, steamed cauliflower and broccoli, rolls, more deserts, and more lemonade and tea.
The trip was well worth the $200.00 charge (not counting the price of shells).