Ten participants (nine shooters) had a great time at the 5/21/05 Sporting Clays Shoot at the Capitol City Trap & Skeet Range. The course was the easiest that it has been since at least 5/22/04, which was reflected by the scores. I, Randy Rowley, came in first place with my best ever score of 43/50 (which tied an FCS record for sporting clays, set by Tim Price on 8/28/99). Tim came in second with 39/50. Ken Miller came in third with by far his best ever score of 35/50. He was followed by Mark Dillow with his best ever 32/50, first time guest Joe Cleboski with 31/50, Kevin Wall and Isaac Price with their best ever 30/50, Jim Gault with his best ever 20/50, and Jesse Price with 19/50. Out of the eight shooters who were not first time shooters at an FCS Sporting Clays Shoot six shot their best ever scores (75%)! The group shot a total of 279/450 (.620). In comparison the group at our last shoot at Capitol City (the 3/26/05 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot) shot only 248/779 (.318). Tim and Jim broke 12 more birds than they did last time, Isaac broke 16 more, I broke 24 more, and Ken broke 25 more! The first station had a bird coming down off of a platform (the only one that skunked me) and a teal. The second station had crossing birds at different angles. The third station had a right to left crosser and a teal. The fourth station had a very close and shallow teal and a curving teal coming towards the shooter. The fifth station had a close crossing pair. The sixth station had two low birds from the left at different angles. We shot eight birds at each of the first five stations and 10 at the last one. Of note is the fact that, of the nine shooters, two who placed (Ken and me) also attended the 4/22/05 - 4/23/05 24 Hour Clay Target Shoot. I, for one, was much more confident after participating in that shoot. Ken's best score before today was 10/50. He improved over his previous best score by 250%! The 24 Hour shoot is definitely worth the $200 charge.
I jumped out to a one bird lead over Tim on station two and maintained it through station one (we flip-flopped shooting the stations to save time). On station five Time tied it up. On station four I regained my one bird lead. On station three I extended it to two. On station six I went 10 for 10. Without that stupid platform station I went 39/42. In Mark's group Ken jumped out to a one bird lead over Mark. He maintained it through station two. On station three he extended his lead to three. On station five Ken extended his lead to six birds. On station four Mark went 8/8 and reducing Ken's lead back to three. They tied on the last station. Joe and Kevin also competed closely in Mark's group.
Check out the Sporting Clay and Five Stand Shoots Scorecard for history, finishes, and averages.