Nineteen participants (18 shooters) had a great time at the 7/9/05 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot at the Capitol City Trap & Skeet Range. Seventeen shooters shot five stations on the Corporate (easier) sporting clays course. I, Randy Rowley, and Tim Price tied for first place with 43/50 (we both tied our best scores, which are FCS records for sporting clays), Kenneth Kidd and guest Paul Ellis tied for second place with 35/50 (they both shot their best ever), Ken Miller and Ryan Rowley (who is back for two weeks of R&R from Iraq) tied for third place with 33/50 (Ryan's best ever and Ken's second best). They were followed by Gary McKenzie with 32/50 (his best ever), Kelvin Cheung with 29/50 (his best ever), Richard Corbin with 28/50 (his best ever), Jesse Price and first time guest and shotgun shooter Paul Schroeder with 26/50 (Jesse's third best), first time guest and shotgun shooter Justin Painter with 25/50, Robin Rowley with 19/50 (her best ever), Isaac Price with 17/50, Zach Corbin with 16/50 (his best ever), Regina Kidd with 14/50 (her second best), and first time guest Angie Daniel with 5/50. This is the first time that we have had ties for all of the top three positions. The combined group went 459/850 (.540). In total eight shooters (not counting the three first time shooters) shot their best ever, two tied their best, two shot their second best, and one shot his third best. Only one shooter did not shoot at least his third best.
The first station had a repeat and on report bird that went moderately fast and low from right to left. The second station had a bird that went high, slow, straight out, and dropped quickly and a low left to right bird that also dropped quickly. The third station had a bird going high, straight out, and slightly to the right and a slow bird coming towards the shooter at a left to right angle. The fourth station had a fast, low bird that went left to right (which required a big lead) and a hooking bird that went high and right to left. The fifth station had a high, moderately fast bird that went straight out but was 20 yards off to the left and a sneaky bird that came in through the bushes, curving towards the shooter, and dropping fast.
Tim and I and Ken and Ryan didn't shoot in the same groups so we didn't have any head to head competition, but Kenneth and Paul Ellis had quite a contest. Kenneth jumped out to a four bird leave on their first station. He maintained his lead through their second and third stations. Paul caught up one on their fourth station. He caught up two on their fifth station. On the last station (we shot the first station twice) Paul beat Kenneth by one, and tied it up. Tim is noted for shooting 29 targets in a row and 36 out of his first 37 targets (before going 7 out of his last 13)! By comparison I shot 16 targets in a row and 34 out of my first 37 and then 9 out of my last 13.
Ten shooters also shot a round of skeet.
Check out the Sporting Clay and Five Stand Shoots Scorecard for history, finishes, and averages.