The Meadows Shoot Report, November 9th, 2006

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The Meadows, December 9th, 2006

By The Rafflemeister

Once again, I'm afraid I can't permit myself to plunge directly into the shoot commentary without writing a few lines about another loyal SSC member who died the day after our visit to the Meadows. I did not know Kenneth Thomas as well as I knew Mitch Powell, but as luck would have it, I was squadded with him at Ocmulgee on November 18, which turned out to be Kenneth's final shoot with our club. In fact, Kenneth was kind enough to let me ride around with him in his motorized vehicle. I don't refer to it as a "golf cart" because it was one of those vehicles that look more like a small, open-cabbed pickup truck than a golf cart. Ken's appeared to have an engine about as powerful as the one in my Camry, and it scrambled effortlessly up and down the many steep slopes along the Ocmulgee course. I asked him if he used the vehicle in his work and he answered that he used it all the time in his construction business. He added, not without a little pride, that his company was responsible for much of the work on the Georgia Aquarium. I'm sorry to say that I didn't take any photos of Kenneth during the shoot because I followed right after him in the shooting rotation, and it is my habit to put the camera away and look at the targets whenever I am the "on deck" shooter. For those of you who didn't know Kenneth Thomas, I suppose I could describe him as the great big guy with the yellow trapper tip bucket. He frequently took on the responsibility of collecting trapper tips as one of his contributions to the functioning of the SSC. He was a large man, and as he loomed over you at lunch proffering the yellow bucket, you might have felt compelled to empty your wallet (credit cards and all) into the container followed by your watch and ring as well......except, that is, for the twinkle that always seemed present at the corner of his eye. It is pretty much established protocol at an SSC outing for squad members to shake hands and exchange a perfunctory "Enjoyed it" or "That was fun," or "Enjoyed shooting with you," after the last station of the round. As sincere as these expressions may be, they are hardly what you would choose to say to someone who you knew you would never see again, but alas, you can't always know when you are saying your last words to a person, so those words will have to serve. It was fun shooting with you, Kenneth, we enjoyed every minute of it. The weather forecast for the shoot called for unseasonably low temperatures in the morning, so many of us who signed up to shoot the early rotation were expecting pretty uncomfortable conditions. The temperature was in the 30's at the opening shots, but almost all of the stations were situated in full sunlight and there was virtually no wind at all. Consequently, although we may have been shooting with a layer or two more clothing than was absolutely ideal, it is pretty difficult to cite the cold as a strong factor for missed targets in the early flight....difficult, but not impossible. The course that The Meadows presented to the SSC on this brisk, but sunny, December day was not as difficult as the Dons' shoot, but no one could accuse The Meadows of coddling the club with powder puff targets. The relatively low par of 84 is further evidence that the targets were pretty stiff. There was a weird anomaly in the scores, however, as Divisions one, two and three were all won by the same score of 88! The sun was a bit of a factor at times, but there were no "eye test" presentations. The sun never rises very high in the sky this time of year, hence it is virtually impossible the set a loop course where the shooter is not looking in the direction of the sun on at least a couple of stations. Station one was a report pair of left-to-right crossers. The far one was at about 35 yards and moving fairly slowly, whereas the second one was a closer and faster presentation at less than 20 yards. The subtle difference in speeds and the fact that sun, in the morning at least, caused the far target to blend into the background, made this a tricky combination. I found it was very easy to shoot in front of the far target. Station three consisted of another report pair, but this time both targets were incomers originating from traps hidden deep in the woods. The first one spilled off to the right never rising above the tree line. This target was a little difficult for some shooters to pickup amidst the background, and I observed at least one occasion where the shooter in the box never saw the bird during its whole flight. Most shooters did take a crack at it, however, with various degrees of success. The most successful shooters seemed to be the ones who chose to break this target just as it peaked or just after it started to drop. The other bird came from the same general area in the woods, but it was thrown towards the left side of the stand and rose well above the trees to seemingly stand still for a moment before starting its decent. This one looked really, really fat silhouetted against the sky, but it wasn't as easy as it looked. I think a number of shooters experienced a kind of "buck fever" on this bird because it was so very visible as it hung apparently motionless against the bright sky. It looked to me like the shooters who had a problem with this bird were lulled into shooting it with a "dead" gun and the bird was escaping underneath their pattern. Station four started with a rabbit that was launched from far to the shooters left. The presentation offered the full side of the rabbit at about thirty yards, but since the trap was placed so far away, it gave most of us much more time than we needed (or wanted) to think about this bunny before it finally reached its break point. The second target of this report pair was a rising bird thrown from the shooter's right that quartered away to the left after crossing high in front of the stand. This second bird was where the sun gave us the most trouble in the late morning. Although the bird did not pass directly in front of the sun as I have seen from time to time, it did pass close enough below the sun that there was a moment when a tremendous glare was thrown off the gun barrel. By far the best way to handle this second bird was to whack it with a cylinder bore before it made it to where the sun would become a factor. I watched a number of shooters try to break this target after it had passed the sun, but it was a much longer and more difficult shot if you opted for this approach. Station five was arguably the most difficult pair of the day. The station was set on a ridge overlooking a deep, swampy depression in the woods. The first bird was thrown from a position well below and to the right of the stand. It raced away at a tricky angle, never rising even to the ground level of the shooting stand. Besides the mere distance and speed of this presentation, it was further complicated by the fact that the bird was hidden beneath the gun barrel at the moment of the shot. The report bird was an entirely different animal. This was a looping target thrown from the far side of the clearing and angled slightly towards the shooter. It started to stall just as it passed the middle of the clearing and then began to plunge precipitously into the brush on the near slope. The first shot of this pair was simply a long, difficult shot whereas the incomer proved to be deceptively tricky. I watched a number of experienced shooters leave this station with scores ranging from zero to three, but I also watched one fellow step into the stand and clean it like he was practicing shooting doubles on station seven of a skeet field. Station six consisted of two briskly thrown right-to-left crossers. It wasn't a tricky station, but it called for technical mastery...especially on the second bird which required the shooter to bring his gun all the way back to the right and restart his swing on the faster and more distant of the two shots. Station ten was a cockeyed pair starting with a quick and close quartering bird originating from behind and to the shooter's right followed by a high arching chandelle that fairly glowed against the perfect blue sky. The chandelle was one of those pesky biodegradable targets where the lighting conditions were perfect to show just how often a target is hit by a pellet or two without rendering a visible piece. I personally knocked what looked to me to be hatful of dust off of the final target of my final pair on this station, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't convince myself (or anyone else) that I had managed to detach the tiniest visible chip off of this target. Apart from the fact that the top three divisions were won with the same score of 88, the score spread was completely consistent with the SSC handicap system. Larry Farrow's 88 won him three raffle tickets in Division One, Justin Johnson's gave him the top spot in Division Two and Rusty Hill's fine performance put five targets between him and the number two man in Division Three, Harold Bozeman. Paul Ashley was runner up in Division Two with an 84. Joe Wunsch produced a fine two-under-par 82 to win Division Four followed by Anthony Gravitt whose 80 was good enough for the number two spot. Ronnie McClendon's 78 won Division Five by seven targets. His nearest competitor was Dick Douthat, Jr. who place second in that division with a 71. Ron Stone nosed out the competition in Division Six. His 62 was a single target ahead of Patty Crowder and Chuck Lebo who tied for the number two spot. This proved to be a pretty tough day for Division Seven where only two participants had a good enough day to qualify for a raffle ticket. Need I even add that The Meadows once again provided the SSC membership with a great stick-to-the-ribs luncheon consisting of a whole barbequed pig with all the trimmings.