Clay Target Nation

The official magazine of the National Skeet Shooting Association and the National Sporting Clays Association

3rd Annual Pueblo Chile Open

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Tucson Gun Club was the host of the 3rd annual Pueblo Chile Open, moving to February 13-14 after two years as a fall event. The Tucson weather was terrific for the 4 x 100 shoot — virtually no wind and beautiful, sunny skies.

A couple of things make this shoot special. First, there is an outstanding traveling trophy that remains with the HOA winner for that year. This trophy is unique and would be a great addition to any gun room. The second and perhaps the coolest thing is the memorable lunch offered to all participants, a real gut-buster comprised of a grilled hamburger with up to five different melted cheese selections positioned on the bottom bun only, then smothered with homemade chili. This can only be eaten with a knife and fork and lots of napkins — very sloppy but yummy!

291 (600x600)Art Alcon was the sponsor of the traveling trophy and brainchild of the meal. Thanks to Art and the volunteer cooking crew! Larry Blount and the Tucson Gun Club did a terrific job running the event. The pullers were great and the trap help was very responsive. This was a customer-focused event and well done.

And yes, there was some shooting. There was even a squad of trap shooters who participated, one of whom is the “Wayne Mayes of trap” — Harlan Campbell. It’s great to see this kind of involvement, and I hope they had fun.

The next event was Saturday’s 28 gauge, and a lone 98 by Larry Blount was enough to prevail as champ. Class winners were Ryan Meger AA1, Tom Pavlack A1, Vernon Lucas B1, Chris Bagley C1, and Richard Hakalmazian D1.

Sunday rolls around and another great day to shoot. The 20 gauge was first, and finally a lone 100 was scored by Larry Blount, who ended up event champ. Class winners were Doug Coulter AA1, Brian Fanning A1, Stephen Ponder B1, Chance Dumond C1, and Thomas Wicklund D1.

The .410 was the last event, and typically no matter where you are in the country, the wind always “freshens.” True to form, the wind did pick up, but only a little. Doug Coulter was the event champ, followed by the class winners Brian Fanning AA1, Tom Pavlack A1, Stephen Ponder B1, Thomas Wicklund C1, and Richard Cochrane D1. Last year’s HOA champ, Brian Fanning, graciously handed over the traveling trophy to this year’s HOA champ, Larry Blount.

Other details that might make you go “hmmm” or “yeah” … 8 new NSSA members and 18 new state memberships. There was a generous $550 donation applied to a 12 gauge challenge that was split into a 9-way Lewis class, resulting in 35 of the 64 shooters winning some money.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this shoot a success, and hopefully we will see you next year.

— Contributed by Tom Pavlack

Click on any image to open gallery.

Download Digital Clay Target Nation for Offline Reading

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Download CTNNo matter how well connected we are through wifi in our homes, at work, in hotels, and even at the coffee shop, we all find ourselves in places where we can’t access the internet. Thus when our inaugural issue of Clay Target Nation came out in January, along with our interactive digital issue, we heard from some of you with a request: a digital version that you could download to your tablet or computer to read at those times when you’re without an internet connection. You asked and we answered.

The digital edition of Clay Target Nation can now be downloaded to any device for reading at your convenience, whether you’re on a plane, at the gun club, or even in a place where you just don’t want to connect to public wifi.

Open the digital issue online, then:

    On your computer: Look for the download icon  Download  in the grey panel on the right side of the screen.

    On your tablet: Access the menu in the upper left corner of the screen, then touch “All Issues.” You’ll be prompted to download the issue of your choice.

So read the digital version of Clay Target Nation however it’s most convenient to you — online, where you will experience the interactivity of live links, search capabilities, and navigational features, or offline, so you can read it anywhere. Either way, you’ll get the same great content that appears in the printed magazine.

2015 Pull for Our Veterans Exceeds Goal

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In its fourth year, the 2015 Pull for Our Veterans® event benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project© had two big goals — doubling its fundraising to $50,000 and adding a Friday evening event honoring service, commitment, and shared sacrifice. The event, hosted by the Oak Ridge Sportsmen’s Association in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, accomplished both, raising $55,571 for its cause.

In addition to the 100 shooters who each paid $100 to participate in Saturday and Sunday flights — with all proceeds going directly to the Wounded Warrior Project — on Friday, organizers hosted five Tennessee wounded warriors, 14 law enforcement officers from five area departments, and four active-duty Army soldiers to shoot skeet and trap.

For the first time, corporate sponsors including National Strategic Protective Services, Consolidated Nuclear Services, and Clayton Bank and Trust contributed to the success of the event. Entry fees for the wounded warriors, law enforcement officers, and active-duty soldiers who shot on Friday night were paid for by the donations of Pull for Our Veterans supporters. Dinner was sponsored by Newk’s. Each participant received an official Pull for Our Veterans hat, t-shirt, shooting towel, and bag of items from sponsors. By all accounts, the participants quickly bonded in their shared ethos of service, commitment, and shared sacrifice and had a great time.

See Our Event Photo Gallery Below

 

The opening ceremony began with a prayer by Chaplain (CPT) Gary Nistler, Jr., Battalion chaplain 844th EN Bn. SSG Leslie Dix played Taps, followed by the national anthem performed by TSgt Reggie Coleman. Both are members of the Air National Guard Band of the South, 572nd Air National Guard Band. The U.S. flag was raised by a USMC Honor Guard of Sgt. Felipe Holden and Cpl. Jordon Dohner, both from the 4th CEB D Co.

Saturday evening’s dinner at Saint Mary’s School in Oak Ridge was provided by Olive Garden with Sal Gonzalez, Jr. from the Wounded Warrior Project as guest speaker. Sal talked of his experiences in Iraq, his recovery after he was critically injured by an IED, life as an amputee, and then his recovery and life as a musician in Nashville. Sal ended his talk by singing a song he wrote entitled “Heroes.” Next up were the completion of the silent auction and the live auction where many deals were to be had for over 40 items. Saturday night alone the group raised $11,400.

Plans are already underway for the fifth annual Pull for Our Veterans skeet and trap shoot on September 16-18, 2016 in Oak Ridge, plus a new sporting clays event May 7-8 in Sweetwater, Tennessee. You can sign up to participate as a shooter, volunteer, sponsor, fundraiser, or donor at www.pfov.org. You can also find 2015 shoot results there.

— Reported by Richard Stouder, President, Pull for Our Veterans

 

Click on an image below to open and scroll through the gallery of images from the 2015 Pull for Our Veterans shoot.

Send Us Your Shoot Wrap-ups and News

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With our new magazine format and website, NSSA-NSCA has the opportunity to include reports from many of your shoots, along with photos. While we will have writers covering the largest of sporting clays and skeet events, we’d love to recognize some of those that we won’t be covering ourselves.

If you participated in an event, especially if you shot high-quality photos, you are invited to send us a shoot wrap-up.

We will be including some shoot reports in our printed magazine, some on ClayTargetNation.com, and some in both places. We also expect – especially when there’s a good selection of photos – to use some abbreviated wrap-ups in the magazine with a link to a longer article and photo gallery on the website.

In addition to shoot wrap-ups, we’d like to hear about other important news, especially perfect scores and other reasons that warrant kudos.

While we do not expect our members to be professional writers and photographers, we’ve compiled some pointers that will help you submit your best material, increase its likelihood of being published, and help us process it efficiently. Here are some points to keep in mind:

    • Be timely. Plan to write your article as soon as possible following the event. With magazine content deadlines about two months before the cover date, a long delay in submitting your news will make it out-of-date before it can be published.
    • Include the basics. Cover all the basic W’s: who, what, when, where, why. We do not have staff to do additional research, so we must depend on you for all the facts.
    • Get the facts correct. Make sure the winners are listed right, names spelled correctly, full name of the club given, etc.
    • Writing tips. Write your article first, then give it a title. When starting with a title, many people tend to treat it as a first sentence and leave out important facts from the actual first paragraph. Also, write in third-person (he, she, they) rather than first-person (I, we). Please, no inside jokes that most readers won’t understand. Write it as a reporter rather than a participant, assuming the reader knows only what you are telling them.
    • Shoot high-resolution digital photos. Shoot and send us photos in the highest possible resolution or largest size your camera allows. If they are not high-res, they probably won’t make the cut for the print magazine but may be suitable for ClayTargetNation.com. Sorry, we cannot accept photo prints.
    • Plan photography in advance. Consider having a professional photographer or an accomplished hobbyist to photograph important events. If possible, write captions or identify the people in the photos. On the website, we can create photo galleries, so if you have lots of good ones, it’s fine to send as many as you’d like. If you didn’t shoot the photos, be sure to tell us who did so we can give them credit.
    • Email it to us. Send us the story, photos, and any additional information in one email to CTN@nssa-nsca.com, with the name of the shoot in the subject line. If attaching large photos requires multiple emails, send as many as you need to but please be sure the shoot name is in the subject line of each. Because of the volume of email we receive, it’s easy to get materials mixed up if they aren’t properly labeled. If you have large files and have access to Dropbox, you may share your materials with skerr@nssa-nsca.com.
    • Include contact info. Always include the name and email address of the person submitting the information and who reported the event, if it’s different. We may need to contact you with a follow-up question, and we want to credit the person providing the material.

Submissions will be edited. Please be aware that we will edit your submissions to present them in the best way possible, as well as for space considerations. Also, we cannot promise that every submission will be published, although it is our hope to use as many as possible.

We look forward to receiving and publishing your shoot coverage, photos, and news! Contact us at CTN@nssa-nsca.com with any questions and your contributions.

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