July 6th Smoke Report
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2026 10:47 pm
I hope your area got a bit of that rain that passed through Sunday afternoon. Other than that, it has been dry and hot in the triad. 2 day shoot at Buckhorn over the weekend with NC shooters in Kentucky, former NC resident in Wyoming and no NC shooters at the VA State shoot.
Buckhorn hosted a two-day event and yes, it was a bit hot in Mebane. Saturday Mark Cox won the singles, James Fisher won the handicap and BIGD Tollison won the doubles. Big shout out to Paula Fox for getting out and registering some targets and hopefully you can live up to that “B” classification one day. Sunday James Fisher and Mark Spoon tied with 96’s in the singles, four 84’s in the caps with Fisher, High, Alford and Cox and not sure of the winner. James Fisher was hi-gun in the dubs with a solid 93. Buckhorn shoots next on September 5-7…..
After a great outing at the Arkansas State Shoot Dan Johnson attended the Wyoming State Shoot in Laramie Wyoming. That was a 13-hour drive from Ash Flat AR. WY is a 4-day shoot and when I was tracking the weather it only reported winds 10-15 most days. Dan reported winds in the 30mph range at times with gusts possibly to 40mph. In event 9 Darrel Jones Singles Dan won NR Vet with a 97. Then came the weekend with 99/97 in the singles and 1 bird off NR Vet. Doubles yielded a 92 and handicap produced a 96. That 96 led to a three-way shootoff with Dan a few birds away from the winner with the lone 25. All in all, a great outing considering the conditions and the travel. Dan called Sunday night and he was headed to see Anthony in Cheyenne and will probably make the 13-hour ride Tuesday morning. I am trying to coerce him into attending the Grand since he is only 4 hours and 13 minutes (218 miles) from a good time in Illinois. Plus, he would get to see Tom Elbertson shoot in the Champion of Champions event on Wednesday I believe.
Kentucky fielded 379 singles shooters on Saturday, 272 doubles shooters and 326 handicap shooters on Sunday. 6 NC shooters attended the shoot and I will try to dig through shootscoreboard to see if anyone brought a trophy back to NC. Aaron Willoughby is the KY State Singles Champion with a 200, Doubles Champion Keith Ditto with a 99 and the KY Handicap Champ is 23-yard line shooter Eric Puckett with a 98. The HAA winner is Keith Ditto with 391 and Herb Lewis won the HOA with 1170. If you have never been to Berea KY put it on your list of places to shoot!
The Virginia State Shoot is in the books, and it was tough to follow the scores until Sunday night. Not sure of how attendance compares to previous years but only 117 singles shooters on Saturday. Michael Vickers is the VA State Singles Champion with a 198, Doubles Tristan Shupe and Tip Wight tied with 98’s, VA Handicap Champion is 26-yard shooter Curt Corey with a 94. The HAA winner is Rick Diana with 383 and the HOA winner is Junior shooter Tristan Shupe with 1232. The West Virginia State Shoot cranks up this Wednesday and NC shooter Isaac McCoy is heading up. Isaac broke his first 200 straight at the WVA event in Winchester in July 2025……
SC State Singles Champ Tom Elbertson brought a MEC 9000G back to life and it hasn’t been used since late 2014. The press used to belong to JC “JBird” Nunn, and we figured we would pass it on so it could be used. Tom sent me a video of him loading some shells and Dan said he had been out testing them. Tom will be attending the Grand this year to shoot in the COC and we wish him well!
The Durham County Wildlife Club will host a 300 target trapshoot this Saturday, the 11th of July. The program is available on www.shootata.com so go take a look. The weather is looking ok with temps in the low 90’s and a chance of t-storms. Please support your local clubs if possible.
That will do it and I hope everyone had a great 4th of July Holiday. Hello to Scott, Ronnie, Cowboy, Tim, Bobby, Phil, Mac, John, Art, Barron, Mark C, Mark S, Dan, John W, Jimmy D, SPY2, HGIII, Fish, Thea and Anne and until next week……smokem