The desert is pleasant this time of year. Mornings were mid-50s and then the desert sun heated things up to a toasty 80s during the hottest part of the afternoon. Wind is a constant at the Tucson Trap & Skeet club. Typically breezes are blowing at about 7 mph all day. Gusts reached about 12 mph while we were there, but we had apparently arrived after a particularly windy day wherein gusts reached over 20 mph.
The targets thrown varied between solid orange on one day to the NY Style with thin black rings the next. Target presentation was excellent, and despite the wind the targets remained nice most of the time.
Being clear across the country we knew very few of the shooters at this shoot. However, as you may expect, we did see a few names that we did recognize and the folks in the West are friendly. We did meet some buddies that we do see at other large tournaments and had a few outings (photos to follow).
Kay Ohye and Ray Stafford were the big shooters at this grand. Ray did in fact win the $10,000 for his 100 straight in handicap, but he may have had to split it because another fellow (I think from Montana) ran 100 straight during the preliminary handicap event as well.
I love this club. It is spacious, with ample room to lounge, play cards and socialize. They have a special area for those folks that must sit and watch the leader board all day, but I cannot say we did much of that. Their kitchen is definitely set up to cook for large shoots and they have a nifty after shoot bar.
This was the first time I had been to Tucson in years and Addison has never been to this sort of country. We spent a bunch of time cruising around, chatting and just exploring the club and grounds. As you know, I shoot all the events with Addison, so it is extremely challenging to arrange to get photos of us shooting. We did however get some photos of the club, other shooters and the surrounding foothills which we share below.
Overall, this is an excellent shoot and a great venue. If you have never been out west or shot out there, then we highly recommend the Tucson Trap & Skeet Club as a stop on your trip. Plane trips to Tucson take half the day. Tucson is also 3 hours behind us so be prepared for some serious jet lag when you are standing on the line the next day.
We shot the class championship Doubles and Preliminary Handicap on Friday (last squads), then the Singles Championship on Saturday and finished with the Doubles and Handicap Championships on Sunday. The highlights were that Addison tied with Zack Taylor (Strong SubJr from FL) for the Doubles class championship (92) and had a carry over which Addison won on Sunday (93) to take the Doubles Class Championship.
Addison's dad (read as me) shot one of my very best doubles scores of all time (87) and never even made the bottom of the leader board in my class. I was very pleased with the performance, and knew that you had pretty much plan on shooting mid-90s even in "D" class here.
Next, Mr. Jet Lag bumped into us both and we both fell flat on our faces during the Preliminary Handicap event. Jim (84) and Addison (83) could not even put 9s in front. We grabbed dinner and made it an early night.
Saturday was the 200 target Singles Championship. The birds were lovely and there was a ton of shooters--368 if I recall. My goal was a 94 for each 100, but I could only muster a 186. Although pleased with my 186 it did not even make the bottom slot on the board. There are some very strong shooters in all classes at a Grand. Addison, put together a respectable 190/200, which earned him a Runner-Up "D" Class trophy but could only put him in third place with the big SubJr shooters.
We topped off Saturday afternoon with a hike (Hugh Norris Trail to Wasson Peak in the Saguaro National Park http://www.protrails.com/trail.php?trailID=202) up one of the small foothill mountains (sic) with Tom Boyer and his son Emanuel (All American Alt-Team SubJr from Tarpon Springs, FL), who we often encounter at larger shoots. For us both, this hike remains the highlight of the trip.
Sunday was a day when we woke up finally feeling ourselves. (Well at least Addison was...I had still been up every two hours with the Jet Lag and recovering from our little foothill hike). Addison knew he was in a carry-over with Zack from Friday and wanted to do well. We were wondering about this when we discovered that we were on Bank #3. On Saturday we had both done lousy on Trap #2 (throwing low birds) and just OK on Trap #3. Now we were starting on Trap #3.
Addison led the squad well. The two of us shot with the Proshot Recoil team shooters and I think the whole squad did well. Well, alright, I could have shot better. Addison started with a 48 for the first 50 and finished with a solid 93. It won the carry over from Friday but was not enough but to tie for third in SubJr. His buddy Nate (Emanuel) won with a stellar 96.
In addition to escorting Addison and trying to shoot well myself, I had two very specific goals during this shoot. One was to shoot a test round with a Ceasar Guerini and another was to shoot a test round with a Blazer. I was fortunate to have been able to get a round of handicap with each gun. This musical guns sort of ruined my handicap round later (trigger pull and timing went to pot), but I was able to test shoot both guns.
Hardy Musselman (a very nice SubJr from the famous Hardy Ranch, owned by his family for 5 generations, in Wyoming) joined our squad for Handicap. The focus of these two young shooters was amazing to watch. Addison broke a 96 to win the Handicap Championship and earn a 1/2 yard punch.
Unfortunately, right off the line he began complaining of dizziness and dry mouth so we rushed in for several liters of water and to get him out of the heat. (Deserts take no prisoners.) Although he was called to the line to shoot off for 3rd place Doubles with Hardy a bit later, he elected to forfeit (apologies to Hardy and his father) the points in order to avoid an incident.
Hardy was a little disappointed, and I know how he feels. In leaving we gave Hardy all the extra boxes of shells that we could not return with on the plane. This did not make up for a memorable shoot-off, but it did take the edge off
.Now for the photos...enjoy.
We kinda knew we were no longer in Kansas (Cary, NC) when we saw these multi-colored cactus plants after our arrival in the Tucson International airport.
On the way to the Tucson Trap & Skeet club Addison was amused by the cacti that grow all the way up the foothills in the area. He snapped several photos of cactus along highway 86.
and
and
The cactus plants grow all the way to the top of the hills.
Some of the cactus are particularly tall...
After turning into Tucson Trap & Skeet we were stunned at the size of the vast parking lot. Hundreds of cars and trailers were lined up. It was a bit overwhelming. The following is a view of cars and trailers about half way into the lot.
If you turn around and look back to the East you see the following.
And there are tons of cars parked in back of the shooting lines as well...
Finally, you reach the clubhouse of Tucson Trap and Skeet...
another angle...
If you were to do a 180 degree turn, you would see the following nifty view.
At all large tournaments we pay honor to the American Flag and the Canadian Flag.
Of course the background in Tucson is not quite like anything we have in North Carolina. It is its own version of nice. Below is a shot of two fellows getting in a few morning shots on the practice trap.
The sky is pristine for this full squad shooting on Field #9.
You can see the distant mountains/foothills in background beyond the squad shooting beside them on Field #10.
Here is another full squad on Field #11.
With so many shooters it was pretty much full squads all the way down.
Here is another on Field #24.
As you walked down the line you would always see folks.
Here is a photo of one of the junior shooters conferring with another shooter.
I never heard the statistics on the number of targets thrown all week, but I image with all the trucks of targets, it was a bunch.
Then there is the scoreboard view...
Do not get me wrong, there were short periods of quietude wherein you could take in the sights...
And, not all squads were completely full...
But they were all interesting with the cactus and foothills surrounding them.
