Several years ago at the Spartanburg Gun Club in South Carolina during the doubles event there was an unexpected pause in the shooting.
This was the last event of their regular scheduled monthly shoot. We had shot the singles and handicap events without issue and were finishing the day as is typical with the doubles.
I was shooting lead off. Fred Redmon was on the squad, post four and Ken Rhyne starting on post two. I can’t remember who filled the remaining posts.
Ken was quite the character. Any that were around while Ken was shooting registered trap targets will certainly remember a few of these “traits”.
The dogs.
Ken would regularly travel with up to 8 dogs. Seriously. He would park in whatever shade was available (if any) and would tie them to and around his vehicle. Water would be put out for them in multiple containers and dry food was made available to them. They were indeed spoiled to say the least.
The leader of the pack was a medium/large critter that answered to Snake. He was very sociable and offered his belly to anyone that wanted to rub it or his ears for scratching. The others were an array of mongrels of various size, color and description that also sought as much attention as they could get.
Ken had been a machinist by trade and as many machinists do, would dabble in gun repair/improvement.
At the time, Ken was shooting a Kolar combo. He had made an add on rib to both the unsingle and the over/under barrels. This in itself wasn’t unusual as add on ribs are fairly common on target shotguns. What was special about these ribs is he had made them out of balsa wood and were attached with electrical tape…….. This was only one aspect of ken’s attempted modifications.
Back to the beginning. We started the doubles event and had completed the first post and subsequently moved. We had all shot the first pair on our next post, it came back around, I shot my next pair, reloaded and was looking out over the trap house to watch the targets as the others took their turn. What followed was an extended period of………..nothing.
I turned to where Ken should have been and, his post was empty. Fred and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders in a what the heck is going on???
Ken was wandering around behind the 27 yard line talking to himself. His gun laying on the ground near the 20 yard line pad.
????????
Ken!
What are you doing?
Come to find out, he had tossed his gun on the ground in disgust. The release trigger(s) wouldn’t set. Ken had modified the triggers himself. Modified them to the point that they wouldn’t consistently work as designed.
Now, yes I am biased, but, Kolar factory triggers (pull or release) are 2nd to none. Mess with them at your peril.
At that point Ken was done for the day.
The next time we saw him he had replaced his modified hammers with the factory conversion hammers and was shooting without any more equipment related issues.
Ken was also deep into precision rifle shooting. Building and competing with some of his own creations. Unfortunately, he experienced a fire in his shop and lost most of his machinery.
I lost track of him after that and learned of his passing a few years ago.
Ken is now another page and story of trapshooting and North Carolina history. He was well liked by all that knew him. I mean hey, anybody that treats dogs like family (as they should) is a good soul.
See you next time wherever it is, Travel Safe. Dan
Pop Waters and Ken Rhyne - Watauga Gun Club