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It's 6:30AM here in Tucson today...the quiet before the gathering. Addison and I are still getting ready at the hotel. We arrived on Saturday night and spent all yesterday touring Biosphere II (links to follow) and "chilling" before today. He had some homework to do on this trip, so he spent some time working on this as well.

I will try to upload some daily reports for those of you interested in what is likely to be this years' largest Satellite Grand. We always like coming out here because it is such a great shoot.

More to follow...wish us clear skies, low wind and targets that fall apart when we look at them hard

Here are the snacks staged...waiting to begin the tournament.



Below is a photo we took of Biospehere II.

I bit of a digression. Biosphere II, one of our planned excursions this trip to Tucson
is very cool. It is the largest Life Sciences experiment on the planet. It consists of
litterally acres of space inside an enclosed (used to be hermetically sealed) greenhouse
that features several climates...including fog desert, coastal ocean and rainforest.

Here is Addison overlooking their manmade ocean, complete with wave machine



...you go down an elevator and can view the same ocean from below...as Addison
does here...I could not resist the photo trick.


One of the fun elements of Tucson are the puple cactus that are visible as purple only
this time of year. Below is Addison in front of some of his favorite cactus.

Someone's wish came true...the skies were crystal clear, the weather reasonably warm
for this time of year (a long sleeved shirt was fine) and the winds low (for Tucson).




The targets were crstal clear, as this shot below shows.



If you want to shoot serious trap outside the Grand American, consider Tucson.
They have dramatically expanded since last year. Can you say 50 traps?



The increased traps has also seen a corresponding rise in attendance.




They also raized the practice building in front of the clubhouse and built the Taj Mahal
of practice trap buildings.



Here you can obtain a credit card type of stored value card and use the handy practice
kiosks that have multiple singles, handicap, doubles and bunker practice traps running
all day long.





No sooner had we registered and Addison was playing cards with several of his shooter buddies from other states. They were in a poker game by 8:45AM. It is looking like a
good shoot by the number of junior and sub junior shooters.

So, you are probably wanting to know how the first two preliminary events went today. Event 13 was the Prelimiary Singles event. Here is the score sheet (sorry, but zoom in on the photo to see the names in each category).

Addison was pleased with his 95, but knew at this type of shoot it was not a trophy
maker. Dad (read as moi) struggled with post 5 in singles and seemed to be beat by
ever hard right...barely mustered an 88.

Sharrod Oaks took the Sub Junior, with Ian Recla following a close second.

The Event 14 Preliminary Handicap follows.

We were both pleased with our handicap today. Addison has a 92, which was good,
but not a winner for this size shoot. A relatively unknown Sub Junior, Brandon Baggs,
shot a 98, topping all the Sub Juniors by five birds. Two other Sub Juniors tied for 93.

I felt my Handicap starting to come together today, but had a slow start of 21 on the
first round. A straight, followed by back to back 24s enabled me to finish with 94.
I was very happy with this...given that Addison had insisted we both reject the
2 yard reduction this year and remain on the 21 yard.

I met am AIM coach named Glenn from San Diego (seen shooting below) that had
put together an interesting homemade gun cart.






Of course, one sees some interesting shell stands in the southwest...




Here is just an interesting depth of field shot that I thought you might appreciate.

Addison shot a 98 in the Singles today, tying Cole Jackson, a AA Sub Junior from WY, for the lead and this carries over to Event 19.

He followed this with a 96 in handicap and received a 1/2 yard punch
Below is a photo of Addison receiving his punch.




and also tied for the lead with Ian Recla, who also earned his punch to the 27 yard.
Below is a photo of Ian receiving his pin.



They shot off this evening and Addison won the shoot-off with Ian 24/23 for the Handicap win today.

Below are a few photos from the Event #16 - Prescott Handicap
shoot-off for Sub Junior between Ian Recla and Addison Callan
(both 2012 All American Team members position #2 and #8).

Below is a shot of Ian, preparing to start at long yardage.




Below are four shots of Addison during the shoot-off.










Below is the result of the shoot-off:




Today was the start of the HOA, so he is currently tied for the lead in HOA for Sub Junior as well.


Dad redeemed himself from the dreadful 88 yesterday by squeaking out a 95 in singles.

Handicap was not so stella, with me back down to an 89.


Tomorrow night we have a private tour on an Observatory so will be out late.

Very late night at observatory. Will tell you all about it tomorrow. Have to get Addison to bed.

The doubles was going to look good in that Addison had a 48 in practice just before the event
at 8:30 AM. Unfortunately, we soon learned that the putzer shell I had experienced during
practice was the start of three more between the two of us and the shells were slow burns.
We had gotten a bad flat of factory loads and we both went down in flames. I shot an 80 and
Addison and 84. Brandon Baggs from California took the doubles with a high 97 and Ian,
whom Addison had shot off yesterday, took runner up with an 85.

Handicap faired much better for both of us with Addison pressing for anouther 96 and
another 1/2 yard punch to win the Class Handicap for Sub Junior outright. I met a
personal goal of posting a "9" in front for a 93.

Below is a photo of the Addison with the Tucson Handicap Championship trophy.



So, NC comes home with one preliminary handicap and one class handicap title for Sub
Junior. He is still in a carry over for singles until tomorrow.