Southern National Memorable Moments

[jneihouse]

George, You should have gotten a refund on that flight, you spent very little time in your seat, a lot of time in the bathroom lol...Still wondering how 3 innocent guys like us could get thrown out of a place that usually accomodates a rowdy, professional basketball team...

Another Winnsboro memory...Mongo forgoing the cups provided at the beer wagon for a gallon water jug...and watching him wander up several times to fill it up

Kitty

[Innocent]

1996 must be taking a toll on Ducky's memory....he hasn't posted one on it yet. Just waiting to see what he says before I put in my two cents worth of memories from my first NRA nationals with borrowed rifles....Innocent

[duckgumbo]

I am back! I have had the time to refresh my memory and make sure that the facts are correct. 1996 was the first year that we hosted both the Louisiana State Smallbore Rifle Silhouette Championship and the NRA Nationals. We ran the State shoot on Saturday and Sunday and had the NRA Nationals on Tuesday - Friday. We dedicated the 1996 to the Memory of Pierre Carpenter - A true gentleman and friend of the sport of silhouette shooting. Pierre and his wife Mary are instrumental in getting Jerry and me to get our gun club shooting "real" smallbore rifle silhouette as we originally were shooting the pistol size targets and thought that we were good shooting 19/40 on these targets! Pierre and Mary were true friends of Winnsboro Gun Club and taught Jerry and myself all that we needed to know about running matches and traveling to other venues.

The Louisiana State match was a huge success as we hosted teams from Mexico and Ireland for the first time. When the smoke had cleared, we had hosted 140 shooters from 22 state and 4 foreign countries! This was the first "big" match" that we had held and there were 15 National Records tied or broken! I distinctly remember Pedro Rueda, Jr shooting high 30's scores consistently and he was only 13 years old! This was the first year that we shot on the metal backstops. As usual, there was a good bit of bullshit happening as Charlie McClure brought out the now infamous 2 " X 4 " Standard Rifle to prove that Troy Lawton could shoot ANY rifle and weird hats that Troy and William Zander wore to shoot-offs! Probably the most memorable moment for me was when Keith Kolojaco from Texas showed up on Sunday afternoon while we were setting up the awards tables. At that time we were presenting both Standard and Hunter Rifle Aggregate awards on Sunday! Keith did not realize that the Louisiana State Match has better prizes than the NRA National match and he did not miss another Louisiana match until he had a major heart attack in 2009. Keith told me many times that he would not miss a Louisiana match!

We had an off day on Monday for new arrivals and also for practice for the NRA Nationals. Several tours were given to shooters and their guests by both gun club members along with my Mother and several of her friends taking some of the ladies on a regional tour of the Northeast portion of Louisiana. We did have a couple of memorable moments that a masterpieces!

Henry Lee from Ireland had been in Pennsylvania at the NRA Nationals and was quite the Casanova! The first day of the match in Louisiana, all the Irish team had shown up at the range with the exception of Henry. I asked where he was and was told that he would be along later. He finally showed up with two young ladies and introduced me to them. I asked them were they from Rayville and was told that they were from Ridgway, Pennsylvania! They had driven all the way from Ridgway to stay with Henry for the weekend! Later that week, Jerry and I arranged for Sheriff's Deputy Jeb Guice to come to the Club and arrest Henry for "Crimes against Nature!" Henry was not too worried until Jeb got him almost to the gates of the Detention Center and then let him in on the joke!

The other moment was the first day of the NRA Nationals on Tuesday afternoon. After the last shot was fired, everyone wanted to know when the beer wagon would be open. I had asked Greg Connor of the NRA and he told me we could not open the beer wagon until after the last shot of shoot-offs was fired. I told him that everyone knew if they were in a shoot-off or not and we made sure that NO ONE got on the firing line with a beer or after drinking a beer or they would be disqualified. He still refused to open the beer wagon. I finally told everyone that asked to go ask Greg when HE would open the Budweiser wagon. He finally came to me and said it would be okay to tap the kegs!

There may be other memories, but I am sure that others will chime in here! What about it Mary? Also if pictures are wanted, we are still considering a book! Email me if you want to reserve a copy and if we gets 25 or more reserved, we will probably write the book.

[Innocent]

Boy, what a show that would be if this ever became a mini series on TV!
One of my first memories of the trip to the nationals at Winnsboro was the East and West end of the range target setters, separte tents, and equipment for each end of the range....and meeting Terry Johnson checking in the rifles, and I was shooting borrowed rifles from my mentor, the late Al "Pops" Smith, who insisted I shoot his rifles because I didn't have a scope on any of my rifles. THere were many phone conversations with Pops about the layout, and conditions of the match and range.
I do recall David calling out the number of pounds of ice consumed that week, as well as the amount of beer consumed. both incredible figures, that have been surpassed many times since.
I was staying at a campground about 30 miles east of the range, so missed out on much of the evening events, but I do recall David repeatably confusing me with an Everglades swamp rat and making comments about the muck between my toes. Truth be known David, I am actually a beach bum from the wild west town of Cocoa Beach, at the height of the space race. I was impressed with how David and Jerry always seemed to come up with incredible nicknames for the shooters.
Impressive enough for me to attend this match again!

Innocent

[duckgumbo]

One thing that I have not put in the posts is that we started calling our match the Southern National Smallbore Rifle Silhouette Championship Match in 1995 after the NRA Silhouette Rules Committee turned us down as a host for the NRA National Match. We had sent in requests each year starting in 1994 accompanied by letters from our Governor, Lt. Governor, State Representative, State Senator and Mayor. These letters are the first that I know of from State officials accompanying a request for hosting a NRA National Match.

[duckgumbo]

1997

This was a fairly interesting year as we initially thought that we would be able to host another NRA National Match and pay off our debt on the target bays and other range improvements that we had made to the club in order to host the NRA Nationals. Unfortunately, Mr. Connor thought that it would be best to have the match in Ridgway, PA in 1997. The reasoning was that both Smallbore and Highpower Silhouette could be held in the same venue. I did attend the match in Ridgway and had a great time as I took my family with me and we were able to make a vacation of it after the match. I did tell Mr. Connor if we could not have another NRA National Match at Winnsboro Gun Club in 1998, we would hold our match at the SAME time as the NRA Nationals and give away cash prizes as well as our other awards. We had the backing of the State of Louisiana and were not worried about losing money on the match, we just wanted to be able to pay off the debt incurred in 1996.

Not too many things stand out to me regarding this match except that we did have several foreign competitors at the match. We did continue to apply for the NRA Nationals and were able to secure the 1998 bid. I do know that we were the first club to not have two National championships back-to-back in order to make it economically feasible to host this match. We hosted over 150 shooters for the first time in 1997 and had a great time. As usual, we had great food and adult beverages on the range as well as even more prizes from a growing number of National sponsors.

I am sure that some other shooters may remember something memorable from this year.

[hugh]

Sorry, you're gonna have to do better than that. 1997 was the year you got set up and in the dog house with your lovely wife. It was also the first year one of the Dallas boys was found wondering amongst the targets in the raw after hours..........How do you expect to sell a book with your posts?????

hugh

[psteiger]

Deatails guys, PLEASE. We need details!!!! Who won in 1997? When did Marguaita quit coming? What were the rules? Did Mary ever wear shoes? (I heard she did once). What kind of rifles did you give away? Did Jerry ever shoot in one of the matches, or did you make him drink the whole time? When did Wimpy get his nickname?


p

[duckgumbo]

1998

1998 was a banner year for Winnsboro Gun Club as we hosted the largest state championship match in NRA history with 155 competitors from 29 states as well as Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa! We were had Sean McDowell from the Irish Shooting Team appear on local television and radio prior to the match to help us advertise the match in our area. The Coonass Team Shoot had 32 teams. This year had some really great team names appear as I remember team names of 2 Coonasses and Tex-Mix Mix and 3 Cane Toads and a Cockroach!

The City of Winnsboro displayed the flags of each country around the 40'X80' American flag that was displayed for the first time that year.The competition was really hot and some superb scores were posted . Troy Lawton won the Standard Rifle and Cathy Winstead sone the Hunter Rifle. Lee O'Neil and Bob Snyder from Colorado were right at the top of the competition in both rifles.

We set a record that year for the amount of Budweiser products consumed at our match with 11 kegs being consumed in a week! All this was done AFTER the matches as we never have open taps of beer during the actual match. The amount of beer consumed is a testament to the alcohol capacity of the Irish, Mexicans and Australian Shooting Teams. We had a great time after each day just sitting around and hearing great stories from around the world. After the match, we presented the Australian Team of seven shooters with the actual Budweiser banner from the match that was signed by all the competitors that attended the match.

Two memorable moments that really stand out are about two individuals. One from Arkansas and one from Mississippi. I will start with the Mississippi shooter as he came into the match as an A class shooter in the state shoot. Dr Mat Johnson broke out into AA class by posting a AAA score the first match. He then broke out of AA by posting a Master Class score the second match! Many shooters accused him of sandbagging, but he is a doctor and was in residency at the time and only had time to shoot in a couple of matches prior to the state shoot. Jerry and I answered that how could you accuse him of sandbagging when he broke out of two classes in two days shooting the best possible scores that he could! Mat had been shooting sporadically at our club for about two years when he was able to get away. The scores that he posted are a testament to great sportsmanship and mental concentration!

The shooter that really comes to mind that year was from Arkansas. He was not a regular member of any club in Arkansas. About 6 - 8 weeks before the 1998 match, he (I am not sure of his name and if I knew it I would not post it here) called Jerry and wanted to drive down during the week and see the gun club. He arrived one afternoon and we took him out to the range. He had an Anschutz 54.18 MSR with a feather hanging from the barrel and an ankle weight that one would use for jogging. Jerry asked him what the weight was for and was informed that it was for balance. We informed him that it was against the rules and Jerry sold him a 10 inch times and some barrel weights. After he shot a little practice, we went into the club house for him to fill out his application. He had never shot in a registered match and informed Jerry and me that he was a Master Class Shooter as he shot 37 - 39 out of 40 scores on his practice range swingers at his house. He also said that he wanted to be in Master Class when he whipped Lawton, Zander, Winstead and the other Master Class shooters butts! Jerry and I exchanged looks that you can imagine what they looked like when you have heard the most outrageous bullshit that could come out of a dumbass's mouth! We did convince him to classify himself as a AAA shooter! He did attend the next match at the Gun Club and shot an A score in one rifle and a AA score in another rifle! He did not bring his book to the state shoot and had to shoot in Master Class for the state shoot! He shot just like Jerry and I predicted and went home on Monday so that he would be classified correctly for the NRA National Match! Needless to say, this shooter did not last too long in the sport!

[duckgumbo]

Hugh,

You have to post the details as I forget too much. We need more juicy details from you to add to our bullshit!

Steiger, forget who won as it does not matter! It WILL be in the book along with pictures!

[duckgumbo]

I certainly now have the dreaded CRS disease! C W Slaughter reminded me that 1997 was NRA Nationals in Raton. The Ridgway match must have been 1995. Anyway, Debbie and I are busy with wedding plans for Melissa and I will post Raton memories next week.

[Innocent]

Take lots of notes on the wedding...ou will want them. Will dig in my memory bank for some of the highlights...


Innocent

[duckgumbo]

Sorry for the delay, but between a new engagement and making wedding plans along with a killer cold, I just have not felt like posting!

That being said, I need to report on the trip to the 1997 NRA Nationals in Raton. The Irish Shooting Team had been at the Southern Nationals and I agreed to drive some of them to Raton. To the best of my recollections the Irish Team members along for the trip in my Suburban were John Walsh, Cormac Sarsfield, Sean McDowell along with our chauffeur Jarrod Breithaupt. We had gotten to the other side of Monroe. Louisiana on Interstate 20 about 8:30 AM on Monday morning and John Walsh wanted to know if there was any cold beer in the ice chest. John and Cormac started drinking beer then until we stopped in Dallas. We ate lunch in Shreveport at Ralph and Kacoo's for seafood and then on the road to the Texas Book Suppository Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. The Irish new more about the Kennedy Affair than the Tour Guide! They each said that Oswalt could not have killed him with the POS Russiae Karkano rifle.

We then made it to Amarillo for dinner at the Big Texan and had to talk John Walsh out of eating the 72 Ounce Steak dinner as I did not want him throwing up in my vehicle! We arrived in Raton and caught up with Massey, Lawton, Zander and the party crowd and had a great evening. My fondest memories of this match was that the Firing Line did NOT have a cover, the animals were painted black and the food provided at a cost to each individual that wished to eat out of a dumpy trailer preparing food! The wind was horrible and of course it rained! It rained sideways one day and the Slaughter's and Peery's had purchased tent flies that did not last 1 minute into the deluge! We used their tent flies to make a room out of my 10 X 10 tent with at least 15 people in it holding their guns while their soft cased got soaked by the run off. Most amazing was the fact that they did not allow a spotter to hold an umbrella over the shooter on the firing line and did NOT delay the match!

At the competitors meeting (What a joke) the majority wanted to have the targets painted white but Greg would not buy the paint as he had purchased the black paint! The dirt backgrounds made it damn hard to see the animals! Besides that they had 12 banks of each animal and ONE (1) target setter per bank when they required us to have a minimum of 20 target setters when we hosted Nationals!

Jarrod and Zach Brodie agreed to let me be on their team and we won AAA Team awards no thanks to me! I really remember Lones Wigger using his alibi cards as he had to rod out several empty cases that would not eject from his Kimber rifle. Massey collected all the unused alibi cards and presented them to Lones at one of the Awards Ceremony.

I also remember Troy going into Rams with a 30/30 for a chance at another perfect score. The wind started dong really weird stuff that even Massey and Troy could not dope and Troy wound up losing the Title by one shot! Strange things happen in Raton!

After the no cover on the firing line and the weather, I knew that this would be my last NRA National Match as I was tired of being treated like a second class citizen for the cost of the Match! Besides we were tired of being screwed over by Mr. Connor. I had so much fun back at the hotel each night that made up for the shooting conditions!

We did not stop traveling to quality matches and more on them later on. This is just to keep y'all guessing!