I hope everyone is having a great Christmas and New Years. You are all very special people and make me so proud to be a part of all this. On behalf of Stacie and myself, thank you.

We have a surprise. Wednesday night, February 10, the night of our banquet, we will have a surprise guest speaker. This gentleman is what shooting sports is all about. He is the best ambassador I have ever met for our sport and one of the best people you will ever meet in your life. He agreed to speak to us on his way to another function. You are not going to want to miss this.

I had to move the time up 1/2 an hour to 5:30 pm. This is to give our speaker time to make his other commitment. So please note the date and time February 10, 2010. At 5:30 pm.

Remember, you can bring your immediate families or girlfriend, boyfriend, or the kids. We will have a couple of games to play for the kids.

Besides the awards being given out, we will introduce all the new members and talk about the upcoming year. I’m really excited about the future. We have a few irons in the fire and Danny will talk about one of them the night of the banquet.

Also, this is a potluck, so bring a dish to pass.

God Bless you all

Jack

http://www.hitchingpostevents.com/

The Hitching Post
2940 S. Ravenna Rd
Ravenna, MI 49451

Last Wednesday, W.W.S.C. was supposed to be closed. In an unexpected turn of events, one of the Charter Members, made us an offer that we couldn’t refuse. Art took time out of his schedule and opened the club for us. This was a great gesture on his part and provided the team with an opportunity to work on some things.

The team took full advantage of the opportunity, with trap field #1 set up to repeat the same throw over and over, this provided some great practice for those that were having trouble with a particular shot. Dan and Uncle Joe used this as a coaching session for each shooter that wanted it.

Trap field #2 was set up as a regular field and a lot of the team was able to post some scores. We had a little mist in the air and at times the wind kicked up pretty good. But all in all, the scores were decent. Everyone was concentrating hard and having a tremendous time doing it.

After the last line was shot, we gathered up the equipment and spent some quality time in the club house shootin the breeze. The night was memorable. Thanks to everyone who made it out and helped make it happen. You guys are the best!

Another week and another scoring update. Results are here.

This is getting a little exciting. I went ahead and added a few more simple calculations^* to give us an idea of what team was ahead before we got to the end of the season. The results: If we all keep shooting like we’re are Uncle Joe’s team will come out ahead by 3 birds. So, we’re pretty close right now.

*: I should probably come up with a better model than I’m using right now that tosses out outliers in previous performances when calculating future performance. Some of the previous scores are very unlikely to ever appear on the sheet again; like Arlen’s 3 and Jack’s 25. Just kidding, Jack.

I’ve updated the online score sheet with this Wednesday’s results. You can find them here.

The sun had set, the lights were on and the wind had died down…the perfect conditions for shooting.

The Tri-Star had put up a pretty decent round an hour before. Now the decision had to be made. Should the next round be registered? A good portion of the whole team had shown up tonight and there was magic in the air. All the tea leaves said yes, count it.

The line was started on station 2. The birds were flying consistent and seemed to draw the Tri-Star‘s barrel into the perfect point of break. It felt so right…it was automatic. Station 3 and 4, same scenario. The Tri-Star was doing all the work and grinding up bird after bird. Could this be the night? Station 5 loomed. The heart was starting to pound. The first bird on five was a hard right, the Tri-Star came off the hold point, led the bird by a foot, fired…followed through and a solid break. Another one ground up.

Number 1 station was all that was left. The temperature was cold, every breath was visible. Steady, keep concentrating, control the breathing, stay into the gun, follow through, feet placement. Come on heart, slow down a bit. 24 straight so far. Could this be the night? The final bird, a straight away…no excuses, it’s the easiest shot and it wasn’t a hard left. Could this be the night? The Tri-Star pulled into position. Floated the bird 35 yards out. Just got to break this last bird. Squeeze the trigger, don’t flinch.

Yes, tonight was the night.

I’ve added a link on the left, to the 2009 Fall League Scores page. Scores will be updated as we progress.

I think Jack summed up our meeting in the previous post’s comments pretty well:

Thanks to everyone who came out for our second annual “Off A Lot” kickoff. It was a wonderful time shared with wonderful people.

Lots of new faces this year, I can’t put into words how excited I am, at how the “Off A Lot” team has taken on a life of it’s own. The sky truly is the limit.

There is something special in watching someone shoot their first line of trap, there is a sense of apprehension, awe, anticipation, wonder and a hunger to excel. All these different emotions jumbling around inside a person. I call it the human element. Well, we were able to watch some people shoot their first lines yesterday evening and it just added to the magic of the night.

Special thanks to Uncle Joe and Danny. I don’t think Danny quit teaching all night. Every time I turned around, he was showing somebody something or explaining something else. I swear to God, he missed his calling in life, he is such a good shooting instructor. We truly are lucky to have both Danny and Uncle Joe.

Personally I’m completely blown away that the group is 19 strong as of our meeting this Wednesday. That’s just amazing to me and I can’t wait to see what this group looks like a year from now!

Here’s some pictures from the evening’s shooting activities. Click the thumbnail for a larger version.

The 2009 "Off A Lot" Shooters and Bell the Labrador.

Arlen is hiding behind Uncle Joe in all the group pictures. If you zoom in on the big version of this picture you can see his ears growing out of Uncle Joe’s neck.

Joe Sr. showing us how it's done

Here's Doug giving us his good side.

Joe with his Ithaca 37 at station 5

Danny delivering 1oz of lead shot at 1145fps. Just a hair bit faster than USPS 1st class.

Ben running his Remington 870. He doesn't have to point upwards as much as some of us.

Stephanie ran her lines with a 20 gauge Benelli Nova

Ted working his Mossberg 535

Here we see Danny trying to bust clays with his Jedi mind control

Jack got to take his new TriStar out that night

Justin makes a shooting and a fashion statement

Dick gettin it done with his Browning

Opie operating his "Lemon Hundred"

Dale working the over and under

Don contemplating which trap house to shoot first

Nick showing proper form while breaking a clay

Brian from last fall

Ray before he got his new shotty

Here is our Chaplain Arlen

Don before his shoulder surgery

2008 "Off A Lot"