18th Annual Spring Trapshoot
Check out the Trapshoot gallery
Cal-Diego’s Eighteenth Annual Trapshoot was completely new when it took place on 6 through 8 April this year. We were at a new location, the San Diego Shotgun Sports Association’s trap range located on Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar, we were at a new hotel, Courtyard by Marriott, we used Cal-Diego’s transportation system, and we had a new twist in the course of competition. We replaced the 25 pair of handicap doubles with 50 handicap targets at the 24-yard line. That attracted 58 shooters on Friday and 63 on Saturday with 32 of them wheelers.
Friday dawned clear and warm but by lunch time we had almost complete cloud cover and lots of wind but even so we had 5 perfect scores in singles, one in handicap and one in doubles. Saturday we had a great southern California day, no clouds, just a slight breeze, and quite warm. That should have made for better scores and we had 7 prefect scores in singles but none in doubles or handicap. Both were great days with fun and camaraderie had by all.
Our out of town guests got an up close opportunity to enjoy the sound of freedom as the jets and helicopters worked from the Marine Corps Air Station. We also attracted some attention from the Marines. The Warrant Officer that runs the Control Tower came over to the range to see all of these wheeling vets shooting trap. She was a cute WO! Gotta love those marines.
Unfortunately we were shy one of Cal-Diego’s regular team members, Keith Rheinhardt. He lost the use of his shooting eye due to an unfortunate accident. However, that didn’t keep him from being there and providing valuable assistance throughout the entire event. Thanks Keith.
We also had an unfortunate problem with the ammunition we purchased from Winchester. They sent us all heavies and very few of our shooters choose to use them. Fortunately, John Lumn traded us some of his stock of lights for our heavies. Thanks John. He and Layne also registered a complaint. They said they needed to get new belts because of all of the great food our committee served. Good job committee!
This year’s Featured Artist Featured artist was Cal–Diego PVA´s own Moki Martin of Coronado, California. Moki is known for his watercolors, paintings and drawings of still lifes and sea birds.
Speaking of food! Hilda, Linda and Patti arrived at the range very early on both Friday and Saturday to prepare sausages, biscuits and gravy, eggs, fruit salad, pastries, and coffee. What a great way to start the day. For lunch on Friday we had steaks donated by Dan Fox and Fred Hoyle and cooked by John Lumn along with beans, pasta salad, potato salad and Hilda’s famous “Not for wimps” salsa. We also had Julian apple pies and macadamia nut cookies donated by Barbara Russell. On Saturday for lunch we had El Pollo Loco chicken with all of the trimmings along with more Julian apple pies and cookies. What a great job by our committee. Thank you, thank you!
Cal-Diego’s shooters acquitted themselves well. Our team came in second with 1328/1500 just 12 targets behind the Southeastern team. Our Doug Vann received the high wheelchair award with 286/300 just 3 targets behind the high overall shooter J. C. Craft. Bill Palmer earned Short Yardage Champion with 49/50. Joe Fox Sr. won Class C Singles Champion with 44/50. Mike Gureckas won Class AA Singles runner-up with 48/50 and Joe Fox Jr. got Singles runner-up for Friday with 50/50. This shoot was also the finale on the 9th Circuit. For the Circuit, Joseph Fox Jr. won High Overall, Bill Palmer earned Champion Class B Doubles and I won Runner-up in AA Class Singles.
By the way, the San Diego Shotgun Sports association is very involved in working with our young folks to teach them the sport of shot gunning. This year they will be sending 40 youths to the California State Shoot. There were3 of them at our event and they won several of our awards. JC Craft was top shooter with 289/300. De Savage earned Saturday Champion with 146/150 and Kambra Brawner got Doubles Champion for Friday with 48/50.
On a lighter note, Philip and Ann (Senior editor for Paraplegia News and Sports N’ Spokes) Santos brought their two cats and their fifth wheeler with them. On Thursday evening they drove to the hotel for dinner and when they returned to the range discovered that the gate was closed and locked. So, since Phil is somewhat portly and Ann is decidedly svelte, she slithered under the gate to attend to the needs of their two cats. (Sorry, we don’t have a picture of that to share with you). After a few calls Phil got the security code and joined Ann. Ann and Phil also volunteered their talents to provide a photographic history of this event and Phil did duty as our auctioneer for the Calcutta. Many thanks to both of them!