In late May I took a little trip out to Dallas and was able to shoot over Labor Day weekend with my Father. On Saturday we shot the Texas Open at Rock Creek Clays in Grandview, TX about an hour South of Fort Worth. It’s a beautiful piece of property and they threw some decent targets on the pre-lim and main events with a few exceptions though. There were a few stands affected by the wind where the targets didn’t quite make it in. In one case even when the wind didn’t blow there was a silly left to right 50 yard plus looping target that popped out from behind the crown of a tree mid flight and never came in past 40 yards. Lots of zero’s were scored there, including me and I have not carded a zero on a station in over 10 months. That being said, it was an enjoyable shoot and I won my class. Visiting California native Justin Fox took HOA with a 97. Rock Creek is scheduled to hold the Texas State FITASC Championship in September and it should be an excellent shoot with such nice terrain and facilities to hold it on.
On Sunday we shot the Beretta Blast at Scott Robertson’s Elm Fork Shooting Sports park. Being called a ‘Blast’ you might have guessed that it was an NSCA big blast with 200+ shooters and you’d be right. At Elm Fork there are usually two 100 target courses on offer for competitions and you get a bit of a discount if you shoot them both. It’s more money on shoot day but us Texans can’t get enough of clays crushing so most shot both courses. The two courses at Elm Fork are the Woods course and the Meadows Course. The Woods course is usually a little easier than the more open ground of the tougher Meadows course. We started on the Meadows and the targets were nothing short of epic. These were the best targets I have shot so far in 2011 bar none.
There was the right to left battue flying among the telephone poles, you had to pick your spot and trust it. The deep left to right quartering away trap shot combined with a left to right crossing looper into the top of a tree. The rabbit that would roll over two small dirt mounds…or maybe go behind them. The elevated shooting position with a dead on eye level incomer from a small platform in front that faded to the right at the end. That one was combined with a fast right to left crosser on report, great shot.
?hd=1
I was shooting pretty well but I just couldn’t get a straight on any of the 13 stations dropping one or two the whole way. In the end I wound up 6th in class after dropping four birds on the last station. I know it’s up to me to connect with the target no matter what but some shooters need to learn to shut the hell up when others are in the box. Talking about lead at the top of your lungs after someone calls pull is like talking in the back swing of a golf shot, it’s rude. Anyway top score on the Meadows course was a 97 by young Zach Charbula.
On the Woods course which we shot in the afternoon after lunch we encountered the expected easier targets. I was fading fast as the max number of targets I can really concentrate on in a day is 150. I still managed to get three straights on the course and finished two birds up on my Meadows course score. Wasn’t good enough though and I finished 7th in class. High gun on the Woods course was posted by Kyler Ford, another 97.
If you’re in the North Texas area and you get a chance to shoot at either Rock Creek or Elm Fork I highly recommend it. At Elm Fork you’ll experience a busy high volume gun club and at Rock Creek you’ll experience the lower pressure ‘back 40′ feel. Both are fun. For complete scores please check the links provided above.
You might also like:
- Shoot Report: 2010 TargetLine Cup, Day 2 with video
- Shoot Report: 2010 TargetLine Cup, Day 3 wrap up with video
- Shoot Report: 2010 NSCA National Sporting Clays Championship
- Shoot report: 2009 Iron Man FITASC event at Rose City Flying Clays with VIDEO
- 2011 ClayShootingUSA Triple Classic Entries Open On New Website
