Here are 10 Questions put to Mike Hafley the event manager of the 2010 North American Parcours de Chasse Championships. The event is to be held March 25-28 at Dogwood Hollow Sporting Clays in Bucksnort, TN outside of Nashville. The event is a North American and World Cup Qualifier. Being a new facility it can be considered a ‘greenfield’ site which will provide FITASC target setter Ben Husthwaite a fantastic opportunity to entertain us with some UK style targets. This is going to be a must shoot event for 2010.
International Sporting Clays: Being the new club on the block, what can shooters expect? What is the facility and terrain like at Dogwood Hollow?
Mike Hafley: Planning an event and building a club at the same time does have its advantages. For those that haven’t seen a picture of the grounds, they need to take a look at the one on our site. It will give you a better idea of what I mean. With the layout, we could have any number of courses running at the same time.
Knowing what people are expecting out of this event while we are building the courses has allowed me to pick specific areas to work with. This has also allowed us to design the layouts in a way that best utilizes the terrain available.
A good example of this is while cleaning an area out to put Parcours, we chose four spots in the cleared off area to build terrain. I took marking paint and marked squares of different sizes and marked a large M in the middle of them. The dozer operator never asked a question he knew exactly what I had in mind. The next time I showed up we had four assorted mounds of dirt where the paint had been. We were able to lay it out to add specialty features to what is already good terrain.
When describing the club, I often compare the lay of the terrain to Elk Creek which was the host club for last year’s US Open. Most shooters have been there and are able to visualize the club. Where we differ is the way our hills lay out. We have what I call rolling hills where the inclines are less drastic than theirs. Therefore, you are not always shooting on your heels or your toes, but to look across the wooded landscape it has the same appearance.
Purchasing new ground for a club in a somewhat anti-shooting climate could be somewhat challenging in itself. We were fortunate to be able to purchase ground and complete the zoning regulations in an area that thinks it’s still ok to shoot for recreation. We had criteria that the piece of ground had to meet before it would be considered. The property needed easy access from the interstate, to be located within an hour of Nashville, pass zoning regulations, be close to hotels and offer the best terrain available and still meet the other requirements. Affordability was also a factor, and many of you know land can be all over the place price wise.
When we saw the 828 acres that we eventually purchased, it met all of the criteria. We are located 5 miles off of interstate 40; we are also within 20 minutes of 1000-1500 hotel rooms. This along with its easy access from Nashville and its airport, with the rolling terrain made it the perfect location.
With that said, there are also a few drawbacks to buying ground that is remote enough for a gun club. We are located in an area that has very little housing. This means a lack of utilities which we are now making arrangements to take care of. Unfortunately, those will not be in place for this event. We do, however, have a plan in place that allows us to provide all of the everyday services that people expect.
ISC: What equipment is in use and are there any towers?
MH: Promatic has stepped in to help us as a sponsor of the event. Throughout the courses and the games we will have over 100 traps. They have helped me out with shoots in the past. They provide us a premium service with the use of machines as well as a trained technician. Having the technician is great from a club owner’s perspective, as it lightens our load tremendously knowing that help is available if things get hectic. We will have two 45 foot man lifts for the four days of the event that will be used as towers.
ISC: What kind of weather can we expect at tournament time?
MH: The weather will be spring like. I did some research before picking the date. Over the last 12 years the weather for 10 of those years has been 70’s and nice. On the flip side, two of the years we won’t discuss. I am sure early morning and late evening jackets will be in order.
ISC: You are known for being a good target setter yourself, what went into the decision to bring in Ben Husthwaite?
MH: I will still be involved with some of the target setting. Ben will be setting the FITASC. I will set the Dogwood Cup, Sub-Gauges, Super Sporting as well as the Preliminary.
I had two or three things on my mind when the decision was made to bring in another target setter. One was, of course, to divide the load between myself and someone else. On an event this size, it just makes it easier if there is more than one set of hands involved. I had compiled a short list of target setters that I would like to work with and Ben was immediately put on the list. A few emails and phone calls later the deal was struck.
The other was to add variety over the course of the event. Target setters have a certain style, no matter what happens it shows in every course they set. They evolve as target setters, but some of the same flare still hangs on (which is not bad). My goal was to vary the styles between the two events and provide the shooters with what I hope will be the ultimate mix of targets.
I don’t have a target setting ego, if someone tosses up a big number on Saturday, so be it. That doesn’t mean I have to get even on Sunday. I try to set targets that are enjoyable and challenging, and the rest takes care of itself. When you add Ben and his background, we should have a terrific weekend with the blended styles.
ISC: What is the event format? Old system?
MH: We will have 8 Parcours that will run as old style with a maximum of 192 entries. Right now we have 50 or so spots left to fill.
ISC: Who is expected to be on the referee staff?
MH: This is always a challenge. Thankfully a couple things have been put into place. Barry Kelly is in charge of the courses at The Willows. His club is hosting the US Open in June this year. They are located a couple of hours from ours, and he needs certified refs for the US Open. Barry and I have been working on getting several referees certified before our event. That will give all of the clubs in this area a pool of refs to draw from. The balance will come from refs Ashleigh and I have met over the years shooting competitively. The NSCA also provides an up to date list of certified refs to draw from.
ISC: What vendors do you expect to have displays and what kind of food and drink will be available at the shooting grounds?
MH: I have commitments from a few vendors right now. Promatic, Shooting Supplies by Shelia, PMS Firearms (Mike and Granny Sherman) and S&S Plus stocks will also be there doing fittings. There are a few others that are interested but haven’t made a commitment to us yet. We will have food vendors on site. We normally take care of meals in-house, but with the new grounds and all we decided to hire a food vendor instead.
ISC: When flying in to the event I assume Nashville is the best airport?
MH: Nashville is the closest airport. It is located just over and hour from the club. It is located just east of Nashville and we are just west. Both the airport and the club are located off of interstate 40.
ISC: For people bringing their own carts will there be parking and security for the carts overnight? Also are there any on-site RV spaces?
MH: We will have someone on site at all times during the events. We will also have shuttles run back and forth to the Parcours as well as the course. I think we have a total of four shuttles lined up to take people to various locations. We will have places for RV’s to park if they are self contained.
ISC: What else would you like competitors or spectators to know?
MH: I have been letting everyone I talk to know that overall this club will be developed over the next few years. The plans are laid
out to make it into what we hope is a facility that will be second-to-none. I have also mentioned that I was happy our first event will be a FITASC event. With that type of event, as long as everything looks good and the targets are as billed, the rest will be ok. Pristine is not what we are after on this first event. We are looking at providing a quality shooting experience that will provide the competitors a really good event overall.
I have joked about the fact that there isn’t enough money in the budget to hire a gardener just yet. We will be working on building pole barns, shelters and a lodge over the next year. Right now we are working out of a portable office and purchasing equipment as well as working on the utilities situation. We will do our best to provide everything needed at this shoot to allow everyone to have a good time, but I also have to stay within budget as we improve and build.
More details:
If you’ve not been in sporting clays a while you might wonder about having such a prestigious event at a new club in of all places, Tennessee. In fact the area has a long and deep relationship with sporting clays. One of the greatest sporting grounds ever was located just outside of Nashville. The now defunct Grinders Switch Club was the hallowed site of many great sporting events and was known for its Little Switzerland stations. Stations built into a steep slope with many FITASC like target presentations.
It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that Dogwood Hollow will have shades of Grinders Switch being located not far from the old site. For you high-gun types there will also be an ESP event running concurrently the "Dogwood Cup." Click in the interactive map below for the location of Dogwood Hollow and host Hotel locations. Hotels rates for the event are more than great. Down right cheap in fact.
View 2010 North American FITASC Champ. in a larger map
2010 North American Parcours de Chasse Championship
March 25-28, 2010
Dogwood Hollow Sporting Clays
Bucksnort, TN
International Sporting Clays.com thanks Mr. Mike Hafley for his cooperation.
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