The weekend of April 20-22 saw over 350 shooters descend upon the rolling central California grasslands of Camanche Hills Hunting Preserve.   They were there to take part in the first ever Western Regional Championship.  First ever since the NSCA did away with the Zone system in favor of realigned regions where any shooter can win the championship.  Beautiful terrain, sunny weather and good targets made for an excellent few days of shooting.

The courses set among the lush green grassland of Camanche Hills were there for the taking.  Multiple scores were in the 90′s with Red main giving up a 99 and White a 97.  My overall impression of the courses was one of balance, there was a good mix of targets on both main courses.  I thought red stood out as the best course with the most interesting mix of targets.  It was was very entertaining to shoot.

Red main was set by David Fiedler and his cohorts.  Stand out presentations on Red were a close R-to-L crosser hugging a hill followed by an outgoing bird from the left that seemed to fly between the hill and a tree branch.  This was shot from an elevated platform.  The next station was a trap like  teal in front of the station but elevated on a hill followed by an incomer way to the shooters right that followed a curve of the side hill fading away.  Another one was a R-to-L crossing bird that curled in a bit followed by a R-to-L rabbit that was shot from an elevated stand.  You were shooting down on that rabbit, always a fun shot.  There were a few lifts present on the weekend to provide those tower shots and Red had a good combo of a battue and fading away standard off of a condor arm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJFjo-Wk5J8

White main also had a good balance of targets but was overshadowed by a huge battue thrown like a teal at all of 60+ yards.  It was a bit of a separator station on a course with no other targets like it.  It was definitely hittable provided you had hit the going away overhead that was thrown before it.  You definitely wanted to make sure you bagged that one.  Myself, I walked away with a one on this station.

Although I enjoyed all of the targets on the weekend I did feel that many of them could have used just a bit more distance.  The courses were fun but if there had been just a few more teeth in them, they would have been stellar.  There were only a couple of times all weekend where the presentation made me ponder how much lead to give it.  The majority of presentations were about getting the rhythm right.  Usually it was a quick one.

I didn’t shoot the sub-gauge events but reports from shooters weren’t good.  Seems there were some bad holdups along the course.  On Friday when our prelim slot rolled around we had to wait through about 5 squads from the previous flight before we could shoot.  Never figured out why that was as our flight got around the course in good time.  Another holdup was on White main on Sunday when the battue teal machine broke down.  A lot of stations had to be closed while they fixed that one.  Seems most shooters took these problems in stride though and didn’t let it ruin the weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMVvEz_y0UA

Very unusually for me I wasn’t able to shoot the FITASC event on the weekend but the parcours were set in some of the most beautiful terrain at Camanche Hills and looked to be expertly set by David Fiedler and crew.  Sorry I missed that one.

The event was well supported by various shooting and outdoor vendors and good food was on offer from vendors or in the club house.  Looked like good trade was done through the weekend.  A Saturday night party was thrown but we opted instead to have dinner at the nearby Camanche Hills Sportsman Dinner House and Lounge.  Unfortunately I can only give it two of five stars though the prime rib was good.

Top dog of the event was Texan Jeff Derrington shooting 99 and 94 to win the main. He also won the 5-stand.  RU was Kruger and 3rd was Scott Robertson who was having a fantastic weekend winning the Prelim and coming RU in FITASC and 5-stand.  In future, I think we should fly Scott in to all World events at the last possible minute, he seems to shoot better that way.  Lady HOA was Alexandra Wampler, RU Michelle Robbin and 3rd Desirae Edmunds.  FITASC was won by Gebben Miles.  For the complete list of results see:

WinscoreOnline.com

2010 World English Sporting Clay Champion and World FITASC Silver medalist Ben Husthwaite will be giving sporting clay shooting lessons at Coyote Valley Sporting Clays in Morgan Hill, California on October 14,15 and 16, 2010.  He will also be giving lessons at Rio Brazos Hunting Preserve in Houston Texas on the 26th.  Learn from the best!  To set up a lesson visit his website at BenHusthwaite.com or email him at bengun100(at)hotmail.com.

Triple B Clays in South El Monte, CA (just minutes from downtown L.A.) invites you to the 2010 Southern California Sporting Clay Championship on July 31- August 1st.  Events will consist of a Saturday 100 target Prelim event, a Saturday and Sunday 50 target 5-Stand event and a 150 target Sunday Main event.  Targets will be set by Bruce Barsotti, Zach Kienbaum and Jun Vergara.  Online pre-registration is available through iClays.  Shooters who register through iClays will be able to go through a "VIP" line at the club for a quick check in. 

If you haven’t been to TBC lately, I suggest you go and see the improvements they have made.  Targets and service have been above par lately and with Club Pro Zach Kienbaum and new General Manager Jeff Maiorino at the helm they are poised for great things.

iClays Scores

iClays Squads

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The California FITASC Open is being held on September 25-27, 2009 at Camanche Hills Hunting Preserve in Northern California. The event is 300 targets over 12, count ‘em, 12 old system layouts! Dave Fiedler is setting the targets and Cam Hills has some nice rolling terrain for him to work with so you should be able to find something you like! Spots are still available so sign up today at…

Wow is it hot in Los Angeles! It feels like I’m back in Texas with highs nearing the century mark. Because I’m a recent transplant to California it proved unfeasible for me to actually shoot in this years state championships. Lack of a suitable gun, lack of enough registered targets and general scheduling problems with my job all conspired against me. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all and you certainly can’t shoot ‘em all! I did however take a short drive down to Triple B Sporting Clays this morning the first day of competition to scope out the Parcours.

Triple B is located in El Monte City basically a ‘suburb’ of the behemoth Metropolis that is L.A. The big news and bit of controversy surrounding this years Cal State Champs is the so called "Green" FITASC event. An event thrown with Bio targets and the mandatory use of steel shot. This caused a certain amount of stir on the various Internet bulletin boards. Shooters fearing that this is a change in the game forced upon us by "green" interests. However, shoot management has made it clear that the requirement for the use of steel shot and bio’s was only brought about by the fact that the comp is taking place on virgin ground that happens to be a wetland. I watched several squads rotate through the Parcours and have to say that I saw no problem with the ammo or targets. I saw hard positive breaks with the now familiar white smoke ball.

A preliminary run down of the Parcours follows: Parcour 1 is set near the backstop of an open, flat archery range and features a berm on the shooters right which a target was thrown from as well as a target from a scissor lift that also held a machine that threw a target into Parcour 2. The targets were in the air but looked tricky especially due to some power lines in the background that were messing with my eyes big time. It also features a right to left rabbit. Parcour 2 is set in a semi wooded area with a small clearing. It features an old scraggly tree as its focal point with a teal, low left to right screamer and right to left looper all thrown around it. This one looks fun. Parcour 3 is set in a narrow clearing facing a long berm with several traps concealed behind it. This was the only Parcour where no squad was present so I haven’t yet seen the targets. Parcour 4 is set in another slightly wooded area with low bushy trees. Lots of distant targets and teal like shots. I didn’t bother to look at the English sporting course because I wasn’t in a cart, it was hot and as I get older I don’t care for it so much. FITASC is where it’s at!

The bad news for today’s outing was that my car overheated twice on the way back home. I had to retrieve water from a construction site and a church to keep moving along. Did I mention that it is hot! Anyway, if I can manage to get the car fixed I’ll make another foray into the fields of the 2008 California State Championships and make another report soon. Scores at: Wyshotgun.com