AUGUST 2005 NEWSLETTER © Phil Steinkraus, Editor
FOSTINI PREVAILS IN SANDANONA FLOOD
By Lans Christensen
It had been threatening rain all week but somehow those morbidly dark
skies never showed us anything. It was only natural to hope our luck
might hold for Sunday’s event but it wasn’t to be. Mother Nature
showed up as the uninvited guest who threatened to yank the tablecloth
out from under our Summertime/Summertime party. Even as we arrived
for the sign-in she was lurking in the wings, cloaked in humid air
that hung on us like a coat of paint, dripping and heavy. And just to
show some clout, she opened the valves and let it pour. It all looked
hopeless as the Travelers huddled under the Orvis Sandanona pavilion,
finishing coffee and pastry, and trying not to state the obvious.
Distant rumbles and a flash of lightning or two even had some
pessimistic shooters packing it in for the day. Al went off to consult
with Greater Powers at the National Weather Service and brought back
word that there would be a window of reasonable weather opening at
10:30 and we would start shooting then if lightning was not evident.
There was a collective sigh of “Yeah, Right” as the rain was incessant
and the sky was an unbroken gray blanket from one horizon to the
other. Well, if the battle was between Mother Nature and Al Anglace,
he came out on top: At 10:30 sharp the valves were shut off and the
last drop fell--we scrambled out to our stations and started firing!
As always, Orvis Sandanona put out a great variety of targets and
course designer Ed Gerrard created a gem for this occasion. The tone
was set at “Driven Distraction” where a true pair of teal rose out at
35 yards, but on a path that curled upward and fell, also in a curling
motion. Failure to read the line either up or down resulted in a miss.
“Settling Woodies” over the pond gave another subtle challenge. An
overhead bird quartering away and a fast dropper, looping in, made for
a tricky true pair that might have been more hittable as a report
pair. In this case, I felt the gloomy gray sky made the overhead
target tough to grasp visually, and by the time one had a hard focus,
the dropper was almost to ground. In fact, all the targets lacked that
high-visibility “snap” for the entire shoot, an excuse I certainly
used to good effect.
“Chukkar Gulch” was on the menu and gave us a very fast, quartering
incomer from across the gulch with a report screamer, left-to-right,
well below the platform. Incomers like these are unique: The closer
they get, the bigger the lead. At distance, one can just shoot the
front edge, but as they near and the angle increases, the lead
increases to three feet with more gun speed to match – and don’t
forget the pattern is decreasing in size at the same time. These
targets were a good challenge and fun to break. That could be said for
the whole course and was particularly true with my 28ga. in hand.
There was no target beyond the capabilities of the 28, and for those
who enjoy the small-gauge side events at the big blasts, consider
using this little gun at Travelers events. Great Practice!
The weather window stayed open long enough for all to finish the
course, and huge thanks must be extended to Brian and Peggy Long for
their hospitality and flexibility. Our delayed start created a
conflict with another group of afternoon shooters but the Longs and
the entire Sandanona staff handled the problem seamlessly and
graciously. A fine luncheon awaited in the air-conditioned comfort of
the pavilion where door prizes and Orvis gift certificates were handed
out to (almost all) the shooters.
Looking at the scores revealed that this was really an extraordinary
course. The HOA score was not through the roof, nor was the low score
below the basement, and the majority was bunched tightly and very
respectably in the high 60’s. Something to make everyone happy, and
again, more credit should go to the course setter, Ed Gerrard.
Tiger won The Open, Lance won the Tour, The Travelers own Paula Moore
surpassed all the U.S. women at the World FITASC Championship in
England, and we actually luck into a dry shoot at Sandanona--how great
is that?!
HOA Paul Fostini 83
Class 1 1st Jim Kline 82
2nd Lavert Cypher 79
3rd Russ Tagliarini 78
Class 2 1st Ed Schine 81
2nd Doug Moore 79
3rd Jim Comiotes 78
Class 3 1st Mike Primavera 75
2nd Dennis Morgan 68
3rd Dick Burns 68
Class 4 1st Jason Lenhardt 71
2nd Guy Bonaquisto 70
3rd Gary Fox 63
Class 5 1st Ben Slome 72
2nd Harry Bly 54
3rd Debbe Christensen 49
Class 6 1st Brandon Horn 52
2nd Simonne Renzuella 46
3rd Pat Slater 38
Ladies 1st Fran Gallogly 73
2nd Susie Clarke 68
3rd Cyndi Dalena 58
Mesdames Edie Ellis 60
Veterans 1st Bill Bretschger 80
2nd Bruce Gallato 78
3rd Mike Steiner 76
Sr. Veteran Martin Schroeder 78
Juniors 1st Max Hachmann 55
2nd John Karosy 45
3rd Amber Kirylak 40
High Guest George Masek 76
MORE OF PAULA’S LOVE
Nothing succeeds like success. Connecticut Traveler Paula Moore proved
this in spades when she finished as high American Lady at the World
FITASC Championship in England. Beating out such US FITASC stallworths
as Casey Atkinson and Dianne Nelson, not only is she the best of our
elite ladies team this year but her finishing score of 150 also placed
her eighth in the overall ladies competition!
Paula’s husband, Preston, also shot the championship and reports back
that the event was truly world-class and the parcours made good use of
topography with a lot of uphill and downhill shooting. The very
longest targets reached 70 plus yards and the highest overheads
reached 60 yards. Very surprising was the total absence of any high
driven targets anywhere—go figure! Preston added that the best targets
he figures he’s shot stateside were set by Peacedale’s, Richie
Frisella, Jr. and Dave Peckham and anyone who’s enjoyed layouts by
these designers would have loved the targets in England. Yes, the
targets were stiff, as they should be at a World Championship – but
far from impossible. His own excellent score of a 151 (let’s finally
hear it for the long suffering husbands of those world class lady
shooters!) certainly qualifies him to say that.
A FEW WORDS ON THE FINE ART OF REFEREEING
By Phil Steinkraus
I recently shot a charity event at one of our fine area clubs. I was
squaded with two gentlemen whom I’d never met but who seemed to be
experienced in shooting and were certainly dressed for the part. They
were old chums and while I engaged in banter with the rest of the
squad, these gents kept to themselves—while commandeering the
scorecards.
By about station four or five, the cards were finally passed to me—and
that’s when the schnitzel hit the fan! These guys didn’t really know
how to score at all. I’d figured not calling dead/lost was simply an
oversight born of sheer laziness—that the hits and misses were so
obvious as not to require confirmation. They’d in fact mis-scored a
bunch of cards, using the prehistorically infantile X’s and O’s method
that went out at about the time the Remington Pearless came in. We
were a mess and our squad dropped everything and spent the next five
minutes racking our brains trying to reconstruct our scores and at
this point several were contenders for HOA! We finally got it sorted
as fairly and accurately as we could remember, but was it right?
Should those cards have been allowed to count for the competition? It
was a Lewis class event and I figured, we did our best—no one was out
to cheat their way onto the leader board. I have, however, been put in
the uncomfortable position of winning a shoot on a card that--shall we
say--had a questionable provenance. One of the shooters on that
squad—a person I hadn’t seen before and haven’t seen since—insisted
his girlfriend keep score and while he flexed away in all his glorious
machismo she made a hash of the cards.
What am I getting at? Simply that looks can be deceiving and because
we play a game where deadly firearms are waved around like magic
wands, we as experienced shooters should never assume that anyone we
shoot with actually has a clue of what they’re doing, be it scoring or
gun safety.
My “friends” from the first paragraph were convinced they knew what
they were doing. They’d shot before and figured how difficult could
scoring be? They quickly found out just how imperative it is to know
everyone’s name on the squad and in what order they shoot. If they
didn’t know someone’s name, why couldn’t they just ask? It certainly
would have nipped our scoring problem in the bud, but they opted to
try to fake their way through instead. Why would two seemingly
intelligent, grown adults do this? My answer is theoretical but it
goes to the heart of the matter while simultaneously raising the point
of why this could be such a deadly safety issue.
My favorite James Bond movie is the Spy Who Loved Me. In it Roger
Moore (yes, I am a child of the 70’s) finds himself dismantling a
nuclear missile with a detonator counting down the seconds to
annihilation. At one point, someone asks him if he’s ever disarmed one
of these before and Moore coolly quips, “There has to be a first time
for everything!”
Did Bond actually know what he was doing? Had he been trained for this
or was he just trying to fake his way through? The beauty of Bond is
we’ll never know--the tragedy of Bond is why am I still pondering
these questions after all these years!?
My example illustrates the point that when in doubt, there are a lot
of men out there who simply try to fake it. It’s been my observation
that the number of men who believe they came out of the womb as great
shooters, never requiring lessons, practice, or so much as reading a
book on the subject is the exact same number who think they’re great
drivers, could have been astronauts, know their exact position on the
planet at all times and never heard of a pyramid scheme—at least not
until they buy into one!
Yes, we’re jackasses—I’m the first to admit it, but when we combine
ignorance, testosterone and loaded firearms, the stakes just become
too high. Therefore, I call on all experienced shooters to act as
deputies for the sport--to oversee, to second-guess and to treat the
safety of whatever squad you’re shooting on as your own personal
responsibility. Be a hard-ass: I know it’s embarrassing for them and
uncomfortable for you, but if you’re not sure that gun is empty ask
the shooter to show you. If you’re not sure that guy knows how to
score, ask him--or better yet, look over his shoulder to confirm he’s
got it right. If you’re not sure a shooter has the judgment not to
turn around in between shots on pairs, pointing a loaded gun at the
entire squad in the process, tell them your concerns beforehand or get
right behind them in the box to guard against it. If you see anyone
shooting a 12-gauge and they have any 20-gauge shells on their person,
FOR CHRIST SAKE, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
There’s a great old advertising line, “No one ever went broke
underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” It’s true.
There are a lot of stupid people out there but if we as experienced
shooters can do anything to help save them from themselves, it’ll
surely go a long way towards squaring the tab with the big man
upstairs… and Al Anglace.
TIPS FOR REFEREEING
1) If your squad started shooting on station ten, you should start
scoring where the card indicates station ten.
2) Read off the squad order before the first shooter enters the box
and make any changes then. 3) When a shooter enters the box, say his
name clearly and loud enough to hear over muffs, as in; “Bruce Buck is
in the box, Paula Moore on deck.”
4) Call out hits and misses. Scoring isn’t just about the guy holding
the pencil--he may be blind as a bat! Call “dead” and “lost” loud
enough for the squad to hear and refer to them for help with
questionable calls.
5) Be aware that true pairs can be shot two different ways--expect
some cowboys to try both.
6) Mark cards 12---3-4--. X’s and O’s may be fine for jacks and
tiddlywinks but when competitions are won or lost by a single target,
we owe it to the contenders to be accurate.
7) True pairs come under the “pair in the air rule” as in, if a
shooter breaks a target on a true pair but the other target never
appeared, nothing is established and the shooter must repeat the pair.
With report pairs, if the shooter shot at the first target, and the
second target didn’t appear, then the first target is established and
the pair is reshot with the shooter making a reasonable attempt at the
first target. Obviously, the concept of a reasonable attempt is
subjective, so use your best judgment. Also, the reality is we’ll
often experience chronic breakage problems with a particular trap on a
pair and if every shooter insisted on only correct pairs, the squad
would be there the entire day. Therefore, it is often prudent to
compromise by allowing a shooter to wait for one good target and then
score it. Following pairs--one right after the other--although
relatively rare, still crop up and are treated much the same as true
pairs, as in nothing is established if both targets don’t appear.
8) Interference: targets hitting leaves, birds flying past on a
target’s flight path, bugs landing on or stinging a shooter, people
suddenly appearing down range all come under the heading of
interference and shooters should be allowed some reasonable leeway in
the spirit of fairness. Having said that there is a breed of
competitor who will try to take advantage at every turn. Knowing the
difference and how to handle both situations is the essence of being a
good referee.
9) It seems that because sporting is such a social game, some people
feel no compulsion to pipe down while others are shooting. I believe
whoever is in the box has a right to quiet if they so choose,
therefore it’s the referees job to demand silence from the rest of the
squad--or at least move the coffee klatch beyond earshot.
10) My father once instructed me “Never be the person to ruin
everyone else’s day just because you’re having a bad one.” It’s sound
advice that has served me well. Don’t allow someone’s bad day to
hijack the squad. If a shooter is acting up, don’t be afraid to say
something. If things really get out of hand there is a clause in the
rules that covers unsportsman-like conduct and calls for immediate
disqualification. Always remember the rest of the squad has as much a
right to enjoy the day as any single shooter and not everyone lives or
dies by the number at the bottom of the card!
CLUB HISTORIAN
By John M. Hachmann
Our next scheduled shoot will be held at Addieville East Farm in
Mapleville, RI. This shoot, billed as the “Great Eastern Lobster
Classic”, is a three-day event that starts on Friday August 12th and
runs through Sunday August 14th, 2005. This year’s festivities will
include the 200-target main event and a 75-target FITASC in addition
to sub-gauge and five-stand events. This must really be the shoot of
all shoots considering the size of the turnouts. Three-hundred
shooters participated last year and prior to that the average turnout
was around 223. The Great Eastern Lobster Classic has even been
elevated to “Big Blast” status by the NSCA— a remarkable honor
considering it’s the only Big Blast I’m aware of that doesn’t
automatically require NSCA membership for every competing shooter.
A list of recent Great Eastern Lobster Classic Champions and scores:
2004 Chris McClelland 181
RU Floyd Harmage 177
L1 Stefanie Steinkraus 162
2003 Andy Duffy 184
RU Joe Carey 181
L1 Anna Marie Collins 160
2002 Andy Duffy 181
RU Ray Carey 176
L1 Patti Mastroianni 156
2001 Vinny LaScalza 178
RU Andy Duffy 177
L1 Cyndi Dalena 144
2000 Andy Duffy 189
RU Richie Frisella 172
Best of luck to all who plan to attend and have a safe, fun trip
getting there. It’s also not a bad idea to bring along your rain
gear—just in case!
STRIKE BACK AT RELOAD!
By Phil Steinkraus, Managing Editor
Are you angry at Reload!? Do you feel we’ve ignored your point of view
for the last several issues? Do you feel like an oppressed,
disenfranchised mass? Do you shout at your wife when you read this
publication every month or does it go right into the circular file
cabinet without comment?
First off, if someone doesn’t send me an angry letter to print soon,
I’ll start to feel like a failure as an editor. If you ever feel the
need to get nasty with pen and paper, just send it my way and if we
print it we’ll give you a Travelers T-shirt.
Secondly, I plan to publish some thought-provoking and perhaps even
slightly outlandish articles in the future. If there are any
smoldering revolutionaries out there, don’t think I wouldn’t like to
hear from you--although I would appreciate it if you’d leave any high
explosives in the waiting room.
Finally, the winters here in the Northeast are terribly long and cold.
Even though I have no intention of cooling my heels (read freeze my
asterisk off) for the duration of the worst that Jack Frost can dish
out, this magazine – I mean publication –must still go to press. When
things are slow, this book gets thin, so we will consider publishing
short creative pieces and poetry on hunting, shooting and bird dogs.
If there’s anyone out there who ever dreamt of being Ernest
Hemmingway, Hunter S. Thompson or Sylvia Plath please disregard this
invitation--we don’t work with suicidal authors, but everyone else is
welcome to make a submission.
CONTACTING THE TRAVELERS...
CTSCA Home Office: Al Anglace, email <aaa738@aol.com> (by far the best
way) or telephone 860-354-9351 if you absolutely must.
Editor: Phil Steinkraus, email philistein@aol.com
Membership, Address Changes and Shooting Class status: Contact Cyndi
Dalena at Email <shotguncyndi@prodigy.net>.
Guide Book questions, Dick Orenstein <oren@umich.edu> or call
203-226-5251.
Past issues of “Reload! are available online at www.ShotgunReport.com.
*** 2005 CTSCA SHOOTING CALENDAR ***
AUG. 12-14 “Great Eastern Lobster Classic/Veterans World Championships”
Addieville East Farm, Mapleville, RI (401) 568-3185
SEPT. 18 “Septemberschutzenfest” – Millbrook Rod & Gun Club, Millbrook, NY
SEPT. 30 OCT. 2 Annual Fall Trip PA. & NY weekend tour featuring Rock Mountain and Hidden Haven targets and great food. Info: captdonnie@yahoo.com or 203 888-5869.
OCT. 16 SMALL GAUGE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS – Fairfield County Fish &
Game Club, Newtown, CT.
NOV. 13 Venue to be announced in September Reload.
NOV. 27 Harold Koehler Society Fundraiser – Venue to be announced in September Reload.
DEC. 18 DICK LOSEE MEMORIAL CHRISTMAS PARTY SHOOT – Mid County
Rod and Gun Club, LaGrangeville, NY.
OTHER 2005 SHOOTS OF INTEREST
-Always call ahead to confirm –
AUG. 27-28 CT. STATE SHOOT – Fairfield Cnty. Fish & Game, Newtown, CT.
SEPT. 10 - 5TH Annual “Thinkfirst” Sporting Clays Freedom Shoot, Pawling Mtn. Club, Pawling, NY. More info: www.THINKFIRST.ORG.
SEPT. 22-25 “The Vintage Cup” World Side by Side Championship and Exhibition Orvis Sandanona, Millbrook, NY Raymond Poudrier (413) 339-5347 WWW.vintagers.org
OCT. 23 “The Fall Blast” Charity shoot - Green Village, Chatham TWSP. NJ Steve Roman (973) 808-1580 E-Mail: kobrom@rcn.com
“The advent of skeet caused a tremendous furor amongst the enemies of
trap shooting. The erstwhile kicker against the mechanical monotony of
trap shooting immediately rushed to skeet as an alternative, and
praised it highly as an intelligent method of practice for field
shooting. The clay target shooter who previously was not able to keep
up with the high-average cracks (crack shots) of his community, found
that he could in many cases surpass them in this new type of shooting.
It is largely due to this fact, coupled with its informality, that
skeet gained such widespread and immediate popularity.” Lawrence B.
Smith, Modern Shotgun Shooting, Scribners--copyright 1935
**** THE UPCOMING TRAVELERS MONTHLY SHOOT ****
“GREAT EASTERN LOBSTER CLASSIC/
VETERANS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS”
Addieville East Farm, Mapleville, RI
August 12, 13 & 14
Co-sponsored by the Travelers, this shoot is a national attraction
commanding the “Big Blast” status from NSCA and drawing 300 plus
participants nationwide. This shoot represents our only NSCA
affiliated shoot annually. However, you do not have to be a NSCA
member to participate. Hunter class competition is available. Although
this is a three-day shoot, you can shoot any part of the venue.
Friday’s 100 target Preliminary, FITASC event, Small Gauge event, Long
Bird, Make A Break or Five Stand, without entering the Saturday and
Sunday 200 target Main Event. The Saturday evening Lobster/Steak
Banquet is a highlight. You have received, under separate cover, the
flyer explaining the three day event schedule. If you would like to
make a late entry, or would like additional information, you can call
Addieville East Farm @ 401 568-3185.