2005 Zone 4 ChampionshipTennessee shooters bring home trophies...and sun tans!
The Zone 4 Championship brings together shooters from several states to compete for bragging rights. It is a major championship event, which always attracts top shooters. As an added bonus, the 2005 Zone 4 is also designated a Team USA Fitasc qualifying event. Panama City, Florida was the chosen venue. With great hotels on the white sand beach, shooters were able to shoot all day and enjoy a late-day dip in the ocean followed by a fresh seafood dinner. Not bad! If motorcycles are an interest, shooters got to see hundreds of custom choppers in town for an annual rally.
Bear Creek Gun Club was the host. It sits on a very large tract of Florida landscape. The clubhouse is spacious and modern. Grounds are kept clean and well groomed. Staff was friendly and accommodating. How nice to have a cart trail paved in soft white sand! With so much land available, it was probably a strategic mistake for Bear Creek to attempt the Zone 4 Championship with 250+ competitors, while using only one 16-station course. When offering a 100 target preliminary, 50 target sub-gauge events, and a 200 target main event, all compressed into 3 days, two courses is certainly the way to go.
Shooters competing in all events had to shoot the same stations too many times at the Zone 4. The preliminary was shot using only 10 stations, which required shooting 10 targets per station. Many observed that some targets remained the same or very similar throughout the 3-day event. Mick Howells was hired to set the Fitasc course and the targets were excellent. Mick is known internationally as one of the best trap setters, and he did not disappoint at the zone. His Fitasc targets were very challenging. Unfortunately, Mick did not set targets on the main course.
Spring weather in Florida can be unpredictable. Friday was fantastic with sunshine, 80 degrees and strong southerly winds to dance the targets. Saturday was quite a different story. Grey skies during the morning gave way to dramatic afternoon thunderstorms with lightening and heavy downpours. The Bear Creek management seemed to be caught off-guard by the extreme weather and without a plan B. Finally, a decision was reached to cancel all the targets shot on Saturday and to shoot 150 targets on Sunday. It was certainly the correct decision, but poor communication and coordination did result in confusion. Fortunately, Sunday offered brilliant sunshine and a comfortable 72 degrees coupled with a stiff north wind, which allowed completion of the shoot.
When the white sand settled, several Tennesseans competed very well at the Zone 4. TCTC’s own Greg Jackson won a box full of trophies. Greg was crowned the 2005 Zone 4 Fitasc Champion! In the preliminary, Greg shot a 93 to win HOA, outdistancing many of the nation’s top shooters. In addition to other placements in master-class, Greg won the junior concurrent in all 3 sub-gauge events, five-stand, preliminary and main events. He has come a long way since shooting his very first clay target, at the Tennessee Clay Target Complex, four years ago. Congratulations Greg!
Tennessee now has a new Master-Class shooter! Ralph Greenwell from Humphreys County shot so well at the Zone that he punched out of AA. Ralph was AA1 in Saturday's 5-stand, AA3 in Fitasc and AA2 in the .20 gauge events. Other notable performances by the Tennessee contingent:
Roger Ragsdale won A2 in the prelim; Joey Pulley won A5 in the prelim and A2 in the 5-stand; W. R. Sumrall won B1 in the prelim; Thomas Voiles won D2 in .28 gauge, D3 in the Saturday 5-stand, and D2 in the Friday 5-stand; Charles Hamn won B3 in .410, B1 in the Saturday 5-stand and B2 in the Sunday 5-stand. Congratulations to each!
Other Tennesseans shooting in the Zone included Rhonda and Doug Barfield, Frank Bloom, Melissa Ragsdale, Doug Jackson, Susan Wall, Jess Maggard and Paul Maxwell.
Susan Wall was a big winner, also. Her name was drawn to receive free entry fees to the 2005 NSCA National Championship in San Antonio! Anyone who has paid entry fees at the Nationals will appreciate the value of that prize! In spite of Saturday’s unusual weather and a few hiccups, the 2005 Zone 4 was an over-all success. Our thanks to the staff of Bear Creek and to everyone who worked so hard to make the shoot a reality. See you all in Georgia at the 2006 Zone 4 Championship! |
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