1992--One night the week before the shoot, I received a call from Troy Lawton asking some questions about the match setup such the height of each bank of animals, distance between each animal on a bank, color of the animals, and the color of the background. After answering his questions and visiting a few minutes we hung up and I said "Oh Crap" to myself and called David and told him I thought the Truck was in danger. We were still working at the range on the Thursday prior to shooting on Saturday, and Troy drove up about dark, just to look the layout over and ask what time the range would be open for practice the next day. On Friday, as David said, he shot 3 40's out of 4 practice matches. We were sweating bullets, but were saved by a windy Saturday.

Jerry

What Houston match did you copy from? What ideas did you copy? What kind of gun did Massey shoot? What kind of gun did Troy shoot? Why are you so mean to Fenton when he obviously let you win your own match (AA that is)? Did Jerry really shoot? When did you start getting inmates to work the range? Is it true you're using female inmates this year? Details guys, we need all the dirt.

What you don't know is I have several Eze up tents now, just in case of thieves. I brought 3 to Winni this year, but I put Motl's name on them to confuse people.

To answer Steiger's questions, I will attempt to delve into the deepest banks of my memory!

What Houston match did you copy from? The 1989 Texas State Shoot that Ben Mueller had made a program for and the way he did door prizes.
What ideas did you copy? See above

What kind of gun did Massey shoot? The first two years that Massey was here he shot some real strange Standard rifle on an extruded aluminum stock. I remember the rifle was blue the first "chin" gun that I had seen outside of Waco when we first met Troy and Massey.

What kind of gun did Troy shoot? Troy shot a Walther KKMS in a Meal Ward carbon graphite chin stock!

Why are you so mean to Fenton when he obviously let you win your own match (AA that is)? Fenton would miss me picking on him! He knows that it is all bullshit anyway. Besides, you are now mine and Jerry's main target for mental abuse!

Did Jerry really shoot? Jerry and I shot together for many years until Jerry decided to give it up as he had some lower back problems and could not shoot class.

When did you start getting inmates to work the range? We started using inmates about 1998 or so when we could not get the town employees to come out and help. More on the town employees later as 1995 was a memorable year and will be really detailed.

Maybe Jerry can add some more details later.

1991 - 1994 Reprise

I am glad that Jerry reminded me of the pork 'n beans that we put into each ditty bag the first and second year of the match. At the time that we started the matches, my family was in the grocery business and Jerry sold tobacco and alcohol products at his drug store. We managed to secure cans of pork 'n beans, snuff! and even 1/2 pints of bourbon for the ditty bags! Needless to say, we took the alcohol and tobacco products out of the ditty bags that we gave to the Junior shooters!

I am not sure when we instituted the Handicap Match (unlike the Coonass Team Shoot) but we just took the scores that the competitors shot and added the handicap points to try and equalize the aggregate for some extra prizes such as scopes and other things. We got this idea from Bayou Rifle in Houston. The Coonass Team shoot came a lot later and we got that idea from Gateway Rifle & Pistol Club in Jacksonville, FL.

The ditty bag idea came from a local Ducks Unlimited Golf Tournament that I had helped with. Jerry and I pretty much just brain-stormed each year as soon as the match was over with to see how we could improve. One thing that helped us was the input from a lot of shooters that had been around the sport a lot longer than we had. We listened to all suggestions positive and negative and ultimately made our decision based on a lot of hard thought on our part. We never got upset or mad about the negative comments, but tried to improve to host the best match that we could and try and attract all shooters from all over and from all Classes in the sport. Jerry and I pretty much thought that we should offer the same quality of prizes to all classes of shooters as everyone paid the same entry fee and need just as much opportunity to win prizes as the top Class shooters. We thought that this would encourage more participation in the sport! Robert Massey was probably my best sounding board and told Jerry and me early on that the match would implode due to the quality and value of the prizes that would bring out the SANDBAGGERS; however, Jerry and I were determined to not let this happen and I am not sure but we have disqualified sandbaggers and cheaters on at least two different years.

If we are to be remembered for one thing, I hope that it would be that we awarded prizes equally in classes and did not tolerate sandbagging and cheating!

So much for this post and I will be back after the weekend starting with 1995 when we started thoughts of hosting a NRA NAtional match and what it took to get to that point.

Just a couple of comments concerning Gran Pupa Duckgumbo’s message.
Having participated in, assisted with and conducted both State and Regional matches both Hunter Pistol as well as SB Rifle Silhouette since back in the earily’80’s, I can attest to the dedication, work and patience that is required to “pull it off”. The most I ever dealt with was 64 contestants.
It can only be said that the spectacle David and Jerry and all the “Whinnie Gang” have presented over the years is simply remarkable. The details, planning, coordination, creativity and consideration I believe leaves very little for the participant to desire or require. Just about everything that one may think of to be comfortable and satisfied has been covered. However, I just can’t let myself go as far as to criticize or blame either David or Jerry for the weather.
A great job, y’all!! The “Southern Nats” is a tradition that will be sadly missed by a “cast of thousands”.
Thank you to David and Jerry and all that helped “set the height of the bar”. Be proud and enjoy your “retirement”. It’s well deserved…
C ya
Gator

IMPORTANT 1994 MEMORIES

After a lot of time to think of really memorable moments, I was able to recollect something really important regarding our match in 1994. I am not sure but I think that Marguerite Everheart attended the 1993 Match the year after Troy Lawton won the truck with the perfect 40/40 score. I know for a fact that Marguerite attended the 1994 match and this is the year that we wanted to enter a bid with the NRA Silhouette Rules Committee to host a NRA National Championship. Marguerite sat with members of our gun club in our range house one evening and helped us fill out the paperwork to send in to the NRA Silhouette Rules Committee. We did not have the required ten (10) banks of animals at the time that we were hosting the 1994 match. We had six (6) banks of animals and our Mayor, Billy Cobb, told Marguerite, "See those fellows out there working on the backstops? They work for me and if you require 10 banks of animals to be built, I will have them installed before you leave today." Marguerite told Mayor Cobb, Jerry and me that we did not have to have the banks then to apply but had to promise to have them built for the actual NRA National Championship match. Unfortunately, Marguerite did not help us or to the best of my knowledge try to help us get the bid.

Marguerite was successful in putting the "chin gun" stocks in another class and ultimately leading to the abolishment of these stocks. Needless to say, Marguerite made many enemies when she was in her shooting prime and an ad was paid for and placed in the 1995 program regarding Ms Marguerite Everheart.

That being said, Jerry and I decided to take matters into our own hands and make sure that we had the 10 banks built before we entered another bid. That story will unfold in the 1995 story in the next post.

1995

In order to apply for and have a chance to host a NRA National Match, Winnsboro Gun Club members decided to build 6 permanent banks of animals and 4 temporary banks of animals on skidders to be placed on the range for our annual "big" match. Jerry and I had attended several Texas matches and they had steel backstops. We decided to build our animal racks with stacked animals (5 on bottom and 5 on top) with 1/4 inch steel plate behind them. All of the prefabrication for the actual animals stands was done at the local John Deere dealership after hours and with volunteer help from the range members. The vertical posts were 3 inch drill stem and the horizontal supports were old road grader blades that the Franklin Parish Police Jury donated to us. Each animal had a 3/8 inch steel pad that they each sat on. Tim Brunett from Baton Rouge had the 3 inch and 6 inch steel numbers made for each bank. Brian Lochbrunner and I went out one Wednesday and placed all the permanent stands into the ground so that they would be set for a Saturday work day to install the backstop steel. Winnsboro Gun Club members donated untold hours to have this done and we feel that we have the best smallbore silhouette setup in the world after hearing this from the Australian shooters. Each bank is color coded with their rifle rests on the firing line as well as having a number between the top and bottom banks and a large number above the top bank. You have to be both illiterate and color blind to cross fire on our range.

The was a very well attended match and Louisiana Lt. Governor Melinda Schwegmann attended the match and was presented with a Cooper .22 LR rifle with a special serial number. She also presented the Coonass Team shoot awards and I will never forget her awarding the First place Team awards to the 'Yankee Assholes"! Chad Stamm was on this team and told Jerry and me to name their team!

As I was preparing the program to be printed that year, I received a call from a disgruntled shooter from somewhere south of Austin, Texas. The shooter ( I refuse to name them or even reveal if it was a male or a female) wanted to take out an ad in our program regarding Marguerite Everheart and the disdain for the way she was trying to destroy our sport by helping get rid of the "chin gun"). I told them to send me a check and the ad copy and Jerry and I would be more than glad to place the ad in the program.

The ad copy is as follows:

REWARD!WANTED!REWARD!
picture of a witch riding a broom
FULL-FIGURED SSOUTHWESTERN SHOOTING
WOMAN WITH YOUNG MALE CHILD
SEEKING ROLL MODEL FOR CHILD AND
RALATED FAMILY RELATIONSHIP.
MILITARY MEN GIVEN FIRST PRIORITY. MUST
NOT BE SHOOTING BLANKS---BARREL MUST
BE CLEAN AND STRAIGHT. NO CROOKED
STOCKS HERE EITHER. MUST HAVE HIS OWN
PAD. MUST BE COOL HEADED AND NOT
QUICK ON THE TRIGGER (NO JERKING)
MUST BE INVOLVED IN SHOOTING SPORTS
(PARTICULARLY SILHOUETTE). MUST HAVE
HIS OWN CAR-BULLETS-POWDER-CASH-
AND A JOB
LOVING CHILD-BEARING WOMAN WILL FILL
CASE WITH LOVE.
ROBERT MASSEY, BROKER 1-817-924-2771
NEW & USED EQUIPMENT, ROMANCES, ETC.
OUR COMMISSIONS ARE SMALLER ( paid for by Neal Ward)

This is the exact ad copy and the person also had me make several copies to be placed in each ditty bag and around the range! This may have been one of most the memorable moments. Jerry, Robin and I were pledged to complete secrecy regarding the placement of the ad and it was pure genius to mention both Robert Massey and Neal Ward to throw off the scent, so to say, and place blame upon totally innocent competitors!

This was also the year that we presented Lee O'Neil with a slingshot with a scope mounted. If you want memories of the Crestline, Ohio NRA Nationals, post here and I will post those great memories before I post 1996 memories!

Needless to say, we applied and own the 1996 NRA National bid. More on that in the next post.

Let's here of the memories from Ohio as well Ducky.

Innocent

I talked to Robert Massey yesterday regarding the Marguerite ad and he approved of my post. As a matter of fact, Robert wanted me to let everyone know that Robert wanted to rebut Jerry's statements regarding the shirt incident at our first match. Robert said that the reason that he changed shirts because he know that this would be a great match and he wanted to look good as the first Champion. Robert also informed me that he was going to practice this year so that he could win the last match and bookend his championships!

One reason for this post is that I appreciate the really great comments on my posting for each year. Robert suggested that Jerry and I author a book starting with when Winnsboro Gun Club started shooting silhouettes and all the stories for each year. It would include pictures from each year as well as each match. Jerry and I would be interested if we know that we could sell these books.

I am going to post a poll in another post and see how many books we could possibly sell. We would probably sell them for $20 - $25 depending on the cost of publication at the match and have more detailed stories and how we became successful listening to and stealing ideas from other matches.

Please go to that post and get everyone that you know to answer the poll. We will need to start as soon as possible to produce a quality book that will be edited for a great entertaining read.

1995 NRA Nationals in Crestline, Ohio

I am posting this for the benefit of Mary since she asked about Ohio!

Since we were applying for the 1996 NRA Nationals after being turned down for the 1995 Nationals, Jerry and I decided that I would go and take his son Jarrod to the match in Crestline, Ohio. At this time we were running our match the weekend before the NRA Nationals as a warm-up for the Nationals and to attract some of the foreign competitors to our match. We had finished our match on Sunday afternoon and after I had consumed several beers in celebration of another successful match; Troy Lawton, Jarrod and I took off and planned on driving non-stop to Crestline. Needless to say, I was not in any condition to contribute to the driving! We were in Kentucky about 2 AM after Troy had driven the entire way! We stopped for the night, got up Monday morning early and got on the road. We pulled up to the range in Crestline to get scope settings and other ideas about the range.

We then went to a Bob Evans to eat dinner and had the best waitress that you could ask for. Her name was Charlene and she could mix up the bullshit with Troy and myself like an old pro! She even brought Troy some "Wipey Dipes" to clean his hands after he ate ribs! She also brought Jarrod the crayons that you would bring to young children! As we were leaving, Troy wanted to find out when Charlene would be working during the match so that we could set up William Zander with a great practical joke (to come later)!

The match was run really well and Troy won the National Titles in all rifles. That was the last year for the Chin Gun stocks. Jarrod Breithaupt set several Junior records that will never be broken as the Chin Rifle is not a discipline anymore! Jarrod also won some other awards. I was fortunate to win first AAA in the warm-up match for Hunter Rifle.

Traveling with Troy and getting his expertise on shooting and how to shoot in a big match was one of the highlights of the drive up to Crestline. Troy is a gracious coach and has proven it time after time.

Jarrod, Troy, William Zander, Teresa Everheart and I had gone to eat after the first night and saw the two shooters that were hosting the match and wanted to set up a prank on their firing line for Lee O'Neil. I think that Blane Cochran was the Match Director and we had him tie some monofilament clear fishing line to two turkeys on the bottom of a bank. He also had the two turkeys on the adjacent bank put on with C-clamps so that they would not fall if hit! He then called William Zander and Lee O'Neil to the firing line for a shoot-off. He placed William on the bank with the two turkeys with the monofilament line and Lee of the turkeys that had been clamped down. Winnsboro Gun Club had put slingshots into each ditty bag at our match. Before Blane was going to give a Ready command, William turned to Lee and said,"Lee you have never beaten me in a shoot-off so I want to give you a chance. I am going to use this slingshot!" Lee was speechless, but went to the line anyway. Larry "Stretch" Grooms was spotting for Lee and Troy was spotting for William. William reached down and picked up a piece of rock to use for his ammo. Upon the fire command, Troy was giving verbal commands to William as where to aim and Lee proceeded to knock down a turkey on the top bank, THE WRONG BANK! As soon as Lee fired, William shot his rock and it did not even go as far as the pigs; however, Troy pulled the fishing line and the turkey fell over forwards. Stretch told lee that he had shot the wrong turkey and William told Lee, "No problem, you hit a turkey so let's do it again." We really wanted Lee to shoot one of the clamped down turkeys! However, at this stage of the game, Lee could not have hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle! Lee did not hit anything and William "hit" his second turkey and was declared the winner of the shoot-off! No one told Lee anything about the fishing line. After about 10 minutes, I went over to Lee and asked him what happened. He said that he did not know but that he was considering getting into his airplane and flying back to Colorado as he needed to quit the sport. I then informed him as to what happened and he was a really good sport about it. Stretch even saw the C-clamps in his spotting scope and did not say anything as he was not sure what was going on.

This was one of the best practical jokes that I think Troy had ever put together until the night before the last day of the match. That is when we went to Bob Evans and had Charlene wait on our table!

To preface this part of the story, William Zander, Robert Massey and David Tubbs had won the Team Shoot at one of the NRA Nationals in Raton, NM. As that trio was going up to get their awards at the ceremony, Troy says, "Mr. Potato Head, Bozo the Clown and the Cowboy!" William told Troy not to call him Bozo anymore. William did have a hairdo that resembled Bozo at that time.

We had informed Charlene that we wanted her to wait on our table and we were placed accordingly. Present were Lee O'Neil, Stretch Grooms, Teresa Everheart, Troy Lawton, Jarrod Breithaupt, William Zander and myself. As Charlene came to bring our menus and get our drink orders, she lingered just a little bit looking at William. When she returned with our drinks she asked William, " Are you from around here because you look familiar?" William told her no that he was from Texas. Since we were not ready to order, she left to come back a little later. After getting our dinner orders, she looked a William again and stated that he sure looked familiar. Upon bringing our meals, she told William, " I have seen you somewhere and it will come to me in a minute." After Charlene left, everyone was kidding William about knowing this girl! By the way, everyone at the table was in on the joke! Charlene came back about 10 minutes later and told William, " I am sure that I know where I have seen you but you need to say one thing for me." William replied, "What do you want me to say?" Charlene told him to say "Hello Boys and Girls". William then says, "Hello Boys and Girls!" Charlene then exclaims, "That's it! Your're Bozo the Clown!!" It was a priceless moment and everyone almost fell out of their chair! Charlene could have won an Oscar for this performance. She then took our dessert orders and brought William a dessert on a plate with the cherries and all to resemble a clown face. She even told William to be glad that she did not ever get on the Bozo show because her Mother took her to another local television station with a clown. When Charlene sat on his lap, she was so excited, she peed in his lap! She presented a card to William that had a place for his signature. The card read, "Dear Charlene, Thank you for not peeing on my lap! Bozo the Clown" with a line above Bozo for hi to sign. William signed the card - Bozo the Clown. Troy then got the card from Charlene later and made posters of it that were displayed at the next Texas State Championship in Houston!

The climax to this trip was when Troy put Vaseline on William's door handles the next morning and we wrote "Good morning Boys and Girls" in reverse letters on his windshield!

This was the beginning of my great times traveling and shooting with Troy, William, Teresa and Robert Massey not to mention all the trips that Jerry and I made.

This is probably a mild story compared to other that will come to memory and Jerry and I can put in our book if we decide to write it and not lose any money in publication!

Your gonna get me in trouble with ideas like this floating around in my head now!

Baby Huey, I have told you, you haven't shot a big match until you have done the Southern Nationals. There is a lot to learn at that match.

Mary

Yah, like don't come with Arkansas Razorback Tents!

I have fond memories of the Nationals at Crestline hosted by the coon hunters club...it was great match I enjoyed watching the shoot off with the sling shot it was great..That steak joint down the road we went to after the days matches was also great the huddle house..I think it was called , of course shooting next to Cathy and Teresa was funny especialy when she got a shot call from teresa and didn't know what a dinger on a ram was.....of course she got a great explanation from teresa.

Now Baby Huey, not to hijack Sgt ODucky's thread here, a Razorback tent is acceptable on the correct end of the line.

Innocent