Posted by John Liles
on October 27, 2009, 6:55 am
64.83.34.130
Hello to all! I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed on a wonderful SXS event that transpired this past weekend down in Georgetown, SC. The second annual Southern SXS Fall Classic was held at Backwoods Quail Club. For anyone who's never attended a shoot at Backwoods, those folks really know how to host a shoot! The sub-gauge course was challenging for each of the sub-gauges, but every bird was do-able with a .410. You'd expect great target setting from Rick Hemingway and his merry band, and that's just what we had. I thought that the report and true pairs bouncing at speed of of the trampolines during the sub-gauge and main events was a particularly nice touch! The large bore course was also challenging for a person of my limited skill level, but there were no presentations that I just couldn't figure out. The venue was large enough that we were able to shoot the sponsored events on Friday and Saturday without even seeing most of the course designated for the main event on Sunday. The excitement level stayed high for the entire weekend!
The Team Challenge event was played out on a 5-stand venue, with screaming crossers from skeet houses, incoming loopers from 80 yards out, and everything in between. As you might expect, the two highest scoring teams were Team LC Smith and Team Parker. The "teams" consisted of the 5 highest scoring shooters of their declared manufacturer. Of the 25 possible targets, I know Mike Harris and young Grant Rosser both had scores of 22 each. The Parker shooters were in fine form as well, and even a little finer, as they edged us out by 3 birds in the final analysis! I believe that the final score was team Parker 107, Team LC Smith 104. The highest score that I was aware of for the 80 bird Main Event on Sunday was achieved by Grant Rosser, who was able to wack 79 of the 80 possible targets. Well done Grant! And with his LC Smith to boot!
The Georgetown area was great for this shoot in that there's lots to do off the courses as well. My friends Mike Harris, Dr. John Truitt, and Carl Brandt, and I, rented a house on Pawley's Island for the event, where our wives hung out on the beach, took house tours in historic Georgetown, and generally just relaxed during the shotgunning hours. The evenings were spent in great waterfront Georgetown restaurants and bars, or just relaxing in the house.
Chic Candler's daughter Paxton and her boyfriend Jamie took daytrips to shoot with my daughter and I on Friday and Sunday. Becca Candler better look out, cause by the end of the weekend, 'Sista-Paxton' was on fire!
Lots of great and beautiful guns were present in the vendors tents, and hopefully next year even more vendors will be in attendance. Attendance was up exponentially from last years inaugural event, with over 100 rounds being shot each day.
I suspect that this event will develop into one of the finest SXS shoots in the country, and I know I'll be there to check it out again next year. Hope to see more of you folks there as well.
John
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