With the Vintage Gunners Cup held the weekend before last in MD,
Attendance at this years Fall Challenge was markedly down, and from what I heard from a couple folks that shot the Vintage Gunners Cup, attendance was way down there as well. Be nice if we arrange for a little more time between these two events.

The weather in Georgetown this year was beautiful. Crisp & clear in the mornings, with tons of sunshine and temps in the upper 60’s to low 70’s in the afternoons.

After two days of qualifying, the top 5 shooters from both teams LC Smith and Parker went head to head yesterday afternoon at 4 PM for the 2024 Smith/Parker Fall Classic Challenge Shoot-Off. Team Smith consisted of yours truly, Tony Tucker, Tom Cutler, Chris Cox, and Jason Yates, with Alyssa Alberti as the alternate should any of the aforementioned not be able to participate in the shoot-off. Team Parker consisted of Carl Calandra, Dan Christofferson, Cyril Gulledge, Mark Prudhomme, and Doug Thompson, with Buddy Marson as the alternate.

Team Smith won the toss and elected to have Parker shoot first. The targets were the toughest that I’ve seen at one of these events, and I was feeling a little sketchy watching Team Parker smash target after target. Sure, they missed some, but that was to be expected with targets as tough as these. Then it was our turn.
Turns out that those targets were every bit as challenging as they appeared while we were watching Parker have at them. Some of us stumbled a little coming out of the gate, but about half way through the second of the five stands, we were down to business and a target crunching machine. When the smoke cleared and the scores were tallied, Team Smith out shot Team Parker by two birds with a score of 101 to 99.

As of this writing, the Hammer Gun Challenge is ongoing. When I checked the scores a little while ago, no one from Team Parker had shot yet. Once the event is over, I’ll report the results.