The thread here which remembers old trap ranges in Connecticutt triggered a question I periodically remember. As a 12-13 year old at the beginning of the 1960's, I was totally consumed by two things. Hunting and sports cars. In my isolated area of KY, there were only two forms of shotgun competition, local (temporary) trapshoots and one private skeet club. To fuel my interest, I read Outdoor Life, Field&Stream and Sports Afield. The interest in sports cars and F1 (of all things) was covered by Sports Car Graphic.
About 1962 to 1963, I read an article in one of the outdoor magazines that had a major article on a revolutionary shooting venue. It was an article concerning the construction of Mid-Ohio Raceway (started in 1961) which had included a shotgun course with the new track. The author went on to describe it in great detail as a course to build skills on hunting situations. The description, (I learned in retrospect years later when I started shooting sporting), was an adaptation of the English sport of the period. It was a long article and was effusive about it's appeal and future. The thought that a target course which allowed utilization of hunting skills and was contained inside an actual sports car course (and was located a half day's drive from me) was an epiphany to me. I never forgot it, along with the Reader's Digest story about Oak Island which appeared about the same time. (That one apparently triggered 2 other boys imagination at the same time, but they eventually took action on it.) I never completely forgot either article.
I eventually started shooting sporting in the early 80's and competed for quite a while, until the advent of 5-stand seemed to take over most of the clubs where I shot.
Over the years, the article would pop into my mind and I would do a little research but never found any mention of this. I always presumed that as the internet advanced, I would find some record of it, but this never happened.
Does anyone have any recollection of this course? It was a decade before the generally accepted period of the beginning of sporting in the US, and may have been a flash in the pan. Also, Mid-Ohio became a major venue, holding race meets for some of the most popular and fast series in the US and abroad, and it is probable that the clays course would have become incompatible with the large infield crowds associated with the races.
