doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com EPIC Game Fair vs Vintage Cup Exhibitors

I'll give it a try. I can post pictures, but, we'll see if I can copy and paste.

Can't get it to work. I'm gonna forward it all to you, John. Maybe you can post it all for me.

SRH

An interesting look at the financial ups and downs of Foxhall owner Harrison Merrill and the prospects for the Foxhall development published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

In spite of having creditors recently seize two major developments, saddling creditors with $100 million in bad loans and putting his $8.8 million home up for sale, he still has big plans for developing Foxhall.

http://www.ajc.com/business/just-like-atlanta-developer-240720.html

Brian: In this case, it is a private matter. However, in most cases it isn't. The message shooters need to send--and in this case, voting with their feet (and sending emails etc) is the best way to do it--is that they won't accept unreasonable restrictions on lead. That BASC quote I posted sums it up quite succinctly: "BASC's position is very clear: to oppose any unwarranted changes in the use of lead shot unless sound scientific evidence . . . shows such changes are needed to protect wildlife, the environment or human health." None of which seems to fit in this case.

People who tell us that more and more ranges are going nontox and we should just accept it . . . while they may be right about the first part, there's no reason to just accept it--except where such a restriction is based not on making the community at large feel good, but on sound scientific evidence. If what we want is to stop shooting lead on our ranges, the very best way to do it is to patronize nontox only ranges where such a restriction is not science-based. That way we won't even have to wait for the government to regulate lead out of existence. We'll do it to ourselves.

nm

Hello John, The great success of THE SOUTHERN SIDE-BY-SIDE is largely due to the L C SMITH vs PARKER CHALLENGE CUP EVENT being held at Deep River Sporting Clays. Over 100 of the shooters at The Southern are there to participate in the SMITH vs PARKER event. The L C Smith Collectors Association even holds their annual meeting at The Southern SXS Shoot on the Friday afternoon of The Southern SXS.

For the last 2 or 3 years The Parker Gun Collectors Association has held it's annual meeting on either the Friday night or Saturday night of The Vintage Cup at The Elks Lodge in Easton, Maryland. The Parker Gun Club annual meeting and dinner was the main reason over 50 shooters attended THE VINTAGE CUP in Easton, Maryland for the past 3 years. Over 100 members of the PGCA attended the meetings and dinners at The Easton Elks Lodge each of the last 3 years. To the best of my knowledge our PGCA is not going to have any official presence at THE VINTAGE CUP of 2011.

The Vintager Chapters jointly held a reception and lunch at The Vintage Cup of 2010 on Saturday at noontime. This lunch went a long way towards bringing the friendly atmosphere that The Southern SXS enjoys to The Vintage Cup. Sadly there will be no reception and lunch at The Vintage Cup of 2011, Ray Poudrier would not allow it, I could not believe it. The Vintage Cup Shoot could enjoy the friendly atmosphere that The Southern SXS has if Ray Poudrier would get out of the way. Ray Poudrier has NOT attended The Southern SXS in the last 4 or 5 years. Ray Poudrier has NEVER attended the second largest gathering of Vintagers, the Friday night reception at The Flame Steak House in Sanford, NC, held during The Southern SXS.

Now the SCI and the EPIC Game Fair has taken one half of the vendors away from The Vintage Cup of 2011. The Vintage Cup event will be a much smaller party this year. Smaller could be better ! We could get back to being a vintage gun club, shooting together, eating together and sharing our guns. There is still time to save The Vintage Cup of 2011. Our Vintager Chapters could still get together and make The VC a CLUB EVENT. None of our Vintager Chapters are in business to make money, we exist to have good fun, good food and good fellowship shooting our side-by-sides. This year is the perfect opportunity to get our gun club back to being a gun club.

Good Shooting To You All, Jent

jentpmitchell@msn.com

Marty Fischer has a section on nontoxic shot in his book The Gun Digest Book of Shotgunning. He discusses the issue in detail and concludes the chapter with "Once wingshooters gain confidence, there's a good chance the years of lead usuage will be all but forgotten."

If you don't have a copy of the book, you can read the chapter on Google books by typing Marty's name and steel shot in the google search and pull up the chapter to read his thoughts on the subject.

Jent brings up some legitimate points, one being that Ray P. has not attended the Southern, another that the PGCA presence at the Vintagers is over, and Ray P. has not let the local Vintagers host a hospitality tent. HOWEVER, the biggest problem we have, and what this foreigner, Salopian, has misrepresented as "not the problem", is that the two events are being held on the same weekend. Salopian thinks that there is a conflict between two groups. He is absolutely wrong. We are all one group. We want to go to both events, and the promoters of the Douglasville event are preventing us from attending both events. I would have loved to go to the EPIC event, but I can't because they scheduled it on a weekend where I had already made plans, several years in advance. Because of this scheduling snafu, I will have my first BOOTH at the Vintage Cup. I will sell the wonderful guns that Steve Barnett and others will not. I'm actually starting to like Ray P. a little more after this ridiculous, meanspirited scheduling error. Bill Murphy

Anyone who would care to read Marty Fischer's e-mails to me addressing my concerns with the steel shot issue at Foxhall, my reply to him and his subsequent reply to me can shoot me an e-mail at stanhillis@gmail.com and I'll forward them to you.

Marty is the designer of the course at Foxhall, and also Blalock Lakes which is a short distance away. Both are steel shot only courses.

All my best, Stan

Stan - Thanks for sharing your dialogue with Marty. I respect Marty for being so courteous, responsive, and refreshingly candid. He's been so with everyone who has raised concerns about this.

Marty explains in some detail the Foxhall developer's business decision in banning lead and acknowledges "If it weren't for the real estate value within the development, Foxhall would probably be shooting lead."

You were right in pointing out that it was SCI & QU's decision to select a facility where lead shot is banned.

Disappointly, they haven't been as forthcoming. Instead they've deleted comments on this issue posted on the SCI facebook page, and passed the buck over to Marty, rather than respond themselves.

I very much want to see the Game Fair succeed. I would like to hear from them, and would hope to hear their thoughts on how this problem can be fixed in the future.

I sent a message to the president of Quail Unlimited.
As a Q U member I was glad that the organization was participating in a Game Fair type of Venue. Too bad it�s the same weekend as the Vintage cup at Pintail Point. Also I have to question the venue choice. Let�s hope that Next year there will be no conflict. Good luck
Al Peterson
Chesapeake VA