doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Tunnel of Trees SxS Tournament and Game Fair

Excellent shooting Jeff!!!!!

So how was the shoot? Pictures, come on guys, give the details....

It was an excellent venue with tremendous untapped potential for starters.
It has topography, varied backdrops, and space. Nearly unlimited target setting opportunities.
The location is naturally picturesque.
The NW of MI's LP is easily the most beautiful fresh water coastline in the world (if you didn't already know)
And the "Tunnel of Trees" is considered one of the greatest scenic drives in America.

The organizers have done their homework, and are a very engaging lot. They want to do great things and have enough horsepower to deliver it going forward.

And the food truck operators wove magic, carefully delivered through their windows.

The game fair had a great breadth of sporting lifestyle accoutrements, as well as dozens of beautiful shotguns on hand from well known vendors. My card may have suffered some abrasion.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend with like minded folk, in a beautiful setting.

I was able to attend as a nonshooter,and I really regret not bringing my favorite gun. It is a great place to host a shoot, and it has all the potential to be even better next year. I'm planning on attending next year for sure! Friendly folks (thanks Clapper),great food,vendor tent,and a great venue. Now to concentrate on the bird season..........
Karl

Food trucks are not common here.
Here was the one at the shoot, and the food delivered was extraordinary. Really, just like on TV.



Pretty much had a line all day, everyday.
I had a Philly style ribeye sandwich, a Walleye sandwich, and a short plate of ribs.

All of it was very good.

Nice club, great people running it and excellent organization. The targets were not registered FITASC level of difficulty, but this is a SxS shoot. You could have shot everything with a skeet choke. However, you still had to hit them and no one ran the course. That said, lots of targets had to be shot in transition which is challenging at any distance. Some excellent shots whiffed 20 yard targets, so there was still a decent challenge there. Friday offered a 72 target small bore course with trophies for first and second in each gauge. Saturday had 2 events for the main competition - a fresh 76 target sporting course and a 30 target "pigeon ring" that had 3 targets that were thrown randomly. You shot from 6 stands and at each you had a single and 2 report pairs. These targets had a ribbon attached and you got 1 point for breaking a target and another if it's ribbon landed in the ring. Potential score of 60, but no one came close. Sunday had another 76 target sporting course with new targets for the final leg of the main event.
After the main was finished you could go back out and shoot a 50 target small bore event from the same stations. Some folks had time to shoot 2 different gauges in the smallbore on Sunday. I got in a round of 20 gauge on Friday and 16 gauge on Sunday. If that wasn't enough there was a practice 5 stand, vintage trap on Friday, a long bird game and the pigeon ring could be shot for fun when not being used in competition. So, a 182 target main event, 8 smallbore events and several side games. Saturday the banquet was held at a very nice country club. Prizes for the Friday smallbore were handed out and then quite a few very nice door prizes were awarded. I am easily the most unlucky person in the universe when it comes to door prizes and my streak of no prizes continues unabated. I had a nice time and was fortunate to have a great squad for the main. Clapper Zapper got to ride in my Elmer Fuddmobile around the course and we talked shotguns and bird dogs all weekend! Also got to shoot the smallbore with some excellent fellows, even if they think baseball is exciting (yawn). I'll try to get back next year, but it's 550 miles from my house to the club and was quite the drive. Of course, I did get to drive through pasty land, the U.P., so that's a bonus. I was also lucky enough to shoot well, so my view of things may be skewed, but everyone I saw was having a good time. The vendors had a great selection of guns, gear, books and art. The club was very keen on getting feedback on what went right and where they could make improvements - very rare for a club to ask for constructive criticism and I applaud them for that.
Regards,
Jeff

A few pictures here!

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-SnFMVd

Tim,
Thanks for sharing with us, great job on the pictures.
Karl

Karl,

Wish I was that good with a camera. Actually the club had a couple of what appeared to be professional photographers taking pictures. Even had a drone up one day. The link above was provided to shooters by the Emmett County Sportsman Club.