doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - More SXS Shooters at National Championship

Next week is the NSCA National Championships which are held annually at the National Shooting Center in San Antonio. Except last year when participation was somewhat down due to Covid, there are usually over 2000 shooters at the event. This year almost 2300 are already signed up. It's by far the largest sporting clays event in the country. (you can see details on winscoreonline.com)

Each year, it includes a side by side event, which in the two years prior to Covid attracted just under 150 SXS shooters. This year, that number is already approaching 160 shooters, so SXS participation appears to be not only holding, but slightly growing. (BTW, there is also a pump event with similar number of people registered)

I shot the SXS event at nationals last year and there were some seriously challenging targets, as one might expect at a national championship. And on my squad there were a couple guys shooting very non-vintage Perazzi SXS shotguns, which is probably not unexpected as this is a shooting event, not a collectors event. But I also saw a number of people shooting SXS guns you might see at a vintage event.

Now comparing the SXS event at the Nationals to collector gatherings such as the Southern or Vintage Cup is certainly apples to oranges. But nonetheless, I think its interesting and encouraging to see a large and somewhat growing number of shooters shooting SXS guns at a major sporting clays event.

One of the “best” SxS game shots of recent times died a few weeks ago, my good friend Stephen Imes. He got interested in Heliece a few years back and backed the building of three Heliece courses at Jimmy Bryan’s place in West Point, Ms. He went to Italy for the world championship last year and was (I believe) in the top 3 in his age class, shooting LOW gun as he always has for anything in the 35+ years I have shot with him. I wish him PEACE.

Stan, I think it was just after Tunica that I shot the US Open for the first time at M&M. Had never shot registered targets before but went out of curiosity. I took advantage of the free NSCA membership offered to new shooters and shot the SXS event, finishing 2nd in my class. I also shot a BSS that day. Was a cool experience. There are a lot of SXS events at the big NSCA shoots, as well as at the state championships and some local shoots. Worth looking into.

... the big Southeast NSCA Regional shoot at the Meadows in Georgia this year had a SXS event. It started the day after the Southern so I went there from the Southern after it ended on Sunday. Ran into several people there who had also shot at the Southern.