Well my wife and I are back from the Southern sxs shoot in Sanford, NC. The Deep River Sporting Clays Course is about 25 miles south of Raleigh just off US Route 1. Very pretty and rural country, lots of pine and oak woods with a little roll to the ground. We stayed the first night in Apex, NC a suburb of Raleigh, tons of great restaurants, we ate at a place named Peak City Tavern, great steaks. We stayed at the Quality Inn in Sanford with the Virginia Vintagers and LC Smith group. The hotel was in need of a remodel, if I go again I think the Comfort Inn looked better.
The Southern has grown as large if not larger than the Vintagers, I couldn't believe it. Every major dealer was in attendance, more than the Vintagers. John Allen told me there were 70 vendors. Think of any major dealer including the west coast folks and they were there. The facility is very nice set on 40 acres. They had two great five stands, $15.00 for 30 targets (I think that's half the price of Pintail). The sporting clays course was set in the woods and very nice and little wait all weekend. The LC Smith/Parker Challenge was great fun. You would love the shooting set up, you can shoot your brains out without long waits and the courses are very close to the parking. Another neat aspect is everyone is southern friendly. Most folks set up a tent cover at the back of their car with a cooler and chairs, people just stop in for a beer and a chat about guns. It's kind of like a Southern front porch in a small town.
The food was good at the shoot, not to expensive, prepared by a bunch of cute southern bells. My wife and I attended the Saturday night Pig roast, it was nice since you didn't have to dress up and go some place else.
Tons of guns, complete overload. Tons of great Parkers and more mint LC field guns than I have ever seen. No Foxes hit my fancy but I did buy a LC Smith Grade 1 10ga that is in well used condition but all original. I can't pass up the old duck guns, I am sick. Anyhow I shot it and did very well, the girl pulling the targets at the 5 stand couldn't believe what it did to clay birds, it has .050" and .055" chokes!! The boys down south call it a boat gun, we would call it a shooter!
I think you guys should think about putting it on your schedule one of these years, I believe you would all enjoy the weekend. Craig Larter AHFCA
