August 20, 2008

Notes on the 2008 Grand American

Regarding my first visit to Sparta (with Mike Sherry, Terry Radke, Bob Scott and Al Savoie) I'll start with the only two negatives I can think of:(1) it's a long drive and (2) it was expensive traveling 1200 miles on diesel fuel. Beyond that my experience was totally favorable. The weather was excellent, hot (mid 90s) but not oppressive (as in '07) and little wind. The targets were a little high but consistent all week and the PAT traps and CVR stuff operated flawlessly. Also running flawlessly in my opinion was the classification, squading, cashiering and all other shoot management functions including the evening shoot-off operations. I believe there were somewhat more than 2200 shooters present but it never seemed crowded on the line due to the expansive layout of the place. Even with camping on the grounds of the WSRC you had to (especially shooting 3 events) take everything you needed for the day as opposed to the closeness of everything at Vandalia. Another nice thing about this shoot was the evening activities which usually included free beverages, food and music and was sponsored by Trap & Field, the City of Sparta and others. That's the nutshell version but if you have time someday ask me about my classification to SV, winning my first Grand trophy with a borrowed gun and coming in 2nd in the Perazzi shoot off.

Pete Tomaini