For me, last week was a shooter's paradise. I started out with a three day trip, with Ralph Stewart to shoot in Gene Beggs’ Odessa, Texas tunnel. Gene's facility is top shelf and Gene is an excellent teacher.
Then came the Utopia Invitational match on Saturday. After getting there and looking at the mountains,yep... real mountains in Texas though not really high.) and the canyon where the match is contested, I knew why the founders named the nearest town Utopia. The place is just awesome. There's even a babbling, crystal clear, brook that flows in the bottom of the canyon below the range. There are six solid concrete benches and there are three relays for the 18 shooters or would have been four relays had the match filled with 24 shooters. I arrived on Friday and was allowed to shoot as much as I wished to get sighted in and tuned.
The Dukes also have an awesome lunch during the match. Home smoked,really juicy and tender) beef brisket, link sausage and chicken along with home made potato salad and all the trimmings. Home baked pies and from scratch banana pudding. The Duke strategy is to get you so full you’ll fall asleep at the bench and they can then win.
The Utopia Invitational is a 400 yard match that utilizes clay pigeons as targets. There is one 5†target at the top which counts for 10 points, two 3†target below that that count 20 points each and a row of five 2†targets at the bottom that count 30 points each. You’re allowed 10 rounds at the bench and have eight minutes in which to shoot. Each shooter will go to the bench five times and a perfect score is 1000 points.
The Duke brothers own the ranch,along with their elderly mom). The Duke ranch is 5000 acres and has been in the family for over 100 years. The brothers are really humble country boys. Sam Duke is the family gun smith and his shop is only a few hundred yards from the range. The Dukes shoot a bunch and had the home field advantage. Joe Duke won the match with a perfect score. His brother Sam was second but came no where close to Joe's score. Matt Wiley, who is now working with Stick Stark at S&S Precision was third and I was fourth. My fourth place was good for $100.00 in prize money. Jason Lavielle was fifth, he's Sam's son in law. Rodney Hill won the much-coveted Conservation Award. In fact, since Rodney has dominated that award, from now on it’s going to be re-named the Rodney Hill Award.
I was the only guy in the top five that wasn't shooting a 6.5-284. I think I could improve my score somewhat if we shot the match again today as it took me almost the whole match to figure out the strategy to get the highest score possible for each shot sent down range. Of course, Joe had the real winning strategy...... don't miss!!
I was on my way home Saturday afternoon when Dave Williams called and invited me to shoot at 600 yards in a gravel pit on Sunday. I got home at 9:30PM and was back up at 5:00 AM . I really enjoyed shooting at 600 yards. My gun,6.5BRXX) shoots really well but I still want a bit more accuracy. I was shooting mostly 2.5" to 3" groups in fairly light winds.
So my week was Tunnel, Utopia and then the gravel pit. The whole week was spent with great people in awesome circumstances doing what I love. It just ain't ever going to get better than that.
Shelley
Then came the Utopia Invitational match on Saturday. After getting there and looking at the mountains,yep... real mountains in Texas though not really high.) and the canyon where the match is contested, I knew why the founders named the nearest town Utopia. The place is just awesome. There's even a babbling, crystal clear, brook that flows in the bottom of the canyon below the range. There are six solid concrete benches and there are three relays for the 18 shooters or would have been four relays had the match filled with 24 shooters. I arrived on Friday and was allowed to shoot as much as I wished to get sighted in and tuned.
The Dukes also have an awesome lunch during the match. Home smoked,really juicy and tender) beef brisket, link sausage and chicken along with home made potato salad and all the trimmings. Home baked pies and from scratch banana pudding. The Duke strategy is to get you so full you’ll fall asleep at the bench and they can then win.
The Utopia Invitational is a 400 yard match that utilizes clay pigeons as targets. There is one 5†target at the top which counts for 10 points, two 3†target below that that count 20 points each and a row of five 2†targets at the bottom that count 30 points each. You’re allowed 10 rounds at the bench and have eight minutes in which to shoot. Each shooter will go to the bench five times and a perfect score is 1000 points.
The Duke brothers own the ranch,along with their elderly mom). The Duke ranch is 5000 acres and has been in the family for over 100 years. The brothers are really humble country boys. Sam Duke is the family gun smith and his shop is only a few hundred yards from the range. The Dukes shoot a bunch and had the home field advantage. Joe Duke won the match with a perfect score. His brother Sam was second but came no where close to Joe's score. Matt Wiley, who is now working with Stick Stark at S&S Precision was third and I was fourth. My fourth place was good for $100.00 in prize money. Jason Lavielle was fifth, he's Sam's son in law. Rodney Hill won the much-coveted Conservation Award. In fact, since Rodney has dominated that award, from now on it’s going to be re-named the Rodney Hill Award.
I was the only guy in the top five that wasn't shooting a 6.5-284. I think I could improve my score somewhat if we shot the match again today as it took me almost the whole match to figure out the strategy to get the highest score possible for each shot sent down range. Of course, Joe had the real winning strategy...... don't miss!!
I was on my way home Saturday afternoon when Dave Williams called and invited me to shoot at 600 yards in a gravel pit on Sunday. I got home at 9:30PM and was back up at 5:00 AM . I really enjoyed shooting at 600 yards. My gun,6.5BRXX) shoots really well but I still want a bit more accuracy. I was shooting mostly 2.5" to 3" groups in fairly light winds.
So my week was Tunnel, Utopia and then the gravel pit. The whole week was spent with great people in awesome circumstances doing what I love. It just ain't ever going to get better than that.
Shelley
