Shotgun Sports USA
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Shotgun Sports USA
Ben McAnally: 2024 Texas State Combined with Browning-Briley
The highly anticipated 2024 Texas State Championship is set to take place in conjunction with the prestigious Browning-Briley at Greater Houston Gun Club. Anticipated to draw a substantial turnout, this event has an impressive payout with over $150,000 up for grabs. Everyone is encouraged to secure their spots by registering on ScoreChaser, ensuring they don't miss the chance to shoot at a great club with great companies behind them. This tournament will not disappoint and has a lot of events planned for everyone attending.
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Speaker 2:Russell Moccasen's are leather workers and bootmakers out of Berlin, wisconsin, and a lot of you've probably heard of them. The company started in 1898, still making boots today. They're all handmade, super comfortable and geared toward the sporting lifestyle. They're hosting a sporting clays tournament in March at Orvis Shooting Grounds at Purcell Farms. This will be a fun shoot with a lot of great companies behind them and some cool prizes. For more information, go to our website, shotgunsportsusacom. You'll find the link there. Click it and find out more. Okay, you're going to hear about another huge tournament coming up very soon. The Texas State Championship is combined with the Browning Briley and this is taking place at Greater Houston Gun Club with payouts of around $150,000. I have the President of the Texas Sporting Clays Association on with me to tell you all about it. Please welcome to the show, ben McInally.
Speaker 3:Ben, what's up man? Not too much just burning up some Texas highways, like always.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of highways out there in Texas to burn up, I can promise you. Yes, sir, I mean from one end to the other. It takes you about three weeks, doesn't it? Yes?
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, you know, talking to people who maybe shoot either overseas or in other parts of the country. You know they always want to know about Texas and you know about how we have. I think we have just under 40 clubs in the state that throw registered targets and you know, from Beaumont to El Paso is a greater distance than it is El Paso to LA or Beaumont to New York City, and so, yeah, you can fact check that one, but it's a big state. Just to say that.
Speaker 2:I know. I drove out to Nationals one year and I rode with a guy named Kyle Millwood. I'm sure you know who Kyle?
Speaker 3:is yeah, I know, kyle.
Speaker 2:And I'm telling you, we drove through Texas for at least three days.
Speaker 1:I mean, I said Kyle, what is it?
Speaker 2:And he swore it was just one night. I said, I'm telling you, we drove through Texas for three days, so it's a big place, big, big place.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, but in arguably kind of the probably one of the sweet spots for clay shooting. You know, I know you're in Georgia and Georgia has just some amazing clubs, great shooters, great pros. I know there's some little hubs throughout the US, but I mean Texas. It's pretty hard to argue with.
Speaker 2:Well, they do a lot of stuff out. You know all the.
Speaker 1:You get the corporate stuff you know the old guys and whatever. Whoever else is out there they're all the guys.
Speaker 2:Whoever else is out there, they all like to shoot clays, or that's competitive or for recreation, and there's some of that here, but this is I know it's huge in. Texas, just that side of it. Yes, so, being in Texas, we talk about sporting clays on this podcast most of the time. Sometimes we get some crazy people on here talking about something else. But what do you do? Tell me a little bit about yourself, sure?
Speaker 3:So my business partner Michael and I, we own a private wealth management firm, cedar Gap Wealth Management. So we kind of came from the one of the big Wall Street firms and COVID helped us become motivated to tell all the folks in New York and California you know audios and that we were going to do it our own way. So anyway, we were both pretty active in shooting. Michael's got a couple of boys that he chases around doing the sports thing so he doesn't make as many shoots as I do, but you know, anytime you see Cedar Gap somewhere, that's how you know that Ben and Michael were involved or donating, or you know, and I'm a big fan of you know, put your money where your mouth is and maybe, if you don't have the money, put your time where your mouth is. So and that's how I got involved in the association, you know local club that grew to the state level. That's grown to, you know, even bigger. So that's and it's funny.
Speaker 3:You mentioned corporates. You know I think that's how everybody gets started. They get invited to be somebody's plus one at a corporate shoot and you go out there with a borrowed gun and you break 54 out of 100 and you go. Holy cow, that was the coolest thing ever and before you know it, you're. You know you're drowning in it.
Speaker 2:That's the only time that you really don't care what you shoot Every time. After that, the very next time you're like, I should have hit all of those.
Speaker 1:You know, what.
Speaker 2:I mean Exactly so. But yeah, it's so. You're on the board for Texas State. Yes, sir, Yep, I've been on the board.
Speaker 3:I gosh, you know what. I should know this, I think, since 2014,. I was, I was pretty involved in my local club and it's out in West Texas not exactly you know a huge area and I just felt like some of the shooters and the clubs and the people weren't all the way represented. I felt like there was a lot of activity in Houston or San Antonio or Dallas, and so I just wanted to to to have a voice for the little guys out there. And then you know what's the saying no good deed goes unpunished. Before you know it, if you're incapable of keeping your mouth shut and sitting on your hands, you end up with one job, then three, then 10, and you end up being the, the, the chairman.
Speaker 2:So Well, you're, so you're. You're the man For now. Well, for now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is my fourth and final year and I've kind of I've kind of perfected my elevator speech, if you will. You know the state associations and Idaho, different states, have different kind of mandates, but you know we're not the governing body, we're not the NSCA. You know we don't make the rules, we don't write the rulebook, you know stuff like that. I think our job as a state association is to do programs, awards and recognition. And you know our programs are our Texas state chute coming up, the little tour around Texas that we do to kind of help the smaller and and and midsize clubs that maybe can't just have a thousand people show up at a at a Texas state, and you know awards for those people who participate in those events.
Speaker 3:And then our recognition program, probably our biggest one, is the Hall of Fame, which is this is the 20th anniversary. So later when we talk about the Hall of Fame, I think it's important to to hit on the fact that that's one of our big recognition programs. And so you know, beyond that, there's a lot of questions and comments that I get that I end up forwarding uphill to our, our friends in San Antonio who actually make those you know judgment calls and, and you know, help help the sport grow because it's it's difficult. It's difficult to manage the little club you know in a small town versus, you know a club that might have 500 people that are registered chute, you know, just a monthly chute, and that's a reality in Texas and whereas a lot of states don't have that problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to ask you next what is? Is Texas being as big as it is and having as many clubs as it does? How, how much different do you think it is in that organization versus some of the other ones in the country?
Speaker 3:You know I've got a lot of good friends in Kansas right. I've got a great relationship with the, with the Greenwood family, and and you know I've spent many, many an afternoon in that in Jim's shop watching woodchips fly and us just talking about nonsense or sporting clays or everything in between. And so you know I know a little bit about Kansas. I know some guys you know from, from the Midwest and you know, I think I think the big difference is, like I mentioned, texas has just under 40 clubs that throw registered tournaments and so that's one of the big tasks that the state association takes on every year is. You know there's only 52 weeks in a year and if you throw out the holidays and the, you know the known, you know graduation weekends and spring breaks, you know you can really narrow that down.
Speaker 3:So how do you fill a calendar where you got a state with 40 ish people all vying for optimum weekends?
Speaker 3:So we fantasy football draft it, if you will. It's a process we call pick day and we take the clubs that throw the most, like a, like a greater Houston sports club or a or a defender. You know Clay Sports Ranch, all the way down to the. You know my home club, one of the smaller ones, abilene Clay Sports, and so you know when it's your turn in the draft, the calendar is yours, and as long as there's not somebody within a 100 mile radius of you who's already chosen that date, you know the dates yours because, quite frankly, it's you know, from my home to greater Houston is six and a half seven hours, so, no offense, we're not really competing for the same shooters, even though you know you haven't even left the state, and so that 100 mile rule solves a decent amount of problems, gets everybody, you know, on the same path, and that's something that the association does to just kind of make everything fair and help. You know, help the little guy as much as the big guy, where, when it comes to calendar planning, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now when you talk about people sending you messages and you have to send them up the up the line to the NSCA, how, how many of those do you have to to look at? Is it a ton?
Speaker 3:A few, um, I don't know, I would say two to five a month. Oh, it's not that many. I think the NSCA has done a good job of empowering club owners. Um, it's, and that's something as a business owner myself, it's hard to. It's hard to be a part of an organization that really dictates what a private for-profit business is doing. And, uh, that's something that Michael Hampton and I have talked about. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a line to toe.
Speaker 3:This is the competitive and professional sport at the same time that it's a recreational sport, and these are private for-profit entities, um, that are, you know, as, as Gary would say, uh, they open their gates and invite in a couple hundred people. They don't even like field all their complaints and then kick them out. You know, five hours later, Right, and you know, and I say that with with a, with a grin on my face, because it's it's a little true and it's a little hyperbolic, but, um, you know, I feel like it's important to have that relationship. And so, if there's something egregious or rules-based or really needs a judgment, um, you know that stuff gets forwarded up so that, so that the appropriate people can look at it. We're pretty blessed that we don't have just a ton of that.
Speaker 3:I think the rumor is always worse than the truth, right Like the bark is worse than the bite. So you know, everybody knows somebody that heard somebody and totally saw this other guy do something, uh. But when you start asking who and where and how, uh, lots of times it kind of it doesn't really materialize. So your mileage may vary, but that's kind of what I see, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's right. So you're talking about rules. Well, we just had a uh, a pretty big I mean adjustment. I guess you would say yeah, yeah, and I know you listened to the Gary Fitzgerald podcast we had uh what do you hear and what's your take on that?
Speaker 3:You know, I've I've heard both sides, I, so I'll reference one of our directors who's just kind of been a long time pillar of of of the sport in Texas. Uh, jr Cooper. Jr got down class and he said, man, I love it, I love the shoots. Again, I can't wait to, you know, get excited again. He says, cause, you know, now I don't have to show up and beat. You know Corey Cruz or Dom grassy or you know somebody like that. You know, now I get to go, now I get to go see where I'm at and what I'm doing and how that works. And so consolidating the classes a little bit, um, I, I think is a positive um, man, I, I walk the line Like I'm just good enough to get in trouble and not quite good enough to get out. So you know, a lot of times I feel like I don't belong in masterclass.
Speaker 3:And then, you know, a couple of weeks ago I went to a shoot. I missed a couple of birds. I went to the parking lot kind of like, oh shucks, I left about four out there. You know somebody's going to beat me. And by the time I got home that night, you know I got a text message from the score chaser app that said, you know, congrats. And I thought, man, if that's not a lesson and in every bird counts just as much as the previous one, you know, I don't know, I don't know what is, and so you know, as soon as I say, like dang, why won't they put me in double A? Then you go in and win a little something. So, as my shooting buddies, travel buddies, clayton, nancy, one, all of those guys you know we always joke about, there's a difference between being West Texas good, being Texas is good and then being nationally good, and so I don't know. I think I'm in the middle, I know all the right people, but I I'm always a couple of birds behind.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, I'm more than a couple, but it's okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I really love the spirit of the competition. You know, we shot an event in Houston this weekend, I think champion was 79. That was Byron Justice. Corey shot a 74. I shot a 64. And I'm more proud of that 64 than I am of a whole bunch of stuff, because this was a shoot that was over the top, you know, just for the fun of it. You know so, everybody wants to shoot a 96, but sometimes it's a heck of a lot of fun to shoot a 64. Now, a lot of people were in the parking lot not agreeing with me, and and I respect their right to do so, but you know it's just a clay pot in the sky. I mean, shoot it or don't hit it or don't.
Speaker 2:I mean, at the end of the day, it's not going to anybody that, other than the people that do it for a living, which you and I don't. So I mean yeah, yeah, you know it's. I've always said it's, you know it's. It's. It's always said it's just a, it's just a piece of clay floating in the air. I mean, shoot at it and hit it. If you don't hit it, then, oh well, you go and practice some more. I mean yeah, yeah, there's no reason to get mad about it.
Speaker 2:So you know if you don't it's like I tell my son if you don't practice enough, how do you expect to hit any of them? I mean, I mean you're going to miss them, you're just going to do it, so right. But anyway, we're going to talk about the Texas state, teamed up, I guess, with Brown and Bradley this year.
Speaker 3:Yes, so kind of like we've alluded to Texas being being what it is in sporting clays and our state championship having such prestige and growing so large. Unfortunately, there's just a few venues that can hold it, and you know, right or wrong, I think we, you know we could change a whole bunch of stuff and shrink the event, but you know I don't think that is in the best interest to the sport or the people or the venues. And then you know, vice versa, Sometimes you get too big to manage, though, for better or for worse, and everyone schedules what they are. Greater, Houston Sports Club, Kevin and the guys down there and in South Houston stepped up and said hey, you know, if you want, if you'd like to partner with us, you know we'd like to have you. So the Browning-Briley that is a shoot with a lot of legacy this year is going to be combined with the Texas state championship. So there's a ton of support that's been given by Browning and by Briley, and so you know it's neat, it's an experiment, it's part of the growing pains of you know what happens when you, what happens when you find your state association shoot being bigger than a couple of the last US opens. So that's yeah, it's nuts.
Speaker 3:You know, Texas, having a facility like the National Shooting Complex in the state puts us in an interesting place. Obviously, you know, nationals can hold a couple thousand shooters at any time, and so, from 2020 to 2030, we've agreed to have the odd years at NSC, and one of the reasons we agreed to that is because, when you compare not NSC and NSC events, the NSC events are attended by 34 or 35% more people. And so, you know, sporting clay shooters, right, if they don't really like what you're doing, then they won't come. So if 30% of them, more of them come, you know, regardless of what's said on social media or, you know, mentioned in the parking lot, it's hard to argue with the data, right? So, Greater Houston, the National Shooting Complex, Travis Mears' Defender, Clay Sports Ranch.
Speaker 3:You know we've found ourselves where there's a few clubs and I think we have a few on the horizon. I don't want to put anybody on blast, but I think there's a few clubs interested in looking to grow into it and, of course, there'll be some pains there too. But um, Uh, you know, it would be neat to expand the venues, but right now we're kind of rotating between those three or four.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and greater. Yeah, hadn't been to. Only what I've been to is the national she natural, she accomplished yeah so it's. I Don't know anything about Travis Mears place and I don't know anything about greater Houston. Only thing that I know is Travis is a nice guy. I'm sure he's got a nice place and yeah very.
Speaker 3:He's, he's in, he's outside of Fort Worth, right, uh, kind of on the west side of the Dallas Fort Worth area. Some rolling hills, some, some terrain. It's. It's really neat and there's a. The south central regional will be there in September. So he's had a Texas state in 2022, a regional coming up, and I know he is actively working to have another Texas state in the future.
Speaker 2:So 10 out of 10 for for him, yeah, but it's gonna be a greater Houston this year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So back to greater. That's a club that's been around since the late 50s. In fact I offline, you and I were trying to get Kevin they're their COO on the phone with us and it and it just didn't worked out. I know I'm gonna Do a little bit of a disservice, but but graders of fantastic club. They've had, I think, four courses that just run 24, 7365.
Speaker 3:A lot of people who have been to greater Houston Know that famous drive down the lane where you know off to your left, you see a hundred and twenty foot tower. I mean it's, it is, it is a, it's a monster tower. And you know, at the, at the Browning Briley or at the Diamond Classic, the, the two main events that greater Houston hosts every year, you'll see a bird all the way up there and it's just, I don't know, it's life altering to watch a clay come off that thing and just go on for about two weeks before it leaves over the horizon. Yeah, it's, it's a really, really neat facility. They've put Sometimes some effort and some money. Um, everybody's sorry, not everybody.
Speaker 3:If you're familiar with greater Houston, they kind of have a Main event course that's double-sided and, you know, unlike a lot of places. It's about six. Polaris is wide so you can actually get through it and it's well paved and the shooting stands are all nice and covered and it's it's Very, very, very nice. Um, they've actually kind of leapfrogged that and have a whole nother set and I think it was Debuted at the Diamond Classic last year. But that's where fee tasks and five stand. Some some events like that will be. They pushed a lot of dirt, couple man-made ponds. The dirt that created those ponds you know is is Piled up in some Northbrook like berms in some places. So you know it really added some terrain to that kind of South Texas coastal Property and has made it Just ten out of ten in my opinion.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I need to see that place. There's a lot of places I need to see I hadn't been to, but but that's you know that. You know I've always heard good things about it. You know they. Yeah, the Diamond Classic, the trophies you see coming out of there, the Browning-Briley you see something about that. You know the greater Houston Championship, club championship I mean, you hear?
Speaker 2:champion buckle race. Yeah, you see that on Online, just as I mean it seems like as much as you see anything else that they host. You know like you get your first parking spot.
Speaker 3:I mean yes, man, on that you know, yes, yes, no, they, they, they do it, they do it first class, and and and they do it right. So, yeah, so, april the 17th through the 21st, myself and about 1100 other shooters and probably another thousand spectators will all descend in South Houston and we're looking forward to, we're looking forward to that party. So that's big.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's big for people listen, I mean and they've been, people listen probably know. But you're expecting about 1100, 1200 people.
Speaker 3:Yes, cuz, cuz. Every year we seem to set another record, and so this would be on on par, I think we're. We're like 60 to 70 days away from the event kicking off and you know we're knocking on 800. And Kevin sent me a screenshot the other day of Individual entries, right? So like if Justin's gonna shoot the main fee task in five, stand you're. There, you go, you're you're three entries. I think we have like 3750 entries, so that is a lot of rounds that will be thrown.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, what about the money? Tell me about what you can win there.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So Kevin Browning, briley, the Texas State Sporting Clause Association, a bunch of the other sponsors, they have kind of kind of Come together to make a Pretty serious purse. One second I'm gonna scroll back, okay. So, um, hoa is ten thousand cash, runner up five thousand, third place, twenty five hundred, which is, you know, in line with some national, if not better than some recent nationally known shoots. So you know, in class it goes down to like fifteen hundred, a thousand and seven fifty. Same thing for concurrence, and so it's a.
Speaker 3:It is a series of events that you can come participate in and, yeah, you might, actually you could actually be net positive. I don't know, it depends what you eat and drink after the fact. I guess, yeah, that's usually, that's usually where mine goes. So, so there's some, there's some interesting stuff they they're publishing, they're back to class numbers. So the Cedar Gap wealth management fee task Event and five stand event are all ten dollars, back to class. They're doing a couple different Well gauge events. So greater has has kind of coined a term sporting light. So it expect easier, simpler, charity, feel-good targets, right. So you know, if you know what that is going in Now, you, now you know what you're signing up for, you know, versus the main or maybe fee task or something.
Speaker 3:The TSA is sponsoring the Hall of Fame In honor of the 20th anniversary of our Hall of Fame program and we're going to each station is going to have some special signage and and recognition for our 30 or so Plus, you know, living Hall of Fame members White flyers, true pair cup, the audios cup, those are all gonna have ten dollars back to class. So you know you're not gonna go shoot a side event when, when your class and and then feel a little shafted when you get a, you know, a trophy, but no, but no payouts, and that's some of the feedback that we get. And you can't, you can't give away the farm, but you know you can. You can definitely Put your money where your mouth is and that's what they're doing.
Speaker 3:So the last thing is Agula ammunition is a sponsoring the super sport and the super sport pays $50 a person back to class, and so Previously this was sponsored by Do you know, ron, you were, yeah, legacy Ford, yeah, so, ron, before Ron retired, this was, you know, sponsored by Ron and his family dealerships and so, based on the way it used to work and how you know, greater Houston, agula and the TSA see it going forward the the total purse should be 25 30,000 there and master class should be paying out about eight grand to win the Win super sport. And that's just in class, that's not, that's not Anything else. So that goes all the way to E. So if you got a, if you got a bigger, deeper class Payouts or sky high, and so that's something really neat that the folks at Agula and crater Houston have worked on, so I Think you can. I think there's a shout out to be made there for those guys and and Corey Corey crews and For them coming up with a great idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so if you add all that together, about how much is that?
Speaker 3:A little over 150,000. Wow, I think, is the yeah, oh gosh, I'm embarrassed. I should know well, it's somewhere 150 hundred sixty thousand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It should pay so now who's second?
Speaker 2:you got. So who set the targets?
Speaker 3:Yep. So, um, mike Boyer is there. Uh, for lack of not knowing his actual term, he is the. He's the boss of the outside stuff. I always say Kevin's the boss of the inside stuff, mike's the boss of the outside stuff. So, michael, be setting some courses. Henry Velazquez a lot of people may not know Henry, but if you've ever shot the orange or the red at at nationals, chances are Henry's had his hands on a couple of those machines. So you know, if he can set nationals, he can. He can set Texas State and and he is a Regular employee at greater, if I'm not mistaken. Jason Minkie, of course everybody knows. Jason Bryley, jason Maderelly, jason world famous, and then and then Dennis Aguilis, who's also on staff there and sets Diamonds, and Brian Browning, briley's buckle races. So they've got a pretty deep. They have a pretty deep bullpen there. There's dozens of other people that'll be running around tech and and managing the courses.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it sounds like you have this thing down pat.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of credit goes to greater for that. But, but, yes, but you know, we do, we do big events.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tell me about like so, when everybody's done shooting, what you know, what you have, dinner and on. Saturday night. How you know what Yep? What are you doing there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Browning Briley goes first class in in all of their events and so with with the, with the Browning Briley Texas State being combined, thursday night there's gonna be a ladies snooker event and a cocktail hour. So I, if I'm not mistaken, there there's something for the guys to shoot and I think you can be on another field posting a snooker event score for the, for the shoot-offs later. But there's a special ladies shoot-off and a cocktail hour, and and then Friday night is the, the Hall of Fame banquet. So that's a pretty traditional Friday night thing for Texas State, regardless of where it's held, it will be in the pavilion. This year we plan to max it out as far as capacity. We have tickets available on score chaser whenever you do register or you can get some. They're live and in person.
Speaker 3:Like I mentioned, it's the 20th anniversary, so we would. We're inviting all of our alumni. We're asking them to bring their blue jackets, their their blue sport coats with the TSEA patches on them, even if they don't fit. I've gotten that text message once or twice like, hey, I grew mine and I'm like, well, just bring it to have it over your arms. Yeah, I think it'll be special to get a picture with all those people and just to have some of the legends of the sport.
Speaker 3:You know there are a few that have unfortunately passed on and I know, if there's a few that just you know flat out, wanton won't make it, but you know Me being active in the sport, you know 10 years and some of these being guys being active in the sport, guys and girls, 20 or 30 years, you know they've, they've forgotten stuff that we hadn't even thought of yet, and so I think I Think it's important to have those people around and embrace it, and then I'm pretty sure it's all public knowledge it definitely will be by the time this goes out.
Speaker 3:But For the TSEA Hall of Fame this year we are inducting Ed Oregi and Mark Tipton, a couple names that that a lot of people are gonna know and recognize through either their accomplishments with With the gun or or they're, you know, giving back to the sport, representing team USA, representing a lot of industry partners to gentlemen that are that are each, I think, personal friends, and and I'm looking forward to being able to put a blue sport coat on those gentlemen that night- so and it is special Corey's father-in-law right.
Speaker 3:That is yep, that's that's course, father-in-law, and then a lot of people will know mark, and then and then marks dad. I Never actually got to meet marks dad, but Growing up in West Texas I knew these guys that had stickers on their buggies and I asked one time Well, what does the razor mean, you know? And that was the marks dad. One year he entered 74 Events and I think he flat out not just concurrent but like open division, hoa 72 out of 74 events that he entered. And so, yeah, super, super cool to see you know a father and a son, you know, represent Texas.
Speaker 2:So well, so yeah, yeah, well, that's that should be interesting, and it sounds like it'll be big. Yes, sir, yeah so.
Speaker 3:So that's Friday night. Saturday night is the Browning-Briley bingo. Heavens has crawfish. Rumor has it they will have some crawfish. So a lot of people in Texas, louisiana, are not gonna get any this year. I guess maybe there's a droughts issues, something like that but we will have crawfish. I guess Kevin's gonna buy the last one off the boat or something. The snooker shoot off, which you know is always super well attended I, you know I think the snooker payouts are bigger at Texas State than than some of them at at the US Open or our nationals just how many people are shooting and participating. And that'll all be right there in front of the pavilion under the lights, live scoring. Kevin announces it and then Browning-Briley Always Bonthers, the big bingo night and I. We have a bunch of Browning's to give away, a bunch of Briley stuff to give away, stuff from some other sponsors, and so it will be a party and it'll be worth your while to to be there For all the festivities, whether it's Thursday, friday or Saturday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's I Don't know what I've got going on, when that's when that comes up with. That sounds like it's something you know, something to be fun to go to for sure. Yeah, it's always something to do, it sounds like, and there's a lot of money to win.
Speaker 3:Yeah, always, always something to do so.
Speaker 2:What else is? Going on in Texas other than Texas State. I mean you got you know what other shoots for big stuff that you have going on.
Speaker 3:Sure, well, you know we were talking about growing pains earlier and you know, not every club can, can, can just open their gates and have a thousand people show up. So you know, over the years the board of directors has tried to do, you know, like assistance programs or grant programs. Long before I was involved, my home club wrote a letter and filled out the grant paperwork and you know the TSA donated some, a couple shooting stands, I mean, you know, it's it's little stuff like that that makes the world go around. But I think some of those programs had kind of seen their day and we weren't getting a lot of Applications and things like that. So in order to put that money back to work and to bring shooters and events to small clubs, we came up with the Texas championship tour. So everybody loves the big national championship tour and so in Texas the tour consists of you know there's a pocket of clubs that we call north, and if you would just kind of in your mind draw a pretty loose circle around the DFW area right and then we call it south, so you can draw a pretty loose circle around, you know, houston and San Antonio, and then pretty much west is west, you know, and there's a Smattering of clubs all throughout there.
Speaker 3:So every year we pick one club in each zone. You know they ride in, they say hey, yeah, we want to have an event. This is, you know, we want a partner. And my ask of them is just, put your best foot forward. We want to partner with you, we want to promote your club, we want to incentivize people to go chase those points, chase the statewide payouts and the statewide trophies. And we don't, we don't need a thing in the world from you, except just, you know, put your best foot forward. Somebody might come to your little club, fall in love with the place and, you know, maybe not every month, come back, but every couple of months come back, because it's always fun to go shoot at a cool, new, different place and hopefully this motivates somebody to Go somewhere that they've never been. So you know, you don't have to go over the top, you don't have to have a 200 bird main, you don't have to triple your payouts. Just hey, we want to highlight you and we want to partner with you and give shooters a reason to be there.
Speaker 3:And so you know, for a small club, say, they get 40 or 50 people at a regular shoot. Well, if 10 people show up, I mean that's a meaningful increase in attendance, right? And so it's one of those. You know we move the needle on the thousand person shoot. Well, we also want to help try to move the needle on the on the 50 person shoot. And then what's the middle ground, you know, is that kind of 200 person shoot.
Speaker 3:And there's some clubs Greater Houston, defender, dallas Gun Club you know that every time they open the doors they do get 200. But then there's some that, that, that don't or won't ever. And so for the last 10 years, the second most registered event at a state, championship, is super sporting. And so you know I say numbers don't lie people vote with their feet. If they didn't like what you were doing, they wouldn't offer you their credit card. So let's have a super sporting championship.
Speaker 3:And so we've, we've bounced it around, we've had it in in lamb passes set at Julie Clark Clark's Club, austin Gun Club, we've had it in East Texas at at the Hunt Families Club, 5h, and then this year it'll be at Graystone Castle. And so a lot of people know, know, beth Bounds, she's the general manager. There runs everything from the quail and the chucker and the pheasant hunting to the sporting clays. And so you know our goal there is just to give shooters another chance for programs, awards and recognition and you know, an unique venue to shoot at a midsize club that you know can handle the, the two and three and 500 people, but 1000, you know 1000 folks. I mean you'd run out of, you'd run out of parking in Mingus, texas, really quick, yeah, if everybody showed up at Graystone. So, yeah, that's the. That's kind of what the board has settled on and as a way to help anybody who wants to participate and, you know, raise their hand. So we've, we've popped those events around a few different clubs and you know we just went to Texas Premier.
Speaker 3:In March we're going to go to Brownwood, texas, which is kind of central West Central Texas, a new club. That that is really. That has really turned into something pretty special. Lots of terrain, I mean several hundred foot elevation changes. Their main event wraps around this canyon on the side of this mesa, and so you know, from station one to station 10, I think you gain something like 800 feet. I mean it's serious, and so that's really cool.
Speaker 3:And then in in May we'll be at North Lake, which is a new club in North Fort Worth that a couple gentlemen partnered together, one of them that you know from the podcast of Vincent Hancock, so long time USA Olympian. Yeah, he's got some ski fields out there. If you watch his you know social media you'll, you'll see, you'll see the backdrops have changed and that's because he's coaching and operating a new club. They have a neat little clubhouse. I was, I was there a couple weeks ago with some of the Beretta folks on their way out to the shot.
Speaker 3:Joe and Vincent has a pro shop there in North Fort Worth that rivals the one at the Nationals in San Antonio. I mean, he's got a lot of stuff. But you know he's also one of Beretta's most accomplished athletes and a longtime partner. So yeah, he has a really cool setup and you know he's, he's out there on some equipment, some machinery, pushing brush piles, you know, the day before a registered event. So he's, he's all in. So neat, neat little things like that happen in in Texas that we want to highlight and promote. And you know, keep on going down the list, anyone listening that's in Texas. I would encourage you to reach out to myself or somebody else and say hey, I'm, I'm in, I want to. I want to partner, and because we have nothing set for 2025. So opportunities are out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's 40 of you out there. Yeah exactly, you know so. So, exactly what are you doing like when, when your terms up here, which is this you know, what are you going to?
Speaker 3:do so, I'm act. So we'll have a new president, which directors are elected by the membership and then the officers are elected by the board of directors in our first meeting, which is May after the state championship. So whomever is the new president, I will stay on the board as the immediate past president. Hopefully many of those video calls I can stay on mute, but you know my job's always just to be there and give a little historical house and wise.
Speaker 3:We did the things that we did and, for right or for wrong, at least provide a little context. But I've I've had a few interesting conversations. I love shooting sporting clays, I mean I you know there's a lot worse things that you could do with your time. I would, I would like to keep, I would like to keep going, I'd like to be involved, kind of the at the national level, because I think we've done a good job to grow some things here in Texas and and I'm not, I don't think that we could, I don't think we need to go in and turn everything upside down, but I think that there's, you know, some some people who love the port love the competition, have some ideas, have a little bit of business sense, you know, can at least, you know, put some input so that we can keep taking baby steps in the right direction.
Speaker 3:There's, there is no one size fits all, and and I don't envy really anyone that has to make the hard, hard calls Because even on the whole class thing, like we talked about earlier, there is not, there's not a perfect way to do it, but there are incremental improvements that can improve the game and when we look back in five or years or 10 years, you know, ideally we're in a better spot than we are currently.
Speaker 2:So yeah, sounds like you got going on down there in.
Speaker 3:Texas. Well, yeah, I, whenever my friends invite me to do something, I say, oh, I got a sporting place thing. They always joke and say, oh, you've got to go be the mayor. And I say yeah, yeah, but I but I love it, I love the shooting, I love the people. My cheesy joke is that I'm far better at collecting shotguns than I am shooting shotguns. So you know.
Speaker 2:I collect nothing, I'd rather do. What now? And what do you shoot? What kind of gun do?
Speaker 3:you shoot One of everything. Is that a correct answer? That's why I said you said you got to collect the collection, yes, yes. So I, by hook, by crook, by accident, ended up with one of the launch edition SL twos and Jim Green would just restock that for me and it is absolutely gorgeous. I like it a lot so.
Speaker 2:I know three people, with one now.
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 2:Anthony, and I think Mike Deonda has one.
Speaker 3:Well, and I shot with Christian Crawford at one of the regionals last year and Christian has. Christian was shooting one.
Speaker 3:I said, oh gosh, what was it? Louisiana, we were shooting in Louisiana. So, yeah, there's a, there's a few sneaking around out there. It's neat, it's different. I have a stable full of burritos. I love to mess with them. I take them apart Like I'm not. I'm not scared to knock every spring and roll pin out of one of those dudes. And a big shout out to Clayton Nance.
Speaker 3:Clayton polished a DT 11, double E, double L, like mirror white and then said you know, it'd be really cool if somebody would deal C coat one. So I was like, oh, here, watch this buddy. And so I did. I I'd knocked every pin out. I had them in an egg crate and you know, folks were like, gosh, weren't you worried that you couldn't put it back together? And I was like, no, not really. So I DLC coated it. So that's neat, just a neat project. Jim Greenwood's restocked Kreg, often parrotsies and all kinds of stuff. There's always a good reason. There's always a good reason to have a cool new gun, and so yeah, why not? Life's too short to let your friends shoot ugly guns.
Speaker 2:I know one thing you got. You got every single color vest they make Well I guess I well that.
Speaker 3:a huge shout out to the rodents and Bear Pelt. I have full disclosure. I've maybe given away as many vests as I've purchased for myself. They're super people and proud to represent them and be on the on the Bear Pelt Pro staff team and it's just too fun to write the whole sports too fun. So so it's too fun not to have you know your logo, or?
Speaker 3:I've enjoyed, I've really enjoyed, wearing the state logo on a vest that says president, not because I'm, you know, trying to brag about, you know, leading a conference call every month, but because I want people to come up to me and ask me the questions because you don't know. You don't know until you ask. And so you know, find somebody and ask, because there's so many perceptions and I don't do a lot of social media anymore, but you know, the things that you read on social media that somebody assumes is absolute fact and turns out couldn't be farther from the truth. You know, I think that's what whether it's podcasts like, like this one, or just boots on the ground, I think that's what you know we need some more of is how do you reach as many people as possible, put a gun in their hand, develop a passion for the things that we like to do and then make sure that they know where to go ask and to not be scared to ask I, you know.
Speaker 3:The first time I saw I don't know Zach or Corey or somebody like that, you know, in the wild, I was still a little starstruck, you know. And slowly but surely you realize, hey, you know what. These are real people that you can go up to and ask questions. And believe me, I'm I am not anywhere near them when it comes to pointing a shotgun, but please, somebody come ask me what? What do we do? You know I it's always neat to get a call or a message from somebody in another state that says hey, I heard Texas is doing this, you know, and so, yeah, I would love to help Anybody have a better program.
Speaker 2:So yeah, because that just means more shooting. That's right Means you get to take all work more right.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, well, so yeah, anytime it looks like you know we're having too much fun. You never see the you never see sitting in a hotel room at one o'clock in the morning with your iPad open Typing away like a maniac. So you know these things happen.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, you got anything else? Then, before I get on, no, dude, that man.
Speaker 3:I can't thank you enough. This was a cool opportunity and and I would encourage everybody to Check out the stuff that we've got going on here in Texas. I know we, we have, I, I know we have 25 or 30 states already represented when you look at the breakdown, and I think seven countries. So you know, by all means, come to Texas, make this, make this your people talk about the, the clay vacation that is the Florida swing. You know I'm headed to Jack links tomorrow I think you are yeah, also later in the week. But make, make Texas a Cool swing, just like Florida, or are?
Speaker 2:some of the West Coast stuff. Now the thing about Texas you have to wear boots and cowboy hat and all that stuff when you come down there.
Speaker 3:After your shooting. After your shooting, come on now. If you wear cowboy boots where you're shooting, you know they got those heels on them you lose your ankle mobility. So if I ever get in a shoot off with somebody at a charity event, they're wearing cowboy boots. I just, you know, I just assume they're not gonna be able to turn very well, so they're gonna be too much of their hands. Yeah, yeah, all hands, all hands. No, after the fact well, and that's why we go big with the parties on every night here at the at the Texas state. So we do it right, yeah, well there you go.
Speaker 2:Everyone listen and go check them out.
Speaker 1:Well, how do?
Speaker 2:they find out more information about the just everything. The organization, yes, yes.
Speaker 3:So. So the Texas Sporting Clays Association website is txclayscom. If you click, there's several drop downs across the top. You can click the ones for events and it'll show you the events we've got going on. That's where you can find our board of directors meetings that we hold on the first Tuesday. I encourage anyone interested, raise your hand. I think we'll have a few board seats Turning over this next year from just people that are rotating off, though you know there are opportunities to serve and and we're not gonna throw you in the fire on day one you know, come, get on the board of directors, learn what makes the world go around, learn about the sport and find a way that you feel comfortable helping and volunteering.
Speaker 3:And then you know, let's, let's, let's make it work. My contact info, personal contact info, is on that website, so you can always get ahold of me that way. And then you know we've really, I think most of our shoots have kind of consolidated. We've got a few clubs that still use iClays, but nearly everything's consolidated on score chaser. So whenever I'm looking for a shoot, I go to score chaser, I go to the upper right hand corner and in the search bar if you just type TX and hit enter, it will just bring up Texas only clubs, and I'm always looking for a you know a place to a place to shoot Maybe there's very few that I hadn't been to anymore after after being the president for four years. So you know that's all of our Texas clubs are represented there one way or the other.
Speaker 2:Sounds like it's in line. So you know, I hope the turnout for the shoot's good and I'm sure it will be like you said.
Speaker 3:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, you know it sounds like it'll be fun and a lot of money to win. So yeah all you. They got kicked back down a class. You might want to go out here and try to win some of this money. Have your masterclass pen back. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah what? You might as well have a hat full in that. What in that, what Gary said?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, four different ones.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so well, last but not least, browning Riley, can't think those guys enough long range. Blaser, lincoln, white flyer, jg industrial, wsl, cedar Gapwell management TSA. Those are. I'm forgive me if I've left one off, but those are some of the sponsors that that have worked to make this a sweet event. So one last shout out to them. And I don't know man, let's call it a night.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm the Texas coming Texas, but first go to Florida, jack, I'll see you there.
Speaker 3:I'll see you there, you.
