SoCal Waterfowl Daze

[pitdog]

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Only one ugly moment after a great day, The 2 "Stoners" pitdog invited decided in their drunken stupor that they had to kill something. So with Coors beers in hand they walked out onto the range and tossed up a full sized honker decoy and blasted it with a shotgun, then high fiving each other. You could hear the gasps and "what the heck" from all the people still there.  For those not with our group who were shooting down on the other trap fields I'm sure we made a good impression with that display of assanine behaviuor.

Steve, leave the drunken idiots at home next time. That's the kind of black eye we don't need and will get us thrown out of the place. Where did you find those 2 neanderthals anyway? Please tell me you're not taking them hunting.[/b]

That's not the way I heard it. I was told by someone who saw the entire incident that the "Soners" didn't shoot the decoy. They asked another guest to shoot it, thinking that I would find it funny… I didn’t find it funny and I think the guy who shot the deke was way more out of line.

I may have invited them, but I don’t feel responsible for their actions. They were sober when they showed up and didn't touch a gun after the first beer was cracked. Who’s the whacko that shot the decoy? Who invited such an idiot? Where did y'all find such a neanderthal?

He should have been “kicked out on his butt” IMO.

 

[Bulldog]

For those who missed it, the main event was watching the Father and Son trap competition. I am telling you that is what shooting/hunting/outdoors is all about!

All the boys were impressive (easily out shot me). A very close competition between the 3 teams (pitdog & Trevor, MapMan & David, Duke & Brady). Anyone of them could of won. Pitdog & Trevor missed making the finals by 2 points.

The finals was absolutely amazing. Duke and Brady went up first (they lead in points) and did there poorest shooting of the day. MapMan and David went up got 7 out of 15 and had 10 to go. Very intense at lease for me because I was doing the scoring and was the only one with a clue as to what was going on (front row seat). MapMan and son took 5 more shots and only hit 1. 1 out 5 missed, 2 out 5 hit (MapMan), 3 out 5 missed, 4 out 5 missed, (at this point I am all blue and about to keel over from holding my breath). I tell David last shot but didn't clue him in on what was on the line:

"Pull", the clays sails sharp right (the toughest shot)... KABLAM... and the clay disintegrates!!! At this point, only I knew what just happened. A tie... sudden death!!! Duke already put his gear away... so we conceded that tie breakers would be settled by the juniors. 2 shots each. Brady goes up... missed. David goes up... missed. Same thing with round 2. Round 3 Brady missed and once again David found just enough to break one more and become the first SoCal Waterfowl Trap Competition Parent & Child Champions.

To think MapMan was ready to hang it up after round 2. He was all out of ammo. Luckily there was some left overs that I donated to the kids booth (I think that deserve an invite to one of your honey holes J/K...

).

MapMan was sporting a nice O/U and son had one of those single shot, pull back trigger deal. I think your boy earned an upgrade. I would sell that O/U... it seemed like it was broken (J/K... if that was the case I would need to sell all my guns

).

Congratulations to all the teams!!! Next year I will have my son in tow and steal that title away!

 

[Bulldog]

Without flaming this post with the Stoners.

I confirmed w/ my GF who witnessed the whole thing. It was another guess that shot the deke. It was my GF who put them in their place by telling them they can't shoot anymore if they are drinking.

What surprises me is that they even threw the deke up. I figure them for ground sluicer... J/K Jesse...

 

[DKScott]

It's sad when guys run around loose like that.

Where was their father?

 

[Bulldog]

Who the heck was running the raffle? I was so busy running around doing the trap competition that I completely forgot about it. That sucks if I wasn't even entered!!! I don't even know what was being raffled off... but the only thing I really wanted was one of those certificate from Darius Taxidermy. What else was raffled off?

 

[mouthcallinmatt1]

It was definitely a fun day. A little better turn out than I expected.

Unfortunately the calling costest also went off as I expected.

Next year will be another story and we'll have to make sure it doesn't interfere with other events. I read on the fuge that there was a another event last weekend and they had 28 callers show up. I wouldn't expect that many down here but even half of that would be good.

If this becomes what I know it can, we will definitely need the whole place next year for sure.

Jesse, I'm sure you & your staff will be going to the SHOT Show again this year. I can't think of a better place to talk to vendors for next year.....unless you think they need to be notified before then.

My friend is in charge of business development for Rhino Lining. I know he will be on board for next year.

 

[MapMan]

BullDog,

Thanks for all your work to make the Trap Competition a great event, especially for the kids. You put a lot of effort into it with the winner ribbons, tee shirts, and even a few extra shells! I am sure there was much more than that involved, and I thank you………

My son David and I won by a very narrow margin, and let me be the first to say it was not because of my shooting that day. Call it nervous, a bad day, or just psyched out by my sons shooting, whatever…………I sucked!!! I consider myself a pretty good shot but I could not hit the broad side of a barn door on Saturday. I was shooting my $1500.00 20 ga. Beretta Silver Pigeon O/u and my son was shooting a 30 year old 20 ga. Winchester break open single shot Youth Model. And he smoked me with it! I was so amazed and happy all at the same time. I mean he busted the majority of those clays dead center, even the hard right flying ones……..You did me proud son! And you can be sure he talked smack about beating the ol’ man the whole ride home, and to the neighbors and his friends when we arrived home, and when I tucked him in bed, and I bet he rubs it in again when I get home tonight. Gotta love it..……..to top it off he has only shot 2 rounds of trap prior to Saturday’s shoot and that was with a .410 shotgun. Heck I have only shot a dozen or so rounds of trap and skeet combined in my lifetime, but I have a lot of field shooting experience compared to the little guy……and he out shot me big time………. a 10 year old………!!

A short background: My son got a Rossi single shot .410 for Christmas two years ago. It has been costing me an arm and a leg to supply him with shells at $7.00 - $10.00 per box. He has shot it a lot but with very limited success and a lot of frustration. The two prior times we shot trap he hit mabey 2-3 clays with it. A couple weeks ago we took out the 20 ga. to a spot near home and let him try it. It is still a bit heavy for him (all solid steel receiver) and the hammer has a heavy pull for a young kid’s thumb, but he realized it did not kick much more than that lightweight .410 with no but pad. On Saturday I took both guns to the show and he chose to use the ol’ 20 ga……..the rest is history! I will be saving a lot of money on .410 shells now.......!

All the others deserve to be proud as well. Pitdog’s son Trevor hit several long shots on hard right flyers with an old bolt action Mossberg .410. Nice shootin! And then Duke’s son Brady (Duke is QalHnter) is to be commended as well. His son has also been shooting a single shot Rossi .410 and decided to try his sister’s 20 ga. Beretta 391 Youth autoloader for the first time. Well he busted some clays with it and he really like that autoloader……. Looks like someone will be getting a new shotgun soon just like his sister…. But the good news Duke is the shells will be cheaper…LOL….

All in all a great start to what I hope continues to grow into a successful show for waterfowlers. I helped run the kid’s booth along with QalHntr and CalFowler and we had quite a few children visit us. They colored wooden cutouts of various ducks, made Quail calls from cloths pins, and got a CWA Waterfowl dog tag, all courtesy of a care package from CWA. Thanks to El Cazador for the gift of some used decoys to my son, he is really excited about them. Thanks to FowlShot for taking pictures all day (make sure to send me some!), to OutdoorPlay for his efforts, Jesse for making it happen, Darious you do nice work, and all the others I met and spoke with that day…………

BullDog, I’ll take ya on a Chukar hunt if you want to go sometime. A good spot but not my "Honey Hole" LOL.....And my O/U shoots just fine…..most of the time!

Cheers all...

 

[karstic]

Originally posted by MapMan@Sep 26 2005, 02:06 PM
And you can be sure he talked smack about beating the ol’ man the whole ride home, and to the neighbors and his friends when we arrived home, and when I tucked him in bed, and I bet he rubs it in again when I get home tonight. Gotta love it

The smack talk started before the ride home. When he came up to the QU booth to buy the quail call, he said with a big smirk on his face, "I just outshot my dad!"

Mapman you've got one to be proud of there. Congrats

 

[jdhowe75]

MATT,

I'm in for next years calling competition. Thanks to pitdogs advice I'm already practicing. I'd like to go head to head with pit next year. Actually I'd really like to go head to head with ODP, either he was really drunk on Saturday night or he can't call worth crap!!!

(maybe both) Maybe we can put a call in bulldogs hands and get him into this too.

I can hear his girlfriend now: "Damn you, Jesse!"

 

[foulshot]

I had a good time. It's funny, you'd think being behind the camera you'd see everything. I'll post some pics as soon as I get a chance.

FYI, the "gentleman" shooting the decoy was the same "gentleman" who put on the dog demonstration.

I will say this on Pitdogs behalf, he did not pick up his gun after cracking open that coors light. He even asked me(as well as some others) to take his place in the skeet comp.


As far as the "young" fellas drinking, they were old enough to not need parents but young enough to be bent over someones knee!!

 

[MapMan]

BullDog, I missed out on the raffle as well. I got a raffle ticket in the morning but was so busy running the kids booth, and being whooped at shooting by my son, that I forgot about the drawing. I too was hoping to win that certificate from Darius............... I got home and emptied my pockets and there was the raffle ticket!!!

......Heck, I even forgot to get my free JHO Tee Shirt/Hat from Jesses booth..........I must be getting old or something.....

Karstic, so my son was smack talkin me behind my back, huh......Thats my boy.......

Hey, we talked a while in the morning at your display, but I never knew you were a JHO member. Nice to meet ya.........

 

[spectr17]

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That's not the way I heard it. I was told by someone who saw the entire incident that the "Soners" didn't shoot the decoy. They asked another guest to shoot it, thinking that I would find it funny… I didn’t find it funny and I think the guy who shot the deke was way more out of line.[/b]

Okay, all 3 were equally blooming idjits. The 2 obviously drunken stoners you brought by the booth like a proud papa and the idjit from Dogtra who said they talked him into shooting the deke. Your 2 pals were wrong the moment then walked out onto the trap field with beers in their hands. I'm not going to argue who was more right or wrong. The reaction from those standing nearby and the shouting down of the idjits was proof enough what the crowd thought of the situation. That and the fact several us us went over and told the jokers to please leave. The guy from Dogtra gave the same lame excuse when I asked him what the heck was he doing. "They talked me into shooting the deke" excuse he gave was pretty lame.

I also watched one the Stoners rummage though one of our boxes in our booth but don't recall anyone inviting him behind the tables so he could pillage. You mentioned those 2 goofs were our newest member here on the forum.

Thanks a lot. More headaches we can all use. It took several of us oh about 15 seconds to realize what drunken fools they were when they regaled us on how they were going to mow down ducks this fall in a hail of bullets.

I'm hoping the folks not with our group who were shooting down at the nearby trap fields didn't see anything and word didn't get back to Chad about the BS deke shooting. That's all we need, we finally find a good home for the event and some immature a-holes get us thrown out.

And yes, I witnessed the entire debacle along with Jim Matthews, karstic and several other folks. Mike and several us went over to the yahoos and asked them to clear out. In fact there was a group of us at the fence making our thoughts known.

Back to the event, yeah the calling contest fell through. With folks running it who really didn't have their heart in it no wonder. Next year we'll make sure we have people organinizing and running it who will make it work.

Same for the calling seminar where we were supposed to have Troy Taylor, he was a no show from what I heard.

The gun reps will all be there next year. Turner's will supply ammo and you'll be able to shoot different shotguns from all the makers like out at Raahauges Shooting Fair.

We'll make sure the P.A. works next year to direct people to the events. I was told they had a P.A. but at the show someonme told me the flood had ruined some part of the system. IF word would have gotten to me I could found a way to get that fixed. People we're asking all day what time an event started or where to go for an event. That's what a P.A. is for.

That and we'll get the dog lauch going one way or the other.

 

[rtin]

Jesse, Please call Steve with APPLEWOOD before his name is brought up anymore.!! I talked to him about the matter and he told me it was not anyone from his group. His # is 909-226-4261. I was not there, so I don't know what happend or who was involve.I find it very hard to believe that anyone from APPLEWOOD would do such a stupid stunt.

 

[spectr17]

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Jesse, Please call Steve with APPLEWOOD before his name is brought up anymore.!! I talked to him about the matter and he told me it was not anyone from his group.[/b]

It was not Steve but Denny in the orange hat who was manning the Dogtra booth. I know cause I talked to the guy several times since his booth was right next to ours and I met him at the fence 10 seconds after he shot the deke and I asked him WTH he was doing. I said Applewood since one of the banners Denny had in his booth said Applweood and Steve was at that booth most of the day with his dogs. It appeared they were all together.

I just talked to Steve and it was just Denny from Dogtra in that booth they were sharing. Denny is also the range instructor

. Let's see, alcohol, guns, clowning around. Great thing for people there who were not in our group to witness. I wonder what they thought when they looked over to see 3 guys wiht beers tossing dekes up to shoot. And then to offer a lame excuse it was someone else that talked you into it.

IMO Denny needs to be fired over that escapade. Most range instructors I know would jump someone's butt over that kind of incident.

 

[mouthcallinmatt1]

Originally posted by spectr17@Sep 26 2005, 03:17 PM
yeah the calling contest fell through. With folks running it who really didn't have their heart in it no wonder. Next year we'll make sure we have people organinizing and running it who will make it work.

Whoa......back up there a minute. Granted I wasn't too optimistic from the get go that the whole event would amount to much in such a short period of time and I now stand corrected on that. I think it went pretty well given the time period to plan.

But if you are going to place blame on me for not getting people to sign up for a calling contest then maybe I wasn't clear enough when you called me and asked me to judge it and I said I would "JUDGE". What part of judging is recruiting? I don't recall in our conversation that recruiting people to sign up was something you wanted me to do. I told plenty of people about it anyway and they either weren't interested in competing or couldn't make it to the event at all. Maybe a hot girl in a swimsuit walking around asking guys if they want to see her blow...........in a calling contest that is..................might get some people to sign up.

Sorry for being a realist.

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Same for the calling seminar where we were supposed to have Troy Taylor, he was a no show from what I heard[/b]

Your right..........Troy couldn't make it but his Sales Rep Andy Cacciatori was there representing Troy & his calls. He, myself, & Robert Druckenmiller all gave plenty of one-on-one seminars to lots of people that came to his booth. I think we helped more people that way than trying to talk to a group. You could argue which way is best if you want to but I think that having Taylor Talker calls there, even if Troy couldn't make it, was still a big positive for the show. Not all of your contacts pulled through either and some had no representation at all.

I'm feeling that just because everyone couldn't put as much effort in to this as you may have then to you we all suck.

Not a good way to get VOLUNTEERS for next year.

 

[spectr17]

No blame Matt, I just stated the facts. You and Andy didn't think the contest was worth it and wanted to pull the plug. I think it would have been better to have someone orginizing and running the calling contest a little more onboard. We didn't reallly have a set person organizing the calling contest but a group trying to get it going.

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Jesse, if this is too structured for you then you can find someone else to judge. I'm not going judge some kid making single quacks to a 20 year veteran.[/b]

Looking at what Emil did with the trap comeptition it's easy to see what outstanding work can be done. It just takes some effort and time. The kids' smiles were all the reward I needed to see. If listening to a "kid" make single quacks is below you than you're right, we need to look elsewhere for judging help. This was supposed to be for fun remember?

Same for the event overall, if you don't want to help then please step out of the way and let us do our work. Naysayers really just get in the way and hurt the effort.

I really don't care how much you put in or I put in. It's a group yank on the rope. I do what I feel I need to do and I don't have to measure up to someone else or hang names on it like "All or nothing".

If volunteers have the attitude you've shown I really don't see their worth. We need can do people. I met a few this weekend and I think we'll do just fine with their help.

The old "if you don't have something good to say" adage comes to mind. Kind of like the slam on the press release I posted on the Flambeau dekes. I've killed a few mallards over my old flambaues and at the time they fit my budget. Sure I wanted G&H and wanted all over nothing but my station in life then had me buying Flambeaus. Us K-Mart kids do just fine from where I sit.

 

[karstic]

ERRRRRRRRRRRRR......Let's all hit the brakes, slow down and take a breath.

I think the day went off fairly well for the short amount of time available for planning. Except for the incident at the end, things went as a well as could be expected. Let's take what was learned over the last few weeks and improve on it for next year. I wish I could have gotten around a little more, but I was the only person at my booth and the chukar calls were going hot and heavy.

 

[rtin]

Jesse, Thanks for clearing things up with Steve

. I'm sure he will give Denny a good toung lashing for his stupid stunt.

 

[ESSposse]

.. the pot calling the kettle black.........

 

[outdoorplay]

I would just like to say thank you to the one's who volunteer; it was you who made this day a success. Thank you,

I am trying to play catch up on my work that I have been neglecting why tiring to make this day go with some element of success well. And we did make it a success.

Thank all of you that showed up and took the time to say Hi, it meant a lot to me.

Sorry I do not have the time right now to read everyone’s post. I have a lot of caching up to do. But if I get done at a half way descent hour, I will tri later on tonight. To read all of your posts.

Once again
Thanks to all of you, for playing your part in the best thing that will only help out all of our hunting needs.

Michael Dickerson