FITASC Nationals and Palmetto Cup
Article by Mike Hafley
This week found us heading to the FITASC Nationals at Hermitage Farm in
In trying to find a way to start the article, I kept thinking about what was the best part of the shoot. My first thought was the fact that it had 160 people for the National FITASC event set it apart from last year’s attendance of 129. My other thought was starting with a short bio of the FITASC National winner who shot so well he could have skipped the doubles from the last peg on his last Parcour and still won by two targets. Then it hit me, there was so much that was spot on with this shoot it would be hard to single one thing out. But I have to start somewhere, so let’s pluck one item off of the list of things that were done right and start with the target selection.
I could cover the target presentations in one short “WOW,” but unless you were there, you wouldn’t get it. I will go into it a little deeper detail than that and you can see what you think.
The terrain and layout on the course lends itself to spectacular target presentations. The
Starting on Station 7 there was a right to left flaring trap shot with a left to right target on report that was trying its best to become a chandelle presentation as it ran out of speed. I thought it was a pretty good set of targets to start on. Moving on to the next station it would set the tone for the event. It had a trap shot that was about 15 foot below the stand moving to the shooters left and a left to right crosser that was in the neighborhood of 50 yards when you took the shot. The kicker was it was also 15-18 foot below that stand. The targets continued to be challenging throughout the rest of this course with a Chandelle that was paired with an incomer that was in the 50-60 yard range. We were also treated to a true pair at about 30 yards moving left to right that was 10-15 feet below you. The targets were what I like to call “hard all day”. There was only one set that I would consider as easy targets, and that was a true pair of trap targets at station 2. In talking with Wendell Cherry after his round of 93, we both felt he would be a couple light going into Sunday. It turned out we would be dead on with the thought. Both Bill McGuire and Gebben Miles had come off of the afternoon rotation with a very respectable score of 95.
I talked to Joe Cantey after the round and ask who had set the targets. He let me know that he was responsible for them and braced himself for my next comment. I told him I thought they were the best targets we had seen all year. With a slight grin he said, if you liked these, then you will really like tomorrow’s course.
Normally when I get that reaction from a target setter, it means get a good night's sleep because you are going to have some work to do tomorrow. I now know with Joe it means go back to the hotel right now and get both mentally and physically ready for the onslaught.
Starting out on Sunday’s course we were treated to the best technical targets of the year. Gun management for the second shot would be crucial at every station. Get sloppy with the muzzle, and I promise that you would pay the price. Station 7 was a true pair coming from around 30 feet below the shooting station. One would be a teal, the other had a little cast to it with a lighter spring that would transition into a slight curl at the kill point. We watched the squad in front of us, which included both of Saturday’s leaders Bill McGuire and Gebben Miles work on the lower of the two targets first leaving the taller teal as a falling target. By the time they were done, this station would claim two targets from each of them leaving Bill with a score of 90 and Gebben with a score of 93.
When the afternoon rotation started, our squad started off shooting the pair the same way the last squad had. The first three shooters on the squad paid the cost with at least 2 or 3 zero’s. The fourth shooter was going to change things up. Ashleigh Hafley decide to start a little lower on the targets and work on the taller teal target on the way up. Wendell Cherry worked the pair the same way, with Hafley dropping only one and Cherry cleaning the station, they were off and running with 15 out of 16 killed. The target presentation would continue to be the same caliber as the first station. Working your way around the course there would be a mixture of rabbits, midis, and battues that would test shooters of all levels. The last station was a report pair which included a rabbit that was 30-40 feet below you and a flaring bottom crosser that seemed to take forever to climb out of the bottom to rest just above eye level.
Wendell Cherry would make his way around a very technical course and mange to only post four zero’s on his score card. This would allow his score to surpass the two leaders from Saturday and give him the win with a score of 189. Ashleigh Hafley would take the win in Ladies, and she would also place Junior second behind Travis Carroll who took the win.
Gebben Miles would take the Runner-Up spot one target out, sitting on a score of 188. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to meet or see Gebben Miles in action, take the time to do so if you have the chance. This young man is in it for the long haul and continues to make his name known on the circuit. I have watched him practice his craft for several years now, and he continues to rise to the occasion at every event. He is a great young shooter that really represents this sport's youth in a very positive manner.
In ending the report on the sporting side of the event, if it had a weak spot it would be the trapping. It wasn’t that is was bad or out of control, but it would have been nice if the trappers would have had an opportunity to get a little time practicing before being thrown into the fire, so to speak. They were local ROTC and were very polite and very helpful. As we made our way around, as did many of the squads, we took the time to help where would could, sometimes pushing the buttons to make it a bit easier for them.
The event also hosted the FITASC Nationals, which was actually the Main Event. It had 160 shooters in the main and would have been a bit larger had the airlines not been canceling flights left and right. Several shooters had problems getting there or were unable to attend at all.
One other person who was trying to cancel as many flights as American Airlines was Anthony Matarese. The only difference was he was turning his into smoke and American Airlines was trying not to. To describe how well Anthony shot, you would almost have had to be at the event and witness the targets. Take into consideration that this was a National Event and yes the targets were set to that level. This was a 200-target event and each of 200 needed to an equal amount of respect. Sure some of the layouts shot easier than the others but keep in mind “easy” is a relative term.
Anthony posted a score of 190/200 which is good by anyone’s standards. His list of scores on layouts would be in order 20, 25, 25, 24, 24, 24, 25, 23 for a total of 190. If you take a second to notice, half of his total misses came on Parcour One. For those of you that have missed the math lesson, that leaves 5 missed targets out of the last 175. Did I mention that he had shot pretty well? I believe that works out to being 80% on his worse layout and an amazing 97% on the other seven. In his defense, I think if you averaged all of the scores on Parcour One, it would have been the hardest of the eight. The last statistic is my way of trying to make Anthony feel better for dropping five targets on one layout. Curtis Mauldin finished in second place 6 targets out followed by Gregg Wolf, Gebben Miles, and Bill McGuire respectively. Ashleigh Hafley would win Ladies. Caitlin Conner and Darby Fennel would round out the top three. Brody Sikes and Able Spire would tie for the Junior’s with Brody winning the shoot off.
Just for the record, Joe split the target setting duties on the FITASC with a familiar face. Chuck Frazier got to toss in a little of his handy work also to make it good solid 8 layout course. Trap breakdown and breakage was next to none. Thanks to Chuck and some well planned maintenance before the event.
Hermitage Farms is the complete package; terrain, targets, and most of all friendly people. Take the time to check out their schedule and see if you can stop by and shoot one or more of their events, I don’t think you will be disappointed in any way.
