Gamaliel Cup Spring was in full blossom in Tennessee, this was sure to be a fun weekend had by all. The Preliminary on Friday couldn’t have had better weather. When we kicked off on station 12, it was around seventy-five degrees and sunny. One station that really stood out in my mind was a true pair of tower targets thrown from the right. The targets were thrown off the tower showing black bottom and heading toward you. They crossed a small line of trees, and as the first shot crossed in front of the shooter, the second arched up showing belly. The setup here was all about timing the first shot out in preparation for the second. The course also offered a target presentation that has rarely been seen as of late. On station seven when we called for the show pair, I had to do a double take. The first target of the report pair was a mini. Normally when you see a mini presentation at a tournament, it is thrown in as a straight away in the pair. This was not the case for this station. The trap was set behind a few trees, and the target was thrown upward and started to curl to the right showing belly and peaking about fifteen yards out. This mini was followed by a standard chondelle target heading toward the tree line quartering out. Both targets were equally deceiving, and it made for a great target presentation all the way around. Unfortunately due to the inconsistency of the target, it was easy to see this mini would not be making its way into the main. With Rhonda Barfield manning the keyboard and putting in scores, it was no time at all before the preliminary scores were up. Curtis Mauldin won the Prelim with an outstanding score of 96. The runner-up position would fall on Willie G. Mills shoulders with a 95. In the concurrents, Ashleigh Hafley would win Ladies with and 89, Juniors was a three way tie between J. William Henderson, Ian Anderson, and Ashleigh Hafley all sitting on 89. When the tiebreaker stations were totaled, they would all finish in that exact order rounding out the top three. Sub-Juniors was won by David Radulovich with a hearty score of 91. Veterans would be won by Kentucky native Jim Williams and Super-Veterans also resulted in a three way tie with a score of 85. Norman D. Smith would take first followed by Bob Davis and Floyd Hartlage respectively. Saturday’s weather did not meet all the expectations that some had planned for it. It would prove to be a cold and gloomy day with showers sprinkling the course regularly. Almost as soon as we started on the green course we hit a little bit of a back up. A relay switch had gone bad on a machine and backed everyone up a bit. The situation was soon remedied and we had continued on our way. This chondelle was thrown with the black showing and quartering out from you, on the report of the gun a standard was launched streaking across the sky with quite a bit of spring driving it. When Sunday made its way around, the clouds and rain of the previous day had subsided, leaving what was yet another perfect day for shooting. With a sunny forecast, my flight went out on the eleven thirty rotation. Target setter Bill McGuire had quite a day planned out for us. The entirety of the course would be nothing but curve balls and speed changes. One of the stations that had the shooters fired up was a battue presentation on station seven. A quick battue quartered out to from your left and flared out followed by a straight away standard directly in front of the stand. The amount of lead on the battue was unbelievable even for that close of quarters. This target left many shooters wondering why they had missed the first, and in turn, many were still scratching their heads when they went to shoot the second, resulting in not just one but two zeros on the score card. Not to add insult to injury, but let me remind you the second target was a straight away. That’s one of the great things about today’s target setters, and McGuire in particular. If there is a hard target on a station, they usually leave you with an easier second shot to insure that the shooter at least has a chance to come out with half on their scorecard. This leaves a very balanced feel for the course, and a shooter won’t get beat up on just one station in particular. Another station that was well setup was a true pair of teal. If the shooter was aggressive enough, he could take the first target while it was on its upward flight path and have time to focus on the second, which was curling to the left, and pop it in the same area code. However, if you chose to dally and make sure you had the right lead on the first; the second setup was terrible, and if you reversed it…well we’ll just say it made for a very difficult falling second shot. In the Main Event, Wendell Cherry won just one bird ahead of Runner-up Doug Vine and two targets clear of Master first Hub Johnson. In the Ladies concurrent Ashleigh Hafley would take HOA, while Jim Williams held out for Veteran first. Jim Bowers bested Ron Shaffer by one target for Super Veteran honors while Hub Johnson won Junior, and David Radulovich took home the Sub-Junior trophy. With the amount of rain received as of late, and with the Fitasc being in a very low area, it created a few problems pertaining to the amount of mud. Many of the rental golf carts couldn’t make the trip to the FITASC because of the ruts that the larger vehicles had made. However, since the staff at TCTC and Gamaliel are always on their toes, they put straw down in the heavily soaked areas. They had an EZ-Go 4x4 cart coupled to a 16 foot trailer lined with hay bales for seats, and used it to take shooters to the parcours to cut down on the amount of traffic in the area. On the FITASC, the layout that had the majority of my squad baffled was layout number two. This parcour had what appeared to be two very easy to read targets. One was a standard showing bottom arching across the sky and the other a battue that moved right to left. The standard was thrown from every peg, and this turned out to be the misfortune of my entire squad. Many of us misjudged the speed, not only on the standard, but also on the battue. I don’t know about the rest of you shooters out there, but when I see a target showing full belly about fifty yards away the amount of lead one would think to break a target like that would be minimal. However, this target was deceptive with a capital D and cost many of us decent scores on the layout. The layout that took the creative cake was layout one. This particular parcour had a chondelle from the left that never crossed the shooters body. It was set up to the left of the shooter and through the target straight out. Another target that would shine on this parcour was the E bird. The E target was around fifty five yards out and was a true crosser through most of its flight, except for the last ten to fifteen feet. Upon reaching the end of its flight path it would turn and show full dome. This turned out to be the opportunity most shooter chose to capitalize on taking the target at the end of its flight path. In the FITASC, Wendell Cherry would take HOA honors while Curtis Mauldin held down Master first. Ashleigh Hafley won the ladies top spot while Jim Williams again took home first in Veterans. Bob Davis won Super Veterans and Abel Spire took the Junior concurrent. All in all, the 2008 Gamaliel Cup was another successful event held by TCTC and the Gamaliel Family. With the success of the spring shoot, the company has decided to turn the Gamaliel Cup into a Triple Crown series. For any of you that missed the spring shoot, there will be two other opportunities to catch up on the fun; one in Tunica, Mississippi at The Willows, and the other in the fall at the World Shooting Complex in Sparta, Illinois. Start clearing your calendars now.
Article by Ashleigh Hafley
Because of rising gas prices and the cost of ammunition, quite a few shooters are scaling back on the number of tournaments they are going to. As a result, a number of the once bigger blasts are not quite meeting the number expectations they used to. One shoot that has seemed to gain participation despite these odds is the Gamaliel Cup. This shoot always stands out on my calendar as one of the premier shoots of the year. Gamaliel and the Tennessee Clay Target Complex really go out of their way to make sure everyone is taken care of and has a great time. This year would prove to be no different.
