253, Cory Kruse, Travis Mears, Ben McAnally, TX State Review!

Ben McAnally cohosts as we are joined by 10x Texas State Champion, Cory Kruse and owner of the host club, Defender Clays Sports Ranch, Travis Mears!  In this episode we cover a lot of interesting stats, facts, and a whole lot of laughs!  Plus, Cory gives us some insight to his newly formed Sporting Collective as well as what this title means to him, shooting with the wife on hand, and how Travis' daughter wants Dad take it from Cory!  Travis touches on some key points about the shoot, and what it means to host the largest state championship in the USA!  We cover a lot of ground in this podcast!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:00

Welcome back, everyone, and welcome to my co-host, Mr. Former Texas State Sporting Clays president, Mr. Ben McNally. What's up, Ben?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Oh, nothing. Just a windy day in West Texas.

SPEAKER_08 0:13

Yeah. Well, speaking of windy, we dealt with that quite a bit at Texas State, but we'll get to that here in a minute.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

That's springtime.

SPEAKER_08 0:20

Yeah. Hey everyone, as far as attorney talk goes, Casey Chase wanted me to let you all know the 2027 Camille Cup, U.S. Open, Texas State, and 2027 Northeast Regional will be opening up here soon. Casey only sent these as a teaser, so I don't have any exact locations and dates yet, but we will have more information before they go live. So just wanted everyone to be on the lookout and be paying attention for that coming up.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, Jason, I can tell you that Texas State will be in San Antonio next year with you know with the size of that chute. We alternate between a couple of our largest clubs in San Antonio on odd years.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So 2027 San Antonio C there. A little bit of both.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Many of you have seen of some of my cool hunting escapades. I I've been working on my North American Grand Slam of wild sheep. And so yeah, one more to go. And what's I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but yeah, I got a phone call. I had this hunt set up for 2028, and I got a cancellation phone call. So yeah, so in August, while all of you people are shooting the US open, I will be living in the tent, eating freeze-dried, eating, eating freeze-dried meals, glassing, looking for a Rocky Mountain Bighorn outside of Grand Prairie, Alberta. So I'm yeah, that if that won't keep you on the straight and narrow when it comes to diet plans and exercise, uh yeah, yeah. You don't if let's just say you can't be built like a trapshooter if you're gonna climb that mountain.

SPEAKER_08 3:05

Right. Yeah. Um I'll let that one go. I'll let Ricky and uh Joe Tarnigo handle that one. So uh hey, so the the Texas State Feute, which is what this episode's all about, kind of like a recap, and there's a lot to to digest here. But like I said, you were the former president of the Texas State Sporting Clays Association. Can you talk a little bit about how it's grown and developed over the years? Because I mean, yeah, look, it's easy to say Texas is such a huge state and and shooting's so prevalent down there, but no matter what, it still is the number one largest state championship in the United States.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Sure, sure. I'm not okay, I'll start with the numbers.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

There's a whole bunch of people who have heard this speech before, but you know, the numbers don't lie. Maybe 15 years ago when I got involved, I can really I I can I can really give credit to some folks like David Niederer, Desi Edmonds, Dwight Lumpkins, former board members like uh Travis Mears, Adam Blair. I just asked him, like, hey, what what's good, what's bad? What do you what do you like, what do you not like? And it it kind of it kind of boiled down to look at the numbers, look at the participation. And so, you know, when someone has something negative to say about a venue, well, we look at that venue. And if the attendance is higher than average, well, then, you know, maybe that's maybe that's just the squeaky wheel, you know, getting getting the grease, right? Because if it was that bad, more and more folks wouldn't wouldn't come, you know. And so regardless of what your favorite side event might be or or what have you, you know, my buddies and I, we all love fee task. And so shoot, we even shoot the subgauge fee task. And and we're not subgauge sporting guys, but we just we really like feedask. So, you know, you look at the you look at the offerings, and you know, you very quickly realize like, oh, more people attended at this video, this venue. Why? Well, it's infrastructure and known quantity, or more people shot this event over that event. Well, then our feedback to the host club and future host clubs is you know, people vote with their feet, you know, these events are you know, a couple hundred bucks to shoot an event with options plus shells and and things like that. And so if people are spending that kind of money, that they're they're telling you that that's the kind of entertainment uh that they're looking for. So kind of a historical perspective on Texas State, how has it grown? Well, we tried to listen to our customer, we tried to offer you know something super desirable, and the the the sport has the sport has grown to the bigger events, bigger venues. You know, it's always more fun when there's hundreds, if not a thousand people to see, visit with, interact. You know that you know that the food selection is gonna be better because they have to feed you know, 300 people coming off of a main event rotation. You know that there's enough folks that are gonna attract, you know, vendors and sponsors so that you know, regardless of what your favorite gun or ammo or lens or choke is, we've garnered enough people that your favorite company is motivated to attend. And you get to, you know, you get to have that extra part of the experience besides just the shooting. So chicken or the egg, which you know, which one came first? I think I think we built the kind of shoot that we would want to go to first, and then it's it's caught on like wildfire. Same thing can be said for the regionals in the U.S. opens.

SPEAKER_08 7:04

Well, I mean, full disclosure, this was my first time attending the Texas State shoot. And to be honest, I was there as much of a scout as I was a shooter. And what I mean by that, I'm still the vice president for the Ohio Sporting Clays Association, and I was kind of using the shoot to gauge, hey, are we doing it right? What are they doing better? You know, it's in no way, shape, or form are we trying to like take over some number one spot? It's never gonna happen. Texas is four times the size of Ohio. But what I'm getting at is we're we're trying to make our shoot as good as we can too. Much like you, we listen to our customers and try to gauge what was done right, what was done wrong, what can we do better, what can we improve on? And I learned a lot being at the Texas State, and I just had a board meeting last night, and you know, I brought a lot of that information in, guys. Look, this is what they're doing right, and they're doing a good job of it. We need to get to our guests, Mr. Corey Cruz and Travis Mears, but real quick, I wanted to say thank you publicly to Brandon and Britt Burgert. They were just the most outstanding hosts I could ever ask for. I stayed with them all week and they were just phenomenal and can't thank them enough for their hospitality. I also wanted to give a quick shout out to both Candy and Sheldon Loveless. I mean, these are people that I've never met before. And when the rain came in on Saturday, they brought extra clothes for me. They're like, you know, hey, we knew you flew in and didn't know if you had enough. I mean, how cool is that that the community does that? You know, that's I I guess I bring that up for two reasons. One to say thank you sincerely to them, but also that's the type of community sporting clothes is all about. And I think that's the difference between any other sport out there, really. Yeah, it meant a lot. It meant a lot. Yeah. But hey, listen, let's get to Corey Cruz and Travis Mears. A lot more I want to cover with you, Ben, on the backside. So everybody stick around after the interview. Ben and I'll be back to wrap the show up. But uh, let's get those two rascals on the phone.

SPEAKER_06 9:07

All right, everyone, Mr. Travis Mears.

SPEAKER_08 9:09

What's up, Travis? How you doing, bud? I'm great, Jason. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. We also have Mr. Corey Cruz with us, and I I'm sorry, Corey. I I gotta do it, man. I can't help it. This is too good not to. That was hilarious. We that was sent to us on a private group text, and I I I forewarned Corey. I'm sorry, I'm bringing you in with that one. That was too good not to.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, man, that was that's surprisingly entertaining to talk.

SPEAKER_08 10:52

So listen, it's gonna be a lot of back and forth, and there's four of us here. This is a good round table. I I guess I'll start with you, Travis. Texas State Shoot 2026, man, was unarguably, will be the largest state shoot in the United States. That in and of itself had to make you proud being the host club, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Yeah, for sure. You know, we were sandwiched between two major championships, and so we were able to kind of thrive with some folks that maybe are wouldn't have made it otherwise. But, you know, the state of Texas just has a massive state shoot every year. And so with consistent growth, it's just it's uh you got to be prepared for uh the masses when they get here, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_08 11:33

Yeah, you know, and I don't want to dive too deep into this, but it was a little emotional for you there, you know, Saturday night when you were announcing the last big one for what is now the closing current location of Defender Outdoors, it had to be a little bittersweet for you, though, right? I mean, like you're you're excited, you're moving on to a new club, but the closing of that Defender Outdoors, where you've built so much there, right? It had to be a little bittersweet.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

No, for sure. And you know, I choked up then, uh, you know, probably choke up now. The the reality is is that you know, when I started this nine years ago, you know, I I knew I could make it work, but I had to go prove it, right? And so matter of fact, Corey's on this call. He was he was here on day one, and and you know, push me over in a weed eater, and and Corey got in the cab tractor, but we'll tell that story later. But um, you know, just getting out and turning a raw ranch that hadn't been touched in 50 or or more years into what it is now. I've got a lot of pride in this place. I treat it like it's my own. I knew I couldn't be here forever, but I wanted to make it the best I could in the time that I had. And you know, we're not getting kicked out, we're not getting pushed away. But in in the long run, if we're gonna continue to grow like we have, I knew that we were gonna have to find our our forever home. And so I I started uh looking uh a little over a year ago and and and found a beautiful place, and and uh and so we're gonna pick up and move over there and I can elaborate on that later. But you know, we're we're very excited about this because the infrastructure, the property, all the things on this new are are gonna be great, and everybody's gonna love them. But all at the same time, you know, Team Ranch where we're at currently is a beautiful ranch. We've thrown some incredible events, we've hosted you know, well over a thousand events in eight years. And uh, you know, I got a ton of just incredible memories here. And so the fact that we're gonna close this one down in July and open the new one in July 14th, you know, like you said, bittersweet. Fortunately, unless they change the the gate code, I'll still get to come out here and reminisce a little bit and and and check on the ranches whenever I can.

SPEAKER_08 13:57

Well, I mean, you know, it's it's a place full of great memories, right? You know, I mean no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

No doubt.

SPEAKER_08 14:02

I mean, my family, we moved three years ago from Ohio, and you know, my daughter still gets choked up talking about the house up in Ohio because there's so many great memories there. So I can only imagine, you know, what you have built there. Speaking of that, you kind of brought Corey into it. And Corey, I I had this jotted down. I was going to ask you later, but maybe now is a more appropriate time. You know, you and Travis have a long-standing friendship, and I think you know more than most that Travis puts his his heart and soul into these tournaments, right? So I've even witnessed it on Saturday. Corey, I don't know if you saw it or not, but Travis was out there driving the shuttle in the rain. Like he's on the ground with the staff helping out. I mean, he does care. But it's got to be a little bit bittersweet for you too, because your traveling and shooting buddies not around as much, right? He's he's back home running the club and trying to be successful with his business. So there's got to be a little bittersweetness for you too, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Well, it's kind of been that way, you know, for the longevity of it. I mean, you know, you think shooting since sub juniors together, then through high school, then through college, and then through, you know, getting married and having kids. I mean, life gets in the way of things, and you know, we're all very understanding of that between Greg Wolfe, Anthony Matteris, and and Travis. I mean, we see each other on the road, you know, several times a year, and that's that's the that's the best we get. And if there's anything more than that, then you know, we we gladly take it. So it's the the bittersweetness, you know, man, but that's just kind of part of the game, I guess. You know, I'm so much more excited for Travis and this new place than seeing the memories of the old place going. I mean, you know, I like Travis had mentioned, you know, I was there with him to see him get the keys and to see the hard work, the dedication, the determination, the team and the staff that he's built. And I mean, honestly, dude, I'm not surprised at all. I mean, I I've I've I've fully expected that of him. Anything that Travis puts his mind and his heart to is going to succeed. He's just that kind of guy. Yeah. And it just it reflects that all the way. And then I just can't wait to see what this new venue is going to look like because it really takes the handcuffs off of him from what this current venue that he has. You know, he didn't have the the infrastructure or the real estate that he really wanted or needed to just blow it out of the water. Now that he's got that, man, look out. Here we go.

SPEAKER_08 16:32

Yeah, no, I'm I'm excited to see it. And you know, a lot of people gave me crap because I didn't go to the worlds. And, you know, I they're like, Well, you went to Texas State. And I'm like, this is the last time that I have a chance to go to Defender Outdoors and shoot the tournament at that, what is going to be now the old Defender, and then I get to go see it next year, right? So I get to see what he built and what he's looking forward to building, right? So it for me it was a no-brainer. I had to go, you know. But going back to the inclement weather, you guys had to deal with that, Travis, on Saturday, and it I mean, it got nasty. I mean, blowing sideways, 30 mile an hour rain. Talk about the scramble that took place for you and the staff and the kind of obstacles you had to overcome on Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Yeah, so you know, I just by the nature of what I do for a living, I I watch the weather like a hawk. You know, I get a two-week forecast and I look at it every day. And and so a lot of the reasons for that is because I I need to know what the wind's gonna do, especially for a major championship. I've got to know, you know, when we're setting birds, how it's gonna affect. And and that north wind swap got put in like, I don't know, seven, eight days prior to the event. And so we took that into consideration as we were setting everything the best we could. But what the weather app did not tell me was that with that, you know, wind swap was gonna come, you know, some pretty incredible thunderstorms. And so yeah, uh, you know, even the day prior, it was talking about, you know, small chance of rain, but it never said, you know, a hurricane was gonna hit. Um yeah. Well, what's funny is when I woke up, I got, I don't know, I get up 4 30 on those event days, and and uh I walk in the bathroom, I'm like, I don't hear the rain that I thought was gonna happen because uh it it was gonna it was saying it's gonna rain like early and then stop about main event time, and so that's kind of what I was hoping for, but I didn't I didn't hear the rain, so I kind of peek out the window and it's like flooding on my driveway. So I'm like, oh shit, here we go. So, you know, we we were most worried about making sure that we had all of our trappers show up because this is this is for sure the largest logistical challenge of one of these major championships is to is to get all of the needy people and to get them all show up. So I I typically have like 10 extras per day, uh hoping that we can fill all the seats and and hopefully have a few extras to be relieved throughout the course.

SPEAKER_07 19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Man, I had the best group this year. They all showed up every day, and and so that was great. But uh, you know, the first storm hit about four stations into the eight o'clock rotation, and we're all running around trying to proof birds because we literally had you know 20 mile an hour south wind for uh well, I don't know, two weeks. That's our predominant wind. And and people that aren't from around here don't understand that, but we we have wind every day, it's just you know, how bad is it gonna be? But when it swaps from 20 out of the south to 30 to 40 mile an hour gusts out of the north, you know, our first and foremost was to the only way we can get this event kicked off was to make sure all the birds were gonna be safe and not, you know, flaring back over the road. So we addressed that, and then and then it went from Gary and I. I I called him. I was like, hey man, I'm belling on my buggy. I need you up here to, and I'm gonna jump in with you. He's got a cab buggy, I'm no dummy. So um we jumped in his buggy. We ran up to the top of the hill by a feet task three and four, and we kind of faced this buggy towards the southwest where the storm was coming from, and and we had our lightning tracker and we're visually watching the storm come. And you know, it started to get it kind of in the bubble. And so that's when we made our first delay. And what's funny is we we called it and we got all the course managers to round everybody up, get the trappers back to the pavilion, get the shooters off the course that you know weren't in buggies, and then from there because of the wind, it was all right, let's get all these towers down. We got, I don't know, we got eight towers we got to get down. So everybody scrambled to get towers down. I like to be the one that takes those towers down in those situations because I don't want one of my guys getting struck by lightning or something crazy like that. And so we're scrambling. I run up to the feet task one and two, the the tallest tower is, and Corey and Greg and Cameron were shooting fee task, and I I could tell they were in the uh in the blue ring, which is the last peg. And I mean the wind is like 440, and the lightning's popping, and the rain is like you can see, and I and I'm like, all right, they're trying to get their pairs in and they're shooting super fast, like their shells in calling full before they get the gun shut, and this is the nastiest parkour, and they're hitting them. And so I got my hand on the button to pull this tower down, and those guys their pairs in, and and I don't know, like if it would have been perfect conditions with a world championship title on the line, they would have missed one or two because that's how hard the birds were, but all of them hit all of the pairs. I was like, that was some of the most epic shooting I've seen. Brought the tower down and we ran to the next one. And you know, we were hopeful that when that kind of wave went through, that that was going to be it. But as you know, once we got our bag back on the course, uh, we had another wave come through kind of right at the end of that first rotation. So ultimately we had two uh two 20 to 30 minute delays, which, you know, when you take into consideration getting everybody off the course and then getting them back onto the course, put us about an hour and 45 minutes delay, which by the end of the day we were able to catch back up. But you know, those are those are things that you try to prepare for, but you don't know what it's gonna look like because every time it's different. Um first and foremost, everybody was the equipment was tore. Um I didn't have bail on me. You know, I I had that ROTC group that that did the entire main event, and they're all in high school, and their their uh instructor is a shooter, and he manages them and trains them and does a really good job. But when I got on the school bus the night before with them and told them good job and thanks, I told him, I said, tomorrow we're gonna have a wind switch and up on this hill, it's gonna be cold and it might be rainy, so dress accordingly. Well, morning of I get on the bus and welcome them and and I'm looking around and they're in t-shirts and sweatshirts and no rain gear, and I'm thinking, oh my god, you know, they're gonna quit, they're gonna leave, they're gonna freeze to death, you know, we're gonna have a problem. But every one of those kids stuck it out, every one of them finished their job, and and from what I've heard, they've done a dang good job. And so, you know, with all that going on, I think it was I think we handled it well, and and you know, outside of you know, your trailer parking getting muddy and tore up. I mean, that's uh that's the least of our worries.

SPEAKER_08 23:54

So yeah, yeah, for sure. The I mean the safety of everyone's most important. And you know right, I I will tell you, I've been at shoots several. I mean, we all were at Nationals, what was it, two, three years ago with lightning delays. And through all the lightning delays that you had, I was impressed how quick everything got running back again with no backups after it, you know, started over. So hats off to the staff for that one, man. That was incredible.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

Yeah, I I think you know, some of the things that evolved in our game that make those things more achievable is like the the score chaser text. You know, if you came to the shoot, you're probably tired of my text, but I use the heck out of that because I think it's a great tool to communicate to everybody. And and that was uh that was one of those situations where it it paid off and getting people back where they needed to be at the right time and and into safety when they needed to be and all that.

SPEAKER_08 24:46

Yeah, no, that was extremely helpful.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Um so Jason, yeah well Jason, I I I've got a thought that's probably more for you and Corey. We've we've all been to shoots where you the big memory and the big takeaway is the weather or the conditions or the flood. And for me personally, that's not that's not the case for this one. I'm in fact listening to Travis tell the story again, I was like, oh yeah, I was standing, I was standing out there in the middle of it. And but I've completely forgotten about all that, and I and I think that's a testament to some of the preparation. That's a testament to the way he's got the courses laid out. Like we were never standing, we were never standing knee deep or waist deep in water. Sure, was there some water running down the side of the hill, or was a cart path muddy because you know everyone has a monster truck for a golf cart nowadays? But Corey, Jason, yeah, I'm I'm not gonna remember this as an inclement weather shoot. It just I don't know, it just happened, it came and it went, and I think that's because an ounce of prevention is the pound is more than a pound of cure.

SPEAKER_08 25:59

Well, I'll let Corey comment first. Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 26:04

I'll let Corey comment first, but I I I have a direct comment for that, Ben. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

No, you're you're completely right, Ben. I mean, I don't I don't remember the shoot as a bad weather shoot. I I do remember, I guess I will have those memories of the the little bit of the mud fest, you know, that was that's always kind of fun, kind of annoying. But whenever you see the the parking lot and you know, the everyone spinning their tires trying to get out, you know, now being an adult and not absolutely destroying my buddy's parking lot. Years and years ago, Travis and me would both be out there cutting donuts and tearing up that field, but you know, now it's just too much crap to deal with.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

I think Pete Malloy has a funny saying for that. Go on.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Yeah, he does, and and many others. And so anyway, now they I don't remember it as an inclement whether I they the staff did a great job at saving the day. You let the front pass through. They did a great job with the target design to where you know you I never really felt like I kind of got screwed over on those big incomers. A pair that was supposed to come in but didn't. Well, everybody that shot that pair had the same presentation, you know. Uh it was adjusted according for the wind shift and whatnot. So, I mean, dude, Travis always hits home runs. He's just paying so much attention to every little detail of it. And he got thrown some curved balls with the weather, but still he hit them over the fence. So as as I fully expected, so that's the way I remember it.

SPEAKER_08 27:43

I I can tell you right now, I I and I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's 30 years in excavating, I don't know if it's because I'm involved with shoots now or just my level of attention or whatever, but I don't remember the rain as much as the impression that was left on me from the staff. And how how they compensated for it and overcame it. And Travis, I'm not kissing your butt because I think you know well enough by now. If I got something to tease you or pick on you on, I'm gonna do it. But I'm telling you right now, I was thoroughly impressed. And and that's the impression that was left on me, not the 40 mile an hour sideways wind. It was how the staff overcame it. And I was thoroughly impressed. I really was. So that's the memory I have of that weather.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Thank all you guys. Uh uh, you know, uh each uh each major championship comes with its own, you know, challenges, and we were we were prepared for this one. So I'm glad it all worked out and everybody was safe, you know, and and that we were able to get back on track. It just uh, you know, it prepares you for what could come on the next one, you know. I think that's the way I look at it.

SPEAKER_08 28:53

Well, you know, I I did have one quick question about that, real quick, and then we'll get off this weather thing. Uh with the weather playing somewhat of a role for this shoot, was there anything that you looked at as like, hey, I need to do this different at the new Defender Outdoors? Was there anything you learned from that? I'm like, I I know you've dealt with weather before, right? And I and I know you've put on plenty of tournaments where you've had this happen, but was there anything this particular shoot was like, hey, you know what? I'm gonna do that differently at the new Defender Outdoors.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

Well, I mean, by by design of the course, you you're always gonna be affected by wind. But uh, if there was anything that I could do that could prevent you know, it being affected so bad that I guess that's what I would do. You know, we we try to set our courses up to where they face either north or south for the sun reasons, but those are also your predominant wins. But you know, when you're designing a course or setting a course for a tournament, you know, you you want a good mixture of birds, a great variety of of fun, entertaining, and challenging targets that you know uh that that really put everybody to the test. The reality is I could throw, you know, ripping crossers with plenty of speed and not much belly and not much dome, and nobody would ever know that the it would the wind was blowing, right? Right. But that's not what we want to shoot. So you got to have your incomers and your outgoers, and those are typically the ones that are most affected by you know the north and south wind on a north-south facing course. And so, you know, this new place is really cool, and I'll be out there this afternoon. But the the clubhouse and the event pavilion are up on top of the hill overlooking the entire property. But the the shooting courses are going to be down in this bottom. And so, from what I've noticed by being out there and laying out the roads and all that stuff is you know, when I'm up at the pro shop and that wind feels like it's whipping, I go down in the bottom and it's not. And so I hope that you know this new place will give us a little bit of relief from the the typical wind. You know, at my current venue, we're we're up on a pretty bald hill. I call it the little house on the prairie. And, you know, we run into it all the time, especially with our STB shoots that are in the the fall and early part of the year where you know it might be 50 degrees. Kids walk out of their house in town and privacy fences and big trees and all the things that you know, and 50 degrees doesn't feel that bad, right? And you come out here and you get 50 degrees with a 20 mile-an-hour wind, you'll freeze your tail off. So you know, that's just something we've always dealt with, and everybody, you know, eight years into it now knows. But you know, going into the new place and just, you know, I want to make it I want to set it up, you know, it's appealing, it's entertaining and challenging and all the things. And uh outside of adjusting target presentations for for the conditions, there's not much we can do, right?

SPEAKER_08 31:55

Right. Well, give us some cool statistics for this shoot, like some big numbers to pop out to you.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

I was putting together, and let me get back to it, kind of a recap in comparison to our regional event uh in 2024. And what was what was cool to see was that all the way across the board in every single event there was more entry. And and with more entries, you know, comes all the challenges. Like we we had a target order that we had to jam in there at the last second. Like that's a great problem to have when you have enough targets and then you have to call in an order because you know there's more people signing up for more events. And oh, by the way, we've got four charity shoots, you know, the day after everybody leaves, and so we got to be prepared for that.

SPEAKER_08 32:46

That's a good that's a good problem to have.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Yeah, but you know, if you add up all of the entries throughout all the events, it was 4,083 events shot, which is you know, which is incredible. Yeah, compared to the regionals, it was 3,628. So an extra, you know, 450 events got shot. That's that's awesome. The variety of events, you know, I always try to, and I think this is just from my dad's influence. My dad really enjoys the the small gauge and the pump and the side by side and all those things, and his his Posse of Friends enjoys that. And so we have all of the like everything you could want to shoot or anything that you would shoot at the nationals or the world or whatever. We have that, and they're well attended. Uh, we did something new that's never been done, and I hope it takes off because it was well received. And we did 410 feet task on Sunday, and I I wish I had more days for it because it was very popular, but we did a 410 fee task, 50 bird, and it filled up in you know, five minutes. But man, I heard I had so many guys coming up saying that was the most fun event I've ever shot. If you ever do that again, I'll be here. I don't care what shoot it is, and so you know, we already know the 2028 gauge fee tasks were popular, the 410 was well received.

SPEAKER_08 34:12

That's very cool. I remember when we did the the preview, you were telling us about that, and it sounded like fun.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I I'm not gonna fit that into my shoot, you know, schedule. But there's a lot of guys that'll choose that over the main event every day, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_08 34:30

Wow. Well, for sure, one of the coolest prizes I've ever seen or heard about at a sporting clay event was the freezer full of beef. Can you tell our listeners about that? That was incredible.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

Yeah, so a great friend of mine, Scott Martin. They they have a large ranch in New Mexico where they make their living off of raising cattle and selling cattle. And when I on I saw him last fall, he said, I got an idea. You know, what do you think about it? He said, I'd like to, I'd like to donate a steer and have it processed and you use it for for something at the state shoot. And I thought, well, I don't know really how I'm gonna do that. You know, I'd like to, I'd like to give that instead of five thousand bucks, but I'm not gonna do that. But with a little brainstorming, we figured out, well, let's let's let's create something that kind of gives anybody and everybody a chance to win to a certain extent. And so we took the main event, the P Task, the prelim, and the five stand, which I would consider kind of the four major events for for the state championship, and add that together and call it the Iron Man. And so we had the Iron Man event with a total of those four, which was open to resident, non-resident, and the winner would get this this steer. And so Scott and Denise and Katie, they brought down in Allie, they brought down the steer process. And and if you've ever been fortunate enough to have some of their beef, like it'll knock your socks off. Why not go spend some time with them in the fall? They always start the week off with a big old T-bone, and it's like, holy cow, you know, like if a bougie restaurant in Footworth could get it get their hands on this, you know, that they wouldn't believe it. And so I knew that it would be a great prize for the winter, but we've got I I went and got a brand new chest fuser. We filled that thing all the way to the top. You had to sit on it to close it, and plugged it up, put it on a pallet, and that was the Iron Man Award. And so Gavin ended up winning that, which funny enough, Gavin is on a like an all-beef meat diet, and so you know, who could it couldn't have gone to anybody better? So, yeah, Tim was here, and we got the fork left, put it under the pallet, put it on the trailer, and and on he went for at least a year's worth of beef, some of the best beef you'll ever have. That's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_08 36:59

Well, I guess next time we run into Gavin, we're gonna have to hit him up for a ribeye dinner.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

So that's right.

SPEAKER_08 37:06

So, all right, admitted fault of mine. I didn't go live when you did your your trick shooting show. Total brain fart on my end. I I should have gone live on Facebook with it because that was that was so cool. I've never seen that before. And anybody that hasn't seen it needs to go check this out. Travis, is that a routine that you do every time or do you change it up for every one of your shows?

SPEAKER_03 37:28

You know, um, Jason, I've been doing trick shows for my 22nd season, and I do anywhere from 30 to 35 all over the country. And it's something I'm really passionate about doing. It's something that there's very few people in the entire world that do. There's there's really only two or three of us in the states that that still do it, and there's a couple of Italians. But yeah, the routine in the early days was trying to create a routine that holds the attention of the of the crowd, but also, you know, is challenging and and shows the art of trick shooting. And over the years, that has evolved into a routine that's pretty fine-tuned. And I'll veer off and I'll add a shot here and there, and I'll tell a different story here and there, but for the most part, you know, it's pretty close to the same. And the reason for that is you know, you gotta you gotta get their attention and you gotta let them relax, and you gotta get their attention and let them relax. And you do that four or five times throughout the show based on you know whatever the shot is, and it it turns into an entertaining entertaining a show because at the end of the day, the trick shooting is really not the most important part of it. The most important part of it is the showmanship. And so I try to uh you know bring in people out of the crowd and adjust my volume and excitement throughout the throughout the the routine and have crazy shots and then some fairly easy, and and you know, at the end of the day, when people come up to me after a show and and have questions or comments, it's so funny that you know, if if I was the guy walking up to the table, I would be like, dude, dude, when you shot that from the hip, that was incredible. But the reality is, is most people are wowed by me hitting a watermelon that's the size of a basketball, or or shooting a balloon at a hundred yards, both of which take zero skill but are very cool, right? Yeah. And so over the years I've learned that sometimes the things that I think are cool are not that cool to the person watching, and so you know, evolved my show to try to captivate them throughout the entirety.

SPEAKER_08 39:45

Well, that was it was definitely a lot of fun. I thought it was cool for sure.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Uh thank you.

SPEAKER_08 39:50

So I I know you have some people you want to thank for the incredible work that they did at Texas State. Uh the the floor is yours, man. Tell us.

SPEAKER_03 40:00

Yeah, my my entire team here, you know, these events take uh at least a year to to really put together. And then those last three weeks prior is just a grind. You know, I was doing payroll yesterday and and looking at the amount of hours that just my everyday team was working. It's just unbelievable they'll put that much effort and passion into trying to pull this thing off, you know, 90 hour weeks and multiple weeks in a row, which is crazy. But not a single one of them look tired, act tired, and they all were eager, eager to get this thing knocked out. Gary Madigan's my right hand outside, and and uh, you know, he's always two steps ahead when it comes to you know making sure that the the guys outside are ready and the equipment outside's ready. And Jessica and Hannah, the two event coordinators that helped me do do so much of the preparation and marketing. And and I don't know if you got our program, but I think it's the best program I've ever seen. But they they worked hand in hand with that for for months in advance to pull together all details and you know, things we do on the backside that take a lot of effort is making sure that all of our sponsors are taken care of and we we give them gifts and we hand deliver and talk to them and and you know getting all those people up, you know, prior just it's it's incredible uh the amount that they helped me. You know, when we did our first state championship in 2022, nobody knew what the heck we were doing other than me because I'd been to hundreds of them, right? And so I did everything. And in 24, I did 85%. This year, you know, Jessica and and and Hannah and Gary and the rest of the team. I mean, it felt like it was a 50-50. Like I was, you know, still the brainchild, but they were like taking projects from me. And I was it was hard for me to let say, okay, yeah, you handle the program or you you communicate with the you know sponsors or or you know, you organize the RV list. It was hard for me to let some of that go, but at the end of the day, they all knocked it out of the park, and it it was really cool to see how much everybody had learned over the years and and been able to implement it. But yeah, you know, it comes to things to just uh the the team that executed it is my my my daily crew did an incredible job. And then, you know, like I said earlier, that one of the the toughest logistical things of hosting one of these major events is is bringing in the extra 130 people to to to trap and to fill machines and to pick up trash and to to serve the food and all those things, and all those people just showing up every day. I I gotta give them huge thanks for being such a major part of the event.

SPEAKER_08 42:50

Yeah, well, I I can tell you anybody can steer the ship when the seas are calm. But yeah, for what you guys dealt with, I mean, it was the ultimate storm and you had a wildly successful event. So hats off to you, man. Sincerely.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

I appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_08 43:05

Thank you. Now we're gonna pick on Mr. Texas Thunder. I hope you'll stick around with us, Travis, because uh 10 times Texas State Champion. Corey, has that sunk in yet?

SPEAKER_00 43:17

Not really. I mean, you know, it's it's cool, very cool. I don't want to sound ungrateful by any means. Maybe it's just I've been, you know, it's been a goal for such a long time that it hasn't really set in. I mean, you know, now I'm you know, I'd I'd love to have 11, 12, 30, you know, it just never stops. Maybe that's a disease. I don't really know. But yeah, I'm super, super happy about it, super grateful. And I don't want to sound, you know, whatever, whatever I whatever I sense that sounds like. But I mean, I'm I'm grateful, but there's still plenty more in me.

SPEAKER_08 43:53

That's that's good, man. That's that's the competitive nature of all of us, right? I mean, Ben, you know, you win your class. Fun time you think you're oh my gosh, I couldn't be any greater. Now yeah, now I want to go do it again, you know.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

Hey, yeah, Jay Jason, I gotta I gotta brag on him, you know. He uh he he won in 2022 here and then and won again here uh in six, but right after I gave him his award, which was by the way, the largest belt buckle ever made, and I think he's got a couple of them now. But my daughter came up, she she knows Corey, been around Corey her entire life, and she came up, she goes, she goes, Dad, did I hear y'all right that that was his 10th state championship? I said, Yeah. And Lakin goes, Dad, why'd you let it why'd you let him beat you 10 times?

SPEAKER_08 44:44

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Um, Dad, have you won that? I was like, No, I've never won the Mega Man. She goes, Why'd you let him beat you 10 times? Oh my gosh, that is awesome.

SPEAKER_08 44:56

Well, you know that belt buckle. I was gonna ask Corey how many ratchets, straps, and suspenders it takes to hold that satellite dish out. My goodness, that makes two management.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

You know, I need to I need to go in the closet there and and pull out some old actual belts that would have the the integrity to hold that sucker up. And I'm gonna I'm gonna put it on and I'm gonna text you a picture and uh I'm gonna I'm gonna fabricate a little wire coming out of there so I can get some Wi-Fi on that sucker because I I know that thing will pick up a Starlink signal.

SPEAKER_08 45:30

I guarantee it. I get well as skinny as you are, it's probably gonna be wider than you. I mean, it's the thing's huge.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

That's right. That's right. I mean, I can use it like a Captain America should.

SPEAKER_08 45:42

I don't know. It sounds like Travis is coming after you next year. Maybe he'll get a bigger one.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

Well, I'm gonna have to, or my daughter's gonna disown me.

SPEAKER_08 45:52

Oh my goodness. Corey, I okay, listen. Bad and good, right? I know you struggled a little bit on a side event, but having Catherine there with you had to make it not only a little bit more special, but maybe a little bit of mental help. Like, did she smack you back in line a little bit for the mane? Or you know, talk to Ben's dying laughing over here.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Well, I mean, you know, having a good woman is is an absolute gift. And you know, whether it's to smack me back in line or just help me keep my head screwed on straight, it's always a gift. And you know, she's been by my side for going on. Well, I guess this we're coming up on our 14th anniversary, 15 plus years. We've known each other our entire lives. So it's it's really, really been a gift. And yeah, it's always special having her there with me. Because sometimes I can get a little, you know, my wheelhouse, she'll phone check me right back into where I need to be, or I might get down in the dumps and she'll lift me right back up where I need to be. So she's always just there to provide that right, yeah, imperfect balance to to everything. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_08 46:59

Yeah, well, what created that question is is I watched you shoot one of the layouts of five stand and I saw you, you just kind of like looked up in the sky, like, did I really do that? And you just kind of sat there for a minute and I thought, uh-oh. You know, but you obviously you pulled it back in the main, right? So I thought, well, Catherine's probably in the buggy slapping the crap out of him, time to get his head out of his rear and shoot right.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

So simple as that. That's a huge I'm gonna start riding the story so she can smack me out. Yeah, you know, she if you don't know what a hot shot is, it's like an electric cattle pride. And when you get out of line, you know, Catherine will get that hot shot after you and light your honey, you know, for misbehavior or bad attitude, whatever, whatever you need, you know, she'll fix you right up.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

Okay, so that's what I that's what I was actually about to say. I'm glad you brought up the the the bad attitude. Catherine is so cool, and she and just you know, hanging out and I don't know, there's a dozen of us that we either squat or or squat adjacent pretty often. She doesn't say a lot about sporting clay shooting, but she does say a lot about life, and she says a lot about attitude and about keeping your and about keeping like your focus on a lot of things. And so like, yeah, all all of the capital punishment disciplinary jokes aside, like that's a sharp lady that knows that knows a lot about life. And when I go months, you know, in the off season without seeing you guys, you know, the first questions are never about about shooting, uh sometimes about hunting, but it's always it's always about life. And so, like, you know, to everybody out there that's got a plus one on the sporting plays course, like, I don't know, maybe just be a good person and let the sporting clays happen. Don't be white knuckling targets or fussing with you know, equipment. Sorry, I was the clinical sporting place. Get out there and smile and send it and have a great attitude because you don't have to do it.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Yeah, I'll just add to that a little bit. You know, the ten time whatever, if your identity's wrapped up in ten time, you know, nerd champion of the month. Who cares, man? It's ten, you know, it's a it's a really cool thing. And yes, there's a lot of accomplishment in that, but don't let your whole freaking identity get wrapped up in winning a skeet shoot, man. You know, you got a lot of good friends, you got a lot of good memories that you made. And yes, it is nice, and it's good to have goals and accomplish those goals, but don't get so wrapped up in the identity of what you've won, what you've lost. Who cares? It's a it's a good recipe. Ben knows, you know, he's heard me sulk about you know having a bad attitude, you know. And Travis has too. On you know, whenever you know you feel like you're falling short of your of your potential and whatnot, but you know what, man, who cares? You got your buds, you got your family, you got you got a freaking shotgun and you actually get to shoot it and travel around. I mean, it's all gonna be okay. So yeah, have a good attitude.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

Imaginary ego points. That's what we're competing for. Imaginary ego points by shooting rocks out of the sky. Right.

SPEAKER_08 51:16

But I but I can level with Travis. I see, I knew he was gonna be this humble, Travis. I knew he was gonna be this humble about 10 times. And right now, all you're thinking about is my daughter wants me to take that pie plate away from you, buddy.

SPEAKER_06 51:26

So she just wants me to get it once.

SPEAKER_08 51:31

But no, Corey, back to back to Catherine. This is why Catherine and my wife can never meet because there's there's so much alike that you and I would never get a chance to hang out anymore. So but maybe I need to start dragging her to more tournaments. Corey, with the onset of the sporting collective and now adding the Prime Party and the Texas State title to the resume. I I know they probably didn't go the way you wanted to at the World English, but you've got to be happy with the way things are going so far in 26.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Yeah, man. Yeah, I can't complain. We've we're we're right on target with how we've wanted the growth of the sporting collective to happen. You know, it's app based, it's a lot of this technology stuff is a little over my head. And one of the worst things you can do in business is get too big for your britches right out of the gates. So I wanted to, you know, just grow slowly, organically, work out the bugs to figure out, you know, hey, you know, if you have the sporting collective already on your phone or on your desktop and something's not functioning correctly, well, I would rather that happen on a small scale rather than you know having you know 100,000 people looking at it and it it a video not loading and or a billing question or whatever it might happen and it falling on its face and people thinking that the that the actual function is crap. Well, I think that we've got it all worked out. You know, we we found a couple bugs, we've got them fixed. We've got an outstanding community right now. I don't I don't even have the exact download numbers, but I think we're pushing almost a thousand app downloads. Now that's that's just having the app now. Actual monthly subscriptions, it's pretty dang cheap, man.$15 a month, and what you get for that, you have basically access to a library. I think we're on our 39th shot struction. I'll tell you a little more about the shot instructions in a second. But each every Tuesday at 7 p.m. we do a recorded live stream. And I say it's recorded because if you do actual miss, if you do actually miss the live stream, you can catch it back on the app on a recorded version. So if you're driving down the road, a lot of people say that they enjoy catching up on those. So you have basically three weeks of uh live stream, so that's three hours right there, plus three shot structions. You get a new one of those every week, and access to the community page where you have basic basically direct access to me and the whole entire community to post questions, get answers, talk about cool new things. And it's just almost like a Facebook live feed for community members who are engaged in learning and getting better and helping each other grow. So it's a really, really awesome community. I kind of well, I wasn't so on board with the whole community page whenever Catherine and I were talking about building this sort of thing, but man, I'm glad I listened to her because that community page is one of the most special things on there. And you have direct messaging also, like if someone wants to get on there and have some, you know, an an amenity or whatever you say, you'll you'll have a question anonymously where they can they can reach out and ask something. My goal with the Sporting Collective is to have an access, an easy access point for beginner shooters all the way to master class shooters. Also to be a tool for current instructors, whether you're an NSCA level one instructor or if you're just some guy at a local range that's got extra time and wants to help people out, use this as a tool. You've got so much visual learning on here where you can watch the shot instructions. So if if you haven't already seen one on YouTube or on the app, basically, if you remember John Madden breaking down a football play on Monday Night Football where you know he could slow motion play the video forward and backward, but he could draw on the screen and circle, you know, this is where this running back's gonna go make this block, and or this this is the route that the receiver's gonna run. And you can see the the defense and the offense, blah, blah, blah. You could actually see it. I'm a very visual learner. I've been looking for something like this for many, many, many years. I guess you're looking almost almost 20 years ago. Catherine's dad, Ed Origi, put together some videos, champion video productions, and uh did that alongside Dan Carlisle, did one with Will Fennel, did one with Anthony Matterice, did one with Cyril Adams, and just you know, so I've I've been thinking about this for a long, long time. And it's fun to actually kind of get it all, it's all coming full circle, and you know, to where you can access it from your desktop, from your phone, and you know, get some good learning in there from a visual aspect. And you know, I'm trying hard to be articulate in the uh in the live streams and whatnot. We're we're operating on a low budget and we want to build it up. We've got a lot of really cool long-term goals to maybe one day have it outside outside of just clay shooting. And that's why we called it the collective, uh, sporting collective, because we want it to be more than just shooting clays. We want to have, you know, basically everything and be your one-stop shopper, getting advice from professionals who can who have been there, done that, can, and can tell you how to do it and can help the industry grow for that beginner that's just getting his feet wet and get him hooked on it and know all the good things that that come with the shooting industry from a charity shoot level to a corporate event level to the NSCA to the NSSF to the world scale, traveling around cool clubs, cool people, and just keep growing the sport and especially all the kids' groups. Any Texas state, you know, or any out-of-state 4-H SCTP group out there that's not using it, feel like you're probably missing out a little bit because it's just some online curriculum that could help keep your team organized. Knowing the under the knowing the importance of skeet and trap and fundamentals, foundational principles between having a good gun fit that reflects a good point of impact and all the foundational tools that make you consistent so that you can continually get better and get better and get better, and not, oh, I'm having a problem with these crossers or these dropping shots. We don't really have a problem with crossers or dropping shots. You don't know how to match the speed, or your gun's not shooting where it's looking, where you expect it to, or something simple like that. So let's just look at the basics and get you on a good solid growth scale and understanding these certain principles, and everything's going to auto-compute for you further and further downstream. It's one of the biggest mistakes I've seen. I've been given lessons for you know conservatively 20 years now, and it's pretty much the same recipe all the time. Get that gun shooting where you're looking, learn how to look at the bird, learn how to match the speed of the bird, and things will continually grow and grow and grow and grow. So, Corey.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

I mean, I can go ahead. Well, uh yeah, Corey, I got a question yourself and a couple of our other friends who have have done some digital stuff. I I mean, I appreciate everybody's thoughts, knowledge, context. I subscribe to all of them just because I want to see a rising tide lift all ships and support my friends. So for somebody else who might know what another academy or production or DVD series or interviews looks like, is there is there anything beyond the whole like you I think you used the John Madden analogy. Is there anything special that that you're doing that might be slightly different and appeal to like a different crowd? Or is there like a favorite, like an aha lesson that you would kind of float out there for listeners to kind of tease, you know, what what you're doing and and what makes it just a little bit different than maybe a project somebody else has?

SPEAKER_00 59:50

You know, I could answer that a bunch of different ways, but I think generally speaking, if if you want to something that you could do is I do have a lot of free content available on the app and the public community page. And one of the big aha things that I would really like most people uh that are interested in getting better to notice is that I'm not necessarily selling one method. I don't I don't really care which method or technique that you prefer. I actually say this a lot in uh in in in private lessons. So it's like you got five cardinal methods. You got swing through, pull away, move, mount, shoot, maintain, and collapsing. And uh ask them which one's the best. And they'll think that it's a kind of a biased question because I shoot kind of like a Dan Carlisle pull away sort of thing, even though it's kind of a hybrid, and you know, it they think it's a loaded question. Well, it's really not. You could not win a debate saying that one method is better than the other because there's multiple, multiple world championship titles, you know, tied into each different cardinal method. So therefore, they're all great, right? And so what I'm really doing is unpacking all the similarities, and it's just basically on how one can look and learn to see the what the speed of the target's actually doing and how to drive the barrel according to that. You know, whether it's a point faster than the target speed or a point slower than the target speed. And then the rest of the method is just kind of defined by the pre-positioning of the barrel. If you're way out ahead of it, let it collapse in. If you're close to it, then crawl away from it. And I've got a video up on YouTube, you know, about you know, which is the best method or the five cardinal methods. I've kind of forget what it's actually titled, but I think what we're doing that's different than everybody else is just having it to where you can pull it up from your phone. I mean, I don't even own a DVD player anymore. Everything's streaming right now. And yeah, sometimes it's better to be able to download it and watch it, but you know, pretty much anywhere you have cell service or internet, you can you can watch our content. And you know, one of these days we'll get it to where it is downloadable, you know, for you know, for different stuff, but we're just not there quite yet on the having it all able to be downloaded.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

You know, Corey, man. Well, I think a lot of long-term, you know, dead pear podcast listeners will remember, you know, like, hey, it was in the early years, it was shooting fish in a barrel, right? Like we just got all the or we Jason got all the best guests that you could, all of the championship winners, and you know, a lot of them are are coaches. And so, you know, as the as the popularity and the accessibility of all of our favorite personalities and champions and coaches, you know, kind of grow, I I I think it's really interesting how each has has their own kind of kind of nuance, and you can see it come out in how they try to I I'll call it spread the good word, right? Like how how they try to to reach audiences. And I it's just it's so interesting. We we talk so many so much several years ago about the mental game, and then it turned into, you know, coaching, and then it turned into methods, and then I just I feel like the more you peel back the onion, the more you see how how it's all of the things all of the time, right? Like we talked about your family and your support group, we talked about you know using every method to win anything, anytime, any place. I just it's really interesting to me to study the game. I don't profess to be any good at it. Every once in a while I have a day, but oh man, every time you pull the trigger, you're learning something. You're getting some kind of feedback. And if and if you're not, then you know what what are what are you even doing it for? So it's just it it's it's really cool. I followed what you've done with the collective the same way I follow everybody else's, because you know, if you're just if you're just eat up with sporting clays, then you then you should have them all, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:04:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:07

I mean, you know, that's the thing. You know, there's gonna be different ways that you're gonna connect with with one delivery versus the other. And you know, whether you're an audio learner, a visual learner, both, or you know, just whatever kind of access you have, you yeah, it it's all they're all great, man. And there's not to knock anybody's content that's out there, and it's just to elaborate on it and make it more, we've got to grow this thing and hopefully get enough people interested. You know, we have the the you know, the anti-gun thing against us for the overall growth of of the sport, but man, whenever we can get enough people and that following, once that following continues to grow, and not just you know, the sporting collective, but sporting clays and clay shooting, clay sports as a whole has a lot bigger following. Then these clubs, these ranges can tap into that mainstream marketing budget, and that's where we're gonna see this thing really take off. You just gotta get more people involved in it, seeing how cool it is. There's really you got to be some strange kind of fur person to not enjoy blowing clays up out of the air, you know, especially with the gun. You don't like that? Well, yeah, just give it a try. I bet you I think I think you'd have second thoughts.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:24

Van, I want to chime in on what you were asking, Corey, a second go, just because I've I've seen it, you know, kind of since he started. But I use his videos in my lessons, you know. So when you're giving a lesson, you're trying to explain to somebody how they could approach, you know, a certain target, you know, depending on how they uh absorb what you're telling them, it might take them five, six, ten times before they actually get it. And then when they get it, they look back at you and they're like, oh my gosh, that was awesome. But you can you can shorten that learning curve because the the way that Corey is Showing this is different than pretty much anything else that's out there, is he's giving you the down the barrel point of view and then breaking it down. And so, you know, for someone that's never moved the gun, you know, right or efficient, showing them the steps of how to do that, I've seen it shorten the learning curve. Like if you can get your gun to move the same speed as a target for this amount of time, you got a really good chance of breaking it. Instead of coming, you know, from under whatever and just slinging the barrel around and hoping it breaks. You know, when when I show them, you know, one of these videos and then it and then Corey goes in there with the Madden pen and breaks it down, it's like an automatic, I got it, I can do that. And they and they are right off to the race. And so I think the the the content being different and then being explained and broken down in the way he's doing is gonna help, you know, truly help a lot of people learn how to be more efficient with their muzzle and by results of that break more targets.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:02

You know, it's interesting too. You know, Ben mentioned the podcast. You know, we've had several people on here that now have apps, right? I think there's an app for everything. If you if you're somebody that's obsessed with picking your toenails, there's probably an app for it. But uh what's what's interesting, and I think Corey, you touched on this, is everybody learns in a different way, whether it's visual or maybe it's just the personality of the coach. And to have another tool like this, like the Sporting Collective, I think is really cool. And I've been through it. I mean, the the amount of information that Corey's put out already is just invaluable, it really is. So, you know, I encourage anybody go now. I will tell you, Corey, there is something wrong with your ad. I was on it just the other day, and apparently my free trial membership has expired, so I can't access stuff. So Buster. Yeah, I'm gonna need the I'm gonna need the water burger baby train. I'm gonna need the water burger discount on this one. So, but no, it it really is. It's it's an invaluable tool, and Corey really does break it down good. I mean, if look, if you're a simpleton, Cameron said it best. We're shooting clay pottery with souped-up BB guns. If you're someone that wants to dive into it and learn and try to figure out what you're doing wrong or how to do it right, Corey's got the ultimate tool for you, really does.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

Well, that's what we wanted to do. You know, you can you can go in and pay a bunch of money and run up all these production costs. I mean, man, you know, getting good film and audio and the cost of an editor and a videographer, it's it's it's hard, man. It's yeah. And so we're we're gonna be growing into that and we're gonna be putting in more and more episodes. We've got them, we've got the scripts written. We're just waiting on weather venue, and we'll go get those filmed and produced. But right now we've got four episodes and free minis. You know, the the the free content that's on there is just kind of like a teaser. So you get like you know, five of the 15-minute episodes. We wanted to keep everything short to where it keeps your attention. You get the meat and potatoes of it, and you can move on. So we have that. The let's say you, you know, there's basically three to four weeks in a month. So you're getting a free shot struck or you're getting a shot instruction and a live stream pretty much every week. And I think the total of it, you're getting an estimated nearly four hours of instruction per month for 15 bucks. Yeah, that's gonna that's that's basically cheaper than a box of shells and a round of skeet.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:36

And versus versus like an in-person actual coach is ranging anywhere from two to three hundred dollars an hour right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:43

Pretty much. Yeah, yeah. You know, so and you you have the access. So we wanted to keep it cheap enough that it's just building a community of people who want to get better. And yeah, maybe it'll change your life, maybe it won't, but it's worth 15 bucks. I know you can spend that at Starbucks on a bougie coffee. So I wanted to get it priced right. And it's not that this is better than anybody else's content out there, but I'd encourage you to give it a try. Maybe, maybe it's got the the connective tissue that's gonna help things click in your game, and you know, you'll know eventually.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:17

Yeah. Well, listen, we've we've all been on here a hot minute, and Ben and I still got to wrap up the show. One more quick question for you, Corey. First of all, congratulations on the 10th state title. I know you have people that support you and that you would like to thank. Please tell us.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

Oh, yeah, man. You've got I've been with Blaser for going on 18 years now. And I'd also like to thank yo Federal shooting the masterclass one ounce 1250s. I've got rhino chokes, been with those guys forever. R traps, cold gunsmithing, ESP. Golly, man, you put me on the spot. Um, need to look over you got Whataburger. But I mean, yo, the the main guys that really helped me keep this going. You've got, you know, obviously Blawser, Federal, Rhino, R, and a new one to add to it. Your our buddy Cole Cushman with gun and trophy insurance, man. I think you'd have to be silly to not be supporting gun and trophy insurance, man. It's such a cheap thing to have to keep your your stuff safe and the best coverage. Yeah, the best coverage, easy access, and then obviously Cole Gunsmithing, Sporting Collective, long range, Laporte, ESP, uh, you know, my lovely wife, family, all my friends, all that stuff, man. You know, it it's it's not a corny saying, it's an absolute truth. You know, I probably wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for all these guys in the support. So I'm greatly appreciative. And you know, you talked about that original pro squad earlier.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:54

I mean, that is yeah, that's the god honest truth, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:57

I'm telling you that it was it was very saddening whenever they started doing the pro squad because that broke us up. And I feel like, yeah, that was the original pro squad. And if it weren't for Travis and Greg and Anthony and just the camaraderie and brotherhood that we've had, you know, over the last you know, 25 plus years, yeah, man. That's what it's the glue that holds it together for me. So I'm super grateful.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:21

Yeah, just so everybody knows what Corey's talking about. There was a picture that was floating around on uh social media and had a picture of Corey, Anthony, Travis, and Greg, and it said the original Pro Squad. I just thought that was such a cool picture, too, you know, because if you go, if you start digging back in the record books, that was the Pro Squad. The the records cannot, they don't lie, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

Yeah, and uh not to take away anything from any of those guys, but I've heard all four of them say that there were wins that came out of the you know, two or three stations left to go on the main, you know, on a good score and the support and the cambrato, those, those, those buddies. And so, you know, I know for a fact that there are wins that came out of the the friendship in that picture. And you know, we should all try to replicate that, right? Like don't try to don't get in somebody else's squad. Go build your go build your own pro squad. Go go build your own solid group of dudes that have your back when you're winning and you have their back when they're winning, because leaving the place better than you found it is what is what this is all about.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:31

I I don't know, Ben. I'd use caution throwing that out there. We've seen your squad. I think it's more trouble than help, but oh no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:38

Yes, and I am the mayor of Degenerates, but that's not the point.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:43

What I always say is, you know, we're all pushing each other and trying to help each other. And if you if you get first or second in our squad, you most likely got first or second in the event or tournament. And so it's it'll keep you motivated and pushed. And and it's it's funny, like if I'm out shooting my my full potential, you know, and end up on the third or fourth position in our squad, you know, it's usually not that bad in a tournament. I'm still I'm still top 10. I'm just fourth place on this squad.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:17

Well, Travis and Corey, thank you both very much. Appreciate you some spend, appreciate you both spending some time with us. Uh, congratulations to both of you. I mean, Travis, you pulled off just an amazing shoot. Corey, 10th title. I mean, I both of you gotta be happy, and uh, we we really appreciate you spending a few minutes with us.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:35

Thanks for having us an opportunity. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:51

Ben McNally, what do you think, buddy? Look, you were there, you shot that event, and I think it was I think Travis just did an outstanding job. I really do, and I'm not kissing his butt. I I I give credit where it's due, and I think he did a great job.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:03

Yeah, 10 out of 10. Obviously biased as a Texas resident and somebody who hangs out in in that part of the world, you know. When somebody asks where I live, I uh I usually don't go down that rabbit hole. I just say, oh, you know, outside of Fort Worth, right? So yeah, Defender Clay Sports Ranch feels like home club to me. And you know, mine and mine and Travis's friendship, not nearly as long as Corey, but goes back over a decade. So yeah, just he knocked it out of the park. And the cool thing about New Defender, and uh we're gonna call it New Defender for at least 18 months, right? Um the cool thing about New Defender is he has an upcoming regional on the books, and you know, he's done so well and is created such a high profile, high desire place to shoot that you know he doesn't know this yet, but he's gonna have many more Texas state championships to come. You just you don't get to be that good at it and have that um much of a an amazing venue and amazing staff, and the board doesn't vote to go back there. So, you know, buckle up.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:12

Yeah, well, I mean, look, obviously he's earned his place, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:16

I mean, earned it, yeah, exactly. Earned his place.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:18

Yeah, well, and listen, one thing we didn't mention, and I gotta give credit to where credit's due. Brandon Powell did win the overall for the Texas State, but Corey won in-state champion, not too far off of him. I think I think it was by four birds, maybe five. I can't remember now. So Brandon Brandon really wicked it up. I mean, that that was to put up the score that he did was very impressive. And you know, Corey was right there, you know. But the way you guys do it there in Texas is you you award a high overall and a to in-state champion, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:53

Yeah, yeah, well said. Well, and a lot of states do that because of you know, i in-state and out of state, and and how their maybe how their trophy or how their hall of fame or something like that is is is set up. But yeah, Brandon finished on a 187, Gavin on a 183, and Corey at a 182, and that rounded out your podium. So, you know, uh no, no slouch there. That is a stacked podium.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:23

Yeah, and listen, got an episode coming up, just real quick. I want to congratulate Braxton Oliver on winning the 2026 World English Sporting. What a feat! And you know, just real quick on that, I was watching the scores. Like I said, I wasn't there, unfortunately, but I was watching the scores from home, and I was told by some people that were there there were some top shooters that were happy being five or six targets down, and then Brandon or Braxton, excuse me, goes out and straights the daggone thing. And then the next day he backs it up by only dropping one target. I'm like, holy cow, this thing's done. Give the man his trophy. And then he had some struggles going into the last day, which again, we're got a podcast coming up with Braxton. I'm I'm anxious to dive into that and figure out, you know, hey, did you just slip and fall, or was it more of like a mental thing, or you know, what what happened? So we'll get into that.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:14

Sure, sure. No, if if I'm not mistaken, the those gents ended on the yellow course, which kudos to Neil Chadwick and the NSC staff. They, you know, they mixed it up enough that it didn't feel like just another event at the national shooting complex, right? But the yellow course was where the yellow course always was. Those were big targets. It was so fun. I was there, I was in the stadium, and there were a ton of people cheering for Braxton Oliver, and there were a ton of people cheering for Miss Karen Miles, who just lit it up. And there is no more. I mean, she I feel like she erased that several years ago, saying, like, well, the ladies are a different tier. Yeah, not when not when you've got her in the super final just stone cold. And there were a bunch of people that were like, Man, I love all those dudes down there, but if Karen whips all their tails, then you know, this place is gonna erupt.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:12

You know, Ben, you listen to the show regularly. I've been about this for the last three, four years now. It's like these girls are coming, and and when they do, it's on it. Well, I think she just proved it right there. I mean, I know she didn't win, but she was right there with the man putting it on them. So congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:33

Karen Miles, boy howdy, black.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:37

There, there's no, there is no second tier, there is no nothing. Like that that lady, aside from being the cooler, smarter, and more fun to talk to of the Miles clan, that lady is a gonna that lady's gonna hoa something real fast.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:54

Yeah, it's coming. It's it's not if it's when.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:57

So sorry, Geb. Yeah. So so one other thing, kind of the behind the scenes, you and I getting in and out of the conversation with with Corey, you know, a cool thing came up. You know, a lot of pros stay a day after and maybe coach on some major targets. And so you actually asked Corey off air, and I thought it was a great, a great thought. The sporting collective Corey has a real life. He's got those, you know, he he's got the uh multiple hats, multiple jobs, and you know, father of the year, family of the year constant nominee, right? So instead of staying late and coaching all day, he actually dropped the, you know, hey, if we see some cool targets, I'll I'll stay over on a Monday morning and put put some of those on the sporting collective. So that's super cool because uh, you know, those of us that rush back to real life or rush back to a job, we don't ever get to do that Monday coaching session stuff. And so yeah, download the sporting collective. A rising tide lifts all ships. Download all the content, subscribe to everything that your life and your budget lets you lets you subscribe to. But I I love all the content creators and yeah, the collective is a is a legit is a legit tool. Absolutely. I love it.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:17

Absolutely. Now, it like I said, there's invaluable information on there. I don't care what level shooter you are, there is some really great information that Corey's put out. You know, we asked both Corey and Travis the people they want to thank, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank some people that support this show and bring you great guests like Ben and Corey and Travis. Kohler Arms, they're our title shotgun sponsor. I cannot thank the mainland family enough. They have done so much for this podcast, and I really appreciate their support and their help. American-made shotgun, Ben Ben McNally. So Fioke ammunition, again, Fioke USA, excuse me. Absolutely love it. I've never had a failure, knock on wood. I know things can happen, but I've never had a failure at my white rhinos or my little rhinos. Absolutely love the shells, love their performance. Uh, Ranger, my new hyper shots. I tell you what, Ben, I didn't get to spend much time with you at Texas State, but I had people constantly walking up wanting to see those new hyper shots, and they are awesome. I absolutely love them.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:21

I did put some on. They are light, they are comfortable. Yeah, you know, if you've been on the fence.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:27

And the way you can change the lenses out there worth checking out. Yeah, the way you can change the lenses out so quick, too, right? It's it's it's really cool. Yes. Atlas Traps, we just talked about the World English. They are now a presence there. They they half the course was set by Atlas. And I talked to Scott Mann, speaker yesterday, CEO of Atlas Traps, and he said they were absolutely flawless. They did not have a problem the whole event, which is outstanding. Great, love it. American-made Atlas Traps, Ben. You shoot over quite a bit of them when you're with the Mr. Clayton Nance himself.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:01

Yes, yes. No, my one of my just tier one best friends and super all-around guy is is on their pro staff. And so Clayton has a bunch behind his house, a couple other buddies do. And so, yeah, we we throw a lot of birds on Atlas traps. Yes, we shot the five stand on Sunday at Worlds, and Manspeaker was there smiling, shaking everybody's hand. And yeah, just a welcome. I mean, if if you're present at the national shooting complex, then you know it's quality stuff made by quality people. And so again, not to push anybody else off, but 10 out of 10 on Atlas and Scott, thank you. And yeah, I should have worn my Atlas hat for the podcast. Apologies.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:43

Well, it's it's audio, so you get you get a pass on this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:46

So okay.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:47

Rhino chokes, man. I'm telling you, I absolutely love my rhino chokes. Um, you know, I I just had a conversation the other day with Chad Roberts, who is now on the Rhino Pro staff. Congratulations to him. And he was just going on and on about it. He goes, you know, he goes, you've been telling me for years, and I was with another company, and I was happy with where I was at until I tried the rhinos. And he goes, I am just he goes, I everything I keep trying is just better and better. He goes, it's incredible how well they work. And of course, the rhino porting, right? So thank you to Rhino Chokes for their support. Gun and trophy insurance, Ben, you use gun and trophy insurance from Mr. Cole Cushman. Absolutely outstanding. Corey just talked about it. Unbelievable rates, and the coverage is the best in the industry. Taconic Distilleries. When the tournament's over, it's time for one more shot with Taconic. And I'm telling you what, Ben, I have you've tried any of the Taconic Distilleries yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:42

I I have. I have. Thank you, Blaze Whitehead.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:45

Yes. Great stuff. I tried Ben shoot or Blaze shoots for them. I keep forgetting that. Sorry, Blaze. Score Chaser, if you're in this country and you're signing up for a tournament, you're doing it through Score Chaser. Cannot thank Casey Chase and all the gals over there at Score Chaser. Really appreciate them. Long range, Mr. Neil Chadwick. If you were at the Worlds, you know how great the long range stuff works. Uh, all of the electronics that were there were from long range. Midway USA Foundation got some exciting stuff coming up with them. We're going to be doing a pro and right in front of the Dead Pearl Blast in December at Rocky Creek. Lots of information coming on that. So keep your ears peeled. I don't want to announce too too much yet until that's finalized. Oda Pro Technologies, the lovely Miss, excuse me, Dr. Grace Sturdivent. Caught up with her at Texas State. We did some uh some little video stuff to show some of her products. Be looking for that on our YouTube channel here soon. El Jefe Energy. Thank you very much to Mr. Ryan Marsh of El Jefe. We've got a little interview coming up with him. He's going to talk about why his drinks are different and why you need to give them a try. Bear pelt. Ben, how many bear pelt vests are you up to now? Like 487 or something? I mean, you've got like a whole walk-in closet of bear pelts.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:00

Well, no, yeah, I built a large metal building for her to house them on. Um, no, there, believe it or not, there are a few that have been retired, and a couple of them that were pretty special to me, you know, back when I was a state president. And I shadow boxed one. I mean, cheesy as all get out, but you know, bare pelt vest, right? Like, what do they say? It's your uniform. Hell, in my entryway, it's my home and office decor. So what are you gonna do? Right. Like, thank you, thank you to the entire rodent family. And it's yeah, they keep you looking sharp and they let you express yourself and they make us they make us look a lot better than we might actually be.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:40

Yes, for sure. Slick products. If you like your buggy looking clean but hate washing it like I do, get over and check out the products on from Slick Products. There's a link down here in the show description. You can go to the website, click on the banner, or when you go to Slick Products, go to Slick Products.com/slash Deadpair. You're gonna save 10% off your order. I'm telling you what, it it simplifies the washing process and keeps your stuff looking great. And finally, JTEC. We just mentioned Score Chaser a minute ago. This is the constructor of Score Chaser, is now currently building a new website for the Deadpair Podcast, and I cannot wait for everybody to see it. Lots of cool stuff on there, lots of ways that you can interact with the podcast. Uh, we're gonna have a ton more information, a lot of backdrop on a lot of the sponsors and stuff. So, really cool stuff coming, and you're gonna have a way to sign up and get notified when new content's coming out and early access to content. Not subscribe, not subscription. I'm not gonna charge anybody. That's not the point, but you can at least sign up and get notified when stuff's available. So, Ben, this has been an awesome show. It's been a long show. Man, I appreciate you co hosting this. I really do. You you're always an asset to this podcast, and we really love having you on.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:51

Well, thanks, man. Yeah, I just I'm an avid, I'm an avid clay shooter, and I always joke that I'm a better collector of shotguns than I am. Pointer of shotguns, but the you know, we all go to these tournaments for the for the same reason. We we really enjoy it, you know, we're driven to compete, but the people, right? I mean, you and I would have never connected if it wasn't for sporting clays, nor Travis, nor Corey, nor anybody else. And so, like, you know, cheesy uplifting outro, you know, if you haven't been to a major, go to a major. It's it's the people, it's the reason you're there. If you do go to all the majors, then you know, good on you. Meet somebody new, random squad on a side event. You'd be surprised the the awesome the awesome people that you that you run into. And you know, every once in a while you get impressed because you squad with somebody sweet like Sean Alley, or or you leave and immediately shake your head because you had to shoot with Rambo or myself. So, you know, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_08 1:28:57

Right, it's one way or the other.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:59

It's it's the community and it's the people and the Deadpair podcast and is part of the community and part of the people. So whether you think we're full of it or not, you've you're probably correct. But you know, come come come find us. And and Jason, thank you. Is the I know I just horn myself in here sometimes, but like man, I like doing it because I like sharing the sport and I like sharing the people.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:22

Yeah, well, it's been said, if not once, a hundred times on this show. There's no strangers in sporting clays, only friends you haven't met yet. And and I truly believe that we say it each and every week. Take someone new shooting, take them to a tournament. You know, if they're a recreational shooter, go get them, go get them to sign up for a tournament one time. Who knows? You might just change their lives. Look, you want to talk about changing lives, and you talk about this sport and people, Ben, it's completely changed my whole life. I mean, I've made a career out of it. I've made some of my very best friends from this sport. So, you know, extend that opportunity to to a friend or a family member. I'm telling you, this is this is one of the it is the best sport in the world, in my opinion. So get out and share it with someone. Until next week, my friends. Can't wait to catch y'all back here on the Dead Pearl Podcast.