(SHOW EP18) Inside the Mind of a PRS Champion

In this episode, we sit down with Clay Blackketter to discuss what it really takes to compete at the highest levels of Precision Rifle Series competition.

From match preparation and stage planning to spotting impacts, managing pressure, and learning how to win, Clay shares lessons from nearly a decade in the sport. We also dive into AG Cup stories, memorable match moments, the reality of coaching and instruction, and the mindset shifts that helped him enjoy the sport while continuing to compete at an elite level.

Topics include:

• How top shooters prepare before a stage
• Why experience matters more than most people realize
• Spotting impacts and common shooting myths
• AG Cup memories and match breakdowns
• Competition mindset and handling pressure
• Helping new shooters enter the sport
• Match strategy, stage planning, and decision making
• Northern Lights, Pig River, and upcoming match predictions

Whether you're a new shooter looking to improve or a seasoned competitor chasing podium finishes, this episode is packed with insights, stories, and lessons from one of the sport's top competitors.

#PRS #PrecisionRifleSeries #LongRangeShooting #AGCup #ClayBlackketter #PrecisionRifle #CompetitiveShooting

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Come hang out with the Andrew Reserve. Um find out uh whether the weather was worse or the beating that Noah put on the field.

SPEAKER_08 0:06

Hear about the tough conditions that Zane faced out in New Mexico.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Find out if Zane's scope pulled zero long enough to pull out a two-day win. Come tune in to the torrential downpour at the Cactus Cup.

SPEAKER_06 0:26

Welcome to uh here FFO with uh your injured reserves. Um, Jim, Gary, my myself, you know, we're both uh struggling out here.

SPEAKER_08 0:35

You know, I I've been doing this for nine years now, and starting out nine years. Uh when I actually look back. Now, the first like four years, I was very light on the scene due to kind of the way I came up with some of the the Brian Allen's and the Shannon Kays. And a lot of them were they were kind of getting out of it, and I think had lost a little bit of that that love for shooting. And I was nervous about that. Like I was gung ho ready to hammer down. Let's let's get training and seeing how kind of just uh you know, they they just weren't happy about the way things were, and so it just kind of made me hesitant to really jump in and go. So yeah, it just took a while to to get going, but I I came up through the through the southeast regional ranks, and then you gradually are trying to beat those guys, and you know, all that going around to say that I'm kind of at a point now where it would be nice to help out some of the newer up-and-comers if they are if they're there w wanting help. I don't know. I'm I've been so singularly focused, I think, on on myself and trying to to win stuff that I've lost a little bit of perspective, I think, on the community as a whole, what what people really want and are looking for. And I I I just kind of feel like it's come from every different side where I'm out there. You know, I started with buddies and and we were gonna do this together as buddies, man. They one of them, wife pregnant, he's out instantly. So so there goes him. Now I'm hustling on my own and and doing that thing. And you know, you gradually meet great people and great friends, but uh in the end, yeah, it's just one of those where I'm I'm trying to yeah, reflect a little bit more and and you know, what can I do outside of just just trying to go compete to to actually help a sport that that I I truly you know love. It's been an amazing nine years, uh, some great times.

SPEAKER_06 2:39

Uh so that's that's kind of where my you probably do more than what you think you do. Like I'd be willing to bet that like if you sign up for a match right now and you get in a squad, it fills up like that, you know, because of people that want to shoot with you. And you know, there are obviously gonna be some of those that are buddies, some that you know wanna shoot because you you're good, and then they're just gonna be the people that want to learn. And so even if you're not actively teaching somebody at the time, I'd be willing to bet that every match you are helping people.

SPEAKER_08 3:06

That's fair. That's fair. I uh I suppose obviously you got a lot going on in your life, but uh are you still gonna be trying to focus solely on you know championships into the year every year?

SPEAKER_06 3:18

Um, I mean, if things go my way, yes, but I I I mean I'm gonna sound like a broken record at this point, but just doing it for the fun is the best change that I made. And yeah um, you know, if I'm in the position, great, and if I'm not, that's fine. Um, you know, I got a little girl about five yards away that is way cooler than this. Um shooting stuff is so um, you know, it'd be it'd be cool to win another golden bullet, but it's not the end of the world. Um I uh just enjoying going out and having fun. Doing classes um are really fun. I got to do one uh a while back that was all beginning shooters, like don't know how to zero gun, hardly know where the bullets go. And that was one of the coolest things because a lot of our classes are like more advanced, and you know, you get a wide range of people sometimes. They're guys that think that they know everything and they're not really willing to learn, which makes you wonder why they spent the money to be there in the first place that they don't want to learn. Um, you get new people that like want to get into the sport, you just you get match winners, you get everything. Um, but did a class and at Gravestone, and it every single person was brand was brand brand new. And it was so cool, you know, how much they listen, how much they were trying, and you go from you know, zero and giggle for the first time to smoking targets at a thousand yards and how excited they get. It was so cool. And I I would like to do a lot more beginner classes just for that reason.

SPEAKER_07 4:45

Couldn't agree more. Yeah, couldn't agree more. Yeah, usually got it, but did you get an email from KM the other day?

SPEAKER_08 4:54

Uh I definitely. I I mean I got a couple of them. Sometimes I see them, sometimes I look at them later, which which one was it?

SPEAKER_06 5:02

They're they're looking for an instructor.

SPEAKER_08 5:04

Oh no, no, that's not that's that's absolutely not me. Uh yeah, this was one of the other topics. You know, a lot of guys are probably very fundamental oriented and just focus a lot on that. I I've never been, I mean, I certainly I guess I was never really taught the fundamentals, so to speak. I just kind of watched and tried to emulate the best I could, and and then eventually you get to a point where you're pretty good and people are asking you about these things, and I don't know what they fucking are. So you kind of gotta make it up, you gotta go learn. So then that's I kind of get started, I guess. The Biles to Matches podcast. Okay, we gotta start learning actual terms here rather than just how cute, which yeah, I I just never that was kind of out of my wheelhouse. So I I guess that kind of goes to different, made me think about in golf. We have you know swing thoughts. What are your any swing thoughts? And in PRS, you're about to to start a stage. Is at this point, do you have any kind of thoughts that go through your head be just stage dependent or anything that's just automatic that you do every time?

SPEAKER_06 6:16

I mean, I think a lot of it is is kind of automatic. And you know, you said something you have to kind of think about like how you do things. We'd be at a class and we'd be going over something, and they're like, Well, how what are you doing with this hand? How much pressure are you putting here? And I'm like, well, let me think about it for just a second.

SPEAKER_08 6:31

It's actually hard to put that into words.

SPEAKER_06 6:34

Yeah. Um, and so you know, in figuring out that like that wasn't my first thought of like how to describe that, like, and then doing it and figuring out okay, this is like what I'm doing in here, like you can kind of incorporate it. But as far as like what I'm doing before a stage, that is just I'm planning out where I'm going and why. Uh, you know, I think part of you know being good at this sport is being able to adapt to you know whatever gets thrown at you because it it very rarely goes to plan. It very rarely goes to plan. It's like problem solvers under stress is definitely you don't have to do that thinking on the clock. I think it puts you in a better spot. So before I've gone up there, I've planned out where I'm going, why, what I could run into when I get to that position, how to avoid it, watching where other people are going to make sure that like I'm not gonna have a mag clearance issue. Can I bipod it? Can I do this? Can I do that? Like, I just I'm going through all those different things before I get up there. So they're like, by the time I'm shooting the stage, I've shot it 10 or 15 times.

SPEAKER_09 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:32

And because I I think it's a really that's one thing I think is cool about AG Cup is you don't get to see, you know, people really do it. I mean, the last ones we could just hang out and chat and you know, we weren't sharing stuff, but you could see what people are doing, but when you couldn't and you just had to do it on the fly when you got there, I think that was you know a really cool part of it. Um but you know, it's it's not a good feeling to get onto a position and be like, uh-oh, this doesn't work, I gotta do something else.

SPEAKER_08 7:59

Do you feel like that happens a lot less to you probably now than sort of?

SPEAKER_06 8:03

Probably less.

SPEAKER_08 8:04

But it but it still happens.

SPEAKER_06 8:05

It does happen. Um it does happen. It happened at the finale last year, um, happened at the finale the year before. Those, you know, they're two that really stick out um to me there. Um but I mean you you do this long enough. I I've said this a bunch of different times, but you could give somebody Austin Organ's ability and send them to the range, and they're gonna get their butt whooped over and over and over because there's just you know an experience factor to being in those situations, you know, ex you know, seeing it doing it over and over and over again. And there's so many different props, you know, they're all kind of the same once you figure out how to get stable on one. You can kind of get stable on all of them for the most part. Um, but there's still just weird things that you can run into.

SPEAKER_08 8:47

Um but but yeah, back to the instrument, I guess all that to say instruct, like I'm not I don't really do that, I'm not good at that sort of thing. I would be a terrible instructor. I think I would be good at getting someone on target in that aspect, but as far as all the the fundamentals, uh yeah, we're we're we're not there. So I'll I'll I'll try to just get a very good shooter maybe over the line as opposed to or get someone who's who's if anybody's passionate about it, I'm happy. I've I give out my phone number a fair amount. And uh I'm sure if you're should have asked a couple years ago. As you win more matches, your your message box definitely seems to increase. It does and yeah, I end up getting a lot more messages, and it's it's tough because I I do want to help people, but you know, typing out on a on a Facebook comment say it's just it's such a terrible way to communicate that I just I'd rather have a face-to-face or or something than than to try and type out uh which is a shame because I've also recently found out, and you may not know this depending on how much time you spend on forums and Facebook groups, but I that's where like the real experts seem to be. They're not winning. They're there. And the talent of which I was I was like, man, I didn't even know this stuff would existed. And and I thought there might be another level as eventually we're gonna be proven we're the high school team. Here comes college, here you know, here comes pros once once athletes figure out or you know, with money, it's probably not happening for a while. But if if a few really good athletes wanted to get into it, you we could have some problems. So uh yeah, but those experts, man, they can do stuff that is just I haven't personally seen it, but I've read about this.

SPEAKER_06 10:44

I mean, there's there's a guy at Justin's range that's blind people, you know, AR-15, 55 grand FMJs, truz as rifle on the one MOA targets up to 1340 every time.

SPEAKER_08 10:54

Um what do you I mean what do you do when that guy shows when he eventually shows up? When he shows up, it's gonna be a problem. That's it. Yeah. I don't know what you can do, but you can't seem to get him out there, unfortunately. And it it just upset me because I saw a guy post a video, his trigger cam footage, and you know, he's a he's a he's he's a new guy. He's not great, he's just a new guy coming along. But I mean, dude, posting videos is that that takes a lot. He is out there shooting matches, posting videos, and and these people get on there and just hammer him. And and that's the part, yeah, it's like, man, I it sucks that there's people like that. But I guess thankfully they don't come to the matches.

SPEAKER_06 11:38

They they never do it in person, though. They're doing it because they can, you know, hide behind a screen. And yeah, you know, in I I see some of the same stuff that people post trigger cam footage. And I I've shot less than five stages with a trigger cam on because you know when you got this really fancy piece of glass in front of your eye, it's really hard for me to put a piece of plastic in between that. And um so I've only done it, I've only done it a few times, and you've won multiple, you know, two-day matches with it, and I've watched them. I've watched those kennel.

SPEAKER_04 12:07

Yeah, doing it.

SPEAKER_08 12:08

That's got lucky, you know, right, right conditions, right stage design. It would be terrible out west because you actually probably need to look at look at things, and you're not gonna see them with the tree. So with that, I yeah, my shooting style is so much different with the trigger cam because I can't see as well. So I'm if I try to adjust and get cute and think, okay, that was left at, you know, I end up misreading it and just missing the damn thing anyway. So I remember I did it. I a lot of times I'm just sending the same shot with trigger cam. We're not we're not getting cute unless it's obvious.

SPEAKER_06 12:43

You know, I've wondered because in some of your videos, I'm like, well, he just hit left edge there, and then you know, it it dumps off that side on the next shot. I'm like, okay, he sees that, and I don't hear any clicks on the turret, and then you send the same shot and hit dead center. I'm like, what did he notice that I that I didn't notice? Like, how did he like send the same shot and hit dead center this time around?

SPEAKER_08 13:01

This this, all right, let's we'll be honest here. This might be where what separates some of the top when you see that, you see that. I don't fucking see that. I do not see these things that y'all see. I I think I've gotten great, great at playing the the game, but I don't okay, yeah, I see misses, uh you know, plate reaction, good at all that, but if a bullet hits a plate, I don't see that son of a bitch. I just don't.

SPEAKER_06 13:31

So uh you're probably one of the first people that's been honest on a podcast that I have ever seen about that.

SPEAKER_08 13:38

I was like, I think to help these POs, like this is not some magical, maybe it is magical for, but you can win matches without knowing what the fuck you're doing. It is possible.

SPEAKER_06 13:50

So a lot of people that come and do private training, one of the things they want to work on the most is spotting impacts. And there are there there are some things to do to get better at it. Um, but it's obviously it's it's a learned skill, but there are some people that just you know can't do it. And the thing that that bothers me is people get on podcasts and they get asked, you know, how many what percentage of shots you see? Oh, I'm seeing 99% of shots on plate. I'm seeing 98% of shots on plate. I'm like, no, you're not, you'd never lose. You would never lose.

SPEAKER_08 14:20

I'll just say that I would never, never even think of losing if I saw 75% of my shots.

SPEAKER_07 14:25

You you you I mean you'd be cleaning courses of fire regularly.

SPEAKER_06 14:29

I'd I have to get fine unlucky to at that point if you saw every single shot. Now, you know, there are days where it feels like yeah, I'm seeing absolutely everything, and then there's days where I'm like, well, I hit it, we're gonna send it again, you know.

SPEAKER_08 14:44

That's great news.

SPEAKER_06 14:46

You know, it's there are people that like are blind as a bat to go out and win matches, and that's what I always tell people. I'm like, you know, I'll help you with it, we'll work on it, I'll give you drills, things to work on, but don't think that that's like an instant escalator to you know to winning matches.

SPEAKER_08 15:03

I'll call out my buddy Lee Petros since I'm such a good buddy with him. He did he'll tell you he doesn't he can barely dial his turret and see his turret. But what he can do is the same exact thing over and over again, which is just put the damn rifle on the barricade and pull the trigger and he gets it on target. We don't have a lot of wind at KM. So he could, I mean, he finished third at the collis batch. I bet you'd have him on here, and he yeah, I never really saw much of anything. He might not do that, but he'd be thinking it.

SPEAKER_06 15:29

You got a gun that shoots good, you put your crosshair in the middle of the target, you don't make middle mistakes, and you've covered a lot. You covered a lot.

SPEAKER_08 15:38

That's that is my career right there. That is where we're at. So um one thing, let's see. I was curious, are you aware of your impact on a potential mid-pack, maybe even upper mid-pack shooter, as you go over and watch a guy, he knows you're watching him. Do you think are you aware that that might affect the the guy's like, oh shit, Clay Blackhead is watching me? And because it did to me.

SPEAKER_06 16:08

I I honestly don't know that I've ever thought about it.

SPEAKER_08 16:10

Like if I'm if I'm walking up to something that other top guys are aware of or not, I I think it's a real thing of lower guys seeing you getting getting a little nervous. Oh, this this guy's what this guy's watching Kale Harmon's watching me, Austin Bushman's watching me, and and have some some jitters. I guess it's never crossed my mind because like if I'm you know in the squad, I'm gonna you're you're I guess you've grown up shooting with all those those legends that dude, that was a real thing for me, trying to learn how to shoot in front of y'all some of y'all. It was different the first couple times.

SPEAKER_06 16:46

Well, we you know, we traveled together, you know, to tons of these matches, and all we do the entire way there, the entire way back is trash talk, and the whole thing that we do during the matches we trash talk. So, you know, when that's all you hear, it you know, if somebody just steps up to a piece of glass, I guess it doesn't really, you know, register a whole lot. But I I just never never thought about it.

SPEAKER_08 17:05

But true, I I was bouncing some ideas off Valdez because he I also agreed that it can affect, you know, he was thinking potentially two shots of stage effect, even so massive, massive input. Just didn't know if that was something you had ever, you know, purposely gone and maybe watch somebody that was too ahead of you with one stage to go, thinking this this might, you know, give a little edge here.

SPEAKER_06 17:31

I mean, uh uh guys like Morgan, you know, that I've like, you know, we're squad or two away, you know, like I've seen him run up to my stage to watch me finish. You know, I've walked, you know, done the same thing to him because we're just curious, you know, before live scoring, you don't know exactly where you're at, but you know that this is probably who you're competing against. It was just kind of fun, but I don't think that either one of us was thinking, oh, like maybe this will mess them up if they see me coming.

SPEAKER_08 17:53

I have a feeling I think it was for me early on, it was different if if I'm in the lead, couple back, and and you're there, Morgan's there, Bushman's there, or you know, one of y'all's there, versus I I don't want to just throw out names, but you know, some some guys that you think, oh, they just had a great day one. Sleeping on the lead, I assume you think that's that's yeah, I know you've talked in the past about two, three-day matches. It you know, sleeping on the lead, that's that's a real thing.

SPEAKER_07 18:22

For sure it is. Happens all the time. Um you know, Matt Brasseau maybe kind of had might have had that effect on me.

SPEAKER_06 18:31

I remember uh there was a period where you know every month Justin would have a club match and I'd go out there and I'd won a whole bunch of them in a row. And um Justin would say that I was coming to collect my rent money when I would show up to the match, and you know, the two-day match was coming up there, and I'd clean multiple of Justin's one-day matches and you know, shooting really good, gun was hammering, and you know, Berceau walks by on Saturday and he goes, Good luck, favorite. And you know, I was like, whatever, you know, just try to brush it off. Um, and he absolutely drummed me that weekend. I mean, he absolutely drummed me. It wasn't like I I came close, he just absolutely abused me. Um, as did I think several people that weekend. It definitely was not was not my time to win that match. But um, you know, I I remember talking trash to him. We were all in uh Derrick Love's house, and I remember talking trash to him before the Punisher match, and uh he made some some one-off comment, and then he just goes out and again destroys us all. My gosh, dang us the other guy's retired, and he just comes out and just beats us like it's nothing. Like, you know, I feel like it took me a long time to be able to beat that guy, and probably the only reason I did is because he just doesn't shoot anymore. I bet you if he showed up and he practiced for 30 minutes, you know, he'd still go win matches.

SPEAKER_08 19:48

You know, I meant to I was gonna that made me think of when he talked about him basically just jumping off the couch and whooping ass. Uh there's a guy, he does kind of a little golf skit where he's got like a rider cup background and he does a press conference as if he's a recreational golfer. So so the guy will ask him you know some oddball question uh about hey, you know, your guy that never played golf before, your buddy outdrove you on number one, how'd that make you feel? And then he's just you know, it's tough, just tough day for me and my family. I think this is you know, just bullshit that a guy just gets off the couch and just comes out here and it's just an absolute weapon. I think it's ruining the game. And it's just so it was like the gear start. I was like, this would be hilarious to do some some PRS, you know, for our community, just some some skits of where you ask kind of a lower mid-pack shooter, like, man, you dumped eight rounds in one hole. You know, what what were you thinking? And and just what the responses he could come up with. I thought I was like, that that could be that could be funny. I don't know if you have made me think of that. Uh we'll see if Val Valdee's had anything. Oh, one last thing or once before we bring on whatever. Um crap, was this uh you seem to be pretty great about remembering finishes, podiums, all this and that. You remember stages pretty well, as I recall, that you've shot throughout the matches, years, all that. A lot of other top guys don't seem to be as good at remembering. I remember just about every shot I've ever taken in every match. So when other guys I can't recall that, it just really drives me nuts. But uh briefly, because talking about mindset stuff, this would have been 2024 AG Cup, day three. We're both shooting the Year Francis won. We're both shooting very well early on. I think we left stage six tied for the lead. I don't know if you remember that or not.

SPEAKER_04 21:46

Of course you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_07 21:48

Go into the backside of the range where I drop like one shot.

SPEAKER_06 21:54

And I'm like, okay, like it's my time. This is it, you know.

SPEAKER_08 21:58

So you were that confident. Walking to that backside, hey, this is my time. I'm gonna finally win this AG cup this year.

SPEAKER_06 22:05

Honestly, I was certain of it. Like I like because it wasn't. You were certain. I I was certain. Like it was very field style. Like I had gotten past like the stages that I had thought that I would like could really like struggle on. And now we're going to stuff, I'm gonna get to use a bipod. There's no back stops, like it's windy back there. Like this is like this is it right here, you know.

SPEAKER_08 22:23

All right. That's that is just fucking infuriating to hear that. My story, because the previous year going to the backside, those last four got freaking skyline targets just hanging barely in the woods. So my eyesight, I'm zipping on each side of these small targets, not knowing which fucking way they're going. So now I am shooting well, but I'm not seeing great. I I feel like I'm lucky to be tied with you. And now I'm I was literally pushing my cart. I felt like I was walking to my own death. I didn't even I the car, the truck was nearby. I was like, I just want to go throw all my shit in the truck and leave. I don't even want to go shoot this. And then which is crazy to think, somebody would be like, wow, so you are tied with a guy at the AG Cup, four stages to go, the winner's about to win the cup, and I you know, I could give two shits about the 30 grand I wanted the cup. But at that moment in time, I was like, oh shit, we're going back to I'm going back to where I have struggled, and I thought gonna see. We ended up we shot that stupid KYL.

SPEAKER_06 23:36

Not stupid, I mean it was it I guess it I I guess it depends a little bit. You know, that was my first one on the backside.

SPEAKER_08 23:44

Yeah, it was dark. We were shooting in the same squad.

SPEAKER_06 23:47

And you know, Lane Shelley goes up there, and I think he missed his first 11 shots, if I remember right. Um, and and hit one. And I'm you know, whenever we first got there, they were painted white. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I get to shoot second. I don't care if Lane I don't care if Lane cleaned it. Like this, I've got this. Like, and I'd cleaned it the year before. I was like, yeah, I've got this, no problem. Um, and I swear when I got on gun, those targets were a third of the size that they were the year before. But right before you know we shot, obviously, Tom went down and he painted them black, and the backstop was black, and Lane didn't hit him, and there wasn't which you know, I get it. You know, he probably didn't know what he was aiming at. I didn't either. There were you couldn't see edges of targets, so I was just kind of guessing where I thought the stem was ending, and I just missed and missed and missed.

SPEAKER_08 24:34

And I would say my excuse. I saw perfectly, I just fucking missed.

SPEAKER_06 24:39

I mean, I might have missed anyway, but like I I wasn't sure exactly what I was aiming at. And then as you know, as I eventually hit a couple of them, the spall you know split across, and you could see the shape of the target. I was like, oh my gosh, like I haven't even I've probably been aiming like two tenths high on every single one of these, and they're like you know, hexagons or whatever. So you need, you know, like when you're aiming a little high, now you're on this part of the slant and you're not even aiming at the target, even if you're missing the thing.

SPEAKER_08 25:06

Didn't even know they were hexagons. I remember hitting them and seeing the puff. I'd have said circles for sure. So actually, yeah, I take that back. I did not see them as well either, obviously, and remember that one just I mean, just silence going by. But you gotta look professional. You're on TV, we got we gotta move. It's just uh one of those horrible situations you find yourself in every now and then.

SPEAKER_06 25:32

You know, you think shooting early on a T whale, you got the draw, and that just made me feel that much better. I was like, I got the draw. And you know, when you you couldn't see him, it didn't really feel like the draw anymore. And just, you know, you can't can't drop that many points, you know, pretty much on the day, let alone let alone on one stage.

SPEAKER_08 25:51

You battled back pretty good. I think what you ended up fourth, but tied for third, yeah. Yeah, it depends on when you listen to that buzzer.

SPEAKER_07 26:02

I got so many text messages after that.

SPEAKER_05 26:05

They were like, man, his shot was after the buzzer. And I got so many of them.

SPEAKER_08 26:11

I've got like two buzzer, one just crushing buzzer beater loss, which that one still drives me crazy because I would have gotten another AG, a big AG trophy on that one, and that was crushing. So fuck, yeah. But but that one I I just took that L. I got up on the last stage and and just did something stupid and just uh I just completely bombed that one and and then watched Lane Shelley, funny enough, like clean the final two stages of the match, shooting the last impact with I think he was like 0.28. So it was very close to the point three oh.

SPEAKER_07 26:49

Very close.

SPEAKER_08 26:50

That's the way it goes. Uh let's see. I don't know if it was anything else that uh yeah, hit some plate. That was about about it as far as if questions lady. You have what else you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_07 27:04

We can uh go ahead and hop you know, I don't know how they're gonna edit this, but we can go ahead and hop right into uh the spreadsheet here.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

Me and Max are so let me know if you can uh see this. Alright, we're starting with cactus cup, I assume.

SPEAKER_07 27:29

Uh yeah, we're looking at cactus cut and cactus cup cut.

SPEAKER_08 27:34

Um Rick, so you put a big asterisk somewhere?

SPEAKER_06 27:38

Yeah, we're gonna put the asterisk right in here next to Tanner's name. Um if anybody remembers that episode, the very first thing after you picked Noel was I said, all right, where's Tanner new? And we scrolled through it. I don't know if that was you know an issue on importing the spreadsheet or what. I'm gonna blame it on Beamer um and its Excel abilities. Um but uh I'd have picked I'd have picked Tanner. Um but uh even with it, I think you might have gotten us. Um, you know, you picked Noel first, got the win, and everybody else you picked, I mean, had had really good finishes.

SPEAKER_08 28:10

Uh okay, so y'all pretty much base it on just placement total as opposed to impact total. Is that kind of where y'all just wait? That's how we do it. That's not your decision.

SPEAKER_06 28:22

Yeah, that when we do it on here, that's you know, it's just a little cleaner and a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_08 28:26

That's fine. Um, I'll take the W any which way I can get it, although this one is completely controversial, and I admit I don't even want the trophy for this one.

SPEAKER_07 28:36

Um let's see here.

SPEAKER_06 28:38

Uh Cole Canyon. Um, so I don't know why why he's got uh you know this in nice green here.

SPEAKER_08 28:45

I did not do that when he doesn't have it on the uh cactus cup, but I'm gonna have to do a better job of getting on the horn to people and see where we're really at with attending matches because for sure.

SPEAKER_06 28:58

This is this is rich.

SPEAKER_08 29:02

Especially with two guys that I could easily reach out to. So I'm gonna have to do a better, better job of that.

SPEAKER_06 29:09

So if you were in our our group where we do this, this pick would have been gone. So I'd have lost Jake Graves, he blew lost Nick Bernard, and then unfortunately, you know, I'd lost Morgan. Uh yeah, it's it's tough.

SPEAKER_08 29:21

Uh it's like how else can you do it? But that sucks.

SPEAKER_06 29:26

A lot of times what we'll do uh when we're in this position where there might be a chance that somebody's gone is we'll each pick a couple of reserves, and you know, let's let's just you know make up that we picked two two extra people.

SPEAKER_08 29:37

Yeah, it's kind of you know, maybe do honor code on who do you who would you have probably picked.

SPEAKER_06 29:42

Well, we'll actually let the person because if they lose one of their best picks, they get to keep whoever is the highest of the two reserves as a replacement because because odds are they're not gonna be as competitive. So like if you were trying to place a Morgan King, you know, and you guys have picked 20 different shooters, well, you're obviously not replacing a Morgan King. So you're just kind of giving them some some forgiveness to have a chance to to get through it.

SPEAKER_08 30:07

Yeah, not replacing a Morgan.

SPEAKER_06 30:10

You're um, you know, this game has won me a lot of ice cream this year.

SPEAKER_07 30:18

And um it's hard to tell. Uh I mean if you if you saw the scale, you might not say that.

SPEAKER_06 30:26

Um but uh we've been turning them into uh you know combining them and having you know cookies delivered, and it's been really, really handy.

SPEAKER_08 30:34

But it's a solid idea. I'll have to yeah, get Valdez on that. I'm clawing back. He dominated me last year with probably almost eight rounds on just dominant. He was picking uh he would never have, we would pick four or five, and he would never have a guy outside the top 15. It was amazing. He would have won serious money had it been an option.

SPEAKER_06 30:56

You know, I'm I'm wondering if he drafted ours before he would go against yours and then just use mine because I went like 19 to 1 against you last year.

SPEAKER_08 31:07

That's probably exactly what happened. No, we had a controversy at Gravestone early, though, because uh I think y'all were doing it and he were doing it, and something like you had picked Francis on the show, but then I think picked me when y'all were texting, and and then uh long story short, I ended up with Francis. So I I had to consider, you know, was it purposeful that I dumped the last shot so I could win win the draft? I mean, I didn't need to claw back support. Ice cream is ice cream, and you know, it's dangerous territory if we're starting to affect outcomes of actual matches with our foolishness. I mean, you know, after the uh I don't care how much I bet on Francis, I'm not throwing that last shot. It's not happening. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 32:03

I mean, nobody nobody wants to lose, but you know, there's worse guys to lose to. 100%. No.

SPEAKER_07 32:10

But it could have been Bushland or something, you know.

SPEAKER_08 32:12

Yeah, I feel like I'm gonna start to uh just like throw heat on shooters now in my twilight years here.

SPEAKER_06 32:20

So uh looking at Pig River, I this is the first time that I have seen the roster. And uh it's a deep roster. I think I saw you have a notebook earlier, which is kind of worried.

SPEAKER_08 32:33

I told you I this is this is what I do, and picking winners is not what I do, but I'm gonna certainly try this weekend.

SPEAKER_06 32:43

So I'm going to um be selfish, and I'm going to pick first since you've got a list ready to go.

SPEAKER_08 32:50

I was gonna say you can pick first based on me screwing up last week. The pick is yours.

SPEAKER_06 32:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 32:58

Well, um taking a quick look through here, it's pretty hard to uh bet against a guy.

SPEAKER_08 33:05

I don't think I don't even think I wrote him down because I when yeah, of course I did, but I anticipated that.

SPEAKER_06 33:12

So I don't know if you saw that, but that was a really advanced Excel maneuver that I just pulled.

SPEAKER_07 33:17

I highlighted his name, I cut it, and I pasted it over here. High level.

SPEAKER_08 33:25

You you might be top 100 all time in something else now. Congrats, man. That is that is a lofty feat right there.

SPEAKER_06 33:34

Really impressive.

SPEAKER_08 33:36

You know, we got problem is like the next five or six guys that I can go any which way here. You know, Rudisil man, Rudisil took out Kale at loopholes. Uh and you know, I did buy him the cookie bouquet. He thanked me for that finally. I got uh so I'll take Rudisil and Man, Sinoski struggled last match. I don't know what happened. You know, I'm gonna do is Chris Simmons the I I feel like there's another Chris Simmons. Um do you have Chris Simmons as a pro this is the Chris Simmons that is a pro. Okay, all right. Yeah, he just won a uh regional match this weekend. Just what he posted made me think he's he's ready for greatness. Let's let's throw him in uh in number two spot there.

SPEAKER_06 34:28

So this is one of those those times where I think it gets a little bit odd because you've got a guy like Sanofsky who's you know won a bunch of matches, a bunch of really big matches, but he's been shooting four black bullets. He's I mean he's a student at legend. You know, but is he actually shooting open? Because I've seen this beside his name multiple times this year.

SPEAKER_04 34:50

And then he's shooting sportsmen.

SPEAKER_06 34:52

No, he burned me. He burned me bad, you know, showing up in a different class. So I don't know that I can trust.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

I'm not willing to do that yet. I gotta I gotta dig a little bit. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_08 35:05

If we get to the end and he's still there, I I will admit he's he's going on the roster.

SPEAKER_07 35:12

Let's see here. You know what? I think that this has to happen.

SPEAKER_08 35:19

That's he's just solid anytime he's he's always he's always good.

SPEAKER_07 35:24

Like I mean he's a super cool guy, too.

SPEAKER_08 35:27

Yeah, very cool. Yeah, pencil him in for a top ten, like regardless. And he may, you know, get on that podium.

SPEAKER_04 35:36

Uh we got one more. I'm about to jump to gun again. Man. How do we done? That was that was that was my next one.

SPEAKER_08 35:54

So sometimes you you gotta play blocker. You know, I I I could see her popping in the screen. Well, if we're playing blocker, we're we're gonna f I don't know if Patty watches this show or not, but let's put a little pressure on him. You know, Patty is in my top probably three shooters that hasn't won a center fire match.

SPEAKER_06 36:13

Unsure if you're complimenting him or insulting him.

SPEAKER_08 36:17

Oh, I don't think it's an I hope it's not an insult. I would I would hope I don't insult Patty because he's probably the nicest, one of the nicest guys. He's a top ten nicest guy on tour. One uh one sportsman of the year. Sportsman of the year. There it is. But all that being said, like he's he's due. He is absolutely due to get a W.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

So basically, you know, uh oh God, that that B.

SPEAKER_08 36:45

Wilson keeps showing up in big matches in the Southeast. This one's a little different, Pig River, that range. Uh he shot well at Clinton House. Fleener always shoots well there. Of course, you got Drew Walter. Man, this is a toughie. Let me take I I need Sonowski just on the I I feel like he's gonna want to battle.

SPEAKER_06 37:09

I was hoping he was gonna sneak through. I was trying to play it off.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

I really wanted to grab Cam. I hope he shows up with a selection rifle.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

That's what I hope.

SPEAKER_08 37:18

If he does that just to like get oh, that would be a that'd be bad, bad move. He wouldn't throw away a mask just to do that. Okay, and the next one, man, I don't think Fleener is even shot this year. I'd probably take him. Let me go Drew Walter.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

Where is Drew? All right, so I think I need to grab Kindle here. Oh, Kindle shooting open. Okay. He's been doing that a bit. Man, I have to do it for the name.

SPEAKER_06 38:11

I have to do it for the it's just it's the coolest name in the PRS and it's not close. Fill it googly ammo.

SPEAKER_08 38:17

I I don't know if it can be the coolest, just because that one's a toughie to I can't say it. Goog Googly ammo? Googlyamo? That's a toughie. Yeah, that's a that's uh hard to argue though, the logic if that was the sole purpose. Attention. Let me no, I don't want to Sorry, didn't mean to say that's my bad. Uh let me take Ben Cleaner. Let me take Cleaner.

SPEAKER_07 38:48

He's not the first one in case you're wondering.

SPEAKER_08 38:50

Uh no, I heard Shannon's podcast. I was like, okay, yeah, it gets said. And yeah, I usually try not to say it, but also like, well, I kind of want to be relaxed and be myself too, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 39:02

Well, I guess we got him locked in for Pig River then.

SPEAKER_08 39:04

Oh, yeah, that's it. Okay. Gosh, I hate leaving Kushan still on the list.

SPEAKER_06 39:09

And I mean, there's plenty of good shooters still here. Like it it gets it's you know, when we talk sometimes about you know the the top 10 or the top 20 to ever do it, you know, you can come up with you know a few names that nobody's gonna argue with, but you can make really good arguments for just about everybody else. And you know, I I feel like it's almost the same thing every time that we draft for a match. You know, you can pick a couple that everyone's like, yeah, okay, obviously pick them in.

SPEAKER_07 39:36

And then it's like, man, you could make an argument for all of these. Yes. Well, I like that this was done for us.

SPEAKER_06 39:45

Um, you know, five-person draft here, northern lights, four-person draft. We're not having to uh to do anything fancy, but we do have to add somebody else on here. So of course.

SPEAKER_08 39:57

All right, match coming up.

SPEAKER_06 39:59

Yep, got northern lights this weekend. Derek, you're you're the match director. Um, are you uh done pounding T Fos?

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yep, yep, got everything all dialed in. She's ready to rock and roll.

SPEAKER_06 40:12

Okay, what are you uh what are you planning?

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Uh 19 stages, 190 rounds, two max so far. I like that so far.

SPEAKER_06 40:23

You're making me happy. So are you thinking it's gonna be the same difficulty, easier? You know, I I I can't imagine the conditions can possibly be as tough as they were last year.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

I I think uh conditions are gonna be more favorable for sure.

SPEAKER_08 40:40

Uh those pictures were gnarly last year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:44

Like it for it was 40 wind anyway, but when that storm rolled in, I mean I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was blowing 60. You know, like I I I couldn't walk back to the truck facing like facing the rain because it like you just couldn't keep your eyes open. So I was literally walking backwards, like had rain gear up over me, and I'm walking backwards, waiting to pass my truck in front of me, and then I would walk to it because you could not turn back and look. It was unreal. How's the forecast looking?

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Oh, it's looking fantastic.

SPEAKER_08 41:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 41:15

10 to 20 on day one is what I was told, and then like twenty to thirty or something on day two. Like light chance of rain, which PRS means it's gonna pour.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

But the nice thing up there is usually when it uh this time of year, as you experience when it when it rains, it it doesn't last too long.

SPEAKER_06 41:36

No, it really didn't last very long. When it was over, it was over. Um well, and then Sunday started and it rained all day long. But you know. Yeah. So are we on that same range this year?

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Yep, same location. Um got a few stages in a couple new spots on the on the firing line there and kind of uh working that same exact uh area. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 42:02

So the you you talked about having a different location, or maybe it was just two different parts of the range that you you hadn't been shot up, something like that last year. I don't remember exactly how that worked.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Yeah, I've got access to another uh field um that uh provides some similar stuff, but the yardages are a little bit tighter. Um, so we may explore that uh location next year for for one of the days. It might be kind of similar to your match where it might be all positional and then all prone on day two or something in that nature.

SPEAKER_06 42:39

You know, I did that this year and I thought it was fun, and I was like, man, I want to I kind of want to just shoot a match that that way. And I've never, you know, I've been to matches that are you know all positional, obviously, and I've been to matches that are you know a lot of prone, but I just think it was you know it'd be fun to but I I like the two different locations part, I guess is what I really like. You know, something that people haven't haven't seen before. You don't get you know a club match every weekend on, and you know, my understanding is there's not a whole lot of shooting that goes out where your your matches at.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Right, yeah. So all the targets come down after every time I set them up, and so I reset up every single stage, every target, every match.

SPEAKER_06 43:18

So I I don't think very many people realize that a place like yours, you know, field match, like how long it probably takes to set up. So I'm curious, do you know the mileage? I'm assuming you side by sides to set it up. Did you by chance check the mileage before and after? I did not, no.

SPEAKER_08 43:38

I thought it was a good over under number. Well were you gonna put the over under number at?

SPEAKER_06 43:42

So I know what I put on mine um this year. Um I put about two ten on mine during that setup. Um two ten. Okay. And you know, because you know I don't know what I even would have thought about guessing a number. Two ten, I wouldn't have no idea what. It was going to be when I started. I was like, oh 50? I I would have said 20 before I started. But you know, whenever you know I had everything like mapped out, planned where I was going to go. And you know, you can't it's different. I think if you were looking at like a KM or an Alabama where everything's like very you know established and laid out and you know what each range is, you know where you're at, and then you're just basically picking targets to shoot at for the weekend. But when targets have never been somewhere, you know, you can't just go hang a target here and then hang a target there and hang a target there. At least when I'm doing, I need to have a plan and I go set out the targets for that exact stage, and then I come back and then I get the targets and the T-posts and the hangers for that next stage, and then I go do that one, so it's a lot of back and forth. And yeah, at least when I was setting up mine, there were two other neighboring properties I had to get on, so I had to go all the way across mine and then get on the county road and go across. So it would be, you know, sometimes you know, a three, four mile trip to you know, to hang, you know, a set of targets. So I'm assuming you have to do a lot of stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Yeah, so about half of the range, uh, I've got to drive around the river uh to get to the uh the impact location so I can actually set up so it's a couple mile trip out and around just to get out there. It really sucks when you forget something and you gotta drive back.

SPEAKER_06 45:19

You know, it's almost as bad when you take the minimum that you need to set up a stage and something you hit a bump or something and it pops out the back, and you're like, no, I know I had enough bolts.

SPEAKER_05 45:28

Where are they at?

SPEAKER_02 45:29

Yeah, yeah. And when you're when you're setting up new stages in new locations on the on the range, sometimes it might take you three, four hours just to set one stage. Uh because you just got to find the perfect location and you go back and forth checking stuff, seeing if something will work. And you know, sometimes you spend several hours setting up one stage and then you end up scrapping it because it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to.

SPEAKER_08 45:54

Oh, that's you know, yeah. Definitely more more appreciation towards the master for sure.

SPEAKER_06 46:02

I I think a lot a lot of times you don't know how much time it can really take to set that up. And I've done exactly what you've done is I've gone out and I've you know worked on a stage and I get to you know the fifth target, I'm like, my gosh, I live there's nowhere I can like put it where it's visible. You know, they don't make 30-foot tea posts. I there's nothing I could do here, and if I go any further, it's on you know, shooting over a road or something. It's like, gosh, like and so then you're trying to figure out like do I scrap it completely? Do I figure out another way to shoot it? Can I put another target somewhere? Sometimes you just can't do anything, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 46:36

Yeah, but uh never dreamt of yeah, just how much work and effort could I mean yeah, doing it nine years, as I said earlier, and that and just did not get the appreciation for how much work and effort goes into that. That is nuts. I it's and almost makes me want to help, but it's like now I can't. I can't physically help now that I know I probably should have back in the day when I could have. It's like, what the hell? That's selfish, man. All right, sorry. Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

I one thing that I think is like really, you know, interesting is you know, everybody that shoots matches shoots the match from the firing line. And almost nobody gets to see it, what it looks like from downrange looking back. And I remember the first time that I was hosting a match and I went to go borrow a mover from the heat stroke, which I wish that match would come back. Um, and we had to drive downrange to get it, and you know, I shot that range multiple times and thought I knew what it looked like, and we're down like getting the mover. And I look back, I'm like, where are we? Like what what is this? And like I've you know, it's just it's crazy how different it can look coming back to the firing line sometimes. So you said 19 stages, 190 rounds. Um, I'm assuming that means all 10, there's not like an 11 and then a nine or a 12 and an eight.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

Right, yep. All 10 round stages.

SPEAKER_06 47:57

Are you you know more or less 50-50 prone positional? Are you heavy one way or the other?

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Are you you know 50-50 again this year?

SPEAKER_06 48:05

Okay. Um, what's your furthest distance this time around?

SPEAKER_02 48:10

Uh so this year I kind of toned it down just a little bit. Uh so 943 yards is the farthest target this year. Okay. If we wanted, we could go two miles, but um, most people don't want to.

SPEAKER_06 48:25

So well, I, you know, there's that mile target at Hornerty, and I have been to Hornerty every year except last year, and I have never hit it. So if I can't hit the one at a mile, I don't think two miles is gonna do me any favors.

SPEAKER_08 48:41

Yeah, I think I'm like one for eighteen on like my mile shots. It's not a good percentage. I mean, I I went oh for five to try to do it. The stupidest part of all is you the first shot ever was the impact. Really? Never again. You know, never again.

SPEAKER_06 49:02

Miles Neville at Hornerty, he was using a six arc and goes two for two at the mile, just dots them. Like, I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. I can't hit this buffalo, can't come near it. And you know, Iowa this year, I did the side stage, it's a mile, and you can shoot at the big or the small. I shot all of them at the big, not close. And then I see some guy, and I'm shooting at 25, then I see a guy shooting a dasher, and it's like, oh, hits right here. Tink, tink, tink, tink, tink.

SPEAKER_05 49:26

I'm like, no, like this is ridiculous. I'm making half mil corrections and it's hitting the same spot. Like, it's just uh it's painful.

SPEAKER_06 49:36

ELR is apparently not meant for me.

SPEAKER_08 49:39

Yeah, I've thought about, yeah, what would I gravitate towards? I'm not there yet, I don't think, but I don't think it's ELR.

SPEAKER_06 49:47

So, Derek, last year when we were there, you had uh, you know, like a whiskey raffle. Um, are you are you doing something like that again?

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Yep, so we got uh another bourbon raffle again this year. It's not as big as last year, but uh there's still gonna be about six or seven bottles uh that are gonna be available. Everybody that's in attendance, including ROs, gets a ticket. And then if you want to increase your odds, you can buy some more tickets and so on.

SPEAKER_08 50:16

You you got some cool trophies, maybe?

SPEAKER_02 50:19

I I feel like I saw some pictures of trophies that are they kind of for people that maybe haven't we got some some belts here.

SPEAKER_08 50:29

Okay, that's cool. Man, that uh that just almost makes you want to go jump on a plane.

SPEAKER_04 50:38

Lee, that is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 50:41

And then uh I didn't bring it down here, but I've got another weather pressure belt buckle that's held on by like a two or three pound chain, and that'll go out to all the classes and stuff. A gold chains or sil silver chains, but uh it weighs two or three pounds.

SPEAKER_06 51:06

You know, Jeff, me and you both missed out on the edgy cut belt enough times. Maybe this is our chance.

SPEAKER_08 51:11

I I was saying I think I I fold when belts are involved, unfortunately. So I'm gonna have to get a little mental mental toughness before we attach belts or just not know about it, maybe. I'll I'll we'll we'll tackle that one at some point. But that is a sweet to like trophy. I definitely is you win more trophies and this and that, but a cool trophy is always a cool trophy, and that's that's pretty special right there.

SPEAKER_06 51:37

Yeah, I love unique ones. Like I think that's one of the hardest things as a matrix to do is to come up with something that people haven't seen before.

SPEAKER_08 51:44

Yeah. That has to be incredibly difficult.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Yeah, I'm hoping next year to to change it up again and go completely different again. So I gotta start brainstorming.

SPEAKER_06 51:56

You're gonna you're gonna make them a collector's item.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

Yeah. Whatever it takes, right?

SPEAKER_08 52:04

What inspired you to do that?

SPEAKER_02 52:07

So literally just nothing.

SPEAKER_08 52:11

I just was thinking, hey, what's something I can do cool?

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I you know, I'm not uh big into wrestling or anything. I like to watch a UFC and all that kind of stuff, but you know, I was just like, you know, championship belt, let's do it.

SPEAKER_08 52:28

I do sold, I'm in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:32

Well, let's see if I can get this Excel spreadsheet up here.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

So I just like this is my job. I do have a plug to throw in there, you know. All right, I'm listening. You know, Bullet Central title sponsor, right? They're also the uh main importer, distributor of Bix and Andy triggers. I don't know if people know, but they're paying out whoever uh the top finisher of this PRS season running a Bix and Andy is going to get $2,000 cash. If you happen to win the golden bullet while running a Bix and Andy, it increases to $5,000. Wow, that's pretty ballin'.

SPEAKER_06 53:20

I am ineligible. So um I mean those guys have have been really nice. They came down, you know, to my match. My match notoriously has a lot of triggers go down, and you know, they came down, you know, brought triggers just in case, you know, people had problems. You know, I think that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

Yeah, Les has been traveling around uh to the matches to to rep uh the triggers and uh help people out if they have any that goes down, especially you know, if it's a competitor trigger, if he can squeeze uh a bix in there, you know. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 53:55

I would I would use a Bix if I didn't use the one I currently use. And yeah, there's usually no part of my gear that's truly safe, but that uh yeah, I'm kind of fond of the trigger at the moment, but Bixes are awesome, no doubt. Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 54:11

You know, they they actually did trophies or not trophies, they they had like when the blue ones first came out, um, the top five at one of the impact matches got them. So I you know, I and I had um got a uh a voodoo that I that I put it on, so that's where you know that sucker lives. So let's look here. Um again, we got it sorted um by class. So, Derek, can you see what we're looking at here?

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Sure can, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:38

So I want you to take a bit more of a look because Jeff's a cheater and he's got a uh handwritten chart on where it what his picture is looking like. So we're gonna generally like a notebook with some names. That's what that's what I said. It's a cheat sheet. And he's been working on it for months. He's got a proprietary formula that he's working on, and we need to make sure we take him out here.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

That's pretty legit.

SPEAKER_06 55:06

So um I'm just gonna go with how the spreadsheet is laid out. So, Derek, um, whenever you're ready, go ahead and throw your first pick out there.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

Oh man. All right. Well, you know, Rowdy won it last year. Um he's been I don't know if this is gonna give you some inside ball, but he's been on vacation down in Mexico for the last couple weeks. So I don't know if I'm gonna pick Rowdy this year to win it. And now he's gonna kick it.

SPEAKER_06 55:43

I wish you'd have said that aft after Jeff picked, maybe? Like, so next time you got a little nugget that could burn somebody, like, you know, wait until after Jeff is picked.

SPEAKER_08 55:53

Uh I see where we're going here.

SPEAKER_04 55:55

So uh I'm gonna go. I'm gonna I'm gonna go Sam Gearing. Sam Gearing.

SPEAKER_08 56:08

You know, that takes a little pressure off of me. I've I've picked Sam a few times this year, and it's just some of my picks have done well and some not. He's he struggled, I think, the last two times I picked him. Maybe it was your match, Clay, not sure, but I was expecting some greatness, and I don't know, he had a roughie.

SPEAKER_06 56:24

Maybe you're just uh his bad luck charm.

SPEAKER_08 56:27

It could be. I'm not opposed to that. Clay for me, for sure. Well, yeah, well, yeah, I'll take him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:37

Clay, have you been getting enough sleep with the with the new baby?

SPEAKER_06 56:41

Um, you know, I don't know what uh enough is anymore, I guess. Um you know, I feel like we've been super fortunate. She's you know, healthy, she's happy, she just smiles all the time. It's been awesome. Um, but sleeping in a bassinet is not her strong suit. Um, you know, she'll she'll sleep for four hours at a time if I'm holding her, but that bassinet is uh is evil, obviously. Um, so uh nights haven't exactly been the best. So I am going to man. See, this is that that spot that I'm in. I got two picks here, and there's some really good people. And you know, do you do you pick the the one that you really think, or you know, do you save them hoping that somebody else doesn't pick them? You know, like you know, if you got a dark horse. That's the challenge here.

SPEAKER_08 57:39

I see what you're doing there.

SPEAKER_06 57:43

I just I can't let him go by. I can't risk it. I'm grabbing Joe.

SPEAKER_08 57:47

I had a feeling. I had a feeling. I can't risk it. I mean, he's shooting open now, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:53

Yeah, he's shooting open, shooting a 25 Creed. Yeah, that's dangerous, dangerous individual.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Let's see. I'm surprised I don't see Ted Clark's name here. Or might as well. Here he is.

SPEAKER_02 58:09

Position seven there.

SPEAKER_06 58:10

I mean Ted is, you know, really consistent at this style of match. So it's hard to go wrong picking a guy like that.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

Yeah, that's a good choice.

SPEAKER_06 58:21

All right, Jeff.

SPEAKER_08 58:22

Let's see. All right. Well, it's either, I think I mean I kind of thinking Keith Baker, but Sabaka's good. The rowdy thing, I think I'll just stay away from that for time being. I feel like Licky's just on the brink. I I'll just go casual. I'll give me Keith Baker. Mr. All-Time Points Leader.

SPEAKER_04 58:47

All-time points leader by a very wide margin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 58:53

I think is it Sonowski that's in two now? It's it's I believe so, but I think that Keith has to win like 11 or 13 matches in a row to, you know, just points wise to catch him. So it's a pretty comfortable gap.

SPEAKER_08 59:07

Yeah, that's cool. I'll go on there and look at the averages for for all the the other top guys, kind of see, yeah, where where I rank. And uh man, my uh I was decent, but uh going up to Vortex a few weeks ago and taking like a 152nd place, like 25 points. That one, that one hurts hurt even with a massive sample size, that one took a dip.

SPEAKER_06 59:30

What uh I'm assuming you probably average over a hundred points a match, don't you?

SPEAKER_08 59:34

It was, and now it's it's pretty much there. Yeah, it went down a little bit. Which you have to I don't know how that score is uh that number is calculated. I do not know that formula. What do you mean? Well, I mean, how can you average over a hundred points? Well, that's uh some handy piece info right there. That key piece was left out. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:05

I'm gonna go with uh Dale Rhodes. Dale Rhodes.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:09

Oh did I is he not Oh, I wrote I wrote Dale. I didn't wrote Rhodes.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

And then uh if I don't do it, he's gonna he's gonna punch me, so I'm gonna pick Rowdy. Dale.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:26

You know, I I it's kind of strange, you know, that Rowdy is the seventh pick after destroying the field last year.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:35

Last year. Yeah, it's like he he has an opportunity to be, yeah, that wasn't a fluke. So we gotta make sure take this for picking me.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:45

I kind of wish you just picked him first so that we wouldn't have like had like worry about you know lighting that fire. But yeah, yeah. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:52

Yeah, let's light some fires.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:54

I'd like to make sure we we thank Rowdy for buying ribeyes at the banquet again this year.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:00

Sure, it was great last year. Oh that is awesome. Uh I'll take you wakey. Oh, uh well, I still are you are you committing? Final answer?

SPEAKER_08 1:01:19

I kind of feel like I want Yosef, but give me no, I'll stick with you, Wiki. Yep, you wakey final answer. Alrighty.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:29

Well again, super consistent field match. Um he's always up there. Chris Upper. Yep. He's shooting really well right now, so no Matt S.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:48

Who's got a kid with like the best hair I have ever seen in my entire life. It is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:55

Okay. Well that's a picture need to see. Uh I'll guess I'll take Yosef now.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:05

Yeah, I stayed at his house for uh the Iowa match, you know, and he had a I think a four-month old, I believe is how old he was, and unbelievable hair. Just absolutely that hair could be sold for millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:19

I mean, I'm not around a ton of kids, but I feel like a four-year-old with hair like that, that has to be pretty good.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:25

Four months.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:26

Four month.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:27

Yes. Telling you that change that yeah, that's yeah, four months. That has to be rare.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:35

So let's go with uh Core Corey.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:38

Alright, we got old Corey Logus.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:43

Oh, Matt Dean's in there. Is he still kind of doing bullet central stuff?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

Or I feel like when he's he's uh I think he's a realtor now.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:51

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

Uh but Matt said that he might bring his uh seven psalm in instead of uh like six creed or whatever he's running these days.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:04

Seven Psalm. That's that's sporty. You know, every time I thought about bringing something really big to a match, uh chicken out, uh, I'm like, man, is it really gonna give me all that?

SPEAKER_08 1:03:16

And man, it's just can you recall times that you did do that though and were very happy with your decision? I've I've done it a couple of times and I've never been happy about it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:27

Uh okay. Never. Well, that's strong words there. I I I I will I will never allow myself to fall into that trap again. I did it at uh at Ratone. We shot there the year that it was the finale, we shot there in May, and stage one went from I think you know, 900 yards to 1200 something yards. It was a 12-round stage, and we had to shoot it twice. And I got a five and a six. I think I went five for five and then missed the next seven. The next day I went six for six and missed the next six. And that was just shooting you know BRA like I always did, and but I destroyed the other stages. I mean, I shot great. Um, and I was like, I'm not letting that happen to me at the finale. I'm not losing at the finale because of this. I'm beating this system, and so I get a six creed running 3180 with 110s, and um, you know, for whatever reason, we did it alphabetical that year. And I told Shannon before like the match started, I was like, hey, like this is the Breton year. Yes. I was like, these guys all have you know 300s, they deserve to be shooting first. Yeah, I'm sitting here with a 290, whatever it is, but like fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth place, whatever it was, I don't remember. Um, and I was like, man, I don't deserve to be getting fresh paint, you know, because of my last name. Like, we need to swap this up. And you know, Keith was first, he shot, and then I shoot and I get you know a seven or an eight. It was a 10 rounder, they changed it, you know, a decent amount. And so I didn't even you know get the points that I was after half our squad, if not more, cleaned it. And then, but I just didn't see stuff for like the rest of the match because you know that that bullet going 3180 is uh it's sporty, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:06

I bet I meant uh to try some speed stuff since I see so poorly anyway. I'm like, let's let's get there, let's get it there. Come on, get there and we'll see the same.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:18

You'll have at least like a tenth of a second more personage.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:21

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's stuff. Yeah, I remember that that match of that first yeah, because y'all started on stage one, kind of the troop line that just kind of walked out up the hill and everything. We have we started on that third stage, that's the tank traps, which probably were the toughest stage of the match, I would have almost said. Boy, that was a that was just seemed like a weird uh the saw the ho the way the starting orders went, that whole thing. So yeah. Yeah, we were shooting heads off that, weren't we? Yeah, it was like a three heads. I think it was one distance, a little bit of a pan, a m a medium, and then kind of a far from full like four different tank traps or something. It was Yeah, yeah, that was tough. Cause I think it was, you know, initially it was like straight on, like over maybe eight tenths, and then one point eight. You could not dial. There was just not time. With win, that was we did not start very well there. As expected. Yeah. I think we dropped like six right out the gate. I'm like, fucking. It's like that was my welcome to the PRS moment right there. I had just come off. I think I'd won Magnolia a couple months ago. I'm like, okay, I know how to win. I'm gonna go out fucking west and dominate. And and got there and was just like, holy shit. We're not gonna dominate nothing. So but yeah, that first stage in the dark, in the cold, with the 20 mile an hour screaming winds and trying to shoot off the tank trap. I must have had a mill wobble every which way and finished that. And I'm like, what am I doing here?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:59

You know, that that match, there there's some first for me on that match. So um I actually cleaned that stage, and that's when I was like, okay, I'm back in it. You know, after the first one didn't exactly go my way, you know, when I got that one, I was like, oh, I got points back on these guys now, you know, like that was one to get by. And then we get into the woods and we're having a shoot off of those, you know, the three squares off the rocks.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:21

And I don't know why I let myself get convinced into this. Like it's happened to be on more than one occasion where I'm like, yeah, that game plan sounds awesome. I'm gonna do that instead of just one bagging it. And you know, Laurel, she was always really good with that bag that she would like wrap around her body. And she goes up there and you know, back in the front, you know, uses that, just crushes it. Organ's like, hey, can I borrow that? Organ gets up there, crushes it. Nope, no big deal. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna do this too. And so I wrap that bag around me. And when I go to the second position, um, I go three for three on the first one. I go to the second position, and I can't close my bolt. And I'm like, what's going on? You know, this thing had just gotten caught on my bolt. Like, and so I go to rip it off and it pulls my earmuffs off, my earmuffs go flying. I reach for my earmuffs, I try to put them on, I drop them again, and in my head, I'm like, I've got a golden bullet on the line. I can't, you know, keep messing with my earmuffs, I have to shoot. And so then I'm sitting there trying to get around in, and I like I pull the bolt back, and there's nothing on the chain, there's nothing in there. And I I checked to make sure that you know I hadn't like knocked the you know, decocked, you know, my bolt. That's not it either. And so I'm like, okay, drop the mag, you know, still nothing. I'm like, what is going on? This doesn't make any sense. And I checked again, and sure enough, whenever that I had snagged uh that bag, it had pushed around in there. And you know, my next round, like, you know, let's just say that it was sticking this far above the case, normally the bullet, it's like this far. I mean, it's just like barely anything sticking out. And so I was like, well, you know, I I've got to shoot, I gotta get some points out of this. And so I then I commenced to shooting without muffs on. Um, I got either either one or two more shots off, and I've never heard the same sense. Those two points weren't worth it. Like it did me no good, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:10

I saw Levi do the same things with the same outcome, I have a feeling. So yeah, anyway, continue on.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:16

No, I mean it be up until that that happened, I was like, oh, I'm back in it. Like I can, you know, I've caught up. Like I it's it's me, Organe, Morgan, Ken Rawl. Like, we're like all right on top of each other at this point. And it, you know, and that it didn't matter. Even if I'd clean that, you know, Orgain crushed that match. He absolutely destroyed it. It didn't matter. Yeah. But like that's one of those things. Like, if it if anything like that ever happened to me again, like earmuffs are coming on before I do anything. You know, like the that hurt so bad and was absolutely just one of the worst decisions I made shooting. 100%.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:54

I think in the end definitely putting the safety uh first, uh foremost, and that, yeah, the health stuff, that that stuff's forever. Yeah, I've shot a few rounds without hearing pro way back in the day before I knew any better, and that was I I'm paying for that still. That sucks.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:12

You know, I I've done that, you know, stuff like you know, just dumb stuff. I feel like when it happened to me most often, you know, I'd be on the firing line, we'd be at KM or something, and somebody would say something, I'd be like, what? Bang, gun goes off, and you just get lit up. Gosh dang it, it happened again.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:27

Yeah. Yeah, that must be a new. I've definitely did that too. The first uh that hadn't happened in years, I can promise that at this point.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:35

I don't I don't do that for anything anymore. I'm real picky about it now. If I'm if the muffs are coming off, I'm a long way from the firing line.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:43

Yeah. If I'm just like, dude, I'm probably trying to ignore you anyway. I don't need to we're we're good. Or just yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:50

I knew that Jeff Gary was a jerk. He won't talk to me. He just kept his muffs on the whole time.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:58

Yeah. Oh, that's gotta be tough. I never thankfully read anything about myself. That do you ever like read anything about yourself and bother you? That's good. Yeah. What do you mean? Well, I give people post stuff or say anything and comments about the only guy that says anything is Bushman.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:18

You know, he's always got something to say. Yes, he does. He's good at it too. You know, I I hate to give him credit, but man, like when he makes those Facebook posts where he tags like, you know, ten people at a time, like he nails them.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:31

Yeah, he's tally. He's like that guy. Oh, sorry, uh the guy in um high school that is like just good at everything and just bothered the piss out of you. Why can't you just suck at something? I mean, y'all probably know maybe he does suck at something, but I certainly don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

As long as I don't get a meme made about me by Win Cole Diaries, then I had a good weekend.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:54

Yeah, there you go. Um I don't think I've had one made about me. I've definitely had him about the match though. So yeah. So the 2017 finale, you know, Brusseau wins. Um he wins the golden bullet, you know, Jerry Karloff won the finale. Um gosh, the payout was crazy that year. You know, 25 grand for winning the finale, 25 for winning the series.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:17

Um I didn't know it was that it was twelve twelve and a half.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:20

Brusseau got 37 and a half, 25 for the finale, 12 and a half for second place. Um, and I mean just it was unreal.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:28

But no wonder it kind of really ramped up like around that time. It seemed like that time it started.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:34

Each match was five grand, you know. It was just and then 2018, um, you know, down in Texas, Brusseau, you know, got got the golden bullet there. No speeches at either one of those, you know. And then like, you know, the you know, I I go pick it up and like I have the video and like I grab it and I'm just walking back to my chair, and they're like, no, no, you gotta come up here.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:57

And I was like, I was like, no, I'm not doing that. And like, no, you have to. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Like, and like I nobody else has had to do this.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:05

Why me? Boy, what a tough spot.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:09

I'm sure part of you wanted to just, I'm not doing this, but you'll like and then you know, each year after that, you know, I've never got a chance to like to try it again, but everybody gets to prepare now.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:21

You know, I guarantee you, you know, those guys like have something prepped by the time that they get to the awards ceremony. Something they're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:28

There's a good one. How many how many guys do prep?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:32

I I would I I I I don't know. Like, I would assume that like they would wait until they won to like prep anything. I feel like if you're prepping before the match, you're probably asking to get dead last.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:43

Yeah, that's a tough one there. That's what I was getting at. I was like, I don't know if I would write.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:47

There's no way that Bushman hasn't already pre-written before he gets.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:52

He's probably got 17 different iterations of a speech, just you know, no doubt. You know, everybody's at least known that they were gonna get handed a microphone. So they have like at least that mental preparation of like, okay, like I have to do this. But yeah, no, I just got sprung on that.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:10

Yeah, because in 22, when I I didn't I wasn't really thinking that was maybe gonna happen. And I remember thinking right before I shot the last stage, because but I wasn't expecting Bushman to miss one on that mover stage we were doing, our last stage, and and so when he did, and I shot right after him, it was like I had just a few seconds to mentally process, oh my god, I've got a chance to win the golden bullet if I clean a fucking stage. This is crazy. And the other part was that holy shit, if I do, I'm gonna have to give a speech. And that yeah, that was terrifying, but I must admit, as soon as the buzzer started, that I never even gave that a second frickin' thought, and it was just just hammered down up and up until M3. Um, and like, man, Cole, I I gotta give Cole Higginbotham a shout-out. He was behind me before we started that stage, and I'm a nervous wreck because I've just now realized what I might have a chance to do. And he was just dude relaxed. He's like, I just shot this stage. He's you need three tenths at the mover and in three. At one, two, three. One, two, three. I'm like, yeah, one, two, three, good deal. No problem. So I, you know, hammered down the first four. It was at the 500 mover, bam, bam, bam, bam. I was like, all right, M1. I had three tenths rolled in, and I remember thinking I was too nervous to have the three tenths rolled in and then three tenths left and then hold like right edge on M1 because it was it was closer. It was only 300 yards, needed, needed one tenth. And so I I went up and click, click, back to one tenth left. So I shot that straight up. Didn't want to dial wind anymore. So when I went to M2 and M3, I just we just inched over a hair. And and I paused on M3. That was the smallest damn target of that. That was the target I was worried about. That was the target I've missed practicing that range months leading up to this match. That was my target I was focused on. I just rattled back and forth between two and three and somehow managed to send it on two instead of three. And I I remember watching that trace and it was going straight towards the target, which worried me because it was going straight towards the target at the beginning, and it just it just kept curving and it just bled right off that edge. And boy, the heart sank. What are you gonna do? You know, is this uh is this opportunity ever gonna present itself again? Maybe, maybe not, but damn it. I I I I gave it my all, tried my hardest. If if that's that's the way it goes, uh so be it. But uh, but it was yeah, that was cool. Hell I don't even know what you're talking about, but there's no telling.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:00

But I mean Bushman did did exactly what you did, you know, when it was when he was the speeches.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:05

I didn't want to fucking give a speech.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:06

Yeah. Yeah, you tanked it, like obviously, you know. You you missed you could have hit it. You chose not, you knew the win call already. You chose not to.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:15

You know, Bushman, you know, he had the the mover dialed in and then goes to M1, doesn't take it out, and that's how he dumped his, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:22

That's where he dumped his. I did I wasn't officially watching, I just remember MBAG MBA, and then all of a sudden it was nothing, and I was just like, oh shit, he missed, and uh I gotta get on the gun real quick. So yeah, I didn't know which target. That's what happened. Okay. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:42

Good times. Except that wasn't a good time. That was probably the most frustrating weekend of shooting that I've ever had.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:50

That was uh God, that was tough watching you. Uh especially up on that long range stage, probably like 18 or something up there. I I just remember if that was it was like up there, wasn't it? 18. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:04

Good old goose egg.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:05

That hurt me. But it inspired me. I'm like, okay, if it's possible for this guy to do this in this moment, what I'm I'm good. I can do anything and it's fine.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:16

But you know, you're talking about you you think about stuff and you kick yourself later on. You know, I had shot a 6-5 Creed um multiple times that year, won multiple matches with the 6-5 Creed. I brought my 6-5 Creed and I shot it on Friday.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:30

Three consecutive victories leading up to that match.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:33

Yeah. Um, yeah. And I should have just shot the 6-5. Um, it was hammering, but so was my BRA. You know, I was like, this thing, or I might have still been doing Dasher because when I was loading for Justin Tate and Austin and me at the same time, and they'd all want ammo last minute, it was frustrating to go Creedmore, Dasher, BR, BRA. It was just like it was a pain. So I was like, we're all shooting one thing. And so I I think I was probably still shooting a dasher at that time, and it was shooting awesome. And you know, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna clean the barrel just one more time, you know, just to cover myself. I wasn't really a barrel cleaning kind of guy, but like somehow I got in my head, I need to make sure it's cleaned one more time. And I didn't use a board, didn't use a board guide. Um, and as it turns out, if you get kind of nasty solvents um underneath your action into the stock, it can bubble, and then you get unbelievable flyers. Um and it makes you look like an absolute goober.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:33

And how'd you diagnose that problem?

SPEAKER_06 1:19:36

So whenever I I got home, I took the gun apart and it took it apart and it all bubbled. I was like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_08 1:19:42

And wow, you know, yeah, you have to dip them like something at a foundation stock. Jeez, that's okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:48

You know, just one of those things, you know, you you learn the hard way. Like uh it's just crazy the things that you can learn, you know, after doing it for for a long time.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:57

Isn't it funny though that you've after all that decided to take a 6.5 Kriegmore 2K and M of all places? That's it was just it was honestly felt that good in that rifle at that time.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:11

It was shooting so good, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:13

Okay, and it had to be. I uh yeah, that would have been a tough thing. I don't think I could have done that. Yeah, well done.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

You know the the things you the the what ifs of the of the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:28

Well, Derek, you got anything else for us? Uh not no, I got uh so there is one you know, a little side stage, well not side stage, but you know, like a uh a stage win on the uh boss hog stage is gonna get you a North Dakota license plate and a bottle of uh of uh whistle pig bourbon.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:58

So so are you willing to say what that stage is? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:04

No, okay. Um I I think it's gonna be a lot of fun, but it's modified prone. So we'll go we'll we'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:16

Okay. Jeff, uh last year they had uh it was a TYL rack. Well, TYL rack, it was the word it was Creed, you know, is is what what it spelled out, and you had to run through it.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:28

But it was okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:29

You know, they're playing Creed in the background, you know, and you the fastest clean, you know, wins. Uh I think it was a jersey, you know, uh signed jersey.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:38

It was it was a Scot Stapp uh Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl jersey replica from uh the 19 no the 2002 Super Bowl in Dallas, I think.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:52

Okay. And how did the stage go exactly?

SPEAKER_06 1:21:56

I think it was C R E E D, C R E E D. I think you had it hit him in that order. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:02

Uh so you shot at the letters, and then there was a confirmed target out there. So you shot C, then C.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:11

And then it was the fastest clean. Yeah, multiple cleans. So who ended up winning?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:16

Jonathan Thornton. Uh and we had 30 mile an hour winds, so there was only one clean. Um so that was uh stage sponsored by Wind Call Diaries. So this year he is sponsoring a stage again, but it it's different this year. So he's we got a stage called I'm the captain.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:37

Oh, I saw the yeah, with um kind of Captain Phillips, kind of the me, I am the captain now. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:45

So there's a boat involved, and and are you tell all when you say boat, are we talking swinging platform?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:52

Boat targets. That triggers boat targets. I I thought we were about to be swinging platforms again. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:00

I was gonna bring a welder out there, and those chains were not gonna move. You'll be laying on the ground just like last year. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:07

Well, it sounds like uh we're gonna have a good time this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:13

Yeah, y'all certainly are.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:14

That's um we'll jealous.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:17

Alrighty. Well, thank you for coming on. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Possibly two people that get their names mispronounced almost as much as I do. Oh, yeah, we got a group here and be like, yeah, pronounced all these. Yeah, no kidding. Um, so just for the record, I found out, you know, in March. Um, but Zayn, how do you say your last name?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:44

Yeah. I still feel like I usually say Coon.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:51

That's what I said until I asked him. The northern families are all Coons, like Wisconsin and stuff, but us down here from the East Coast, it's Cune.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:03

Well, I mean, the good news is it's Zayn. It's not like Tom or Bill. I mean, we can just say Zayn. I think people know who we're talking, or I know who we're talking about.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:14

I think that's probably right. Yeah. You know, I think that's one thing that the match directing did for me is figuring out how to say so many different people's names. Because you don't want to look like a goober up there when you're announcing somebody to come pick something up. You know, you don't want to be mispronouncing everything. It's the worst to get mispronounced when you're going up there.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:33

Yeah, you can just see the the way the guy walks up there to get it. He just knows you've screwed up. Y'all both know what's happening. It's it's uncomfortable for everybody involved. The audience knows it is like we're clapping, but sort of how much do we clap? He's really screwed up the pronunciation. Uh tough, that's a tough thing.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:52

Well, me and Jeff were both on here uh last week um hearing about what the cactus cup was gonna be like. So um, no, let's start with you. How was it?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:00

Yeah, so day one. Well, like train up day, we got there, and as we were going there, I was like, Oh, I don't need my puffy vest, I don't need that, I don't need this. And then at the last minute, I'm like, I better bring it. And train up day was 94 degrees Fahrenheit. So, you know, super warm, a lot of mirage, like 20 pro 20 mile per hour winds, and then we rolled into day two, and they were calling for rain, and then they pushed it back till about 3 p.m. So sorry, day one was uh 75 degrees. We had primarily like nine to twelve mile per hour winds, and then throughout the day it's fully built from around 13 to 18. So it was a perfect day for shooting, no issues. Um the rain started to spit right around 3 p.m. And then we were done shooting our 10 stages, so we packed everything up and went back to the hotel. Um day two came around, and from the moment we woke up, it was a torrential uh downpour. Like it was uh something I've never witnessed in my life. It was raining, like I kid you not, it was raining sideways the whole day and the storm was coming from the west and the firing line was facing directly west.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:18

Oh boy, I bet you got a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:22

We had oh yeah, we lost probably 20 people and it was like it was 20 to 30 mile per hour winds all day and foggy. So visibility was ranging with the fog moving in and out, and depending on how hard it was raining at that time. But yeah, from 7 p.m. all the way till we packed it up at 4 p.m. it was raining. And we at times we couldn't see out like 400 yards, and all the targets were grayed out, so you just pick up a colored T-post and get on target, you'd try and resolve where that target was and take a shot. But it was very, very difficult to see misses um to see exactly where you were impacting on plate. Target acquisition was tough, obviously. And for our spotters, we had like a dedicated lens puffer, so a guy would go up and he'd just start puffing and that's what I've never seen before. Buddy would be puffing away and in between shots, and then you could see for like three or four seconds, and then you'd do the same thing. And uh yeah, it was miserable. Like before I didn't write any dope down on day two because like all my all my uh everything I had to write was just either wet or soaked or did it be. Yeah, what are you doing that? So crazy. Yeah, I was uh I pulled my own.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:44

So were you just like scrolling through your kestrel mid stage? What were you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:48

Uh a lot of the stages I memorized the the dope. I know it sounds crazy. That's one way of it.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:56

It's what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:57

That's yeah, like I know all the dope for in all my state like all these stages. So I was like one five, two, six, three, five on stage sixteen or fifteen or whatever. But uh yeah, so we had uh we had a twenty to thirty mile per hour wind right in our face. Uh the rain was hitting us in the eyes and we'd pop our sunshade off before the stage you know blow off our scope and then you'd get maybe three or four good shots off and hope for the best really man that's tough.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:27

Those were some miserable conditions to shoot in. Yeah I mean I wonder how many guns went down. Like I wonder how many people left because it was miserable and how many left because their guns went down.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:40

Yeah we s we actually stopped around 9 30, 10 o'clock because they they predicted it was going to clear up. So we went back to the truck which was like half a mile walk sat in our vehicle and then uh they called it good everyone let's go you know rounds down range so we all walked back to the firing line and they it wasn't any better at all. We just had to you just had to laugh because uh it was it was cold, it was miserable and I think it it was down to it'd be about 45, 44 degrees. 45 degrees with blinding rain absolutely miserable it yeah it was unfortunate because like Tyler and uh Sean they put on a really fair venue I thought there was you know there was like seven prone stages um nine stages with a lot of movement and then eight of those stages had 12 round shots and there was one 14 round stage.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:40

So you know some of the stages had high round counts and you know we had some small targets um like two tenths and three tenths out to six hundred and seventy yards like a Sasquatch who's four feet high but only like six inches wide and he's giving you the finger of course so you know hit that and uh 25 mile per hour winds I think the match director after uh that stage you know those conditions might be the one getting the finger yeah I mean we talked briefly about that storm was a possibility I don't know if he was thinking that bad but dang he was definitely something he was concerned about as I recall um yeah I mean there's nothing much you can do in that situation I mean it's uh it's eight o'clock you know in the morning you're soaked already and 30 mile per hour winds the rain's not gonna let up the winds aren't gonna let up so you just had to laugh about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:38

It was it was actually quite fun towards the end of the day when we knew we we were going home.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:43

Yeah I I always tell people like those are the stories that you remember. You're gonna remember you know that match forever but the match where it was 75 sunny no wind nobody remembers those and everybody always talks about the ones that were just terrible yeah for sure I've got two questions for you. Um first one um the first time you were on the show you know I said there's there's nothing like the first one so now that you've got a second one would you agree with that statement?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:09

I would completely agree with it.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:11

Is it just another day at the office for you now or what?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:15

Yeah I mean the first one obviously feels the best right to get that off your shoulders but uh this one I I like we do have uh we've got some really talented shooters here and uh you know those guys can bring it on any day so you do have to be on your A game but uh yeah it just it didn't feel anything like the first one it's just another day at the office kind of thing but it's it's nice to nice to get one under your belt for sure.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:46

But uh yeah in those conditions especially man that's that's I mean to stay in it all day like that and going towards the end you had to be thinking gosh is is gear gonna hold up as you know is it were there any times towards the last two three stages where you know you had a pretty big lead but were there times like oh crap this this this could go bad quickly here you feel pretty confident as long as the gear holds up I got this one.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:10

Yeah I mean I was shooting well I look back and the stages that I didn't do so well on were the ones I couldn't see anything. Yeah like I mean you're going up there with a hope and a prayer holding eight tenths right on a target and you can't see if you miss. You can only see if you hit that plate kind of thing and then you find that target you move on to the next one and just hope eight tenths holds if not you're fishing. So um you know but I was really proud of all the competitors who did stick it out. I mean you look across the firing line and you know it looked like people were in garbage bags or it was just rain everywhere and coats flying tripods falling over. Probably some good pictures from that one it was comical for sure. If someone was even able to take photos and that sort of stuff yeah actually Darren Whitehead he had his camera out and he gave it to the match director and he got some really nice photos of the match so I'm sure you'll be able to see them online.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:06

Now that you got two of them um you know you're obviously set you know really well to at minimum you know get yourself into you know squad one you know got a real I mean two matches early in the year.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:18

I mean that that's as much as anybody can hope for so what's your your your thoughts your plans for you know finishing out the season Yeah well we've got MDT coming up Midsummer Madness in Kelowna so we'll I'll be flying to that and then we're gonna go down to THS in South Dakota and then there's another match that's fairly close to me engage precision Pancake Lake in Manitoba and oh I'm I'm missing a few here. We're gonna go down to Arkansas in September so that'll be good and Apex in California. Yeah and then we've got worlds of course at the end of September so that'll be fun down in Texas so we're gonna be uh frenemies down there.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:06

Frenemies yeah yeah that's okay well Zayn this is also your second one right yes sir yep so would you agree with the the sentiment there's nothing like the first one yeah yeah the the first one definitely hits a little harder than the second one but uh when you're shooting you with your friends they have a a a pretty good way of um just kind of um you know really cheering you on and and making it feel like it was that first one but that first one is definitely you know kind of the match was kind of similar to the one that Noel won just now so you know it really kind of holds a spot in your memory and your heart you know getting that getting that first win is a is a really big milestone so I heard from several people um how hard it was this year at Cole Canyon.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:03

Was the course of fire super different or were the conditions you know just much tougher than than years past? What was the the deal there?

SPEAKER_01 1:35:12

Well I've never shot that match before I've always wanted to go uh this is the first year I could make it um so I can't attest to the the previous course of fire but uh what I do know is is uh day two um they really like some small targets out there it's day two is 40 for sure uh day one was pretty difficult um I mean the you know the you're shooting on the same firing line so everything's pretty much the same you're all shooting one direction some big pans here and there uh the wind was pretty similar I think both days we were kind of averaged like a six of twelve um where the difference was is on day one where you might have one or two wind switches and I'm talking about 180 degree wind switches not you know 30 or 40 degree wind switches uh where you just have one or two on on day one day two I can think of a couple of stages that that did it three or four times um maybe maybe one guy in the squad would hit it just right and he'd have constant win for that stage but it was definitely just that one guy uh yeah that was it was that was the hardest part about it but uh day two uh most of the targets being three to five tenths somewhere in there that definitely made it a lot sportier especially with uh you know just if you have your AJ turned on on your kestrel you had to think about hey if that wind flops I gotta hold low or hold high or you know whatever your game plan is there was a there was a lot of thinking uh no it was it was it was pretty difficult uh course fire was good I mean it was just uh you know most mostly a belly match five target engagements across the board there um but yeah the the wind was definitely the I wouldn't even say it was uh was an equalizer you could you could you could draw pretty bad uh I think um there was I can't I can't think of any one stage except maybe the PRS barricade that wasn't make or break you. I mean every single stage I walked up to felt like man I could shoot a two pretty easy right now and I would just have to live with it.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:43

Nothing like going to every stage just hoping to get through it.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:46

Oh man I tell you this is raining over the course of the whole day.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:51

For sure yeah I I think like three stages you know getting into our last three or four stages of the match I remember looking at uh Morgan and Sharon uh Shane and just being like man I'm tired I'm ready to go home this is this is rough boys are you much of a score watcher did you kind of know where you stood going into the last stage um no not really um you know I think like every other um RO had Starlink there's hardly no service in that canyon um so most of us didn't even know what was going on other than you know if you knew what your score was uh uh day one you could kind of gauge it a little bit like for me I'm keeping an eye on Morgan the whole time even though he's right here next to me you know I'm thinking all right you know Morgan just dropped three I got two you know I picked one up on him or something like that. That's pretty much the only way you can gauge it. Uh in fact usually a fair way to gauge it probably yeah yeah that's kind of what my thinking yeah exactly uh going into that last stage like I um I I I didn't do too well on the stage previous to that and I I kind of knew like that hurt me a little bit and in fact uh Morgan looks at me and he asks me he's like uh hey do you want to know and I was like man I don't care and he's like I'm gonna tell you and I was like all right go for it of course yeah right and he's like he's like I'll just tell you this he said I'll just tell you this you was and now you ain't and I was like that sounds about right and uh so going into the next stage uh that last stage uh you know I it just is what it is you know I mean you're just gonna shoot the best you can the outcome just it just is so uh but I kind of had a feeling that it was tight because I had about three or four people in my squad well yeah you're gonna clean this stage right yeah yeah clean it clean it and so I was kind of like pressure's on yeah that sounds good if the scores were right I want to say you probably you dropped a couple early in that string is that correct yeah I think so um I think yeah on target on target two or three yeah I think so on target two or three I was already I was already you know kind of struggling a little bit but uh no but you lost a hit the last like six shots I think you picked it up yeah and when you had to that that was impressive sorry Zane how many shots did you drop for the match was it 20 stages or 18? Uh 20 stages uh I mean I got the scores pulled up I think it was like 33 or something like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:36

I think it was uh 32 yeah 32 32 yeah you were 32 I think Dwight was right after you yeah like 33 or four maybe and then you have Morgan and then no how many was your match our match was 18 stages 200 rounds but how many did you drop?

SPEAKER_00 1:40:56

I dropped 35. So very very similar weekends were you guys shooting I was shooting uh 25 GT six dasher you're all about that dasher well I mean out I'm sorry Nelson go ahead yeah I mean maybe I'll have to pick uh Jeff's brain a little bit because I know he likes to tinker but I don't know I just keep it I keep it well you're doing so well I I'm tempted to guide you the wrong way dilemma here yeah shoot me a message I'll just shoot him a message roughly November 2nd 3rd ish somewhere in there yeah yeah no I got a 25 by 47 spun up and it's sitting in the in the safe and I also have a couple six five Creedmoor so planning I got some brass ordered and whatnot so I'll probably play around with those this summer a bit but make sure you'd play around a lot right before the South Dakota match I'm planning on coming.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:59

I like it to not be on on your A game.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:02

I don't know if we did point out Noel his you know that margin of victory was rather impressive. Was it nine shots and then what was it 23 to third place?

SPEAKER_00 1:42:13

Yeah something like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:14

Yes that's that doesn't happen on granted the conditions you painted a a violent picture there but that that's still awfully impressive with the amount of talent running around to to win a match by nine shots.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:28

And I mean it was uh there were a few ROs that weren't updating scores and then of course I'm shooting on day two and I'm dropping like five five here five there and I'm like oh boy this isn't good right I just you know had to pull it together a little bit and just tried to shoot to the best of my ability like Zayn was saying and and keep it going so yeah yeah I knew that I after day one I had a one point lead but uh there was a few other people that had only dropped 18. I dropped 15 on day one so it was tight after day one.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:04

Well Jeff you got uh anything else for us before we hop out of here man I've been rambling for over two hours now basically so I'm whatever anyone else wants to say I'm I'm happy to to listen or or call it whatever I mean it's there they won matches they're the stars this week so whatever they want to say any fellas got anything for us yeah I'll just say congrats to Jeff on his call us victory oh hey yeah I'm sorry what a suck up what a suck up and clay congrats on the on having a new a new child little girl right yeah well not little but yes she was north of 10 pounds when she was born so definitely not a not a small one holy smokes yeah that's that's crazy yeah she's just growing like a weed you know yeah yeah um what do you guys load your ammo on like what powder dispensers uh fx120s two of them but yeah like what system are you auto trickler or yeah I've got the V3 with the ingenuity precision trickler yeah I'm just straight B4s B4s so I uh I I I have at some point have had at least one of everything I've said I'm at load ammo but I don't the only thing I ever use the the FX 120s for is just to like verify charges you know whenever I'm getting stuff set up um but I don't use any of the tricklers unless I'm like at the range you know doing load development on something um and but for whatever it's worth like I you know bought the the Meal Solutions system and um I got it today and I was like you know what I'm gonna unbox I'm gonna go ahead and mess with it and I set it up and you know plug it in blah blah blah dump some powder in it and I didn't do anything crazy you know hit calibrate and then I put it on the fast mode and you know it it just it learns as you go and so it missed you know I I did a hundred chargers and let's say that it missed like five or six out of the first ten it finished at like ninety two out of a hundred being right so like out of the next you know 90 it got 88 of them and my average on those hundred was like 5.7 seconds like I was like without like any tuning just out of the box I was absolutely blown away. Well now you've sparked my curiosity like and for what it costs like I I I I mean I'm I I don't know I'm I'm ordering one tonight. I'm as soon as we get off I'm ordering what's got what it so like what uh how much is it 475 for the whole system.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:42

And it comes with the scale and everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:44

No the you have to have the scale just the trickler.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:47

Okay okay and it's the FX120 scale you use with that? Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:51

Interesting.

SPEAKER_08 1:45:52

Yeah we've got four of those things on order for the shop here uh for loading customer ammo so uh yeah Jeff you better you better get on it because I think they had uh pre-order so okay better get on it might be way well uh I know they had sent an email the other day saying that uh due to some part shortages it might take a little bit longer on this next batch so okay yeah that's one part of the game I hadn't been paying attention to new stuff like in that part of the arena coming out and I'll let that one go through the cracks so well all right I can load I can still load we're good that was nice that balance beam you've been using seems to work the ballots beam yeah he got his just dandy trickle over there just spinning it's balance being back in the day that's great balance beam you know and that uh I'm sure you at least one of you guys have had it the lock the Rock Trucker Supreme kit that comes as like a little bitty electronic scale and you know a balance beam and all this different stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:57

The first thing I loaded for was a 338 Lapua and I had absolutely no business doing reloading for anything let alone for something that was a bomb in front of my face. And you know I was like okay like I didn't know the difference in scales. I had no idea like how any of that stuff worked and so like my pattern charge was was 90 grains. And so I would get it to 89.9 and then I would just grab one kernel at a time until it would flip flip over to 90. But like knowing like what I know now was there any different like could the scale tell the difference in 89 and 90 you know let alone a kernel you know like I used that scale early on probably my first 50 hundred reloads I had that exact scale.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:35

The balance beam scale?

SPEAKER_08 1:47:36

No no it was just this little electronic thing it was probably slightly smaller than a cell phone it's like a pocket scale and it had like a little flip up case. I think it was a Frankfurt arsenal maybe or something but you just sat it on there and it just measured it was yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:52

I was using that I had a Lee hand trimmer like that I had like halfway screwed into a bench like I'm just looking to trim. Yeah yeah the struggles we all were there the crazy outst all right fellas well if you don't have anything I appreciate you appreciate you coming on and spending some time with us.

SPEAKER_08 1:48:11

Awesome yep congrats again thank you all thank you