Hi everyone. I want to begin with two milestones a couple of Illinois shooters have reached. Douglas Porter has shot 25,000 Singles and Danny Bartlett has shot 25,000 Handicap targets. Well done guys.
The Northern Zone trap shoot was held at the St. Charles Sportsman Club over the September 9 and 10 weekend. The winners of the Singles, Handicap and Doubles events were Tad Horton, Sierra Spareburg and Kent Kruse, respectively. Out of Zone winners in the same order were Mike Westjohn, Madison Franklin and Mike Westjohn. The weather was great, good shooting occurred and a good time was had by all.
The following weekend, September 16 and 17, the Southern Zone shoot was held at Sparta. Good weather prevailed again with good scores shot all weekend. The Singles, Handicap and Doubles were won by Pete Vonburg, Brock Mcvaigh and Frank Haynes, respectively. The Out of Zone winners, in the same order, were Fulton Manning, Mike Walker and Don Sappington.
I believe I have told you that the shell of the new ISTA Hall of Fame building is up. On the inside there are stud walls with no finishing work done. The reason for this is we have run out of money. To raise more funds, the Board of Directors has created a raffle. The prize of this raffle is a $15,000 Kolar combo trap gun. Only 400 tickets will be sold at $100 each with the goal of raising $25,000 to finish off the HOF. This figure should allow us to get to the point of hanging pictures and displaying memorabilia in the building. We are finally in the home stretch. On behalf of the Board, I would like you to consider buying at least one ticket to help the cause. We are all part of a long-extended family that will be on full display in this new building. It would mean a lot to me too, on a personal note. The drawing will be at the held on Sunday of the Illinois State Shoot in June 2024.
As I am writing this column, I just received word of some tremendous shooting by Illinois shooters at the Southwestern Grand. Landon Sievers won the Singles Championship and Wyatt Williams won the HOA. Great job gentlemen.
Over the next few months, I will let you know who made the Illinois All-State Team and the All-American Team from Illinois.
Shoot well, have fun and support your local clubs.
Bill Duncan, ATA Delegate