Autumn Grand 2025 Recap: Ricky & Zach Break It All Down — Trap Talk EP 152

Summary

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Trap Talk From The Back Fence

Episode 152: Autumn Grand 2025 Recap — Zach & Ricky Break It All Down

Air date: November 28, 2025
Hosts: Zach Denini & Richard Marshall Jr. (“Ricky”)

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Episode Overview

In this engaging, highly detailed recap of the 2025 Autumn Grand trapshooting tournament in Tucson, Arizona, hosts Zach Denini and Richard Marshall Jr. break down both preliminary and championship weeks. They dive deep into the scores, standout performances, behind-the-scenes stories, and address organizational changes at the shoot. The episode is peppered with tributes to trapshooting legends, personal anecdotes about overcoming adversity, and practical advice for shooters.

The tone is lively, candid, and at times nostalgic, punctuated by moments of humor, healthy ribbing, and gratitude for the community and sponsors.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Life on the Road & Fitting Guns

• Ricky’s Travel Clinics: Ricky recounts teaching shooting clinics at different clubs and working with students and pros on customizing and fitting stocks at Winig, emphasizing the importance of proper gun fit.

  • “There’s nothing better than getting down there and getting that stock fitted and the relief of knowing, okay, it fits me.” — Richard Marshall Jr. [03:05]

• Zach’s Gun Fit Realization: Zach shares how learning to detect when a stock didn't fit improved with experience:

  • “Once you get to a certain level, you can really tell if something's right or something's wrong. When I was starting, I didn’t always know.” — Zach Denini [03:15]

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Remembering Trapshooting Legend Dan Bonillas

(Emotional and Highlighted Segment: 05:34–16:12)

• Dan Bonillas’ Funeral & Legacy: Zach shares a heartfelt account of attending Dan’s funeral, attended by many prominent shooters.

  • “Everybody was there. … It was full of nostalgia.” — Zach [06:26]
  • “Dan was the best self-promoter in the game through his whole career.” — Ricky [10:16]
  • “You don’t just get a shotgun named after you if you’re not a legend.” — Ricky [06:49]

• Stories and Achievements:

  • Zach describes watching Dan finally win his coveted California Handicap for his “crown five,” recalling Dan’s emotional reaction.
  • Dan’s legendary doubles record is discussed in detail, including his Remington contract era:
    • “In 1997, Dan set the record for doubles average, 99.22 on 10,300 doubles targets.” — Zach [11:58]
    • “He made them [Remington] pay every dollar that he possibly could for that year.” — Zach [12:28]
    • Fun anecdote about Dan’s nonchalant reaction to long singles runs:
      • “‘Ah, that’s pretty good. But I did that much in a day.’” — Zach retelling Dan’s response [15:26]

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Autum Grand 2025: Event Recap—Shooter Highlights & Target Setting

Preliminary Week (18:21–34:01+)

• Ricky on Prelim Week:

  • Only shot two events, focused more on teaching, gun fitting, and enjoying the atmosphere.
  • “Targets were good. Brett Dalton and his dad Corey did a wonderful job. … The western target is the way to be on the West Coast.” — Ricky [19:21]

• Standout Shooters Prelim:

  • Singles: Sam Lindecker wins after a 199/200 and 125 straight in the shoot-off.
  • Doubles: Colton Tucker shoots the lone 100.
  • Handicap: Brit Dalton wins with 97 on a “salty” (windy) Sunday.

Championship Week (34:01 onward)

• Main Week Weather & Operations:
  • “The weather was perfect this week at Tucson… The flagpole didn’t step up until Sunday.” — Zach [34:10]
  • Praise for shoot management, coolers with water on every field, and improved scorekeeping.

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Championship Event Results & Mini-Features

Doubles Championship:

• Three shooters ran 100: Bob Robertson, Eric Munson, John Mullins.
• Eric Munson emerged as champion, Mullins runner up, Robertson Sub-Vet champ.
• Additional class winners highlighted by Zach.

Singles Championship:

• Eight shooters shot perfect 200s, led by Zach and Mike Grady. Their shoot-off went 10 boxes before Zach took the title.
  • “We both missed on the same post… After that, we were locked in.” — Zach [41:57]
• Memorable shoutouts to runners up and class/category winners.

Handicap Championship:

• Emotional storyline as Cooper Freston overcomes significant vision impairment (from a shooting accident) to tie Trey Wilburn at 97.
  • “Hands down. That’s a stellar score in those conditions.” — Ricky [45:31]
  • Trey, not expecting his score to hold, leaves early, forfeits, and Coop takes the buckle.
  • “He got this big, beautiful buckle. We were really, really proud of him. That’s his first Satellite Grand Title, which is a hard feat…” — Zach [47:55]

High All-Around and High Overall:

• Trey Wilburn: High All-Around (394x400);
• Weston Anderson: High Overall (1077/1100).

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Overcoming Adversity — Physical and Mental Resilience

• Ricky and Zach share personal challenges—shooting flat-footed after Zach’s Achilles surgery and Coop’s vision challenges.
  • “If you’ve got some talent, then you’re like, some of it’s taken away… How do you stay mentally tough to push through that?” — Zach [25:03]
  • Practical advice and encouragement for shooters overcoming injuries or health issues.

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Technical and Organizational Insights

• Target Setting:

  • Clubs are moving from springs to bands for better, more consistent targets. Shooters responded positively to this change.

• Options (Purse) Drama:

  • Discussion on controversy over removing—and then reinstating—options from the event program.
    • “You have to offer an options package… There was a lot of people that said they would never come back.” — Zach [56:27]
    • “You’ve got to start doing stuff for the shooters. Trophy packages need to step up at these shoots.” — Ricky [55:40]

• Choosing Autumn Grand vs. Spring Grand:

  • Autumn Grand praised for its reliably nice weather; Spring Grand has more points and shooters, but variable weather.

• Praise for Organizers:

  • Shout-out to Leanne Martin for continuing the Martin Lewis purse tradition, honoring her late husband Bill Ceremony.

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Community, Memories & Tributes

• Bill Ceremony Tribute:

  • Tribute to the late Bill Ceremony, including stories of his generosity and impact on the trapshooting community.
  • “Bill, Leanne donated a million dollars to the Hall of Fame… We appreciate everything.” — Ricky [64:29]

• Family and Shooter Support:

  • Warm, candid reflections on the close-knit trapshooting community, their support in hard times, and the value of shared traditions.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Dan Bonillas:

  • “You don’t just get a shotgun named after you if you’re not a legend.” — Ricky [06:49]

• On Shooting Through Adversity:

  • “You just trust your instincts… And it breaks. Oh, I broke it.” — Ricky, on Coop overcoming vision loss [23:12]

• On Gun Fit:

  • “I really think that gunfit is probably the most important part of shooting big scores. Would you agree with that?” — Zach [36:17]

• On Event Organization:

  • “Taking all the options out… There was a lot of people that said they would never come back. And then they reverted—they fixed it and did the right thing.” — Zach [57:08]

• On Community:

  • “They’re great people. They’d help you out any way they can.” — Zach, about the Ceremony family [64:23]

• On Winning:

  • “You can win those other events, but the handicap’s the one that matters.” — Ricky [44:36]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Dan Bonillas Tribute: 05:34–16:12
• Coop’s Story (Vision Loss, Winning Handicap): 22:29–25:03, 44:36–47:55
• Prelim Week Recap: 18:21–34:01
• Championship Event Recap: 34:01–55:02
  • Doubles: 38:22–40:08
  • Singles: 40:12–44:36
  • Handicap: 44:36–47:55
  • HOA/HAA: 47:55–51:30
• Trophy/Options Controversy: 55:02–58:31
• Spring vs Autumn Grand Discussion: 58:31–59:59
• Bill Ceremony Tribute: 60:37–64:49

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Episode Takeaways

• The 2025 Autumn Grand was smoothly run, with excellent targets, weather, and a strong community feel.
• Triumphs and tributes to legends (Dan Bonillas, Bill Ceremony) colored the week with nostalgia and respect.
• Standout performances by shooters overcoming adversity, such as Coop Freston, exemplify the mental resilience celebrated in trapshooting.
• Event organizers are listening to shooters, reinstating much-wanted program elements and continuing beloved traditions.
• Zach and Ricky’s banter, deep knowledge, and genuine affection for the sport and its people make this episode both informative and heartfelt.

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A must-listen for trapshooters as well as anyone interested in the culture, camaraderie, and history of American shooting sports.

Transcript

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

J.

[Zach Denini]

Welcome to season three of Trap Chop.

[Ricky]

Brought to you by Craig off, the choice of champions.

[Zach Denini]

Hello, Trap Talk Nation. We got to take a quick second. We got to thank our title sponsor, Kraff. They make a fantastic product. Me and Ricky both use them. What do you think, Rick?

[Ricky]

Listen, folks, like I've said all along, you want to be a champion, Buy yourself a Craig Off. Shoot a Craig off, you'll win championship.

[Zach Denini]

They're time tested. We're shooting tens of thousands of rounds a year from these things every year with no problems. Ricky's got hundreds and hundreds of hundreds with his. It's awesome.

[Ricky]

Listen, if you want to get a Craig Off, John will put my number down below and I can hook you up.

[Zach Denini]

Hello, Trap Talk listeners. I'm your host, Zach Denini and I'm here with the one and only Richard Marshall Jr. Who is on the road. Ricky, how's it going today?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Good. I'm currently down at the Silver Dollar Golf and Trap Club, staying in the Marriott in Oldsmar. So. Yeah, it's been on the road, buddy.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah. Hey, on, on the road is good and it's, it's always fun. Are, are, are you teaching? I'm assuming.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yep. I did a one day clinic on Friday and then two day clinic today and tomorrow and then I'm actually flying home, actually flying into Kansas City. Tyler's picking me up and we're heading down to Winig to do another pattern stock. So I'm doing another duplicate and we'll, you know, do a little Justin.

[Zach Denini]

Hey, Justin's always good. And, and you know you've got multiple guns, so people, people don't understand. Ricky's not just a one gun guy. So when he goes in for stocks, it's usually not his trap gun. He's, he's, he's playing around in all other fields and all other areas as an all around shotgun shooter.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I am, I'm currently. Yep. So we're, we're just messing around with some stuff. But yeah, so I'm looking, looking forward to seeing Bobby and Luke and, and get down there and get that done. And I just found out one of my students, David Freelove, he's actually going to be at Winning on Monday. So there you go. Yeah, it'd be good to run into David.

[Zach Denini]

You go have some lunch at the Mexican restaurant.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

That's. Yeah, exactly.

[Zach Denini]

I know the program. I've been there before. And our friend Greg Hoffman, he was just down there getting his stock for his Sporting Clays gun. So he, he got the chance to hang out with those guys and.

[Ricky]

And.

[Zach Denini]

And he said he really, really, really loved it, and it was a great time. And they. They took good care of him. So it was. You know, it's always a good experience, especially the first time. When you go down the first time, you don't really know what to expect. And then pretty soon, you know, they've got Bondo out there shaving on stuff, Bill's hooking it up, and.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And.

[Zach Denini]

And you're picking out pretty pieces of wood. So that's always a fun time.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Absolutely. Yeah. No, there's nothing better than getting down there and. And getting that stock fitted and the. The relief of knowing, okay, it fits me.

[Zach Denini]

So that's a good feeling. Because I gotta tell you, when it doesn't, it's a bad feeling. Like when you're like, oh, this stock doesn't fit. You're like, oh, this sucks. Right? I mean, because at the end of the day, I think everyone's a little different, but once you get to a certain level, you can really tell if something's right or something's wrong. And I think that take. It took me longer and longer to figure that out. But, you know, when I was starting, I didn't always know what. When something was wrong because I didn't know. And now I feel like if something's wrong, I'm like, oh, crap, this is a problem. What do we. What do we need to do here? What do we need to change?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

That's when we're cutting stuff off at the. What was it, the spring grand last year?

[Zach Denini]

Yeah. I don't remember where I was. I was thinking I was at it.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Might have been my gun. And you're like, yeah, this is how I want it. And I'm like, yeah, no, we need it, you know, a little shorter, but, yeah, so.

[Zach Denini]

But it might have been two years ago, but time goes by. Well, today, what our focal point today is, is. Is a recap of the autumn grand. Now, Ricky was there for the preliminary week, and I was there for the grand week. So we've got both sides of reporting to do today. So, Ricky, you know, when you got down there for the prelim, you know, how was it? What. What were your overall thoughts at the gun club this year? Major changes. They did. And. And. And who are the hot shooters that week?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Well, I only shot two events. I was. I was doing a lot of stuff, getting clinic stuff lined up. So I really. I went down there just to kind of hang out and, you know, stay in the nice weather because we left Vegas.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And you know, went down. You, you headed to California and stuff and, and did some lessons over there, I think over at Livermore and Sunnyvale. So if anybody needs any help from Zach messing you up, just call me. It's okay.

[Zach Denini]

So, hey, you know, actually they're all really happy. I mean, I had Yousef down there and he, you know, he, it was.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

A great guy, I tell you. What's he shooting now?

[Zach Denini]

He was shooting on, on doubles. Was a parazi. It was a, it was an over. Under parazi. I, I think he's, I think he's about ready to come over to the, to the, the green side of life.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

With the dark side.

[Zach Denini]

Well, it's not the dark side, it's the light side.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Call me.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, no, it was, it was a good time. We did, I did a class on Thursday at Livermore and then I did a class on Friday at Sunnyvale, and then Saturday was Dan Beneese's funeral. So, you know, that was, you know, one of the main reasons why I really wanted to, to go home and, you know, see family and then pay him his respects. And we had at the funeral, it was, you know, everybody was there. Gary Sherrod was there. Dave Kelly was there. Steve Smith was there. Wade Stanfield was there. Bobby Aruda, I don't know if you know that name from a long time.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Ago, but Bobby, hey, if you asked, Bobby Aruda, the last time we were together, he was sleeping on Dave Kelly's couch.

[Zach Denini]

Well, that, that sounds about par for the course, but that's it.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, exactly. Bobby, he likes to, he likes to party a little bit.

[Zach Denini]

He, He's a good time. He's a good time for sure. There was, there was. Darvin Thomas was there and man, there was. And, and then some of squads, Dan, squads, squad mates from the past were there. It was, it was, it was full of, of nostalgia. What I, what I thought was really, really cool was Dave did. He did a eulogy at the, at the funeral.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, Dave sent me a picture and he goes, I didn't realize I was talking there, you know, and I, I told him, I, I said, dude, I said, I know you, you did good. I, I said, it's, you know, he goes, well, people said I did. And he goes after it's done, he goes, I really don't remember what I talked about. And it's one of those, because he's so, he was so close with Dan and you know, you know, Dan's a legend. I mean you, you don't, you don't just Get a shotgun named after you if you're not a legend. I mean, you know, and, you know, Dan was parazi. I mean, there's, you know, he put.

[Zach Denini]

Him on the map. You know, he started. He started all the big. The big news with Perazzi back in the day. And, you know, from when I spoke to people, everyone said that he was the guy to beat when he was on top, when he was in his game, he was steps beyond and ahead of everybody else, you know, and I think, you know, and I even asked. I even asked Leo one time, you know, who the best shooter ever was, and he said that. That Dan was the most, I guess, longest winning or most consistently ahead of everybody else, like going and everybody shooting for second kind of thing. Dominant.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, Dan was. I mean, his averages were outrageous, you know, and it was one of those. And. And he shot kind of the end of his, like, really, Karen, about shooting and, you know, overalls and stuff was, you know, probably in the, I'm gonna guess the mid-90s to late 90s. And then he just kind of like, yeah, whatever. But, yeah, and you would ask Leo and, And it's just like, you know, when people ask me, hey, who's, you know, my opinion, it was Leo. That was me.

[Zach Denini]

And, and I, I kind of. I will say that I. I didn't get to see. I didn't get to see Dan shoot in his prime. I got to see him shoot towards the tail end and one of the greatest still.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Hey, in the tail end, though, Zach, I mean, he was dominant there. If Dan was there shooting, he was the threat, no matter what.

[Zach Denini]

For sure he was. And. And I got the privilege of being a California resident, and I, I watched him win the handicap at Kingsburg on Sunday, and that was for his crown five, which I know for him that was one of his largest achievements because he had always said to everyone that he wanted to get all five titles in California and the handicap eluded him and he was getting to a point where he was older in the career and he did that and he won that shoot off and he pretty much bursted out into tears because it was just, it was. It was the cap, it was the icing. I was there for that shoot off. I got to watch it, you know, I got to shoot. Watch it. Many shoot offs with Dan. I got to shoot with them. And when we were at the funeral, I've got some pictures of it. I'll probably send them to John for him to splice into the video a little bit. But there was so Much nostalgia at the funeral as far as like, you know, covers of magazines and world Cups and you know, know, all these different ads that he was in for, you know, even various hotels and casinos at. In Las Vegas. It wasn't like he was just some, you know, shoot promoter guy. He was in legitimate magazines across the country.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, Dan was the best self promoter in the game through his whole career. I mean, hands down, you know, so it's one of those that, you know, we, we gotta see, we gotta have him on the podcast. You know, he. He was, his health wasn't that good, but he was on our only live in person, we'll say podcast at Tucson. You remember a couple years ago, he was, you know, that was pretty cool. And you know, Dan and I, I mean, you know, I'll be straight. Dan and I, you know, never really saw eye to eye on, on some things, but I always gave him like I do every legend shooter their accolades. Hey, they're legit, so.

[Zach Denini]

Well, he, he was definitely legit. And, and I just ran his numbers on the ATA and. And he had164,007, 475 singles with a lifetime average of 9894. He had a 250, 000 handicap.250,250 with a lifetime average of 93.97. And then, and then he had 126, 500 doubles with a lifetime average of 9765. And one of the things, hey, nothing.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Like me and AAA 27 AAA almost. Well, yeah, because I guess it's 98 on your doubles, isn't it?

[Ricky]

Or.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

No, it is.

[Zach Denini]

No, no, no, no. 96.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

He's, he's triple A27. Triple A lifetime. Yeah, I mean folks, that's. That says something.

[Zach Denini]

Well, and one, one of the stories that that was brought up and you know, we could talk about it for sure on the show now, but you know, one of the things that was discussed at the, at the funeral in the eulogy was his, his doubles record. And in, in two in 1997, Dan set the record for the average. Yeah, it was, it was a 9,922 average for the year, but it was on 10,300 doubles targets.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Do you know, do you know why he shot so many doubles?

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, he. I do. Dan told me that he was under a Remington contract and he was. And it was the last year of the contract and they were, they were paying $1,000 per hundred in doubles and, and Dan made them pay every dollar that he humanly Possibly could for that year. So it was.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Do you know how many hundreds he broke that year?

[Zach Denini]

I believe it was 83. No, 73 or 83. 73, maybe.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah.

[Zach Denini]

I could look it up, but it was not.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

It's not listed on there anymore. You can't see the totals.

[Zach Denini]

Well, you look at it this way. I mean, he's got 10, 300 doubles and a 9922. So, you know, he's probably had. I mean, I know it was over 70. I don't know if it quite got to 80, but I know for sure.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Someone said it was 5000-400-400, and then he had something like 38, 90. I don't know. You'd have to. What's the average? Well, look, average it out. So 10,700. So put in, it was 10,700. So put in 10,000. So 99, 22. So put in 10,000 6. 50 divided by 10.7 or 10.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, 10,650 divided by 10.77. Yeah, that's a. That's an. An A9. 9 5.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Okay, so he missed then. So 50. So 22. So do he missed 70?

[Zach Denini]

Try 70.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, show me what. So 70. So that means. Yeah, so in.

[Zach Denini]

But you never know. I mean, he could have had 90 sixes in there, you know, so. Exactly. You know, it's kind of hard, folks.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

He had a. He had over. I think. I think Dave Kelly would know.

[Zach Denini]

We could ask Sean or Dave, and we'll clarify on it, but Sean would know. This. This came up at the funeral because we were talking and I was talking about a story that Bullard had, and we were at the Livermore Rod and Gun Club, a long. And Bullard was going on a singles run. And this was when he was pretty deep. He was like, you know, 800 or 850 straight. And rich Bullard finally missed one. And it was funny because, you know, we got into the clubhouse and everyone was drinking, and. And I was there. Dave Kelly was there, Dan Beniaz was there, Steve Smith, few others. And, you know, the comment, you know, hey, Bullard, you know, how far did you go? You finally missed one today. You know, this, that, and the other thing.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And.

[Zach Denini]

And, you know, Kelly said, you know, good job, you know, for running that many in row singles or whatever. And, you know, a couple other people pitched in at their long runs. Oh, I did this, I did that. And Dan was like, ah, that's pretty good. But I did that much in a day.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And, yeah, that's what I just got.

[Zach Denini]

To Say, and, and, and rich is like in a day, he's like, what do you mean in a day? And he's like, well, I did a. Well, I did it in a day. But there was two of them. He's like, what do you mean there was two of them? He said, well, I went down for a doubles marathon and I got. I got like 900 and some straight before I, you know, finally missed one. So, you know, it's just. It's crazy that he was doing it back then with the technology, the shells, the, you know, the target differences, all those things. I mean, it just blows my mind. And if you don't know anything about dambanias, you really need to look them up. You need to. You need spend some time and. And give him some accolade because he is one of the mack daddies of the shotgun for sure. So.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Absolutely.

[Zach Denini]

You know, Rick, the only thing looks better than these hats we're wearing right now is a bunch of gold and silver from Ron prescott at midstate precious metal. Show them the goods.

[Ricky]

Listen, all I got silver right now, I won't bring the gold out for.

[Zach Denini]

Zach, but you know, I always want to get that gold.

[Ricky]

Shotgun shells, 10 ounces bars. Folks, he could do anything for you. For all your shoot needs, give Ron Prescott a call.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Midstatepreciousmetals.com He's a great guy.

[Zach Denini]

Support him. He supports all the shoots. He supports trap Talk. If you're thinking gold or silver, you need to be thinking Ron prescott at midstate precious metals. Thank you, Ron.

[Ricky]

That's right. Thanks for all the support.

[Zach Denini]

You know, Rick, when you're riding around your air conditioning and your nice can am and I'm walking, I'm thinking to myself, where do I get one of these things?

[Ricky]

At big red motorsports, that's where you get one. George or Jason Lee, they'll take care of you, Zach.

[Zach Denini]

I mean, I need one. I'm tired of riding on the back of that cooler. I want to sit inside that cab and roll around in style. I mean, my face is on the back, but help me out.

[Ricky]

Listen, I'm gonna move your face to the bumper is where it's gonna get moved for the new one, okay?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

All you need is a little quiche.

[Ricky]

And we can take care of you. But listen. BigRedMotorsports.com thanks Jason and George lee and big red motorsports for all the support. They'll take care of you folks. And it's free delivery.

[Zach Denini]

I just love the way they're covering all the shoots across the country. The content, the Pictures, what they're doing online, what they're doing on Facebook, Instagram. What do you think?

[Ricky]

Yeah, Traption usa, it's a great magazine. They are the official magazine of our podcast and we are the official podcast of Traption usa. So we really appreciate it.

[Zach Denini]

That's really cool. And what they got is a deal right now. If you put Trap Talk P in for the print version and Trap Talk D for the digital version, it's 19.99 for the price print and $9.99 for the digital for one year. You're not going to find a better deal. So subscribe today. You won't regret it.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Absolutely.

[Ricky]

Thank you for all the support.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, you know, back to.

[Zach Denini]

Back to shoot report.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

So, yeah, back to the shoot report.

[Zach Denini]

You know what we got? We got. We. This is Trap Talk. Sometimes we talk about stuff on the road.

[Ricky]

Some of us got to work.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

We can't just sit at home like Zach and, you know, I'm retired.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, I'm retired, but retired. But. But it, it was a good trip. And then I ended up up at Tucson that Sunday.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

You got there on Sunday. And I had left Sunday morning and headed home because I had a private event to attend. But going back to, you know, I got down there on Monday afternoon. I followed and. Well, actually I led the way most the way. Dave Mansell, our good buddy, came down and. And got a hang out and he shot and we, you know, we did some fun stuff there. Went shot some sporting clays. You know, Randall Freston, yeah, you know, R2 from Outlaw Engineering and. And coupe. Finally showed up on Friday. But I shot a couple doubles events and had. Okay, broke 97 in the one, 99 in the other. I won the other one with a 99. Had a loaner that day. But the targets going back to them and the way everything was set so they went back to the bands from the springs. Targets were good. You know, Brett Dalton and his dad Corey were setting targets and. And did. Did a wonderful job. What I saw. And like I said, I only shot doubles and you know, did. Did a few little private lessons. You know, Leanne Martin came down and shot. You know, she had to take care of some stuff since, you know, a bill had just passed away and. And so I got her gun lined up for her and. And I seen. She shot the whole time and you know, had a good time I think while she was there, you know, being with some, you know, friends and such. But I thought the targets were good. The western target is the way to be on The West Coast. I mean it, yeah, I mean, well, you know, it throws nice, you know, but they are sand in the arms and you know, they're doing the proper maintenance. What you need to do to throw a good target. So you know, I know the attendance was down a little bit, I noticed. And you know, it was right after Vegas and it's hard to keep up with Vegas. I mean Nevada's doing a banging job and, and such and, and you know, Shameless plug. But you know, if you guys want to grow your shoots, reach out to shot co and trap talk and we'll help you get, get things going, you know. But you know, John Slinker did a wonderful job up there and, and you know, Greg Pink from sos, you know, and a whole crew up there. But you know, Tucson, I talked to a lot of people, they were happy. You know, I talked to Alan Helper who's on the board and Alan was part of the, the reason getting the bands back on and, and everybody I talked to loved them. They loved the targets. You know, like I said, we went out, we shot some sporting clays, me and Cooper and Randy on, I think it was Saturday or Sunday, Saturday. Had a great time. You know, Coop and Randy had really never shot sporting clays and so they enjoyed it. Coop actually did pretty good considering, you know, he's about, you know, a quarter blind at least in his, in his right eye and, and it's taken a lot of time and I've been working with him a lot to basically just trust his instincts and, and he's shooting using his left eye, right handed and right eye. But it's just a lot of self trust of.

[Zach Denini]

Well of course, yeah. No, and, and we'll talk a lot about Cooper more in this episode for sure. You know, he's, he shot great so you know, we'll definitely cover that. I think it's, it's difficult and the only other person I know of that does that successfully and you correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Mitchell Loveless is left eye dominant, shoots right eye and shoots with both eyes open and just blasts them off the arm.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Mitchell uses the two. I know like Dusty Klein's the same way, you know, but uses the tube site, you know.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, I think. And then like you said Dusty, Dusty is a left eye dominant two eyed, right handed shooter. And I'm like, how the heck do you do that? And you're just like, I just look at the target.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Well, Dusty has good vision of both eyes where you know folks, you know Cooper is colorblind. Red, green, colorblind. He's got the issue with his right eye, you know, being shot in his right eye. And so he, he's come a long ways. I mean, he, he's, you know, you ask him, are you seeing any better? And he's like, ah, you know, a lot of floaters and it's blood, a lot of blood in there. And. And so, you know, I just told him, I said, like, you know, you're going to see streaks, you're going to see blurred. Just trust yourself. Just. And it's one of those you, you know, target like shoots and it breaks. It's like, oh, oh, I broke it.

[Zach Denini]

Surprise.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And that's what he has said. Yeah, I mean, it is. It's like. And we've done that, you know, Zach, at a time or two where your instinct just takes over and you don't.

[Zach Denini]

See, you don't see sometimes.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Guess what? We can see. I mean, and we're not red, green, colorblind.

[Zach Denini]

No, I got no color deficiencies in 2010 vision and I still have problems seeing sometimes. So imagine, you know, you get shot in the eye and, you know, you have to have surgery and you have to. All these things that you go through.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And, and he's gonna have a lifelong of stuff to deal with. This. I mean, this isn't something that just corrects itself. I mean, I've. I've tried to speak to, you know, the whole Fresno family, you know, are close friends of ours. Jody and ours and Tyler and, and Trey and, And, you know, Randy and I've known each other since 87, 88. So we go way back. And, you know, I've tried to reach out to clients and, and friends of friends to like, what can we do here? You know, what, you know, hey, we place that eye, you know, I mean, someone goes, hey, man, you can go down to, you know, Guadalajara and they'll put a new eye in for you.

[Zach Denini]

A little Tijuana trip.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

If it was you, Zach, you'd be like, I'm in. You know, but no, and it's. It's one of those that you like. It's like, wow. And that's all I can say because, you know, I sat there and watched Coop shoot a couple days and, and. And then I got out of there, you know, and, and you would just. I think I was in. I think I was in Demi, New Mexico when I called you and you were just rolling into Tucson, you know, and I was. I was headed home, you know, I left my fifth wheel down there for the winter and, and because we're. We're coming back for the spring grand and, and you know, hopefully the, the weather will be just as nice as the autumn. I know it won't, but, you know, you can always hope.

[Zach Denini]

You can always hope, but it ain't going to happen that autumn. The reason I love the autumn so much is the weather. I mean, it's just fantastic. And, you know, and I'm so proud of Coupe because, you know, just to, just to think of that, for me, it would be kind of demoralizing. If you've got some talent, then you're like, some of it's taken away and then you're like, okay, how do you stay positive? How do you stay mentally tough to push through that? And I'm sure there's other shooters that are dealing with. Anybody that's listening to the podcast that's, you know, had any kind of a surgery or had any kind of a health issue, you know, I, it wasn't anything that lasted forever, but when I had my Achilles tendon surgery on my left side, I couldn't push off of my left side anymore because it just wasn't there. So normally, you know, I've got, you know, a good portion of weight on that front foot and I'm driving and pushing and pushing. Well, when I did that the first time I went back, it was like relearning to shoot. And, you know, that was at a very small level compared to what Coop's going through. And that was very, very mentally hard for me.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And, oh, I remember when you went through that, you were. We shot together and you were struck and I was like, zach, just, just shoot. Just relax. Don't. You know, I had to learn how.

[Zach Denini]

To shoot flat footed, honestly.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Exactly.

[Zach Denini]

And, and so, so, so for the first time in my life, I was like, normally, you know, heavy press, heavy press, heavy press, heavy press. And then I'm like, okay, well, I.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Can'T lean back, lean back.

[Zach Denini]

It's hurting. And so now I'm literally, you know, not what I would teach, but like, centered up, standing on the center of my feet, literally dead flat with no movement from the legs and just rotating from the top. But in doing that, I actually learned a lot of things and I'm like, oh, okay, I can learn more. When I add this, it does that because what I actually figured out after I got back from being healed is there was times where I was putting too much weight forward and it was making my base a little wobbly or I was off Sides versus when I'm perfectly leveled.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

You were cantered. You were cantered left or right.

[Zach Denini]

I was hanging off to one side, and if I went to that side, I was good on the lefts, and then I was bad on the rights or vice versa. There was a side that I was favoring, depending on if I was scared of a bird. Once I learned how to shoot flat footed, then I didn't have a favorable side right. I just had this way or that way. Because there was no, There was no lean and there was no moving on the call.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

It is, and it's one of those things. And, and it was a tragedy that happened to Zach. He just failed to tell everybody that he was chasing a meatball down the road. That's a bullet.

[Zach Denini]

And I said, hey, you know what?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Everybody's got to eat the ball.

[Zach Denini]

Everybody's got to eat a little something, you know, spicy meatball, you.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

But yeah, and it's, and it's one of the, you know, so anybody out there, like Zach said, anybody out there that's. That's had something happen, you know, any eye stuff or any suggestions you can give that we can, you know, get to coupe and, and stuff, reach out to us, we'd really appreciate it, you know, if there's some, you know, magic eye doctor out there that says, oh, no, you need to do this, or, you know, because, I mean, like I said, he was shot in the right side of his eye in the corner, and he's basically, from what I understand is you just take your finger and put it kind of like this up against your nose and close your eye, and that's. He's blind right there. I mean, he can't see.

[Zach Denini]

And that's a pretty important spot.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Exactly. Because, hey, you don't put a gun up like this. No, I mean, you, you, you mount, you look like across your nose a little bit. So, yeah, it's one of those. And you know, I watched, you know, I was home, you know, for first part of the week, and then I, I had to leave and, and go out of town, but I was always watching the scores and, and I was actually in an airport and I got the call.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And it was Coop. And he's like, I'm tied for the handicap. And he was tied with Trey Wilburn. And I was like, oh. I said, well, you know, just, you know, settle down, relax, you know, wait for him to call you for the shoot off and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was actually. And I haven't talked to Trey yet. You know, I was going to call him, you know, congratulate him on his shooting. But I was going to tell, tell, hey, I'm going to call Trey and tell him, man, you can put on a show for the shoot. This kid will, you know, he's going to beat you, you know, he's going to demoralize you, Trey, you know, and you know Trey, Trey is probably one of the toughest competitors in our sport for his background of semi pro baseball, you know, golf.

[Zach Denini]

He's definitely a tough competitor, but he's a great guy.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Y. I mean there's there. Listen, folks, if you ever need anything, you call Trey. He'll give you the shirt off his back, you know, that's the type of guy he is. So then I found out that he had left and I was like, and I was going to call Coop and be like, man, I just talked to him and he said I'm beating you, you know, But I was, I can't do that.

[Zach Denini]

You know, we're, we're skipping all the way to the championship events now. We're have to. It's okay. It happens. Ricky, Ricky does. It's on Ricky's time. That's okay. Now we, we, we, we. We'll double cover it on the back end. But that's right, that first week start.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Back with the, with the high overall starting on, on Tuesday.

[Zach Denini]

Well, on the preliminary week, do you know who won the high overall and the high around on those? Because I was on scoreboard and I.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Didn'T show all that. They don't show. That's one of the downsides. And, and I'm gonna have to talk to Greg Pink, you know, it's his program. So we needed to get a hold of Pink and said listen, but it is one of those things. I don't. He did add it in there, so I don't know.

[Zach Denini]

I'm not seeing it. And maybe it's, maybe we'll find it somewhere. But what I do, what I see is the singles championship for the preliminary week and so on. That singles championship there was 199s were high on Saturday. Thomas Fester, Sandra Jojak, Samuel Samuel Line Decker Decker Weston Anderson, Brian Cornell, Gerald Demuleon and Mike Dennis all broke one 99s and I think Sam won that. Sam won. Sam broke 125 straight to win the preliminary title for the, for the autumn grand singles runner up was. It looks like Steven Taylor. No, no, no, no. This isn't right. Who's the runner up? Since he was open. Oh, so since Sam was open it went to an open shooter. So there's. I think it was potentially Derek Fisher because the 199s. Every other 199 was a category. So it all.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I don't even know. Here's the deal and the prelim stuff. I don't know how they do their trophy package. I think it's just champ and who could be runner up. But yeah, I don't. I've never really. Those are the first two events that ever shot in the prelim week because usually I'm teaching.

[Zach Denini]

You're always busy.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

We know that.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, but, but the doubles championship on the preliminary week the main shooters were. Colton Tucker broke a lone hundred. Justin Ballantyne from Missouri shout out to him. He broke a 99. It was a loan 99. So we had no shoot off. And our good friend Sean Hawley won triple a with a 98. So that was nice and easy. 199.98. And then on the handicap on Sunday for the preliminary, I know Brit Dalton won it but I'm trying to find what event that was. Event 13 I think.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

See Zach, you're supposed to know all.

[Zach Denini]

These things prior but you know I should but you know, as late in the day as it is, sometimes you just gotta do it.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

It is pretty late folks.

[Ricky]

Just so you are aware, rick Ricky's.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Been 11pm in Florida.

[Zach Denini]

Ricky's been teaching all day so, so we had to give him a little.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Bit of reservations tonight with my, my wonderful group. A few of us went out. So.

[Zach Denini]

This is going to be a part where John edits it out. Sorry John.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

John's always got edit. If you just. Hey, just, just.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, just a percentage point. All right, so. So I'm seeing on the preliminary handicap event 12, Brit Dalton won with a 97. And it looks like Brad Johnson was runner up with a 96. Harlan and Justin Valentine also tied with a 96. And in the shoot off Brad Johnson actually won and Harlan ended up winning. 27 yard champion. So. And it's, it's, it's definitely. I heard it was a little more salty on Sunday on the handicap. The wind was blowing around a little bit. That's what I heard. I wasn't there. I was driving. So you never really know. But moving on to the, to the main week.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

So the overall start on Tuesday.

[Zach Denini]

Correct, Correct. And I'm not going to cover every single event. I was just going to cover the championship.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Let's just, let's just jump to the championship event.

[Zach Denini]

The championship events and then the, and then the, the all around overall. So the doubles championship for the autumn grand in the main week. And before we get into the scores there, I just want to say that the weather was perfect this week at Tucson. So as far as, you know, getting a good week, I mean, that flagpole didn't really. Didn't step up at all until we got to Sunday. Sunday was the only day that I really felt like we had any major wind. But, you know, I had the pleasure of. Of shooting, you know, pretty much clean all week. When it comes to weather, we didn't really get rained on. We didn't really have any major issues throughout the week. I can say we personally didn't ever have a machine run out of targets. The scorekeepers were good at doing their job. This week. The thing that I really liked was, you know, the water bottles they always have in the background in the coolers. I mean, that was a benefit. Obviously, everybody likes drinking.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, every trap field at Tucson has a cooler with water in it.

[Zach Denini]

And that's. That's a big thing. So it's like asking, like, the little things that matter, you know, I'll stay.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Hydrated because it's always hot. I mean, it was. When I was there, it was 90s in that prelim week. Early on, it was warm, you know, so it was.

[Zach Denini]

It was very, very, very warm. And. And I think people sometimes forget to drink water. And I think just having it behind you and always being able to grab it is really helpful water.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Sometimes it's brown water, but it's.

[Zach Denini]

You're drinking the most sterile. It's sterile and sanitary. It doesn't have any germs in it.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Hey, hey, listen, here's the thing. It's made with water.

[Zach Denini]

It has water in it. Kentucky water, but it's good. It's good. It's good water. So, Rick, I really think that gunfight is probably the most important part of shooting big scores. Would you agree with that?

[Ricky]

Absolutely. I think gunfit is the most important thing.

[Zach Denini]

I mean, most of the top. All Americans are shooting custom stocks. I know when I got my custom stock, my scores went up. I broke 100 shift in the 27 within seven days. I mean, I'm sure your experience has been similar.

[Ricky]

Yeah, I've been shooting a custom gun stock for 20 years. Winning. If you want to win championships, get a win of gun stock.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, call Bobby, call Luke. I mean, we got the stock whisper over there. Bill, give them a shot. They're great. They know what they're doing.

[Ricky]

Absolutely. Winig.com check them out.

[Zach Denini]

You Know, Rick, I. I know you had a lot of involvement with them since the beginning, since they started. But I really love the way that the shot tracker, you know, catches the doubles from shot to shot with the looping. You know, tell the folks what they need to know about that system.

[Ricky]

It's the best system out there. It's like having a coach on the end of your barrel, like we say, but going especially in doubles, from first shot to second shot. You can see it on the graph. You can see it on video.

[Zach Denini]

You. Yeah, I mean, if you talk about that J hook with Sean Hawley and all them, I mean, it'll literally show that loop. And I think that's really powerful if you're doing it. They've supported the show since the beginning. They love trap shooting. They're great people. Give them a shot, folks. They make a great product.

[Ricky]

Take Aim Technologies.

[Zach Denini]

You know, Rick, I just love having the peace of mind and knowing that if I'm traveling or I'm flying, something happens. I can get my winig and my Craig off replaced quickly and easily without costing me a bunch of money.

[Ricky]

Yeah, exactly. The gun and trophy insurance, it's the best out there to ensure your guns, Cher, your trophy, animals, everything.

[Zach Denini]

Thank you to the whole Kushman family for supporting the show and everything they do for trap shooting.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Absolutely.

[Ricky]

Get a hold of Cole Kushman and.

[Zach Denini]

He'Ll get you set up. So when we get to the doubles, there was, there was three hundreds and doubles. It was Bob Robertson, Eric Munson and. And John Mullins. And these are all friends of ours. I mean, we know know all three of them. They're all great shooters. And you know, Munson ended up winning champion. John Mullins ended up winning runner up. And then, and then Bob Robertson won sub vet category. So yeah, for, for the classes. Colton Tucker won aaa. Benjamin Larson won double A, which I was surprised to see him because he hasn't really shot a bunch, which Ben.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Always shows up in Tucson. Great young man. You know, he's got a couple kids now and married and so yeah, he's always great. I wish I could have been there to see Ben. It's always a nice time to.

[Zach Denini]

He's. He's a good guy. I love seeing him. John Kirksley won A class. Herb Jones won B class. Our friend Nader wins again. He won the C class with the 96. He's just, he's winning silver bullets, he's winning doubles. He's taking out glass purses left and right. I mean, he's, he's we love Nader.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

We're gonna send an investigation out on Nader.

[Zach Denini]

Nah, he deserved it. He, he shot like an 86. The doubles before that. So it was, it was, it was okay. Keith Barton won D class for the junior Weston Anderson, which I got to shoot with Weston all week long. I had a lot of fun shooting with him. That was my first time shooting with him and he shot great. Cole Henning won the junior gold, Rayleigh Bishop won the lady one and lady two was Betty Peterson, sub junior was Chase Dobrinsky, senior vet was Greg Holden, sub vet obviously Robertson with the 100 and then vet was William Sales. And I will say that was the 99. William Sales, Bill Sales with the 99, which is pretty impressive shooting. So congratulations to everyone. In the doubles event, moving on to the singles, there was I believe 9, 2, 92 hundreds or 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Oh no, they pulled it double down. Because Rich Bullard and Aaron will be. Are listed here.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

7.

[Zach Denini]

Eight. So eight two hundreds, eight, eight, two hundreds total. It was Troy and I. Forgive me if I didn't say this right. Kynitz Kainitz. K I E N I T Z Lewis. Huh?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Nothing. Go ahead.

[Zach Denini]

Lewis Malsani, Herb Jones, Justin Ballantyne from Missouri, Mike Grady, the one and only Richard Buller Jr. And I, I had the pleasure.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

He only lasted, we can go on about him. He only lasted one round of the shoot off. I heard.

[Zach Denini]

So yeah, you know, it was impressive though because I, I was shooting with him on the same squad and the last 50 we had a little bit of turbulence and he stung it stuck in there. So I got to give him, give him a shout out. Aaron Willoughby broke a 200 and then I also broke a 200. After the first 125 birds. It was just me and, and Mike Grady. And then on the next, Grady missed on the next box and I followed him right down the rabbit hole, folks. He missed that thing. We both missed on the same post. He missed the first one out on the post and I missed the last one out on the post. And, and you know, I asked him why he missed his. And he said he couldn't see. And I said, and he asked me why I missed mine. And I said I couldn't see it either because it was that little, it was that left, that, that quarter left on two. And it was kind of in that, you know, hard to, hard to see area of the world but, but got through that once. We both missed, then we were both locked in and, and we went another, another five boxes. So it, it was 10 boxes total.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I thought you went. I thought it was 225.

[Zach Denini]

It says 225 on this thing. But I counted my boxes. It was.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Well, listen, I know how you count, so I'm going with what it says, folks.

[Zach Denini]

Well, in the shoot off sheet it says I went 25, 24, 24, 25, 25, 25. So I know this thing's wrong because.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Well, they just got the order wrong.

[Zach Denini]

They got the, the order all, all messed up.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I was getting the play by play per round and I'm going with 225.

[Zach Denini]

I, I know it was 250 because I had to buy 250 shells from rich Bullard and it was very expensive. He charged me 200 double cost on these shells. He says if you want them, he says they're $20 a box instead of 10. I said, this is complete crap. So that's the only reason, that's the only reason why you should have said.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Rich, listen, you only used one box. You should be happy promoting.

[Zach Denini]

I should have. I should have hit him with the, with the RBO it special that he hit you with in the beginning of, of your guys's relationship and said, hey, I know you're not going to need those shells anymore. Can I borrow them?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Shut up.

[Zach Denini]

That would have been.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

That have been great.

[Zach Denini]

That have been epic. But, but. Yeah, so, so 10, 10 boxes and I ended up winning.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

You won Now Grady fel the category.

[Zach Denini]

He did so. And then runner up, I believe was. Was Willoughby. Okay, so. No, it was, it was Valentine. So he, he won, he won the flip. So it was Will Billby Willoughby and Valentine. And then the flip off. He, he took him out at the knees. So double a winner was Troy with that 200. Donald Larboge broke a 197 and 1A class. Colin Crumb broke a 196. A 1B class. Lloyd Coty 1C class. Daniel Lefantansi broke a 196 and 1D class. Lady 1 was Alexis Fernan. Sandra Jo Jack was Lady 2. Herb Jones was our our runner up because Richard Bullard had the 24 in the shoot off. So Rich Bullard was our, our sub vet champion. Congratulations. Mike Grady one vet. Louis Malsani one senior vet with a 200. Weston Anderson one junior with a 199. Seeing the trend here, he won both weeks. Lucas Stanford won junior gold with a 195 and a shoot off. And Chase Dobrinsky one sub junior both weeks in a row with a 199. So you know that. That concludes the champions for. For the. The singles, moving on to our handicap. And this is the story that. That Ricky kind of covered in the beginning, but.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

But it's all right. You know what? You can win those other events, but the handicap's the one that matters.

[Zach Denini]

It's the one. It's the one that everyone cares about.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

So then goes the handicap, and then the singles kind of counts.

[Zach Denini]

Nobody even cares about the singles.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Congratulations, though, to you, Zach. You shot good. I heard. I heard you were locked in after. After you, you know, went down the rabbit hole following Grady.

[Zach Denini]

But, yeah, you know, I felt like I just needed more practice. So I figure if I miss one, we can go out there a few more boxes. I didn't expect to win after I missed one, but, you know, hey, you.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Did not think that I know you.

[Zach Denini]

Hey, you know me. But moving on to the handicap, Cooper freston broke a 97. And as we know from this episode, you know, he's got a lot going on. He broke it. And our good friend Trey Wilburn broke 97 also.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And Trey ran the back 50. I know that because I looked that.

[Zach Denini]

Up And I knew 50.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And Cooper ran the middle 50. And then he went four. Four to start out. And he said, I could say he shot in the rain, the wind. So, you know, had, you know, literally, you know, hands down. That's a stellar score in those conditions. You know, he got a yard and a half.

[Zach Denini]

It really is. He can. He can shoot the big dog squad.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Now, 25 and a half. So I told Coop that, you know, he's always, you know, more than welcome to shoot. Now he's going to get back there and, you know, beat up on Randall.

[Zach Denini]

I'm looking forward to seeing it. It's going to be a lot of fun.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

But.

[Zach Denini]

But what I can say is I. When I got done, we were the first squad out, and Trey. Well, second squad out. Apologies. Trey Wilburn was like, the second squad out also, so he was done. And he drove by me and said, how'd you shoot? And I said I had 94.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

What'd you shoot?

[Zach Denini]

And he said, 97, and I'm getting the heck out of here. So he literally was slinging gravel, like, it. Like, literally. Yeah, he drove all the way back, so he told me he wasn't staying, and he didn't honestly think that he was gonna win with the 97 because he was the first squad out. So we were the first scores posted, but he was gone. So I knew that he was gone before really anybody knew that he was gone. And then like, I talked to Randy and when I figured out that Coop had the seven, I told Randy, I said, hey, if Coop, you know, if Coop stays high with the seven, he's going to win because Trey's not here. I said, don't tell him, but, you know, go, go down that hole and, you know, see. And.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah.

[Zach Denini]

And so once it got finalized, they were the only two ninety sevens. I called Trey one more time just to make sure he wasn't coming back, and he said, yeah, man, I'm five hours away.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

He, he was already in freaking New Mexico.

[Zach Denini]

He was past Las Cruces. He says, I ain't coming back no matter what. So, so then it was cool because Coop, you know, walked up with the shells in his bag and we're all standing there and he went to go check in for his shoot off. And as soon as he went to check in, they're like, you won. It's over. The other guy forfeited. And he, like, you could see his eyes went up and he got all excited and, and, and then we, we went over and got his buckle together and did a little, little interview real quick for the, for, you know, just a little.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I said, you should have declined all interviews. Say, folks, sorry.

[Zach Denini]

No, I say, get every interview you can. And he got this big, beautiful buckle. We were really, really proud of him. You know, that was, that's his first satellite grand title for open, which is a, which is a hard feat. I know many, I'm sure, I'm sure one of many. But you know, there's a lot of people that have shot this game for a very long time and never won a satellite grand title. I mean, it's not, it's not the easiest thing to do. I mean, I think, you know, obviously in level of difficulty, you know, grand titles are the hardest to get. And then, and then I think probably your satellite titles are right up there as the next, next hardest thing to get. So, yeah, for runner up, it ended up being Colton Tucker who won in a shoot off because Trey forfeit and dropped down to his category, which was sub vet Lady 1 was Lexi Henning with a 96. Pam Wright was tied with a 92 to Kimberly Iden and she forfeit. So Kimberly ended up winning. Trey Wilburn, one sub vet outright. Billy Pierce, one senior vet with a 96. And then for vet, Todd Whitaker broke a 95 and one one champion for veteran for junior Western, Anderson with a 95. Cole Henning again with a 96. And Brian Holmberg won the sub junior with a 91. So you know, that was, that was, you know, all good scores, you know, good ranges. Everyone shot well that day. I mean, like I said, the targets were a little bit up and down getting to the Ohio round. Trey Wilburn was the champion with a 394 out of 400. So he shot fantastic and he didn't even tie anyone. He was ahead of the field by two birds. I got runner. I got AAA champion with 392. 392 was the next high score on the grounds. Corey Dalton one trip double A with a 389. Tex Hollis one with a 384. Shout out to Tex for throwing leather all around the country. Frank Clark one with a 379. On B class, Ron Todd won with a 375. In C class, Daniel Lefantansi one D class with a 371. Shelby Skaggs won lady one champion with a 389. Sandra Jo Jack, lady two champion 381. Bernie Merkowicz shot a 392. So he tied for second high score. There was a few of us, it was me, Bernie Merkowitz and Weston Anderson that all had 392s. But yeah, thankfully they're all categories so I have to deal with them. They just kind of skittered on over to their own spot and that was easy for me. So Tim Robb won, the senior vet with a 385. Bill sales one or no bill sells forfeit. He was tied with Mr. Dean Townsend and Mike Grady and he forfeit. And it looks like Dean Townsend won the shoot off over Mike Grady. Weston Anderson won the junior. Junior gold was Cole Henning and sub junior was Chase Dobrinski. So congratulations to all the, the all around shooters. I mean and, and we've seen a lot of familiar names on that list. I mean Weston shot great all week long. He was pretty much, you know, he was, he won the overall, which we're getting to now. He had a 1077. You know Rick, when you're walking down the line, you see smoke ball after smoke ball after smoke ball. What are you thinking in your head?

[Ricky]

I'm thinking there's some good set targets.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And they got to be a white flyer.

[Zach Denini]

They got to be white flyer. I mean we were just at Nevada State. Shoot, we were shooting these things for the 27 yard line. They look like 16 yard smoke balls. And I'm like, only a white flyer can smoke like that. And we love Them and they've been supporting the show since day one.

[Ricky]

That's right. Thanks for all the support. White flyer.

[Zach Denini]

You know, Rick, I was at the Autumn grand and the Nevada State shoot and I was just really impressed with how I could see where my squad was when I was up. Just the technology, the ability to be able to see what options I've played if the event's paid or not. I mean, what's your experience with, with the app?

[Ricky]

Listen, SOS Clay's app, it's the best thing out there, folks. You can see everything.

[Zach Denini]

It's great.

[Ricky]

You see your option payouts. You can see when you're up, you can see who's paid on your squad. Sometimes Zach doesn't pay on time, but.

[Zach Denini]

It'S I get out there. But what I really think is, is for gun clubs, it's free. Call Greg, get a hold of him. He'll set you up. He'll get you running. Right. And if you pay the the premium once a year you get free pre squatting in all the shoots. And that's the best value in trap shoot.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Absolutely.

[Ricky]

SOS clays.com hey folks, we really want.

[Zach Denini]

To thank Remington for supporting the show. Since day one, I've been shooting the STS, ounce and eighth light eights for singles and doubles and the Nitro 27 from the 27 yard line. Ounce and eight seven and a half. They make a great product. You should give them a try. And as always, thank you for the support. Hey Rick, we got to take a second. We got to thank Outlaw Engineering and the Preston family for supporting trap shooting and supporting Trap Talk podcast. They've been here for us. They're great people, you know. You know them real well, Rick.

[Ricky]

Yeah, I've known Randy since 1988. R2 and the family, they're great supporter of the show. Coop just won the Autumn grand handicap championship with a 97.

[Zach Denini]

I know, I was there. I got to with Interact interview him. It was great. I was so proud of him. He's doing a great job. Hashtag, where's Coop? He's somewhere with that big buckle. He's having fun. So you need anything engineering related, get a hold of Outlaw. They'll take great care of you. Great folks.

[Ricky]

Thanks for all the support.

[Zach Denini]

Outlaw 101077 out of 1100. So he shot fantastic. He was our champion. I got AAA champion with a 1075. Then Brad Johnson got double A with a 1065. Lexi Henning with a 1050 for A class. Frank Clark with a 1050 for B class. Jerry Brosten with a 1015 for C class. Daniel la fontanci, he won d class in the overall and the all around with a996. Alexis one, lady one with a 1071, which she shot fantastic all week. I got to give her a shout out on that. I mean, she was right there going into the handicap on Sunday with pretty much everyone. Sandra, Joe jack shot a 1042 for lady two. Champion Bernie Merkowitz shot fantastic. He had a 1072. He was right up there. Tim Robb, 1063. Senior vet champion. Bill sales won the vet. The vet with a 1067, which, I mean, he's just an all around consistent shooter all the time. You know, for his. For where he's at, he's always competitive. Junior Rory Lee, our good friend, he broke a 1055. So congratulations to you for that. Rory Junior gold, no surprise. Cole Henning with a 1066. And sub junior with a 1057. No surprise. Chase Dobrinsky. You know, it was a lot of great scores, a lot of great targets. It was definitely a good shoot. And, you know, I know a lot of people were, you know, upset about the. The bands, the way they were with the. The steel bands and the targets. And there was a lot of complaining.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And they're not bands, they're springs.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, springs. And then going to the bands and. And a lot of people were upset about that. And I think, you know, they've rectified the situation, which I think that's. That's very, very helpful. And I think that a lot of people love that. The other thing I know that made a lot of people happier is I know that for a portion of, you know, they had contemplated taking the options out of the program and took them out and then. And then added them back in. And, you know, I know there was a lot of shooters that were really upset that the options were gone. And then they made the right decision in my mind and put those options back into the program. Yeah. So that people can play you.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

You literally. I don't know why clubs that do that. I'll be honest with you. That's. I mean, their options let the shooters decide what they want to play. And if you say, no, we don't want to do it, then your tenants is going to drop drastically. You know, I mean, you got it. You got to start doing stuff for the shooters. Trophy packages need to step up at these shoots. And, and, you know, I get it for what they're charging. I mean, it. All these shoots, you know, it's. I mean, we Got to kind of look around and say, you know, people aren't wanting these little trinkets anymore, you know.

[Zach Denini]

No, no, no. You want to make it worth your while. And I, I think we're gonna have the, you know, the King for a Day episode. We're going to talk a lot about what people's suggestions are on how you can fix things.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

But comments on there.

[Zach Denini]

There's a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a lot of a clickbait going on on there. But we'll get through it hopefully and, and touch on the things that, that are reasonable. But I think for clubs moving forward, you really have to offer an options package. If, you know, if there's shooters that want to shoot for options, give them that opportunity. It's only one click of the button, especially if you're running sos. I mean, it's one click of the button to run it and handle it for the shooters so that they can have something to shoot for. Taking all the options out. I mean, I know there was a lot of people that said they would never come back and then they reverted. They fixed it and they did the right thing. They didn't run the whole week and leave it wrong.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

So there was some shooters I know that were in Vegas that did not show up because of it. 100 they went home and they were like, no. You know, and so even after they changed it. But, you know, kudos to them for doing it and they're, they're gonna look at their spring grand options. I told a couple of the directors that, you know, I gave them some thoughts on what I would put in and you know, and they, you know, it's not high gun purses. It's, you know, do percentages and you know, the great Eastern purse, you know, the six way. It's one of the best purses out there.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, I think, I think you really have to have that. I think, you know, the, the days of the high gun purse, you know, they're, they're, they're dying. I mean, they're just kind of dying and, and they had them there. Tucson, honestly, I hit it twice. I was happy to hit it.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, I noticed on a couple of the options, well, they didn't have high gun purses according to the option list. It wasn't. And it was printed out as high gun or paid out as high gun. And I kind of wondered on that. I was going to do a little investigating and, and talk to Greg Pink about it because, you know, if it's listed in your program, you need to pay it out that way.

[Zach Denini]

Well, the program was only listed with the ones with no options. And that was the one that actually went out to everyone. And then they did the reprint and I wasn't.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I've got the reprint and I didn't see it on there.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, that's. I didn't even look. I just seen high gun and I clicked and I clicked them all. So, you know, you know me. But Ricky's the one that looks at the details on that stuff. He's. He's. He's always good at looking. But, you know, overall, it was a good shoot. I think it was a lot of fun and I would recommend it. I would say that Tucson is still a premier facility for shooting trap. And if you haven't shot the spring grand or the autumn grand, I would probably lean you to the autumn grant because of the weather. But, you know, the spring grant is larger. Spring is obviously bigger. You know, the spring.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, there's going to be more. For people chasing all American points, the. The spring grand is, Is going to be your bigger shoot.

[Zach Denini]

Spring's going to be bigger. The problem with the spring is you never know what you're going to get. In February in Tucson, you could get good weather, you could get. Get cold weather, you can get rain, you can get wind, you can get whatever. So if you're okay, Good thing is.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

You know, the good thing is I got a camper down there so I can go in it after we're done shooting.

[Zach Denini]

Yeah, you'll be, you'll be fine. You'll be fine one way or the other.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

But Zach, you'll be stuck in his car going, hey, what about.

[Zach Denini]

No, no, I'll just come hang out with you. I'll be like, hey, hey, partner, how you doing? Yeah, hey, buddy, whenever, whenever I don't have an RV and Ricky's there with an rv. He's my very best friend again. I'm like, hey, how you been, buddy?

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Hey, buddy, you better bring some good bourbon. That's all I gotta say.

[Zach Denini]

And then when I got my fifth wheel at the shoot and he's there, I'm like, I don't even know that guy.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, so I'm just telling you, listen, for the next trip to the spring grand, you better bring that old rip. That's all I'm saying.

[Zach Denini]

The rip better be coming. But, but yeah, it's. It was, it was a great time, folks. I think Tucson is doing everything they can to, to, to cater to the shooters and to work on you know the issues of the past. And so every gun club goes through highs and lows and valleys and things like that. But, but Tucson is a facility that we definitely don't want to lose. And I will, I will say I do want to give a shout out to Leanne Martin. She, she did put the, the Martin Lewis again. And I know a lot of people really were thankful for that. So thank you, Leanne, for doing that.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

You know, Bill Ceremony and Denton, as it said in the, in the program, you know, wonderful family, you know, great people. They've done so much for the, the shooting sports, you know, especially, you know, Bill was just passionate about shooting sports, you know, and Leanne said, you know, I talked to Leanne and, and she did it for the autumn in the spring. So there will be a Martin Lewis at the Spring grand. And you know, so if you guys can, you know, if you ever see Leanne, just, you know, thank her for she's continuing on what, what Bill started. And, and you know, she's got a tough road ahead. It's tough losing your, your loved one you've been with for 30, 40, 40 years, you know. Yeah, that, that's always a tough thing. And, and, but you know, they've done so much for shooting sports.

[Zach Denini]

They really, they never stopped. And Bill was an amazing guy. And you know, I will say I was sad on the single shoot off night because I was in the shoot off and that was, you know, Bill's little ceremony that they had at the clubhouse where, you know, it was free steak dinner for everyone. It was, you know, you know, obviously bar was open and there was so many people there and it reminded me of a Bill party. Like, you know, it was like vernal back in the day. Like, like everybody was there. There was not a single person that didn't stay for that free steak that night. And everybody was in the clubhouse and it was jumping and I'd get done with a round and I'd look back and it was just rolling in there. So, you know, I know that's how he would have wanted to celebrate it. You know, whiskey pouring, beers pouring and, and everybody out there having a good time and, and you know, it was kind of funny because his memorial sign was right on the right side of my shoot off field. So I was like, every time I'd looked over, I'd see old Bill on the, on the thing and I'd say, hey Bill, and, and just start, you know, get back to shooting. So it was nice. I got to shoot with Bill quite a bit I shot with him in San Antonio for several years and shot with him in Utah and. And some other places around the country. Shot with him in Kingsburg. The very, very first time I shot with him was at the Hel Dorado Gun Hell Shoot in Las Vegas and actually won. Won the Hel Dorado doubles that day. And it was my first, it was one of my first really big doubles wins, you know, because they did 150 doubles. So it was 50, 50, 50. And I won it. And I have the buckle to this day. It's a memory to mine. And, and Bill's got done and he says, man, he says anybody that could shoot a ludic that good at doubles can shoot with me anytime. And I said, well, I'd love to shoot with you, Bill. And we had a, we had a great.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

He was fun to shoot with. You know, I shot with him at every, you know, Unitau Basin shoot and the Western grand and, and, you know, Western Grands that were in Salt Lake City. We shot Spokane, you know, San Antonio. We shot a lot of place, Florida, you know, and, and you know, he was on the squad when I broke the 4x4. And, and you know, I, you know, he said them choice words, don't F this up when I have to go now.

[Zach Denini]

Sounds like Phil.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Sounds like exactly, you know, and he didn't mince words to shoot with, you know, you know, I taught WD and, and Leanne and, and even did some lessons with Jay Lee, you know, his daughter and, and Dubs's sister. And you know, it, it's. This is a great family.

[Ricky]

They're great.

[Zach Denini]

They're great people. They're the best of people and they would do anything for you. And they, you know, they'd help you out anyway they can.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Shooting sports. I mean, look, they, you know, they, they, Bill, Leanne donated a million dollars to the hall of Fame and, and you know, so, you know, shout out to them and, and we appreciate everything and, and you know, hopefully they'll continue to shoot and we'll see them in, in Tucson in the spring.

[Zach Denini]

For sure. For sure. I'm looking forward to the spring already. You know, now that it's, it's November, there's not really a shoot in sight anywhere that I could think of other than the spring grand. You know, we're probably gonna end up, probably gonna end up at shot show, but, you know, we'll kind of have to see how that works out.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

I might be there just a day or two.

[Ricky]

We're, we're taking a family vacation.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

And then literally right after that, that weekend, I'm leaving for a. For a hunt in Texas. But a group of us are going. Joey Charnigo is one of them. So we're gonna. We're gonna go down and have a good time and, and, you know, do some fun stuff.

[Zach Denini]

Fun stuff is what we do here at Trap Talk. So I appreciate everyone tuning in. Listen, on our recap episode, if you have any questions, send them in, like share, subscribe. Wear your Trap Talk gear. Proud. We really appreciate you guys. You. You guys make it worth the time. You know, we put a lot of time and effort into this and we do it. We do it to help. So, you know, we appreciate you for everything that you do and, and thank you all for the kind words all the time.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Yeah, remember, you can get your merch at.

[Zach Denini]

Hey, folks, if you're wondering where you can get your merch, head on down to shop.trap talk podcast.com.

[Ricky]

Yes, folks, you can get hats, T shirts, sweatshirts. They even have a ladies tank, shooters, towels. We might have some new stuff coming out for the 20, 26 year.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Who knows?

[Zach Denini]

We got all the swag. Head on down to the website. Thank you so much for being Trap Talk supportive.

[Ricky]

Thanks, everyone.

[Zach Denini]

You know, Ricky, I know you used it on your barrels, but do you even know what RGS stands for?

[Ricky]

No, Zach, what does it stand for?

[Zach Denini]

Really good.

[Ricky]

Well, that is true.

[Zach Denini]

It is good stuff, folks.

[Ricky]

I use it to clean my barrels and it does make them shine.

[Zach Denini]

Only problem is I wear white T shirts when I clean my barrels and I get them all messy, so I got to be better at that. But it gets all the plastic, all the gunk out. Give them a try, folks. They're great.

[Ricky]

That's right. Right. Give RGS a try. We appreciate all the support, but hey, we appreciate everything.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

If you guys got any questions, send them in.

[Zach Denini]

Well, we'll see you. We'll see you all soon. Thanks for tuning in. Happy Friday.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Good luck, everyone.

[Zach Denini]

And the Trap Talk podcast is brought to you in part by RM Shooting Clinics. Have Ricky take your game to the next level. If you want to shoot hundreds of hundreds of hundreds, give Ricky a call. Today, Zach and E Financial, we believe in putting people first.

[Richard Marshall Jr.]

Movie.