Overcoming the Unthinkable: Kooper Freston’s Fight Back in Trap Shooting | Trap Talk Ep. 158

Summary

Trap Talk From The Back Fence — Episode 158

Title: Overcoming the Unthinkable: Kooper Freston’s Fight Back in Trap Shooting
Date: January 9, 2026
Hosts: Zach Nannini & Richard Marshall Jr. (“Ricky”)
Guest: Kooper D. Freston

---

Episode Overview

This impactful episode welcomes rising trap shooting star Kooper Freston for an in-depth conversation about his family legacy, competitive journey, and remarkable comeback from a life-altering eye injury. Hosts Zach and Ricky explore not just Kooper’s technical skill but his resilience, mental fortitude, and the family and communal support that propelled him through perhaps the greatest challenge of his young life. The episode resonates with emotion, practical advice, and a powerful message about overcoming adversity in sports and life.

---

1. Kooper’s Trap Shooting Story: Family, Equipment, and Early Success

• Timestamps: 01:00 – 10:30

• Family Legacy: Kooper hails from Roosevelt, Utah and represents the third generation of active trap shooters in his family. His grandfather built the family trap club and served as ATA president in 1989.
  • “I was always around the trap club at Grandma’s... messed around on the trap range, not knowing what it was at all... Eventually, John Vosnos came and was like, you’re coming to shoot, talking to dad.” – Kooper, 04:18
  • Ricky fondly pokes about Randall (Kooper’s dad formerly “Randy”) and highlights the tight-knit family environment.
• Rapid Ascendancy: Kooper started ATA competition at age 13 after shooting about 50 practice singles. His rookie year saw major achievements:
  • Won the Utah State Handicap Championship
  • Made the All American team for the first time
  • Hit 100 and then 200 straight targets in competition (Labor Day shoot, Spanish Fork, Utah)
• Early Equipment Choices: Initially shot a TMX made by Parazzi, then a Perazzi MX3 for his rookie year, switching to a Krieghoff with a pro-soft stock mid-tournament after discovering an ill-fitting stock.
  • “Scores instantly went up. I started hitting them harder… that handicapped championship, I was one off high with [the] Krieghoff.” – Kooper, 08:35
• Emotional Drive: Kooper describes how being surrounded by competitors who knew his family history stoked his ‘addiction’ to the sport.
  • “There was a dedication. I was in it, and I was stuck in there and I thought it was cool.” – 06:57

---

2. The Accident: Facing the Unthinkable

• Timestamps: 10:30 – 16:30

• The Incident: On New Year’s, Kooper suffered a devastating accident—a BB pellet gun shot to the eye.
  • The pellet (copper, and toxic to the eye) went behind and around his eye, requiring emergency surgery. He was life-flighted to Salt Lake City.
  • “I went into surgery not knowing if I’d come out with an eye… miraculously… they shoved a magnet back there and it popped out on the last try, really.” – Kooper, 11:08
• Recovery and Residual Effects: Nearly lost the eye, expected to, but doctors successfully removed the BB with a magnet in a last-ditch effort.
  • Permanent damage includes “floaters,” a blind spot, and significant blurriness. “I have more floaters than that veteran next to me on post five… blood back there I have to look through.” – 14:47
  • Also, Kooper is red-green colorblind, making target acquisition much harder, especially against certain backgrounds (e.g., at Vegas or among trees).
    • “To boot, not be able to see the color of a target… a lot of backgrounds can affect it… I see [the] target as kind of a tannish brown.” – Kooper/Ricky, 13:05–13:35

---

3. Adapting Technique & Mental Resilience

• Timestamps: 16:55 – 44:04

• Innovating Solutions: After his vision changed, Kooper struggled with seeing his barrel and targets.
  • Ricky suggests wrapping white tape on the barrel’s end—a technique borrowed from ISSF skeet shooters—to increase barrel awareness.
    • “It was drastic. It really helped… just having a bit of that barrel awareness…” — Kooper, 19:12
• Mental Hurdles: Kooper’s rehabilitation involved far more than physical healing:
  • Emotional toll: “It was almost just getting through life at that point. …I wanted that All American team really, really bad... watched my name drop and drop… I just really wanted to push for that All American team. Wanted to prove people wrong.” – 20:13
  • Restrictive recovery: Bed rest, limited movement, couldn’t shower or walk upstairs due to risk of eye bleeding.
• Source of Inspiration: At Montana State Shoot, Kooper met a 10-year-old boy who lost his eye to a hunting accident but continued to shoot — providing Kooper priceless perspective.
  • “That really kept me going, seeing how that little kid... if he can do it, I could do it type of deal.” — 26:34

---

4. The Mindset of a Champion: Gratitude and Perspective

• Timestamps: 27:10 – 32:08

• Emphasis on Safety: The accident’s lessons drive home the importance of always wearing eye protection and never pointing a gun at anyone—even with airsoft/BB guns.
  • “It’s so important, so important to wear eye protection all the time... I’ve had a pellet hit my glasses and crack... large enough to take your eye right out.” — Zach, 27:10
• Perspective on Adversity: Kooper and the hosts compare his challenge to everyday setbacks, emphasizing gratitude.
  • “So many people... are upset because their coffee was cold… and they got to walk in the cold. And there’s so many people walking around with entitlement… you have to look at that and just say, it’s a blessing to be alive... to be able to go out and do our sport.” — Zach, 29:24
  • “That win is five times bigger than it would be to any other person.” — Kooper, on his Autumn Grand win, 30:55

---

5. Technical Adjustments Post-Injury

• Timestamps: 33:31 – 41:10

• Shooting Mechanics: Kooper tried to keep his fundamentals the same but had to make adjustments due to impaired right vision.
  • Raised his hold point slightly to accommodate difficulty tracking high targets.
  • Shifted left on the trap house to compensate for the new blind spot.
    • “I went out a little bit to the left more than what I used to… that blind spot covers that left side.” — Kooper, 36:21
  • Describes the necessity of trusting muscle memory and shooting “off feel,” since visual cues are unreliable:
    • “Pretty much what you see is the side of the barrel and there’s a target and then you’re just trying to look at it and shoot.” — 37:18
  • “There’s nothing to tell you that you’re on the bird… it’s all instinct now.” — 37:46
• Equipment for Colorblindness: Kooper recommends red-green colorblind Pilla glasses for others with color deficiency.
  • “I really recommend the red green colorblind Pillas for anyone colorblind.” — 39:30
• Trust the Process: Instinct and trust replace over-analysis, especially with his new disadvantages. Ricky cautions not to “overthink, overanalyze.” – 47:34

---

6. Historic Comeback: Winning the Autumn Grand Handicap

• Timestamps: 41:13 – 51:30

• Mental Pivot: Despite a rough Singles Championship, Kooper adopted a “nothing to lose” mindset for the Handicap.
  • “I had nothing to lose… go kick some butt. And it worked.” – 43:03
  • Before each box, Kooper tells himself:
    • “You’re here, you’re shooting, have fun. …I have told myself, I will never be that person [to throw shells and yell].” — 43:39
• Final Stretch: Ran the middle 50, dropped one on the first box, two on the last; focused on fun and positivity despite nerves.
  • “I was nervous, but I looked past that pretty quick and tried to get in a very offensive mindset.” — 44:09
• Victory: Waited anxiously for results alongside friends and family.
  • Ultimately tied with Trey Wilburn, but Trey left before the shoot-off and Kooper became champion by default.
  • “I knew it was raining, it was windy... I knew it would be somewhat up there, didn’t know if it would stick, but I was ready if I had to shoot off.” — 49:10

---

7. Looking Ahead: Goals, Gratitude, and Advice

• Timestamps: 51:30 – end

• Future Goals: Kooper is focused on enjoying the sport, continuing to heal, and maybe pursuing another All American team and the AAA 27 AAA accomplishment.
  • “I just want to keep shooting and breaking scores and proving I’m capable of being here.” – 56:13
  • “The cards are dealt. Let’s just keep playing them.” — Kooper, 56:51
• Powerful Support System: Thanks mom (Holly), dad (Randall), his twin Chloe (“Told me to suck it up and do it”), siblings, and coaches/friends for constant support throughout adversity.
  • “Grandma comes first, always… gotta thank everyone who’s supported me. Sean, Ricky, Zach, you guys have all been here for me… I thank every surgeon… they sure ran a miracle.” – 57:59
  • Shoutout to Outlaw Engineering, Trap Talk community, and all sponsors who supported his journey.
• Inspiring Mindset: Kooper’s resilience and gratitude give hope and wisdom to other youth shooters (and adults) struggling with setbacks, whether mental or physical.
  • “To have that mindset… there’s adults I know who wouldn’t have that mindset. You know, the anger sets in… but, you know, you got a great mindset, you know, thankfully to your mother… and everyone around you.” – Ricky, 56:54

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Adversity:
  • “It’s sure been a physical and emotional. Biggest bump in my life by far.” – Kooper, 10:40
  • “I went into surgery not knowing if I’d come out with an eye… miraculously, after four hours, they were about to give up… it popped out on the last try, really.” – 11:08
• On Mental Resilience:
  • “Even I, at first, shooting was out the window for the year… but I wanted that All American team really, really bad.” – Kooper, 20:13
  • “[After meeting another injured youth shooter:] If he can do it, I could do it type of deal.” – 26:34
• On Perspective:
  • “The cards are dealt. Let’s just keep playing them.” – Kooper, 56:51
  • “There’s so many people walking around this world with entitlement… you have to look at that and just say, it’s a blessing to be alive, to have vision.” – Zach, 29:24

---

Key Timestamps

| Segment | Description | Timestamp | |---|---|---| | Introduction & Family Background | Kooper’s upbringing in a multigenerational trap family | 01:00–06:00 | | Entering Competitive Trap | Early achievements and love for the game | 06:00–10:30 | | BB Gun Accident & Injury | Details of the accident, surgery, and aftermath | 10:30–16:30 | | Equipment & Technical Adjustments | Switching guns, visual aids, and new style | 07:30–08:53, 33:31–41:10 | | Mental Recovery & Meeting the “Montana Kid” | Overcoming emotional hurdles, perspective gained | 20:13–26:34 | | Winning the Autumn Grand | High-pressure championship moments | 41:13–51:30 | | Future Plans & Mindset | Goals, gratitude, and ongoing journey | 51:30–end |

---

Closing Thoughts

Kooper Freston’s story isn’t merely about overcoming setbacks in trap shooting, but about resilience in the face of the unexpected and the power of community support. The episode is both an educational resource on technical adaptation and an inspiring lesson in the right competitive mindset—reminding us all that with adversity comes the opportunity for even greater triumph.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to season four of Trap Talk.

[B]

Brought to you by Craig off the choice of champions.

[A]

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

[B]

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 2026 year. Who knows?

[A]

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

[B]

Thanks everyone.

[A]

Hello, Trap Talk listeners. I'm your host, Zach Denini with my fearless co host, Richard Marshall Jr. The one and only.

[B]

What's up?

[A]

Welcome to the show, Ricky.

[B]

What's up? What's up?

[A]

We've also got our good friend From Outlaw Engineering, Mr. Cooper D. Freston in the house, fresh off of big Win, which we'll talk a lot about today. But welcome to the show, Coop.

[C]

Hey, thanks for having me. It's going to be a fun time with old Rick.

[B]

Oh, yeah, hashtag, where's Coop? We know where Coop's at tonight.

[A]

It's hard to keep track of these kids, but we found them, we taught. We, we tied them down. We got, we got Randy to hold them and say, hey, we need some time with him. We need an interview. We didn't know what' going on in the, in the fren world. So we appreciate you making time in the schedule for us little folks.

[C]

Hey, I'm free. You guys are bigger than me.

[A]

Physically, yes, but. So, Rick, would you mind introducing Coupe for the listeners?

[B]

Oh, absolutely. Oh, yes, I will. So I've known Coupe since he started shooting because I've known his father for a long, long time. Me and Randall, we don't call him Randy anymore, folks. His name is Randall. So everybody out there, when you see him, call him Randall.

[C]

That's Randall.

[B]

It's permanent.

[C]

It is.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

They're permanent. We're gonna get the courts to change his name. But anyways, let's move on to the bigger part of this discussion, and that's Cooper. So Coop has been shooting two and a half years now. Going on your third year.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

You know, he hails from Roosevelt, Utah. He has won the Utah State Handicap Championship his rookie year. Okay, then he won. He made the All American team this year for the first time. But he is now the current Autumn Grand Handicap champion. So those are some of his big wins. But he does have a 100 straight. But he also has a 200 straight, which he sent me a lovely photo. Bam. On Facetime. We were that day. So broke his first 200 at the Labor Day shoot in Spanish Fork, Utah, which is a great club. So anybody wants to go shoot some great targets, head on out to Spanish Fork. But Coop is going through some stuff. We'll get into that. Or has had some issues, I guess, in the past. It's coming up on a year and how he's. Yeah, how he's still shooting, folks, we'll discuss a lot of that here in the show, but Coop has put forth a lot of effort and shot some great scores and, you know, thankful to his father, you know, traveling around, taking him everywhere, but more or less, it's his mom letting him go. You know, Holly tends to run that household, so, yeah, she was ready to.

[C]

Kill me this summer.

[B]

Yes, she was. So. But Coop, what. Let's get into it and we'll discuss some of the stuff and, you know, what's going on, your future plans and everything.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, Coop. So the first question I want to ask you is, you know, being in a multi generational trap shooting family, you know, obviously grandpa now into dad and you, you know, what's that like? Because in my family, I was. I was the first one to ever shoot traps, so I didn't have, like, you know, this.

[B]

This.

[A]

This road map of other people around it. How soon were you introduced to the game before you started shooting it? And what made you decide you wanted to hop on the bandwagon?

[C]

So we've got the trap club at Grandma's, obviously, that my grandpa built. And so I was always around that a little bit. Messed around on the trap range, not knowing what it was at all. Just kind of ran around with the cousins and we. Eventually we were sitting on the porch and John Vosnos came and was like, you're coming to shoot talking to dad. I had two broken feet at the time, so I was a little out. But until then, I never shot an ATA target going into that. The Rocky Mountain Open in Spanish Fork. I never shot an ATA target. And I shot probably 50 practice singles, and I went straight into it.

[A]

So. So practiced. Loved it. Decided, okay, I'm gonna get into ata and just started going. And that was. How many years ago do you think that was?

[C]

About two and a half. It was about right.

[A]

So.

[B]

So.

[A]

And. And how old were you when that was?

[C]

I was 13.

[A]

Okay, so 13 years old. Started shooting. Same age I started, and then boom. You started hitting the circuit pretty heavy after you got a liking for it, Right? I mean. And you started picking things up pretty quickly.

[C]

Oh, yeah, We. We Got. I think dad had over 20, 000. He made the 20, 000 targets that year. And I had about 17.

[B]

I think you had. Exactly, Coop. 16, 200 targets.

[C]

Leave it right here.

[B]

Which is.

[A]

That's about 17, 000, buddy. You're good.

[C]

I'm on it.

[B]

Financial advisor here talking. Adding numbers ain't his strong suit, but it's okay.

[A]

Round up. That's the strong suit. Round up.

[C]

I'll round up later.

[B]

Yeah, that's right. No, and that. Coop. So you started your first shoot was the. The Labor Day shoot then? Yes, at Spanish Fork. Nice. Yeah, I just. I just looked. I got your scores pulled up here. So. First shoot, you know, broke 74 out of 100. I mean that.

[C]

You don't talk about that no more.

[B]

Ah, Coop, listen. And like I always say, you're only as good as your last shot, so.

[A]

I've. I've had worse scores than that. Way worse than that. That ain't. That ain't bad. You ain't. You ain't live till you got down in the low 50s. I mean, that's where you. That's where you get some real stuff done, folks.

[B]

Don't listen to Zach.

[A]

So, Coop, it sounds like you had an instant love for it. You were around yet your whole life. And then having the range there, it's like, okay, we're gonna get more serious. What did you feel emotionally when you started really traveling around and going and doing it for the first time versus just kind of being around it and shooting at the backyard?

[C]

I mean, it was cool. It was. There was a dedication. I was in it, and I was stuck in there and I thought it was cool. You meet a lot of people who knew my grandpa and who will give you stories. They'll also give stories about Randall. Ask Ricky about that. I've been addicted to it.

[A]

It's a trap talk after hours episode.

[B]

That's another episode, folks.

[A]

That's for another day. We'll get into the Randall.

[B]

We'll call that random bloopers.

[A]

Randall.

[B]

Ricky.

[A]

Stories could. Could be its own. Its own show in itself.

[C]

Yeah, I don't think that can be published.

[B]

Probably not. Probably not.

[A]

So for you, when you started, what was the equipment like? And then what's the transition that you've made to now? What are you shooting? What were you shooting?

[C]

So I started out with. For singles. I was shooting a TMX that Daniel Perottzi made for my dad when my grandpa was ATA president. And then I couldn't shoot doubles with it. It was only a Single barrel. So I shot a Perazzi high tech for a minute. That didn't last very long, and I ended up buying a Parati MX3. And I shot that my whole rookie year.

[A]

Yep. Okay.

[C]

The beginning of my second year at the Autumn Grand, I just wasn't hitting the scores I wanted with the MX3. And by then we bought a Craig off, but we didn't have a stock for it that fit me. And we were talking to Dave and I was putting his gun up and it fit perfectly. And he's like, oh. And we were talking about how I didn't have a stock, and he's like, oh, I've got a pro soft sock for Cooper. And so we bought it and I switched mid shoot.

[A]

Did it feel like it worked Pretty much right off the bat?

[C]

Oh, yeah. My scores instantly went up. I started hitting them harder, and I think that handicapped championship, I was one off high with Craig off.

[B]

Yep. Yeah.

[A]

Because that was the year before you just won it. Right? That was literally the same shoot a year later.

[C]

Yep. I was one off that year and I won it this year.

[A]

Yeah. Because I remember how good you shot that day. Because if. If memory serves me correct correctly, and I could be wrong, but I think. Didn't you win it the year before, Rick?

[B]

Yeah, I won it. Was it last year?

[A]

That would be last year.

[B]

Yes. Yeah. 20, 25, 24.

[A]

Yeah. Because I thought maybe. I thought maybe you broke that 96 in the wind in the morning and won and then. Yeah, correct, because I remember. And then Coop was right there with that 95. And then, you know, this year he ended up winning the whole thing, which.

[B]

Was with a 97 loner. Oh, that loner. He was tied. But the guy he was tied with decided that he was leaving. He was scared, I think.

[C]

I don't know about that one.

[B]

No, that's. That's our good friend Trey Wilburn. So Trey. Trey's a good guy. And. And he. Yeah, Zach. I think it was 23 that I won that 23.

[A]

Yeah. It might be right.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

I got. It all kind of blends together in my head.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't remember all of it, but I do remember. I remember seeing Coop at the top of the board.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I was like, man, Coop almost won this thing. And then the next year he did win the damn thing. And I'm like, that's. That's. That's pretty impressive to stack scores like that. But I think, you know what's even more impressive, Coop, is, you know, the quality of scores that you're shooting now because you've been through a lot, I guess, you know, you know, to cover the elephant in the room. Tell your story of kind of what you've gone through with this last year and, and how it's affected your, you know, your vision and your shooting and just everything that you want to share.

[C]

It's sure been a physical and emotional. Biggest bump in my life by far. So New Year's, I took a BB pellet gun to the eye and it. I had to get. I went to the ER and I had to get life flighted to Primary Children's in Salt Lake because the BB went behind my eye, through the corner and around, and they. The BB was copper, which is toxic to the eye.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

It had to go, otherwise it would have been a bad day. So I went into surgery not knowing if I'd come out with an eye. They told my parents, do not expect him to come out with it and live like that. But miraculously, after I think four hours, they were about to give up and they shoved a magnet back there and it popped out on the last try, really. And wow, there it was. Just a long recovery, still going through. It never will recover fully, but it's been, it's been different. I've never had floaters in my eye before that as many trap shooters do, but they are. It's. It's hard. It sure is something to get through. I've got blood back there that I have to look through. And it sure affects every day.

[A]

Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, so, you know, one day you're, you know, you're shooting great, you know, and we watched you on the come up. I mean, that first real year that you were chasing the all American team, it was. You were always getting a little better, getting a little bit better, getting a little bit better, getting a little bit better. And then to have something, you know, shake you to the core, where it's not even about shooting anymore, it's about, well, crap, I might lose my eye for life. Right? That's, you know, that's got to be very difficult to just emotionally deal with. I mean.

[C]

Oh, yeah, it was. It was hard to look past. I mean, shooting was my biggest worry. Obviously, I was super worried about that because that's one of your main things in shooting is your vision, being able to see that target. And I was finally starting to be able to get a hold of things and starting to get my fundamentals down after that first year. And I think I had maybe 2,000 3,000 targets, and those were the last targets I would shoot normally.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Coop. Coop had some. Some issues. And just so people understand, too, Coop, that hasn't really said. Coop, you're also red, green, colorblind.

[C]

Oh, yeah. They're out for me.

[B]

So to boot, not be able to see the color of a target like you. And I see Zach, he doesn't see that at all. And so a lot of backgrounds can affect it because of picking up the. The target. Because what do you. You're seeing? The target is kind of a. Is it gray or is it a light or dark gray? Light gray. What do you see?

[C]

Tannish, Brown. To where?

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Like any background, really, with tree background or like.

[B]

Vegas is real tough then.

[C]

Oh, yeah, Vegas. I. I love Vegas. It's one of the best shoots out there that's ran perfectly. You guys know that. But I just. It's impossible for me, especially with my. Now my worse eye problems.

[B]

Yeah. Well, remember we were doing lessons there under the lights, and Coops was like blowing up targets, and I was like, well, maybe we do some night events and Cooper have no problem, you know?

[A]

Yeah. If you put a black background against it, then you're fine.

[B]

But.

[A]

But if you have that. That kind of that tan background desert look, and that target looks tan. I mean, you've got to mistake targets for rocks all the time. You'd be like, oh, yeah, just miss me. Just shot the hell out of that rock, though.

[C]

That's. Well, it's terrible. Even like a green tree with. Because I'm red, green, colorblind, even. That is almost impossible for me to do.

[B]

Well, and also, Coop, just so people understand his. His eye deal that, you know you've got an actual hole in your eye.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

That is it very significant because now when. So people understand Coop, what do you see mainly?

[C]

Oh, it's really blurry. I mean, most people have floaters. They know what that looks like. But you. I have probably more floaters than that veteran next to me on post five. I've got blood, a trap. Ton of blood back there. And I even have a little blind spot about right here to where I can't see across that corner.

[B]

So you can't. So basically, if you take your finger and put it in your corner like this, and you're looking like this. So you close your eye. I can't see nothing. So you're. You're losing stuff to left. So just so people are aware, that is the hole.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

In Cooper's eye. Yeah.

[A]

It's big.

[B]

And see all the red. That is the blood.

[C]

That is the best it's probably ever looked since.

[A]

Yes, that's the good picture.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

There was a picture where there was so much blood. You cannot see that hole. We just found it like a few months ago.

[B]

Yeah. Wow.

[C]

Almost a year.

[A]

Wow. It'll be.

[B]

Yeah. 16 days and we're. We're at a year and go, Zach.

[A]

No, no, that's just. It's just amazing to me that you, that you're. That you're able to win still. And we're going to talk a lot about that. But it's. Oh, my God. I mean, it. It catastrophic that type of injury.

[B]

Now if you look, let me get this camera to focus. Maybe all that red there is blood.

[C]

And it was to the point where you could not see almost the veins in that picture.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Of all that blood. It was just covered.

[B]

So that's. That's a big deal to. To most people out there and you know, not be able to see certain targets. So, you know, now going back to this summer when you were shooting, Coop traveled out to California State. Shoot. He loves to go out there and shoot. You know, Zach, which is, you know, your old. At Kingsburg and they have a curtain. Well, with certain targets in that curtain. You. He didn't have any really, you know, barrel target awareness because of his eye.

[A]

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 Mid State Precious Metal. Show them the goods.

[B]

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

[A]

Zach, but you know, I always want.

[B]

To get that gold shotgun shells, 10 ounce bars. Folks. He can do anything for you. For all your shoot needs, give Ron Prescott a call midstatepreciousmetals.com He's a great guy.

[A]

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.

[B]

That's right. Thanks for all the support.

[A]

Hey, Rick, we got to take a second. We got to thank Outlaw Engineering and the Fren 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.

[B]

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

[A]

I know, I was there. I got to interview.

[B]

Great.

[A]

I was so proud of him, he's doing a great job. 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.

[B]

Thanks for all the support. Outlaw.

[A]

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.

[B]

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

[A]

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

[B]

Absolutely. Get a hold of Cole Kushman and he'll get you set up. So Randall called and, you know, was freaking out and, and stuff because he was struggling and hey, totally, you know, understand. And so I said, well, hey, why don't we try this? Why don't we take and wrap the barrel with white tape at the end, like the last three to six inches of that barrel. And what they do is in, in. Zach, I know you've seen this in issf, the international ski. They do it because the gun is down. Okay. So with the gun down, when they bring it up, it's. They're aware of the barrel. So Coop went out and. And they wrapped it up and. And Coop scores. Just shoo.

[C]

No way. It was drastic. It really helped. And it's not like I look at my barrel, but how blurry that vision was. I had no clue where it was. It was like shooting night games in vernal.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Just having a little bit of that barrel awareness. You'd be perfect.

[B]

So.

[A]

So are you still keeping that tape on all the time now? Do you find that that's the answer to help?

[C]

I've just left the tape on. I don't know if it helps or it hurts, but my scores have improved.

[B]

Yeah. So.

[A]

So before we get into the shooting and I, I just want to circle back a little bit and go through, you know, kind of the emotional pattern and where you were. Because I mean, for me, if I would have had, you know, being a shooter and loving as much as I love it, if I'd have had something happen to my eyes, I'd have probably got pretty, pretty sad and pretty upset. How did you work through that? For people that have maybe struggled with something in the game and decided to give up where you didn't. You, you didn't give up. You kept going so, so, you know, walk us through the mentality and walk us through, you know, how you push to where you are now.

[C]

I mean it was almost just getting through life at that point. Even I, at first shooting was out the window for the year. It was probably to the point where I wanted to bag it for the year and come back and start this year again. But I wanted that All American team really, really bad. And I just started off and I was, I think fifth, Fifth when I got shot.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

And slowly over time, I just watched my name drop and drop lower and lower and I couldn't shoot. They restricted me to where I couldn't even walk up the stairs because the, they would bleed more from behind.

[B]

The.

[C]

I slept on the couch for probably a month.

[B]

Yeah, the elevation, wasn't it that going up, doing like bending over, doing any like normal stuff.

[C]

I was basically on bed rest. I couldn't shower. I had to go wash my hair in the sink, wash my body, couldn't get it wet, nothing. And I just really wanted to push for that All American team. I think that was my biggest reason to keep going. Wanted to prove people wrong, that I could keep going and just keep shooting.

[A]

Well, I'm glad you stayed positive and I'm glad you, you pushed through that and you had goals because I think in life everyone has setbacks at some level. The most setbacks aren't a BB in your eye.

[B]

But you know, we all, they're not that physical.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's, that's a huge setback. Right. Like most people set back as, oh, you know, I gained a little weight, lost a little weight or you know, I, I sprained my ankle or my knee or you know, you know, something or like you said, the floaters. Right. We're dealing with floaters because of age and, and that's all very real stuff. But you know, very, very rarely do people have to go through these big life altering things where it's like, man, it's not even about trap shooting anymore. It's just about like, am I gonna get through this or am I gonna, am I gonna be able to see again? And oh yeah. And I'm sure along with that you're worried about infection or losing the eye. Like the whole time you have to be worried about just keeping the eye right.

[C]

Oh yeah. I, it's still a possibility that I go in and there's a retina tear that I would have to get my eye pretty much fixed and may not have vision in it again still. But we're trying to look past that and do what I can while I have it.

[B]

We'll take you down and get it replaced, don't worry. Yeah, I'm sure we can get something fixed down there.

[C]

No problem in my hands. I am set.

[A]

We'll put a pig eye in there, you'll be good to go.

[C]

I'll come visit Nandini for one.

[B]

Yeah, there you go. Here's the one thing is, is so people understand out there is, you know, this happened and you know, for the mental side and you know, Coop's 15, 15 years old, 363 days in two days would be 16, him and his, him and his. Was it Wednesday, right? Yeah. So Wednesday him and his twin sister Chloe will be 16. So stay off the sidewalks folk, because they'll be driving on him.

[C]

I'm sure me, yeah.

[B]

But in the, the big picture of this, the mental side as a 15 year old kid, this happening and this is something you love to do. You know, his family is. His grandpa was president of the ATA in 1989. You know, Randy shopped for several years. Then, you know, Randy had a hiatus there, you know, and working and started Outlaw engineering and all that. And then Coop finds this sport he loves like we do and everybody listening to this show does and then this happens. So have a big setback. And it's not just the physical setback, it's the mental setback of the, the what ifs, the am I ever going to be able to shoot again? Am I ever going to be able to see right again? Am I ever going to do this? You know, and you got all these doctors, which, you know, I, I have a lot of doctor friends, but I've always said they only practice medicine. So, you know, but keeping him mentally strong, you know, a lot of phone conversations, a lot of stuff that, you know what, you just got to go do it. And that's the thing where, you know, Coupe is out there shooting, I mean, broke his first 200 straight back in September, which there's a lot of people, I'm sure that never thought you'd even shoot again, let alone break a 25 straight, let alone a hundred straight. And then break 200 straight, you know, huge. That's a huge deal. And then just, you know, winning the Autumn Grand Handicap, you know, I mean that's a, you know, a satellite grand championship. There's a lot of shooters out there.

[A]

That have shot a long time.

[B]

Never have one, never won one, you.

[A]

Know, never get one.

[B]

Yeah, that's huge. Now what is it that really kept you going and wanted. Was it the all American team? Was it the goals? Like we had talked about setting goals and stuff. Was that one of your biggest things that just kept you pushing forward? It was your mom yelling at you.

[C]

Mom was more supportive of definitely keeping on going. She did not want me to quit and throw that away. But I think that was my main goal. I definitely, I wanted to share a story of Montana. I had an eye opener that day and I met this little kid, he was probably 10 years old, and he wanted to meet me. He had heard that I got shot in the right eye. So I went and meet this kid. Little did I know this kid got shot with a 12 gauge in the face while hunting pheasants and he no longer has an eye that works. And he came up to me, he was excited to meet me and he was still shooting and this kid was happy as can be. And that was about midway at the Montana State shoot through the summer. That really kept me going, seeing how that little kid, he was 10 years old, I was at least had some years shooting. He didn't have much shooting experience and he got robbed of that. And seeing how happy he was, I wanted to keep going. If he can do it, I could do it type of deal.

[B]

That's awesome. That's. Yeah, that. I mean that is like. So the kid's 10 years old. Did he, could he see a little bit then? Just. No.

[C]

His eye was pretty buggered up from what happened.

[B]

No kidding.

[C]

But he started. I've had that one. He'd had like five, I think, when I met him.

[B]

Oh, God, that's, that's too bad. Well, that's horrible.

[A]

You know, it's horrible.

[B]

At least he's trying to do it and, and you know, but your vision, we take it for granted. Everybody does.

[C]

I never would have thought of it if this hadn't happened.

[B]

It's.

[C]

You don't think about it. It's just something every day.

[A]

Well, and, and to preach on a little bit of the safety. I mean, yes, it's so important, so important to wear eye protection all the time. I mean, all the time when you're out there, anytime you're around. I mean, this situation, obviously you weren't wearing eye protection because youyou know, you're coming around a corner and you getyou get popped in the eye and you weren't expecting it. I mean, that's kinda hard toto prevent, but you know, it's, I've, I've had, I've been out in a field hunting before and I'VE had a pellet hit my glasses and crack the glasses right where my retina would be. And if it's, you know, if it's large enough to crack the, the glasses, you know, it's probably large enough to.

[B]

Take your eye right out.

[A]

Take your eye right out. And so. Yeah, I know, I know guys is.

[B]

Very lucky that it actually hit the corner versus a couple millimeters in and it would have been over a sixteenth.

[C]

Of an inch and it would have went blind. And if you, your temple's right there. I mean it's, it's hard either way. It's the reality.

[A]

You could have died or you could have lost your eye.

[C]

I mean, I'm, I'm definitely blessed for everything. I mean, it's hard to say with what I'm going through, but I'm definitely lucky.

[B]

Yeah, but it's still, you know, you should never point a gun at anybody.

[A]

It's hard nowadays. And I think especially when you get to these, you know, and to speak now, not in this situation, but other situations like you know, you know, Airsofts or the gel guns or the, all the stuff that these kids have now where they're shooting them around. And I mean, even if it's not a steel pellet, even if it's not a, a, a copper pellet, you can still get an ey shot out with an airsoft bb. Right? So it's like, I think whenever kids are playing with that kind of stuff and having fun with it, I mean, for, they definitely need to have the, the proper protection in that world. And if it's anything more than, you know, the plastic pellet airsoft stuff, then, you know, just don't ever take a chance with it. Don't ever point it at someone because those, yeah, those, those air pellet rifles are, are, are very, very damaging and, and could even be deadly. And it's, it's sad what you've gone through, Coop, but I'm also, I'm seeing that you're getting perspective because even with you, you seeing that 10 year old and what he went through, you said okay, well, the perspective is, yeah, things are okay, you know, in, in the scheme of things. And even for him, he's probably lost his eye, but he's like, you know what? I'm still alive. And so perspectively, you, you, you have to look at the, the brighter side of things. And I think so many people wake up every day and they don't have the right perspective and they're upset because their coffee was cold or, or the the credit card reader was out on the. On the gas station machine, like, and they got to walk in in the cold, like. And there's so many people walking around this world with entitlement and with these preconceived notions that, oh, the world owes me something, or. Or, oh, this. This major inconvenience in my life. And they're, you know, they're eating out of a silver spoon. And. And you. You just have to. You have to look at that and just say, it's a blessing. It's a blessing to be alive. It's a blessing to have vision. It's a blessing to be able to go out and do our sport. And I'm sure that winning now for you is probably 10 times sweeter than winning before.

[C]

Oh, yeah. Everything that I felt before is just higher now. Like, making that all American team felt like I was just high, as high, the king of the world, just because of what it had been to get to that point. Even though Autumn grand win, like, a year from that when it happened, I'm happy as can be. That win is five times bigger than it would be to any other person.

[A]

Well, I. I would. I mean, I'd be doing cartwheels if I could do one.

[B]

Zach, don't try.

[A]

I don't want to. I don't want to die. I'll be. I'll be in a neck brace for the rest of my life doing the podcast. I'll be like, should have done that.

[B]

Well, you know what? Hey, I'll just bring Cooper on. He can replace you.

[A]

I'm filler material anyway. What can I say? So get into the. The technical side of your shooting. How much did you have to change the game from pre incident and post incident? I mean, you're shooting the same style. Did you change the style? And. And if you did, either way, what is your process to break targets? You know, Rick, 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.

[B]

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 double from first shot to second shot. You can see it on the graph. You can see it on video.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, if you talk about that J Hook with Sean Holley 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.

[B]

Take aim technologies.

[A]

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?

[B]

I'm thinking there's some good set targets and they got to be a white flyer.

[A]

They got to be white flyer. I mean, we were just a 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.

[B]

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

[A]

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

[B]

No, Zach, what does it stand for?

[A]

Really good.

[B]

Well, that is true. It is good stuff, folks. I use it to clean my barrels and it does make them shine.

[A]

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.

[B]

That's right. Give RGS a try. We appreciate all the support.

[A]

Rick, I really think that gunfit is probably the most important part of shooting big scores. Would you agree with that?

[B]

Absolutely. I think gun fit is the most important thing.

[A]

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 straight from the 27 within seven days. I mean, I'm sure your experience has been similar.

[B]

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

[A]

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

[B]

Absolutely. Winig.com Check them out.

[C]

I mean, I mostly kept every fundamental the same. It was kind of like learning to ride a bike again. The first shot after I took was at the spring grand. I went and practiced with my dad and I think I shot maybe a 14 out of 25 in singles. And that was. It's. It's been hard emotionally to keep going through those terrible scores because I've definitely had them. So be grateful for your scores, first of all. And I. I haven't changed much. I mean, before every shot I have to move my eye like left to right to try and get just a little glimpse of vision to where I can try to catch the target. But most of times I don't even see the target come out with my right eye. I basically shoot left eyed, right handed and it's, I'm, it's muscle memory at this point and I only have maybe a year and a quarter at the time of getting shot, so it's not much muscle memory to work with.

[B]

But one thing Coop, you could explain too is we did move your whole points over a little bit and it played with that trying to get his right eye to pick up the target just a little bit. Because being right eye dominant still, even though you have bad vision, that right eye is going to try to dictate which way the gun moves at first, you know, right off the bat. And that's all just, you know, for everybody out there, that's a, a split second, that's a hundredth of a second reaction type of deal. But that makes a difference because. And that's what I tried to help cooperate was like, listen, shoot these with your left eye. That's all fine, but you got to be able to try to see it a little bit. And then it's all about just trusting yourself. And you know, for everybody out there. Coop's only shot a couple years and he was, there's a lot of ups and downs to this. People don't realize that, you know, you, you know, he's a great shot and he would be, I think even leaps and bounds higher if that wasn't for this incident, you know, and he's just going through the every day like, okay, let's, you know, just let her rip. And that's what I've told him.

[A]

Like let her rip.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

You know, so, so get into the technical side. Are you on the house like me and Ricky? Are you above the house? What's the specific hold points that you find are working for you now that you have that encumbered vision?

[C]

So height wise, I probably raised it a little bit to try and not have to quite climb so high because like a high target, when you have to track that all the way up to where I can get to it and shoot it, I lose it by then. So I really prefer low targets over anything because I don't have to follow it up with my eyes as much, but I went out a little bit to the left more than what I used to.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Just to try and get that. Because that blind spot covers that left side. So I have to try and beat it there before it gets too far. Right side I've left alone. But height w. Height wise, I've moved it up just a little bit.

[A]

Okay. And for, for the listeners, you're not seeing because your right eyes dead on that side. You're not seeing the beads and the barrel and everything come in and a nice perfect picture. You're just seeing. You're seeing kind of a barrel down here and everything's being shot with the left eye and there's no connection point. It's just all instinct. Right.

[C]

Like there's nothing you put nothing to.

[A]

Tell you that you're on the bird eye.

[C]

That's hard.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It'd be like if I closed my right eye and had the gun mounted, I'd see a gun in front of me.

[B]

You would see the side of the.

[A]

Barrels, which I would see the side of the barrel. And so, so is it truly. Pretty much what you see is the side of the barrel and there's a target and then you're just trying to look at it and shoot.

[C]

So I try to see it with my right eye out of the house and try because I've learned it almost time where when I move my eye to move the blood in the floaters out of the way a little bit when I call pull and. But once I start going, it basically switches to the left eye and it's a memory and kind of just left eyed vision thing.

[A]

Do you say okay, like if you were to look at it, does it look like the gun is way off of the target when it's in the right spot?

[B]

Oh yeah.

[C]

You're gonna miss it by probably 20ft. But I've trusted.

[A]

So. So you're shooting off true instinct now. It's just I, I see that my head's on the gun, I know where the gun shoots. There's the target. Wap. But if you look back for any feedback, you're gonna be like, there's no way this is the right spot. Because it's, it's, it's, it's crossing vision, correct?

[C]

Yes, it is.

[A]

Yeah. I mean that's. And we had someone else on the show that shot right handed. That was left eye dominant.

[B]

Dusty Klein.

[A]

Dusty, right.

[B]

He's right handed, left eye dominant. But Dusty uses the, the tube site, the long like 3 inch tube site that he can see just with his right eye.

[A]

And he can still see good on his right eye.

[B]

Well, yeah, he's, he didn't get shot in the eye.

[A]

Yeah, that's a whole nother. That's. You know, there are maybe a few people that are shooting right handed with left eyes, you know, dominant and two eyes open.

[B]

But not colorblind and not been shot in the eye.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

The color blindness does not help at all. I will say that.

[A]

Yeah, that. That was probably a struggle before you got the eye issue.

[C]

Oh, yeah. I remember before shooting in Spanish Fork, we were looking on this computer at types of glasses, and we never quite found one. I'd always just been putting glasses up every time I saw them and never could see it quite well. And we found the colorblind pillas, the red green colorblind pelas, and we ordered them before I'd even looked through them because that was my best bet for my type of colorblindness. And instantly it was way better than anything. I really recommend the red green colorblind pelas for anyone colorblind.

[A]

Well, that's. That's a good information because I'm sure there's a lot of people that have, you know, color colorblind deficiencies. And, you know, seeing the bar, seeing the target is everything in our game. I mean, it's.

[B]

Yeah, it's.

[A]

It's the most important part. And. And for you to. To go from where you were to where you are now, and you're still advancing and still working on it. I think if you keep trusting it, Coop, and you just keep shooting and shooting and learning, you're probably going to get better and better and better, because you're not. You're not. The biggest problem that I have as a shooter, as I see everything so perfect that sometimes I want to measure the tip of the gun to the target. You want to say, oh, well, that's the spot that I want to put it to. Instead of just trusting your eyes on the bird and really just looking at the bird, because no matter if you're right eye dominant, left eye dominant, looking at the bird and keeping in the gun is the secret.

[C]

Oh, yeah. There's no looking at the barrel because I kind of can't. So burger nothing. And there's most time, it's nothing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's the one thing Zach is. He. He doesn't. He sees totally different than we do. And for the people out there that don't understand why Coop said, you know, he's blind on the inside because that's how the eye is. If. If he'd have been shot on the inside of the eye, it probably been better because then it had been the Outside, and you could have at least seen better, but it's reversed, you know, with the eye, so. And we don't know if there's any, you know, so anybody listening? If there's a doctor out there that says, hey, I know what can. We can fix this or this could be done, or try this or try that, send it into us, you know, so we can help Coop and other people out there that have issues, you know.

[C]

Oh, yeah, I'm willing to try anything that helps.

[A]

Yeah, that's. That's. That's important. And I mean, I love, I love that the trap talk community has been so responsive when we asked for something, whatever, whatever it might be, whether it's sending a question or helping out, and we really appreciate it, guys. And, you know, Coops had a long battle to this point, and he's got a long battle moving forward. But, you know, to speak on a happier note, I kind of want to talk about how you felt on that autumn grand Sunday when you won the handicap, because I was there, you were there. And I. I remember, you know, one or two days before that handicap, I remember coming by and checking out the. The rv and, you know, and you necessarily weren't shooting, you know, where you wanted to be shooting. And I'm like, hey, we got more events to shoot. And then I'm like, I look on the board and you won the whole damn thing. And I'm like, well, I guess he's. He listened. I mean, he didn't. You know, it wasn't like you were, you know, you were counting yourself out of the game. It was. It was just like, how do I figure this out? So. So that 24 hours going into it, knowing that you weren't shooting as good as you wanted to shoot, what shifted and clicked and what changed to go from a, you know, defensive, oh, crap, I'm not doing as good mentality to I'm going to go win this handicap.

[C]

I mean, I have to thank everyone like Zach that has came and supported me, because there's definitely been a lot of people, and I cannot thank all of them, but they know that I'm very thankful for what they've done. And going back to, like, that defensive to offensive mindset. I had nothing to lose at that point. I had shot, I think, a 184 in the singles championship. I went 99, and it got cloudy, and cloudy is really hard on my eye, so that was hard. And I told myself, you've got nothing to lose. You're shooting. Go kick some butt. And it worked.

[A]

That day worked on Sunday, worked when you needed dominated.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Did you, did you run the last box? Or like, where was your. Where were your misses at? Do you remember?

[C]

So I dropped one on the first box and that's when I realized I could do it because it was cloudy, it was windy, it rained for through half of it. And I ran the middle 50, got a little bit in my head, dropped two on the last one.

[B]

So. Okay, let's go back. Coop, you ran the middle 50, so you ran the second box and then you ran the third box. What. What was going through your head?

[C]

I have a thing where before every box, after my incident, I tell myself, you're here, you're shooting, have fun. Because I see kids all the time throwing their shells, yelling at someone, being ignorant, moving around. And I have told myself, I will never be that person, no matter what. And I told myself, you've got nothing to lose. Go have fun and kick butt.

[B]

So when you went out to the last box, you're down one. Were you a little nervous?

[C]

I was nervous. I will. I was nervous, but I looked past that pretty quick and tried to get in a very offensive mindset.

[B]

Yeah, because like I've told you, never shoot defense. You know, we try to tell your dad that sometimes it, you know, you know how Randall is.

[C]

That's Randall.

[A]

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? Yeah.

[B]

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.

[A]

That's really cool. And what they got is a deal right now. If you put Trap Talk PN for the print version and Trap Talk D for the digital version. It's 19.99 for the 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.

[B]

Absolutely. Thank you for all the support.

[A]

Hey, folks, we really want 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. 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?

[B]

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

[A]

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 premium once a year, you get free pre squatting in all the shoots. And that's the best value in trap shoot.

[B]

Absolutely. Sosclays.com hey, Zach, have you been out to 73 Pointers Ranch lately?

[A]

You know, I have. Rick and Carla Burke have been great. I normally hunt pheasants and chucker down there, but now they got a brand new sporting clay facility and it is top notch. I shot it the other day, absolutely loved it. And if you guys haven't, you need to go give it a check out.

[B]

Well, I'll have to come out and do a little hunting and we'll shoot some sporting clays then.

[A]

45 minutes from St. Louis Airport. Come see it if you haven't. Guys, check them out.

[B]

It's Randall.

[A]

Hey, those engineers you got, you got to think some stuff through. Otherwise cost a lot of money. People get, things bad happen. So I've. I've shot with a lot of engineers and worked with some engineers, and. And it's just. It's a Beautiful Mind. I mean, but there's like, okay, why are we doing this? And how many layers of things are we thinking about? And. And that causes you to actually analyze on the way and overthink onto the shot. I'm closer to, you know, engineer mindset, where I'm like, I need to know why and how all this stuff works. Because for me, if I don't know it, I can't let it all go. I just, I, or Ricky's just like, there's the target whap. And he smokes it. And it's just.

[B]

No, Zach. Now listen, you just said a lot of stuff there, but your actual deal is me see target, me shoot target. That's.

[A]

That never worked that way. It never worked that way for me. Ricky says that for me, it has to be, it has to be like, okay, why are these things working and what is going on? And so I can, I can appreciate that, know that deeper engineer mindset, but it does cause you to, to be a little bit too cautious over the process. Overanalyze.

[B]

Never, never overthink. Overanalyze. And that's for everybody out there, you know, you know, coupe. That is an, an awesome mindset of, you know, having fun. And you, like you said, you're here, you could be, yeah.

[C]

You could be throwing a fit.

[B]

Well, you could be sitting at home with, you know, an eye patch on.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Well, I mean, you know, we've had, I had a friend that used to shoot Zach and I. Don't you remember Ben Smith? Yeah, from Wisconsin. I mean he had one eye, you know, and, and he shot left handed and you know, one eye. And Ben was an all American and you know, all state shooter out of Wisconsin and stuff. And, and he was the same. He's like, hey, we're here to have fun and that, and that's the, the great mindset to have for all the, the youth out there listening, you know, yes, we miss targets and yes, it, it upsets you and gets you mad at times, but there's no reason to, to throw shells and, and Coop's words. Act ignorant. Ignorant.

[A]

Ignorant. Yeah, don't do that.

[B]

That's a Joey Charnigo saying. Ignorant.

[A]

You don't, you don't want to act ignorant. Yeah, it's not, it's not a good thing.

[B]

But.

[A]

I was just really happy for you. Coop, when you put that score on the board, what were you thinking from when the board, when the score went up till like it was finalized and you knew it was just you and Trey because I mean, throughout the day you had to be thinking like, okay, is it going to get beat? Or is it like, were you even looking at the board or were you just like, no, I'm not going to look.

[C]

Me, Brett dawn and Sean Holly were repeatedly checking the board outside of my camper for a long time with Randall as he always. And I knew that it would be up there. Definitely. There were great, there were great names that were, could come in. But I knew it was raining, it was windy, it was dark. I knew it would be somewhat up there, didn't know if it would stick, but I was ready for if I had to shoot off. When it did come down to the two scores left and went up there to go shoot off and they're like, oh, there's no shoot Off.

[B]

So, you know, they knew about it, Coop beforehand. They let you all get ready. Zach did that to you? I had to let you know right off the jump.

[A]

Well, I didn't. I didn't want to break the news to you. It wasn't my deal to break. I wanted you to go check in for the shoot off and let them tell you, because God knows, I mean, Trey might have showed up, and then I'd have been, like, looking like an ass, right? But.

[B]

But.

[A]

But. But at the time, you know, I got done shooting and walked off the line, and Trey. Trey Wilburn was driving by, and he said, what'd you shoot? And I said, I broke a 94. And he said, you know, I'm not going to say exactly what he said, but something along the lines of, I beat you by three birds. And I said. I said, great shoot. Nice 97. He says, I'm out of here. And I said, you ain't sticking around? He said, nope, I gotta go home. And so he slung gravel probably right at about 10:15, 10:30 in the morning. And I knew he was gone. And so when. When your. Your dad called me and said, you know, he's. He's tied with Trey on the board, I said, well, I said my opinion, but if. If he doesn't get tired by anybody else, I think he's got it. And he says, oh. He says, well, that'll be good. And I said, yeah, so we'll just keep our fingers crossed. And we were all. We were all rooting for you because we're like, you know, nothing. Nothing in my mind is better than a loner. I love.

[B]

I love.

[A]

You know, I love when that h. It's very rare. I mean, in our game, there's not many chances where you go out and you just win.

[B]

No, no, not at all.

[A]

Yeah, it's always a gunfight. It's always a carryover. It's always, oh, I got to deal with Ricky again or something. But it's never.

[B]

It's never.

[A]

Here's your free.

[B]

Here's your freebie.

[A]

You know.

[B]

This is what I deal with every day with Zach, you know, but no, that was an awesome deal and an accolade that, you know, and a win you'll never forget, either.

[C]

Oh, no, yeah, that's my biggest win for sure.

[A]

I mean, that's, you know, Coop moving forward. I mean, you're obviously still in the healing process. It's a long road and a long journey. Is there any other big, you know, kind of goals or accolades that you have on Your mind for your future that we could be looking for you to check off the list or, 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?

[B]

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

[A]

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.

[B]

Listen, I'm gonna move your face to the bumper is where it's gonna get moved for the new one. Okay? All you need is a little quiche and we can take care of you. But listen, Big RedMotorsports.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, is it?

[A]

You know, health first and whatever happens, happens. I mean, what's your. What's your mindset moving into the next year?

[C]

I'm definitely focusing on having fun this year and not quite being so worried about my eye. I. And I'm just going to try and have fun. I might go for the all American team again the next few years and we'll see how that goes. But I'm just. I mean, that's the biggest thing is I tried to really have fun after what happened because that. The mindset was that was probably the end of shooting at the time.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But.

[B]

Oh, I know when I got the picture from your dad, you laying on the gurney getting ready to be life flighted, and I was like, oh, lord, this ain't good. And I was on the phone with Randall till for about two hours. And when he was driving over because your mom flew with you, right?

[C]

Yeah, he had to drive.

[B]

He had to drive and stuff. And then what was it like? A day later I get this picture from. From Coop and he's patched up. And I was like, oh, this ain't good.

[C]

No. You know the bad deal in there. And I do need to tell you about Steve Johnson. I owe him a lot more than he'll ever know. So I was going in to go into surgery and their plan at that point was just start cutting and see if you can get to it. And they didn't because my dad, one of the workers, asked him, do we know if the BB was magnetic? And he's like, no and no, we don't. And they Played it off. They're like, oh, it doesn't matter. And he texted Steve Johnson. I think at the time, it was 3am in the morning. He woke up and he got the bbs and he found out they were magnetic. So right before I went, it was like right when they were wheeling me into surgery, he's like, hey, I just found out these are magnetic. And they ran and got magnets right before I went in. And that's how they ended up getting it out.

[B]

Which is amazing because otherwise.

[C]

Otherwise it was removed.

[B]

Yeah, it was. You would. We'd be talking to you with no right eye.

[A]

Yeah, that, that ain't good. We didn't want that.

[B]

Now you.

[A]

We at least got two eye Coop that can't see, but we got, we got two eyed coupe.

[B]

Well, and here's the thing, you know, in for, you know, you made the All American team, which is one of your biggest goals. I know that. I know when you, you know, and on the phone with your dad and just the drop in every time, you know, because you weren't shooting and such and that was a big letdown. But you came back strong, you know, you made the team and that's a big accomplishment, you know, for, for anybody out there, you know, making.

[A]

Yeah. With no impediments.

[B]

Right.

[A]

With no issues. Right. I mean, just to make the team as anyone. There's a lot of people that go around this country and they, you know, have the money, have the resources, have the time and shoot all over, you know, seven plus shoots and they don't make the All American team, you know, so, you know, just do it.

[B]

Is an awesome deal. Now I know you know your next shoot's going to be the spring grand.

[C]

Yep, I will be back in Tucson.

[B]

Yep, back in Tucson for the spring grand. Now you're just coming for the main week, right?

[C]

I might shoot the prelim championships, but I will be there for the main week. Yes.

[B]

Yeah, because you know, you better get your A game on because we are squatted together, Coop.

[C]

Oh, I saw that. First thing I looked at was Rick.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, me, Randall, you, and right now Rory Lee. And I'm trying to talk old not so slow Joe Charno into coming out to, to Arizona. He's never been so, you know, we'll show him what the west coast targets look like. But so we got that. And then you know, of course some other shoots throughout the summer and such. Now what are any like. You got any long term goals? Coupe set.

[C]

I do want to make AAA 27 AAA and set amount of years. But rather than that, I just want to keep shooting and breaking scores and proven I'm capable of being here.

[B]

Nice. That's.

[A]

I think you've already proved that, Coop. And I think you're going to continue to keep proving it, you know, and you're, you're, You've got a great attitude, you've got a great positive mindset. And you came out of this, you know, better. As in not being bitter and not being blaming or not anything. You're just like, you know what? This is what I got. And now this is what I'm going to do. Because that's all you have. Yeah.

[B]

What was that, Coop?

[C]

The cards are dealt. Let's just keep playing them.

[B]

Yeah, that's. That's a good listen for all our listeners out there. I mean, the kid's 15, about to be 16. But to have that mindset. I know there's adults I know that wouldn't have that mindset. You know, the, the anger sets in and, and such. And, and, and that's, you know, you got a great mindset, you know, you know, thankfully to your mother, you know, she, I'm sure she, you know, whips you around a little bit, you know, but no, great. Keeps you straight. Holly's always yelling. I. Every time I talk to you on the phone. No, I'm just.

[C]

Oh, whatever, Rick.

[A]

She's a very nice lady. I can speak.

[B]

Yeah, she's super supportive.

[A]

I think you guys are all great. You guys are all awesome and we love, we love having you a part of the show. We love, you know, hearing about your guys success and, and, and seeing, you know, seeing the, the, the fun happen before our eyes? I. Is there anyone or anything or I guess anyone, anyone, any one, any company that you would like to thank before we get out of here, Coop? Any accolades? Any sponsors? Maybe, I don't know, the one on your head?

[C]

Oh, all outlaw up there. Grandma comes first. Always. First call when I shot my 200. First call. Always. Ricky might be second, but he'll never get first.

[B]

That's okay. That's fine. I'll deal. Second.

[C]

I mean, I obviously got to thank everyone who's supported me. Sean, Ricky, Zach, you guys have all been here for me through the whole way, always treated me good, even before this. You've always been nice to me. Gotta thank every surgeon that was in my surgery because they sure ran a miracle like Randall, Randall, Randall.

[B]

Yeah. Now, what about your. What about your, your twin, Coop? I mean, what about Chloe? I mean, I mean, she stuck there.

[C]

She's told me to suck it up and do it.

[B]

Then you got the Littles, too. You got, you got. Where's the Littles at? You should bring them on the show at least. Coop, you know, they're watching the movie.

[C]

They don't got time for Nanini.

[A]

No, they don't have time. Nobody got time for Nini. Yep.

[B]

Haven and Joby. They're. Listen, they'll be watching the episode. So when they see this, it's the guy from tv. That's the guy from tv. That's what Randall always says to him when I'm on the phone. And they're like, whatever. They run off.

[A]

So. No, that's, I, I, I think it's been great having you on the show. You've, you've done great. We're proud of you. Keep, keep on your journey. And, you know, you obviously thanked everybody and they're all supportive. You got great parents, your mom and dad, and they're taking good care of you and, and everyone around. You've got a really strong support system. You keep a strong support system and you stay positive. And I think we're gonna see a lot of big things out of you in the future. So for everyone tuning in, thanks for listening. Like, share, subscribe, comment. You know, if you're not wearing a Trap Talk shirt or hat, go ahead and throw an outlaw hat on. They're awesome. They support the show. We love them, and we hashtag, where's Coop? He's right here on the show, so.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

We, we got everything. We'll see you next Friday. Thanks for tuning in.

[B]

Thanks, everybody.