What's up in West Virginia? When will the State Shoot return?

It is an embarrassment for the ATA to allow the WV State shoot to be held out of state? What does this accomplish? We arent encouraging shooting in the state.

My Nebraska State shoot isnt doing much better excluding the kids but at least we have a club in state.

 

I’m pretty sure the ATA doesn’t tell states where to hold their shoots.

 

Should they have to tell them what state? What qualifies as an out of state shooter?

 

How many times have you been to the WV state shoot? If you shot at Brooke County you might agree that Winchester is the better venue.

 

Anyone that is not a membership of West Virginia.

 

Brooke was one of my favorite venues. Great background. Loved those power lines.

Is the plan for all the state shoots to be held at the better venue even if out of state? Nonsensical.

 

Did you like that the first 5 squads on each bank didn’t exist because no one wanted to shoot looking into the sun early in the morning? There were some long days there with the late starts.

I didn’t say that was the plan for all state shoots, Brooke wasn’t one of my favorite places to shoot and I like Winchester better (much better), so it worked out for me. Sorry you don’t feel that way.

 

are we talking winchester (va)?

 

I've been to Winchester this year and many previous years. The people in charge run a great shoot and visibility certainly gets better later in the day-not unusual in many places including PA. The kitchen needed a bit more work this year compared to other years.
That said Delaware runs their State Shoot at Pine Belt in New Jersey without any complaints.

 

are we talking winchester (va)?

 

YES!

 

​

 

Rarely is there a single reason how decisions are made, and over the years there were multiple "issues" at Brooke that became too difficult to resolve. Winchester is an excellent venue and although the decision to move was difficult, it seems logical and a wise choice. Furthermore, as Andy has pointed out; the precedent had been set with the DE/NJ State shoot(s). Also, it seems that the ATA would have little argument, historically, since they move the Grand American to other venues whenever there is sufficient reason for them to make a change.

 

same with the great eastern.
if it makes anyone feel better, if you look at the history of the virginia's...wva was at one time va..
so, its not as bad when you think about it.

 

10-Point ......I was certainly not knocking Winchester. I have never shot there and I hear it is a great venue. I need to get there and get some pictures. And I never shot early at Brooke.

But, I am one of those guys that shot across the river at one of my favorite venues, the Tri-State. I remember narrow uneven pads sunk four inches in the ground that had tadpoles swimming in them. And the 27 yard line that was a few feet from the porch. The Tri-State and Brooke drew that same type crowd. It was a bit seedy and money hungry. As I remember the Calcutta there was big.

The added money is a huge thing at Winchester. The money was big at Brooke too.

Ohio used to be part of Maryland. They still have the shoot in Ohio.

I hope someone will post Winchester pictures. It is on my bucket list.

Thanks for the post HB.

 

If you intend to get rich at Winchester stay home. The payoffs are not nearly what they were 30 years ago. I know, I was there but they always throw a nice target.

 

Sounds good, FG- I never made it to the Tri State in OH, but I did shoot it at Brooke a few times, it was a good shoot, just couldn’t show up too early. Like I said, there were some late nights there, and Drover’s was always good when the shooting was done.

 

The truth about the move is Brooke membership didn't want the shoot anymore. The board had changed and they weren't trapshooters. The people from Brooke, Tom Weaver, John Platt, Elcesser and others had either died or were too old. With 10 traps Brooke had double the traps of the next largest range in WV. They had more traps than actual trapshooters. We held the WV State shoot there from 1989 until we went to Winchester in 2018. Winchester actually contacted us and offered the grounds. The WV and VA shoots are back to back anyway. The WV group has run the office for the VA shoot for the last few years. It's a larger range with 16 traps, a lot more motels, camping, restaurants etc. It's just over the border of WV. This year we drew shooters from 14 states, 15 including WV. The fact is WV only has 114 active ATA shooters and generally about half show up to the WV State shoot regardless of where it's held, this year was less with 49 and a total of 247 shooters shooting at 140,400 targets. It's a great shoot, has a 3 multiplier for the AA points shooters, $8000.00 or so in Resident and Non Residents trophies, and $5360.00 in added money. Plan a trip next year July 9th - 13th and you won't be disappointed.
The only reason Drovers was so popular is that it was the only place to eat close.

 

You don’t think the wings were good at Drover’s? A lot of the people from here liked going to Brooke just to get those wings afterwards. I wouldn’t go that far, but I thought they were pretty good.

 

Seedy for sure. I was one.