What issue is yoiur .410 on? I would like to see it!

Most of the artifacts, including the VHE .410 Skeet, on the cover of the August 2004 SSR, belong to me. The North-South souvenirs and vest patches from George Deyoe, are mostly mine also. The article that accompanies the cover explains a lot.

I haven't shot the North South in almost 25 years .

I had heard they shut down the National Capital Gunclub and had to move or whatever . Is that true and are they still shooting the North South ?

I really enjoyed it when the North South was one weekend and the Great Eastern followed in Greenbelt the following weekend at what used to be the Beretta Club .

We are continuing the North-South shoot as the longest continuously running competitive NSSA skeet shoot in the world starting in 1934 and still going. It is being shot now at the Damascus Izaak Walton League fields in Mount Airy, Maryland. This shoot is a piece of history that includes the shooters as well as the founders, like William Harnden Foster. We are in "resting" mode now and are shooting five 50 bird events, instead of five 100 bird events. However, the competition and the spirit of skeet history is alive. In one of our first shoots at Mount Airy, a pump gun shooter won most of the honors with a 248 as I recall. He shot all events except for the .410 with a 28 gauge Model 12. He ran a straight 50 in the doubles event. I have been involved with the North-South since 1967, when I was club manager, and have been a member or participant at National Capital since 1958. In the early years of my "membership", they wouldn't accept dues payments from kids, so I rode the free wagon for a few years. I would like you to attend for lunch as my guest next June if you don't choose to shoot. The North-South still has good sponsors who make it, let's say, worthwhile to win a gun or class championship. We'll look for you in June.

Last time I shot at the old Damascus location I was on a squad with Ralph Petley , Bruce Evans , John Hannah and Rich Lawrey from Canada . If my memory serves Rich ran 100 in the 410 and won the Championship . Think I shot a 90 with the 410 . My one saving grace the whole weekend was beating Wayne Mayes in the 28 gauge I had a 98 and I think he was 93 or 94 . But I suppose you could say a bunch of folks outshot him in that gauge !
that was the first year I shot a good portion of the Mayes/Bender Tour ! That would have been 1990 or so I think as I shot my last registered birds in 1992 I believe at the Great Eastern in Richmond .


The first shoot that year I shot with those guys was at Bruce Evans place outside Winston Salem (this place was the old Bingham Parks Club). Think there were 50-55 shooters of which 35-40 were AA-AAA . We all shot AA and I tied for last in the HOA with a 390 , they had 3 4x4's at that little 5 field shoot !

Damn remmembering this stuff is making me wish I was young enough to go at it like I did back then :whistle:

Just as an FYI Wayne Mayes recently passed away. I believe he was in a bad car accisdent and the resulting injuries caught up to him. He was a great shot and I watched him run many a hundred. He shot doubles with I believe a Beretta auto but the tubed gun was a Kreighoff K-80.

Wayne actually succumbed to burn injuries he received in an accident involving the burning of surplus gunpowder.

Craig, shooting with Ralph Petley must have been an interesting experience. I have known Ralph for many years and have "caught" a couple of his guns and let at least one pass me by because my hands were occupied by a clipboard and a pencil. I recently got word from a remote South American location that Ralph's wife Jean passed away. As you know, Jean was a saint and everyone loved her. It's too bad that Ralph had to vacate the NSSA skeet world.

It's like anything else in a lifetime when I say a good many of the people I enjoyed spending time with have passed or given up what they enjoyed ! I have a friend at Fairfax R&G that holds the worlds record I believe for number if registered targets shot . And I believe he's having a hell of a time pulling the trigger on his old 3200 now . You may or may not know Bob Myers but without a doubt he's one of THE finest gentleman I ever met thru shooting skeet . Same could be said for Willie Finch . But sorry to say Willie's been gone about ten years now I believe .

Think the first time I ran across Mayes he was shooting that old light wood Winchester 1400 I believe think he called it Blondie . Yes u had heard he had passed from his burns .