Dave owns the best Challenge gun made by man, formerly owned by someone who would like to see it again. Bring it along, Dave.

I used to believe in opening chokes, but not anymore; I just shoot them as is. It will be F/F this year as last. Edward shot a VH last year with 42 thou in each barrel and did OK using 7/8 oz. handloads and 1 oz. Gun Clubs. This year he's going to use a #1 frame dam 2 hammer gun with IC/Mod. It's the Indian not the arrow.

Thanks Bill for the confirmation. Just one suggestion for anyone doing Challenge qualifications. When you're up to bat, shooting simos, be sure to tell the scorer if you're going to shoot that pair opposite of the earlier shooters. It's my experience that 5-stand scorers are attuned to looking at, let's say, the left bird first.... and if you shoot that pair right-left, he may think you missed the left bird on the first barrel, and hit it with the second. Or worse yet, that you missed the left bird, and then when he looks for the right one he doesn't see anything - so he marks you down for two O's instead of two X's. This isn't a problem with the actual Challenge shooting because each team has a person there to help the scorer confirm dead/loss whichever way you shoot the simo. Nuff said. Frank

xxx

Bill, I've shot that gun you reference and can't for the life of me figure out why the former owner would ever have sold it. Must have been a weak moment...

Mr. Murphy has not yet met "The Gravedigger."

Dave, that gun was sold to you because the seller thought you would enjoy it. As you can imagine, that gun could have been sold to anyone. The gun has it all, features, rarity, provenance, and enough non original wood and finish to make it comfortable to shoot. Enjoy, my friend.

John Truitt and Ed Blake have confirmed my suspicions. The high scoring shooters on the Challenge course more often than not shoot big, long, tightly choked guns, shooting a shot size that will break a 60 yard bird. The L.C. Smith shooters are also fond of the vent rib 32" trap gun.

I suspect that high scorers at the Southern would be high scorers no matter what they took to the line.

We knew that, John, but were trying to take the pressure off the "Indian". Alex Papp, our RST guru, made the team with a 16 gauge Trojan bird gun.