April 4, 2024 • 41 mins
Listen in with Zac Guerrettaz as we explore the Southeast Regional's tumultuous past at Forest City and the extraordinary growth of the club since his arrival. We'll also shed light on the 2024 Southeast Regional, revealing how Forest City's private club status enhances the shooting experience for participants, establishing it as a premier destination that never fails to impress.
Find out everything you want to know about this year's tournament, What to do after shooting while in Savannah, and what to expect.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:42):
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Speaker 2 (00:46):
In this episode, I'm joined by Zach Garettas from
Forest City Gun Club to talkabout the much-anticipated
Southeast Regional.
Find out everything you want toknow about the shoot.
Also, I have a guest coming ontowards the end of the show that
will be a target setter on oneof the prelims at the Regional.
I think you all will besurprised.
Thanks for tuning in to ShotgunSports USA, mr Zach.
(01:25):
What's up, man?
Hey, how are you Good?
You know, I've kind of beenwaiting for the regional to get
to Forest City this year, andthe reason being is because the
last time the regional was there, it was basically a big cluster
.
Because of weather.
Yeah, which was what?
What year was that 18 cluster?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
because of weather, yeah, which was what?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
what year was that 18 ?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, 2018.
I forget what the hurricanename was, but, um, they had
predicted that this thing wasgoing to hit Wilmington, north
Carolina, and roll down thecoast of North Carolina, south
Carolina, and miraculously go upthe Savannah river.
Um, there was a lot of, therewas a lot of, there was a lot of
(02:08):
people pulling out just due to,you know, a hurricane scare.
Um, there was a lot of peoplethat couldn't get here because
of evacuation routes for northcarolina and south carolina.
A lot of the folks up northjust could not get through the
the evacuation routes.
Um, so I think we we weresupposed to have in between 800
(02:29):
and 815 uh shooters, which wasgoing to be the biggest shoot,
our biggest regional, uh,southeast regional at the time.
Um, but the meadows and dominicand eric threw a really good
shoot in 2020, and that numberis going to be really hard to
beat, but we ended up havingbluebird skies, a little bit of
(02:50):
rain like a misting rain, and alittle bit of wind on one of the
days, but other than that, itwas a really, really good
weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, we had us a big old time.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, it was a.
It was a.
It was we had had.
We had everything ready to gofor twice the amount of people
that showed up and everybody hada great time yeah, so now we're
, we're in 2024 and anotherone's coming, a regional's here.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So, yeah, uh, for the people that had never been to
forest city, I want to kind ofback up and talk about forest
city for a minute, because whatyear did you get?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
there is that, so I got here in february of 2013, so
I've been here for just over 11years wow, I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's been that long, yeah, what?
So tell me how it was when yougot there and how it is now man
when I got here, um, they had.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
You know, our club is a private club established in
1883.
We've been on three or fourdifferent locations in Savannah
in that 141 years we have.
I guess when I got here in 2013, we had just had some
(04:04):
transition on board, on theboard of directors, and it was
just the perfect time for me tocome in here after Chris
Cantrell and take over whatChris had started and, along
with my staff and a great board,we have completely changed how
(04:24):
this club looked.
In 2013, um, 2013, we werenowhere near ready to to to
throw a big sporting clays event.
I know that they had hosted onein 2012, um, but I from my
understanding they had brought alot of machines in because the
machines just weren't in in goodshape.
But, moving forward, in the 11years we have, we have went from
(04:49):
having 30, maybe 40 workingsporting clays traps to we have
105 traps on the on the groundsat all times, um, and then you
know multiple trap and skeetfields as well.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, big place for the youth, for City is now it is
it is.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
We get really busy in the fall and the spring with
Scholastic Clay Target Programin the spring and then the
Georgia Independent SchoolsAssociation in the fall.
We actually get a one-weekbreak from this regional and
then we will be hosting thescholastic clay target program,
southeast regional um at the endof April, which is which is big
(05:34):
it's.
There's over 600 people signedup right now.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know what?
What interests me or what Ifind interesting about four city
is that you can't just pull inand shoot.
I mean, I've even came downthere before and the gates
closed and I have to call Zach,can you let me in?
I mean, you can't just pull upand shoot at this place, and
that's what the people coming tothe regional you know.
(05:59):
It's pretty neat that you'reshooting on a private club.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, it is.
It's a.
It's a very special place andit holds uh, it's really near
and dear to my heart.
Um got a lot of blood, sweatand tears in this place um to
watch it be what it is now andum, it's, it's our membership.
They take really, really goodpride in it and we have just um
(06:23):
just at right at 800 memberswere capped.
Um, but the membership takes alot of pride in it and um, I
think people will be blown awaywhen they come in here and see
how nice this place looks.
Um, and then you know to havethat safety net of being behind
that gate and then located justin the smack dab middle of
(06:46):
Savannah, pretty much is isanother incredible thing as well
, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
It's.
Uh, the place is big.
I hope you have a whoever'sgoing.
Better have a golf cart or somemeans of transportation to get
around this place, because ifnot you need to leave about an
hour early to walk.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
From the clubhouse to to um,what we call our lake or North
course is um right at threequarters of a mile, close to a
mile.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Could you imagine me and you have to walk out there?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
No, we'd be out of breath, we wouldn't shoot good.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So.
So anyway, the membershipprocess you were just talking
about how does that work?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's developed over time.
From my understanding, prior tomy arrival it was a little bit
easier to get into the club, butas the club developed itself
and got nicer and more exclusive, it's it's become a lot harder.
Um, there's a lot more peoplethat want to be a member of the
club, but we just don't have the.
(07:51):
We don't have the capacity formore than what what our cap is
right now at 800.
Um, we have a waiting list.
It's very, very lengthy waitinglist.
Um, it used to not be that way.
(08:14):
When I first got here, theremight have been under 100 people
on the waiting list, but we'rewell over 300.
Anymore either, you know, wemight, might lose 10 members a
year.
Um, so it's it's.
It's changed a lot yeah, yeah,it's pretty.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's pretty neat how it works.
You know you have to vote.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I think y'all vote on the, the people that are up and
and uh and go from there, soanyway yeah, you get, you get
proposed for membership and thenyou, you, you wait your time
and um, and then you know youget proposed for membership and
then you wait your time and thenyou get the phone call and you
get.
In that way it's pretty cool towatch it go down.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And you have to live there too, right.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You don't have to live here.
We have several out-of-townmembers that are members and
they're obviously not as activeas the locals, but they enjoy it
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay, so the regionals.
Here it's.
On what date Is it April?
What?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Well, it starts April 9th fee task on April 9th and
10th, and then on April 11th.
Thursday april 11th is whenpretty much everything else
starts.
We got a thursday prelim um thesub gauge startup on that day,
super sporting um five stand subgauge fee task, um they all
(09:41):
start on that day.
And then um friday thursdayprelim closes, but friday prelim
day.
And then um Friday, thursdayprelim closes, but Friday prelim
opens.
And then, of course, the mainevent on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Who's uh, who's your target setters.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Um so we have per fee task.
I'm setting fee tasks myself.
Um sub gauge fee task is EricDorsey from Meadows.
Um Thursday prelim is noneother than zach keembaum wait
what?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
stop for a minute.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
He's setting targets he is setting targets.
He actually told me the otherday that he doesn't think that
he has set targets since 2010,so, um, I thought it would be
really fun, since this is hishome club now to extend the
offer and um and he is.
(10:30):
He is jumped at the challenge.
Hopefully he has what it takes.
We know he can, he can shootthem, but we don't know if we
can, if he can set them.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm surprised to hear that, not the fact that he
can't he can't do it, but justthat I mean that takes a lot of
work and a lot of effort to havea good course and there's no
telling what will be out thereif he's setting it Well you know
, I mean in the 14 years thathe's taken a leave of absence
and setting targets, he's shotseveral hundred thousand rounds
(11:05):
of targets.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
So hopefully he can and choose from the ones that he
has in his memory or in hismind, or the ones that got away
and throw a great, greatthursday prelim.
Well, that's cool that's,that's.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's neat that, uh, he'll be doing that.
So anyway, I didn't mean tointerrupt you, no you're good.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You're good, um, our sub gauge course is going to be
set by eric dorsey as well.
Um, super sporting will be setby jake spangler from the
cardinal Shooting Center inMarengo, ohio.
He's a fellow classmate of mine.
And then Mike Bashaw is goingto set the five stand.
He's fully healthy and readyand eager to set.
(11:49):
Rick Hemingway is going to doour Friday prelim.
My right-hand man, chip Deagle,is going to set the Win.
Rick Hemingway is going to doour Friday prelim.
My right-hand man, chip Deagle,is going to set the Winchester
woods course.
Um, and then I am going to setthe bread of Maine, nice.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Got a little bit, a little bit of everybody there.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, we got a variety.
It's, uh, it's going to be fun.
I'm, I'm, I'm stoked and readyto start setting targets, yeah,
so what tell me about the, theregional?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
what all is?
What are you?
What are you doing in theafternoons?
You have, you have dinner plan.
Give me the details.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
So, um, well, obviously we're a little bit
different than most gun clubs.
We have a full, full bar, um,and a really nice clubhouse, so
you know the bar will be open aslong as you you're done
shooting, um, partake at the atthe bar and act like a member
for for five days or six days,however long you're going to be
(12:46):
here, um.
And then on Friday, we're goingto have a cocktail party with
none other than a roastedalligator, a whole roasted bacon
wrapped in bacon.
I don't know if you rememberthat from 2018.
I do.
I actually just got the emailconfirmation.
We have an eight-foot alligatorthat's going to be wrapped in
(13:07):
bacon, slow-cooked all day, andthen we're going to throw a low
country bowl with that, um, forfor friday, with, with cocktails
.
And then on saturday, we havethe fish eye grill out of little
old gerard, georgia, which isabout an hour and 40 minutes
from here, um, towards aug.
(13:29):
Um, they have kind of becomeour new caterer there.
They do a great job.
Um, we're going to have beeftenderloin with grilled shrimp
and a bunch of fixings anddesserts on Saturday.
Um, it'll be, it'll be, it'llbe a real treat.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Nice, I remember the alligator and I think I had one
of my kids with me.
I think I can't remember.
Have you you've had analligator there, other than just
that regional right?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I think I well, we've only had it at that regional
We've.
We talked about having it forthe state shoot in 21, but we
just could not.
Um, they couldn't get a gator.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And he's like he looked at it.
He says and he's like he lookedat it.
He says what is what is that upthere for?
I said, that's for dinner.
He says I'm not eating that.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And there was a lot of people that was uh real
hesitant on trying it, um, andthen once they started nibbling
on it, it was really good.
It's it's presentation justlike a pig picking, so it'll be
a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
The whole thing's on the table the head the mouth the
tail.
Everything is up on the table.
It's pretty neat.
You know I was thinking aboutsomething while you were talking
just a second ago Nationals,this year Didn't you finish up
top in fee task, or somethinglike that?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yes, sir, I did.
I, tied for master first, Lostthe shoot off.
I'm starting to get a lot.
My eyes are starting to get alot um worse as my old age and
um Gavin and Joe and um I forgetwho else was in the shoot off,
(15:06):
but they whooped my tail.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, but it's just it's.
I remember seeing that and Ithought didn't you win double a
at the nationals in something?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yes, I won the national fee test, uh, or the
the fee task event at nationalsin 2016 as a double a shooter.
Yeah, h O, a, h O a yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, and I remember that I saw it again, you know,
this past year.
I thought Zach one thing he cando, he can shoot some feed
tasks.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
So that's good that you're saying you know, I grew
up hunting, um, quail huntingand stuff, and when, and with my
grandfather and my dad, andit's just that natural killer
instinct I can.
I should shoot sporting claysthat way, but I, I refuse to do
it, why, uh, I don't know.
I just I'm a free mountainshooter when it comes to
(15:54):
sporting glaze on 80% of thecourse and and I will, logan,
you know the other 20%, but um,I like to attack the bird pretty
pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I noticed on a picture Zach Keenbaum posted
that you have some asphalt goingdown out there.
What's going on with that?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
so we have, like I said earlier in the conversation
, we have a really good boardthat, um, they take just as much
pride in this place as what Ido, which it's a lot of fun to
to have to have a board that youknow wants to work with you,
and they have they have theirown vision, but the vision is
(16:41):
making this club better thanwhat it is you know at at at its
current time.
Um, in 2019, we resurfaced thefirst 700 feet of the club.
At the entrance, through thegate, you can actually see where
the asphalt stops, and we kindof had a plan that we were going
(17:02):
to continue that COVID hit.
We had to do some other stuffand upkeep on some other things,
and in that meantime we built acovered five stand as well.
So we've kind of been kickingaround asphalt or redoing, you
know, adding to or resurfacingsome asphalt in the last few
(17:25):
months of our monthly boardmeetings and we decided just a
few weeks ago that it would bereally good to go ahead and get
this the tail end past ourcovered five stand and where the
rv park is asphalted for dustcontrol and that kind of thing,
(17:45):
um, with with the amount ofpeople that's coming in as well
as our membership.
We actually built a pole barn alot about it about a year ago,
um for our members to park theirpolaris's or can-ams or cow
stocking mules under um, so thatwe just have a little bit more
traffic on that end of the road,and so we poured some asphalt
(18:07):
and and it looks great so is.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Is the parking still the same when you pull in that
big field right there?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yes, sir.
So we're going to have severaldifferent areas where you can
park your trailer.
We'll have people parking youas well or leading you in the
right direction, but we're goingto park anywhere, from right up
front here just beside my house, to the, the trees behind the
(18:37):
skeet fields, um, and even onour back line of skeet fields.
We have a big area marked offfor that right now as well.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, it's a big place and I mean, you know, kind
of getting away from the gunclub a second.
You're in Savannah.
You mentioned that a second ago, that you're right in the
middle of Savannah and we talkabout this a pretty good bit.
You know, when Zach's on andit's, there's everything to do
in Savannah.
(19:05):
There's nothing that you cannotfind to do.
The place is really close, youknow.
If you want to leave for lunch,you know, while you're shooting
you have a little break, youcan literally get somewhere in
two minutes.
Yeah, that's cool, you knowit's it's.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's incredible where it lays out, you know the from.
From my understanding, like inthe seventies and the eighties,
um, well before I was even outof diapers, um, well before I
was even out of diapers, um,there was, you know, ferguson
Avenue was a dirt road and itwas actually a racetrack.
Um is where where people youknow raced on Friday nights or
(19:44):
whatever you know.
And then Montgomery crossroadwas also a dirt road.
So where we're located rightnow used to be what I guess you
would call the country ofsavannah, um, but obviously now
it's well, well populated and umwe're we've kind of gotten
(20:07):
built all around.
Um, there's a sam's and walmartliterally three minutes away
some of the best eating insavannah.
Um.
I'm partial to what we call thesandfly area, which is the, the
four-way stop right there whenyou come in.
Um, oh yeah, this sandflybarbecue is probably by far the
(20:30):
best barbecue in town.
Um, we have two mexicanrestaurants.
I I favor the tequila town.
Um, we have a new restaurantthat just came in in 20, late 21
or early 22, called the fivespot.
It's like a burger joint.
(20:50):
Um, it's really nice.
We have lox chicken and wafflesprobably some of the best
breakfast in the area.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Um I was gonna ask we got it all there.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Lox, yeah, waffles we got two seafood, nice seafood
joints just right down there aswell, all located in that um,
cast away and drift away.
Um, your pie pizza is reallygood.
Uh, there's just there's.
Like you said, if you have time, if you, if you're shooting the
8 30 rotation and you don'thave to shoot fee task or five
(21:21):
stand or super sporting untilthree o'clock in the afternoon,
you have the ability to pull outof the club and go five minutes
down the road and and kind ofendure what we get to do every
single day all right, let me askyou something.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So if you're going to lunch, what's your number one
spot?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
man.
I tell you it just depends onyou know chip, when we talked
about this back in 2018.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
He's kind of a picky individual yeah, he wants to eat
pizza all the time.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
He's a pizza or burger or chicken finger guy and
it really and truthfullydepends whether I care what he
wants to eat or if I don't care.
But my go-to that I really liketo do is go to Sam's Fly
Barbecue.
It's really good.
My number two is the Castaway.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Is that the seafood place across from it?
Speaker 3 (22:15):
It is the actually.
So that's drift away.
Drift away is really good too.
We actually ate there yesterday.
So, um, I'm not partial one orthe other.
We, we kind of float around,but, um, my, if my go-to, my
favorite is sandfly barbecue Allright.
(22:35):
So go into dinner at night.
Name a good place.
You can't go wrong withCastaway or Driftaway If you
feel like a surf and turf, oreven just straight-up seafood.
They have great dinner specials.
Five Spot is phenomenal fordinner.
You have all your finerestaurants downtown.
The only problem with downtownis, you know, parking.
You have to either stay, parkin a garage or pay for parking
(22:58):
on the street or whatever so.
And then tequila town is is isa really good mexican restaurant
to to have dinner at as well.
My kids love to go there andget hamburgers for some reason.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Sounds like mine, you go to a barbecue place and they
order chicken fingers.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, well, that's what Chip does.
He goes to a barbecue joint andhe says they have one of the
best hamburgers in town.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
So yeah, I'm glad Chip got married.
He did.
He got married last fall.
I mean I wouldn't, I didn't.
I mean Chip's a nice enough guy, it's just.
You know, I just look at him asa as still a kid, and I know
he's not.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
But yeah, I told him.
So.
Chip became the assistantmanager of the gun club in 2017.
And I told him this morning.
I said, man, I saw a picture ofyou that popped up on my phone
from 2017 and you were a kid.
Yeah, from 2017 and you were akid.
(23:58):
Yeah, um, it's crazy, uh, thathe's been here just as long as
me and and we we have a greattime.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
He's just as excited about this regional coming back
as I am yeah, so this is thehome club to zach keenbaum, desi
edmonds, connor daniel.
Who else is down there?
Speaker 3 (24:10):
keith higgins keith um yep keith higgins, keith
Higgins, yep, keith Higgins.
He practiced here.
I think it was last week or theweek before.
He pops in every once in awhile.
Those are our top guys, but wehave a lot of junior that call
(24:32):
this place home as well, thatare doing really good in the
lower classes right now.
Um, for this for this spring.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
How are the four city juniors doing this year?
Are they doing, or are theygoing to be doing, good?
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, we're man we're trucking along, it's, it's, uh,
we've we've been practicing.
This will be 10 weeks ofpractice so far since we started
.
They're shooting really, reallygood.
We've got roughly around 85kids, I think again this year.
So it's a whole different jobthat I've had the responsibility
(25:10):
of being in charge of with LeeSummerford since 2014.
But this year is the first yearthat I actually have some skin
in the game.
Um, my son's shooting.
He's nine years old.
He's shooting on the rookies,so this is going to be fun.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah Well, mine started last year you know, and
it's I'm telling you man it's.
I've gotten to the point, zach,that I don't even care if I
shoot Like as, I'd rather justgo watch him do it you know.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah, it's pretty remarkable um to watch them.
You know progress.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yup, that's good.
So four cities, one of the best, in my opinion, one of the best
gun clubs in the country.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Um, yeah, you got to watch what you say there, one of
the best gun clubs in thecountry.
Um yeah, you got to watch whatyou say there.
I mean, gary Fitzgerald mightnot like that.
Why he?
I have never seen Gary at thisclub, but he, he, he has a
pretty dang good gun club too.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Well, I mean, but I hadn't been to Gary's so I can't
say that I have, uh, seen his.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah.
So, but it's one of the nicestplaces that I have been to.
I'm excited about going.
I know my son's excited aboutgoing.
He just wants to stay at adifferent place.
You know how you are whenyou're a kid.
Oh, I get to stay oh yeah soyeah, but yeah, we'll be down
(26:24):
there and uh, uh, if you haveany questions, I know that you
should get a hold of callie,which is your sister.
Uh, she is unfortunately theregistration issues, or
registration questions.
Uh, you just call them scorechaser and I think her email is
on there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah Well, you're going to have a good good crew
of registration.
Once you get on the grounds,they're going to take really
good care of you.
We got my sister, callie, who'sworked for score chaser for a
few years now, and then you know, her boss, casey chase um, um
does a phenomenal job as well asbecky rogers.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
They're all going to be here taking care of everybody
, making sure that they getpointed in the right direction I
know you've got a a huge staffthere that's going to make this
regional successful and I knowyou've got a lot of vendors
coming to to the regional.
Let's talk about those peoplebefore we get off yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So, like I said in in the in the earlier on, we have
a really good membership.
Um, we met, we've met for thelast three or four weeks.
We call it the shoot planningcommittee.
We have a great group of guysum that are that are shooters,
um travel around and bring theiryou know their opinions and
(27:35):
intel back in.
We have a great full-time staffchip deco, my assistant manager
, anna whitley, my officemanager, several bartenders.
Cody brown he's on ourmaintenance crew.
He's, he's phenomenal you'llsee him rolling around with a
hat on backwards 90% of the timeand a lot of other folks too,
(27:59):
as well as our board ofdirectors.
They'll be popping in and outmaking sure that everything's
good.
It'll be a good experience foreverybody.
And then we couldn't do itwithout our sponsors.
We've got Krieghoff.
International is our titlesponsor.
(28:19):
They also sponsored the 20 and28-gauge VTAS, the Super
Sporting.
We have Beretta as a main eventsponsor.
Winchester as a main eventsponsor.
Daniel Defense is sponsoringour Saturday night dinner, which
(28:40):
is going to be delicious.
We've got our Game Boar is ourFETAS sponsor.
Our Thursday prelim, cesarGuarini.
Friday prelim is Rhino Chokes.
Our five-stand is sponsored bySuisponte Foundation.
(29:01):
It's formed by some retiredArmy Rangers, some local guys.
We have Briley that'ssponsoring our sub-gauge and
that rounds off the eventsponsors.
We have Pure Gold, clay, targetVision, pms and several others
that are popping up daily, andthen we have tons and tons of
(29:23):
vendors on the hook coming.
The other thing we didn'treally talk about, you know, we
talked about food off-site, butwe're planning on having several
food trucks on-site for thosethat maybe have a jam-packed day
that need to go get a quickbite and then head back out to
the course.
We'll have plenty, plenty and avariety of food trucks as well.
(29:45):
We might not be able to fit aworm on this place after we get
everybody here.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, sounds good.
I mean, I know it takes a lotto get something like this how
many people registered shootersregistered now 850, or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
We're gaining some and still dropping some.
Yesterday we were 830.
Today we're 827.
We're still full in the mainevent.
Me and I added it up we havelike 707 guns in the sub-gauge.
It's going to be packed.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Well, I'm ready to go and I'll be seeing you, I guess
, a couple of weeks, next week,whenever it is so yeah, well,
it's actually like seven days.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
We're seven days and counting on Thursday now.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
All right, well, I'll see you.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
And how about this?
I'll see you on Thursday.
Yeah, sounds good.
Just challenge people to doyour homework coming into
Savannah If there's somethingthat interests you.
There's tons of stuff.
I did look and the SavannahBananas are out of town, which
is a huge attraction, but weactually have a semi-pro hockey
team that started last year.
They're in town, I thinkSaturday, maybe Saturday.
(31:03):
So, you know, if you're intohockey, go check out our new
in-market arena.
I think there's some concertsin town as well, you know.
So do your homework and makethe best of it.
Tybee Island's not that faraway.
It's 30 minutes away.
Um, it's just.
Uh, it's a really good area andand you know you, you'll come
here for the shoot and you'llsay, man, I should have came a
(31:25):
couple of days earlier, cause wehear that all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, it's one of it's big.
It's a nice place.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
There's.
There's a lot of stuff to dodowntown.
There's a lot of stuff.
If you're bringing your wifeand you don't want her to mess
up your shooting, you can sendher away and she's going to have
just as much fun without you,downtown with your credit card
as you are here shooting.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
All right, zach.
Thank you, man, I appreciateyou all right, I appreciate it.
We'll see you soon I told youat the beginning I would have
someone on, and he is notexpecting this call at all.
Yo, this is uh, this is.
I'm recording this, just so youknow.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
How's the audio?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
The audio's fine.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I just got off the phone with zach garettis and he
was going through his targetsetters and he was saying who
set feet, or who's setting fee,setting fee task and who's
setting this?
And then he got to the thursdayprelim and he said you and I
thought what, like, I mean?
I mean you can't be a targetcritic if you, uh, if you're not
willing to set them.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And I thought what, like, I mean, I've even you
can't be a target critic ifyou're not willing to set them.
I'm not a target critic.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Do you understand how much work that is?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Okay.
So when's the last time you seta course?
Speaker 4 (32:53):
I have set.
The last time I set a coursewas probably 2009 or 2010.
It's a long time ago at TripleB Clays in California.
I don't even know what theevent was it was nothing major.
But that's the last time I didit and, to be honest, it's
probably the best course everset.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The best course you ever set, or that was ever set.
The best course ever set.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
The best course you ever said or that was ever said.
That was ever said.
I'm just kidding, I don't evenremember.
I don't even remember what Isaid.
I don't remember if peopleliked it or not, but I don't
think there's that I can counton one hand, people that have,
uh, shot more targets than Ihave, at least, like you know
(33:38):
right, different places anddifferent types of targets.
I got a pretty good idea ofwhat people can and can't hit,
so I'm not scared I think it'scool.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I honestly think it's cool.
Yeah, are you gonna be the one?
Are you gonna ride around onthe four-wheeler?
Speaker 4 (33:54):
I think that day I think I have an, an event, uh,
later that day, but most of theday, yeah, I'll probably be
cruising around the coursemaking sure, seeing how
everyone's doing what?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
uh, I know you've been thinking I didn't know this
till right, like literallyright now.
So what?
What are you thinking about?
I know you've got somesomething in your in your head.
I've got.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
I've got a hundred texts and calls about it just
people asking what I've said.
A lot of people want me to setsomething crazy hard.
I think I'll just make itinteresting.
It is the Thursday prelim.
It's not a world championshipby any means, but I want to set
some interesting stuff for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, I mean, I've got my 10-year, my 10 year old,
coming now and you gottaremember that, you know.
So don't, don't be setting ittoo hard.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Obviously, yeah, that's kind of in my line lately
at some of these shoots, is I?
I think it's important that thetarget setters know their
audience and you know what, uh,who's coming and what's on the
line.
Obviously it's just a fun event, yeah, but, um, as a coach, I
(35:02):
think uh, I really have an ideaof what people can and can't hit
, and I don't think some of thetarget setters uh understand
physics at at times, what ashotgun shell can actually do on
it with a clay target, um, butalso just what gives people
problems so does that meanyou're going to set something
(35:25):
far from that comment you justmade?
probably not nothing too too far.
Okay, I'm gonna try to beat you.
I'm gonna try to beat youwithin 40 yards for sure.
Well, that ain't how you canbeat me.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I mean that ain't hard.
You can beat me.
I mean, that's not hard.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
talking to me or just in general.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Just in general.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, I think that's cool.
When are you, when are yougoing to start shooting there?
Wednesday on FeeTask.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
I start FeeTask on Wednesday, but I'll be out there
all week.
I think we're going to set thatcourse on Monday, whenever air.
I don't know if they're goingto be Eric Dorsey's traps or
Rick's traps or coming away, Um,but either way it'll be
machines that are coming in onMonday.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Nice, well, I'm kind of pumped about it, man.
I think that's cool that youknow that you're doing that, and
I think that's probably goingto be what you're going to start
doing more of, anyway.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
No, oh I've always said I'm a shooter.
I am definitely a shooter, nota target setter.
But, being forest city, beingthe regional, and zach asked me
to do it, I didn't ask to do it,it was his idea.
Yeah and um, I said absolutely,yes, that's, it'll be fun, I be
(36:34):
fun.
I don't think the Zach KeenbaumThursday prelim is not the
biggest draw.
I think our town here and ourgun club are the draw.
It should be a really, reallygood event.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
I asked Zach a second ago if he had to go.
We were talking about food,like we always do but if he had
to pick some things to do whenhe's not at the gun club, what
would you do?
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Oh, I mean, take a drive out to Tybee, go downtown.
There's a million restaurantsin the area, but you've got some
really good restaurants withinfive minutes of the gun club.
Come out the gate, turn left,go to that intersection there in
Sandfly, and you've gotbarbecue, you've got Mexican,
(37:21):
you've got seafood.
You have an outstanding NewYork deli.
Anyone coming from theNortheast that's picky about
their sandwiches or their delis,this guy's straight from New
York City and it is fabulous.
But there's a lot of optionsclose and you know, 20 minutes
to downtown.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
He said the same thing.
Yep, he said the same thing, soI guess that's it.
I just wanted to talk to callyou and, uh, ask you about that.
I thought that was.
I thought it was kind of funny,but I thought it's cool at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
So yeah, it's cool.
They've been doing a ton ofwork at the club.
We've cleared a lot of areasaround, especially that north
course around the big lake.
People will be impressed withthat.
They've laid down some moreasphalt.
The club will be ready for sure.
I think there's a lot of youthshooters.
This is the youth shooting clubin the southeast, mainly
(38:15):
because we have so many trap andskeet fields, because those
events whether it's a highschool event or an SCTP event,
they have to shoot all threegames trap, skeet and sporting
and every major shoot for youthin the southeast is at Forest
City Gun Club.
So there's a lot of familiesthat are used to coming and
spending time in savannah andthey absolutely love it, but the
(38:38):
, the parents and the adultsdon't get to shoot it for a city
that often.
So this will this will be agood change of pace for them
yeah, I told I was.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I brought that up with with zach earlier.
I said it's not often that youcan go to a place and shoot.
That's totally private, right?
You know when I put, when Ipull up to go down there, you
know if I'm coming down thereand we mean you shoot or
whatever it is, it's the hey.
Can you open the gate for me?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
you cannot I mean you can't get in so right, that's.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
That's what I think is pretty cool about this place.
And, yeah, um, the lastregional we mentioned this as
well it it was the, thehurricane back in 18, I think it
was.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, 18 or 19.
Yeah, we had a hurricane comingin off the Atlantic and I
remember making some Facebookposts about it just how the
media can sensationalize some ofthese weather predictions and
stuff and, yeah, probably 40% ofthe shoot canceled didn't come
and we had a great event.
(39:36):
We had a little bit of wind,but it wasn't.
I mean, I think it's windierout there today than it was that
weekend.
Yeah, um, and that was a greatevent and and that was I was
really excited for that eventback then because we we had been
coming to forest city to teacha lot.
We didn didn't live here then,but I just knew it was going to
(39:57):
be the biggest, best regional ofthe year and the entries were
it was going to be a monstershoot and fortunately Mother
Nature didn't cooperate andscared off a lot of people.
But I know a lot of people areexcited to come here this year.
I think it's going to be a goodevent.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yep, well, I'm done, that's all.
I excited to come here thisyear.
I think it's going to be a goodevent.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Yep, well, I'm done, that's all I wanted to talk to
you about All right.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
All right, see you.
We'll talk to you later.
Thanks, we'll be right back.
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Speaker 2 (00:46):
In this episode, I'm joined by Zach Garettas from
Forest City Gun Club to talkabout the much-anticipated
Southeast Regional.
Find out everything you want toknow about the shoot.
Also, I have a guest coming ontowards the end of the show that
will be a target setter on oneof the prelims at the Regional.
I think you all will besurprised.
Thanks for tuning in to ShotgunSports USA, mr Zach.
(01:25):
What's up, man?
Hey, how are you Good?
You know, I've kind of beenwaiting for the regional to get
to Forest City this year, andthe reason being is because the
last time the regional was there, it was basically a big cluster
.
Because of weather.
Yeah, which was what?
What year was that 18 cluster?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
because of weather, yeah, which was what?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
what year was that 18 ?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, 2018.
I forget what the hurricanename was, but, um, they had
predicted that this thing wasgoing to hit Wilmington, north
Carolina, and roll down thecoast of North Carolina, south
Carolina, and miraculously go upthe Savannah river.
Um, there was a lot of, therewas a lot of, there was a lot of
(02:08):
people pulling out just due to,you know, a hurricane scare.
Um, there was a lot of peoplethat couldn't get here because
of evacuation routes for northcarolina and south carolina.
A lot of the folks up northjust could not get through the
the evacuation routes.
Um, so I think we we weresupposed to have in between 800
(02:29):
and 815 uh shooters, which wasgoing to be the biggest shoot,
our biggest regional, uh,southeast regional at the time.
Um, but the meadows and dominicand eric threw a really good
shoot in 2020, and that numberis going to be really hard to
beat, but we ended up havingbluebird skies, a little bit of
(02:50):
rain like a misting rain, and alittle bit of wind on one of the
days, but other than that, itwas a really, really good
weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, we had us a big old time.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, it was a.
It was a.
It was we had had.
We had everything ready to gofor twice the amount of people
that showed up and everybody hada great time yeah, so now we're
, we're in 2024 and anotherone's coming, a regional's here.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So, yeah, uh, for the people that had never been to
forest city, I want to kind ofback up and talk about forest
city for a minute, because whatyear did you get?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
there is that, so I got here in february of 2013, so
I've been here for just over 11years wow, I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's been that long, yeah, what?
So tell me how it was when yougot there and how it is now man
when I got here, um, they had.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
You know, our club is a private club established in
1883.
We've been on three or fourdifferent locations in Savannah
in that 141 years we have.
I guess when I got here in 2013, we had just had some
(04:04):
transition on board, on theboard of directors, and it was
just the perfect time for me tocome in here after Chris
Cantrell and take over whatChris had started and, along
with my staff and a great board,we have completely changed how
(04:24):
this club looked.
In 2013, um, 2013, we werenowhere near ready to to to
throw a big sporting clays event.
I know that they had hosted onein 2012, um, but I from my
understanding they had brought alot of machines in because the
machines just weren't in in goodshape.
But, moving forward, in the 11years we have, we have went from
(04:49):
having 30, maybe 40 workingsporting clays traps to we have
105 traps on the on the groundsat all times, um, and then you
know multiple trap and skeetfields as well.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, big place for the youth, for City is now it is
it is.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
We get really busy in the fall and the spring with
Scholastic Clay Target Programin the spring and then the
Georgia Independent SchoolsAssociation in the fall.
We actually get a one-weekbreak from this regional and
then we will be hosting thescholastic clay target program,
southeast regional um at the endof April, which is which is big
(05:34):
it's.
There's over 600 people signedup right now.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know what?
What interests me or what Ifind interesting about four city
is that you can't just pull inand shoot.
I mean, I've even came downthere before and the gates
closed and I have to call Zach,can you let me in?
I mean, you can't just pull upand shoot at this place, and
that's what the people coming tothe regional you know.
(05:59):
It's pretty neat that you'reshooting on a private club.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, it is.
It's a.
It's a very special place andit holds uh, it's really near
and dear to my heart.
Um got a lot of blood, sweatand tears in this place um to
watch it be what it is now andum, it's, it's our membership.
They take really, really goodpride in it and we have just um
(06:23):
just at right at 800 memberswere capped.
Um, but the membership takes alot of pride in it and um, I
think people will be blown awaywhen they come in here and see
how nice this place looks.
Um, and then you know to havethat safety net of being behind
that gate and then located justin the smack dab middle of
(06:46):
Savannah, pretty much is isanother incredible thing as well
, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
It's.
Uh, the place is big.
I hope you have a whoever'sgoing.
Better have a golf cart or somemeans of transportation to get
around this place, because ifnot you need to leave about an
hour early to walk.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
From the clubhouse to to um,what we call our lake or North
course is um right at threequarters of a mile, close to a
mile.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Could you imagine me and you have to walk out there?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
No, we'd be out of breath, we wouldn't shoot good.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So.
So anyway, the membershipprocess you were just talking
about how does that work?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's developed over time.
From my understanding, prior tomy arrival it was a little bit
easier to get into the club, butas the club developed itself
and got nicer and more exclusive, it's it's become a lot harder.
Um, there's a lot more peoplethat want to be a member of the
club, but we just don't have the.
(07:51):
We don't have the capacity formore than what what our cap is
right now at 800.
Um, we have a waiting list.
It's very, very lengthy waitinglist.
Um, it used to not be that way.
(08:14):
When I first got here, theremight have been under 100 people
on the waiting list, but we'rewell over 300.
Anymore either, you know, wemight, might lose 10 members a
year.
Um, so it's it's.
It's changed a lot yeah, yeah,it's pretty.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's pretty neat how it works.
You know you have to vote.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I think y'all vote on the, the people that are up and
and uh and go from there, soanyway yeah, you get, you get
proposed for membership and thenyou, you, you wait your time
and um, and then you know youget proposed for membership and
then you wait your time and thenyou get the phone call and you
get.
In that way it's pretty cool towatch it go down.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And you have to live there too, right.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You don't have to live here.
We have several out-of-townmembers that are members and
they're obviously not as activeas the locals, but they enjoy it
as well.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay, so the regionals.
Here it's.
On what date Is it April?
What?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Well, it starts April 9th fee task on April 9th and
10th, and then on April 11th.
Thursday april 11th is whenpretty much everything else
starts.
We got a thursday prelim um thesub gauge startup on that day,
super sporting um five stand subgauge fee task, um they all
(09:41):
start on that day.
And then um friday thursdayprelim closes, but friday prelim
day.
And then um Friday, thursdayprelim closes, but Friday prelim
opens.
And then, of course, the mainevent on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Who's uh, who's your target setters.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Um so we have per fee task.
I'm setting fee tasks myself.
Um sub gauge fee task is EricDorsey from Meadows.
Um Thursday prelim is noneother than zach keembaum wait
what?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
stop for a minute.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
He's setting targets he is setting targets.
He actually told me the otherday that he doesn't think that
he has set targets since 2010,so, um, I thought it would be
really fun, since this is hishome club now to extend the
offer and um and he is.
(10:30):
He is jumped at the challenge.
Hopefully he has what it takes.
We know he can, he can shootthem, but we don't know if we
can, if he can set them.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm surprised to hear that, not the fact that he
can't he can't do it, but justthat I mean that takes a lot of
work and a lot of effort to havea good course and there's no
telling what will be out thereif he's setting it Well you know
, I mean in the 14 years thathe's taken a leave of absence
and setting targets, he's shotseveral hundred thousand rounds
(11:05):
of targets.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
So hopefully he can and choose from the ones that he
has in his memory or in hismind, or the ones that got away
and throw a great, greatthursday prelim.
Well, that's cool that's,that's.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's neat that, uh, he'll be doing that.
So anyway, I didn't mean tointerrupt you, no you're good.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You're good, um, our sub gauge course is going to be
set by eric dorsey as well.
Um, super sporting will be setby jake spangler from the
cardinal Shooting Center inMarengo, ohio.
He's a fellow classmate of mine.
And then Mike Bashaw is goingto set the five stand.
He's fully healthy and readyand eager to set.
(11:49):
Rick Hemingway is going to doour Friday prelim.
My right-hand man, chip Deagle,is going to set the Win.
Rick Hemingway is going to doour Friday prelim.
My right-hand man, chip Deagle,is going to set the Winchester
woods course.
Um, and then I am going to setthe bread of Maine, nice.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Got a little bit, a little bit of everybody there.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, we got a variety.
It's, uh, it's going to be fun.
I'm, I'm, I'm stoked and readyto start setting targets, yeah,
so what tell me about the, theregional?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
what all is?
What are you?
What are you doing in theafternoons?
You have, you have dinner plan.
Give me the details.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
So, um, well, obviously we're a little bit
different than most gun clubs.
We have a full, full bar, um,and a really nice clubhouse, so
you know the bar will be open aslong as you you're done
shooting, um, partake at the atthe bar and act like a member
for for five days or six days,however long you're going to be
(12:46):
here, um.
And then on Friday, we're goingto have a cocktail party with
none other than a roastedalligator, a whole roasted bacon
wrapped in bacon.
I don't know if you rememberthat from 2018.
I do.
I actually just got the emailconfirmation.
We have an eight-foot alligatorthat's going to be wrapped in
(13:07):
bacon, slow-cooked all day, andthen we're going to throw a low
country bowl with that, um, forfor friday, with, with cocktails
.
And then on saturday, we havethe fish eye grill out of little
old gerard, georgia, which isabout an hour and 40 minutes
from here, um, towards aug.
(13:29):
Um, they have kind of becomeour new caterer there.
They do a great job.
Um, we're going to have beeftenderloin with grilled shrimp
and a bunch of fixings anddesserts on Saturday.
Um, it'll be, it'll be, it'llbe a real treat.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Nice, I remember the alligator and I think I had one
of my kids with me.
I think I can't remember.
Have you you've had analligator there, other than just
that regional right?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I think I well, we've only had it at that regional
We've.
We talked about having it forthe state shoot in 21, but we
just could not.
Um, they couldn't get a gator.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And he's like he looked at it.
He says and he's like he lookedat it.
He says what is what is that upthere for?
I said, that's for dinner.
He says I'm not eating that.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And there was a lot of people that was uh real
hesitant on trying it, um, andthen once they started nibbling
on it, it was really good.
It's it's presentation justlike a pig picking, so it'll be
a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
The whole thing's on the table the head the mouth the
tail.
Everything is up on the table.
It's pretty neat.
You know I was thinking aboutsomething while you were talking
just a second ago Nationals,this year Didn't you finish up
top in fee task, or somethinglike that?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yes, sir, I did.
I, tied for master first, Lostthe shoot off.
I'm starting to get a lot.
My eyes are starting to get alot um worse as my old age and
um Gavin and Joe and um I forgetwho else was in the shoot off,
(15:06):
but they whooped my tail.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, but it's just it's.
I remember seeing that and Ithought didn't you win double a
at the nationals in something?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yes, I won the national fee test, uh, or the
the fee task event at nationalsin 2016 as a double a shooter.
Yeah, h O, a, h O a yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, and I remember that I saw it again, you know,
this past year.
I thought Zach one thing he cando, he can shoot some feed
tasks.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
So that's good that you're saying you know, I grew
up hunting, um, quail huntingand stuff, and when, and with my
grandfather and my dad, andit's just that natural killer
instinct I can.
I should shoot sporting claysthat way, but I, I refuse to do
it, why, uh, I don't know.
I just I'm a free mountainshooter when it comes to
(15:54):
sporting glaze on 80% of thecourse and and I will, logan,
you know the other 20%, but um,I like to attack the bird pretty
pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I noticed on a picture Zach Keenbaum posted
that you have some asphalt goingdown out there.
What's going on with that?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
so we have, like I said earlier in the conversation
, we have a really good boardthat, um, they take just as much
pride in this place as what Ido, which it's a lot of fun to
to have to have a board that youknow wants to work with you,
and they have they have theirown vision, but the vision is
(16:41):
making this club better thanwhat it is you know at at at its
current time.
Um, in 2019, we resurfaced thefirst 700 feet of the club.
At the entrance, through thegate, you can actually see where
the asphalt stops, and we kindof had a plan that we were going
(17:02):
to continue that COVID hit.
We had to do some other stuffand upkeep on some other things,
and in that meantime we built acovered five stand as well.
So we've kind of been kickingaround asphalt or redoing, you
know, adding to or resurfacingsome asphalt in the last few
(17:25):
months of our monthly boardmeetings and we decided just a
few weeks ago that it would bereally good to go ahead and get
this the tail end past ourcovered five stand and where the
rv park is asphalted for dustcontrol and that kind of thing,
(17:45):
um, with with the amount ofpeople that's coming in as well
as our membership.
We actually built a pole barn alot about it about a year ago,
um for our members to park theirpolaris's or can-ams or cow
stocking mules under um, so thatwe just have a little bit more
traffic on that end of the road,and so we poured some asphalt
(18:07):
and and it looks great so is.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Is the parking still the same when you pull in that
big field right there?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yes, sir.
So we're going to have severaldifferent areas where you can
park your trailer.
We'll have people parking youas well or leading you in the
right direction, but we're goingto park anywhere, from right up
front here just beside my house, to the, the trees behind the
(18:37):
skeet fields, um, and even onour back line of skeet fields.
We have a big area marked offfor that right now as well.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, it's a big place and I mean, you know, kind
of getting away from the gunclub a second.
You're in Savannah.
You mentioned that a second ago, that you're right in the
middle of Savannah and we talkabout this a pretty good bit.
You know, when Zach's on andit's, there's everything to do
in Savannah.
(19:05):
There's nothing that you cannotfind to do.
The place is really close, youknow.
If you want to leave for lunch,you know, while you're shooting
you have a little break, youcan literally get somewhere in
two minutes.
Yeah, that's cool, you knowit's it's.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's incredible where it lays out, you know the from.
From my understanding, like inthe seventies and the eighties,
um, well before I was even outof diapers, um, well before I
was even out of diapers, um,there was, you know, ferguson
Avenue was a dirt road and itwas actually a racetrack.
Um is where where people youknow raced on Friday nights or
(19:44):
whatever you know.
And then Montgomery crossroadwas also a dirt road.
So where we're located rightnow used to be what I guess you
would call the country ofsavannah, um, but obviously now
it's well, well populated and umwe're we've kind of gotten
(20:07):
built all around.
Um, there's a sam's and walmartliterally three minutes away
some of the best eating insavannah.
Um.
I'm partial to what we call thesandfly area, which is the, the
four-way stop right there whenyou come in.
Um, oh yeah, this sandflybarbecue is probably by far the
(20:30):
best barbecue in town.
Um, we have two mexicanrestaurants.
I I favor the tequila town.
Um, we have a new restaurantthat just came in in 20, late 21
or early 22, called the fivespot.
It's like a burger joint.
(20:50):
Um, it's really nice.
We have lox chicken and wafflesprobably some of the best
breakfast in the area.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Um I was gonna ask we got it all there.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Lox, yeah, waffles we got two seafood, nice seafood
joints just right down there aswell, all located in that um,
cast away and drift away.
Um, your pie pizza is reallygood.
Uh, there's just there's.
Like you said, if you have time, if you, if you're shooting the
8 30 rotation and you don'thave to shoot fee task or five
(21:21):
stand or super sporting untilthree o'clock in the afternoon,
you have the ability to pull outof the club and go five minutes
down the road and and kind ofendure what we get to do every
single day all right, let me askyou something.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So if you're going to lunch, what's your number one
spot?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
man.
I tell you it just depends onyou know chip, when we talked
about this back in 2018.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
He's kind of a picky individual yeah, he wants to eat
pizza all the time.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
He's a pizza or burger or chicken finger guy and
it really and truthfullydepends whether I care what he
wants to eat or if I don't care.
But my go-to that I really liketo do is go to Sam's Fly
Barbecue.
It's really good.
My number two is the Castaway.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Is that the seafood place across from it?
Speaker 3 (22:15):
It is the actually.
So that's drift away.
Drift away is really good too.
We actually ate there yesterday.
So, um, I'm not partial one orthe other.
We, we kind of float around,but, um, my, if my go-to, my
favorite is sandfly barbecue Allright.
(22:35):
So go into dinner at night.
Name a good place.
You can't go wrong withCastaway or Driftaway If you
feel like a surf and turf, oreven just straight-up seafood.
They have great dinner specials.
Five Spot is phenomenal fordinner.
You have all your finerestaurants downtown.
The only problem with downtownis, you know, parking.
You have to either stay, parkin a garage or pay for parking
(22:58):
on the street or whatever so.
And then tequila town is is isa really good mexican restaurant
to to have dinner at as well.
My kids love to go there andget hamburgers for some reason.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Sounds like mine, you go to a barbecue place and they
order chicken fingers.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, well, that's what Chip does.
He goes to a barbecue joint andhe says they have one of the
best hamburgers in town.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
So yeah, I'm glad Chip got married.
He did.
He got married last fall.
I mean I wouldn't, I didn't.
I mean Chip's a nice enough guy, it's just.
You know, I just look at him asa as still a kid, and I know
he's not.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
But yeah, I told him.
So.
Chip became the assistantmanager of the gun club in 2017.
And I told him this morning.
I said, man, I saw a picture ofyou that popped up on my phone
from 2017 and you were a kid.
Yeah, from 2017 and you were akid.
(23:58):
Yeah, um, it's crazy, uh, thathe's been here just as long as
me and and we we have a greattime.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
He's just as excited about this regional coming back
as I am yeah, so this is thehome club to zach keenbaum, desi
edmonds, connor daniel.
Who else is down there?
Speaker 3 (24:10):
keith higgins keith um yep keith higgins, keith
Higgins, yep, keith Higgins.
He practiced here.
I think it was last week or theweek before.
He pops in every once in awhile.
Those are our top guys, but wehave a lot of junior that call
(24:32):
this place home as well, thatare doing really good in the
lower classes right now.
Um, for this for this spring.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
How are the four city juniors doing this year?
Are they doing, or are theygoing to be doing, good?
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, we're man we're trucking along, it's, it's, uh,
we've we've been practicing.
This will be 10 weeks ofpractice so far since we started
.
They're shooting really, reallygood.
We've got roughly around 85kids, I think again this year.
So it's a whole different jobthat I've had the responsibility
(25:10):
of being in charge of with LeeSummerford since 2014.
But this year is the first yearthat I actually have some skin
in the game.
Um, my son's shooting.
He's nine years old.
He's shooting on the rookies,so this is going to be fun.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah Well, mine started last year you know, and
it's I'm telling you man it's.
I've gotten to the point, zach,that I don't even care if I
shoot Like as, I'd rather justgo watch him do it you know.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah, it's pretty remarkable um to watch them.
You know progress.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yup, that's good.
So four cities, one of the best, in my opinion, one of the best
gun clubs in the country.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Um, yeah, you got to watch what you say there, one of
the best gun clubs in thecountry.
Um yeah, you got to watch whatyou say there.
I mean, gary Fitzgerald mightnot like that.
Why he?
I have never seen Gary at thisclub, but he, he, he has a
pretty dang good gun club too.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Well, I mean, but I hadn't been to Gary's so I can't
say that I have, uh, seen his.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah.
So, but it's one of the nicestplaces that I have been to.
I'm excited about going.
I know my son's excited aboutgoing.
He just wants to stay at adifferent place.
You know how you are whenyou're a kid.
Oh, I get to stay oh yeah soyeah, but yeah, we'll be down
(26:24):
there and uh, uh, if you haveany questions, I know that you
should get a hold of callie,which is your sister.
Uh, she is unfortunately theregistration issues, or
registration questions.
Uh, you just call them scorechaser and I think her email is
on there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah Well, you're going to have a good good crew
of registration.
Once you get on the grounds,they're going to take really
good care of you.
We got my sister, callie, who'sworked for score chaser for a
few years now, and then you know, her boss, casey chase um, um
does a phenomenal job as well asbecky rogers.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
They're all going to be here taking care of everybody
, making sure that they getpointed in the right direction I
know you've got a a huge staffthere that's going to make this
regional successful and I knowyou've got a lot of vendors
coming to to the regional.
Let's talk about those peoplebefore we get off yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So, like I said in in the in the earlier on, we have
a really good membership.
Um, we met, we've met for thelast three or four weeks.
We call it the shoot planningcommittee.
We have a great group of guysum that are that are shooters,
um travel around and bring theiryou know their opinions and
(27:35):
intel back in.
We have a great full-time staffchip deco, my assistant manager
, anna whitley, my officemanager, several bartenders.
Cody brown he's on ourmaintenance crew.
He's, he's phenomenal you'llsee him rolling around with a
hat on backwards 90% of the timeand a lot of other folks too,
(27:59):
as well as our board ofdirectors.
They'll be popping in and outmaking sure that everything's
good.
It'll be a good experience foreverybody.
And then we couldn't do itwithout our sponsors.
We've got Krieghoff.
International is our titlesponsor.
(28:19):
They also sponsored the 20 and28-gauge VTAS, the Super
Sporting.
We have Beretta as a main eventsponsor.
Winchester as a main eventsponsor.
Daniel Defense is sponsoringour Saturday night dinner, which
(28:40):
is going to be delicious.
We've got our Game Boar is ourFETAS sponsor.
Our Thursday prelim, cesarGuarini.
Friday prelim is Rhino Chokes.
Our five-stand is sponsored bySuisponte Foundation.
(29:01):
It's formed by some retiredArmy Rangers, some local guys.
We have Briley that'ssponsoring our sub-gauge and
that rounds off the eventsponsors.
We have Pure Gold, clay, targetVision, pms and several others
that are popping up daily, andthen we have tons and tons of
(29:23):
vendors on the hook coming.
The other thing we didn'treally talk about, you know, we
talked about food off-site, butwe're planning on having several
food trucks on-site for thosethat maybe have a jam-packed day
that need to go get a quickbite and then head back out to
the course.
We'll have plenty, plenty and avariety of food trucks as well.
(29:45):
We might not be able to fit aworm on this place after we get
everybody here.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, sounds good.
I mean, I know it takes a lotto get something like this how
many people registered shootersregistered now 850, or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
We're gaining some and still dropping some.
Yesterday we were 830.
Today we're 827.
We're still full in the mainevent.
Me and I added it up we havelike 707 guns in the sub-gauge.
It's going to be packed.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Well, I'm ready to go and I'll be seeing you, I guess
, a couple of weeks, next week,whenever it is so yeah, well,
it's actually like seven days.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
We're seven days and counting on Thursday now.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
All right, well, I'll see you.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
And how about this?
I'll see you on Thursday.
Yeah, sounds good.
Just challenge people to doyour homework coming into
Savannah If there's somethingthat interests you.
There's tons of stuff.
I did look and the SavannahBananas are out of town, which
is a huge attraction, but weactually have a semi-pro hockey
team that started last year.
They're in town, I thinkSaturday, maybe Saturday.
(31:03):
So, you know, if you're intohockey, go check out our new
in-market arena.
I think there's some concertsin town as well, you know.
So do your homework and makethe best of it.
Tybee Island's not that faraway.
It's 30 minutes away.
Um, it's just.
Uh, it's a really good area andand you know you, you'll come
here for the shoot and you'llsay, man, I should have came a
(31:25):
couple of days earlier, cause wehear that all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, it's one of it's big.
It's a nice place.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
There's.
There's a lot of stuff to dodowntown.
There's a lot of stuff.
If you're bringing your wifeand you don't want her to mess
up your shooting, you can sendher away and she's going to have
just as much fun without you,downtown with your credit card
as you are here shooting.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
All right, zach.
Thank you, man, I appreciateyou all right, I appreciate it.
We'll see you soon I told youat the beginning I would have
someone on, and he is notexpecting this call at all.
Yo, this is uh, this is.
I'm recording this, just so youknow.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
How's the audio?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
The audio's fine.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I just got off the phone with zach garettis and he
was going through his targetsetters and he was saying who
set feet, or who's setting fee,setting fee task and who's
setting this?
And then he got to the thursdayprelim and he said you and I
thought what, like, I mean?
I mean you can't be a targetcritic if you, uh, if you're not
willing to set them.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And I thought what, like, I mean, I've even you
can't be a target critic ifyou're not willing to set them.
I'm not a target critic.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Do you understand how much work that is?
Speaker 4 (32:48):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Okay.
So when's the last time you seta course?
Speaker 4 (32:53):
I have set.
The last time I set a coursewas probably 2009 or 2010.
It's a long time ago at TripleB Clays in California.
I don't even know what theevent was it was nothing major.
But that's the last time I didit and, to be honest, it's
probably the best course everset.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The best course you ever set, or that was ever set.
The best course ever set.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
The best course you ever said or that was ever said.
That was ever said.
I'm just kidding, I don't evenremember.
I don't even remember what Isaid.
I don't remember if peopleliked it or not, but I don't
think there's that I can counton one hand, people that have,
uh, shot more targets than Ihave, at least, like you know
(33:38):
right, different places anddifferent types of targets.
I got a pretty good idea ofwhat people can and can't hit,
so I'm not scared I think it'scool.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
I honestly think it's cool.
Yeah, are you gonna be the one?
Are you gonna ride around onthe four-wheeler?
Speaker 4 (33:54):
I think that day I think I have an, an event, uh,
later that day, but most of theday, yeah, I'll probably be
cruising around the coursemaking sure, seeing how
everyone's doing what?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
uh, I know you've been thinking I didn't know this
till right, like literallyright now.
So what?
What are you thinking about?
I know you've got somesomething in your in your head.
I've got.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
I've got a hundred texts and calls about it just
people asking what I've said.
A lot of people want me to setsomething crazy hard.
I think I'll just make itinteresting.
It is the Thursday prelim.
It's not a world championshipby any means, but I want to set
some interesting stuff for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, I mean, I've got my 10-year, my 10 year old,
coming now and you gottaremember that, you know.
So don't, don't be setting ittoo hard.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Obviously, yeah, that's kind of in my line lately
at some of these shoots, is I?
I think it's important that thetarget setters know their
audience and you know what, uh,who's coming and what's on the
line.
Obviously it's just a fun event, yeah, but, um, as a coach, I
(35:02):
think uh, I really have an ideaof what people can and can't hit
, and I don't think some of thetarget setters uh understand
physics at at times, what ashotgun shell can actually do on
it with a clay target, um, butalso just what gives people
problems so does that meanyou're going to set something
(35:25):
far from that comment you justmade?
probably not nothing too too far.
Okay, I'm gonna try to beat you.
I'm gonna try to beat youwithin 40 yards for sure.
Well, that ain't how you canbeat me.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I mean that ain't hard.
You can beat me.
I mean, that's not hard.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
talking to me or just in general.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Just in general.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Well, I think that's cool.
When are you, when are yougoing to start shooting there?
Wednesday on FeeTask.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
I start FeeTask on Wednesday, but I'll be out there
all week.
I think we're going to set thatcourse on Monday, whenever air.
I don't know if they're goingto be Eric Dorsey's traps or
Rick's traps or coming away, Um,but either way it'll be
machines that are coming in onMonday.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Nice, well, I'm kind of pumped about it, man.
I think that's cool that youknow that you're doing that, and
I think that's probably goingto be what you're going to start
doing more of, anyway.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
No, oh I've always said I'm a shooter.
I am definitely a shooter, nota target setter.
But, being forest city, beingthe regional, and zach asked me
to do it, I didn't ask to do it,it was his idea.
Yeah and um, I said absolutely,yes, that's, it'll be fun, I be
(36:34):
fun.
I don't think the Zach KeenbaumThursday prelim is not the
biggest draw.
I think our town here and ourgun club are the draw.
It should be a really, reallygood event.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
I asked Zach a second ago if he had to go.
We were talking about food,like we always do but if he had
to pick some things to do whenhe's not at the gun club, what
would you do?
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Oh, I mean, take a drive out to Tybee, go downtown.
There's a million restaurantsin the area, but you've got some
really good restaurants withinfive minutes of the gun club.
Come out the gate, turn left,go to that intersection there in
Sandfly, and you've gotbarbecue, you've got Mexican,
(37:21):
you've got seafood.
You have an outstanding NewYork deli.
Anyone coming from theNortheast that's picky about
their sandwiches or their delis,this guy's straight from New
York City and it is fabulous.
But there's a lot of optionsclose and you know, 20 minutes
to downtown.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
He said the same thing.
Yep, he said the same thing, soI guess that's it.
I just wanted to talk to callyou and, uh, ask you about that.
I thought that was.
I thought it was kind of funny,but I thought it's cool at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
So yeah, it's cool.
They've been doing a ton ofwork at the club.
We've cleared a lot of areasaround, especially that north
course around the big lake.
People will be impressed withthat.
They've laid down some moreasphalt.
The club will be ready for sure.
I think there's a lot of youthshooters.
This is the youth shooting clubin the southeast, mainly
(38:15):
because we have so many trap andskeet fields, because those
events whether it's a highschool event or an SCTP event,
they have to shoot all threegames trap, skeet and sporting
and every major shoot for youthin the southeast is at Forest
City Gun Club.
So there's a lot of familiesthat are used to coming and
spending time in savannah andthey absolutely love it, but the
(38:38):
, the parents and the adultsdon't get to shoot it for a city
that often.
So this will this will be agood change of pace for them
yeah, I told I was.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I brought that up with with zach earlier.
I said it's not often that youcan go to a place and shoot.
That's totally private, right?
You know when I put, when Ipull up to go down there, you
know if I'm coming down thereand we mean you shoot or
whatever it is, it's the hey.
Can you open the gate for me?
Speaker 1 (39:02):
you cannot I mean you can't get in so right, that's.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
That's what I think is pretty cool about this place.
And, yeah, um, the lastregional we mentioned this as
well it it was the, thehurricane back in 18, I think it
was.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, 18 or 19.
Yeah, we had a hurricane comingin off the Atlantic and I
remember making some Facebookposts about it just how the
media can sensationalize some ofthese weather predictions and
stuff and, yeah, probably 40% ofthe shoot canceled didn't come
and we had a great event.
(39:36):
We had a little bit of wind,but it wasn't.
I mean, I think it's windierout there today than it was that
weekend.
Yeah, um, and that was a greatevent and and that was I was
really excited for that eventback then because we we had been
coming to forest city to teacha lot.
We didn didn't live here then,but I just knew it was going to
(39:57):
be the biggest, best regional ofthe year and the entries were
it was going to be a monstershoot and fortunately Mother
Nature didn't cooperate andscared off a lot of people.
But I know a lot of people areexcited to come here this year.
I think it's going to be a goodevent.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yep, well, I'm done, that's all.
I excited to come here thisyear.
I think it's going to be a goodevent.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Yep, well, I'm done, that's all I wanted to talk to
you about All right.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
All right, see you.
We'll talk to you later.
Thanks, we'll be right back.
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