Gary Fitzjarrell: The sport, costs, controversy and classification

Have you ever found yourself squinting at the classification system in the NSCA, or laughing over the latest internet forum spat? Gary Fitzjarrell is here to take a no-holds-barred approach to the quirks and quandaries in the sport. From the psychological tug-of-war within the competitive community to the raw truths of being in a sport where ego can often outweigh talent.

As the conversation veers into the realm of personal authenticity and societal sensitivities, Gary doesn't shy away from stirring the pot. We confront the reality of competition, the sting of judgment both online and off, and how humor can be a double-edged sword in a world quick to offense.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:58):
This episode has no filter.
My guest today lets it rip onseveral different topics, but
the main topic is theclassification system.
If you haven't heard about that, listen in on this episode and
it will be explained to you.
Most of you know him and forthose of you that don't be glad,
here he is Gary Fitzgerald.

(01:19):
Gary, what's up?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Nothing much, man Just living a dream, waking up
in a nightmare.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, well, it seems like every time I talk to you
it's about the same way.
It's about the same way Does itever change for you?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
No, it's fresh.
It's a fresh hell every day,every morning.
That's why I don't go to the,don't ever send me a letter,
because I don't go to themailbox, because there's always
a summons or something.
I get in there, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Somebody waiting outside to fight you.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, I got a deposition and that thing.
I like to have been sued againtoday.
That guy's going to sue me theother day because I posted a
freaking personal messagebecause he was going nuts about
something on Facebook and Iwanted to have just screen shot
at the sheriff and he's going tosue me.
I named a couple US SupremeCourt cases of why that wasn't

(02:31):
Good luck.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
So you can.
So if you send something tosomebody and screen shot it and
share it, you can get sued forthat now, huh.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
No, you can't.
He thought he thought hethought you could and I said
well, you didn't send an NDA.
He didn't have me sign an NDAor say this was author record,
sir, and I explained to a coupleUS Supreme Court cases here
recently, or not recently,within the last 15, 20 years,
and he quit screaming at me.
He was telling me all about hiswhatever is in our instructor

(03:04):
and the fact that he was.
He was taught by a sportingclays champion and I looked the
person up and they weren't.
But that's pretty much.
That's normally how thosefights go.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Was that champion in master class and should have
been in B?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
No, sadly, I don't think they made it to.
They might have just got out ofD, so you know.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Might have won the championship tour in D class.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Right, right, you know how many of those, how many
of the national world champions?
Well, I'm a.
The guy was on there the otherday he was talking about you
know that his kid was a worldchampion and it turned out they
were in E class, sub junior.
But whatever man, whatevermakes you feel better.
I just.

(03:53):
It's a psychological,sociological experiment for me
every time I go on the internets.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, I think.
What did you do?
Open it up to a bunch of crazypeople.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
What the internet?

Speaker 2 (04:08):
No, I'm talking about your Facebook page.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh, I don't know.
I don't know Like.
I said I just kind of just sitback and watch it all happen.
It's I don't know, I don't know.
Sometimes I think it's a dream.
I don't know if you've everread the book Simulation
Hypothesis, but it was guys inMIT.
Mit guy and his hypothesis, orthis theory, is this is all an

(04:37):
illusion.
This is a giant computer and weare living.
Remember those books?
When you were a kid that waslike choose your own adventure.
Yeah, okay.
So basically we're choosing ourown adventure inside this
simulation and we're getting tothe different by us doing this.

(04:58):
It's quantum mechanics is whatit is, but by us doing this it
creates another avenue of ourown reality and that's what I
swear to God.
This can't be real.
Some of the stuff you read injust the world and the internet,
I mean even just shootingyou're like there's no way
that's real.
There's no way that person isreal.

(05:18):
There's no way there's somebody.
That's stupid.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
What are they starting to call it now?
The metaverse or something likethat?
The?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
metaverse, yeah, the metaverse, and that's you know.
That goes back to, you know,the quantum mechanics and the
simulation hypothesis that thereis a multiverse and everything
goes.
Oh, dude, don't even get Dubstarted.
He thinks the world was undoneby the reality that we lived in,
was undone by the CERN HydrantCollider.

(05:48):
Because we can remember bitsand pieces of the former
universe, like the BernsteinBears or the Bernstein Bears,
and then the Jiff peanut butteror Jiffy peanut butter, and then
there's another one he's got.
He says you remember whenDisney, a Disney movie, started
and Tinker Bell came out andwrote Disney and Daughter of the

(06:08):
Eye?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
No.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
And everybody.
We all remember that it neverhappened.
So, like I said, dub may beright, I don't know it's long
winners up here.
Justin, we thank you for somereally weird shit.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Somebody told me one time they said listen, gary acts
like an idiot, but he's one ofthe smartest people I've ever
talked to.
I said, oh okay, I see.
Now I see why.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Apparently that guy's a liar.
I must owe the money.
He was trying to talk.
Good, he's trying to get itfrom me.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
What you've been doing.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Running this club bought a duck club in Louisiana
trying to kill as much ducks toget my money out of that thing
as possible.
I'm shooting a little bit andthen, because I have a hard time
saying no, derek and WillHinton, the rest of those guys

(07:06):
they call them assholes.
The guys talked me into gettingon the USA shooting AC board.
So I've been.
We've been messing around withthat.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well, I don't know anything about USA shooting.
Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Oh, like I said, they redid their board and they're
trying to brought in a few newpeople in there and trying to
restructure it and trying to get, you know, trying to all
promote, get a little bit morefundraising, trying to get some
oh, I won't say it a blanket oh,getting a shared membership

(07:40):
with the other organizations andtrying to bring in some new
blood, trying to bring in somemore donations, trying to help
fund USA shooting Because, likeI said, you know, for the most
part a lot of people don'tunderstand how these
organizations are funded.
There's acts, a government acts, where you know the government
can't fund the Olympics team.

(08:00):
Their Olympic teams, the mostpart, are done by donations.
Other countries do though right.
Other countries.
Do you know you got China, Imean most.
Do you know you got countrieslike China and India pumping
millions of dollars in theirrifle and pistol programs?
And we're we're operating onfunds, you know.

(08:21):
I mean you know track, trackand field basketball.
You know all the other events.
They can go to Nike or who haveyou and get money for funding,
but we're a gun game.
So getting donations sometimeshard, you know, always hard.
So you know we've been workingon that and we're trying to get

(08:42):
some more people interested init and trying to actually get
some more exposure of how it allworks.
You know how you know the levelthat these kids are performing
at.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
So can anybody join USA shooting.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yep, it's, it's.
I believe it's 30 or $40 foryour subscription and you can
come in as an athlete or acompetitor, you can come in as a
donor, you know, and it one, ithelps out the team and two, it
lets you know a little bit morewhat's going on.
You know and and and what'sgoing on all these events.
I mean, for the most part andthis is how it's crazy is is

(09:19):
communists, is the rest of theworld is when it comes to guns.
You know internationalcompetition shooting is huge.
You know it's huge.
I mean especially, you know, inthe mid east and everything
with with the bunker and theinternational ski.
You know, you know KTR and, andI mean so on and so forth.

(09:39):
They really really watch andthere's a lot of competition.
I mean some of their bunkers,or not some of the bunkers, most
of their bunkers are justamazing.
The, the, the, the facilitiesthat they um compete at.
And, like I said, you know wedon't.
You know trap and ski or trapand sporting place takes

(10:01):
precedent over here.
You know we, we don't have alot of bunkers.
You know we have more than weused to.
You know, when my dad wasshooting back in the sixties and
seventies, I mean there wasbending, um, I think there's one
in California and there mighthave been one on the East coast,
and when they were runningthrough all the qualifiers, um,

(10:21):
and a lot of the qualifiers,they shot modified bunker.
They shot off a wobble trap andstood on top of a box.
You know the, the, the, the, wewere not spending even nearly
back in those days.
But now I mean there's more.
Maybe Hillsdale's got one andand um Kerville.
Now you know ski Kerville's gota bunker.
You know there are more bunkersbeing built.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
There's one down here in Georgia work Hinton used to
will.
Hinton used to be at right.
Where's he still?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, I mean there's one.
There's one down there for it,but for it more now, but it's
for it bending.
Um, there's that one.
I'm not, I said there's onedown.
They just built some down inFlorida.
Um, cardinal center's got some,you know.
I mean, you know, like I said,it is getting more but we got a
long way to catch up with allthe rest of the world and we do

(11:08):
an amazing job.
Um, because you know, I mean,if you're in Europe and you're
going to go shoot a bunker match, you know it's not that far to
go to all the different.
You know.
You know if we are going to getoutside of the United States,
we're flying and it's going tobe an eight hour trip at the
minimum just to get over toEurope.
But but yeah, they do shoot,they do.

(11:29):
I think they put a little bitmore weight to it.
You know, I think they put alittle bit more weight to it and
I think they put a little bitof that emphasis on on the
performance and, like I said,that's the thing where we're.
I like we were trying to getUSA shooting out in front of the
general population to see whatthey actually do.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
What?
What benefit is it for someoneto join USA shooting, Say,
someone's a member of the NSCA.
What's the what's the benefitof them joining USA?

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, I mean I mean on several different levels.
I mean you know, if you're ajunior competitor and you're
coming up through it, you knowthe.
You know if you're a shotgunshooter, maybe it'll give you
some exposure what's going on,maybe it'll interest you.
You know there's a.
There's a lot of kids that thatdon't know about bunker or
international ski and it might,you know, it would benefit you

(12:18):
as they shoot and you get moreblood.
I mean, the more people you tryand the more competition and
you always got to have somebodycoming on.
So there's that part of it.
And the other thing is like, ifyou're, if you're a guy that
you know there's a lot of guysthat support our FITAS team and
our our, you know, world Englishteam.
I mean you know, you know, getit out in front of the guys that

(12:39):
would would love to supportthem, support your country, help
, help somebody you know, helpguys that you know that you
shoot sporting players with will.
I mean, for example, willHinton and Derek Mine.
You know we have sporting playguys.
You know, help, support themand get them to.
I mean, you know path to Parisright now is a is a 2024.
We got to qualify her in Tucsonand March.

(13:02):
You know, help these guys gettheir support.
I mean these guys are doing,you know, obviously they're
funding is is miniscule comparedto what trap.
You know track and field, so onand so forth.
So you know, get it out there.
You know, see what we mean.
People don't realize that a lotof the well, not a lot of them a
lot of the World Cup events,you know ice, heat and bunker

(13:26):
are televised.
You can tune in on.
You can turn it, tune in on aYouTube channel and watch the
guys, because those all go tosuper finals.
You know you got to shoot goodenough to make that's that final
which is all on flash targets.
They've got a commentator waymore televised.
You know to tell a visibletelevised.
However you want to say thatword, I'll say I want to.

(13:50):
But anyway, you know, you knowthey'll, they do.
You know real time scoring,referees, so on and so forth,
and you can watch it on YouTubeand just stuff like that that
people don't know about.
Go see Derek shoot off, youknow.
Or go see Wil Hinton, or seeall the different countries
shooting off, and it's always,you know, it's always on live

(14:12):
streamed on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
All right.
So you talked about trappingskeet or international trapping
skeet.
What else does USA shootingoffer?

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Well, usa, I mean, you know we've got there's like
there's 4,800 members in it.
Now it's damn near cut down themiddle between your rifle and
pistol.
I mean rifle and shotgun pistolis a small portion of it.
But I mean you've got your airrifle, your free pistol, your
rapid fire.
Then you've got your air, youknow air gun and 22 caliber

(14:42):
rifle classes, you know.
And.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
I might have said that BB gun class.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
I don't know.
I mean you couldn't do itunless they brought a Q beam
with you to the, to the Olympics.
You know, kid can't hit shit,unless you're putting a Q beam
on that target and he gets realgood.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, those people you know, just talking about
that, watching them shoot thoseguns.
It's the 22s, it's crazy, it'snuts it is nuts, I mean.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
I mean it looks like you could do it until you've if
you've ever tried it and I'vetried it and you're just sitting
there going Dear Lord, I meanwhen you're shooting in between
heartbeats, you know, you gotthe code on it, you got the big
leather outfit.
You got that freak I mean theywere, they were that weird, they
were a weird shoe Sometimes gota base pad on it and you're

(15:35):
just sitting there.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
No, no recall.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, trying electronic triggers and then USA
shooting also goes in thebiathlon the so, the so, the
skiing and the skiing and the 22caliber stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, I don't even know how they do that, yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Oh, my God, oh, you'd be a, you'd be a great
candidate.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know I don't be on my back taking a breath.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Oh yeah, Type type two diabetes is not considered a
sports injury in that game, youknow.
But yeah, can you imagine that,Like, like you're going to go
be a world clash rifle shooterand then, okay, by the way,
let's just go ahead and be aworld class cross country skier
and be really fit to do, to gowhere you're not breathing hard?

(16:27):
No man, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
And then shoot.
How big, how big is theirpattern?
They shoot like in a quarter.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
It's a tiny.
It's a tiny, you know, and as Ithink it biathlon, I'm pretty
sure in biathlon it's been awhile.
I think you're shooting a steeltarget.
You're shooting like a littlebitty, little bitty, little
bitty circle.
Yeah, I mean, those guys aredifferent, man.
You know when, when, so Rileyand Diana, they didn't want to

(16:54):
take Riley to the, they went to21.
When Tokyo NBC Sports,universal Studios, they sent the
families to do a watch partyand Diana, diana and Riley
didn't, didn't want to go.
So Derek sent G W and I down toUniversal Studios in Florida.

(17:16):
So we went to the whatever.
And you know, obviously ourshit wasn't televised.
We watched it on on the, thecomputer, at night, at three
o'clock in the morning, when itwas.
But I met a few of the familieswhose people, whose kids were,
um, well, his son was in theunit at many.
But the rifle guys, they aren'tlike us, man, that is, that is
a completely different breeding.

(17:39):
Those people are calm, they're,they're nice, they're polite,
they're not shotgun shooters,that's for sure.
Yeah, hey, so it works oh it isman, and those guys that do that
, you know, are just, you know,just like I said, I can't, I
can't imagine doing it, you know.
But, like I said, those guysliked it, like it, and but, like

(18:02):
I said, that's all thedifferent parts and we, just, we
just want to get you knowthey're going to try to make a
push to get some more exposureand, um, get a presence, so
people actually know what'sgoing on.
You know, I mean there's a lotof guys that have said to you
know, like, ask me about Derek,because I mean, derek and I are
pretty good buds.
You know why is he?
You know why, why does he wantto do that?

(18:23):
And I'm like, because it's it's.
I mean, I hate to tell youunless you've been around it,
and I have it's, it's a pinnacleman, it is.
There's not a lot.
I mean, if you're going, thatmeans you got one of the quota
spots, so you're one or at themost, two people from your

(18:45):
country that got to go in thatdiscipline.
You know, this ain't a shootthat you just sign up for and as
long as you got your, you know,you know your dollar general
mastercard isn't maxed out.
You can enter it and you knowyou got to perform on this stuff
and your country has to performat World Cup events to get you

(19:07):
a quota spot, to have one or twopeople fight for those quota
spots.
You know it's it's hard, man,it's hard you know, you know,
and then and then you get a guyout there to shoot bunker.
Once, unfortunately, I've hadto sit there and shoot with
Derek Um, you know.

(19:28):
I mean the sporting guy comesout here, he can shoot a good
score the first time and then itslowly erodes on you.
It's just um, it is just adifferent.
It is not enjoyable.
There's nothing you can save oryou're not savoring your breaks
, you're just praying to God youget them.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Do you think?
I mean, I could ask Derek this,but do you think Derek likes
that better than sporting?
Or fee task?

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Opinion.
I mean, I think he loves feetask, I mean I think he loves
sporting, but I think he's.
It's a, in my opinion, you know, obviously the kid's a
competitor.
I think it's a means that itends.
You know, it's a mean to, it'sa way of getting the Olympics.
You know, and in order for youto go to the Olympics, you're
either going to shootinternational ski, um, or you're
going to shoot a bunker.

(20:19):
So that's that's what.
And you, you know, pick yourpoison and pick, you know, pick
your pain, and it's, you know,and that's what it's going to do
.
And he wants to go to Olympicsagain.
So, so does Will Hinton, so doesSeth Inman, you know.
So, all of those, all thoseguys and you got, you got guys
that are training for that, forthose few spots.
And I mean training, I meanthey're shooting, and they're

(20:41):
shooting every day.
Yeah, um, it's, it's a, it's,it's a bitch, you know it is, it
is tough.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
That metal and and for that metal.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
And then you know, if you look at what happened in
Tokyo, you know Derek didn'tmetal Kayleigh, kayleigh did, um
, you know, maddie, and, andthose guys did, derek didn't.
If you look at the scores fromthat, if you look at the scores
from that Olympics and comparethem to the other, they were

(21:13):
some of the highest scores evershot in Olympics.
I mean there was a lady, um, Imean it was Rahak Um, she shot a
125.
She shot a straight and that'sunreal.
That's.
I mean, that's the womanshooting the same targets as the
men and she was the only personto run 125.
You know, the last person torun a 125 and, like I said,

(21:35):
somebody can fact check me onthis one the last person to want
a 125 and Olympic games wasMick Diamond from Australia, and
that was I can't well, I thinkthat might have been London or
might have been.
It was.
It was a while back, I can'tthat wasn't.
London, it was, it was Sydney,maybe I can't remember, but
anyway.
So he shoots a 125.
But then again that game issuch a fickle bitch that.

(21:58):
So she shoots a 125 on the samelayout and everything that
everybody else did, and thenwhen it came time for her to
shoot the pairs, if I rememberright, you know she crashed, but
she didn't do as well.
It's just.
It's just such a balancing actin that game.

(22:19):
And you can slip, you slip andyou can either slip a bird or
you can free fall to the end.
But it is what it is and it'sjust like for Derek it's a
chance for him to get theOlympics.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
You know, you know a lot of guys have tried and they
realize what a.
You know you.
It's just, it's he ain't.
He ain't going out thereshooting targets.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
You ain't shooting clays, you know you know, but
you think, what do you thinkwould be harder?
Shooting bonker or being a bigguy shooting international skeet
?

Speaker 3 (22:54):
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know I haveshot.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yeah Right, the movement that yeah, we caught up
on everything.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, or or a chesty or a chesty girl shooting
international skeet.
Yeah, yeah, easy there.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yeah, yeah, right, right, right, right, right, you
know, yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
I don't know, I can't move fast enough on regular
American skeet.
Much less crazy, yeah, yes,much less having the, you know,
mount your gun at your waist.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, I mean you watching guys, yeah, watching
down there and you're not movingto the target and you got that.
You got a delay in there.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
I mean you know you got.
You know Vincent shot so muchof it before that and I don't
know of many guys.
I mean you probably got a namedMatt, right, and and Drake was
a unit guy with Carl Isle andRandy Moss or Randy boss.
I mean Randy boss, randy Mossguy did everything.
But but yeah, randy, randy, allthe beauty guys and and and

(23:56):
Drake and those are just,they're just amazing.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, randy, was that fucker did everything.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
I'm still laughing, but got Justin tickled but oh
man.
Oh, that's all I know, that'sall.
That's all, that's all I'vebeen doing, man.
I'm just like said me and meand running G dub around, he's
wrestling and and um, you knowtrolling, you know just just

(24:25):
enjoying, enjoying the, thecries out from the, the masses
on this re uh.
Rescheduling, reevaluation ofmasterclass.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah, let's talk about that for a second or 30
minutes, whatever, but all right.
So if you're in masterclass andyou didn't get this year, I
think this this year when doesthe new system start starting?

Speaker 3 (24:51):
The 15, as I understand, the 15 punches
minimum, and the point for CCRis this year, next year, I don't
know no spoiler alert, but it'sgonna be completely dead.
It's gonna be a little bit,it's gonna be a little higher
and on the punches, and I Don'tthink there's gonna be some

(25:14):
changes and there's gonna be alot more crying next year.
So save your tears, boys.
It's more common.
I Don't.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
I don't understand it All right.
So if you're in masterclass,right, and you're not
competitive or you don't shoot alot, I don't see the reason to
still stay in masterclass.
I don't, or any class, I mean,I don't.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
I Don't know.
I mean I don't understand it, Imean it's, it's crazy.
I mean the first of all, and Ijust wrote an article, that's
one thing.
I mean I actually in litter andI bought a Apple Laptops.
I'm writing articles now, but Ithink I just wrote an article
about this, about for them, forclay shooting USA, and then for

(25:55):
Matt Gays new Matt magazine.
But the title master, I think,is what skews the numbers or
skews the view of it, skews theskews the view of how these guys
look at it.
You know, I Don't think guys, Imean, you know this is all you

(26:21):
know guessing.
But you know we got a lot ofguys that were not Competitive
shooters, as in they didn't comefrom Skeeter trap.
Now, now in the game, we gotguys that picked this game up
and this is all they probablyever shot.
Yeah, some, some right.
So the idea of moving up anddown in class and getting paid

(26:44):
for moving up and down in classand the fact that it's just a
classification based on yourskills kind of eludes them.
You know it became, I thinkMatt Henning From California had
this one really good.
You know, he said it's like ablack belt, like giving a kid a

(27:04):
black belt or a yellow belt or aBronze belt or whatever.
However, that shit works.
I don't know.
I didn't go to Marshall arch.
Dad gave me.
Dad, gave me a freakingParabras knuckles and said
handle yourself shit.
You know how to handle yourshit, son.
But but you know, and and it'sno longer a classification based

(27:24):
on your ability, it's a merit,you know, it's an award?
Well, it's not, it's based onyour ability.
And if you're not shooting,well, why?
In the hell?
You know?
You know, like I said, I'veasked how many times I've done
the troll poise.
What do you guys think aboutCompulsory purses?
First of all, they don't knowwhat compulsory means, and then,

(27:46):
when they get back to, what apurse is they?
They, you know they can'tfigure that out either, but you
know, I ask them what if there'smandatory money back that you
had to play like?
Everybody that enters thenationals Pays a hundred dollars
or two hundred dollars I meantruthfully, a hundred dollars.
If a hundred dollars keeps youfrom going to nationals, then
the 23,000 bucks you spentgetting there probably should

(28:09):
have been their first indicationthat you couldn't be but any,
whatever.
You know.
And then you say that and theseguys don't want to because they
don't have a chance of winninganything.
But my opinion is like if youhad a chance of winning it, you
know if you were classifiedright or you were in that you

(28:29):
know, you know, you know upper30% or upper 40% or you're
competitive in that class You'dprobably be more apt to coming
up with some money becausethere's a chance you could win.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
So I mean that goes to that part, but I don't
understand the People refusingthe classes.
I mean why?
I mean that's the, that's aserious question.
It's why.
Why do you want to keep gettingyour ass?

Speaker 2 (28:55):
beat.
I'm thinking about this.
The only time that anybodyknows what class you're in when
you're at a tournament is whenyou sign up and they say okay,
you're shooting master class,All right, that's the first time
.
The second time is if they lookat your scorecard.
Other than that, there's noother time brought up at a
tournament what class you're in?
No, no there's.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah, so you're.
That's a good point.
I've never, actually never,thought of that.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
So you know who knows what class I mean.
I shoot all the time withpeople.
I'm like I don't, class is in,I don't care what class is in,
you know, I mean I could tell bythe way, shooting me, he's
probably in you know a beginneror a grease good or whatever,
but nobody knows what classyou're in, unless you're gonna
sit there and study thescorecards.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
You know what I'm saying unless, unless there's a
guy that and this is somethingI've heard, cuz it gives you
like said you know, there's this.
Oh Christ, what is this is 33,33, 33, 34 years that I've been
at this stuff.
I mean Mike, jesus Christ, mysir, my nsda numbers got zeros
in it.
You know, there are guys thatalways come in hey man, I'm

(30:03):
trying to make master class andI'm like cool, that's great.
Well, I really want to makemaster.
And then I've asked a few timeslike why, and Then what I want
to make master, and then whatyou know, and they can't figure
it out.
I'm like, and dude, you guysare pushing it way too hard.
You're not developing yourskills, you're not gonna be
competitive, you're gonna makeit.
I mean, that's the reason.

(30:23):
The sub gauge, I mean Peoplethat shoot, people that shoot
sub gauge now like to shoot subgauge.
I we had a couple state shootshere and there was a lot of guys
that signed up to shoot the subgauge events.
They did not shoot the main,they were after punches To get

(30:46):
into a class where they couldnot be competitive and then
their interests Wains, they get,they don't know, they're tired
of getting beat.
They've done all they can do,and then they quit.
Yeah and that is the reality.
That's the thing that theseguys that don't, that they're
not on the other side of thefence on it or the other side of

(31:09):
this table of how it works.
We lose shooters, yeah, becausethey're no longer competitive,
and I was like dear god man.
I mean, the thing is we'regiving away too many punches.
Dude, I didn't shoot last year.
I shot 2,000 targets.
I averaged a freaking punch perhundred with a point one eight.
Oh, ccr, I suck anymore.
I'm not, I'm not working at itnow.

(31:32):
If I can do that, and you guyswere pumping around that point
five, point six, point seven,you need to be in a different
class.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
All right, talk about how that work and some people
don't have that.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
That break down yeah right that that's hard for
people.
I can't figure it out.
So it's, it's.
It's where you rank in yourclass.
So it's the smaller the number,the better you are, the better
you are right.
So if you're a point five,you're dead center in the middle

(32:03):
of the pack and that is whereyou're averaging that you, and
it moves up and down.
It doesn't move as much nowthat we don't have sub gauge in
it, but it moves based on yourperformance for your ear.
So you have a bad tournament.
You know.
You know it goes to a biggernumber.

(32:24):
Point six means you're in thebottom 40%.
Okay, you know point seven,you're in the bottom 30%.
You know that's how thosenumbers work.
If you're in, if you're pointtwo, you're in the upper 20% of
that class and that number willfluctuate and it gives you it
probably hell.

(32:44):
It gives you an amazingsnapshot of how you're
performing in that class.
You know, if you're a pointfour, you're in the 40% and up
of Of master, you're damn nearin the middle.
But a guy that's point seven,you're still not gonna win
nothing.
If you're not gonna win nothing.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
No, if you're in the 40, if you're in the top 40% of
the class, I mean you have a top10%, got a chance, but the top
40% you might as well go backdown that double a yeah, you're
not winning.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
You're not winning, you know, and I, you know, I
think this you know, you know,on a statistics, on running
statistics and averages andstuff like that, you know you're
probably closer.
You know the classes should notlook like a balloon going up

(33:35):
the top Two classes, onstatistics, on average law,
averages ain't master and doublea should not be the biggest.
You should be.
Probably BC should be yourbiggest.
You know, biggest portion ofyour classes, right, you know.
And then you know I thinkthey're gonna do away with E

(33:56):
class next year, which is great,because there's nobody in E
class.
There's nobody.
And getting punched out of Eclass is hard, you know.
But I mean, for example, I meandub, dub, one E class at North
Central Regional and the kiddon't shoot, he shot good, he's
very proud of himself.
And then he goes to the boardsame thing we probably all did

(34:18):
when we were his age or still doand he started looking that
everybody beat, he beat he's whycould have won.
I think he said he could havewon D class Maybe you're
something like that or whateverbaby second or third in it, but
then and he goes, he goes.
Dad, I beat masters, I go.
Yeah, you beat masters.
I said you shot your scores andyou beat masters.
I said do you think there's aproblem?

(34:39):
Master, he goes, yeah, he goesa master.
I should never be, I shouldnever beat, beating a master.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
No, not someone to send me I mean in order, I think
you start and D now, right whenit's when you sign up, you
start and D and they go movingdown to eat, or is that wrong?
I?

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Think you start and D .
Well, I don't know, they keepscrewing with that one.
You know, it's like.
You know, I think he started inD and the second he shot some
targets.
They reevaluated them, I meanat one time, that's how they did
it and the, of course he andhim and Liam got bunch back to
eat because the boys don't shootand the boys shouldn't be, and
the boys should be in E class,not because they're they're

(35:18):
they're not working, they're notshooting.
He should be punched out of itby now.
But when he goes to shoot,shoots, well, there's three
other guys or two other guys,and he doesn't get a punch.
Mm-hmm, you know, because we'vegot wrong classification.
I mean, there's like said, it'sjust not.
You know.

(35:39):
You know the story on master.
You know it's almost biblicalat this point, but you know
there was a, there was a, therewas guys that took it serious,
guys.
That that's what they did.
They, you know, they've beeninstructed and gave lessons and
they people were getting tiredof getting beat, so they raised

(36:00):
hell, you know.
And the EC got together andthey said, okay, cool, let's
create a new class or an occultmaster.
And they put people in thereand I forget what year it was,
95 or 96 they took the hand,selected these people.
They all wore a special numberand they put a master.

(36:22):
Everybody was happy, you know,and they saw it was good.
And the Lord said make master.
And the people said and theysaw it was good, you know.
And so that was cool, thatsolved the problem.
The guys that weren't winningStill weren't winning, but they
weren't losing as bad.
And and then they were likewell, we need to make it when

(36:47):
people can punch into it, whichit was.
That's how it was.
So, you know, they started doingthe punches and guys worked
hard because they wanted to beelite, they wanted to be at the
top tier, they wanted to bemaster, and Then a few of us
punched up to it.
I think I punched into 98,maybe you had to go to big
shoots.
You had to go to a big shoot,you had to travel, so on and so

(37:12):
forth, and we did, because youknow we were, you know we're
competitive, and I remembergetting into it.
And then I remember going toshoots Locally or you know,
whatever, in this area where Iwas the only you know not the
only master, but I was, you know, two or three other masters.
Well, now people got mad becausethey weren't getting enough

(37:32):
punches, because they wanted tobe masters too.
So they made it where you couldget more punches.
And then guys started workinghard and they started shooting
sub gauge and then they, youknow, for a 50 bird event they
got the same amount of punchesfor a hundred bird event.
And guys were gaming the system, you know, and then now
everybody's in master andthey're crying to make a pro

(37:53):
class.
So it's just like, you know,they got what they wanted, but
now they don't.
Now we're back to our same samespot.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
So so do you know?
You probably don't know thisnumber, but how many people were
that were in?
Master didn't take the Downclassification.
I.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Don't know the that Chris was on specifics, but I
believe 5% of the people downclass Refused it.
So about 400 and somethingpeople Refused the down class.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
And so, and that's across the board.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
That's a class, that's all the classes.
And I haven't seen.
I think I saw the numbers but Ididn't really care, so it
looked too deep.
But you know, you know, it's,it's just, you know, and it
makes no sense, you know.
But the only thing it makessense for is they want the
monocle moniker of Monoclemoniker of being master, because

(38:53):
for some reason it meanssomething to them.
You know, I mean I'm there forthe candy dishes, you know, in
the glory.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
There's no reason to I mean this is I mean people.
Can you know?
When we post this episode up, Iwant people to comment below
and tell us if you got down,classed or were asked to be
moved down class, or or asked tobe moved down a class, why or
why not?
Were you for it?
Or yeah, I I'd like to hear.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
I'd like to hear it.
I mean, I've asked the questionon on the internet and you know
somebody's what's done to yourbusiness, or you know, you know.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Whatever?

Speaker 3 (39:35):
and I'm thinking but the question is why Did you?
Why do you think?
Why did you choose to be inthere?
You know, do you?
You know it doesn't make senseon a classification system that
is based on your ability, ifyour ability says you're not in
a Class double A or whatever,why do you want to stay in there

(39:57):
?
That's the one that blows mymind.
You know we say it's all ego onthe dub, on the master, but why
would a guy stay in a class?
Don't you want to win?
Why are you at the shoot Right?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
I mean it is.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
That's a lot of question.
It's a lot of money.
You're paying dues, you'repaying six cents, seven cents,
and some states you know we'reUm To go do this, but you're
just doing it because you wantto hang out with your buddies
and Shoot a tournament.
Then if the winning doesn'tmatter to you, why do you care

(40:36):
what class you're in?
Right, I mean, the argumentdoesn't hold water.
You know, well, I'm just therefor this.
Well then, it doesn't matterwhat class you're in.
You ought to just be in hunterclass, or you ought to if you
know, you ought to just being.
If you're just there to shootagainst your buddy, I just shoot
for myself.
Yeah bullshit, that's bullshit,that's bullshit.

(40:58):
You want to win.
You know, like I said, I had athis.
This is always a funny partabout this one, those guys don't
give a shit about winning.
But the second, you don't havea trophy for them for the side
event when they run it up or gotsecond place in B class and you
didn't have a freaking trophyfor you.

(41:19):
They're up your ass.
Why don't you have a trophy forthe?
You know, for the, the shotshell, rabbit, bonanza, sight of
it.
No, dude, I've seen it, I'vehad, I've had my ass chewed out
about it.
I'm like, sir, we don't dotrophies for this tournament,
set for high overall, becausethat's all that matters.
The, it's a 50 bird side event.

(41:39):
I'm not buying.
You know, whatever classes theyare.
I mean, you know I, of course Isaid hey, man, I got a barn
full of old trophies, go takeyour pick in there, man.
You know the people didn't pickthem up, but that's what I'm
getting at is like there's thishuman psychology of this shit is
like.
You know, I'm sorry.
You cannot make fun of the kidsthat do soccer, that get a

(42:03):
trophy and call them the trophygeneration.
When you're wanting, you'rewanting, you're doing the same
thing.
You want to be in a class thatyou didn't earn.
You know that you're no longerin you, you raise those little
bastards.
Yeah, I'm sorry, sir, you knowI mean.
I mean I don't mean to be thatway, but it's stupid.
It's a classification based onyour current, your current

(42:25):
ability.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Now can you say you get that move down from master
to double a and you don't doworth a flip and double a this
year?
Do they move you down to a?
I?

Speaker 3 (42:36):
I'm not for certain.
If you start, as the firstparagraph of that new rule
states, if you start and end theyear in the same class, you
will be reviewed.
Yeah okay, and that's the way itstarts.
I've had to explain that to acouple people.
I got that, did that.
I explained that to a guy'swife, till, about 940 at night

(43:02):
I'm helping a reading and thenthe next thing, you know, the
same guy was bashing me onAnother message to a friend of
me of what a what a shit sir orwas and how I'm not helpful.
And I was like, wow, man, Ijust talked to your wife that
I've never met before and I'venever met you before and I tried
to help you understand English,which is hard, might not, might

(43:23):
not have been the guy's firstlanguage, but but I, you know, I
highlighted it and showed them.
You know top to bottom, left toright, what this said and you
know, if you're not, if youstart the class in the class, if
you start the year and end theyear in the same class, you will
be reviewed unless you have theprerequisite of punches for
said class.

(43:43):
Yeah, it's pretty easy.
Seems like it's not, but it'spretty easy, you know.
You know you either get enoughpunches, have a high enough CCR,
or if you move up in classduring the year.
So if you punch in the master,you get a free year to learn how
to shoot, you know, or youpunch up the double a.

(44:04):
You get a year to prove thatyou're competitive before the
next year.
Code shows up yeah, you know?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
yeah, I mean, you can look at it two different ways.
You can.
You can strive for masterclassagain and get another pen.
Okay, yeah, you have two people.
You have a hat full ofmasterclass pens when you
finished.
You know what I'm saying andthen you get.
You get to make some money too.
If you're that good, to whereyou're gonna punch back into
master.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yeah, I think that's the other component that's
changed is, you know, like theold, I noticed some guys here at
our club, like Bob Maples andall these guys, dale Randall,
one day you're rallying to shoot.
They are trap shooters.
They delighted in being puncheddown Because they knew they
were gonna get paid For movingup.
They'd go to the US Open andshoot well, or they go to this

(44:51):
shoot, shoot well.
Then they wouldn't make crazymoney because these guys, they
like Barry Pickett from you knowDallas says they bred the
gamble out of these boys.
You know, when you got a standthere at the US Open at
Claythorne and explain to agroup of people what a Calcutta
is, the, the, the betting, the,the gambling part of the game,

(45:12):
done, left the building, yeah,you know that ain't that, ain't
that, ain't nothing.
But no, they.
You know I said that the guysthat have had previous
experience in other disciplines,they delight in moving down
because that means they can getpaid for moving up.
You know, I'd love to be, I'dlove to, I would love to be

(45:34):
bumped down to a or double a andjust be like.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
I just whipped y'all's ass and an egg, by the
way, y'all suck.
I told a couple guys thatnorth-south of that I was like
man.
I don't shoot anymore.
I beat you, jesus Christ, he'swhat's wrong now.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Now can someone still Declare up a class when they go
to register?

Speaker 3 (45:55):
I believe you can declare, as rule states.
You can declare to every class.
But master, all right guys,yeah, you can't do it, I believe
you can go to every class.
But, master, and I believethere's a clause in there that
says a shoot can.

(46:16):
I don't know if they can, maybethey used to, maybe they've
changed it, but used to be.
You could Know, nobility yeahyou know, I think you could do
no nobility.
You know, I believe, like RickyMarshall, I think Ricky
Marshall, when he signed up theNSCA, they put him in double a
because he was a triple a.

(46:36):
I Think that's right, or maybeit was somebody else.
But yeah, no nobility.
Previous organizations, youknow then, then you can get, you
can get bumped into talk aboutno nobility for a minute.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Explain what that is.
I mean no, nobility is prettymuch what it is, I mean.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
Yeah, if you're coming over from another
discipline In an organization,you've got a classification.
They'll move you up.
You know they'll put you in ahire cuz you know I mean you
know Richard Falls coming over,george Digwee coming, obviously
they've shot enough.
Now but say if someone of thatcaliber was to come over from a

(47:21):
different country with adifferent organization and
they're in this class, you'renot gonna let them be and you're
not gonna put them in D.
You know you're not gonna startthem off and eat.
You know you've got.
You've got to keep it fair.
Of course they're shooting forHOA, but it is taking care of
those guys that have shotanother discipline, that are,

(47:41):
whatever their ability is, inthat discipline.
You can classify my knownability.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Let me ask you this should I be excited because I'm
excited about this?
Should I be excited that my sonis an E-class and we're going
down to Jack Lynch for all thatbig money?
Oh Hell, yeah, I mean, should Ibe excited that I'm taking him
to win the money?

Speaker 3 (48:02):
No, hell, no, that's what you're doing.
You know, that's what you know.
I mean you know that's great, Imean it's funny.
It's ego too.
It's really cool seeing a kidwhoops who dulls ass.
It's great, I mean, it's great,I mean the thing is, the thing
is it pisses me off with the,with people, with adults.
You know, the furthest we getfurther we go with my childhood,

(48:23):
the less we remember what it'slike to be in a kid, and that's
the biggest failing as an adult.
Your boy is just as nervous asyou would be going to that shoot
.
You know they think it's soeasy for these kids.
Oh, I ain't got nothing ontheir mind, bullshit.
I was a junior shooter, sackwas a good junior, derek and all
of us, you know we are justjust or as more Excited about

(48:47):
winning and we've had less timeto learn how to win and to
handle the nurse.
Yeah, yeah, that kid's gonna begreat.
I mean, I mean he's like Iwatched dub.
I mean dub, one of the fun toshoot here on one of the ring
games Winner.
Spectacular.
Dub took second in the police,you know, and as a dad I'm
sitting back here going kid Justwhoop y'all's ass.

(49:08):
Yeah, just let you know that.
You know, just letting y'allknow makes you feel good, don't
it?

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Yeah, I'm also yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What y'all watch this?
It's not like, hey, I'm aboutto come in there and beat
everybody.
It's like I'm gonna, hey, myson over here about to beat
y'all.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Yeah, it's great.
Yeah, I kid that's great man.
Yeah, be excited about that.
I said just.
I said always, remember Ialways hated that you're gonna
shoot off and some adult wouldmake an excuse why you beat them
in a shootoff and Whether isany kid or I kid, ain't got
nothing on your mind, bullshit.
That kid wanted to win.
You wanted to win just as badas that kid did hell.

(49:43):
The kid might even wanted towin it more than you did, but
you know just people it is.
It is funny to see them, littlekids, shoot damn.
They sure have fun.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
So you know what you think the years gonna be like
this year, Just just in general,what you think it's gonna be
like, think it's gonna be good.
Yeah, you got what both whenyou got world fee task at Ant's
place.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
I'm talking about.
Yeah, I thought you meant, likethe grief counselors, the NSCA
is hired.
Come on, trans, the trans, thetrans class, the trans masters,
that's what we started calling.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
How many cars you think my camp is got?

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Oh, I changed his number.
I Know it's gonna be a hell ofa year.
I mean I, if you, if you.
All I can say is, if you've gota credit card that that pays
you off miles or gives you bonuspoints or whatever for spending

(50:43):
, this is a year to have it.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
It's gonna be a bunch of stuff, a bunch of good stuff
.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Shit, you got an Anthony's.
It's been full For how long.
I mean I don't want to like sayit's not full, but it's.
It's been a lot of peoplesigned up for it for over a year
, yeah how you?

Speaker 2 (51:01):
can you sign up for the 25 nationals now, can't you
in that right?

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Oh, I think.
So I'm gonna make up a shootfor 20 to 20, 38 and see if I.
Give me a deposit and hope andhope.
The world, the hope, hopesociety collapses by then might
be the greatest one ever.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
You know, Freakin, I don't know.
I can't figure out what I'mdoing in 2024, yet much less
2025.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Well, you know, and I shouldn't say this, but John
Comerford doesn't give a shit.
John says he never signs uptill the day of the shoot and
he's like I'm always flexiblewhen I can shoot.
I don't care when I shoot.
I sign up the day of.
There'll always be acancellation and I take it.
That's probably right, oh youknow Comerford, I mean that's

(51:48):
just how he is.
He was.
I love John, I'm.
We're gonna go have a cock.
They were gonna have a couplebeers with them.
This this weekend we're goingdown to SCI but yeah, there's
some shoots.
Man, I mean you got US Ovensbrett's.
I want us.
I'm setting for that one.
Pete Malloy's got world feetask and I'm setting for that
one.
It's gonna be a year.

(52:08):
I mean dub and I may go tonationals, depends.
I think we're gonna go out westand shoot prairie dogs.
He's got a couple sportingshoots.
He wants to shoot.
But we're kind of saving ourmoney a little bit.
We're gonna go to Africa in 25.
We're gonna do it right.
So Nice, you know.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
You know, that's what you're gonna do out there.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
He's gone.
We're going to Calhari.
He's.
I'm not doing shit.
I'm gonna shoot birds If we gettime for a couple days.
He's killing everything.
I don't want to kill anythinganymore.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Too much work.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Other than a dog other than a dog other than a
bird, where I get to pull thetrigger a lot.
I'm really not into it.
I mean, like said, we went outwith the Braxton Oliver Bear
hunt.
They come out, they come out,froze the death deer hunt with
us.
And then we were before that wewent to North Carolina and shot

(53:07):
a bear.
Now, as a dad and dad, you getit, you know, does 14 does kill
a lot of shit.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
I mean does drop a lot of shit, but he still gets
so excited over killing big gameand he missed think he missed
three bears and Missed up just amonster.
Sal Wasn't missing but muchhe's couldn't get it done.
And finally, little bitty bear,a hundred pound bear, not much

(53:39):
of a bear, coming at us and he'sStill shaking.
He's sitting on my lap becausehe can't see over the rail and
he's just shaking, man, and I'mjust like going, this is great.
And he goes, hold me, dad, holdme, damn time.
And I felt the air go out ofhim because I'm gonna shoot this

(54:02):
bastard in the head.
I can get all the hell off mylap.
Those.
He goes.
I can't, I'm moving, I'mshaking too bad.
That's what's cool about it,man.
Yeah, you know that's what'scool about it.
You know I mean you know I'mglad he meant I.
Honestly I'm glad he missed thebig sal because you know you

(54:22):
get a kid pop out of 350 400pound bear First freaking bear.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
What are you gonna do , man, it's like you're grizzly
bear hunting.
Yeah, killin guys.
Go kill a grizzly bear.
I can kill something bigger,but but yeah, we're gonna go to
Africa.
He's I'm not pushing.
He's gonna start shooting athigh school trap league in the
fall, because he's not abasketball player and he likes
it.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
He's yeah right, you know he's, he's held.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
He likes to wrestle, but but now he's just um, you
know I'm not pushing him a shoot.
I don't want to burn him out.
You know I want him to to.
You know, warm up to it.
You know he likes to.
He likes the ring games.
He loves you, to least becausehe's comfortable.
You know and I wasn't likeDerek was watching him this year
he's, he's uh, you know, he'sgrown into that gun.

(55:09):
He's getting stronger and hemoves, he's doing better.
But, like I said, it's all fun.
Jesus Christ man.
All we're doing, all we'redoing is we're killing time
between birth and death.
We're trying to find somethingto preoccupy his time before
warm food.
So, either way, you know, don'ttake yourself too serious,
because you ain't getting out ofthis shit alive.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Now it's all coming to an end.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Yeah they know shit quicker, quicker when it gets
there, but nah, it's just, it'sjust, it's gonna be a hell of a
year.
I'm excited about it.
You know I'm looking forward tothe, the set.
I mean I've never set a worldfee to ask before they had us
hired.
They had had us hired for theJor Mississippi one and then

(55:58):
Kobe took care of that one, soit was a world fee task.
Y'all can come, but you ain'tgonna be here, but yeah, so we
didn't get to set and that'slike so you know I just kind of
try to knock off all the stuffof setting.
You know the majors and I Lookforward to setting up their Pete
Moy is gonna be go, that's theother thing is a Friday or

(56:20):
Saturday night.
I'm cooking the shrimp oil too,so I Don't.
I don't know.
You got some of that.
You got into that.
Did you get any of that upthere at North Central?

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Prop.
If it's food, I probably did.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Yeah me me barge Me bars the bed.
We all made the, we all madethe shrimp and.
But we're gonna do.
I'm gonna do the same thing.
I bought a.
I bought a six foot longcrawfish boiler, so I don't have
to have two of them now.
I won't come up.
I won't cook that one night.
So that'd be good, that'd begood.
Put plenty of butter on the.

(56:54):
I said that's the thing is,every everybody was watching
this cook it.
They were gonna do with allthat butter.
I'm like Dropping top of themhot shrimp and put a bunch of
season on it.
You know, you know.
So watch them.
And some of them, boys, gothrough that line three times.
Apparently, whatever part ofthe world they were from, they
they didn't have shrimp and Ihad one guy get mad because he

(57:18):
didn't get enough and he wascomplaining about that.
I'm private messaging them.
I said hey, man.
I said, by the way, sir.
I said um, I.
I said I'm sorry, I hear youwere upset because you didn't
get enough shrimp.
I said you understand that wedonated that thousand bucks
worth of food because we justwanted everybody to have a good
time.
I said, once again, I apologize, but somebody's always going to
be upset, no matter what you do.

(57:39):
You know They'll cry either thelittle bitch, if you hung him
with a new rope.
You know, I mean just just howit is.
But now we're gonna do that.
It's gonna be a good time,other than that man.
Same old, same old.
It's just bipolar weather.
Back here in the Midwest it wasnegative 10 one week and now
it's it was 60 degrees today.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
So wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
Whatever man, it is what it is.
I got a few people shoot.
What about all these prices?
Like?
So what you talking about, whatthe year is going to be?
What do you think year's gonnabe?

Speaker 2 (58:10):
I don't know, I mean everything's higher son.
I'm telling you I don't knowwhat, I don't know what's gonna
go on.
You know, I'll talk to you.
Know, steve, see Tom see yeah,I've talked to him all the time,
or, you know, through textmessage or whatever we have, and
we're always sending back andforth.
You know, you know.
What do you think this is gonnado?
What do you think that's gonnado?
And he sent me one last nightabout When's a good time to buy

(58:33):
a car.
You know what.
You know what's gonna happen tothe car industry.
Well, I don't know Hell, I don't.
I mean, if I knew I'd be, I'dbe a millionaire.
You know what I mean.
But right, right, it's, it's.
I quit, but I don't know, Idon't know what's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
I mean, you know, shells are higher targets just
went up $2.20 Hotel rooms crazy.
You know.
We're looking at air, liketalking about Africa, we're
looking at airfare.
Um, you know, we're over 2,000bucks a ticket.
Yeah you know I'm gonna book asquick as that because you know
things are gonna go high.
I mean, our game, for the mostpart, is dominated.

(59:10):
I don't know what the averageage is, I used to know, but you
know we have a lot of guys thatare retired.
Yeah and they're on a fixedincome and with inflation, if
everything's gone up 15 percent,you know, on the necessities
they've got 15 less to spend.
So that's gotta hurt our gameand we can see it at our club.

(59:33):
I mean, we we've lost ourcompetition.
She a lot of competition.
She hears the guys want to workat it, but you know, you know
our registered numbers were up,our daily traffic's down.
You know the these guys aren't,you know.
I mean, like I said, if you're,if you got x number of dollars
and you didn't get a 15% Cost ofliving increase, you got less

(59:55):
money to shoot.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Yeah, that's right you know.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
I mean how much longer I think you and I've
talked about this before.
You know I've run inflationcalculators on prices from 1920s
, the 1950s and 1980s so far,and this is hard to believe.
But it's got a google box.
You just google that shityourself.
You know the, the shells andthe targets haven't kept up with

(01:00:22):
just yearly inflation.
We they're cheaper.
Then you know, I think I ran themath on it a while back and it
was.
You know a box of double ashould be 15 or 16 bucks.
You know, if you go by whatthey listed for in 1980, you
know, and then we ran thefigures On a.

(01:00:44):
I have an old flyer.
This is how long we've been atthis shit.
I forget what year it's from,maybe it's 32 and there's like a
35 flyer Illinois State shootright, trap, shoot up in
northern Illinois before theymove it down south.
You know, and I figured thoseprices and I think it's about
the same 15 bucks, 15 or 16bucks for a box of target loads

(01:01:08):
in those years Is what it shouldbe in today's money.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I've got a flat of shells that says 24 95 on them,
the whole flat, yep, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Yeah, and and just put a, put your inflation
calculator on that.
I mean I remember buying doublea's.
Oh, I think I remember buyingdouble a's in the early 90s, in
the in the 20s.
I remember dad bought likepallets of actives when actives
quit and I remember thembragging about getting those
actives for like 18 bucks a case, 17 or 18 bucks a case, you

(01:01:42):
know.
And then you know average thaton inflation calculator nation,
and it brings you over whatthey're selling for now, and I
hate to tell that to a guy thatloves the game, but I mean
everybody ought to try dragracing.
Well, I mean, you know, youknow, yeah, that's not the same
thing.
You don't have, you know, 2000top fuel dragsters at a shoot,

(01:02:07):
either at a drag race eitherinto a mad, you know.
It's all relative, man, but itis a game that you walk out
there and you put a shell and itgoes out and you ain't getting
that back and you're shooting itfor a while and you ain't
getting that back and you'reshooting at pottery.
That is x number of dollars andit's gone.

(01:02:27):
I mean, if a guy could actuallythink that every time you pull
the trigger it's costing him twobucks, you know, or three
dollars or four dollars,whatever it costs you to go
shoot, you know, say it costsyou 2500 bucks and you shoot 500
dollars, you know you shoot 500shells that week or 500 targets
that weekend.
You just spent five bucks everytime you pulled the trigger.
Talk about running people awayfrom the game.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah, you wouldn't shoot pieces anymore, would you?

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
Right, right, you know you walked out there and
you and you realized that everytime you fired around it was
costing you four bucks or fivebucks for your hobby.
That weekend You'd startlooking at things a little bit
different.
You're like you know what youknow.
You know hookers and blow are alot cheaper than this.
You might have a better timetoo you might have a better time

(01:03:19):
and you'd definitely be thinner.
But uh, um, you know, I mean,I'm not talking about the drug
addiction, I'm talking aboutAIDS.
But oh, here we go, here we go,but but yeah, I mean, if you
look at it like I said, you know, if you go to a shoot, it's too
grand and you shoot, you know,you shoot the main event,
pre-limits 300, shoot, fivestandouts, 400 targets and you

(01:03:42):
shoot some other.
So you're five or six hundredbucks and you spent two grand.
You just threw four dollarsaway every damn time you pulled
the trigger, you know.
You know, probably there's someguy listening to this podcast
right now and he's got his newwife with them and he's all
excited about sporting clays.
You know, and he's been lyingto her for years.
You know, no, it's not thatmuch honey, it's really easy.

(01:04:04):
It's about like you'recrocheting, you know, or
whatever the shit women do.
You know?
Um, yeah, I mean, it is.
You know, and people, peopletalk about, you know, I mean,
and since I haven't shot as much, I'm like Well dubbing, I go
shoot prairie dogs for, you know, two or three days in Colorado

(01:04:24):
and it's gonna cost me lessmoney than than if I was to go
shoot the western regional.
You know, I mean, what am Igonna do there?
You know?
I mean, like I said, you know,I'm not, definitely not gonna
win it.
I'm not gonna go out there andburn targets, like I used to Um
and getting a side event trophyto throw with the other ones
because I shot well in theprelim.
Whatever one, the whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
For me.
I'm just talking about me, I'mnot talking about anyone just
saying for me it's, it's not,it's just not worth it anymore.
You know, I love seeing y'all.
That's why I keep settingtargets, um, why I love seeing
some of you but A couple of you.
But yeah, I like settingtargets, I like seeing everybody
.
Um, I mean, I I'm tickled todeath to cook shrimp for Pete's

(01:05:08):
deal up there, you know, at theworld world fee task.
That'd be great.
I think dub's gonna come uphalfway through it or come up
for the main.
He said he's gonna help.
I think we're gonna go fish.
Dub likes we, we've beengetting into fishing, we've kind
of gotten back into fly fishingand stuff like that.
It's pretty fun.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yeah, you know you know, you know, I saw it.
Might he'll remember all thatmorning.
We'll shoot in targets, I'msure.
Yeah, he likes it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Yeah, he, he likes to shoot, but it's like you know,
we're still having fun at it.
I'm still, you know, I'm notlike.
You know, like I said, dudeGrew up in this game.
I always had a warning from mydad, you know.
You know, whatever you do, ofcourse he always.
He never pushed me hard in thebeginning and I'm not doing the
same with him, you know, let'sget a love for it.
You know, um, you know.

(01:05:58):
And then I don't want him burntout at 18.
You know, I want to go huntingwith, I want to go hunting and
shooting with my boy.
I don't want him to be sick ofit by the time he gets to be a
grown man.
Yeah you know, you know, andthat's kind of where I it's like
.
You know it's like broccoli andanal sex If you force it on a
kid young, they'll never likewhen they're older.
You never heard that one beforeno.

(01:06:24):
God, you're never forget, that,will you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Oh my word, we're gonna put a disclaimer on the
front of this, one for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:06:36):
Don't let your kids listen to this one the first one
.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
The first one we did with you a long time ago.
Well, I got grief about thatone.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
Oh my god, I I said that, yeah, that was you
remember that?
was, yeah, oh gosh, yes, I don't, I can't.
I think it can hardly rememberthe guy's name.
He got all, he got really upsetabout it.
I'm thinking, son, I mean yeah,I mean it is what it is.
I mean I mean, yeah, I just howI am and I can't help it and

(01:07:06):
I'll do anything for you if Ilike you, um, but, but I'm gonna
, I'm yeah, I'm just not, I'mnot, yeah, I'm not fit for it,
because it's like my buddy, benBen Schumager.
He's always, he's always like,he's like can't talk with you.
I'm around people right now.
Or Gary, I'm on speaker.
These are the people in the carWatch what you say, never mind,

(01:07:30):
I'm just letting you know.
The favorite one is Gary, Ican't talk to you, I'm around
regular people or some shit likethat.
But, um, I just people getpeople, people, People get upset
about things and I think theywant to be upset.
You know, I think they like it.
There's something, must be somekind of Chemical release in the

(01:07:54):
brain that these people I meanthis everybody's offended
anymore.
And I think the way people getoffended, because it's another
way of them getting attention.
Apparently they gave them toomuch attention as kid, or not
enough.
But when these people getoffended, they find something
wrong that I did.
It brings it about them Well.
I don't like this Well, I don'tgive a shit.

(01:08:14):
You know you're offended me, Idon't care, you know you know,
why do I give?

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
a shit you get, worse the older you get.

Speaker 3 (01:08:25):
You do, don't you?
You just really, you startrealizing a man can't afford too
many friends and you just haveno talk.
What makes a difference?
You know, like said.
You know if, if, if people knewwhat was said behind their
backs, there'd be a lot lesssmiling going on in this world.

(01:08:47):
You know, and you know I justdon't want to deal with the
bullshit.
You know, like I said, if youcan't handle me, I'm fine with
it.
You know, I mean I'm not.
You know, I mean Jesus lord thekid's got a damn idiot phone
right there in his hand.
And what we say on this podcast,oh, that's horrible.
You know you got some horrortick talking, doing a dance,

(01:09:08):
getting instagram snaps.
You know kids probably watching.
You know, subscribe to three,three or four, five hundred,
those live instagram models.
But you know people arehypocrites.
Bullshit, I'm done, I'm over it.
You know I'm over it.
You know I'm just not playingthe game anymore.
You know it's like the kingpecker will do everything, will
do everything and anything foryou Until you lack like an

(01:09:30):
asshole, and then you ain'tcoming back.
Yeah you know, and that's kindof where I'm at the taco bar.
The taco bar.
Yeah, that was still fun inhell.
My mom, jesus lord, that wasfunny.
I mean, I'm never that littlewoman.
You know she's out therecooking.
God bless her, bless her heart.
You know she's gone now, butbut she, uh, she'd come down

(01:09:51):
there.
She cooked, she cookedchocolate chip cookies.
She cut brownies up for thembastards.
You know, she, she, you knowshe'd do everything she can.
And the old guy told her thetaco bar was laid out
inefficiently and she, she wasso mad I should be mom, what's
wrong?
What's wrong?
Never mind, mom, what's wrong?
I said, god damn it, karen,what's wrong?
That motherfucker?

(01:10:11):
I, my ass, I'll still rememberthat she was madder in hell, man
, she was sitting there justglowing, but but it's just funny
.
You know, we, just, like I said, we just, you know, don't need
this to make a living.
You know hell.
I got a working on a solarproject right now, but we got

(01:10:33):
funny other things that thatactually make money that we deal
with.
But you know we do this shoot,we love shooters, we love
shooting, we love the.
For the most part, normallythey're like-minded people and
that's why we went to 125shooters at the koonpacker Is
because it's a manageable numberfor us.

(01:10:55):
You know we can handle that andI think for the most part it's.
This is going into its fifthyear.
I think fifth year and it workswell for us Because we don't
have a huge staff.
It's me, ben barge, romberg,the two boys you know we can
kind of, and then the kids thatgot help us in the summer.

(01:11:16):
We can kind of get it done.
It's a fun party.
I still you still need to showup, man.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
I know I think about it every time I see it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
It's, it's fun.
I mean, you know, like I said,everybody loves, I mean
everybody.
You know I haven't ever hadanybody.
You know, I said I had one guymad and he called me up.
He called me up the day afterthe day the shoe clothes.
He was upset because we didn'thave a trophy, which we never.

(01:11:47):
We've always said we've beenanti trophies.
We give one out for the highoveralls and we give something
for the all around.
You know, I mean I take thatmoney and I put it back in the
sunday breakfast and the.
You know the, the big dinner wedo on Saturday night with the
band and the bar and the beerand the in the brats, and then
we do the cocktail hour Fridayand I, you know, I said the

(01:12:08):
shoot breaks even it's a wash bythe time.
You figure out you know all theother shit.
And I said I had one guy callme up in a complaint and I'm
like that's sorry, you know, andjust don't come back.
You know that's all I can dofor you.
Um, you know, and, like I said,it's it sucks that we didn't

(01:12:30):
fulfill.
You know we didn't fill hisexpectations, but it just how it
is.
You know we throw good targets.
I think we throw good targets,Um, you know, we try to put as
much effort into it and, like Isaid, the band, the band this
year.
Like I said, keep rotatingbands and keep serving food and
keep serving biscuits and gravyon sunday.
I'd rather have that trophies.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Well, and that's the shame of it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
I mean I wish, I wish it was.
You know, I said you ought tosend brett's.
I mean, obviously we're noteven a real club but guys like
Anthony and Brett and all those,you know, they've got barns
Full of bullshit that nobodypicked up.
We just don't pick it up and itdoesn't matter how nice it is,
they don't pick it up.
And then you'll get a call fromthem Two or three years later

(01:13:17):
hey man, do you got my d-classout of state, whatever?
And I'm like, uh, I don't know.
Well, can you send it to me?
No, you know, I'm gonna go toattend.
You know, um, I'm not.
Guys come to three, four yearslater looking for a trophy.
Wow.

(01:13:38):
And I'm just like, why, whydidn't you get it when you were
here?
And I've actually seen guystake the sticker off the trophy
that you put, put postage noteor you put the whatever, take it
, throw it in the trash.
Can throw the sticker in thetrash, can?
They didn't want it.
Which is cool, man, that's fine.
It's just it's a lot of moneyto waste, you know, because

(01:14:00):
they're not cool.
There's very few, you know.
You get a few cool trophies.
You know, some belt buckles arecool, you know, but we don't
get belt buckles anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
I can't wear a big belt buckle.
I feel like it's cutting me inhalf.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Yeah, but me and I it's like a girdle man.
Maybe it makes you look good,you know, Hold it in, Hold it in
son and it's the second form ofID.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
I need two forms of ID.
Here's my driver's license,there's my belt buckle.
Oh shit, whatever man, it iswhat it is.
But that's all I can tell you,man, I ain't been doing much
other than that, just kind of,you know.
I think I'm saying I got some.
I got some shooting to do inFlorida, but I won't be making

(01:14:47):
the the clays deal, but butit'll be good to get out of here
for a minute.
You know, whatever, like I said, dub and I are dubbing or hit a
few, and I see everybody to few, like I said, be setting a few,
and you know.
I think they got Richard Fouldslined up for a Brett's too,
which would be great.
Yeah, you know that'll be great.

(01:15:08):
Richard would be good, and Imean God damn it.
Northbrooks, northbrooks,pretty damn good place.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Oh yeah, it's hard, it can be hard.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
It's yeah, I mean it's.
It's, of course it's aboutmanaging expectations.
You know after how many timesaround the sun people's been
shooting there.
I think people realize there'sgoing to be a little bit degree
of difficulty to it.
It's not going to be over thetop, but it's going to be.
It's going to be stronger thanmost.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
You know, I mean, then that's, I think, once
everybody's accepted thatthey're not coming that anymore,
Like what do you mean?
You know, like what do you meanthat targets at 35, 40 yards?
You know, well, it's just.
You know, it's just, it's just.
Yeah, managing expectations hasbeen good and then and then
they should be used to it by now.
If you come there and you getsurprised by the difficulty,

(01:16:03):
guess what?
You're either a new shooter oryou ain't been paying attention.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
Yeah or it's your first time.
Yeah, it's your first time, andyou ain't listening to this
podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
Yeah, you ain't listening to this podcast or
anything else out there, but butyou know, average guy, anymore,
like I said, we keep going backto this class thing.
You know they're notcompetitive, they're not, they
don't want to compete, they wantto have a title and and they
don't want they.
You know, I said then then,then it all snowballs from there
is.
Like you know, we've asked thisquestion on the, on the, on the

(01:16:32):
, on the Facebooks.
You know, would you, whetherlose with a 94 or win with a 70,
72 or a competitor, as in, thisis a competition hobby, a
competition sport, is there towin, no matter what.
They want to win with whateverscore.
A guy that is justrecreationally shooting, he

(01:16:53):
wants to shoot a score to makehim feel good, and there's, we
get this shit all the time.
You know, these guys who've gota CCR of 0.6, well, they shoot
an 89 or 91.
They feel good about themselves.
Guess what, dude, you stilllost.
That's where that CCR don'twant, that's where the CCR
doesn't lie.
Yeah, you know you can shoot a96, but if 96 was the bottom

(01:17:15):
half of the thing, your CCRstill the bottom half of the
thing, you still didn't win.
Because in essence, not inessence.
In reality, this is acompetition game.
This is competition, sport,competition, hobby, whatever
you're going to call it, it'swhat it is.
We keep score for a reason.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:31):
So so get off this attitude of you want to shoot a
specific score to make you feelgood, while you got a certain
letter by your name that makesyou feel good.
What should make you feel goodbesides the experience of having
fun?
If you're there for there, ifyou're just there for the
camaraderie of your fellowfellow shooters, then your class
is irrelevant and your scoresare relevant.

(01:17:52):
So you?
So you can't have it both ways?
You can't say I'm just there tohave fun.
Well then, they just have fun.
You know if you, you know.
But if it's, if it's about yourlevel of performance,
truthfully, your level ofperformance isn't relevant to

(01:18:12):
your class.
If you're using your class,just you know.
If you're suck and you shoot a65 and master consistently,
that's embarrassing.
That's more embarrassing thanthan shooting a 65 and C class.
You get what I'm saying.
We know what your score is.
We can see your name in thebottom of the page, you know.

(01:18:36):
I mean Bob Maples picked up avery.
He was in here today and he's anold trap shooter, he's a good
friend of ours and he's a hellof a shot.
And he, he, he said you're notgoing to stay in master or AA
forever.
He goes, you're going to getolder and you're going to.
You know you're going to godown in class.

(01:18:58):
It's still has you still themain thing, he said, the main
thing that matters is how areyou competitive within your
class and how are youcompetitive in your age group.
And he pointed out that theguys that are on the senior
super team or whatever, he saidthat none of those guys were

(01:19:19):
masters like Ron Schaefer andall of them are in AA.
That just proves his point.
You know, eventually you'regoing to go down in class, but
you're still competitive.
You know, once you enter theconcurrent shit, you know you're
not running with the otherpeople.
You know you know, age has gotyou, the syphilis has finally

(01:19:40):
got you.
Your eyes are failing.
Whatever, you're eventuallygoing to go down and I don't
understand where this beinghuman nature or whatever you got
to accept it.
You know you got to accept thatyou're not staying in master
all the time.
You know, like I said, youcan't have it both ways.
If it's just for the fun ofyour friends, you shouldn't give
a shit about class.
If you're there to becompetitive, you competitive

(01:20:02):
means just what it says.
Yeah you got to be competitive.
And if you're not competitiveand master, then the law of
averages and statistics and thesystem they got set up will
finally get you in a class whereyou're halfway competitive and
when you're either supercompetitive in that class,
you'll either be moved up and ifyou get worse, you'll get moved
down.
That's how it works.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:20:25):
You know, whatever it is, what it is, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
I can't.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
You can't change people.
All you can do is judge themand troll them on Facebook.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
So you're good at that, that's for sure.
Damn right, I am.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
Damn right I am.
I am good, I'm good atinfuriating people, that's right
.
You know I'll do anything foryou, you know.
But, like I said, if you're ina like say that guy said you're
never helpful and I'm like dude,I'm really not helpful.
On dumb questions, there arecertain things as dumb questions
.
Yeah yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, I don't know whatyour kindergarten teacher told
you, you know.

(01:20:56):
You know your mom, her mom,told you were special, but you
never could figure out who Edwas.
And there's a lot of them outthere.
That's funny so not anyway, butthat's all I tell you, Parker.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
All right, well, holla at me.