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bel_dad

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Story of the First annual? Adopt a skeet shooter weekend…

Stuart Fairbank has shot his way to a lot of records in his long and prosperous carrier, too many awards and titles to list here…literally. But, I'm hoping he will be remembered for a different contribution…The Stu Fairbank, adopt a skeet shooter weekend! I had the privilege of being on the receiving end of what I hope will come to be an annual event.

As you might be aware this started when Stu posted here on Shotgun World, that he was looking for some brave shooters to be on his squad for the Toni Ann Rogers shoot in San Antonio. A couple of us jumped at the offer…MRPower, Bust'em and me…Bel_dad were first in line and boy, was that our lucky day. When I signed up to shoot with Stu, I had no idea what I was getting into. As far as I knew I was just gonn'a shoot with a couple of fellas' from Shotgun World for the weekend…WRONG. I had the privilege of shooting with some first rate skeeters, and for my money, some world class people, people I have stood on the sidelines to watch shoot, I found myself standing in a squad line with, and what an education.

Stuart took us in like long lost cousins, sharing his knowledge of the game, his friends, and his sense of humor! This is a truly funny man, who knows how to enjoy life as well as he knows how to shoot skeet. I spent the entire weekend soaking up as much as I could, of both the "tricks" of the game, and of the philosophy of the "skeet warrior."

The line up looked like this…Lead off was Stuart Fairbank, and a smoother shooter you will seldom see.

Number two, Bob. If you have ever been to New England, you know someone just like Bob… Funny, smart, and a very aggressive skeet shooter, knows every great restraunt from Main to Burbank…

Number three…I'm so glad MRPower was along…Here is a guy who is dedicated to skeet, and who will I'm sure, be setting records of his own in the very near future.

Me, Bel_dad shooting in the fourth slot.

Bust'em was our tail gunner, and the guy we all cheered for.

I wasn't able to be there Friday, for doubles, but finally managed to show for Saturday's 12g. Stu shot 100…Bob was right behind him with another 100. MR uncharisticly dropped one or two…Me…Hmmm what can I say…sun was on my barrel??? No…it was cloudy well … anyway, I didn't shoot all that badly for the first 3 boxes, but in the 4th began a slide that would see me pass Mexico before I found bottom somewhere past the dark regions of the 28guage. First a little miss…then another, and another, like a snowball rolling down hill…a very large hill I might add. Before it was over, I managed to miss High 1's H2's, L2….you get the picture, even managed to miss L7's, H7's…oh and to be a equal opportunity fumbler…H8 and L8…. If there had been a H/L 9, I think I would have missed those too, thank you Mss. Hurrlbutt!

By the end of the day I was able to get my bruised, scraped chin up off the pavement long enough to watch Stuart come up just short in his quest for 12 gauge champ.

Bust'em was the mirror image of me…started off cold and got better and better and better, leaving me as the only one on the field who might have scored higher if I had loaded my shells with sand.

Sunday…How do you head back on the field with some of the best in the game today when you are shooting like a…swamp rat??? Well, Stuart and Bob had given me some tips, and MR managed to raise my sagging spirits, Bust'em plied me with liquor… so when Sunday dawned… back I went, bearing "gifts" from all my squad mates…well fed, well plied with liquor and holding in my head, "secret tips known only by a few rare shooters", least that's what Stuart and Bob told me…so off I went to do battle with the "demons who live at center field."

I don't know if it was the new confidence from MR, the "secret tips" from Stuart and Bob, or the liquor from Bust'em…but something clicked, and I began to hit. Nothing to write home about, still throwing my gun at L6 and H2 might have earned me a couple more birds, but at least I was out of the nuclear waste of a very, very bad day, and words can not convey how relieved I was to be out of that dark pit.

Later that evening, back on the center fields, I had the privilege of watching MR and Stuart compete in the 20g finals. A thrill I will remember for a long, long time.

So now what…. I hope Stuart has started something… People like me, in the lower ranks, the D, E, F, G, Z … class shooter in their wildest dreams would never get a chance to shoot with the top shooters because the vast majority, if not all, have been on squads with the same folks for 10-20 or more years…. There is no room for new people on their squads…I truly hope Stuart has started something… a kind of, "adopt a shooter" thing.

We all are looking for new shooters to take up our addiction…but when they get there, unless they have unlimited talent like…MR... they stay on the fringes of skeet, shooting small shoots, or if they ever dare to shoot a big shoot, they would only see the likes of the top shooters at the shoot off at the end of the day, that is, if the beer didn't run out, and they stayed around long enough.

Stuart took a chance, invited people, fellow shooters he had never even met before, to join him on the "inside" of skeet. I think it worked out great! We all got along very well…no one, even me, managed to disrupt the squad… I hope this can continue, I hope other top level shooters will take a chance… pick a shoot, one in the beginning of the year, or one in the end of the year when you are not going to be where you hoped you would be, and invite some new shooters into your squad. You will be giving more than you would ever suspect. I can honestly say, shooting with Stuart, Bob, MR, Bust'em, will be a memory I will cherish for a long, long time.

Best to all,
Bel_dad
 
bel_dad said:
Stuart took a chance, invited people, fellow shooters he had never even met before, to join him on the "inside" of skeet.
This was a great idea. Hat's off to Stu.
Image


BTW, nice writeup bel_dad.
 
bel_dad (by the way...what are the origins of this handle?) -

Stu is a super fine fella and, with some exceptions, I think you may find that there are many at the top of our sport who, like him, are quite open and welcoming to the greater unwashed masses of shooters (like myself). I met Stu at the first NorthSouth I attended and found, like you, that he is a good guy and no elitist.

Don't know which Bob you are referring to...if that's the Bobby D., whose wife is Mary Alice, then you have shot with one of the finest gentlemen and champion in any game anywhere.

I'm glad you had such a good time, learned something, and got jazzed about shooting more.

Best to you and thanks for the report.
 
A definite tip-o-the-hat to Stu, and to you Bel_dad for being so gracious! It is indeed a thrill to be on a squad like that.

A couple of years ago, a friend and I fell onto a squad with Bill Burke, Ron Hurlbert, and Bill Marble (all memebers of a World Champion 5 man team) - and like you, that was a great thrill and a cherished memory (and they were all super nice to us two interlopers).

*** To avoid leading this thread into a discussion not intended by the original poster, I cut these comments out and started a new thread - "Random Squadding" *** Jim
 
Hat's off to Stu for a very generous offer and great idea. I've had the chance to do a few curls with Stu and he is truly a lot of fun an asset to the game.

I've been lucky enough to shoot with several of the "Big Dogs" of the game- Paxton, Mayes, Bender..... Without exception, they have all been very accepting of the also rans who end up on their squads. Skeet is very lucky to have such people in the game.

Now, if we can just keep it alive............................
 
Bel_dad, That had to be a real hoot! Stu's as great a guy as he is a shooter.

Not to get away from the subject, but I personally feel blessed to get to shoot with not only my dad each week, but also with the likes of Dave "DLM" Marcum.

And unlike that dog on the Bush's Baked beans commercial, I'm not willing to give up ANY of those secrets! :lol:
 
Meeting that same Mr. Marcum was another highlight of the weekend for me.

Stu also gave me a snippet of invaluable magnitude: "you're going to lose a lot more than you win."

That was tough for me to hear, because I like to win and in my first year, coming up through the classes, I won a fair bit.

Of course, my goal is to be AAA across the board this year (I'm AAA in the 20 and AA in the 28 right now; 12 will be A for 3 more shoots until the Comstock drops out, and 410 is close to AA). And, of course, it's true what Stu said: you're just not going to win it all all the time.

Example was AAA in the 20 at the Toni. There were 80 shooters in that class with 27 100s. After shootoffs, I was ahead of some, behind others, out of the places and came out with TSRU behind Stewart McCoin.

It was indeed a pleasure to shoot with Stu, "Bobby D.", bel_dad and bustem. It was a great weekend and it is truly a shame to be back at school now.... :oops:

See y'all out there somewhere!
 
Mike, there's no shame in being at school, unless you are a teacher on "payday".
 
MRPOWER said:
Of course, my goal is to be AAA across the board this year...
I'd say relax, enjoy the climb, and don't become too fixated on the classes. It's a whole lot easier to get to AAA than it is to actually win there.
 
Mike, I'm a student here; Mark, I'm not fixated on the classes, just the scores it takes to shoot there. :D

And I do realize that it is most difficult to win there.

It's kind of interesting, too, if you look at the average cutoffs, with 98.5 for 12 and 98 for 20: at the Toni Ann that translated to 27 AAA in the 12 and the aforementioned 80 in the 20. That little half a target makes a difference!

Shoot well! Shoot more!
 
Mike,
I knew you were a student. I was making more of a comment on myself (I'm a teacher). Everyday is a good day at school, unless its payday.
 
I'm glad the other guys had a good time too, as Bob and I did. A few people asked if we were going to do something similar again and everybody I spoke too thought it a good idea, even though it's not new. I think I'll do it again if/when the opportunity comes, which means when my squad is not full. Jim (Bel-Dad) was right on about the reason more experienced shooters haven't invited less experienced, it's mainly because they squad with the same buddies for years.

Thank you to Carl Hensch at NSSA for helping out as well, the NSSA waived the entry fees for a couple of guns for each of the three guys. Apparently NSSA has been trying to start a similar program for a while and is hoping it will take off. I think there will be mention of it in SSR along with a picture to put faces to the names.

An interesting aspect of this weekend was the number of people who knew about it in advance because they read the blogs but don't post. It's safe to say at least 50 asked who the three guys were, and most inquiries were from people who rarely if ever post.

Stu also gave me a snippet of invaluable magnitude: "you're going to lose a lot more than you win."
With all the talk recently about the mental part of the game, I just want to clarify that I wasn't putting the needle in MR. :) He had just missed in the shootoff and looked really grim, I simply relayed wisdom from my vast storehouse of happy thoughts gleaned from many shootoff disgraces. And since truisms tend to recur with alarming regularity, a new happy thought occurred to me just a couple of stations later.
 
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