By Larry S. Sterett | Contributing Editor
Approaching the vendor building on the west from the east the first objects most shooters notice are the two big inflatables in front of the Winchester building. On Saturday morning, about the time the Grand American Handicap began, these were deflated, and on the ground ready for packing.
Although there was some doubt on its being held at Sparta, IL, at the World Shooting Complex grounds, the 2016 Grand went off on schedule August 3-13, 2016. Only the humid weather and a bit of precipitation were downsides. No major storms blowing down vendor tents, overturning shade wagons, etc. as in some prior years.
The Grand is actually held in two parts; the Preliminary events from Wednesday through Sunday (August3-7) and the Grand Week (August 8-13) with the Grand American Handicap being held the final day. (This shooter has no say on when the GA Handicap is held, but it has always been his opinion it should be held on Friday, as it was for many decades in Vandalia, OH. When it was held on Friday there were many people still around to congratulate the new Champion, shake his hand, etc. Today, at Sparta, many shooters who have not entered Handicap have already departed for home. Many of the vendors have closed up and left, and lines of trailers, motor homes, etc. departing the campgrounds Saturday morning resembles the Santa Monica Freeway at rush hour. About mid-morning on Saturday, the backup line of departing shooters waiting at the stop sign to pull onto Highway 4 sometimes reaches nearly back to the east entrance to the Complex. They will not learn who the GAH Champion is until later. If the Handicap was held on Friday, they would know prior to leaving, and may even have attended the shoot-off, if such was needed.
Preceding the Grand this year, on July 28-August 2, was the AIM Grand National Championships. AIM stands for Academics, Integrity, and Marksmanship, and the ATA registered event includes 200 Singles targets, 100 Handicap targets, and 50 Doubles targets. There is also a 50 target International and a 28-gauge shoot. Shooters can win valuable prizes such as rifles, shotguns, and ammunition. The dozen youthful AIM shooters winning ammunition this year ranged from New Jersey to California and from North Dakota to Alabama. Duncan Stevenson (NJ) won four cases of Remington STS shells, and Jacob Starr (CA) won two cases of Gun Club shells. ND shooter Ethan Shulind won two cases of Estate shells and Cole Brown (AL) received two cases of Nobelsport shells.
The lady watching from the ISTA shelter is not seeking shelter from the sun, but the drizzle on Aug. 13th.
The 16 AIM winners in the long gun category ranged from New York to California and from Minnesota to Louisiana. Alexis Coningsby garnered a Browning BL22 rifle, and Tyler Yost (CA) gathered in a Remington M1100 Competition shotgun. Minnesota shooter Brandon Heitz won a Remington M870 Competition shotgun, and Isbella Schexnaydre (LA) walked off the winner of a 12-gauge SKB Century III Trap gun.
Surprisingly, or not, there were no Illinois AIM shooters who won ammunition and only one long arm winner, Dylan Moore, who became the proud owner of a new Remington Model 552 BDL rifle. There were five long arm winners from the next door state of Missouri, Raleigh Woods, James Dowling, Ryan Dintleman, Jesse Jennings, and James Strickland. Woods’ prize was a Remington M700 SPS rifle and Strickland’s prize a CZ-USA M557 Carbine. Jennings’ prize was an autoloading SKB IS300 12 gauge field gun. Dintleman won a 12 gauge Beretta A300 shotgun, and Dowling received a 28 gauge CZ-USA Red Head shotgun.
Christian Morton from Tennessee received a $1,250 Wenig Gift Certificate. This should put a beautiful stock on Morton’s favorite trap gun, or even a custom rifle.
Quoting raw figures can be a bit misleading, but prior to the Wendel August Champion of Champions event on Wednesday, the 10th, some 19,394 shooters had participated in the first 17 events. The misleading part is that one shooter may enter multiple events, and many shooters do exactly that; a few shooters have been known to enter every event. According to some quoted pre-registration figures, there were about 5,000 shooters from around the world. This would mean the average shooter will enter or shoot four events. (Vincent Barranco, from Staten Island, NY, drove 14 straight hours to arrive on the Sparta WSRC grounds at 2:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 2nd, only to find the mobile home he had rented had not been delivered to the campground yet. He caught a nap in his pickup truck and planned to shoot all 24 events this year. )
Concentration is the thing, and the shooter is tracking the bird while the shooter at his right waits in anticipation of his turn.
Think about a shooter who enters ten events. Not including visits to the practice fields, at 100 shells per event, this shooter could go through four cases of 12 gauge shells, not counting possible shoot-offs, Barranco could touch-off more ten cases of shotshells, but as he stated: “I’ve been waiting for this all year…This is my whole vacation…This my two weeks…”since last year.
Based on the number of shooters entered the most popular of the first 17 events was the President Wayne Morris Handicap with 1,773 shooters participating. This was closely followed by the Winchester AA Class Singles Championship with 1,719 shooters. (According to the ATA, participation in the first event, the Hodgdon Powder Singles, was up 19 percent over 2015.) Among those events with over 1,400 shooters entered were the NRA Singles, the Blaser Handicap, and the Doubles Class Championship.
Inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame the evening, of Aug. 9th, were Vickie Larkin, Eric R. Munson, Amerigo Pagliaroli, and Betty Wrestler. (Pagliaroli and Wrestler were inducted posthumously, having died in 2010 and 2011, respectively.)
Grand Winner
Some say it is skill, some say it is luck, some say it’s a combination and the ability to believe you can. (Remember the little engine? I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.) Regardless, Brian Romanow, a high school junior from Brick, NJ, could and did, win the Grand American Handicap.
Romanow had never been to the Grand American before, and had been shooting his [Kreighoff] K-80 for less than three weeks. Was he nervous? “Oh yeah…big time,” he said.
The new ATA Hall of Fame Museum had its Grand Opening on Sunday, August 7, 2016. It is well worth a visit. Looking toward the east inside the new ATA Museum, the north wall features photographs of past ATA Presidents, etc., and GAH Champions. The central portion is filled with display cases with various shotguns, medals, trophy’s, and other memorabilia.
Romanow won the GAH after only missing one target during two rounds of shoot-offs, and outlasting five other shooters. All six, Romanow and Robert Malmstedt, both from New Jersey, Ken Tofferi from Vermont, Wayne Parrott from Kentucky, and Kurtis Schewe and Kendall Diercks from Illinois, had broken 99 targets in the original Handicap. (Diercks, a Sparta High School sophomore, earned the Runner-Up award in the Sub-junior category, and the distinction of being the first resident of the region to advance to the Grand American Handicap final since the ATA moved to the WSRC in 2006. He missed two targets early in the first shoot-off. “I just missed them. There was nothing wrong with me or my gun. I just didn’t recognize them and just missed them. It’s in your head, but you just have to forget it.”)
At the ATA Museum, a few of the many types of handloading devics and clay target throwing traps available over the years, including hand models and even a glass ball throwing trap from the very early days.
During the shoot-off the competitors shot on three different fields, with Romanow and Parrot, both 23-yard shooters, on one field, Tofferi and Malmstedt, both 27-yard shooters, on a second field, and Schewe, a 19.5-yard shooter and Diercks, at 21.5 yards on a third field. After the first shoot-off, Parrot, Romanow, and Tofferi remained each breaking 24 targets.
Asked about the shooting on separate fields, Romanow replied, “There is a little bit of I don’t know how they did so I can just focus on my own targets. But, then again, it’s I don’t know how they did so I don’t know how I compare to their scores.” It didn’t really matter in the end, as Romanow broke all 25 targets in the second shoot-off to go down in the history book and get his photo on the wall in the new ATA Hall-of-Fame museum.
Competition wasn’t the only thing the six shooters had to contend with during the shoot-offs. It rained steadily the entire time. Asked about it, Romanow replied, “It’s a bit harder with the rain, especially staying on the stock and everything because it gets slippery.” But then, all six shooters had much the same problem.
Following his win, Brian was greeted by his mother, Mary, with whom he shared a heartfelt hug. “It was a big thank you. Yeah…Also, it’s been just me and my mom for the last year and a half, so it’s been a long journey.” A proud mother whose son just added his name to a prestigious list of previous Grand American Handicap Champions.
As Brian Romanow stated, “Honestly, I didn’t expect to win anything out here.” It doesn’t get much better in trapshooting than winning the Grand American Handicap, unless it would be winning it a second time. Brian is young enough and dedicated enough he could possibly do just that. Wish him luck!
