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Phil Kiner Blog Trapshooting Hall of Fame enshrine * 25 time All-American * 44-time Wyoming State Champion Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame enshrinee * Trapshooting instructor * Trap & Field columnist of “The Secret” The first to shoot 400x400, not once, but twice. * Economist * Food connoisseur * Father * Grandpa Husband * Trapshooter
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It has been a while, and I had several things I was going to talk about, but I am short on time (as usual) and will instead make this one pretty quick.
Congratulations and big kudos to Jim Heller!
Jim was pretty much the lone trapshooter competing in the “World All-Around Shotgun Championship.” It took a lot of guts to fork out $5,000 of his personal cold hard cash to knowingly “get into a card game with the deck stacked against him (trapshooter).” The shoot could more accurately be called the “World Combination Sporting Clays Championship Featuring a Couple of Minor Preliminary Diversions from Other Disciplines.”
The good news is that he represented our sport well, winning the trap competition, coming in second in the flyers, and tying for second in the combined flyer/helice calcutta. His strong showing in these three venues covered his financial outlay for the whole shoot. Great job, Jim!
For those who think I am just being a whiny trapshooter, think about this: 17.1% of the targets shot were trap, and only 50 of those were from the 27. The other 100 targets were 50 singles and 50 doubles. If they want to test skill, then at least have 150 targets from the 27 so that a trapshooter has some chance to gain some targets in his/her field of specialty. Lots of shooters can score reasonably high in singles, but the true test is the 27-yard line.
Almost one-third (31.4%) of the targets were sporting clays in one form or another, and the skeet games (17.1% of the targets) are closer to sporting than they are to trap. Additionally, the 150 NSSA skeet targets were 75 any gauge and 75 doubles. This doesn’t give the “skeetie” guys much of a chance to build any cushion in their area of main expertise. Seventy-five of the 150 targets being any gauge also reduces a significant piece of the skeet experts’ advantage. The tough skeet game is .410, and if that is too difficult because of gun issues, at least drop to 28 gauge (the small gauge that is most common).
Just to let you know that I don’t just take shots in the dark, I do intend to speak to Scott and relay my thoughts. I don’t know if I have the time to try to shoot this myself because of limited vacation days, but who knows?
One last thought: Scott Robertson (Elm Fork Gun Club and nationally known sporting clays shooter) is to be commended for dreaming this competition up. A format like this had a chance to make it on television, and the more positive P.R. the shotgun games get, the better off we all are. Like everything that happens in this world, it is not whether the first attempt was perfect, but rather whether an attempt was made and then if it undergoes constant attempts at improvement.
I have said forever that we should be focusing on a way to get trapshooting on television. The problem is that being on TV would benefit not only the game but also some of the “pros” (from the additional exposure). It is time to quit worrying whether the road to improving the game’s future will incidentally help some of the current “young guns,” and instead set a goal of helping the game. That way some of our really young guns will still have the opportunity to try it when they are old enough. |
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April 18, 2008 Well, I hit the lobby at 4:32 this morning. I intended to start on my shoot notes but will first talk about an incident at the gun club yesterday. Mike was standing by the car at the gun club when Phil Wright came up to him and said, “Look at that red dot on your rear bumper.” Sure enough, there was a small red dot (about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, a standard label dot from the office supply store) stuck about six inches from the far left side. He explained that was how thieves were marking cars and then checking motel and restaurant lots later for cars to break into. When we got back to our room (which was advertised with a shoot special in the program), there were four other cars in the lot with the red dots on the bumpers. We notified motel security, and they patrolled all night. Was going to work on my shoot notes, but Dick Fisher was here again this morning, and instead I have been talking to him. I met him yesterday morning, and we had a great chat. He noticed my T-shirt and wanted to know if I was here for the trapshoot. As soon as we figured out that we were both shooters, we were friends. Dick is from Peninsula, Ohio, and shoots at the Copley Gun Club. He shoots a K-80 Special combo that he bought from Pat McCarthy. He is 73 years old and did not start shooting till he was 70. He said it is tough in the senior vet category when you are a “rookie.” He is in San Antonio with his girlfriend who likes to sleep in, and so like me he is patrolling the motel lobby in the early hours. We have discussed trapshooting, business, the stock market and women. He is about as perverted as I am, so we really hit it off. Dick owns Fisher’s Cafe and Pub, and his son runs it while Dick is off having fun. They have been named as having the “Best Hamburger in NE Ohio” by Channel 8 in Cleveland and interviewed Dick’s son on TV. Dick said his son is a ham. I am talking to Dick as I type this and he has no idea what I am writing about, so it will be funny if he finally reads this someday. Time to get back to thinking about shooting. The targets have been sporting so far this week, but it is due to the weather and the worn-out handset traps. The target-setting committee is doing as good as possible. The guys that have the top scores each day are really paying attention. There is not much margin for error with the wind. Next year will be better here as they will have all-new automatic traps. Later. pk |
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April 16, 2008 It is Wednesday, and I am in my motel lobby in San Antonio, Texas. It is 5 a.m. and I am in the lobby instead of the room so that my traveling partner Mike Storeim doesn’t get awakened by my early morning antics. It seems as if my sleep automatically ends between 3.30 and 5.00 a.m. every morning, and if I turn the lights on it wakes Mike up. I arrived in San Antonio for the Southwestern Grand American Satellite yesterday afternoon via United airlines. I don’t have time to drive to the distant shoots anymore because of work and limited leave time. Speaking of work, which I had avoided mentioning on this blog because I thought it might not be appropriate, but have decided that some reference is probably okay. Anyway, it is great to get away from the office. The month at work since the Southern Grand has been intense. One of the projects I am in charge of is what we call the “joint labs.” We flew to Stillwater, Oklahoma last week to look at the old animal lab and the design for the new animal lab. Talk about the way to go, we took the State plane which is a Citation and we got to Stillwater from Cheyenne in one hour and 11 minutes. Normally I don’t have enough “stroke” to justify the plane, but with the head of the Ag College as one of the six passengers, it upped our “stroke factor” considerably. Some background: I’m from Oklahoma and went to college at Oklahoma State University (OSU). My youngest brother, Wayne, met me, and I rode to town with him while the rest of the group was chauffeured by the head of the OSU lab. Wayne is the head of the Ag Engineering lab at OSU. He then met us for lunch and after lunch he gave me a quick tour of the OSU campus which has really changed since I left there in 1971. One of the tour stops was “The Hideaway” pizza parlor. We stopped in the hopes of running into Richard Dermer the founder and owner and one great guy. Dermer hired me in 1969 because one of my cousins had worked there and gave me a good reference. It was a great part-time job. I worked there the last two years I was at OSU. Boy, did we have some memorable times—it was like a brotherhood working there. When I started I was the only “non city” person there having come to OSU from Aline, Oklahoma. Population: 326. Aline High School’s enrollment was 32, and no, not in the senior class, but in ALL four grades. My senior class had a strong six members (four guys and two gals). Tom Horschler of Faxon, OK is an old running mate and may be at the SW Grand again this year. He came last year, and it was the first time I had seen him since 1971. He had also worked at the Hideaway via his contact with me. We were known as “redneck one” and “redneck two.” It was kind of interesting (looking back) that one of the other guys at the Hideaway was a trapshooter. And, because of my quail hunting, Dermer was always telling me he thought I would make a good trapshooter. Of course there was no way I was going to try trapshooting at that period in my life as I was way too serious a student (or maybe it was because Marsha and I were broke). I have not talked to Dermer since 1971, and I guess I need to put that on my “Bucket List.” Well enough for now—if I shoot good I will post here later in the week. And if not, I will not mention San Antone again. PK |
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April 7, 2008 Well, the Cowgirls lost to Pitt and then Pitt lost, so I guess I need to take “how about them Cowgirls” off my cell as the ringback song. In other basketball news, Cowboys coach Heath Schoyer didn’t renew the scholarships of two players for next season. Normally that would not be big news but one of the two was one of the most highly recruited kids from Wyoming in a long time. Looks like a huge political gamble to me. Time will tell.
Finally, it was great to see someone from west of the Mississippi get to the Championship game. Unfortunately, Memphis will not be as cocky and nonchalant as NC was, and I predict it will be Memphis by 12 tonight.
Time to brag—went to Gene and Kelli “Mountains” C. for their weekly Hold’em tourney and split first with Dave Ayers. He has a great bunch, and I really enjoyed taking out “Huggy Bear” and “Cowboy,” both of whom will claim that I sucked out on the river, but that is just sour grapes. Marv (“I never saw two cards that are not playable”) Applequist from the Cheyenne club also went. Cheyenne hosted their last poker tourney of the winter, and Dave “7/4” Bilstad made a great comeback to win. I did not make the final table, but that is only because as the Poker Commissioner of the trap club, I was distracted by trying to run the tourney (that’s a joke).
It is time to get serious about shooting, if only the weather will cooperate. Last week Pat Stanosheck and I went out one day at noon, and it was actually calm. We shot 60-yard targets, and I shot the first 25 singles calling “pull” with my eyes closed. I then shot a round of handicap from the 30 and finished with 48x50 from the 27 to end the day. Then we had four straight days with winds that at one time or another had 50+ mph gusts. This has been one of the windiest stretches in Wyoming for a long time. Hopefully we can get a good day or two of practice in before San Antone.
I have had some interesting vision training e-mails and will try to quit procrastinating long enough to get some results posted. I’ll get on that tomorrow. PK
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March 21, 2008 The Cowgirls don’t play till Saturday, so I guess I will have to ’fess up and give a poker report.
First, this league would not be possible without “Zabby” and Sean, particularly Sean. “Zabby THE Commish” rules with an iron fist and keeps this bunch in line, although as the group will tell you, he takes plenty of liberties with the rules of poker and his refusal to accept “chip and a chair.” Sean simply makes the league go—the tables are set up, the chips are ready, and the munchies are set out every week. She is the ultimate hostess.
Now for the results. First, even though I got the most chips going in, I made a bad call when Zabby hit the nut straight. Until that point I was about second in chips, but I never recovered and ended 16th (the last place in the $$).
The tourney and the big bucks went to Kathy “TN” Krieger (subbing for Brenda), who did a great job of playing her cards the final night. I know all you “old fart” trapshooters will find this hard to believe, but the women in our league strike fear in the hearts of this bunch of rednecks.
Particularly Gwen “BB” Perdue, Amy “LRB” Bishop, Brenda “HG” Creel—who could not make the finals due to chasing Jim around a beach somewhere south of the border—and last but not least, Ronda “Spiker” Munger These ladies are all great, tough players, with Amy finishing 3rd, Gwen finishing 6th and Ronda 8th the final night.
One last piece of trivia: Gwen and Brenda always bring a bottle of their favorite wine each week—the brand name “Ménage à Trois” (that is the truth; that is a brand-name wine). |
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March 19, 2008 It was hectic getting home from the Southern Grand (SG) Sunday night and arriving about midnight. Amazing how your priorities change depending on the circumstances. Normally one is unhappy to get home an hour or two late especially when it is approaching the midnight hour. However, when the other alternative is to spend the night in the airport or have the wife drive to Denver (two-plus hours on the bad roads), getting home a little late on the last flight of the day is great.
I was generally not happy with my shooting at the SG. I did have a couple of decent handicap scores and won the prelim handicap on Friday. But I felt like I gave away a golden opportunity in the main handicap because 98s were high and I finished with a 97. I started slow in this event and finished strong. I have several notes from this shoot to go home and work on. It is time to start shooting 60-yard practice for the next eight weeks. More on my practice habits if I can catch a day to shoot.
The really great news came Monday evening when my Cowgirls were announced as a number 11 seed in the Spokane regional for the NCAAW Tourney.
It was mighty tense for awhile as the Spokane regional was the last one announced and Utah was screwed with a number 8 seed. This made it look like we were out given the fact that they should have been a 4 or 5 seed. I hate the Eastern bias every March Madness. Believe me when you have more antelope than people, some things are huge to both the morale and pride of the entire state.
Last but not least, it is with some trepidation that I mention this final item. Tonight is the year-end playoff for the Longhorn Poker League hosted by Keith Zabka and his lovely wife Sean at their “poker barn” in north Cheyenne. We have played since last September and after 17 regular season-ending sessions, guess who is leading the pack? You got it. Handicap shooting and poker playing—little ole me. Hope I have not jinxed my chances by mentioning the finals tonight. We have 40 players in the league, and tonight will be an exciting test of skill and determination. I hope the Goddess of Pocket AA is smiling on me. I have played better this winter than in the past, and I must give some credit to “Big Bob” from somewhere out east, Pennsylvania I think. He recommended a couple of books that he likes and they did help elevate my game. Of course there was lots of room to go up.
Time to start thinking about vision for next time, and the next report when the Cowgirls go to the “Sweet Sixteen.”
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March 13, 2008 Well it was a dark day to be a Cowboy fan yesterday. The Cowboys went to Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference post-season tournament and forgot to get there, losing to the 0-16 in-conference Sheep. Then to add insult to injury the Cowgirls also never arrived at Vegas either. They lost to the 6th seed Lady Aztec’s. Then to compound the problems even further the number 1 Tourney-seed Lady Utes also never got to Vegas and lost to the Sheepette’s in their first game. So in a span of about 12 hours the Cowgirls went from being NCAA Tourney bound to the WNIT again. I hate having to say wait till next year every damned year. The only good news in the basketball arena came from good Ole Cheyenne last week. Good friend and fellow Cheyenne Trap-shooter Ron Cook’s Granddaughter Chelsey Lybeck led the Cheyenne Central Lady Indians to the Wyoming 4-A State Championship. Not only is she a great ballplayer and fierce competitor -she is also a great young lady. Along trapshooting lines the Southern Grand is progressing. So far the shoot seems to be very well run this year and the targets have been consistent on both sides of the road. I have had a couple of OK scores but nothing to brag about yet. Ray Stafford has had 3 good handicap scores on our squad bagging 98-97-97 in the first 3 handicaps. Hopefully today (Thursday) I will get my game-face on. That is all the shoot report I am going to give at this time since there is no way I can compete with the literary skills of the “THE Prez” of Minnesota Dog Squad fame. However, I do have a little gossip for the TV show “As the Trap Turns”. I can report there is significant dissention brewing on the Dog-squad. While sitting with these guys yesterday I learned that “THE Prez” has a habit of not reporting all the facts when he is out-retrieved the first event of the day. The rest of the squad, The Piddler, The Schnauzer and Almost Hairless are about to lift their legs around the Big Black Bus if things do not change. I did notice that after their complaints “THE Prez” did do a better job of reporting Wednesday’s events. Stay tuned for more on this developing story. Finally, I have to plug my
home—everyone is always asking why live in Wyoming if you are a
trapshooter?? I think this helps answer that question. |
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March 9, 2008
It is already March 9, 2008 and it has been a month since the last update. I had a new update about two weeks ago and never got it finished. It was a good one, but unfortunately it is in the hard drive of my desk top back in Wyoming, and I am sitting in Crystal River, Florida. So I will start again.
First to the important things in life—the Cowboys and Cowgirls. The Cowgirls pretty much screwed their national rankings when they went to Utah and forgot to get show-up points, losing badly to the lady Utes. One must give the Lady Utes credit as they are a great team: 27-3 and 16-0. The girls then had their way with BYU in our last home game of the season (in Wyoming we call BYU the evil empire) to finish out the regular season at 24-5 and 12-4 in conference. We are seeded third in the Mountain West Conference Tourney. TCU is the second seed winning some obscure tie breaker to gain the number two ranking. The only automatic bid to the dance (Men’s or Women’s) from the Mountain West Conference is the tournament Champion so the girls really need to win and gain back some respect.
The cowboys are a whole ‘nother thing altogether. First year head coach Heath Schroyer had a lot of fans expecting more than 12-17 and 5-11 conference. They went to the Evil Empire for the last game of the season and got totally manhandled. This puts us in the play-in game against our other arch rival—the dreaded Sheep (CSU Rams). The winner of that game then gets to face number 1 seed BYU.
Coach Schroyer actually was plotting some very sneaky strategy by getting beaten so bad at BYU 78-61. We saved all the top secret stuff from the play book and will unleash it against them when we meet in the tourney. (That’s our story and we’re sticking to it!)
Hopefully I have got some of you to actually cheer for us. Being a graduate of both Okie State and then Wyoming, “my hero’s have always been Cowboys.”
I will finished my first clinic on the road today with a great bunch of guys at Robinson Ranch (Dunnellon, FL) and then I’m headed to the Southern Grand starts. Being a typical trapshooter if I do any good shooting I will update from here. And if not, you won’t hear me mention Florida again ‘till next year.
The last thing I want to mention is that someone wanted to know my take on the presidential race in Wyoming. It doesn’t matter here who is the Democratic contender as no matter who it is they will lose to any Republican by something in the neighborhood of 70-30 come general election time. I am not making a statement regarding any candidate, I'm just telling you that is the way it is in Wyoming. PK |
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February 8, 2008 Being a numbers guy I thought it would be good luck to update my blog on a date that was as numerically interesting like 02/08/08. Speaking of luck I was wondering how many of you are superstitious. In the spirit of honesty I will admit that I have t-shirts that are for handicap, others that are for singles, others that are for doubles, and then some that are for the first day of the shoot. And I have other shirts that will never go to another trapshoot and are relegated to the “Y” for noon work-outs. I am not the only shooter with idiosyncrasies: one shooter is a well known singles specialist from Minnesota who also has “special” t- shirts as does a perennial All-American from Colorado.
I know it has just been a day or so since the last blog, but I have several things to talk about and I decided to get the vision question out there on its own without a lot of clutter.
Last week was pretty tricky for UW basketball fans. The Cowgirls lost two in a row. The first was a heartbreaker on a three pointer at the buzzer to lose to the Utah, and then they went into a funk and lost at BYU. The Marriot Center in Provo is a tough place to play. However, that is no excuse, they simply choked. They have now slipped to #22 in the rankings. The Cowboys beat Utah and lost to BYU. The Cowboys are now 8-12 and the Cowgirls are 18-3.
Several of you asked about my shoulder and how the rehab is going and how it affects the shooting. I got to shoot for the first time three weekends ago. The first time my shoulder was pretty tender for the first 10 shots and then was ok. I shot 50 singles and quit just to make sure I didn’t overdo it. It felt fine the next day, so the following weekend I shot 25 singles, 50 handicap and 100 doubles. The shoulder caused no major problem, but I could tell I had not lifted the gun in awhile. It is great to be started again and hopefully the wind will die down by Sunday. Today 02/08/08 we had sustained winds of 35to 50mph regular and a peak gust of 70mph.
The shoulder surgery last fall was the rotator cuff (right shoulder). I think it is in pretty good shape now but, having significant experience with surgeries, I can tell you that one major key to making any orthopedic procedure a success is to do the therapy.
Time to close and once again if you have something you would like to hear about let me know. PK |
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February 6, 2008 It must be time to update my blog having received several thousand requests to do so (lol). That is supposed to be a joke, but if I can convince the BBE (Big Bad Editor- Terry Heeg) that I am that popular maybe she will raise my pay so I can quit my day job (also a joke). Anyway I have actually heard from a few shooters telling me they had read the blog and that it was time to put something new on it, or even some suggestions regarding possible discussion items. So if you have any suggestions let me know, pkiner@philkiner.com is my e-mail address.
The other evening I spent an hour or so on the phone with long time friend and 2004 Texas Trapshooting Hall of Famer. Jim Borum. Like many of us Jim is getting a little longer in the tooth and as such was asking about eyes. (How do you like the transition for teeth to eyes?) His specific concern was that he had noticed he was seeing significantly slower than he had not that many years ago. So the big question is: can you do anything to “speed up” your eyes/eye-hand coordination to get it back to younger or at minimum slow down the process?
I personally am an advocate of eye exercises as is my eye “doc” Dr. Sue Lowe. I will talk to her and see if I can get her to weigh in on this issue either here or in an article. Jim did mention that there was an eye exercise program for one of the hand-held games, and we both wondered if anyone had any experience with any of these.
I decided to throw the question out to the blog readers to find out what things other shooters have done that helped.
C. J. Box has a new book. This
one is a mystery but is not in the Joe Pickett “game warden” series.
Blue Heaven is a story about two kids on the run in the woods
of northern Idaho, pursued by four men (ex-cops from L.A.) who they have
just seen commit murder. The killers know who the kids are and how to
manipulate the system. The kids’ only hope for survival turns out to be
a destitute, old-time rancher. C. J. has also agreed to let the Cheyenne Animal Shelter auction off “getting your name mentioned as a character” in his next Joe Pickett book, due out next year. This will happen at the shelter’s annual fundraiser April 5, and I would be glad to deliver your bid that night. Just let me know. |
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December 11th, 2007
Hi, everyone,
This is my first blog, so bear with me as I figure out what to write here.
As I have been thinking about articles to write and the new year looming, I have been trying to actually assess what I need to do for next year. I haven’t fired a shot since the Grand and it is getting to me. I had shoulder surgery in September. The doc said I couldn’t shoot for a while, and October was perfect shooting weather here in Cheyenne. Finally, the doc told me I could shoot again, and we haven’t had a Sunday with less than 30 mph winds combined with the cold.
I have been going to Laramie to watch both the University of Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls basketball teams play. My wife and I have been season ticket holders for years and recently we added a third for my Grandson Paige. The boys are pretty weak this year but they have a new coach and a new direction so I keep hoping. The girls are coming off last season as the WNIT Champions, and everyone that counted is back. They are currently ranked 21 or 22 depending on the poll, so I hope they keep on their winning ways when we get to the conference races and then March Madness.
I know those of you that are in Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC, and Big East country hardly even realize that we have basketball out here, but we do. Last season I converted Paul Quattlebaum, aka Arkansas Paul, to being a Cowboy fan. Paul went to all but one of the home games with Paige and me last winter. He used Marsha’s (my wife) ticket since she refused to attend as long as our “old” coach was still there. Paul is working in PA so he will be missed at the ballgames and the trap club at Cheyenne this winter. His ticket will once again be used by Marsha since we have a new coach.
It is 17 degrees and snowing as I write this so it is not looking good to test the shotgun on the new shoulder. We play tournament hold ‘em every Wednesday and Sunday during the winter so I guess I will practice shuffling once again instead of shooting.
I remembered that Dec. 7 was my Great Grandpa’s birthday. His name was Marshall McCully, and the place I was raised on was homesteaded by him in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893.
Let me know if you have any specifics that you want to hear about. Talk with you later. E-mail me at pkiner@philkiner.com |
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TRAP & FIELD Magazine, 1000 Waterway Blvd., Indianapolis IN 46202 (C) Copyright 05/13/2008, Curtis Magazine Group, Inc. |
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