I talked to Dominic Bethel, owner of the Meadows Gun Club which is hosting the Southeast Regional that runs from April 26th - May 2nd.  If you want to attend one of the largest tournaments of the year, you need to register now.  Listen to what is to be expected from this tournament, what events will be there, vendors, food, gun giveaways, and much more.

Harvey has been shooting clay targets for 15 years.  He has been the President for the Georgia Sporting Clays Association for 9 years and continues to help grow the sport across the state.  I thought it would be a great idea to get Harvey's perspective from the political standpoint within the GSCA, talk about how he sees the sport growing in the future and his thoughts on tournaments, shooting and any other topics we cross.

Meagan Harrington has been a competitive shooter since the age of 8.  She started shooting with her local 4H and was the Texas 4H State Champion an unbelievable 7 times. Her love for shooting moved her into shooting at the collegiate level with Texas A&M "Gig 'Em" where she is a 2x ACUI Collegiate National Champion.  She is a long-time Beretta-sponsored shooter and a great advocate in clay target sports.

Her NSCA stats are very impressive as well, which include:

• 2x Team USA Sporting Clay Member
• 2019 US Open All-Around Champion
• 2019 National All-Around Champion
• 2020 North Central Regional Champion
• 2020 South Central Regional Champion
• 2020 Diamond Classic Champion

I had Alex Clark and Trey Graham on the podcast talking about the All New Gator Creek Sporting Clays.  This club is located directly in between Macon Ga and Savannah Ga off of I-16. 

Set back in the South Georgia Woods lies a 15 station sporting clays course, skeet field, and a 5 Stand layout. The staff is super friendly and the targets will compare to some of the best in the Southeast for sure.  Eric Dorsey, professional target setter from the Meadows Gun Club, is by quite often putting his spin on things.  Everything at this renovated gun club is new and it's definitely the talk of the town. If you are headed to the Georgia State shoot, you need to stop by and see what this place is all about.  It would be a great tune up for any tournament you plan on attending.

Brett Flaugher is the President of Winchester Ammunition.  I asked Brett to come on the show and talk about what is going on at Winchester.  We touched on several topics which include the ATA, NSCA, SCTP, the all new Ladies Cup and the most popular topic in shooting sports at this time, ammunition.

Find out everything you want to know from one of the largest in the world.  Brett shares insider information that will answer all of your questions and he even lets you know when he thinks the ammo shortage will ease up.

Jasper Copelan, the chief shooting instructor at Sandy Creek was raised on a dairy farm in nearby Eatonton Georgia.  He discovered shooting at age six, spending his childhood in the woods, hunting alongside his father and quickly displaying skill at finding his mark. In 2009, family friend and Level 2 shooting instructor Dr. Sammy McFaddin convinced nine-year-old Jasper to join him at a local gun club and try competitive shooting. He was hooked.

As a member of the Gatewood School's clay target team, he was a three-time Georgia Independent School Association (GISA) All-Around Shotgun State Champion, once also placing third nationally. When he moved up to the National Sporting Clays Association's (NSCA) competitions, he won the Junior US Open in 2017.

This past June he captured the 2020 Georgia State Championship which was a childhood dream.

Jasper has been teaching at Sandy Creek the last three years, watching the one-of-a-kind shooting facility come to life under the leadership of Director Justin Jones, a British clay shooting champion.

John Commerford grew up in Pennsville, NJ. with Anthony Matarerse Jr. and they consider themselves best friends.  John hunted and shot at M&M in his earlier days and worked side jobs to be able put extra cash in his pocket so that he could travel to tournaments.

John later interned with the NRA and when his internship was over, he was offered a job.  Still loving the sport, while he was at the National Rifle Association, he was offered the Assistant GM role at Krieghoff International where he met and made friends with a lot of people throughout the NSCA.

When John left KI, he went back to the NRA as well as sat on the the Executive Council for the NSCA for 2 years.  He is now Chief of Operations for the National Rifle Association and Chairman for the NRA Victory Fund.

Competitive rugby is a young man’s game, and when Nick reached his mid-30s he needed something that could fill the hole rugby left. That’s when he took up clay shooting, a pastime that appealed to him because it combines his love of hunting with the ability to satisfy his competitive drive.

Nick shot a couple of beginner level parcours while still living in his native France, scoring in the low single digits out of a possible 25. He wasn’t disheartened by his low scores, but instead took it as a challenge to improve. With his experience as a rugby player, he decided to use a mental coach, a physical coach, and a technical coach — so he knew a little something about training and put that same learning style to use in his shooting game.

With hard work, Nick’s shooting improved. Holding Master’s degrees in both architecture and civil engineering, he had built a very successful career running his own companies in France and Vietnam. Clay shooting at the time was a hobby — a fun, competitive sport to pursue in his spare time. Little did he know that a few short years later he would immerse himself fully in both the competitive and business sides of clay target shooting.

He’d been shooting for only a year back in 2015 when he visited the U.S. to shoot stateside for the first time. By then he had already gained standing in what’s called Club France, based upon his ranking in the top 24 shooters in that country. Based upon his one year of shooting experience, he was placed in D class at the World FITASC Championship held at Caribou Gun Club. He went on to win D1 in every event he shot at Caribou that week, punching his way into C class.

A Move To The US

Nick’s wife Cat was born and raised in the U.S. and her whole family lives in southern California. That seemed like a good place to relocate — near family and where their kids could get a good education. The plan was for Nick to run his companies remotely from California and fly back and forth to Asia and France when need be. Upon hearing Nick’s plans, Laporte Chairman, JeanMichel Laporte, told him not to rush into anything once arriving in the U.S. The fact that Nick had built a company in Vietnam and took it from three employees to 80 in a year and a half was not lost on Mr. Laporte. He admired Nick’s business acumen and thought he might be the right person to manage Laporte’s North American division.

Because he still owned two successful companies, Nick wasn’t in the market for a job. Although he was already happily employed, he met Mr. Laporte at the NSCA Nationals that October and was made an offer he wouldn’t refuse. “I’m glad I made this choice. Laporte is a very innovative family owned company and if there’s an issue, we always find a way to make it work. The near future looks very bright for us” he said.

The French Nick Video Experience

Nick liked to record video with his iPhone while on the sporting clays course. He launched a blog at FrenchNick.com and a YouTube channel, quickly building a large online following. “Nobody was doing it and it started getting crazy” he said. Because he is personal friends with a lot of the top shots, he is able to get very close for filming while they’re in the shooting stand. He knows how to move in without bothering them — where to stand, or maybe more importantly where not to stand. He says there aren’t a lot of people who could do that, because they wouldn’t dare come in that close. Some shooting friends have even asked him to come in closer than normal with his iPhone to get footage for instructional videos. Anthony I. Matarese Jr. asked him to record with his phone only four inches from his ear while competing at the Nationals. “You probably couldn’t do that with a regular camera guy” says Nick. “It’s always like an exchange and a balance between what the shooter wants, he doesn’t want and what you need to get good images.” He’s also videoed Zach Kienbaum, Cory Kruse, Gebben Mile

The company Renair Shotgun Sports was started with one objective in mind and that was to be able to move and adjust traps easily so that you can spend more time practicing.  What started as a hand cranked machine is now one of the most innovative and useful tools in clay target sports and can be found at most gun clubs across America.

They offer a full line of ClayBots, transporters and accessories that make it easy to set up a course or target style that you are looking for......quickly.

Check out their website for every bit of information about this amazing product.  How To's, videos and photos are all available at the click of your mouse.

Their Lineup:

ClayBot MKII ClayBot MKIII ClayBot MKIV Wireless Spring Adjuster Infinity Trap Base ClayBot Highway Transporter

I caught up with Anthony Matarese and Tom Seay at the Gator Cup in Okeechobee Florida and talked about the tournament in general.  We discussed the methods used to shoot some of the difficult targets, the differences in both shooters mounts, how they approach targets, what they pay attention to while waiting to shoot and so much more.  As you would expect from two top level shooters, this episode is packed with great information.