Description
Course Design So, you ’ve been a hunter all your life since you were a kid and you ’ve always loved to shoot, doves, ducks, quail, that sort of thing. Now your son (and perhaps grand kids also) are all eager to follow in your footsteps. Each season, you hunt together and you look forward to these social gatherings with family and friends. A few weeks ago you shot in your first sporting clay tournament. It ’s a lot of fun isn ’t it? Here is a shooting sport that simulates actual hunting situations in the field but the difference is, you can shoot sporting clays all year round. So let ’s say you ’ve done well, made a few bucks over the years and you have a nice ranch or piece of property somewhere. Now you would like to consider setting up your own five stand or sporting clays layout on it but you ’re a bit apprehensive about the possible pitfalls and ramifications involved. You should be. Designing an imaginative, safe and environmentally friendly course isn ’t just a case of buying a few machines and sticking them behind some trees in a quiet corner of your ranch. The location, shot fall distances pathways, wind directions, sun directions, type of machines you need, and most important, (especially for the private landowner) the installation of these machines in locations to give an overall eye-pleasing effect are all things that need to be considered. I am also knowledgeable about all the current Texas Commission for Environmental Impact guidelines and EPA requirements for both commercial and non-commercial shooting facilities. You need the help of an expert, so let me tell you why I consider myself to be uniquely qualified to give you advice on all these things. I have been involved in the sporting clay industry for over 35 years and I have set targets for literally thousands of sporting clay events and charity fundraisers. I write technical articles for Sporting Clays magazine which is the official magazine of the National Sporting Clays Association. Before I came to the US in1998 I managed several shooting facilities in the UK. These were Clifford Farm Estates shooting ground in North Devon, Linnbridgeford Mill Shooting Ground near Lockerbie and Annandale Shooting Ground, on the Earl of Annandales Estate in S.W. Scotland. When I came to the US in 1998 I was the manager of Westside Sporting Grounds in Houston. I then moved to Dallas and from 1999 to 2003 I was the sporting clay and corporate events manager at one of the premier shooting facilities in the world, the Dallas Gun Club in Lewisville, Texas. During my term of employment there, I designed the impressive sporting clay course and five stand facility. I now consult and design courses at various other locations at private and public facilities throughout Texas, Florida and the UK. These include Valley View Ranch, near Athens, Cross Pines Ranch near Mineola and several other private locations. Last year I installed Garwood Sporting Clays near El Campo and recently, the exciting “covey rise ” game and dove towers at Mesa Vista, “Best Quail Hunting in the World ” ranch, near Pampa in the Texas panhandle.