Issue No. 2 | September 13, 2026
Good morning,
This week, we’re opening the archives before heading to Iowa, choosing a coach who fits your game, and following a bird dog into a training problem its owner never saw coming.
OPENING SHOT
With a paid trip to Vandalia, 17-year-old brings home the prize
The Grand American at Vandalia in 1931, one year before this week’s story. Adapted from a photograph of a Trapshooting Hall of Fame display.
Seventeen-year-old Bobby Olds reached Vandalia in 1932 with help from the North Lansing Gun Club. His family had been evicted from their farm. Olds grew vegetables and worked at his gun club. Club members covered his Grand entry fees and transportation. He broke 99 to win the Preliminary Grand American Handicap and $1,000.
Railway postal clerk Arthur E. Sheffield won the Grand American Handicap with 98, earning $2,000. Sheffield had quit shooting in frustration years earlier before returning.
TIME’s account describes Vandalia as having nearly a mile-long firing line while the shoot required eleven freight carloads of targets. Times sure have changed. Read the 1932 report.
The club’s part in getting Bobby there is what stayed with me. Working with youth shooters today, I think about how much an opportunity depends on someone helping with instruction, guidance and cost. I’d love to know what those members said when he got home.
The money: Those prizes translate to approximately $24,600 and $49,200 in estimated 2026 purchasing power, respectively, using the Minneapolis Fed’s historical CPI table and its 2026 estimate.
BUILDING THE SPORT
At the Heartland Grand, winning gold didn’t require the highest score
Ian Darroch broke 1,084 of 1,100 to win High Over All at the Heartland Grand, held August 17–23 at Stockdale Gun Club in Ackley, Iowa.
Another part of the program caught my attention: ten drawings for actual gold.
The club’s Gold Digger giveaways awarded a tenth of an ounce in seven events and a quarter-ounce in each of three championship events. Winning those drawings didn’t require winning the event.
For your club notebook: The drawings gave shooters a chance at a prize regardless of where they finished.
When I’m thinking about a shoot, I’m interested in what makes people want to return. Good targets and a well-run program come first. Something like this gives the rest of the field a little more to look forward to.
THE CRAFT
Choose a coach who fits your game
Anthony Matarese Jr. offers two useful reminders for anyone considering shooting instruction:
Match the coach to your level and goals. Building fundamentals and pursuing championships call for different expertise. A less expensive instructor may be well equipped to help you take your next step.
Keep some continuity in your technique. You may outgrow a coach as you improve. When you change, Matarese advises finding someone with a compatible philosophy so you avoid repeatedly rebuilding your game around conflicting instruction.
Written for sporting clays, the advice carries across the clay-target sports. Read: What You Need From a Coach.
As a shooter and coach, these were the two points that stood out to me. Think about what you’re trying to improve before you book a lesson. Be selective about whose advice you follow and how it fits the technique you’re building.
BEYOND THE CLAYS
What did you actually teach your dog?
A dog finds every antler planted in the backyard, then runs past one in the field. Why?
In Pheasants Forever’s On the Wing podcast, a host recounts that experience. His explanation: the dog had apparently learned to follow the handlers’ scent on the practice antlers.
Behaviorist Dr. Annie Valuska shares a similar example from cadaver-detection training, where dogs had learned to identify disturbed soil.
The catch: A training exercise can appear successful while rewarding a cue the handler never intended.
Another discussion is worth a listen: could an experienced pheasant dog distinguish a rooster from a hen by scent? Host Bob St. Pierre makes the case. Valuska considers it plausible, but knows of no study establishing it.
Read the transcript or listen. The scent-training examples begin around 54:18; the rooster-versus-hen discussion begins around 45:03.
CHIPS & CHUNKS
Not every target disappears in a smoke ball. Here are a few pieces that still count.
First trip to sporting clays Nationals? The NSCA’s first-timer guide covers registration, ammunition, cart permits, gun storage, and getting around the National Shooting Complex. One useful detail: gun storage costs $5 per gun per day, including security and insurance. Nationals run October 17–25 in San Antonio. Read the guide.
Even on a private jet, a shotgun needs its paperwork. Former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone was stopped in Portugal after arriving with a shotgun without the required documentation, Reuters reports. He said he intended to use it for clay shooting. Read Reuters’ report (a subscription may be required).
YOUR SHOT
What makes you go back?
Think of a shoot you return to even after a disappointing score. What brings you back?
The targets, the people, the way it’s run, or something the club does particularly well?
Hit reply with the shoot and one specific reason. I’d like to hear about the details other clubs could learn from.
LAST SHOT
Bob and Lou Ann Munson joined Trap Talk at the Grand for a conversation about their lives in trapshooting. They recall the family atmosphere at shoots in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Together with their son Eric, they’ve earned 105 All-American team selections.
Across 57 Grand Americans, Bob and Lou Ann Munson have shared a dinner toast:
“Good times. Good scores. Most of all, good friends.”
See you next Sunday,
Dean