Issue No. 3 | September 22, 2026
Hi,
The calendar is starting to turn.
The ATA has closed the books on another target year and named its All-American teams. NSCA Nationals is a month away. And across much of the country, clay shooters are starting to trade at least a few rounds of practice for dogs, boots and birds.
There’s a little of all three in this week’s Sunday Shot.
OPENING SHOT
The Grand tells you who won in August. The All-American teams tell you who did it all year.
The ATA finalized its 2027 All-American Teams this week, putting an official end to the points race for the 2026 target year.
The standings shooters watched throughout the year were provisional. The final teams recognize performance accumulated from September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2026, across qualifying shoots around the country.
Earning a spot takes more than one big week.
Shooters earn points by posting one of the top scores in their category at qualifying tournaments. They can shoot as many qualifying tournaments as they want, but only their seven highest-point shoots count toward team selection. Candidates also have to meet target minimums and complete the championship singles, handicap and doubles events at qualifying shoots in at least three states or provinces.
Names and things worth knowing
The top looks familiar. Dagen Voigtman is the Open captain for the second straight year. Richard Marshall Jr. finished second again. Voigtman accumulated 3,141 points, with Marshall at 2,997.
Sunday Shot readers already know three of these names. Hunter Alver, who opened our first issue after breaking 600 straight to win the World Clay Target Championship, made the Junior Gold second team. Steven Margherio, whose doubles game we featured in The Craft, made Junior Gold first team with 2,511 points. And Ian Darroch, fresh off the Heartland Grand performance we covered last week, finished fifth on the Open first team with 2,323.
A huge Grand doesn't automatically earn a first team spot. Alver's 600 straight produced one of the finest performances of the Grand, but his full target year put him on the Junior Gold second team. Aiden Nace, the Grand's World High-All-Around champion, landed there too. Jason Krause, winner of the Grand American Handicap, finished 11th on the Open first team.
Pennsylvania had the deepest roster. By our count, 22 Pennsylvania shooters made one of the teams, more than any other state. Illinois and Missouri followed with 16 each, Nebraska had 14, and Ohio, Kentucky and Minnesota each had 13.
Worth knowing: Not every qualifying shoot is weighted equally. The ATA uses a Competition Factor based largely on tournament attendance, and points earned at a shoot are multiplied by that factor. Grand Week carries a fixed Competition Factor of 10.
THE CRAFT
How one miss becomes two
Everybody misses.
The more useful question is what happens on the next bird.
In Part 2 of The Dead Pair’s “Slow Down, Stupid” discussion, Tracy Wright and David Radulovich get into the mental side of a problem nearly every competitive shooter recognizes: a bad target creates frustration, frustration changes the routine, then suddenly one miss becomes two, three or worse.
Three ideas worth keeping
1. Diagnose before you react.
A miss needs an explanation. Was it visual? Setup? Hold point? Movement? Timing? The danger is changing something immediately without knowing what actually went wrong.
2. Protect the routine.
Frustration makes shooters speed up, overthink or start inventing fixes. A repeatable pre-shot routine gives you somewhere familiar to return after the miss.
3. Reset the count.
The previous target is gone. Carrying it to the next station turns one mistake into something larger.
Trapshooters know the same spiral. Miss one, start thinking about why, call too quickly for the next one, and suddenly the rhythm of the entire post has changed. Figure out what happened, then get back to the next target.
CHIPS & CHUNKS
Not every target disappears in a smoke ball. Here are a few pieces that still count.
Want to shoot Nationals with the pros? Buy the fifth spot.
NSCA is auctioning the fifth position on its Qualified Pro Squads at the 2026 National Sporting Clays Championship.
Each squad starts with four qualified shooters. The fifth position goes to the highest bidder.
One currently available squad includes Anthony Matarese, Zachary Kienbaum, Tom Seay and Jared Rumer. Bidding closes September 28th at 4 p.m. CT.
The proceeds are split two ways: half goes to the Nationals purse; half supports the USA Sporting Clays Team.
Instead of simply asking shooters for another donation, NSCA is selling something it already has: access. The winning bidder walks the Nationals course with some of the country’s best sporting clays shooters.
Four birds. One state.
Nebraska’s Upland Slam has a straightforward assignment:
Take a sharp-tailed grouse, greater prairie-chicken, ring-necked pheasant and northern bobwhite quail in Nebraska during the same hunting season.
Finish all four and Nebraska Game and Parks sends you a certificate and Upland Slam pin. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever also provide prizes, plus hunters who complete the slam and submit a photo of their dog at work can earn a separate Top Dog tag and certificate.
The program is in its ninth year. Through its first eight seasons, 875 hunters from 30 states participated. Fifty-eight percent of all reported harvests came from public land.
This year also marks Nebraska’s 100th pheasant season. Grouse and prairie-chicken opened September 1. Pheasant and quail open October 31.
YOUR SHOT
Break your first 25? Run your first 100? Win something worth bragging about? Have a great photo from the range, a story we should know about, or something worth reading or listening to?
LAST SHOT
Opening day of dove season. Sometimes the best seat in the field is right next to the dog.
See you next Sunday,
Dean