By John Liles
The Fall Southern Side by Side was held at Backwoods Quail Club, Georgetown, South Carolina, on Oct. 14 - 17. What follows is the run-down of the L.C. Smith/Parker Challenge Events only, which were contested on 5-Stand venues. Many other events were contested on several course locations open to shooters of all makes and models of vintage double barrel shotguns, and as usual, the Backwoods Quail Club crew really provided a wonderful weekend of great shooting and hospitality.
Turnout was down this year, and with a total of six L.C. Smith members shooting the 12 gauge Fall Challenge event, Team L.C. was able to come within 20 birds of Team Parker, 125 to 105. Congrats to Team Parker! The High Gun for the final Challenge event was Team Parker’s Dr. John Truitt with a great score of 28 out of 30 clay birds. Team L.C. Smith members were Chris Cox (25 birds), John Brownell (22), John Liles (19), Tony Tucker (17), Rick Ghenn (16), and Alyssa Alberti (14).
Only five L.C. Smith shooters contested the Hammer Gun Challenge this year as one of our regulars had to sit out this event. Team LC Smith initially tied Team Parker at 101 birds each, but Parker won a high gun shoot-off for the victory. Congrats again to Team Parker! The High Gun for this event went once again to Team Parker’s John Truitt, with another great score of 27 out of 30 clay birds. Our team members and their scores were: Chris Cox (24), Alyssa Alberti (20), Rick Ghenn (19), John Liles (19) and Tom Pelligrini (18).
In Challenge events, the team is usually comprised of the top 10 shooters from each organization. Because Team L.C. Smith had fewer than 10 members contesting the large bore Challenge events, team sizes were adjusted accordingly.
Team L.C. Smith members won all of the small gauge events. The event and High Gun and Runner-up for each were:
.410 Bore: High Gun Chris Cox (24/30), Runner-up John Liles (22/30)
28 Gauge: High Gun John Liles (27/30), Runner-Up Chris Cox (26/30)
20 gauge: High Gun John Liles (26/30), Runner-Up Carvel Whaley, Parker (24/30)
16 Gauge: High Gun Chris Cox (26/30), Runner-Up Dave Fjelline, Parker (23/30)
Hopefully next year we’ll be able to muster greater participation in this wonderful vintage shotgun competition. The weather is usually great, the targets and venue are some of the best you’ll see, and the extracurriculars in the nearby coastal towns make for some great fellowship after the guns are put away for the day.