SSC Blog

The Social Shooting Club Web Log

Monday, November 7. 2011

Loss Of A Good Friend Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 08:29

Loss Of A Good Friend

On October 31 Joe Wilkins lost his long time friend and wife.

Candace Lang 1950-2011. Candace died on October 31 at 9:00 pm Eastern Standard time. She was a scholar, a teacher, an athlete, a loyal friend, an avid traveler, a person of consummate integrity, and a fierce defender of the concept of the separation of Church and State. She had a sparkling sense of humor and was a great lover of all things cute and fuzzy. She died exactly according to her wishes--in her own bedroom on Merry Lane in Atlanta, Georgia surrounded by family and friends with her two beautiful cats, Helena and Tiny, curled at her feet. Her husband, Joe Wilkins, her sister Cynthia Hollberg, her niece Michelle Hollberg and her dear friends Linda Demma and Cindy Lawless shared the high privilege of being with her at the end. She had lived with stage 4 non-small cell carcinoma for over two years, a survival time that puts her well above the 99th percentile of survival of this ghastly disease. Finally, however, this sinister affliction managed to skulk its way around the most sophisticated modes of treatment and take the life of this magnificent and inspiring individual. On November 1st the sun rose on a world that is much poorer for her loss.

Sunday, October 30. 2011

The Few, the Steel and Great Grand ... Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 15:24

The Few, the Steel and Great Grand Daddy

by Ben Cole

On the western fringes of the land that became the state of Georgia after the Redcoats left, a settlement was established. A free flowing Chattahoochee River was its southern boundary and the woods around it were still Indian country. Even its name sounded like revolution, Liberty Hill. The Strickland family had been granted much of this land and their kin kept it ever since. But there is still a tad of English flavor to place, at least in the sport that they invented, Sporting Clays.

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Sunday, March 6. 2011

Red Lights and Gray Skies by ... Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 17:00

Red Lights and Gray Skies by Ben Cole

I knew it would be a long ride to Floyd County and the plan for combining another shoot with Fort Payne the day before made sense, but the weather didn’t cooperate. The Alabama side of this double shoot was wisely canceled, but on Saturday evening the green and yellow swath on weather radar looked like the Floyd County event could meet the same fate.

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Monday, December 6. 2010

The Pegs and the Pub by Ben Cole Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 21:09

The Pegs and the Pub by Ben Cole

It is a long ride from Suwanee, Georgia to the British American Sporting Club in Crawfordville, Georgia but worth it. It would have been shorter if I had not taken the scenic route which included shooting a couple of rounds Saturday with the SSC at Elbert County Gun Club’s stone canyons with a barbeque lunch in between. But early the next morning after I rolled out, grabbed a banana and bowl of cereal at the motel’s breakfast bar and after one last check to make sure I didn’t leave my shotgun in my room, I got my rig in the road, and headed south. A half an hour later as the morning sun rose over the pines to the east, a road sign welcomed me to Wilkes County Georgia, a place with a lot of history. A few bridges and slow pickup trucks later I was almost there when I pulled up to a red light in downtown Washington, a town older than Georgia itself. Seems the Redcoats and locals tangled near here a while back, and a few decades later the Confederates convened. Continue reading "The Pegs and the Pub by Ben Cole"

Sunday, April 11. 2010

The Stone Canyon and the Trampoline Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 08:22

The Stone Canyon and the Trampoline

by Ben Cole

Everything thing was just right at the Elbert County Gun Club for first foray of the SSC into the heart of Georgia’s granite country. The early morning temperature was slightly crisp and quickly gave way to clear and mild sunshine that sparkled on the new spring leaves that bordered freshly close-mowed shooting fields. It was shirt sleeve warm by the start of the first round and the blue sky and thermostat stayed there all day.
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Sunday, February 7. 2010

Sunshine and Dropping Targets Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 08:27

Sunshine and Dropping Targets

By Ben Cole

I have it on good authority that the old Indian word Ocmulgee really means -Oh, crud, I shot over it - and there were enough diving shots on the course today to carry on that tradition. These challenges were prominent in the mix of targets thrown on a beautiful day that rewarded those hardy shooters who chanced wet and cold to get their fix on few smoked clays. One wonders how many others rolled out late to find sun shining and wished they had made the effort. It was a long haul for this shooter especially when I missed the new Hartley Bridge exit and had to go almost to Valdosta to turn around. But it was worth it, unlike last weekend my ungloved fingers didn’t go numb by the third pair.
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Sunday, January 31. 2010

A Cold Day at Cherokee Rose Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 10:00

A Cold Day at Cherokee Rose

By Ben Cole

My Bass Pro digital thermometer said it was 26.8 degrees outside. It was early Saturday morning, January 31, the day for the Social Shooting Club Shoot at Cherokee Rose. I finally crawled out of bed hoping that the weather babe, Dagmar Midcap was much too pretty to be accurate about frigid temperatures she predicted, but she was right on. It would be OK though, the sun would come up and it would be just toasty, I repeated as I shaved and wondered how many layers I would need. Regardless of the cold, I was going. After the shoot had been wisely delayed three times, Charlie made a hard call and I was going to be there if hell froze over…and it felt like it almost did.

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Thursday, October 1. 2009

Rafflemeister in Paris 2009-2010 Posted by Charles Deling in The Shoot Report at 19:35

Rafflemeister in Paris 2009-2010

Parcoursin Gonesse LaPlaine

First of all, let me assure you that the rumors that the Rafflemeister had drowned in a vat of slowly bubbling camembert are entirely falseâ€¦â€¦although I have had a few close calls!Â For those of you who were wondering if I have been able to do any shooting while I have been in France, my answer is, â€œAre you kidding?â€Â I have been out shooting parcours de chasse (FITASC) almost every weekend.Â I did not bring a gun to France this time, however, because I had read about a recent French law requiring all gun owners to have a gun safe in their homes.Â Well, as you might expect, our little apartment in le Marais does not have a gun safe, and I wasnâ€™t in the mood to spend $500 for a safe that I would only need for a year, so I arrived in the city of Paris unarmed. My French shooting club, The Ball-trap Club de Gonesse, fortunately, has upgraded their loaner guns from beat-up Rizinnis to beat-up Berettas and Brownings. Continue reading "Rafflemeister in Paris 2009-2010"