Pete Garcia (right) gave an award and $100 cash to Chuck Black for shooting 100-straight during the OSSA Championships last year at Arcadia.
KELLY BOSTIAN/Tulsa World
Chris Simmons received $100 for shooting 100-straight in doubles competition at the OSSA championship last year at Arcadia.
KELLY BOSTIAN/Tulsa World
Jake Ratcliffe received a $100 prize for shooting 100 straight in 12-gauge competition.
KELLY BOSTIAN/Tulsa World
Jeff Ratcliffe received a $100 prize for shooting 100-straight in 12-gauge competition.
KELLY BOSTIAN/Tulsa World
When you point a camera around at folks all day, the crowd tends to think you’re going to have a whole mess of pictures to share.
Typically I get more nothin’ than something. Not that I’m a bad shooter, but usually I’m trying to get a shot that’s hard to get or I’m shooting with video in mind.
I wanted to get a shot of a skeet shooter breaking a clay in dramatic fashion for this week’s Outdoors story on the Oklahoma State Skeet Association Championships held at the Tulsa Gun Club.
I got a few of ‘em … and I got a few dozen shots of guys shooting up in the air at what appears to be nothing. It’s tricky to catch a good solid target-break at 3.9 frames per second.
“Skeet stills” is the name of a file full of photos in my computer, most of which would not normally see the light of day, but people at the 2013 Oklahoma State Skeet Association Championships hosted by Tulsa Gun Club sure seemed to think I’d have a lot to share. I’ve got some, so why not? They all are cropped horizontally to fit our video format … apologies for that.
I think most people would more excited to learn what OSSA Director Pete Garcia said he decided to share, however.
Garcia thinks shooting a perfect 100 score in a skeet tournament should be worth something more than a hat with a thousand holes in it. Tradition has it that the first time a gunner hits 100-straight they throw their hat in the air for a gauntlet of gunners to christen the thing – and that’s a one-time thing. Some shooters hit 100s fairly regularly with little or no fanfare.
So, Garcia announced at the 2013 Oklahoma State Skeet Association Championships, he will be giving a plaque and a crisp $100 bill to those OSSA members who achieve the feat in OSSA tournaments. He announced the first six awards, for 2012 shooters, at the annual banquet last weekend. Top shooters this year will get their $100 bills next at next August’s meeting.
Garcia, an OSSA officer long involved in local shooting sports, said he just wanted to give something back to the sport that has done so much for him over the years. “This is an award I’m sponsoring myself, personally, because I wanted to give something back to the organization that I truly enjoy being around shooting and meeting all you guys,” he said. “It’s not going to cost the OSSA any money, it’s something I’m doing personally.”
A shooter could win up to seven awards each in HOA and HAA, up to $1,400 total in a lifetime.
It is a once-in-a-lifetime deal, however, so the shooter who scores a 100 in the 12-gauge round gets $100 from Pete, but it’s only good that one time. Next time the shooter will need to shoot 100 in another category.
“If you shoot a 4-by-4 you’ll get an award for that, and $400 cash. If you shoot a 5X5, you get an award for that, and you’ll get $500,” he said.
That’s some great incentive to shoot straight.
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