The newest member of the ShootClay team, Nick Truter took a trip to shoot The Seminole Cup in Florida, over the weekend of 21st to 23rd February.  This shoot has been popular with UK shooters in the past, and Nick was kind enough to write up his report and share his views on shooting the event.

Seminole Cup Friday

When you first arrive at Quail Creek Plantation (http://www.quailcreekplantation.com/) it takes a little while for the enormity of the complex to fully be appreciated. Maria and Fred Fanizzi run the facility and the pride that they, and their staff, take in ensuring that everyone in attendance has a great time is evident. The Seminole Cup is run by Shereen Fiorito; in the run up to the event she could not have been more helpful and booking everything up was a breeze. I knew that I started my first event at 8.30am so made sure that I was on site early as I still had shells to collect and wanted to ensure that I wasn’t rushing around unnecessarily.

The Phil Hughes Prelim was first up on my agenda; 100 targets on the red course starting at 8.30am. I was squadded with 5 Master Class shooters all of whom were friendly but exhibited an array of temperaments throughout the shoot; let’s just say that it was evident some thought that they should have shot better. Target wise things weren’t much different from back home, and although there were admittedly some softer targets out there, there were an equal amount of mid-range targets thrown with a bit of zip and needing some attention to detail.

The expanse of the course meant that my decision to acquire a golf cart was a shrewd one! I’d recommend it to anyone planning on visiting Quail Creek as there’s no gain to having to walk each course and tire yourself out whilst shooting. I was surprised by how nervous I was whilst shooting in the morning. It could have been a bit of jetlag and tiredness as I only flew in the night before, or it could have been the fact that I know it’s a good event to shoot; probably was a combination of all three. I finished on a disappointing 69; not shockingly off the pace but enough to make me realise what I needed to work on prior to shooting the Friday Prelim that afternoon.

Lunch was the highlight of my day thus far so after a couple of hours of relaxing in the air conditioned shop at Quail Creek I loaded up the cart and headed out to Station 7 of the Blue course to shoot. This time I was squadded with team USA member Wendell Cherry and four very entertaining Jamaicans; Gerry, Joey, Bobby and Damien. Wendell was the epitome of concentration throughout, although I doubt he was particularly pleased with how he shot finishing on an 88; the Jamaicans were about as relaxed as you can be whilst still taking it seriously as all of them were Master Class shooters!

I finished the Friday Prelim with an 83; enough to take the class win by 3 clear targets so knew that I was capable of performing in these conditions; the confidence boost and experience required prior to shooting the main event on Saturday and Sunday! Diego Duarte won the main event with a sterling 97; one ahead of Doug Vine who seems to be in a rich vein of form so far this weekend!

I’m just about to load up the Mustang and head off to Quail Creek for Saturday morning so will update you all later!

More to come…