Dylan Thompson: How a 21-Year-Old Shoots the World's Toughest Targets and Wins Big

[00:00:09] You are listening to Shotgun Sports USA. From elite competitors to dedicated hunters, from industry leaders to legendary gun clubs, we bring you the voices, the moments, and the pure excitement of shotgun sports like never before. Shotgun Sports USA is proudly brought to you by Alamo Sporting Arms, your trusted source for premium shotguns, shooting gear, and expert support for clay target shooters.

[00:00:34] Clay Target Vision, performance shooting eyewear designed to help you see targets sharper, faster, and with confidence. Pro-Matic Traps, reliable, precision-built clay target machines trusted by clubs, ranges, and shooters around the world. Briley, premium choke tubes, shotgun services, and custom craftsmanship built to help shooters perform at their best. Castellani USA, Italian-designed shooting vests, apparel, and accessories,

[00:01:04] made for comfort, durability, and competition-level performance. In this episode, I talk to rising sporting clays star Dylan Thompson, whose rapid climb through the ranks has been fueled by hard work, confidence, and a whole lot of laughs along the way. We talk about how he got started in shooting, the coaching that helped him take it to the next level, the pressure of competing against the best shooters in the world, and what it takes to stay sharp when every target counts. Dylan also shares stories about life at the gunfire,

[00:01:38] gun club, the role that social media has played in the gunfire, and a few entertaining moments will make you laugh. Dylan, what's up, man? What's up, buddy? Well, I'm just sitting here, thought I'd call you and do an episode with you, and we got to talking, and I said, look, we got to push the record button, because if we don't, we'll forget to talk about this stuff. So, let's start here. Let's start here. For the people that don't know you, tell them who Dylan Thompson is. Well, I'm Dylan Thompson. I've been shooting since 2018.

[00:02:14] Got my first registered target in 2021. 2024 Seminole Cup champion. 2026 World English Junior World Champion. Florida State champion last year. Master first at the Jack Links Cup. Team USA. When? When was that Jack Links Cup? This year? 2026. Okay. Master first. 2026 Team USA Junior Sporting. 2025 Team USA.

[00:02:44] Junior FITAS team. Man. I remember when I saw you for the first time, and I didn't know you, and I didn't think you could shoot. I don't think I can either sometimes. Well, no. I mean, it's not anything bad. It's just like, for some reason, when I saw you, you were just a shooter. And now, you're at the top of everything. I mean, you did something right. Yeah. You know, so. You're lucky every once in a while.

[00:03:14] So, how did you get into it? How did you get into Sporting Clays? So, in 2018, I changed schools. So, I was in a public charter school in Covington for, I think, first grade through seventh grade. My eighth grade year, I switched to a private school in Monticello, Georgia. It's Piedmont Academy, and they had a shooting team. And I thought it would be cool, interesting. So, I went out there and tried it.

[00:03:40] So, the first thing I started this on was trap, just 16-yard line trap. I shot a four. I vividly remember this. It was hard to get through the first year of that because it was different. It was hard. It was something I wasn't used to because I'd never played sports growing up.

[00:03:58] It was never something that I was interested in. So, I get through the first year with the school, really enjoy it by the end of it. And then I signed up for SCTP, shot with Lake Oconee's shotgun team. And then I finished shooting for the school in 2022. I won the GISA state championship my final year. Finished SCTP in 2023. And I was runner-up at Nationals in Marengo, Ohio, my last year there.

[00:04:28] And I've been shooting registered targets since 2021. Punched up to master class, I believe, in 2022 at the Gator Cup at Cherokee Rose. You must have caught on to it pretty fast. Yeah. I just found my niche. I was never one to shoot trap or never one to shoot skeet. I was always one that wanted to shoot sporting clays.

[00:04:47] So, I think the question that everybody wants to know, really, and before we get into the show, is where you shop for your shorts. I think that they want to know what your inseam is and where you buy your shorts. So, the beginning of this year and into last year, I was wearing between a three and a half inch and a four inch inseam. Did you, like, look for that size? Yeah.

[00:05:17] So, look, I got to explain the backstory. Okay. So, in April of last year, I was about 200 pounds. I cut all that down. Mm-hmm. In July of last year, I was about 165. So, when I hit 165, I was like, okay, I can start dressing more like, you know, a little bit more freely. Like girls. Yeah. If you want to put it that way. Yeah. So, now I'm down to 155 now. So, but most people think I buy my shorts at Baby Gap.

[00:05:48] That is not true. I buy them on Amazon. So, how is it when you shoot FITAS? Do they, like, say, look, you can wear a dress that's that short, but you can't wear shorts that's that short? Shockingly, nobody's ever said anything because I don't think they would expect anything different from me. So, are you going to continue to wear these shorts or are you going to buy longer ones? No, I'm still going to wear them. Okay. Because people say something. They talk about it. You know what I mean? Well, at least I give them something, you know, decent to talk about.

[00:06:17] It doesn't bother you, does it? No, I like to be a topic of conversation. So, all right. We'll move on from that. Now that we got that out of the way, I'm sure a lot of people really wanted to know the answer to that. You know what I mean? I'm sure they did. So, didn't you just turn 21? I did. I turned 21 at this year's championship. You have a girlfriend, too, that was with you. I do. That's my girlfriend. Yeah. Yeah. So, you were doing pretty good at the shooters championship. I did.

[00:06:46] I shot very well for the most part. And then you turned 21 and came back the next day. And then what happened to you? You like fell off? Did you get drunk? What did you do? Drink or something? Shocking revelation here. I actually did not get drunk the night I turned 21. Strictly because I knew I had an event to win. Basically what happened. So, I get out there that morning. This is Saturday night. I'm sitting there. I feel good. I feel ready now. I go to sleep. Wake up the next morning.

[00:07:14] I'm just laying there looking at the ceiling like, I don't think I should do super sporting. Because I didn't want to use all of my energy on super sporting to go out to the main and suck. But I was like, I'm shooting it with Mike. I'm shooting it with Brad. It's going to be fun. So, when I shot it, shot 99 in it. I was like, okay, I feel really good for today. I feel the best I've felt all weekend. Everything's great. I go out to the main event. Hit the first station. There's nothing to it. It's two crossers. I dutched my last one.

[00:07:43] And it was at that point, as soon as that station was over, all the pressure from the weekend just hit at one point. So, you folded? I folded. I didn't fold as bad as I normally do, but I folded. Well, I don't think you fold bad. You might fold a little, but... I used to fold. Well, you can't be at the top where you're at and fold. So, folding is this. I went to the tournament at the Meadows two-day tournament one time and shot 91 in 66.

[00:08:13] That's folding. Like, I don't know what happened. I think my gun fell apart. You know, that's like... I don't know. That might just be failing, not folding. You don't do that. So, I have. So, we were shooting nationals last year. This was before I had made the super squad. So, I bought into it. I shot with Mike Wilgus, Wendell, Corey, and Austin Keemstead. Yeah. We had a great weekend.

[00:08:41] So, me and Mike were shooting great the whole time. We're neck and neck the entire time. By the end of day three, I'm down four birds from him and he's in the lead already. So, I'm only down two from... I think Brandon was behind him. So, I'm only down two from Brandon, from Geben, whoever else. I don't remember who all was there. And I hit the last day and I feel good.

[00:09:04] But being out there on the last day of nationals in the super squad with everyone sitting there watching you, it was completely different than anything I'd ever experienced. But I... We shot the green course, which was the hardest course. I think I shot like a 56. It just... I couldn't get nothing to work that day. It was... Yeah. I've been on the super... I'm not shooting on the super squad. But we've been out there on the super squad. And yeah.

[00:09:34] If you're not used to some pressure, that super squad will put you in some pressure. And, you know, coming into that point, I had won main events. I've won two-day mains. I've won tournaments, events. I've won all this. But getting out there was... It was nothing like I had ever experienced before. The pressure is real. I mean, you know... It's undeniable. Yeah. When you started out shooting, what was something to overcome? You said you shot a four in trap.

[00:10:03] What did you have to overcome in order to get any better? What did you do? I had to try to lose the fear of failure starting out. So I was going to play basketball when I was really little in kindergarten. And we went to the first practice. And I didn't make all of them. So I quit. You didn't... Because you didn't make the practice? No, because I only made one goal at practice. And I shot it like 20 times. I only made one. I got mad and quit.

[00:10:31] So you want to make every goal when you shoot? Mm-hmm. I want... So the goal in everything I've done my entire life has always been, I want to be the best at everything I do. And starting out shooting, I wasn't the best. But I got old enough at this point to realize I'm going to actually have to work at it. I'm not just going to be able to show up out here and be the best. So what do you think has made you get or be successful as quick as you have?

[00:11:00] Is it coaching? Is it the number of rounds you've shot? Is it... What is it? I would say it's a little bit of everything. So I would put a lot of emphasis on my coaching. I have a really, really great coach in Kevin DeMichael behind my back that pushes me through everything. He's made me into the shooter that I am today. He's molded me into who I am now.

[00:11:24] But also, I've shot hundreds of thousands of rounds at every distance, every target, everything. Anything you can imagine, I've shot at it. All right. So let's back up a minute. So Kevin's made you the shooter that you are. Tell me how or what he's done to take you to that next level. What I really like about Kevin and his coaching and how it's really helped me was he puts a heavy emphasis on all the little things.

[00:11:55] So if there's a move I'm putting on a bird that's working, but it can be a little bit better, he's going to tell me, hey, tweak this, do this. Now try it. And it's always going to work better. And the way that I've always learned is if I'm shown how to do it and it works, it sticks with me. So all the little tweaks that he's given me over time, all the little things he has told me have stuck. And now in any position where I don't know what to do, I can think back on that and get through it.

[00:12:22] So you would give him all the credit for the success you've had here recently, I guess. Yes, 100% of it. Would you say that when you started working with him that you had areas that were not as good as they are now? Yes. What are those? Like, give me an example. So a lot of them were moves I would put on targets. Very heavily on that. So my moves on targets were really good, but they could be sharpened a lot to where they

[00:12:51] were a lot better than average, but they were still not quite at the platform they needed to be at to really be successful with it. So when I started with Kevin, my average was probably 90, maybe probably 88, 90 on any course. Then after about six months to a year working with Kevin, it went up to about 94, 95. Now on most courses, it's sitting about 97, 99 in that range. That's crazy.

[00:13:21] I don't know how you get on a course and you only miss three or one or whatever it is like that. Just a lot. There's, there's, there's several pros and several guys that do that, but I just, I guess because I've never done it, I don't get out. You know, it would bother me. I'd be on, on the station 12 out of 15 and I'm down three and I dropped the rest of the, I drop all the targets just because I'm worried about it. You know, one thing that Kevin always told me that helped me overcome that mentally, that

[00:13:50] pressure of finishing on a big number has always been not being intimidated by anything, no matter what they throw out there. So I take a 10 yard crosser with no spring to the same weight that I would hold a 70 yard income or a 70 yard tower bird. It all weighs the same to me. So I don't get scared by any of it. So I can all approach it the same with a calm mind and not have any concern about, okay, if this doesn't work, what do I do now?

[00:14:17] Everything just flows a lot better when I'm not scared of. You work at a gun club, right? Yes, sir. I manage it. Which, what is the name of that gun club? Burnt Pine. I manage the sporting clays. Are you setting the targets there? I am. Yes. Okay. So do you, I mean, being that you are able to work at that place, are you shooting it a lot for like practice or are you setting targets that you don't normally, you know, that you need to work on? What do you do? Yes.

[00:14:45] So anytime I'm free and I don't have much to do at home or I just want to go shoot, I'll go over there. And if there's a certain bird I want to practice that I don't have set at that moment, we have a fee task parkour that I'll go out there and set that on. But most of the time, if like this most recent reset, we had just gotten off the Southeast regional and those were hard targets. So I set one of our courses that has four throwers.

[00:15:11] I set the A and B really easy for, you know, the charity shooters, just the casual people. And I set the C and D birds to a really extreme set just in preparation for me the rest of the season for the regional at Northbrook, just to, and anyone else who would come over there that's going to be traveling just to give them variety of targets. They might see if they go somewhere that's known to throw big stuff. And another thing that really helps is being able to work on the machines and learning how

[00:15:39] to move them to get them to do exactly what you want. It does have an effect on you shooting targets in a tournament. So I can look at any thrower right now, look at the spring on it, look at the tilt, see how far it's tilted back in the distance. And I can always get a rough, rough idea of exactly what that target is going to do. So I have a read off that bird before it comes out basically. So when you go, and I've, I've, I've asked this in the past couple episodes I've done, you think confidence is something that you really have to have in order to do well?

[00:16:07] I, yes, a thousand percent. And you're confident when you've practiced what you've practiced and shoot how you shoot and you go to a tournament, then it's, uh, it makes it a whole lot easier. You know? Yes, it does. Having confidence in my own ability after seeing what happens in practice can make the following tournament a thousand times easier. Yeah. I was going to ask that. So, you know, preparing for a big tournament, are you just as confident mentally as you are physically with a gun?

[00:16:34] I would say most of the time. Yes. But every once in a while, you'll have a little hiccup to where you'll slip in confidence mentally. And that can very easily lead to a reaction of missing more and more to where if I'm confident in the gun, if I'm confident in me and I'm confident in the gun, it's a completely different world than if I'm only confident in one part of that. What's an example of you not being confident mentally?

[00:17:03] After the world this year, I got put in the pro squad, which like we talked about before, the shooting in the pro squad is a completely different type of pressure than anything. And right now, so the Southeast Regional is only my second tournament in the pro squad. It's still learning to be confident in that environment where you're surrounded by world champions, national champions, regional champions, everything, and still being able to compete and hang with those kind of people.

[00:17:29] Because it's so easy to let your confidence slip whenever you see like Derek, watching Derek shoot a bird. Whenever you see Derek center punch a 70 yard tower bird or something ridiculous, it's so hard to not be confident when you go up there and chip it or you miss it. It's so easy to lose confidence in that environment. You know, you get up there, you shoot, you're in a pro squad, you shoot and miss. So you Dutch a pair in front of all of these Derek's and guys that have won everything.

[00:17:59] That's gotten away mentally on you though. Oh dude. You know, like, like I look like an idiot, you know, it's exactly how it feels. So what do you do? Do you like think, I got to, I got to hit these next ones. I'm more like a fuck. I'm more like a fool. Like, yeah, yes, exactly that. That's the way I would be like, you know, I would, if I was shooting all those guys and I'm in a squad with Derek, Zach and whoever, Gavin, and they're all up there. They run the station. I get up there and miss three. You know, I'd be like, all right, let's just go on to the next one.

[00:18:29] You know, it would just bother me. And then the next one, I wouldn't want to talk to anybody because I'm still embarrassed from the one before. And that's mentally what makes you miss the next station. Yes, exactly. And I'm still going through that right now. What's the toughest course you've ever been on? Okay. Toughest like main event course I've ever been on is still to this day, the 2022 U.S. open at Backwoods. And the toughest just single event that I've ever shot was the pro challenge at the regional. So what made that, what, all right.

[00:18:57] So I think we've talked about Rick's targets at the U.S. Open back then. What about the pro challenge? What made those targets different? What made that pro challenge so hard to me was the fact that usually in a tournament, if you shot a really hard station, the next one wouldn't be as bad and it would feel a lot more manageable. What made that pro challenge so hard was every station except for one, it never let up.

[00:19:25] It was just hard, hard, just long, deceiving, fast, just mean. Doug has thrown some down there at Quail Creek. You know, when they had the, I think it was the first Jack Links. I mean, from all I can remember, it was really stiff. It was. And I guess he's eased off over the years. So he's eased off a little bit, but he's, he ain't scared to throw you something. All right. So let's talk about that. Jack, Jack Links, which course do you like better?

[00:19:54] Joe Skulls or Doug Vines? Doug Vines. So Doug Vine normally throws longer stuff, I think. And Joe Skull throws more technical stuff. I've always been more partial to length and just sheer distance than I have been, you know, 30 yards full edge dropping as soon as it comes out of the trap. Well, you need, you need to be worried about length on them shores. All right.

[00:20:28] So what, what shooter has, uh, has pushed you to be better than you are? So it's Kevin. Cause you know, he's my coach. He's always behind me. He's, he wants me to be the best that I can possibly be. And he's pushing that back constantly. The other one's Mike Wilkins. Let's talk about when you're not shooting. So say you want to take a break. What are you going to do to have fun? I'll go play golf. Is that similar to shooting? Very. It's very similar in a lot of aspects.

[00:20:58] Cause if you, if you break both of those, if you break both of them down to a fundamental level, they're almost identical. Well, I don't play golf. Don't know what you're talking about, but tell me how, how do you, how are you comparing those? So, so in shooting a lot of the game is based off your fundamental mechanics. The way you move the gun, how you approach the target, what you're going to do with it. Golf is the same way. It's the swing.

[00:21:24] It's the swing you put on the club, the way you want to move the ball, where you want the ball to go. Everything's pretty identical in that manner. And then you have the mental side of it. The mental aspects of both games are almost identical. Uh, if you had to go play a tournament right now, golf and go shoot a tournament, which one are you going to be better at? Shooting. It wouldn't be as big of a gap as most people would think. I think it's pretty cool. I think golf is really cool. Uh, if I don't have to watch it and I don't have to play it.

[00:21:54] See, I love watching it. Like, like we watch the masters, right? Everybody watches the masters regardless if you like golf or not. But there's something about golf. My son loves to play it, but I just, I can't, I can't get into it. It takes too long. It's like shooting a feet ass with a bunch of old people. That's, that's just hell. I'm telling you, man, that's why I don't like feet ass. It just takes too long. Takes too long. Like it takes you six hours to shoot a hundred targets. Dude. It's awful.

[00:22:23] When we were at Georgia state before that, the big storm rolled in the heavy one on, I think it was Thursday. We had, it was on Friday. It was on Friday. We had, we had just finished everything. We're on a last parkour. One of our dudes had finished. We had the pairs left and the downpour started. And they pulled us off the course and told us to come back at eight o'clock the next morning.

[00:22:51] So I had to go out there the next day at 8 a.m. when I shot at like two 30 to go shoot four birds. Did you hit them all? No, I missed one. Do you think you would have hit them all if you could have shot them right then though? No. Okay. I think it would have been about the same. So why are you complaining about that? Cause I had to get up early. What else do you like to do? So, so, all right, let me just, for everybody listening, I don't think I've ever really cared on a conversation with you. Like wave to you. You know, I don't really know you to care.

[00:23:21] Maybe one or two. Yeah. Not, not a whole lot. So I don't know a whole lot. So I'm jumping around a little bit because I don't, I don't know the answer to any of this stuff. What is up? What is a practice day like for you in shooting? Is it, how do you balance work, shooting, going to tournaments? How do you, how do you do all that? It's hard. It's really hard, but I have a really good opportunity at work where I have all of my tournament days off.

[00:23:45] And then if I want a day to go practice, to go get a lesson, to go shoot with Kevin, I can take either a whole day or a half a day off. Yeah. So you can practice. Yeah. You're lenient. Yeah. Okay. They're very lenient. What was somebody find interesting about you? Well, my whole life revolves around shooting and golf and we've covered both of those. So anything else, anything else would be interesting.

[00:24:16] We found out where you shot for your shorts, you know, how you're going to Portugal though, right? No, I'm not. Oh. So me and my parents have a deal worked out that the only way I can travel, travel internationally. Unfortunately, is if I make the corresponding team for that event. So I've never been to EJ Churchill and I went to Cyprus last year since I made the junior fee test team. But you could still go. You could still go. I could still go. But I don't like international travel.

[00:24:44] Let's talk about the regional at Northbrook. I'm excited. How have you prepared for that? So Brett is known for throwing just hard, mean, long, fast, deceiving, just nasty birds. He's known for it. Every big tournament he's ever thrown over there has been that way.

[00:25:05] So that's what I've been practicing for at least the past probably three weeks is just mean targets. That's why I have the course set at work right now, just mean, nasty. There's barely any birds inside 40 yards on that course. And they're all turned up. That's how you got to get ready for Northbrook. That's a, I love that place. I love Northbrook. It's one of my favorite clubs. It is. It is. It's a, it's a super nice place.

[00:25:35] Um, and when you go up there, you can ask Brett to see a snake collection. Do I really want to do it? He collects snakes. I want to ask him when I go, but I've, the past few times I've wanted to ask him, Hey, let me see all your snakes. But he's so busy. I never asked him, but yeah, he's got, he like has a huge collection of snakes. I don't like snakes. I don't either. I'd rather kill them and look at them. But I mean, it's pretty cool for somebody to, to have snakes.

[00:26:04] I mean, you know, they're all non-poisonous. Oh, that's boring. You at least want one to snap at you, don't you? Yeah. Where's the fun and collecting of that's not dangerous? Well, I think it's just, I don't know. I think it's King snakes that he likes something like that. I don't know. Yeah. What is the biggest misconception about sporting clothes in your opinion? You think people think it's easy?

[00:26:34] A bunch of people think it's easy. Like, did I think it's easy before they shoot it or? Before. What? Okay. Okay. Because most people that I've ever heard say it's easy either don't know what they're getting themselves into or they're the dudes that have one of those hand throwers. They shoot with their grandpa's automatic grandpa's 20 gauge pump. Yeah. Or the ones that just have those cheap throwers from Walmart or Academy. They don't know what you can do with a clay target. That's probably true. That's probably the best answer you could have for that.

[00:27:03] People do think it's easy. It might look easy, maybe, I guess. It looks a lot easier than it is most of the time. Yeah. What do you think that we can do? Speaking of that, the people that think it's easy, what do you think we could do to grow the sport any? It's growing, but what do you think we could do better to grow the sport? So they've done a lot better about it recently, but I remember when I first started, there was not much guaranteed money in it.

[00:27:30] And I've always been a firm believer that if you put money into an event, people are going to naturally flock to that. Yeah. That's why the Jack links cups, the biggest term of the year, basically outside of nationals is because the amount of money in that and how deep it goes. Well, the shooters championships big too. Your championships, same way. I was told the other day, tell me if you agree with this, that they believe

[00:27:58] only 1% of the shooters that shoot are worried about how much money they can win. So if there's 1500 people that are shooting, 1% of those are worried about the money. I don't know. Cause I've always, as long as I've been shooting, I've always been worried about the money. So I'm going to have, I'm going to, what I'm going to do. And I don't know if that's true or not.

[00:28:27] I mean, you have to think about that for a minute. You know, I don't know. Is 1% worried about the money? I know that all of the top 10 guys worry about the money, maybe top 20 guys. And, and, and I think that when you go down, go down in class, go down to D class at Jack links, they're worried about the money. I would say that's probably true. That only 1% worried about it. Cause then you have most of the other masses are either don't care about the money and

[00:28:55] just want to have fun, have enough of it. That doesn't matter to them or they're just there. So I, you know, that was a kind of interesting thing that I heard the other day. I was like, well, I don't know. Let's think about that for a minute. Cause I'm not worried about the money. And I reason I'm not worried about the money. Cause I know I can't win the money. I mean, I can't, you know, I don't shoot enough to worry about that. I shoot, I go, I do that to have fun with my kids or my, my son that shoots. Yeah. And just go hang out with people. So I'm not worried about the money. I am worried about the money.

[00:29:25] I'm 21 years old. I need it. Yeah. Well, I mean, I understand. Even I remember in, uh, the Southeast regional at the Meadows, what year was that? 21. That was my first, that was like one of my first tournaments I ever went to. I was in B class or no, was I in D I was in D. I was in D class. And I've straightly remember the entire weekend. The only thing I was worried about was the guaranteed payouts. Did you win any?

[00:29:54] I won like $1,200. I was so excited. I didn't realize that $1,200 would become what it is today. Yeah. Well, if you're in, you know, for the majority, if you're in this to make money, you're probably not going to work out for you. No, it won't. Just need to have a good time. You know, just. It's got to be fun before anything. So how were you in D class? So it was in 21. I would have been 16, 15, 16. All right. So what? Yeah. 16.

[00:30:24] So what advice would you give a 16 year old right now to say starting out just like you did and that wants to compete at a higher level? What's, what's some advice to give them? Don't give up. Because it gets really easy to when you start getting the higher classes, especially when you hit master. It's so easy to feel like that at a certain point, you're just not going to be able to compete at that level. And the most important thing to do is just keep grinding it out. Keep going after it and just not ever give up on that.

[00:30:55] Like how much do you think someone should really put into it? Like every day shooting, practicing every once a week. I mean. If you're not a natural shooter and you can't hang on to it as well, I would say at least four, four times a week, four or five. Don't keep score. Just burn shit. Go shoot. Go shoot. Worry about the fundamental basics of it and just grind it. Yeah.

[00:31:25] So, all right, let me ask you this. Someone wanting to get into it, how would you convince them to give it a try? Sporting clays. Well, it depends on the person. If you tell some country boy that we're going to go out here and shoot guns all day, they're going to be all over it. Yeah. But if it's not, and it's some, if it's not someone like that and it's someone different, it's going to be a little bit harder. They need to be, it's going to be a fun experience.

[00:31:55] You're going to have a good time. It's going to be heartbreaking at moments, but it gets a lot easier the more you do it. All right, here, let's, let's, let's do something fun. I guess you'd say, what is your favorite target presentation that you know you're going to mash every time you see it? Quartering away Batuu. Put, put another one with it. Put a pair. Put a batuu on a belly crosser. It really doesn't matter how far away or how fast it is. That's a confident bird for me.

[00:32:25] If you shoot a belly crosser or a dome crosser, do you find that they're the same to shoot? No. I don't. I don't. I didn't think so. Yeah. I didn't think, I didn't think so either. How do you think they're different? So a lot of that goes back onto the presentation of the trap. So like, like working with, working with a trap, learning how to throw dome crosses, learning how to throw belly crossers.

[00:32:52] They're so fundamentally different that it's hard for me now to approach them as if they're the exact same. They can be thrown the exact same way, but they're still different. And it's so much harder to pick out detail for me on a dome crosser. Cause I can't see the ridges. I've never been able to, but if it's thrown belly, I can see the orange outline around it and it kind of, it's like a highlighter going through there. All right. What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you during a competition? Besides, besides getting fun of, been made fun of about shorts. I mean, that's where I was going with this. It's hard.

[00:33:21] It's hard to go besides that when that's entirely what I hear at every tournament. So it'll be something else. Oh, but this one's funny. So this was the Seminole cup when this was this year when Connor won it. So I was sitting there talking to miss Cindy about something and some kid had lost like one of those like squishy stress balls, whatever they were. It was sitting in front of my foot and I didn't see it. And she looked down. So it was right under you?

[00:33:50] Yeah, it was right under me. It was right beside my right foot. And she looked down and she pointed down there and said, Dylan, look, did one of your nuts fall out? So that was a top 10 most embarrassing moment in my life for me. There's no way they would have fell out of those shorts or too tight. There's no way. That's what people don't understand. That's what they always say. They're physically too tight for anything to fall out. Give me a tournament that's on your bucket list. I want to shoot the world in, DJ. I've never been over there.

[00:34:17] I want to go experience at one time and I want to go to when World Feed Task was in Hungary. I want to go there. I want to go to Italy and shoot a tournament. I want to go to France and shoot a tournament. There's really no other tournaments in America that are on a bucket list for me because I feel like I've shot almost all of them. Everything I want to do now is overseas. And the Eaton Hall in England just had the Top Gun shootout for the Top Gun tournament.

[00:34:46] I want to go to shoot that. You think you can run with them boys over there in England? I think I could give them a run. There's some good ones. Mark Windsor. They are. Mark's really good. He is. Richard Foulds, Digweed. I've shot with Richard. I've shot with Richard and Digweed. They're really nice. Richard might be the smoothest shooter I've ever seen. He is. Every time I think I'm smooth and then I see a video of him shooting, it just makes me feel obsolete.

[00:35:16] And he can shoot trap. He don't shoot fours on trap. No. He don't shoot fours. No. So what goals are you working towards over the next few years? I mean, it's probably what I would expect to hear you say, but let's just see what they are. It's probably exactly what everyone would expect me to say. So since I started this, really got into shooting competitive, the only things I've wanted to that I really want to do is I want to win the World English.

[00:35:41] I want to win the World Fee Task, win the U.S. Open, win nationals, and win as many regionals as I can. So you want to be the baddest person on earth. That's exactly what I want to be. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. There's people that's done it. Anthony. Anthony. Yeah. I'll tell you something that I think you do very well with. It all have nothing to do with shooting kind of, but not really. I think you're really good on social media. Thank you. Or you used to be.

[00:36:10] I mean, posting about things, tagging your sponsors, social medias. I think it's. Social media was really big for me in growing. And Kevin. So Kevin was my coach a long time ago. And then I left him for a little bit. Then I came back. Kevin's the one that got me into it originally. Mm-hmm. Because he told me I needed to do this. Because I wanted sponsors. I wanted people to see what I was capable of doing. So he's the one that got me into it.

[00:36:37] And then there it just kind of snowballed into what it had become today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's. Especially any young person. I think it's super important to be on social media. I don't know about Facebook. But surely Instagram. I think it's completely necessary. Yeah. And that's in anything. Yeah. I mean, if you want to answer in this industry, in any industry, you almost have to have it. Yeah. You have to be able to market yourself to an audience. I'll tell you who's really good at it. It's Cameron Hicks.

[00:37:07] Cameron's got really good at it. With the ShotKam videos. That. I mean, those hunting videos. His dog. I mean, he is really good. His page has really grown. It's blown up. But yeah. It is. But that's super important to be able to post about it. You know. So who are your sponsors? I know you got sponsors. Who are they? So recently I picked up Clay Target Vision. Nice. I know who they are. Clay Target Vision. ESP. Castellani USA.

[00:37:37] Sponsored by Sitka. Pure Gold Chokes. Manly Trailers. And I'm friends with the people at Master Class Ammo. So they helped me out a little bit. I met Jack. Jack Clower. He was shooting at the squad ahead of us. In Super Sport in Georgia State. And you want to talk about a funny dude. Jack's funny. Like he is funny. Like we had a good time. And so Jack is also sponsored by Cole Gunsmithing with me.

[00:38:08] Yeah. And St. Clair Power Sports. I noticed she got you a good looking Ranger or whatever it is. Can-Am, whatever it is. I love that thing. Yeah. You know, I was talking about that the other day at Georgia State. When it was raining like it was, I'm like, I hate it for these people who don't have doors. I always, like always. And it's like any terminal we're at. Even when I have to be in a golf cart. It just makes me feel worse for the people that don't have an enclosed cab to go hide in when it starts pouring. Or when it's really hot. It's awful. When you shoot bad. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:38] It's so much easier to go throw a fit in the Polaris than it's in the golf cart. All right. Did you used to throw a fit when you was young? I still do. They've just gotten a lot better. They're just not as bad as they used to be. They're not to the same extreme. So you'll throw them and they'll bounce out of the trash can? Or do they just stay in the trash can now? They stay in there now. They don't bounce out anymore. Okay. Yeah. I don't throw them anymore. Sometimes. You don't? I don't throw them when I'm mad.

[00:39:07] I throw them when I'm really like, when I'm really amped up and excited. I don't know why you haven't been on a podcast yet. I mean, I feel that we could really, I think that I could really get you to say some stuff you probably shouldn't say. And you'd be okay with it. It's really easy. Yeah. I don't have a filter. I just say what comes to my head. That's the way I guess I would be. I mean, if I was you, you know. Well, how do people find you on social media? Put your name in? Yes.

[00:39:35] My Instagram is Dylan Thompson Clays. What if somebody wants to sponsor you? How do they get a hold of you? Dylan Thompson Clays? Yeah. They can message me on Instagram or sometimes people just give me their phone numbers or like give people my phone number. That's happened before. Either that or I'll. So if somebody, if you want somebody, if somebody wants to sponsor you, they can ask somebody for your number. Yeah.

[00:40:06] So for the people that's listening to this, Dylan's got a Christmas tree in the background here. And I've yet to figure out why it's still up. It looks like it's leaning a little bit. It is. It's a little lopsided. It is. I don't want to take it back down to the basement. It's a long walk. So it just stays in the corner. Yeah. Well, I guess there's not. There's no Christmas ornaments on it. Well, something's on it. So I see lights. What else is on there? Uh, there's lights.

[00:40:34] There is a Coors Light can. A Coors Banquet bottle cap. A Diet Coke can. A can of Miller Lite. And a Miller Lite bottle cap. Oh. So, okay. Well, that's very thoughtful. It's a good way to decorate it, I guess. It's every, it's like most of the important things in my life on that tree. Yeah. Diet Coke. It's a small tree. Yeah. It's a small tree.

[00:41:05] Yeah. Dylan, I appreciate you coming on, man. We're going to do this again soon. We're going to do this again soon because I think we're going to get funny next time. Yeah. I like that. All right, buddy. Hey, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll holler at you later. All right, buddy. All right. See ya.