Mike Luongo: Get ready 2024 is here

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[00:00:35] Clay Shooter Supply and Falcon Strike. Thanks for listening and remember to visit us online at ShotgunSportsUSA.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram. On with me today is a good friend of mine that has been around this sport for a long time.

[00:01:17] He's been on with me before and I always like his take on things. He's the general manager at Rocky Creek and a pretty good shooter to say the least. Welcome to the show, Mike Luongo.

[00:01:49] Mike, what you been up to man? I hadn't talked to you in a while. Man, all is good. Just been busy at work and you know, just non-stop. Hey, when I do talk to you, you're always eating. I texted you today. I said, hey man,

[00:02:05] just make sure you're not eating when I call. Hey man, it takes a lot of energy to keep going. So I'm like a snacker man here and there. You know, some good snacks. I can tell you that.

[00:02:15] That's right. You wearing them out. So anyway, what's been going on? What's been going on in the clay shooting world? The clay shooting world is all good. Kind of the off season. But you know, business is still good. We just had 735 kids last Saturday

[00:02:36] at our shoot for the South Carolina shoot and it was wild. It was sideways rain, about 38 degrees and what's crazy is 735 kids still showed up to shoot. It was wild. Now I've talked, maybe been you. I've talked to, talked about this on the show is South Carolina,

[00:02:59] one of the largest States you shooting? Yeah, it has to be for, uh, you know, one state. I think there's like over 1100, almost 1200 kids in the program now, one state. And what was this shoot for? Uh, they just, they do four qualifier shoots and

[00:03:17] then a state shoot. It was just one of their qualifier shoots, but man, I'm telling you, I couldn't believe that many showed up. I'm thinking we're going to lose half, you know, I think they had seven 62 signed up and we ended up having 735 scorecards turned in.

[00:03:35] It was wild. Wow. So that brings us to mind your place. Is it big enough to hold that many people with the buggies and everything? You know, Justin, that's a great question. We, that came up, uh, when everybody, you know, with bad weather. So in good weather, yeah,

[00:03:58] we can hold it. Um, in bad weather like that, uh, I think there's probably only 10 gun clubs in the country that can host it. You know what I mean? And we were prepped. I mean,

[00:04:11] we had four tractors on site, but if you look at my grounds right now, it looks like, uh, you had a mud fest there. You know what I mean? Yeah. What do you, I mean, what do you do to fix

[00:04:26] that? You just got to let it dry and fill in. Is that all you can do? Yeah. You know, let it dry and then drag it. You know what I mean? And then replant grass seed. I probably

[00:04:35] lost one whole field of grass. I think, you know, the guys on the mowers are probably happy about it, but you know, I wasn't too happy about it. Yeah. Are you, do you have any plans in the future to

[00:04:47] expand Rocky Creek or yeah, we're working on it. You know, my goal is, um, you know, to next to a regional, you know, we did a state shoot that was huge. Um, next goal is kind of to have a regional

[00:05:03] and, you know, kind of give somebody somewhere different, you know, uh, you know, then the same club it always goes to, but you know, most of these gun clubs are wired to have a shoot that

[00:05:15] big kind of we're on the verge and we purchased some land. So we're going to be big enough now to, to hold one, but I wanted to hold it right when we decided to do it, you know, uh, the

[00:05:27] business standpoint, you've got to say you've got a club big enough to hold a big regional or a, or whatever you have a big shoot like that. Uh, when it's that big during the off season,

[00:05:39] so to speak, or, or when you're not having that shoot, does it cost you a lot more money to have that running like that? Yeah, I would think from a, it depends on the club, right. And the location,

[00:05:51] but from a maintenance perspective, I mean, we personally mow 20 to 25 hours a week, just in grass, right? Whether it's in the middle of the summer when you're not that busy or you're

[00:06:05] in season, you know, you got to keep your grounds up. So it's, it's a lot. So there's a plus to it. And then there's also a minus to it, you know, just more stuff and more expense to keep up with

[00:06:17] a hundred percent. So is it more, is it more beneficial to have a place that is that big versus having one that's not that big then? Yeah. It all depends on your location. I know a lot of

[00:06:26] clubs that are small, but they do a great business because they're, you know, centrally located somewhere, you know, perfect with a lot of population. As far as us, we're very lucky. You know, we're in between Columbia and Charlotte and there's a, and we're right smack in the middle.

[00:06:43] So there's a lot of people to pull from not so much just NSCA shooters or just a lot of recreational shooters. I mean, we do a wild amount of recreational business during the week and

[00:06:56] all types of the year, you know? Yeah. You know, so since nationals, anything been going on that? Yep. Since a nationals and the kind of the last year I've kind of expanded my business. Um, a

[00:07:09] passion of mine has been selling guns, right? I've always loved to do it. I've been selling guns since I was a teenager. You know, I started selling just little semi-autos here and there,

[00:07:19] uh, for people at a local gun club and different shooters and stuff like that. And then I said, you know what? I kind of got away from it for a few years and then I really kind of amped it back

[00:07:32] up. Um, selling Kregoffs, Berettas, uh, DT11s, you name it. And I've kind of amped that thing up. I mean, I had a great year of gun sales and we're only getting better and growing every day.

[00:07:49] Just cause I think, you know, I bring a lot to the table on a gun sale. I'm not just, you know, a guy in a store that goes, Hey, you know, buy this gun because it looks pretty,

[00:07:58] man, you know, you're not that big, you know, you don't need 32 inch barrels. You know, this gun will work better for you. I'm just kind of honest with people of what they need and kind of what suits them the best. And I think that really helps the business.

[00:08:13] So you're a Kregoff dealer, right? Yes, sir. How many Kregoff dealers are there in the country? You know, there's not many, I don't know off the top of my head, but especially big ones. I mean,

[00:08:24] there's probably only 10 that actually sell a lot of volume. There's different rifle dealers and stuff like that. But as far as like target shotguns, you know, about 10. Yeah. And you've, do you have them in stock?

[00:08:39] Yeah, I'm starting to get them in stock. The crazy part about last year, everyone we got in was kind of sold or pre-sold. But we've got them in now and we kind of amped up our inventory. And, you know, we're selling them all the time.

[00:08:54] I'm really enjoying it because I've always been the product of Kregoff, you know, the brand man and shot him for years. And I've always sold them either, whether it was through other dealers.

[00:09:06] And one day I said, you know what, I want to do this thing on my own and it's been good. I hope to expand it even more. Did I read Facebook? Maybe that you, you're like, are you the team manager or something like that for Kregoff?

[00:09:20] Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, you, so I don't know about, I don't know, two years ago, Alex, you know, deal the CEO of Kregoff is good friend of mine. And I said, Alex,

[00:09:32] you know, what kind of inspired me was Baretta's team, to be honest with you, like solid team. I watched those guys and like their team unity. And I said, man, we need something like that,

[00:09:42] um, to kind of get our team together. I think we've got the talent and the shooters. We just don't have, I don't know, I don't know the right word for it, but like the unity,

[00:09:51] uh, when everybody to kind of, you know, roll on the same page and Alex looked at me and he goes, yeah, you're the perfect guy for that job. So that's how it happened. I go great. So I kind of,

[00:10:02] you know, so it's your job to pick or choose who you want on the team. Really? I guess. Yeah. I mean, I just kind of bring who I think does a good job and the talent to the

[00:10:12] table and, you know, ultimately it's Alex and, you know, Dieter's and Betty's decision. But, um, I kind of make recommendations and, you know, watch shooters by talking to them and being at the

[00:10:24] shoots and, you know, not really go after anybody per se, just, man, this guy's shooting really well. You know, how do you like a Kregoff, you know, and just talk to him and, you know, go from there.

[00:10:37] Now you must be selling used guns also or trade ends because you've called me on a couple of DTs before. Oh yeah. So you're, you're, you're stocking the used ones or the trade ends.

[00:10:48] Yeah, I do consignments. I do a lot of trade ends tomorrow. I have a guy coming from your state, Georgia, you know, and he's bringing a gun in to trade towards the Kregoff. So nice. Yeah. We take

[00:10:59] in trade ends, you name it. Cause there's, you know, there's a gun for everybody. I'm not just selling one brand. Um, I try to get the, you know, the customer or the client what they need,

[00:11:10] you know, for specifically for them. Yeah. Um, are you still, have you been coaching over the, I guess the winter months if that's what you want to call it? Yeah. Um, a lot cause that's kind of

[00:11:24] our you shooting season per se that ramps up and I've just been nonstop. Matter of fact, I've been coaching. Um, you know, we're closed Monday and Tuesdays, but I've been coaching a lot of those

[00:11:34] days. Um, cause our daily business isn't as crazy as, you know, in season cause it is our winter. So I've had some more free time to do that. Um, matter of fact, Saturday, uh, I'm doing a clinic

[00:11:48] with Brandon Powell. Uh, he's been getting into more coaching, kind of helping them out with that and just, he's doing a good job. You know, he's just, you know, kind of, he's loving it and he's

[00:11:59] doing a really good job at it. I've heard that name before. Um, yeah, he's not bad. I mean, he's okay. He's getting better. We're working on him. Yeah. Maybe this year will be better than

[00:12:10] it was for him last year. I know he had a tough time last year. Yeah. He's a work in progress. You know, we, everybody has that project child, right? He's our, he's our Kregel project child.

[00:12:19] How about that? That's my joke about, yeah, no, he's doing fine. Look everybody, you know, you've heard the stories a hundred times, you know, I'm really proud of them. We've known each

[00:12:29] other since we were kids and you know, he's doing really well and I'm happy for him, you know, and I wish him nothing but the best cause the guy obviously has the most talent, right. That we've

[00:12:39] seen he's incredible with a shotgun. So we want them, we want them on the field for the competition. Yeah. Uh, speaking of last year, the, the tournaments, what did you think of the,

[00:12:51] of the tournaments as a whole? I mean, you know, the big ones that we go to the regionals and some of the big blasts, were they what you expected? Do you think they should change anything? Do you think we were missing something? Don't pick one out.

[00:13:02] I'm just talking about as a whole, what were we missing last year or were we missing anything? Yeah. You know, I, you know, specifically Justin, I went to the U S open, um, really enjoyed it out

[00:13:14] in Tucson shot really well there. For some reason I can see well, their first time ever actually out there. And I had a good time. Um, it was a good atmosphere and everybody was nice.

[00:13:28] Referees did a good job. You know, I think kind of all the shoots that I personally went to last year were, were good. Right. I'm not a real nitpicker on it. I think, you know, if we're

[00:13:39] shooting good quality targets and we've got good competition going on, you know, we could live with the rest, right? Everybody's going to have an opinion on food. Everybody's going to have an

[00:13:49] opinion on, you know, different things. But I think the main thing, if we're there at a good competition, you know, with good referees and a good friendly staff, you know, it's a good time

[00:13:59] for me. I just enjoy seeing everybody at the shoots for me per se that I might not see unless I go to a shoot. That's that's, that's the way I am. I told somebody the other day, I said, I don't even

[00:14:09] go to a shoot to shoot. I mean, if I was going to go to a shoot to shoot, I just wouldn't go. I could shoot around here, but I go to see everybody and talk to people and, and, and catch up with what's

[00:14:20] going on. And you brought up food. I don't know that I've ever been to a shoe, a big sheet. I don't go to all of them, of course, but the ones I go to, I don't know that I could say

[00:14:29] the food was bad. I mean, I don't, I don't understand that. No, I think if everybody's doing a shoot, you know, they're look, I tell everybody this nobody, we all make mistakes, right? That's everyday life. If we didn't make mistakes, you know,

[00:14:42] you wouldn't be living. Right. But I think everybody that puts on a shoot, every major gun club or even a local shoot, uh, most of the ones that I go to and I specifically pick the

[00:14:55] big ones because I want that competition. You know, I'm gonna shoot against the best. So basically, Justin, I think everybody who's doing a shoot, they're putting in effort, right? They're putting in a hundred percent. I mean, I watch people running around and trying to load

[00:15:08] traps. I just, you know, some are more experienced than others. Some are less experienced, but we're all out there trying. Right. So I'm not big on picking on somebody. There's, you know, there,

[00:15:18] there's things that we all know and there's things that we maybe all don't know, but as long as somebody is putting in the effort and trying to throw a good shoot and I'm all for supporting them,

[00:15:28] yeah. Yeah. That's, that's all you can ask for. You know what the target, the target difficulties at these regionals last year, there was a, there was a regional that had easy targets and those

[00:15:40] regionals that have hard targets. Do you like the mix? Do you like them all hard? Do you think they should be easy? And what do you think? What do you think about that? You know, I,

[00:15:50] and people have known this, right? They know my mentality. I, uh, I like target to a medium to hard. I'm not big on, if you want to throw a monthly shoot and you want to throw easy targets,

[00:16:04] I'm all for it. I do it myself. I throw an, you know, our monthly shoots, I throw what I call a main event and then a fun shoot. Both are registered targets. One course is like a main event and the

[00:16:16] other course is fun. They're a little bit closer, a little bit slower, you know, cool rabbits, just good presentations, but not over the top. But I think if you're trying to find out who our team

[00:16:28] USA is, who are best shooters are at the regional, the U S open and the nationals. Um, I think the targets need to be a little bit tougher. Uh, and I love the nationals this year. I thought the

[00:16:39] targets were excellent. I really did. Yeah, that, uh, you know, I wasn't there, but it looked like it was some cool targets and I heard about the, the targets that were thrown. So I liked those

[00:16:50] a little bit. You know, it is what it is. I'll make it out there next year. So yeah, yeah, they were good. Now nationals don't you normally go early or do you always go and shoot?

[00:17:00] I used to go early. Yeah. Now I go, you know, pretty much the whole week. I actually brought my family out there this year. We had a blast. Uh, I brought my daughter and brought my wife

[00:17:12] and my daughter. It's funny. She loves Texas now she wears cowboy boots. So we bought a boot store. She's always asking to go to Texas. Uh, so she loved it. Right. She loved the whole atmosphere

[00:17:26] vendor row. I think I probably owe everybody on vendor rows some money because they were just spoiling her with stuff. So yeah, you know, cool to see. So going into 24 this year, you know,

[00:17:38] I mean, we're in 24, but going into the main season, it starts up in February down at one of your places that you used to, you used to work at a Coyote Creek at the Jack. She go in there.

[00:17:50] I'm not because I'm actually helping set targets at the Caribbean cup, the Caribbean classic the week before. So I got to get back to work. I wanted to go. Yeah. I enjoy shooting there, but just my work schedule, the next like three months is wild.

[00:18:05] Uh, Gator cup. I've got another you shoot. Uh, so like the beginning of the season for me is really jam packed. But the cool part is like, I'm going to open up my season in Savannah

[00:18:17] at four city. Really love shooting there. Love Zach and the crew. So I'm looking forward to that one. Then I'll kind of go us open the regionals. So my beginning of my year is crazy while working.

[00:18:29] And then I'm going to kind of ease into some shoots after that. So you're talking about the Southeast regional exact place at four city. Yep. Well, if you're not registered,

[00:18:38] you're not getting them and tell you that you're getting in. I knew that, you know, they do a great location. They do a great job, cool place to shoot. You know, it's one of the oldest gun clubs

[00:18:48] in the country. So there might be an, and I might be wrong when I say this and correct me if you know more about this than I do, but I don't know of a gun club that's in a cooler place than four city

[00:19:00] with all, with all of that stuff around it, you get restaurants and hotels everywhere within 20 minutes. Yeah. I mean, the first thing my wife said when they won the bid, you know, she's like,

[00:19:13] oh my, you know, Savannah, let's go. She wants to go downtown Savannah. So it's like easy for me to bring my family. And like, if I bring my family to somewhere in the middle of nowhere,

[00:19:25] they're not interested in the Savannah, they're pumped up for it. That in Texas. Well, Texas, I think is the winner for my daughter. I don't know about my wife, but my daughter is definitely all about Texas. Yeah. So people that are shooting, shooting or newer

[00:19:42] or even shot for a little bit, how do they prepare for the season in your, in your opinion, you're a coach. How do they go out and prepare for 24? Yeah. You know, I've got a lot of my

[00:19:50] students right now. I said, you know, everybody needs a break, right? I'm a big believer in that. I don't think you need a pound every day. Your body needs a break. Uh, just for example, I hadn't

[00:20:01] picked up the guns since like the 1st of December. I went out and shot with Turner Parcell the other day and man, I shot great because I wasn't thinking about it. Right. I was fresh.

[00:20:12] I shot probably way too good for not picking up the gun. I was like, what's going on here, man? I'm onto something. But I think at some point, you know, and it's kind of way your brain's wired,

[00:20:22] but you don't see, you know, you see some athletes like when Kobe Bryant back in the day, he like never took a day off. Right. Guy was like a machine. And then you see other people like Allen Iverson. He's like, do I even need to practice?

[00:20:36] Look at my game day stats. So right. I mean, I think everybody's different. There's no formula. I think if you're somebody like, and I'll use an example, you know, we talked about our buddy,

[00:20:45] Ryan Harper before he doesn't really need to practice a lot. Uh, Turner's got to practice a lot. Um, different people are wired different. It's kind of what your brain protects. But I think

[00:20:56] everybody should practice whether it was gun. I mean, I still do gun mounts every day in my house just to stay fresh. You know what I mean? Whether it's in the morning or in the evenings,

[00:21:05] little things you can do to just kind of keep the gun in your hand, but I think you can overcook it too. I mean, I've seen it happen. I've seen people get burned out. You know, I've had to

[00:21:14] step back. Justin, I'm looking at targets every day or talking about a gun or talking about a target. Sometimes I got to just go out and say, you know what, you know, today I'm going to take my

[00:21:24] daughter ice skating. I didn't even think about a clay target. You gotta ease up a little bit on it. Yeah. The people that do go out, you know, this is kind of,

[00:21:32] it's kind of funny. I took my son out the other day shooting. Um, and I just had no interest in it. You know, I've, I've, I've been to where I'm, I've been going a lot with him and that's why I

[00:21:44] hadn't been a lot of places. Cause I'm going with him to his shoots and his practices and his stuff like that. Right. I'd rather watch him shoot than me shoot, you know, come on, shoot with me while

[00:21:53] I just, okay. But if I miss them, I don't care. You know, if I hit them, I don't care. So that's the spot I'm in and that's not a good spot to be in if you want to be competitive at all. But you

[00:22:04] know, the, I'm more interested in him. We're going to go to Jack links. I'm gonna take him with me, but the people that are that shoot and want to take it serious, what should they practice

[00:22:15] heading into Jack links and heading into the season? There's a lot of big shoots down in Florida to start the season off. You know, what, what do they need to practice? I know it's

[00:22:22] different for everybody, but as in general. Yeah. And I think practice is a funny thing, Justin, everybody, if you're going out there and you're taking a scorecard and you're practicing on a 15 station course, and you're just shooting three report pair or four true pair, you're not

[00:22:38] practicing right. I think you need to go out there and say, all right, today I'm going to work on all quartering birds. You know, a lot of people told me when I was coming up, you know,

[00:22:47] Gary Phillips, Anthony, Matt, or ease, you know, how you're going to get better is hit all your quartering birds when I really understood it. And then you go to these matches and 70% of your

[00:22:57] shots are quartering birds. So if you hit those, you're at a 70 already, you know what I mean? Yeah. Um, I think people try to practice big crossing high, fast, long targets, you know,

[00:23:09] 10% of the game, 15% max, right at a big shoot. So I think people should practice the realistic shots. You're always going to see double trap shots. So practice them, make sure you put those

[00:23:20] in your bag. You're always going to see teal. You're always going to see incomers and these flash quartering birds in the wood practice all that don't go out there and say, I'm going to

[00:23:30] shoot that tower, uh, 250 times. Well, you're going to get a tower at the Jack links cup, and it's going to be two pair. Uh, what happens if you go over four on it on a 66 bird course,

[00:23:43] but you hit the rest of the targets. I think you're still in the game, right? So don't overplay these crazy targets. People, they want to hit that 90 yard cross or I'm like, how many 90

[00:23:52] or crossers you shoot in a match? They're like, well, never. Well, why are you wasting shells on it? You know, my opinion now people might think different. No, it makes perfect sense. Unless

[00:24:02] you're going to shoot a, the blue course down there and they got 30 different towers on the whole course. You know, it's, you might, that might help you there, but I mean, I think you

[00:24:13] should practice your towers. You know, we got two towers in my club and people shoot them, but I have them as realistic towers. You know, I have them as like, you know, shots. You're going

[00:24:23] to see they're big, they're fast, but they're not, you know, crazy. Yeah, no, I was just, you know, the, I get what you're saying for sure. The quarter and targets, the one I had

[00:24:32] the most problems with when I started, it was quarter and I always shot in front of them every single time. Exactly. And you know, they're not that hard if you figure it out really. So

[00:24:44] you said you're going to be shooting a few tournaments. Um, what, what are your plans as far as, as your practice? You know, are you going to practice at all now that we're talking

[00:24:55] about that? Yeah, I'm going to practice more this year. My, my biggest thing is time. Right. And it's no excuse, but you know, I like live, eat, breathe it. Right. So between, you know,

[00:25:07] I'm selling a gun and I'm going to set up a course and then I'm gonna, you know, whatever it comes down to changing a battery, whatever I'm doing. But I told my wife, I'm going to make some

[00:25:19] time this year because I give an example last year, Justin, like the U S open, uh, first shoot I shot and you know, I share this with people to help them. You know, I've been shooting a long

[00:25:31] time, right. But I've never been able to give just shooting a hundred percent effort because I'm doing a lot of things. Right. And I would love to one day and, but I've never been able to give

[00:25:43] it 100% effort, but like the U S open, I go out there, I've got no expectations. I get out there and I'm squatted with Anthony, Brandon and William Walton. And I just had a really good squad guys.

[00:25:59] Like grew up with and have known a long time. And, uh, the kind of joke was, man, if I keep up with Brandon and Anthony, I'm gonna be in a good place. You know, that was my thought in my brain.

[00:26:10] Well, day one, I only missed four. Well, that was kind of par for the course. But again, I had no expectations. We go out that night, everybody's having a good time. We're eating. I'm working

[00:26:20] the Kregall booth, the whole shoot man. I'm fitting people's guns. I'm taking them selling guns going here, going there. Well, day two, we go out and I'm like just shooting again. Well,

[00:26:32] we got two stations left and I'm clean. I hadn't missed the target. Well, then it kind of hit me like Mike, you haven't missed relax. You shot enough run the next station. Run my last station,

[00:26:45] Anthony, Brandon. They're all fired up. They're all high fiving me. Um, so day two on the turn, I am leading the U S open. They do the re squad, uh, put me in there and I'll be honest with you.

[00:26:59] I let that non prep, non practice get to my brain a little bit. And I'm honest with people. I let the pressure, they wanted to, I had no pressure. I was just shooting with my buddies. Right.

[00:27:11] And I'm breaking targets. Uh, day three, it's like, I went to try to win the U S open. I lost the just go Mike, you're not prepped. You're not prepared. You haven't shot shells. You just worked

[00:27:22] the Gator cup the week prior. You know what I mean? Like you had no expectations and I let it get to me winded up finishing fourth, you know, overall. Uh, but I could have easily won that

[00:27:34] open. And I, I share it with people. I, I failed. And the reason I failed was I put too much pressure on myself. Um, when I didn't apply the pressure and I share that with people,

[00:27:47] that is why some people are so good at this game. Right? Some people like they feed off the pressure and I'm a pressure player in everyday life. Right. You know, my dad used to call me

[00:27:58] the pressure player, baseball, football. I was the guy that make it shine when he needed to count. But there it's like my brain went to, instead of just having fun and killing targets,

[00:28:07] my brain went to, I got to win this thing. And I shot careful. And then I got it back and then I shot careful at the end. Uh, and it literally costs me the U S open. I mean,

[00:28:17] that one hurt, right? Because you don't get that many opportunities. I don't care who you are to win a U S open. Right. Um, and, but I share that with my students and I'm not afraid to admit it

[00:28:28] because I, you know, I have nothing to hide. If I'm honest with people, I know I can do it. Right. If I couldn't do it, I wouldn't have been on the top after two days, you know, uh, straight at the

[00:28:38] course. It doesn't happen too often at a U S open or any course, but I wanted to share that with people tonight because I think that's a good learning curve. I learned from it. You know,

[00:28:48] here I am been playing this game since I was a kid, still learning, you know, that's the cool part about the game. So you can't be afraid, afraid to fail. And that's where, uh, I think a

[00:28:58] lot of people, you know, when I was talking to George Digweed one day at a shoot, you know, I shot a hundred straight on his course and he's coming up. He's like, Mike, that was awesome.

[00:29:07] You know, just complimenting. And I said, man, George, I said, I was asking him, how can you win that much? And he goes, Mike, two things. He goes, I've missed a lot more targets than you.

[00:29:16] And I have way more experience and I've asked people that question, you know? So we're, we're all still learning no matter what level you're at in this game. Yeah. Isn't that guy amazing? That's just, he's amazing. And he's a class act. Yeah.

[00:29:30] Love the guy. So you're talking about being too careful. What, what is your too careful? What were you doing? Were you shooting them later than you should have or quicker than you shoot?

[00:29:38] What were you, you know, most people know how I shoot, right? I'm on the old grip and rip. Like I see it, I shoot it. Right. So did that day one and two, I just let it rip. I had no fear.

[00:29:48] You know, you've heard Anthony talk about this. Brandon's talked about it. A lot of people, if you have fear and anything you do, if you have fear, you will not shoot your best. You can't be

[00:29:59] scared to miss. And I'll be honest with you. I just got, I tried to shoot defensively, Justin. That's not me. I'm an offensive guy. I might shoot a little too fast sometimes and miss a bird,

[00:30:10] but I'm also gaining bird, gaining targets on my competitors by being able to shoot quick on maybe a tough troop pair per se. And I went into like, I got to kill them perfect mode

[00:30:22] and kind of got out of my style. And my squad was a very unique squad. It was me, Derek, mine, Wendell Cherry and David Radovich. So you had two guys that shoot pull bang, bang.

[00:30:35] Then you had two guys that are real deliberate and very, you know, you know, really good mental game and they're just, they move at their own pace, but Hey, you know, it works for them and

[00:30:46] it works for me and Derek. But I kind of, kind of got out of my game and just didn't play Mike's game. And I learned from it. You know, I told me I'll be back. I'll be back better. It's not

[00:30:55] going to be, we got a long way to go. I'm not dead yet. I may be bald, but I'm not that old. You know what I mean? You know, and I've talked to Derek about it. I've talked to Brandon about it.

[00:31:06] I've talked to a lot of people about it. You know, I like talking to people that have won, you know, really big shoots because I learn from them and feed off of it. And these are personal

[00:31:16] friends of mine, you know? So they're like, Mike, you shot amazing for what you do. And that's no excuse though. My thing is yeah. But in that moment, I just didn't handle it as good as I

[00:31:27] could handle it, handled it the first two days, you know, just didn't handle it good the last day. Well, next time you're in that position, you'll remember this and remember not to,

[00:31:38] you know, just let it, just let it rip. You know, a hundred percent. My whole game's going to be go. Don't be scared to miss. So Turner Parcell, you've helped him out a lot. You mentioned him earlier,

[00:31:48] super shooter and a good kid, good family. Who else do you have coming up? That's going to be like, like Mike Turner, anyone? Yeah. You know, there's a couple, um, there's a couple young

[00:32:01] shooters, you know, they're still in the young stages, but, um, there's a young man named TJ Knight. Who's got a lot of talent. Uh, there's a young man named Gage Yarborough. Who's got a lot

[00:32:15] of talent. Uh, these are some South Carolina people. And then there's some, there's just so much young talent out there. You know, a lot of these kids that they've got it. They just need

[00:32:26] some more experience, but you know, lately too, like some of my adult shooters, a lot, I've been working with a lot of adults too. You know, they're just kind of progressing and getting

[00:32:38] to the next level, you know, and they're doing well. We help each other out. You know what I mean? Like Derek will call me. I'll call Derek. Brandon will call me. I'll call Brandon, Anthony,

[00:32:48] whoever, like Zach, a lot. If you can't, people don't realize a lot of us are just, you know, we're friends and we've been in the industry a long time and we're there for the ultimate goal

[00:33:00] to grow the sport, you know, and make it bigger and better. Yeah. Uh, where do you, uh, where do you see this sport headed? This, I mean, it's growing so fast, um, with, especially with the

[00:33:13] youth and, you know, like nationals the past year was the largest nationals I've ever had. I mean, where do you see it going? It's got, it's gotta end up stopping somewhere. You would think. Yeah. You know, that's a great question, Justin. I was sitting down with my boss

[00:33:28] the other day. We were going over some end of the year stuff and, um, you know, where was this going? Like we looked at our numbers, right? So this is so targets we sold, right? Not what we bought.

[00:33:41] Just us here in little South Carolina. We, we threw and sold 3.2 million targets. Um, that's between, you know, register recreational youth tournaments, you name it. That's crazy. Right. Um, it's three courses and I think it's like, where's it going? You know, we went the

[00:34:03] year before that was 2.8. Well, we had the state shoot. So that probably, you know, helped that other 400,000, but I see just the Rocky Creek I'm going on, you know, year number five here, um,

[00:34:17] in April, May. And I seen it grow from a lot, right? Almost a million targets than another million and a half. You know what I mean? That's the million dollar question. I see people shooting

[00:34:29] more than ever. And the funny part is shells are more expensive than ever. Targets are more expensive than ever guns are more expensive than ever. But I think it's a sport that what I like

[00:34:40] about it, you got little Johnny who may have like this wicked hand-eye coordination, but he's only four foot five. Right. So he can't play football. Um, he can, but he's small. Right. And I think

[00:34:52] he can be on the same level as that kid that's six foot six and there's no advantage. You know, there's no, that's what I like about it. I think we're seeing a lot of these kids get into it

[00:35:03] because it's kind of equal grounds. I mean, if I were anybody right now, I would fear the females. They're phenomenal. You know, look how good our, our lady shooters are right now. They're, they're phenomenal and they're only getting better. Yeah. Yeah. We mentioned that not that

[00:35:18] long ago that it's not, it's, it's coming where they're going to HLA one of these shoots. I know, I know it's happened in feed task and certain, certain events, but as far as the, you know,

[00:35:28] the whole shoot, I don't, the main event, I think it's coming. Even one of my fan favorites, you know, Desi, I shot the feed test. I don't, you know, I've started getting into feed test

[00:35:37] a little bit. And, um, I shot feed test with Desi at the nationals and I'm telling you, if it didn't, they made a shoot in the rain. Like you could barely see if we would have had

[00:35:49] perfect weather. You might've seen Desi win that thing. She was shooting on another level and it's funny. Desi's I'm like, Desi, come on coach, help me out here. You got time for a

[00:35:58] lesson feed test. I'm struggling. She goes, Mike, mount the gun on your shoulder. Don't mount it under your nipple. She's getting on me, you know, like, and then next thing you know, like parkour

[00:36:10] three and four, I go 23, 24. I'm like Desi, you got potential to coach, you know, just messing with her. But, uh, we had a great time, a great squad, but I watched Desi, you know, she shot

[00:36:21] phenomenal. Like she literally tripled her misses in the rain where you could barely see, um, what she missed like on the other three parkours together. It was, it was amazing to watch.

[00:36:31] I'm like, and that's Desi, you know, been doing a long time and I was like, it was just fun to watch. You know, it's like, wow. I mean, that's phenomenal. She's got it. She's a great coach

[00:36:41] too. I mean, she's got it very, very knowledgeable coach, right? Very intelligent with the game. That's what I told Zach. I messed with him. Zach sent me a text. He was like, man, Desi whipped

[00:36:51] you boys today. And I'm like, Zach, she's got a way better gun move than you and way more intelligent. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, Zach, everybody thinks Zach's where he's

[00:37:02] at because of Zach Zach's where he's at because of Desi. I agree. I mean, Desi very knowledgeable. I'm I'm, I'm always been a Desi fan. Always will be just great for the sport. Love her personality.

[00:37:15] Her mom and dad were out there watching the feed test and her dad's like taking the umbrella. He's knocking, he's helping us out. He's knocking the rain off the tents, like trying to keep us dry

[00:37:25] and we had a good time and yeah, it was fun. And I liked all these, you know, you got Madison Sharp, Karen Miles, Shelby, and then you have, you know, girl like Rihanna Franz is in vet school now,

[00:37:41] but Kiersten sale, she won the feed test at the ladies, you know, crazy stat there that literally was like the third time she ever shot VTAS and she won the ladies national championship VTAS.

[00:37:53] So look how good that talent is. I just named like six names. They could probably be 90% of the men out there. Yeah. Uh, she's out of Florida, right? Most of that, all of those ladies that you just mentioned other than Karen, I think are from the Southeast.

[00:38:08] They are Southeast strong. Yep. It's very strong. They are. Yep. They've produced a lot of great female shooters. You think the Southeast is the strongest part of the country? Tell you what now, Justin, I mean, Texas might hammer me for this, but I'll tell you what,

[00:38:22] I think the Southeast can't be beat anymore. I think we've changed the game. I'll be honest. I had this conversation. Um, I was lucky enough to grow up by, you know, Eminem and Hopkins. And

[00:38:32] back in the day, like if you had a U S open, it was either an Eminem or Hopkins. I literally got to grow up shooting the best clay targets. And I think that's why today, you know, no matter where

[00:38:44] I go, I'm not, I don't fear any targets. Right. And, uh, uh, the Southeast now the competition around here, like come try to win a local shoot just at my club is hard. Um, you know, you've got

[00:38:59] just Braxton Oliver, you know, Wesley Elliott, Richard cheek. Then you go into Georgia, you know, you got Brandon, you got Kevin, you got, you got everybody tons of time. I mean, Gary pyron's a good local shooter. You know, you always see his name up there. I mean,

[00:39:15] there are so many guys that are just strong in North South Carolina and Georgia now in Florida. They're wicked Tennessee. You know, Tennessee has a lot of good shooters, you know, you know, you speaking about Georgian and Gary down here, there's another one that

[00:39:31] used to could deal with, still can deal with it. Mike Benton. I hadn't seen Mike at a big shoot anywhere, but here lately, I'm a fan favorite to Mike Benton. Mike Benton is a legend.

[00:39:39] Yep. He beat me at a Georgia state one year. Yep. I shot a great score and Mike Benton beat me by two at big red Oak. He won the high overall. Yeah. He's a heck of a shooter with an auto,

[00:39:49] even better human. Great guy. Super guy. Super, super, super. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. How good the talent is now your local guys, you know, and I'll still say this. If you take

[00:40:01] Wesley Elliott, if you look this year on the, he had the highest score non super squad, you know what I mean? And by substantially higher score. I was glad to see him do that.

[00:40:12] Cause if you take Wesley Elliott at a monthly shoot, good luck beating them. Right. I don't care who comes and he just kind of, you know, he's a working guy, right? So he, he maybe doesn't do as big at a big shoot as he could. Right. He didn't,

[00:40:26] he doesn't really showcase his talent. What was neat this year? You know, he's actually on the super squad now and he was able to show them how good he is. I mean, if you look at the top of the nationals, Wesley's names right there, you've had them on

[00:40:37] the podcast before, but that guy is talented. Yeah. As long as he's not eating donuts, he's good, man. Yeah. We ain't going to talk about a sugar. You keep him away from Dunkin donuts and dairy

[00:40:48] queen. He's all right. You want to beat him? You just take him to dairy queen before the round. You got him. Yep. That's right. That, I think he was talking about his, his eyesight. He was,

[00:40:59] he couldn't shoot and he had to go to the doctor, but now that he's got all that cleared up, he's lost a lot of weight and he is, he is a problem now. He's a problem. Yep. He's got on

[00:41:08] his medication. He's lost weight. And I got to tell you an impressive stat though. I think it was two years ago. He didn't know he had diabetes and he got it taken care of obviously, but he went

[00:41:21] with a buddy of ours, Mike Staples, and they went to fricking Walgreens and you know, Mike's got some older parents. So he's like, man, I know about reading glasses. Wesley couldn't see because I can't see. I can't see. He literally took a 2.5 reading glasses. Now you, if anybody

[00:41:39] knows about vision, you understand that's to blow up the words about two feet in front of your face. He shot, he shot in the nineties and two events with 2.5 reading glasses. And in the main event,

[00:41:52] he shot like a two 61 in reading glasses. It was amazing. I said, everybody else was just quit and went home. He bought these, you know, five 99, 10 99 glasses for Walgreens and would change them out in the middle of the shoot. It was crazy. Yeah, that's funny. He taught you.

[00:42:09] That's what he told us. He's, you know, it's, it's neat that he knew to do that or figured out how to do that. I I've put on reading glasses before and I can't see, like you said about three

[00:42:19] foot away, it's blurry. So he must have had some, his, his, his, his outside must be tore up. It was tore up. I mean, the sugar was off the roof, right? And it just, I said, Wesley, can

[00:42:28] you even, I said, he looked like, I said, Wesley, when I look at your eyes, it looked like there's a size of like a fricking pool ball, dude. I mean, uh, we were on him. Rick Hemingway tried

[00:42:40] to buy him glasses. I mean, I'll never forget it. Rick's taking them into the glasses and he's like, and nothing will work. He's like, I'll just stick with my reading glasses. Rick. I mean,

[00:42:49] God, it was hilarious. Yeah, that's funny. So, uh, Gator cup, you set in targets there. Yes, sir. Yep. Yep. Another hard one. Another one that's full the world championship full. Hey, let me ask you this question. Like I know you can answer it. Why are tournaments now starting

[00:43:10] to advertise the following year? So you've got 24 that just started. We really hadn't got into it, but they're already advertising 25 shoots. Yep. Why I'm going to tell you just because a, and this

[00:43:24] is the biggest thing, look at, like you said, so M and M world championship is full, right? Gator cup, uh, four city, the Southeast regional, most of these events are full. People are signing up

[00:43:37] and a lot of these gun clubs are getting them out there early because it's hard to get a date. Like I literally have a whole, um, file, right. That I want to do my own shoot on, you know,

[00:43:49] the only reason I haven't launched my own shoot can't find a date right yet. I can't find the right date. You know, you've got to factor in weather time of the year. Are you coming off like

[00:44:00] an open than a regional? I mean, people only have so much money to spend, you know, and I want to, I've got some neat ideas to do a shoot and you know, me and you have talked about this and

[00:44:09] we're going to find a date, uh, one day, but I think just to find a date and they're filling up so fast, you're going to have cancellation. Right. If you have 800 people sign up roughly

[00:44:20] 70, 80 are going to drop out. So I encourage people. I had this conversation the other day, guys were calling me, Hey man, Gator cups full, Mike, we can't get in. Can you call Rick? Can

[00:44:28] you get me? And I'm like, listen, go sign up. You'll get in. Somebody is going to drop off, get on the waiting list and we'll put you right in. And it works. Right. But I think just to get

[00:44:37] people into the shoots early enough, uh, and get a date, I think the biggest thing is a date they're advertising it. So maybe nobody else around them puts on a date. I mean, my last year state shoot,

[00:44:49] there was like four other state shoots going on. We still got 462 shooters, but the Tennessee state was at the same time, not their fault. That's when they were granted the shoe, but they had like

[00:44:59] two 80. I guarantee you, I could have got 80 more people of a Tennessee state one going on. So it's tough. It's tough right now. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I was trying to see what other big shoots are

[00:45:12] on score chaser, but for, for 25, but anyway, um, yeah, I guess if you want to talk about it that way, but it just, I was like, why are they advertising shoots for 25 already? I mean,

[00:45:25] we just got into 24, but I get, I get it now that you say that. So yeah, it's crazy, but I mean, that's good for the sport again. I mean, at least we're filling them up. Yeah. Yeah. All right,

[00:45:36] Mike, you got anything else? No, all is good. Like I said, I look forward to seeing everybody throughout the shoots and you know, if anybody's got any questions or need anything,

[00:45:47] they know how to reach me. They can feel free to call me and you know, all is good. That's it. All right, buddy. You know, I'll see you wherever you're at. So I'll let you later.