This is going to be a short and fast post to recap the Coop Shoot two weeks ago. I started this the day after we finished the match but I’ve been cramming too much into each day since trying to get everything done and get ready for the Shamrock Silhouette Shootout (which is NEXT WEEKEND!) so I’m running a bit behind where I’d like to be.
The Best Coop Shoot Ever
For all of you who have never been to the Coop Shoot, it’s an indoor air rifle silhouette regional that’s shot in an old chicken coop that has been repurposed into a rifle range. It’s in the middle of nowhere north Louisiana. It’s in February so the weather is usually terrible; but we’re shooting inside so it doesn’t really matter. When it rains, as it does most years, there is usually a leak or two in roof that drips water right where someone is supposed to stand to shoot. The coop has a dirt floor that is probably not pure dirt. There is electricity but no plumbing so the bathrooms are port-o-lets. This is not a country club. However, anyone that has ever shot the Coop Shoot becomes a regular at the match and if you talk to one of those people you’ll get the sense that there is something special about the match; and I can tell you there is DEFINITELY something special about the Coop Shoot!
The Coop Shoot is the annual shooting season kickoff for most of us. It is when winter turns to spring and the matches get rolling and we are off to the races for another year. The venue and format is unlike anything you’ll see anywhere. (Seriously, find me another indoor air rifle silhouette championship anywhere in the world, I’ll wait…) The competition is excellent. The 60-shot matches offer TONS of shooting, The food is phenomenal and the Hatch family are excellent hosts and will do anything to make sure everyone has a great time and that the match is top-notch. The best example of how incredible a job these people do happened back in 2021 when the Coop collapsed during a snowstorm the week before the match. When I say it collapsed, I don’t mean that the roof fell in and had to be patched, I mean the ENTIRE 120-yard-long structure was COMPLETELY destroyed. That would be the end for every match in the world not hosted by the Hatch family. But instead of packing everything up and moving on, the Hatches got to work improving their second Coop, made it better than the first, then kept rolling along in 2022 with an improved facility and an improved match. That is INCREDIBLE persistence from an incredible family and I for one am very grateful that they have overcome so much to give us the opportunity to attend such a unique and fun match.
This was match #8 at the Coop and if you ask me, this was the best one. We had the biggest crowd ever, national records, a breakout performance, nice weather and an overall great time. Things got off to a quick start right off the bat on Saturday morning. As you probably read in the previous Rifle Silhouette Report post, air rifle silhouette is shot a little differently as each shooter picks the match he/she is competing in by the rifle they choose to shoot. There is Sporter (shot with a spring-piston rifle), Target (shot with an unmodified 10-meter rifle) and Open (pretty much anything goes as long as the caliber is .177 or .22 and the energy is below 20 ft/lb). The big prize at these matches is the Open Rifle championship because it is awarded to the competitor that shoots the highest score no matter what type of rifle he/she is shooting. The competition is really wide-open shooting indoors because the slower-shooting 10-meter Target rifles are not affected by the wind. There is still a disadvantage to shooting a Target rifle against Open rifles indoors because the Target rifles shoot slower, and the pellet dwell-time inside the barrel is greater requiring a perfect follow-through; but Target rifles are not the extreme disadvantage against Open rifles that they are when there is wind.
I shot in the Open category as I always do. I started on turkeys and hit 14 of 15. We moved on to rams and I hit 14 of 15 rams. 28 of 30 on the long line is a good start, but I wasn’t the only one that started off 28 of 30. I noticed shooting turkeys that the rack of targets next to me looked just like mine every time we would finish a bank of five targets. Micah Waguespack was squadded next to me and he was hitting everything with his Target rifle! It’s nothing new to see Micah shoot great, he is one of the superstar group of talented junior shooters that we have down here in south Louisiana. Micah is 15 years old, he shoots 3-position smallbore, 10-meter air rifle and smallbore/air rifle silhouette. Micah is dominant against juniors across the country in 3P and 10-meter, and he’s an excellent silhouette shooter; but 28 of 30 on the long line to start a championship silhouette match is next level! Micah is a lefty so we literally stood back-to-back all weekend. And he had no intention of backing down.
If you’ve ever heard me talk or read my writing about winning silhouette matches, you’ve heard me say that silhouette matches are won on the short line. Turkeys and rams get all the attention, but the winner is 99 times out of 100 is the shooter that hits the most chickens and pigs. Micah and I had both taken care of the long line, but this championship would likely come down to the short line. We moved to chickens, I hit the first five, Micah hit the first five, I hit the second five, Micah hit the second five, I hit the third five, Micah hit the third five. We both cleaned the chickens and were still tied.
We finished the first match on pigs. Micah missed one pig and I hit them all. Micah finished the first match with an awesome 57/60, just one shot behind my 58/60. We had a real match going!
Micah and I started the second match where we finished the first, on pigs. This is where he is supposed to start slipping. Any really good shooter can shoot one great score. It’s not easy, but it can be done. But really good shooters don’t follow up a great score with a second one in a championship match, that’s what GREAT shooters do. I hate to say it but this is the match that it all falls apart for Micah.
But it didn’t.
He didn’t freakin blink!
I started match number two by cleaning 15 pigs. Micah cleaned 15 pigs. Okay, that’s pigs, lets shoot turkeys. I hit 14 turkeys. Micah hit 14 turkeys. Wow! Am I shooting against Micah Waguespack or Elisabeth Steiger? Did Erich Mietenkorte sneak in here? John Mullins? Did Cathy Winstead-Severin start shooting air rifles? Laura Goetsch? Luke Johnson? Did one of the Mexican studs cross the border without me knowing about it? Nope! That was Micah and he was matching me shot for shot!
We went to rams. I drilled 14 rams. Guess how many Micah hit? You guessed it, 14. We finished a LONG day of shooting on chickens and I did exactly what I’m supposed to do to chickens to win; I hit every one of them. Micah hit every one of them too!
Consider that as notice served that Micah Waguespack has entered the elite in the silhouette world and plans to stick around. At the end of the day, I had broken the 120-shot national record for Indoor Open Air Rifle with a 116/120 and Micah had broken the national record for Indoor Target Air Rifle with his 115/120. Of course, Micah set pretty much every junior record out there too: 120-shot junior, 60-shot junior (58), junior long run on pigs and chickens. I remember telling Jake Stine last year that he had officially surpassed the point that I tell a kid how proud I am of him and just start looking at him as an elite competitor. I felt that way about Micah after this match.
I kind of hope Micah doesn’t read this so he doesn’t hear me bragging on him too much, but I’m going to go a little bit further just to make clear what he did. Not only did he keep pace with me shot for shot, but he did it shooting right next to me! Very few people understand how hard it is to keep your nerve when you’re competing against someone that you shouldn’t be able to beat, but to stand right next to me and watch me cleaning bank after bank of targets, and to hang in there and do just as well; that is a hardcore ice water-in-the-veins type performance! Pressure like that is not as big a deal for me or the shooters listed above that are used to dealing with it, but this is a 15 year-old kid! I am extremely impressed. I shoot with Micah all the time and I see how hard he works, how coachable he is, and how serious he is about shooting. I believe that Micah is becoming not only a great silhouette shooter, but I think he will shoot 3P and/or 10-meter in the Olympics.
Of course making a big splash like that requires an encore. Micah will need to do what all of our junior shooters must do and keep working hard and keep shooting big matches and putting themselves in the arena. Micah’s dad Gary is his spotter and silhouette is a team game, so Gary will need to do everything he can do to become an elite spotter. For all except for one match per year, silhouette is an outdoor sport and the spotter is a HUGE part of what makes up a great silhouette team. You simply don’t win silhouette championships without a great spotter.
The Open Rifle match was not the only close match at the end of the day on Saturday. Bruce Finley and Matt Judd were locked in a battle for the Sporter Rifle championship. After Saturday, Bruce had a narrow one-shot lead over Matt, so going into Sunday everything was still on the line.
The Coop Shoot follows the same format as most of our championship matches down here in the South; we like to shoot all day on Saturday and finish things up early on Sunday so shooters can hit the road as soon after noon as possible. The Coop Shoot finished up with a single 60-shot match on Sunday. Micah and I started on chickens and Micah missed two while I hit all 15. We both hit all 15 pigs. Micah slipped a little more on turkeys hitting 11. I missed the LAST turkey to get 14. Micah and I both hit 14 rams. I shot another 58/60. Micah shot 53/60. So Micah stayed in Target Rifle (rather than get bumped to Open Rifle by winning) and won that championship with his score of 168/180. Reese Burnett, another of our awesome Louisiana juniors, finished second with a score of 150/180. She also set the new woman’s long run record on indoor Target air rifle pigs!
Bruce was able to put some space between himself and Matt. Bruce shot a 47/60 to win the Sporter Rifle championship with a score of 136/180. Matt shot 41/60 and took second in Sporter Rifle with a score of 129/180.
I won the Open Rifle Championship with a 174/180. Garin Hatch was second at 151/180. That’s great shooting by Garin considering he was the match director and busy with all the things that are required to run a match like this.
So the 2023 shooting season is under way! We have one more big air rifle regional, the Shamrock Silhouette Shootout, here in Baton Rouge on St. Patrick’s Day weekend next weekend. It’s a great match at a great range and I hope we will have a good turnout.
The season started in February out in Arizona too. John Mullins won the Arizona Lever Action Rifle Silhouette state championship. I’ve see some action coming out of Mexico as well so it looks like they are also kicking things off south of the border. I believe that 2023 will be a great season and I am excited to be off to the races.
See you all at a big match soon! Until then, keep shooting!