US Western Open (Boot Hill or Bust)
July 31-August 3, 2008

Top Gun Club • Mount Vernon, Washington
Tournament Director – Dan Mitchell
Story & photos by Chris Greenwood

Thursday morning crackled to life under partly cloudy skies with the sound of sub-gauge rounds echoing off Rock Mountain. Mt. Vernon’s geology is fascinating, time and uplift having deposited massive boulders and distinctive rock outcroppings throughout the dramatic setting for the Western Open at Jeff Van Den Top’s Top Gun Club. For those making their first visit to this shooting facility, they always arrive wide-eyed and mouth agape. When they finally regain their composure they exclaim, “There’s no place like this in the United States.”

Several lakes dot the property, most of which are stocked with trout. The terrain goes from meadow to rolling hills to forbidding basalt formations, around which two entire sporting clays courses are organized. Shooting stations are thoughtfully chiseled into the landscape, bracketed by natural and created objects, isolating one from another. All machines are concealed; targets appear from nowhere as does live game in the field. Few towers are necessary because the landscape naturally offers positions from which “driven” targets may be thrown.

Open to the public only once a year for this event, those who make the trek to western Washington count themselves lucky for having made the journey.

A palpable sense of anticipation was in the air as the Scholastic Clay Target Program shooters readied their guns for the day’s targets and lessons. Young shooters from Seattle, Burlington, Mount Vernon and the Skagit-valley area were able to shoot on the sub-gauge course while picking up pointers from Team Top Gun coach Dorie Jones, Walt Plonsky, Larry Rushing and others who give their time and encouragement to Washington state’s SCTP shooters.

Friday awoke to the remnants of the previous night’s cold front whose rains and wind dumped the Krieghoff dealer’s E-Z Up into the lake behind vendor’s row. Some careful seamanship by Stephen Parks and a length of rope helped extricate the half-submerged tent, for the second time. Other vendors were largely unscathed and all continued with the business of introducing the shooting community to their products. Vendor Holland & Holland flew out from New York to feature their superb over & under and side by side shotguns. S & S Plus from Montana showed several blanks of various wood for gunstocks and took measurements for customers in the process of building the “perfect gun.”

Kesselring’s, a sponsor for the event, displayed many different brands of sporting shotguns and shooting accessories, always attracting a crowd to their tent. Filson brought several examples of their purpose-built clothing and made a number of donations to the event. Post-4 Optics also made the trek from Idaho to show their unique shooting glasses.

The Prelim event, which was set on the north and east sides of “Rock Mountain,” saw Andy Duffy as its champion and elicited oohs and aahs from wide-eyed shooters who have never had the pleasure of shooting against such confusing backgrounds. With targets set by Jason Meinke and Rudy Dierks, this event took advantage of deep open space and subtle terrain shifts to produce the delightful optical illusions for which Top Gun Club is becoming known. Mike Worley of Eugene, Oregon perhaps said it best, “When I miss a target, it doesn’t hurt quite so much because this place is so beautiful. Absolutely amazing.”

Dave Fiedler’s FITASC comprised six parcours, each of which had its devilish twists and tortures. Parcours one was set over one of the club’s largest lakes, each of the chondelle, standard or battue targets spelunking into the water if missed, which was more often than not. Marching up the hill to parcours two revealed a rabbit, a quartering incomer from below, a pigeon and a driven target made possible with the terrain.

Saturday awoke to the residual rain from yet another sneaker front which arrived underneath the weathermens’ predictions. But clouds gave way to sunshine by early afternoon and the day was crowned with the beauty only Cascadia can serve up in summertime.

Jason Meinke and Rudy Dierks crafted some world-class targets for shooters in the main event. They had instructions to be fair and to create something all shooters would remember. And from the looks of angst amongst the core shooters at the end of the day, they did just that. Rock Mountain accommodates 28 shooting stations, divided between red and blue courses. Those who shot red the first day put the fear of failure into those who would shoot it the next day. As usual, the scores for the top shooters in class were right where they should be, with northwest favorites like Nathan Pakish, Len Edwards, Ken Sides and Kris Strutner all giving strong performances. However, Andy Duffy bested the field by two targets going into the second day.

Meanwhile on FITASC … parcours three and four, perhaps due to their compact settings, gave shooters some encouragement in the face of the spirit-breaking trials of the day before. The terrain again lent itself to unique presentations, leading some shooters to draw parallels to theater-in-the-round on parcour four.

Evening gave way to a surf & turf dinner with steak and king crab legs unlike any you’ve ever seen. The king crab legs were provided by Jay Koetje. With Corbett Wright at the crab pot, Terry Murphy at the grill and a host of kitchen help coordinated by Melinda Van Den Top, dinner was served up efficiently with plenty to go around.

Diners were even treated to a show, the sawing of 30-inch-diameter log with Dave Burgraff’s Ford V6-powered & nitrous-oxide-boosted chainsaw. A true two-person job, Andy Van Den Top taking one side of the saw and Dave “driving” the other, the log was cut in less than two seconds.

Sunday morning, under clearing skies, shooters felt a renewed sense of optimism. They charged back up Rock Mountain with a gusto reserved for hungry lumberjacks and came back with the quarry they pursued. In the end, however, Andy Duffy had prevailed not only in prelim and main, but also in the FITASC event, exhibiting skill that was thrilling to watch. And in light of the difficulty level on Dave Fiedler’s parcours five and six, this was especially noteworthy.

Dave Fiedler, no stranger to travel himself, said, “I’m in awe. I’m absolutely amazed at what they’ve built here.”

Mo Daane of Nevada said, “The variety of targets seen here was incredible. The trappers were great and this was a phenomenal experience. I can’t wait to come back.”

Doc Bradford of Bozeman Montana said, “This is the most pleasant place at which I’ve shot in North America. Everything was correctly done. I just got back from the World FITASC championship and they’ve got nothing on this place [Top Gun Club].”

Former national sporting clays champion Andy Duffy summed up his experience at the 2008 Western Open by saying, “I’ve been all over the world. If you come to ‘Top Gun,’ you can save yourself a very expensive plane ticket to England. The targets you’ll see here rival those in the best courses in England and beyond.” He praised Jeff Van Den Top’s facility further when he added, “This is a spectacular venue; God could not have created a more beautiful sporting clays course. This event is now permanently on my schedule.”

Jeff Van Den Top and his wife Melinda sincerely thank all the shooters for attending the 2008 Western Open “Boot Hill or Bust” and for keeping their facility clean and beautiful, adding “We hope to see even more shooters here next year.”

Special Thanks:

Prelim & Main Event targetsetters – Jason Meinke, Rudy Dierks

FITASC targetsetter – Dave Fiedler

5-stand targetsetter – Mike Lupold

Registration & Scoring – Sue Neal, Gretchen Meinke, Ellen Deleganes

Tournament Assistance – Harvey Prior, Patsy Mitchell, Sam Deleganes, Jerry Neal

Complete tournament results on shotgunscores.us