I had asked if I could put this up a while back, then life went and got in the way. We still have spots open, and I guarantee a good time!
Robert W. Brown Memorial Habitat Shoot
The Chippewa Valley Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society, in partnership with the MRC Sportsman Club is excited to announce the first annual Robert W. Brown Habitat Shoot near Medford WI.
The shoot will run three days, from Thursday, August 16th 2018 through Saturday, August 18th 2018.
This shoot, an idea shamelessly borrowed from a shoot initially conceived and run in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, offers sporting clays, 5 stand, and two special events that will add variety and challenge to the weekend. We want people to think of it more as “a vacation with a shotgun” than as a typical sporting clays event.
The purpose of the shoot is to generate money needed to improve ruffed grouse and woodcock habitat.
The name for the shoot comes from a former national president of The Ruffed Grouse Society, Robert W. Brown. Mr. Brown was also one of the founders of a packaging company in Wisconsin named Great Northern Corporation. Jim Bradshaw and Geoff Roznak, both employed by Great Northern Corporation, saw an opportunity for synergy between Great Northern Corporation’s core business of corrugated containers and displays, and creating habitat for upland birds.
The shoot will be three days, from August 16th, through August 18th, 2018. The first day will be open shooting with all venues for the actual event open as side events for practice, or just for fun.
Friday will feature a sporting clays course, a 5 stand (6 stand actually as the squads will be six shooters each) set to emulate shots typically fired at woodcock, and a unique event called “Super Pigeon”. Super Pigeon takes normal 5-stand and adds a wrinkle: some of the clays will be a different color; those clays will have a ribbon attached to them, and if the clay is broken and the ribbon calls within a defined area, the shooter can score extra points.
Friday night will be a banquet featuring prime rib and chicken, with none of the normal live auctions, raffles, silent auctions, or other distractions from having a good time with friends. When asked about the departure from the standard banquet format, Dave Johnson, Lead Regional Director for RGS, said, “People are paying a lot for this shoot, and the last thing we want to do is appear to come to them with our hand out again during the banquet. WE want them to relax and have fun.”
Saturday will offer a different sporting clays course, a 6-Stand with shots that are reminiscent of ruffed grouse hunting, and another challenge: The Pigeon Ring. The Pigeon Ring takes a clay target machine that rotates through a full 360° as well as changing elevation and places it in a hole in the center of a 30 yard circle. As with the Super Pigeon event, clays will have a ribbon attached to the bottom. The differences are that all clays will have the ribbon, and to get a point, not only does the clay have to be broken, but the ribbon must fall within the 30 yard circle…a gust of wind, or a large piece of broken clay can easily cost a point…
All events that are not being shot as part of the event each day will be available as side events on the other day. There will also be a dedicated side event, called The Grouse Walk, where shooters follow a path through the woods and clays are thrown from hidden traps. Side events will cost either $20 (Pigeon Ring, Super Pigeon and both 6-stands) or $30, for the sporting clays courses.
Prizes will be simple: Five shotguns with a total value of roughly $7,500 will be awarded via Lewis Class scoring at the end of the day on Saturday. A 6th gun with a value of around $2,000 will be awarded by random drawing of registered shooters that participate in the side events (shooter numbers must be written on purchased tickets).
The cost for the event is $350, refundable until August 1st. The number of shooters will be limited to 120, at least for the first year so that we are confident the logistics work out well. Camping is available at no cost on-site, but no electric power or sewer hook-ups are available. Camping is first come, first serve, no reservations.
The surrounding area in Wisconsin offers many other recreational opportunities at this time of year; camping, fishing (trout, bass, walleye, pike and musky are all top notch in both rivers and lakes), hiking, ATV trails and general outdoors activities are found easily. A week before, or after the shoot would be a great opportunity for a family vacation in the area.
Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162350131129318/
Current list of prize guns looks like this:
1) AyA Model 53 12 gauge (weighs less than 6 1/2 lbs!)
2) SKB Model 200 20 gauge
3) Browning Superlight Superposed 20 gauge (Looks unused)
4) Rizzini Aurum 20 gauge
THat's about $9,400 worth of shotguns, all great grouse guns, already...and we have two more to go.
...gotta tell you...I was tempted to tuck that AyA and the Superposed in my gun safe and go look for other guns for the shoot.
For folks who don't want to shoot the whole event, one of those guns will be given away in a random drawing of all participants of the side events.
I've attached our flyer, with my contact info, or PM me here, whatever works best!
18EauClaireWIBrownShoot.pdf
