State-Journal.com - Right on target

State Journal/Kelly Mackey Gary Wilkerson, left, and Will Curlin shoot at the Franklin County Sportsmen's Club. They will be participating 2009 US Open Sporting Clays Championship at the Elk Creek Hunt Club in Owenton.

State Journal/Kelly Mackey Gary Wilkerson, left, Will Curlin, and Rex Pitts pose at the Franklin County Sportsmen's Club. The three will be participating in the 2009 US Open Sporting Clays Championship at the Elk Creek Hunt Club in Owenton.

“Pull!” Gary Wilkerson shouted, aiming his 12-gauge shotgun down the shooting range at the Franklin County Sportsmen’s Club.

Rex Pitts pushed a button that launched an orange target into the air like a Frisbee while Wilkerson and Will Curlin took aim and shot the floating orange target to pieces.

These three men, along with Kent Rhoads, will represent Franklin County in the 2009 U.S. Open Sporting Clay Championship, a national event that will attract shooters from across the country and some international shooters held at Elk Creek Hunt Club in Owenton Tuesday through June 28.

A total of 1,194 are registered to shoot in the event, which is the second-highest competition held by the National Sporting Clays Association behind the National Championship held in San Antonio.

“It’s going to be big for Frankfort,” Wilkerson said. “I don’t think anyone will be able to book a hotel in town during this event with so many people coming in.”

The four Frankfort-area shooters compete in small events about once a month. Rhoads and Wilkerson have competed in the smaller All-American competition earlier this year, their first real competition.

Curlin and Pitts have more national experience under their belts. Curlin has shot in the 2003 U.S. Open in Maryland and Pitts traveled to San Antonio to shoot in the National Championship.

“I probably finished somewhere in the 50s overall at that event,” Curlin said. “I finished third during the preliminary round and they bumped me up a class, but in the main event I couldn’t tell you where I finished.”

Although he didn’t place in the National Championship, Pitts still had quite an experience.

“It was a real unique experience to go down to San Antonio and shoot in a national competition against some of the best in the country,” he said. “I’m not that good of a shooter, but just to be there at the top competition was something special.”

Not many people around Frankfort know about the sport, but the four shooters have noticed an increase in popularity as the U.S. Open comes closer to central Kentucky.

“There have been more people at Elk Creek shooting than there have been in the past,” Curlin said. “Last year there were about 800 shooters at the U.S. Open in Louisiana. There has been an increase in popularity I believe.”

Rhoads, who could not make it to the Franklin County Sportsmen’s Club, added that people tend to be confused on the difference between shooting sporting clays and shooting traps.

“There aren’t a lot of registered sporting clay shooters in Kentucky compared to trap shooters,” he told The State Journal by phone. “A lot of people don’t know the difference between clays and traps, so that may be a reason not many are aware of the sport.”

An important thing about the competition is that the shooters are at an equal advantage. In the golf U.S. Open, a competitor may shoot a course and know every slope, every hazard or every blade of grass if he or she was so committed to the course.

In the sporting clays version of the U.S. Open, however, shooters have no idea where targets will fly – or in some cases roll.

“They’re there setting traps at Elk Creek now,” Pitts said. “No one’s allowed to shoot there because they don’t want anyone to have an unfair advantage. Those people who are setting the traps are devious in where they put them. It’s a mental exercise.”

Curlin knows that a shooter should expect a few surprises when the targets start flying during these competitions.

“I’ve seen two (rolling targets) skimming across the water,” he said. “I’ve seen targets put in upside down so it changes their flight pattern. I’m sure there will be a target next week that I have never seen in my life.”

For the competition, shooters are divided into classes based on skill and experience. Curlin and Pitts will be competing in Class A, two below the highest class, and Wilkerson and Rhoads will compete in Class B.

All shooters entered the competition by paying an entry fee and shooting 500 registered sporting clays prior to the event.