doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Vintage Cup

Hello to all.

I am back from the Vintage Gunners Cup. I took my camper and setup with a wonderful view of the Flurry Event for 5 days. I came early and left late.

It was great fun. George Hopkins set wonderful targets on all 4 of the different courses I shot; small bore, large bore, main event and flurry. I entered 6 events and came away with a Parker vs Fox hat, high 16, high 32, and high loader in flurry.

At this year's Vintage Gunners Cup, the Flurry was sold in several flavors. 2 shooters with paired guns with loaders, single shooter with a pair and a loader, free style pairs or single guns with stuffers to load and my favorite practice. Practice was 50 targets for $25. Anybody could walk up, pay and shoot what ever gun (guns) they had. I think they had 25 shooters try the flurry. I saw young guys shooting with their ladies loading. I had never seen that before. I'll bet they tell all there friends about that event. The trappers had never seen flurry shooting or paired loading, they loved it.

The head count was double last year at over 200. There were 4 active courses on Friday and Saturday. Small Bore, Large Bore, Flurry and Rifle.

It might have appeared that there weren't many folks in attendance. The shooters where there, just were spread out on all the courses and in the vendor tents.

I sold 2 guns, then bought a Thomas Turner LW hammer gun from Heritage Guns. I ordered a custom fitted case slip from Best and bought 2 flats of ammo from RST. I was very active in supporting the vendors. I know of plenty of SxS guns that exchanged hands.

The Vintage Gunners Cup cannot recreate the Vintage Cup of old. 20 years have past. We have lost nearly a generation of friends. There are many fine regional events that draw from the same group of shooters. Not many folks I know can attend them all. Lastly, we haven't made a great success finding new shooters. Watching the younger shooters try the Flurry gave me a great deal of hope that the next generation is getting a taste of what we do.

When I registered on Thursday, my shooter number was 46. At the end there were more than 200.

We cannot schedule a banquet when 75% of the folks don't even pre-register (Count me as guilty). Hosting a private banquet within an hour of Hopkins is hard. There are so many great places for us enjoy nearby. There are places in Chesterton, St Michaels, the Kent Narrows and Easton.

Joe in Charlotte

Hopkins did a great Job good courses. The place is a lot bigger than it first appears. The food was very good I think it had something for everybody, Guns for sale, Practice field, shooting courses rifle courses flurry. good camping. Well run. One drawback Is the hotel I stayed in was a fleabag at $100 per night. but I came to meet and greet and shoot, Not hang out in a hotel I will go back again.

If you want this event to move back to the level of the Orvis era there is one simple solution. Participation.

Our attendance this year was about double last year. This came from word of mouth, advertising, board discussions and folks just deciding to attend. A great deal of work by the Vintage Gunners was put forth.

Even with that, we had low attendance from some groups. You can read the Fox board and get an idea- I can tell you that shooting 4 of us with Fox guns against 5 Parker shooters made it interesting.

We did in fact have get togeathers on Friday & Saturday after the guns were put away- not formal but a fun gathering for an hour or so. Those of us who went had a great time. Good targets, good people.

This event will be the same weekend next year- that is a one year notice to all. Some new events will be added and some of the current offerings will be expanded.

Please consider this event in the future. You will not regret it.

al

I had a great time. Targets were really good. There was an entirely separate course for the main event which was nice, so three separate courses for prelim and main events. Main event was the "tournament" course Hopkins uses for registered shoots.

I shot eight events over three days. Most attendees probably shot multiple rounds as I did. Winscoreonline reports 149 individual shooters for the event, which I think is pretty good. There were certainly many more people including vendors, friends, family, etc. in attendance as well. Met people from Australia, England, Atlanta, Mississippi, Michigan, New York and other distant places. Some new, some familiar. Was a good time.

From a vendors point of view, of course we would always welcome more potential clients but I have to say that compared to the last year or two of the original VC, it was well attended. And that was after a complete cessation when Ray and Melanie very sensibly retired. I think the 'Gang of Three' who got it up and running again did a sterling service to all double gun enthusiasts.
Yes, I didn't sell a pile of guns but I did sell a few and have covered the cost of travelling from the UK 'tooled up'.
I had a LOVELY time with like minded folk, old friends and new.
Ate great seafood.
I got very hot and had to remove a half pound of dust from my displayed gun cases but that's outside gun shows for you.
All in all, I loved it and extend huge thanks to Bob & Barbara, Joe, Matt, Gary, Tom, Alan, Philip and all the many other people who showed me such a great time and consummate friendship.
Good on you!