We got interviews from Brandon Powell, Derrick Mein, Able Spires, Gianna Santo, Brian Palmer, Ashley Casperson, and Jonathan Roberts on the Caribbean Cup and a host of other topics, while in attendance at Vero Beach Clay Shooting Sports, for the 2024 Caribbean Classic!
A quick glance back at the last sentence, and there is no need for introduction of these fine people! We sat down with each of them to get their take on the event, shooting, strategies for this time of year, what’s coming next, and a whole lot more!
We were then joined by none other than Anthony Matarese Jr. for a Questions for the Coaches segment. Anyone who knows who Anthony is, knows that they are getting some of the best information available. So tune in and listen up!
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The dead pair podcast is brought to you by the elite experience Elite shotguns and is fueled by fi welcome to the dead pair podcast coming in hot with everything you want to hear about Sporting Clays guti how are you gentlemen thanks for having me Anthony mice Jr how you doing tonight
I’m doing pretty well welcome back David that’s a net positive Cory crew thank you for joining us this even feel awkward with your host Jason Rambo more Red Bull for you and Sean allly woo yeah Christmas let’s do it often imitated but never duplicated it’s the dead Paar podcast and now it’s
Showtime welcome back Mr largon in charge well Jason uh I tell you what man uh how’s life treating you ah dude awesome just got done here with the the uh Caribbean classic of ver hey wait Sean did you hear that part in the intro when she said often imitated but never
Duplicated oh yeah I always hear that well what’s that thing you always say imitation is the best form of flattery always is always is but no anyway uh getting on with it um yeah just wrapping up from the Vero Beach uh Caribbean classic uh you know Sean I I was kind of
Scratching my head because you and I did the of course we did the Dead blast setting targets down there I’m like how are they going to have all these events and all these people and you know it just made me wonder but man they sure
Packed one heck of a punch for such a small place yeah you can tell they’ve done that before and obviously uh you know Brian and his crew do an amazing job of utilizing what I would consider a smaller space compared to a lot of clubs but they really do an
Efficient job of planning everything out getting you through the course uh really wasn’t any backups to speak of um you know everything ran smoothly in my opinion I had a great time yeah absolutely but the what really impressed me too was the targets I mean Rick Hemingway set one course uh Mike Lang
Longo set the other of course you had Benny Wise in there helping out I mean it you know I think uh I think Brian himself set some stuff I mean it was targets were phenomenal and you know I was talking to W Cherry he’s like man
These the best targets I’ve shot in a long time and Chad Rob Chad Roberts was there he said the same thing and I mean the guys loved it um of course Brandon pal obviously didn’t have any issues with it shooting a 99 on Saturday and 96 on Sunday that is just incredible that’s
Amazing absolutely amazing complete Talent there that’s amazing we’ve got some really cool interviews we got to get to Sean but until then before we even get started on the interviews we’ve got a really big turning talk to get to it’s turning talk brought to you by score chaser
All right guys this is a big one so sit tight first up Illinois State at Rock Ridge Sportsman’s Club August 1st through 4th then the Diamond Classic at Greater Houston is September 19th through the 22nd next up Washington State at lant farms August 14th through the 18th then we’ve got Montana State at
Blue Creek Sport Shooting Complex August 1st through the 4th then the Tennessee State at Cross Creek Clays September 19th through the 22nd last but not least Minnesota State at Hunts Point Gun Club August 21st through the 25th also want to make a quick mention uh for those
Interested there is a youth Clinic uh the second annual Indiana shotgun Clinic uh coaches there are going to be David radulovich Chad Roberts and Ricky Marshall Jr uh it’s April 6th and the 7th at Indian Creek shooting center all the info is up on score Chaser there’s
Only 52 spots available so if you want to get in on that I would not wait I would get in there and get Reg as soon as you can you know Sean I was there last year I went to help Chad and David for that um after the Ohio State shoot
And uh it what an incredible opportunity for these young Shooters I mean you know you’ve got just absolutely phenomenal Talent there and now Rick’s joining the club uh with coaching these these kids um I mean that’s that’s a fantastic opportunity anybody up in the Northeast
That has a youth shooter I would get all over that yeah with David Chad and Ricky there you’re pretty much covering all the bases yep for sure well Hey listen we caught up with the HOA man himself uh Mr Brandon pow uh we caught up with the
Ladies HOA Miss GI Santo we have got also Derek mine and Abel spes uh We’ve we’re going to hear from Brian Palmer and Ashley casperson and of course John Roberts was there uh so we’re going to hear from all these people sea let’s get to it right
Now all right sitting here with with Derek mine and AEL Spire what’s up fellas not much how are you guys how you guys enjoying the weather down here can’t beat it it’s amazing yeah better better than up north right oh yeah so okay what is it about this tournament
Don’t not just the weather what what what else draws you here why do you guys like this place so much for me it started it was a great place to bring the family um you know the this shoot’s nice cuz you space out your shooting times you’re really only shooting one
Event a day so you got time you can go spend with your family and go do some things go to the beach go to the zoos you know that kind of stuff this is a actually my first time to this tournament I’ve been here before uh one
Of my favorite clubs I feel like it’s a for the size of the acreage on the facility I mean it it’s a it’s like a high-end golf course I mean it’s a beautiful they do an amazing job um I run I run a club back in Oklahoma so to
To see all the little details that they do here it uh makes me really appreciate it so does it give you some ideas of stuff you can do around your Club as well sometimes or um little feet off of that I don’t think we can get our
Grasses green there yeah right so what did you guys end up shooting today uh I shot at the East course shot at the East course yeah okay that goes for two of us we both shot at it okay now Mike long Longo set the targets I what do you
Think about the targets overall I thought it was a great course I mean the the stuff I missed was not stuff I should be missing or most people aren’t going to struggle with um the hard targets as you’d call them are I felt like I did well on those today but I
Mentally I was not in a good place and it showed making stupid mistakes here and there gotta able what about you uh I thought it was a great course um there wasn’t nothing over the top but I think everything you just kind of had to be
Prepared and try not to be too careful on and and see them well and shoot them well you know I mean there’s not a lot of room here but they do a lot in the space that they have so there is a lot of transitioning targets and I mean
There’s a few big big targets out on the East course but I mean a lot of tight window stuff a lot of fast shot stuff um I mean is that something you guys yeah just Technical and kind of the speed change you know a lot of targets had
Angle and not much speed on them so we’re used to having a lot of speed where you guys see some gap on them and here you’re kind of almost having to start on the back of the bird to to keep from over leading them you know yeah got
Hold points and break points were a big part of the course and if you you missed one of your hold points or tried to break it in the wrong spot um I did that a lot today and it didn’t work you know that you had to shoot them exactly where
The target Setter intended them to be broke so talk about that for a minute able let’s go back to you um you said you run a club in Oklahoma yes sir uh how big is that um so it’s Snake Creek shooting sports we sit on about 150
Acres um we’ve got three courses a pistol and rifle okay so when you come here obviously everything’s way tighter right um and you can tell I’m sure you set targets at your course so you understand that they’re up against a challenge here with some of these but I
Think they did a pretty good job overall as far as yeah I mean if you if you pay much attention as the target Setter side you know you can see that the windows are very tight not only are the wind this tight from shopall or trying but
Keeping the targets out of the next station you know so they can’t have these long flight passs on these targets making them do something cuz you’re going to see it in the next station so I think they did I mean I thought the targets were amazing for you know what
They had to work with yeah for sure well what do you guys think I mean uh obviously it’s the first day of the main and I shot the east side as well as you guys did uh and then Brandon rips off a 99 I mean what do you think about that
Well unfortunately we got to watch it he was on our Squad okay all right I mean that that’s an incredible score right it is is and you know he he took advantage of everything that you’re supposed to break and then he had one of those days
That he was on on the hard stuff and when you do that you shoot a score that seems unreachable so um off topic a little bit Derek where you at with the Olympics and qualifiers and all that tell us tell us what’s going on with you um I’m getting
Ready uh our second half of the Olympic trials is in March in Tucson um and after that I’ll know whether or not I’m on the Olympic team um at at the moment I’ve got a small lead um so I I’ve set myself up well it’s just a matter of taking advantage of
That and getting the job done yeah uh Abel what do you do anything outside of Sporting Clays like what Derek does you ever dable a little bit into any of that or uh I shot a lot of Bunker when I was in high school age so probably 10 12
Years ago actually Derek was kind of making a run at it the first time back in those days and uh so he shot together some out at Colorado Springs but I’ve shot it enough to you know really you know know how hard it is to get to where
He’s gotten you know it’s not you know it’s not a game easily mastered you know a lot of people think of trap and it being you know trap and easy to do but I’ve seen him compete on that scale and it’s uh he’s done something that not
Only has really no other Sporting Clay Shooters done but really people that are you know solo into that game haven’t done in my opinion yeah Sean and I we attempted bunker a couple of times and it’s very humbling attempted attempted you know there’s the the there is no such thing as sustain lead
Or no it’s grip it and rip it and pre that’s about all I I could do there but no I commend anybody that does it and you know especially at the level Derek has I me it’s just incredible so um any last shout out AEL I know you said you
Got your course anything you want to throw out real quick uh if you’re ever passing through the Tulsa area come see me there we’re about 20 minutes south of Tulsa off Highway 75 Snake Creek shooting sports and uh ask for me and I’d be happy to show you around
Cool uh you know for me I uh I took on a new sponsor this year um I’m now working with Ranger nice classes so I’m excited excited to work with them and uh you know we’re uh we’re working on some new and exciting stuff going to be coming
Out later this year and into next next year so looking forward to all that now we got more reason to call in heck yeah uh you guys shooting anything else down here during the Florida swing uh just the Jack Links okay cool well awesome to talk to you guys and catch up
Great seeing you great meeting you great meeting you guys we wish you guys the best of luck for the rest of the weekend Absolut you the all right we got quite the round table here first of all ladies first sorry y’all Miss Ashley the woman that helps Brian Palmer’s wife keep this
Whole place under wraps uh and of course Brian Palmer and Mr John Roberts John you’re new to us tell us what you do yes sir uh my name is John Roberts I’m from Markham Park just west of Fort Lauderdale we have a Sporting Clays ski trap and rifle pistol range down there
And I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Brian Palmer uh when he was previously in the Sporting Clay circuit at a a tournament when I went to go check him out and he came down to shoot some of my targets and when I saw you guys advertising for the dead pair podcast I
Was here shooting and he invited me to work here at the Caribbean oh nice very nice um Ashley Casper I know Brian I’m dodging you like a bullet Ashley casperson you just had a baby congratulations and you were like I’ve got to get back there to keep these men
Under WS this shoot is obviously the the biggest shoot of the year for Vero Beach talk about the behind the scenes what what the staff has to go through to get ready for this it takes pretty much the whole year um as soon as it ends it it
Starts again we um have to get everything ready from ordering all the trophies the bags making sure registration is set hiring obviously the beautiful ladies that um do all the registration and just making everything run smoothly and help the guys do whatever they need yeah um I I know
You’re chopping it a bit Sean just give me a second I am biting my time patiently on in from that question Brian um you’ve had to gear up on the outside staff as well and this year you brought in so not only did Benny y set targets you set targets Rick Hemingway set
Targets Mike long Longo set targets my missing somebody uh Derek mindset the uh Federal challenge that you haven’t shot yet yep uh yeah we like to think that we probably assembled in our opinion the greatest uh staff ever to run a sporting club play tournament and I will put my
Money where my mouth is if you can show me somebody with more experience than Rick Hemingway and his crew and Mike Longo and all the people that come with that uh John over here has been um down at Markham for what’ you say 17 years we
Had we did it up the other day there’s 230 240 years of experience out here uh so the crew and then inside it goes without saying uh we have the best Trappers in Florida uh that that goes without saying U we may be fortunate to have a lot of retirees down here that
Love the sport but no I would uh I would be more than willing to bet uh Eminem’s got it going on up there but I I would say that down here in the South this is probably the best team ever assembled that’s very cool all right let’s talk a
Bit about numbers I mean you guys had an impressive turnout do you guys know off hand what the total numbers of Shooters was uh 606 Shooters 450 is in the main and roughly 2350 event spots total uh between all the events uh which is up a little bit over
Last year we got rained out on Monday uh quite a bit you know some people came out and braved it but uh we only threw maybe 120 out of a roughly 150 on each of the sub gauges uh in FAS we lost 30 or 40 participants which is usually a
Really full event but we’re really happy with the turnout um what’s really cool uh and and I’m going to harp on this team that we put together because we’re really proud of it um we’ve always known our limitations here and it’s really been important for us to have a shoot uh
That runs smoothly and really has a great flow to it uh so we’ve really been conservative with the amount of entries and what we’ve done uh we’re blowing it up next year uh we feel like you know our same little car just got a
Big V8 put in it with Rick and his crew uh so we’re going to sell out everything we can do uh we’re going to be looking at doing roughly 3,300 event spots next year uh same events we’re just going to add some rotations what people don’t see
Behind the scenes is the filling between rotations running the water truck uh filling up the water coolers you know John jumped in today and was filling water coolers and he’s supposed to be filling traps but he was so far ahead of schedule because we had such a good team
That he jumped in elsewhere and that’s uh that’s what we can do with this team and we’re really excited to bring the same team back next year and really just blow the blow it out of the water with the the amount of stuff we’re willing to do well and Brian we were talking
Earlier uh this year is the first year you had the clubhouse and I know that you said in Prior years you always had to go offsite to do the dinner we had a wonderful dinner here tonight the food was excellent Marsh Landing they did a great job yeah and and I’m telling you
What there was what maybe 3 400 people here tonight for dinner I just I just was in the back talking with Marsh Landing uh they did about 385 plates wow wow and the food was fantastic everybody was here hung out we gave away the dead
Pair uh give away the golf cart for kids and Clays and uh Wayne Choice what a guy that’s awesome better guy congratulations for Wayne that was a heck of a thing that he was actually here to win that cart yeah for sure I think he was in shock for a
Little bit he didn’t know what happened no that’s really cool I appreciate you guys doing that and letting us be a part of that well no thank you for having us here letting us do it no it’s uh it’s great what you guys do for the sport and anything we can do to
Help but uh let’s ask Ashley some awkward questions cuz she always blushes it’ll be a lot of fun that’s right nobody can see you blush on radio so it’s fine um Ash talk about I mean this is I I I can’t wrap my head around this right because I mean
Yeah I’ve got a little girl and I know what wife and I went through when she was born and then I walk in the door on Wednesday and here you are holding a baby and working at registration I mean that’s got to be a lot to juggle
Honestly I got lucky with the child he is great he likes people so an noys so he just kind of hung out and we made it work nice wow I mean yeah I still can’t wrap my head around that either how do you keep it all straight Ashley with a great
Schedule and most of the time you just gamble it and just go for it okay all right well sometimes it works that way it really want to thank a lot of the people that uh that made this happen uh first and foremost is all the shooters customers uh friends of the company
Everybody that was here to make that happen uh we appreciate everyone coming this doesn’t happen without the the Gerber family Cassie and Murray supporting us all the way the team here at voo Beach clay shooting sports and Elite shotguns uh Coler zie cesarini Natalie’s juice Calvin Reams in the Farm
Bureau Federal Nicks Plumbing White Flyer rosini uh the Great people at Backwoods Quail Club and all the support uh they offer everybody in the sport Rocky Creek uh the wongo family of course Mike and Sarah uh did a great job helping us out Marsh Landing for going on with the food
Uh Derek mine helping us out with the federal challenge targets he did a great job uh our neighbor Tom Hammond of course he helped everybody out with all the parking for all the trailers and such so big thanks to Tom uh golf carts of Vero Beach doing a lot for us here uh
PMS Mike and Granny it was great to see him Bill and Luis Terry are Epic and putting the shoot on they help us with the trophies and everything like that year in and year out absolutely fantastic people Becky Rogers helping with registration of course these gentlemen with the dead pair podcast we
Uh we can’t get the word out without them uh kids and Clays and Sawgrass Armory and the biggest one of course is my wife Carrie uh we put a lot into putting these shoots on and uh she helps out at home and then with Ashley going down pregnant this year which of course
Is great we’re glad to have Parker with us but uh Carrie picked up a lot of the slack and I can’t thank her enough so thank you for everybody that came thank you for everybody that’s going to come next year and a big thanks to the dead
Pair guys for getting this message out thanks well we know Mr Murray Gerber had to Le we wanted to have him on here but obviously he’s a busy guy I got to think he’s got to be overly pleased with how everything’s been going so far yeah he
Uh he’s very pleased obviously um M Murray’s a very very happy guy uh We’ve uh we’ve done a lot of big things here we’ve done a lot of big things with Elite uh with his support obviously and his his guidance to help us with a lot of this stuff he he uh unbelievably
Supportive anything we need we have um and I uh I couldn’t thank him enough you know we can’t do uh what we do without a lot of people obviously one of one of the biggest ones as well as our guest you know it it it takes a it takes a
Driving force and he is indeed that yeah um John being new to the scene here I’m sure you probably saw the challenges with setting targets here I mean it this is a challenging place to set good targets I heard from everybody today they understand that when they’re shooting but they were very impressed
With the targets what were some of the stuff you know behind the scenes setting all that up that you guys face going into it I mean it’s there’s uh weather conditions you have winds that kicked up you know varying from our Mondays and then dying back down uh the
Angle of the Sun the you know just the general uh shot fall and other Shooters being mindful that each IND individual station isn’t being distracted by targets from another station which can change from day to day so those guys are out there at the cadon checking every
Over again just keeping it perfect and and the level of communication that goes on between you know the the big names that we know the luong go and the Hemingways um Ethan Evan and the other guys Cody uh spinning wrenches out there actually making these things 100% reliable making sure every battery is
Topped making sure every it needs to be so is this like an overall collaboration or did like everybody kind of focus on the events that they were setting it’s a well-oiled machine everybody has a specific section to be at but every one of us is covering the others back if as
Soon as I turned around there was another guy doing something and if they needed help I was there for them had so many weeks of great preparation um from Cody and the guys here it just works you know what Brian likes to say is I like seeing you sit around that means
Everything’s working the way it should be people are shooting and we don’t have to hustle there there was one minor crisis Cody and uh Evan and Ethan those guys about five minutes and the station was back up and running yeah actually that happened right in front of us in
Our Squad and I was I mean it look like a NASCAR pit crew out there I mean they were on it they that’s exactly right that’s that’s the culmination of 20 years of experience these guys know exactly what they’re looking for and I mean they can diagnose things on the
Absolutely um real quick Ashley we were talking earlier we’re putting the details together for the dead pair blast are we allowed to at least say the date Ashley can leak whatever she wants she’s the boss around here I just keep her happy do do you want to do you want
To leak the date at it’s going to be the first week in December 3rd through the 8th the third oh there you go all right we’ll probably have that up on Scorch Acer here within the next couple weeks or so so 200 bird Main Event 200 bird ooho he’s dropping more Sean we’re
Getting more drops bigger and better $100 back to class oh wow oh my wow $50 back in some of the side events we’re talking y cash bring we’re going to convince Mr Roberts to come back up and help us out with that one as well absolutely seen his videos that he
Does oh I want to brag on him everybody that has a Facebook page has seen his videos now mind you you would think that there’s somebody out here doing videography as good as the videos are he is doing that while keeping happy as much as he’s running around and doing I
Will touch a little bit on how we had it laid out um when you have a rick Hemingway and a Michael wongo you just set them up in two teams an East team and a West team and I stay out of their way uh they each had a team but it was
Kind of cool it was like you know this is the first year I’ve kind of got to watch it from like 50,000 ft and as many targets and stuff um because of all the stuff we’ve added I needed to be more places uh different places there goes your golf
Cart there go sounds healthy but uh what was really cool to watch is if if you guys are Baseball fans it was like watching backup like a ball hit to the Outfield as soon as as soon as the play shifted one way the whole team kind of
Moved we haven’t had a single trap get below half full um these guys are on it um they’re it’s just incredible to watch um and and again I hope we can get time because it’s uh makes my life easy I like easy well you know and that’s the
Thing is and I hope everybody listening understands I mean we’ve talked about it before W went into the dead po blast and that was for 200 plus Shooters 450 this year and oh oh he’s he’s already given us a quot Sean wow okay he’s already given he’s setting it high but I mean
We’re talking over three times the shooters at this event and so I know what it took to set a small event you know with a main event a prelim and yeah we had some 50 bird side events this place is I mean think about it you got
200 bird main let me go through this 200 bird main 200 bird prelims two 100 bird prelims sorry 100 bird fee task 12 20 28 410 gauge super sporting what am I missing we have the Monday shoot we we still have a shoot on Monday 100 bird
Like that’s right see you later shoot um long bird we had a long bird uh we paid out uh almost $4,500 to the IRS if you’re not listening Derek mine winner winner did great did great um but no it’s uh it’s uh we have our
Limitations with what we can do so we do have to stretch it over a longer format but what we really like is it makes for a really relaxed event uh you can’t cram a lot of stuff into a day it’s just not available uh so it’s a lot of people
Sitting around this gorgeous Clubhouse uh talking telling stories uh hopefully buying a few guns off the wall but uh we really we really enjoy having everybody here it’s a long event It’s a Grind um most big shoots are four or five days we go for eight Yeah Ashley wants to do 10
Cuz she she drives us hard um speaking of which you were talking about buying some bang bangs when you when we got we’re down here for the dead pair blast that was the Grand reveal of the clubhouse but since then you’ve got the Pro Shop up and running oh man you want
To talk about grown man Candy Land I mean it is that phenomenal um it’s just a shotgun adoption agency we do the best we can to pair up nice new owners with uh Lonesome guns looking for good homes they’re really cute they’re pretty they they don’t eat much uh husbands if
You’re listening uh it’s real easy all guns come with earrings helps you get them in the house uh we don’t have earrings but you can pick them up on the way home right uh Miss Ashley will help you out with that transaction uh and you know John over here will probably video you
Doing it so whatever you want to doste a lot of eye candy in there yeah well let me change gears real quick all right so right now uh we shot the first day this is Saturday Brandon Pal’s leading it with a 99 Tod hitch with a 97 brag kid
Right behind him with a 96 and Jasper Copeland with a 94 any calls predictions on who’s going to win this thing you can’t go against the national champ sorry boys all right so you think it’s going to be Brandon Ashley any difference for you I don’t know it’s a tough one but
He’s probably I about to say probably going with Brandon John uh I was watching Todd he’s looking real smooth okay so we got two votes for Brad one vote for Todd so we’ll see how it all shakes out tomorrow yeah yeah it’ll be exciting it’ll be exciting coming down
And uh hopefully they all enjoy themselves well I guess uh you know long story short you know this has been a great event it’s been running smoothly everybody’s happy couldn’t be better weather I mean honestly it’s just been gorgeous here so uh obviously bigger better next year yeah yeah bigger better
Next year um I think we’ve set the bar pretty high yeah um I don’t uh I’d like to think that everybody does shoots as as good as they can but I think we’ve we’ve done pretty well uh kudos to the team I’m just I’m the guy that makes
Phone calls and pays people money to come help us out um but we all have our part oh yeah yeah but no it’s uh it’s been really good uh we could there goes our golf cart again Wayne Choice all over and out um but no uh bigger and
Better next year um always forward uh you’ll never see us go backwards uh whatever we can do to uh continue to support the sport both you know here and on the elite side you know we have a a lot of big shoots that we intend to uh
Intend to go to we have uh our mobile showrooms going on the road we’re excited uh RC winding down we’re pretty much here around but our big stuff uh we’re getting to where we can kind of get out and travel um we’ll be up at Backwoods for the Gator cup that’s going
To be a good one uh Florida State shoot coming up uh that’ll be a good one for us we made the world oh of course M no doubt yeah yeah and thank you guys too for for talking to Brian and everyone behind the scenes I think you know our
Goal is to to throw on a good show um but you know the the guys really do put in the miles out there to make it you know seamless for for all the customers all right guys well it’s been fantastic sitting down with you and absolutely having a great time can’t wait for
Tomorrow and get this whole thing under wraps thank you guys see you the all right we’re with the ladies 2024 Caribbean classic Champion missana Santo what do you think girl I’m really excited are you okay so first of all tell us what you shot I shot a 175 175
And how much did you best second place in the ladies do you know I think four I think Grace shot a 171 Grace was right behind you yeah okay okay well let’s back up here a minute you won the prelim I did the HOA for the prelim right no I
W I got runner up behind Dylan Thompson okay but you were in a shoot off with Brandon pal I was and somehow or another you managed to win that talk about that uh that was probably one of probably the best day of my life honestly um yeah I
Was I I wasn’t nervous I don’t know I’ve been really working on my mental game and I went into it with full confidence and um he shot a five out of eight and instead of looking at that in a bad way I looked at it as okay he gave me a good
Window and I went in there and I went lost dead dead pair dead pair dead pair and I shot a seven out of eight and nice yeah it was awesome credit credit to Don Grant did you hear that Sean she said her mental game yeah we we say it all
The time Donald get your noodle fixed so yeah we we came up to you I think we were trying to get there to see it and then we came up to you and you had kind of like this glow about you like you were like on cloud n i mean has it
Really sunk in at this point that you beat the current national champion um I don’t I don’t think it really has but I still am on Cloud9 with that so well that’s good for you good for you well jna what is it about this event uh of
Course you know I don’t want to ask the the same Blandon questions you know how are the targets and all that other stuff we know there was great Target Setters here see know you know there’s good targets but what is it about this event um that you love so much and and this
Club um well I’ve been coming here for eight years now and I love the people and I love the environment and being able to see how it’s grown I remember I came here when I was 13 and it was just a little conx box and there was probably
I think 150 Shooters and the way that it’s grown and just the people everyone’s so awesome here well a lot of times up up in Ohio up in the northeast of you know the frozen tundra we’ll talk about like mid season targets and you know starting season targets and up
There they kind of warm us up you know maybe not so tough to get going here you’re just jumping right into the Flames um is this really the start of your year is these Florida sing sheets yeah yeah this was my I shot the prelim
At the RC cup but that was it so this was my first first weekend out of the year now next up you’re heading to the jacklinks right yep I’ll be there all right do you have a goal for for that tournament um or you don’t have to share
It but it’d be nice to hear it um um just to shoot my absolute best and I know what that is now so I’m going to my my goal is to go into it with full confidence knowing what I’m capable of and just having a great time with all my
Friends well you know I was talking to your dad it’s funny you said confidence I was talking to your dad in the parking lot and you know he said you had a bad start today uh but then you’re like you know what I got to get my confidence
Back and you just started wrecking stuff so is that credit to Don being able to bring yourself back present and not worry about the misses and start going back into know what you know how to do 100% gotcha well absolute pleasure to talk to you as always and we wish you
The very best of luck at Jack Links and hopefully we’ll see you on the podium there yes of course thank you very much oh and by the way congratulations on your new sponsor kids and Clay yes yes it’s so awesome I’m excited well now see you should have been there at the dead
You know for give at the dinner to give away the deadp golf cart but we’ll let that slide just just one time so well congratulations Jonna and uh look forward to seeing you next weekend thank thank you look forward to seeing you too the de all right sitting here with Brandon
Pal the 2024 Caribbean classic Champion um Brandon start with this you put up monster scores all weekend 99 on Saturday 96 on Sunday for a 195 and there’s one thing I want to jump to you real quick I noticed you’re real analytical of Shooters you know whether you’re trying to learn something or
Whatnot I know you made the comment you know you watched used to watch George digweed when you were 14 years old right and you had some good Shooters on your squad I mean I think you had Derrick and Abel on your squad were you what is your
Opinion were you just able to minimize the mistakes or was it a certain method or something what what do you think was your ability to best everybody this weekend I just think that when you shoot with guys that are you got to shoot with people that are as good as you um you
Know Derrick’s won a lot of stuff dere uh Abel you know he’s a hell of a shot himself I think that when you put yourself in a squad or you surround yourself with people that are good like that it pushes you in my my instance it
Seems like it pushes me to make less mistakes right um now I know you shot the RC cup is that correct correct so is is this kind of like this floor swing is this your kickoff for the year to get the year started it will be you know
Everybody’s kind of coming out of hibernation hadn’t been a whole lot of shooting going on so we come down here you know some people choose to shoot all of them some people just show up shoot Jack Links but um we’re down here for the month we’re going to shoot we shot
RC Caribbean Jack Links and I think we’re going to do the Florida challenge while we’re here going up to the S Hol okay um another thing too I want to touch on is you know you and I kind of talked briefly about this you do a lot
Of shooting in an event because soon as you’re done with competition you’re straight over at to makeer break or this weekend at Caribbean you had the longbird and man you you’re just over there just hammering is it just the joy of shooting your shotgun or just any
Kind of competition even if it is a side game you just really enjoy I think a lot of it’s just pulling the trigger I really enjoy it I love the game um you know I fell in love with it when I was a kid first time I did it so a lot of
Passion there what did you think overall of Vero Beach you know the new Clubhouse the targets they brought in uh of course Mike Lang wongo set Saturday’s course for you and then um the um the Sunday course was set by Rick Hemingway um and I say for you because that was the
Rotations you were on um but what do you think overall I mean obviously it’s limited space but overall what about the Targets in the venue I mean Palmer’s got a got a beautiful Club there you know one of the probably one of the nicest clubhous in the country um you know as
Far as how much space they have they’re very limited very short alleys to throw targets so they don’t go into other fields um I don’t think you could you could ask for anybody better than Mike Lang Longo Rick Hemingway to set the targets I mean my opinion Mike Lango is
Probably one of the best in the game it’s setting targets Rick doesn’t set as much as he used to Rick’s Rick’s great though he you know two top-notch guys to set the targets I think that they did a really good job with no more space than
They had there with what they did and they created I think it was awesome yeah and you know you’re not the only one at the top of this game that even off the mic people are just praising what they did there as far as I thought they were
Excellent um I really did um talk about the mental side of it I mean coming into this you’re fresh off the National Championship last fall and then you know here it is we’re starting the season you’re already starting to win again is it just kind of like keeping that
Confidence rolling or is it just hey look I’m going to go out and do the best I can let the chips fall where they may that’s you know and that’s kind of the approach that I like to take you know you can’t be the best at anything you
Know like Tiger Woods Michael Jordan you can’t those guys can’t win every single day when they’re out playing it’s part of being an athlete you can I do I do think that you can be more consistent than the rest and that’s what I try to
Do is I just try to go I try to shoot have a good time and stay consistent if you’re consistently at the top you know from tournament to tournament day in and day out you’re going to win you’re going to win a lot well moving on to uh now the
Jacklinks probably the largest purse you’re going to see all year in this country um is does that add pressure for you or no it’s just a clay target and I’m going to do my job not really everything’s the same you can’t let that kind of stuff get in the way because
When you add the amount of pressure that there is already on the level that a lot of us top guys compete at I think that that’s one of the worst things you can do is think about well I got a chance to actually make some good money this
Weekend nothing changes you’re just at a different Club just bigger payout um one other thing I wanted to ask you too Brandon I know I I promise you only a few minutes here so I won’t keep you too long um you know being around you in the last week your phone’s blowing up
Constantly people W lessons um are you booked out for quite a ways because the competitions that are coming up or do you have some spots open coming up I’ve got availability I’m just trying to to fit all that in in between all of my shooting you know I’m not ready to give
Up the competing part of the game yet to teach fulltime even though I consider myself a fulltime instructor because this is what I do for a living I still want to be able to compete and I feel like that you know when you’re competing and you’re winning you’re kind of
Proving yourself on and off the field so that in return is going to bring more lessons at the end of the day gotcha well I know we we were trying to catch up after Nationals and schedule’s just mix matched and everything um so we didn’t get to sit down with you maybe
We’ll get you here in the near future but um until then anything you want to get out there while we can I mean you want to throw any kind of contact information out for coaching or anything like that yeah you can you can reach me on my Cale which is uh 423 326
6959 or you can contact me through my email at Pro shooter 86@gmail.com awesome well Brandon thank you appreciate it very much spend a few minutes with us and uh any any last words of advice I mean we got a lot of new shooters that listen to this program
As well as competitive Shooters if you had to throw one tip out there what would you give everybody I think everybody needs to try to be not so serious I think that you know you you take the fun part it’s supposed to be shooting a shotgun every day
Outdoors you know is it’s supposed to be a fun Sport and I think people lose that and they lose sight of that and they try too hard and when you try to make something happen it it’s hard to make it happen you kind of just it’ll all fall
Into place you just got to go out have a good time and the numbers that you’ll shoot the numbers they’ll fall into place every time you pull the trigger you’re learning every time I’m out shooting make a break or longbird you know I’m standing there because I love
To do it but it’s fun and I’m learning as I go I feel like it works that applies for everybody in the game awesome Brandon thank you again appreciate it and like I said maybe we’ll catch up here in the near future for a sit down yes sir thank you I enjoyed
It all right we’ve got Anthony mates and anony is gonna answer a couple quick questions from our listeners Anthony how you doing tonight doing well thank you cool I know you’ve been here and done that so this is no surprise to you I’m going to get right into it uh writes uh
Shooters like Anthony David Zack and Corey all came up from youth shooting 20 plus years ago and now are at the Pinnacle of the sport I often feel like I hear those guys saying they don’t practice as much through the whole year and just tend to focus on the week or so
Leading up to a big shoot meanwhile other Shooters such as Wendel cherry and myself started shooting this sport much later in life and as such it seems like we tend to practice year round or more regularly to keep consistent um and if this is so do you feel that learning to
Shoot at a young age uh as in earlier in life helps get you programmed due to the attributes of a young person’s brain easier versus a shooter that came along later in life and learns to shoot with an older adult brain uh yeah good question I mean I think I think there’s
A couple parts to the question I think number one is um repetition and learning whether you’re older or younger is you know definitely a key to developing your subconscious and then developing Therefore your abil to perform consistently uh Under Pressure um so whether you’re 12 years old or 15 years
Old or 40 years old or 55 years old and you’re and you’re in your phase of really learning the game good practice good fundamentals and then repetition with good practice and good fundamentals to execute that technique over and over is definitely going to be something that’s required regardless um back to the question
Question about age I think it’s fairly well documented that if you were to look up any sport or musical instrument or learning a language that your brain learns easier at a young age right you know so our sport is primarily uh played by people that are actually older in life you know
Somewhere from 40 plus if we start looking at our people that are shooting competitively and that’s because you need time and resources to be able to do it right so think that anyone can learn I think that it is harder as you’re older um but I don’t think that’s unique
To shooting right so if we were you know if I wanted to learn to play the piano and my daughter does play the piano and her and I went to lessons every day and she’s nine and I’m 39 I I tend to believe she’s going to actually Advance
Quicker than I am um May maybe not okay but I think most things are learned easier at a younger age and I’m not really sure of any things that that where that doesn’t hold true so to answer the question yes probably you know probably need more repetition
Probably need more frequency um do I you know can you shoot too much can you shoot too frequent can you you know if you don’t take a break can that be problematic yeah because you have to stay I think there’s two things that you have to do when you take a break number
One is you need to stay motivated so a break helps you be stay motivated when you come back and then also a break gives your mind a chance to shut your conscious mind off if you’re working on things and kind of forget about some of the things that were you were so
Conscious about you know so sometimes when you come back you’re instantly shooting pretty well because your your conscious mind has calmed down because you weren’t in an active practice process where you’re where you’re actively working on something so I think to answer the question yes it probably
Is more difficult yes you probably do need more frequency but I don’t think that’s unique to sporting C gotcha gotcha that’s very fair all right and along the same lines uh this this kind of Falls in that same realm uh we got another question here do you think
There’s a point in a Shooter’s career either due to age or the number of total targets they’ve shot where he or she would feel comfortable enough to hang the gun up for longer stretches with the confidence and knowing that that won’t hurt their performance and as such just
Needs a small tuneup say shortly before the big event uh yeah I mean kind of the same question in in in one regard as as the last one but um you know in some regard what’s the number what’s the amount um um you know it’s probably pretty significant right you know and I
Think anyone can take a one- month break I don’t care if you’re it’s been shooting for a year or two and that’s it and that’s you know you’ve shot you know 20,000 targets and you take a one month break I don’t think that kills anyone okay okay I think when you start going
Like what I’ve just done you know and I have done some hunting through the winter time but that’s only probably shot you know 10 boxes a case of shells or something in the winter time um hunting and then I’ve shot another person’s gun during a lesson for another
Box or two maybe in the last since the Nationals so you know I’ve taken a break from all of November December essentially three full months you know uh November December January um you know you probably need to be you know 100,000 practice Targets in before I think a
Three-month break is advis you know is advisable you know so 100,000 you know if I had to give you a number because that’s kind of what they asked for but you know I just picked that number out of my head I don’t I don’t know if the number is really 75 or
200 well Jason we got a ways to go buddy I mean I think you got to shoot have to have 100,000 shots under your belt whether it’s you know practice or combination of pract before you start taking a three-month Break um you know and if you shot 10,000 rounds a year you
Know of practice and compettition then you need 10 years you know before I think that happens if you shot 20,000 rounds a year you need 5,000 if you shot 5,000 rounds a year 20 years gotcha perfect thank you Anthony well Sean this is your first Caribbean cup what do you
Think I I really enjoyed myself I truly like shooting down there it’s such a nice course the scenery is gorgeous um they do I mean the the course is immaculate that’s the one thing that stands out to me I mean it is so clean so groomed you think you’re on some kind
Of like highend PGA golf course it’s that nice of a place yeah um and you know of course the new Clubhouse doesn’t hurt anything right so uh that was man that is that is sweet that was awesome to see how many people actually stuck around for the dinner I mean it was
Really cool and by the way everyone uh just you know we drew our winner for the uh dead pair golf cart giveaway and he was there so um that was really cool he was super excited Sean I mean he was cruising that thing around all night
Long and the next day so he was super excited about that um yeah and and kids and Clay is arranging to have that delivered I think he lives in Maryland if I wasn’t mistaken I think he was from originally from Maryland but he was there on the patio when we gave it away
And we were able to raise just north of I think it was $ 13,000,000 yeah so yeah that’s a chunk of change so great great amount of money thank you for all the support for the people that bought raffle tickets uh all that money went to
A fantastic cost and uh kids and clays ronal McDonald House is better off for yep absolutely uh we and very big thank you to Brent for donating that golf cart that was very gracious of him and uh we we we were able to raise a lot of money
For a really good cause Sean allly are we still sticking to the dead pair challenge take some one at least one person a month shooting yep I took care of my January and I don’t know what excuses you made so you’re back one month my January’s taken care of um February I’ve been
Traveling here so and the weather hasn’t been really good at the beginning of of February in Ohio but I got to make up one for February here and then by the time this comes that will be in March so definitely got to keep the uh hammer down and keep people getting out there
And and introducing them to the sport and showing them what the great uh great stuff there is involved with this whole thing about shooting Sporting Clays absolutely and look I know it’s in the outro music but I cannot Sean and I could not do what we do every week we
Cannot thank them enough the folks at Elite shotguns foke USA um you know Atlas traps Rhino chokes odor proo Technologies re Ranger uh Vero Beach clay shooting sports the lovely Miss Don Grant um and of course did I say score Chaser Sean if I didn’t if I didn’t then
Last but not least uh score Chaser uh Sean allly these people help us out a ton Yep they’re what uh makes it h possible for us to keep bringing this to you week after week um and they are our main support for uh financially keeping this thing moving along because it is
Not inexpensive as everybody knows to travel to all these shoots give you the coverage give you all the low down and dirties on all the stuff that’s going on uh and this is how we meet and greet everybody man this is this is always been a treat for us to go around and
Meet the people that listen to our show and and uh you know especially for you know gosh I don’t know I it’s countless man we’ve met so many great people and made so many good friendships and relationships over the last few years um it’s mind-blowing yeah so if you do take
Someone new out shooting and they really you know they get bit by the spor and Clay bug introduce them to this podcast introduce them to our sponsors because they have wonderful products they won’t be spending money in the wrong direction and then if they really really really
Like the bug we hope that they sign up at the NCA and start shooting some register targets um you know I mean this is what it’s all about so um we’re going to keep pushing and we’re going to keep bringing you folks the best that we can
Every week um I mean I don’t know how much educational these interviews will be for everybody this week but you know I tried to dig into to Brandon a little bit try to dig into g a little bit and get what I could out of these shooters
For you guys and I know Sean asked some really good questions to both Derek mine and Abel Spire I mean so you know hopefully you guys are getting something out of this every week uh that’s not just this isn’t just an entertainment value thing it’s it’s to try and help
Everybody yep absolutely so Sean allly what are we talk about every week take somebody new shooting I mean that’s a no-brainer that’s what our whole podcast is built upon take them out there to the range let them bust some Clays watch a smile form on their face and they’ll be hooked for Life
Absolutely well listen We’ve ran long Sean so we got a scadaddle so until next week Mr Laren in charge we shall see you all back here on the dead pair podcast we’ll see you next time on the dead pair podcast the Dead the dead PA podcast is brought to you by Elite shotguns and Vero Beach clay shooting and is fueled by foke USA the dead pair theme song was written arranged and produced by Toby tolay special thanks to the following sponsors Rhino odoro da Grant Atlas Trap Company and re Ranger
