Dysinger, tournament manager for the state shoot, which began Tuesday, June 22, and wraps up today, said attendance at this year’s shoot is about what it was in 2009, when it attracted 9,201 contestants.
“We should be about the same,” he predicted. “And that’s not bad when you consider the economy. People just don’t have as much money to spend.”
What seems to have the shooters in such a good mood is their surroundings. The homegrounds for the shoot is now the Cardinal Center Campground. Until the first event at Cardinal Center in 2006, most of the state shoots in the history of the OSTA had been at the Amateur Trapshooting Association homegrounds in Vandalia. When that facility closed after the 2005 Grand American, the state association was left without a place large enough to hold its expanding annual championships.
Almost miraculously, some Ohio shooters discovered the land in Marengo and a developer named Jack Fishburn. He had just purchased a rundown campground off of I-71 north of Columbus and had plenty of land that just happened to be the perfect configuration for trapshooting.
With the help of the OSTA and the Ohio Division of Wildlife, Fishburn created one of the best outdoor recreation/shooting facilities in the nation.
“I remember when they first started building this, we came over here and the only thing here was two traps and the rest was a huge mud hole,” said Trotwood resident Dennis Filo as he drove a golf cart around the spacious, manicured grounds. “Now look at it ... it’s tremendous.”
The mud is just about gone. Even after a rainstorm, it seems to drain quickly with most areas being covered with grass or gravel.
“Shooters will never forget Vandalia,” Dysinger said. “It was comfortable and the shooters really enjoyed going there, but this is now a better facility. There is better camping and plenty of room.”
Dysinger said Fishburn is planning to construct some permanent vendor buildings this year, and the OSTA is hoping to build its Ohio Trapshooting Hall of Fame on the grounds.
Shooters have become used to not only visiting Marengo for the state shoot, but have supported the two shoots put on by the Cardinal Center: the Buckeye Classic in early June and the Cardinal Classic in late August, after the Grand American in Sparta, Ill. (Aug. 3-14) at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex.
“I like coming here,” said Leo Harrison III of Missouri, probably the greatest shooter ever. “It’s one of the best shoots year after year. And the grounds are great. It’s like having the family over for dinner ... if the roast beef’s right, they’ll be back.”
Dave Berlet of New Knoxville, another of the sport’s great shooters, sat in his golf cart, talking about the Cardinal Center.
“I don’t know what we did right, but the Lord was smiling on Ohio’s trapshooters when we found this place,” Berlet said.
Dysinger added, “There’s no doubt about it, God must be a Buckeye.”
Outdoors columnist Jim Morris can be reached through his
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ebsite at www.tinyurl.com/ylh2rol or by e
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mail at sports@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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