Clay shooting for the Boy Scouts

Dover Plains — The Ten Mile River Preserve (TMRP) hosted a Sporting Clays Invitational to benefit the Hudson Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America (HVCBSA) on Friday, July 17.

The TMRP is a 3,000-acre club on Berkshire Road for outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing and, in this case, sporting clays.

Sporting clays is a competition where individuals on teams use shotguns to shoot clay discs — “birds” — launched into the air at different stations. There are 25 stations at the TMRP course.

Individuals get one shot per each of the four birds at every station. 

“The quickest way to describe it is it’s like a round of golf with guns,” said HVCBSA Senior District Executive Harold Teller.

A total of 150 individuals registered for the competition. Registrants signed up in teams of five; 30 teams competed.

Participants ranged from teenagers to seniors and represented corporations, families and friends. Skill levels were beginner, intermediate and advanced. Scoring was calculated based on a formula comparing performance and skill level.

Registration cost $350 per individual. The event included a silent auction for a hunting trip to Argentina valued at $6,500 and a raffle for a Roger American Rifle valued at $520. After rent to TMRP and other expenses, proceeds will benefit HVCBSA’s outreach efforts and programs.

According to its brochure for the event, HVCBSA “partners with 185 community organizations to provide programs in leadership, citizenship and personal fitness to over 8,000 young men and women in Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan and Rockland counties.”

HVCBSA Scout Executive David Horton said the organization holds this benefit — the largest of its seven annual events — at TMRP each year for the club’s premium quality for the sport.

“It’s one of the best venues in the whole country,” he said.

Individuals came from near and far to participate in the tournament.

“Weather on a beautiful Friday like this — an opportunity to shoot guns on a beautiful day and support a good cause, you can’t go wrong,” said Andre Ameer of New York City, who shot on a team for EIC Associates.

After all teams made their way around the stations, the HVCBSA held an awards ceremony and barbecue lunch under a tent at the club.

First-, second- and third-place winning teams were O and D Electric Corp.; Iseman, Cunningham, Riester & Hyde LLP; and Blacktop Maintenance Corp.

First-, second- and third-place individuals were Charlie Conger, Noel Tiesi and Brud Hodgkins. 

For more information on HVCBSA, go to www.hudsonvalleyscouting.org. For more information on TMRP, go to www.tmrp.org.