The Dillon County Rifle and Gun Club Annual Championship was decided by one target in a tie-breaker on October 25, 2015. The club has two member only matches, the Spring Match and the Fall Match, annually to decide the club championship. In the Spring Match, Tim Ammons was the winner with an overall score of 326 points. Bill Aston was in 2nd place with a score of 322, 4 points behind, and Chris Gardner was in 3rd with a score of 299 points, 27 points behind.
Both matches consist of the same five events. Each event has a potential to earn 100 points. The 5 events are 22 Rifle, 22 Pistol, Centerfire Pistol, Centerfire Rifle and Shotgun. The rifle and pistol events are shot on targets with the maximum score of 10 for each shot and each participant fires 10 shots. The shotgun event is one round of skeet which is 25 targets and each target is valued at 4 points for a total of 100.
With Tim Ammons leading from the Spring Match, the first event of the fall match was 22 Rifle. Bill Aston was the high shooter in this event with a score of 62 which brought his total to 384 to move him into 1st place overall. Chris Gardner shot a 59 for 2nd place and his total moved up to 358 but Tim Ammons shot a 46 which kept him in 2nd place with a total of 372. Billy Daniels came in 3rd place in the 22 Rifle with a score of 52 shooting a rifle he borrowed and that he had never fired before.
In the next event, the 22 pistol, Robert McIntyre was the high shooter with a score of 71 and Chris Rowland was 2nd with a 67. Chris Gardner came in third with a score of 60 which moved his total of 418 and 2nd place overall. Tim Ammons shot a 57 which moved him back into first place with a total score of 429. Bill Aston only shot a 32 which brought him down to third place overall with a total of 416.
Robert McIntyre came in 1st again in the centerfire pistol shooting a score of 68. Bill Aston came in 2nd with a score of 49 which moved him from 3rd to 2nd overall with a total of 465. Tim Ammons came in 3rd with a score of 39 which kept him in 1st place overall with a slight margin of 468 points. Chris Gardner shot a 31 which brought his total of 460. At this point the top three shooters are within 8 points of each other.
In the centerfire rifle Robert McIntyre came in first again with a score of 76. Bill Aston was one point behind with a score of 75 which moved him back into 1st overall with a score of 540. Chris shot a 62 which brought him to within 6 points of Tim who shot a 60. Tim remains in 2nd with a total of 528 and Chris with a total of 522. Denis Grubb came in 3rd place in the Centerfire Rifle with a score of 68.
With the lead going from Tim to Bill back to Tim and again back to Bill, only the shotgun event remains. Bill has a 12 point advantage over Tim and a 14 point lead on Chris. In the first group of shooters Denis Grubb only missed 2 targets to give him the lead in the shotgun event. With Bill, Tim, and Chris shooting in the last group, the championship is on the line. Chris misses his first target to drop 18 points back. Nothing changes for the next 10 targets when Bill misses, and then misses again on the 11th target. This brings Tim to within one target of taking first and Chris only 14 points behind. Chris then misses 2 targets to put him 22 points behind. With three stations to go Bill misses again so he and Tim are now tied and Chris is only 18 points behind. On the next to last station, supposedly the easiest on the course, Bill misses again and Tim again takes the lead from Bill and Chris hangs tight only 18 points from 1st place. However; Chris cannot win as there are only 12 points remaining on the last station leaving him 6 points shy from Tim. Bill gets all of his last targets which leaves him one target behind Tim. Tim has three targets left. He breaks the first one coming from the high house; He breaks the second one coming from the low house. The next target is the exact same as the previous one, but Tim misses! This leaves Bill and Tim tied for 1st place overall after two full matches. Tim placed 1st in the shotgun event only missing the very last target. Denis Grubb had only missed 2 targets and Bill came in third missing 4 targets.
To break the tie, Bill and Tim decide to shoot a complete Round of Skeet. For the first 15 targets neither shooter misses. Then Bill missed his low house station six target. Both shooters continued to the last station with no other misses. Bill has one miss and Tim has hit all 22 targets. Bill finishes the last station with no other misses but remains one target behind. Again, Tim has 3 targets remaining. He shoots the high house target and gets it; He shoots the low house target and gets it.
His final shot is the low house again but he misses. They are still tied.
They go to a sudden death shoot off finish. Doubles from Stations 3, 4, and 5, miss and out.
They flip a coin to see who goes first. Tim wins the coin toss and elects to go 2nd. Bill shoots doubles from station 3 and gets them both. Tim calls for the targets, gets the first one but misses the 2nd one. Bill wins the club championship by one target.
The Dillon County Rifle and Gun Club is a private club in its 50th year and was organized in 1965. The First officers and organizers of the Club were Tommy Squires, President, Emory Edwards, Vice President, and Doctor Dan Moore, Secretary/Treasurer. The club has had three locations during its existence. The club has offered its facility to many groups in Dillon County such as Boy Scouts, 4-H, SCDNR Hunter Education programs, Dillon County School system and Dillon Christian School, National Wild Turkey Federation youth programs, NRA youth programs, church groups, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and Friends of the NRA. Current officers of the club are Tim Ammons, President, Denis Grubb, Vice President, Walt Brown, Secretary, Harold Kornblut, Treasurer, Bill Aston, Range Director, and R L Kannaday, Safety Officer. The club is open for new members.
