By By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
Fraziers taking shooting competition to new heights
By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
The echoes stemming from the rifle shots were music to the ears of the 260-plus sportsmen that took part in the East Coast Championship clay target shooting competition at Hunters Pointe in Washington.
Since 2001 Hunters Pointe has been the home of the East Coast Championship, which has grown into one of the premier events of its kind in the country.
The competition began on Thursday and ended on Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. an ending past 6 p.m. on each night as sportsmen from as far as Alaska took turns navigating through the 15-field, 30-station, 274-acre facility tucked away in the middle of Washington on 506 Decoy Drive.
Helping foster this event into one of the nation’s elite is Chuck Frazier and his wife Lori, who took ownership of Hunter’s Pointe in 2001 after traveling the country setting up shooting events and renting equipment.
Frazier, who moved to Washington from Vermont, had not previously owned a shooting facility. He said that Washington was attractive because of the neighboring perks.
“We never actually ran a club. We worked in a lot of clubs, but never got into owning one,” Frazier said. “This place was available in a good location that allowed me to do a lot of other things.”
Frazier, whose past East Coast Championship events has drawn well over 300 shooters, said that Washington’s local flavor makes it an ideal location for traveling shooters.
“It’s a little bit more convenient for us,” Frazier said. “The town is very convenient for this club because for this type of event you have to have hotels and lodging and places to eat.
“Plus, you have the waterfront which helps for some of the shooters who bring their wives, it gives them something to do. The main streets are pretty nice for people to go and visit. It all plays into what we are doing here.”
The combination of Frazier’s know-how and Washington’s backdrop have allowed Hunter’s Pointe to become one of the top-15 clay shooting facilities in the country.
Aside from the East Coast Championship, another popular event is the Children’s Miracle Log-a-Load Charity Shootout, which takes place in August. The money from the event goes to the Children’s Hospital in Greenville, and Frazier estimates that it has raised over $1 million since its inception.
This weekend’s event encompassed a wide-range of sportsmen as elite shooters like Bill McGuire, Anthony Matarese and Washington’s own Brad Kidd Jr. bumped shoulders with men and women of all ages who wish to one day have their name mentioned in the same breath.
The East Coast Championship featured several categories for nearly every type of shooter (winners can be found on the club’s website Hunterspointesportingclays.com),with the highest level winner taking home anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000.
Aside from the prize money, the shooters love to get together because of the atmosphere. Food sizzled as shooters could room the range and purchase items from various sales booths set up throughout the lot while trading tips.
“We are all friends,” Frazier said. “There’s about 5,500 to 6,000 people in what we call the sporting clays circle and we are very much all friends. We run into each other at all the big events throughout the country.”
One of those people was David Page, an A-Class shooter from Raleigh, who has been coming to Washington for this event for six years for this event.
“It is a good club, the people who run it are good target setters and we get good quality tournament targets,” Page said. “There are usually good people who you shoot with, you can meet a lot of good people here. It’s just good camaraderie.”