Sam Weil

Sam got an early start practicing his skills in shooting when at the age of 5, his uncle presented him with a Red Rider BB gun. Young Sam was as delighted as his father was furious about this unexpected gift. Three years later his mom, a rather good shot herself, decided it was time for her boy to advance to a real gun. She took him out to their pine tree laden forest, set out a box of shells, handed him her 410 shotgun and stepped back to observe. Sam was skeptical, worried about the recoil compared to his trusty Red Rider but by the time he got through a half box of shells, he was hooked. For the next decade, Sam spent most of his leisure time cradling a shotgun, most often while aiming at a covey of quail.

His first experience at shooting clay targets came in 1969 and was courtesy of the US Air Force who had set up a range to entertain the troops during their downtime in Tuy Hoa Vietnam. If he wasn’t patching up an airplane, he could be found blasting clays on the skeet range.

The war ended, Sam moved to Atlanta and bought a skeet gun to continue his new pastime at Atlanta Winchester. One day he noticed folks shooting trap and decided to give it a try. His first few tries though were not very successful. You need a different gun, he was told so he purchased a Winchester 101 and with the help of Bob Horsemen began participating in registered trap shoots. Life was good for Sam; he worked; he shot trap. He didn’t realize, however, how much better things would soon get.

In 1981 he married the love of his life and world’s best aunt, Ms. Beth Johnson. He gave up shooting registered trap but continued to shoot Trap and Skeet League at Wolf Creek. It wasn’t until 1997 that he was invited by John Grant to join his squad at a South River Gun Club Trap Shoot where shooting only singles, Sam scored 98 out of 100 and tied Chuck Daniels in Singles.

John’s team consisted of Dan Brigito, Chris Ricciardi, and Sam. They shared a lot of successes and just as many good times traveling to different shoots in and around Atlanta and ultimately joined the Cherokee Gun Club in Gainesville.

Sam, with Beth at his side, ran the trap program at Cherokee for 6 years. There have been many Saturday mornings he and Beth were up at 3 a.m. headed to Gainesville for a shoot. Sam ran the field. Beth did the cashiering and paperwork by hand.

For the past few years, Sam has concentrated on setting good targets for shoots(shout-out to John Hiter for teaching Sam the importance of setting good targets), designing trap houses, maintaining Pat Trap machines, and assisting the trap programs at both Cherokee and Griffin Gun clubs.

Sam has had a great journey through his decades of shooting. He has met and become friends with a lot of fellow trap shooters and has enjoyed every day. Sam recognizes that it takes a good team to run a trap shoot and appreciates the help, instruction and comradery that he has been a part of for all these years. A Big Thank You to everyone who has helped him along this path.