Side by Side: The 7th Southern & 3rd Challenge Cup

Come late April, it will be rubber-match time at the Southern Side by Side Championship & Exhibition. For the third year, shooters from the Parker Gun Collectors Assoc. will face off against rival gunners from the L.C. Smith Collectors Assoc. in the Challenge Cup, a charity shootoff held at "The Southern." Elsie shooters won the inaugural Cup, whereas the brothers from the Parker group took last year's honors. The third meeting is a highly anticipated event, not only for shooters from each organization but also for the bevy of spectators who gather to watch. All proceeds from the Challenge Cup are donated to charity, and Shooting Sportsman has become the event's official sponsor.

The Challenge Cup will be one of many shooting events at the Seventh Annual Southern Side by Side Championship, scheduled for April 28 to 30 at Deep River Sporting Clays, near the Raleigh/Durham area in central North Carolina. The shoot-which includes a tented exhibition featuring some of the world's finest gun dealers and gunmakers-will feature an updated sporting clays course this year.

"We have plans for an updated course," said Bill Kempffer, founder of the event and owner of Deep River Sporting Clays. "We are also adding a long-bird event."

The Southern has grown to become the largest of the regional side-by-side shoots that have evolved in the wake of the Vintage Cup. "We estimate that last spring the gate count grew 20 percent over 2004's number," said Kempffer, " and we had more than 900 entries for shooting events."

As in the past, attendance to the exhibitions remains free for spectators. "In this era of declining interest in the shooting sports, free admission to this show is something we feel very strongly about," Kempffer said. "We want The Southern to remain friendly, open and accessible to anyone interested-or potentially interested-in fine guns and wingshooting."

Like the Vintage Cup, The Southern has shooting events in numerous side-by-side categories. The accompanying Grand Exhibition again will include prestigious American, British and Continental gunmakers, gun dealers and other firms associated with double guns and hunting.

Shooting events-open to side-by-sides only-include small-gauge championships, Compak sporting, ZZ-birds, a 12-gauge preliminary, the Challenge Cup, and the Southern Side by Side Championship, otherwise known as The Ripon Cup. Each event has awards in both hammerless and hammergun categories.

To sponsor the events, Kempffer has assembled a prominent lineup from the double-gun world. London gunmaker Atkin Grant & Lang will return as the founding sponsor of The Ripon Cup. Other sponsors include Italy's FAMARS and F.lli Poli, Chris Batha's Charles Boswell Gunmakers, Shooting Sportsman and American ZZ. A traditional Eastern North Carolina-style pig-pickin' accompanied by a bluegrass band caps off Saturday's events.

To register or for more information, contact Deep River Sporting Clays, 919-774-7080, www.deepriver.net. For more information on the Challenge Cup, visit the Website of the Parker Gun Collectors Assoc. (www.parkergun.org) or the L.C. Smith Collectors Assoc. (www.lcsmith.org).

-- Vic Venters

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