Hello shooters!

I write to you after the completion of the ATA Central Zone Shoot. There were 10 locations across the Midwest competing for trophies. Brittany was the "winning-est" club, winning 24 of the 96 trophies offered for the weekend. Good job shooters! 

While I'm on the subject of Zone shoots, the Illinois Northern Zone shoot is going to be in Downer's Grove on September 7 & 8. If you are wanting to qualify for the state team, this will be one of your zone requirements. You can get it in early, or catch the Central and Southern zones in May. They will be throwing 200 singles on the 7th and 100 doubles and 100 handicap respectively on the 8th. See you there!

While I was up in Wisconsin, a score sheet came in with a 100 straight from the 27 yard line... I cannot tell you how excited I was to see that it was our very own Ian Lawrence! He completed his grand slam on Friday's handicap event. What a huge accomplishment. Randy Miller broke his 75,000th handicap target at the ATA central zone shoot at Brittany in July. Tim Marucco broke his 50,000th handicap target in July at Rend Lake, on top of winning the 400 bird handicap event.

We are still looking for donations to break ground on building the new ISTA HOF building. We can't do it without your help!

With it being a new target year, don't forget to renew your ISTA membership. You can go to any gun club in the state for one of their registered shoots and purchase one. Now is also the time to set goals for your new target year. Decide on short-term goals for yourself and revisit your long-term goals to see how it's coming along. 

Please don't hesitate to keep me updated on accomplishments at your club! I'd love to hear about peoples' firsts and their big wins. Send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Good luck and see you on the line!

Lauren Mueller

ATA Delegate

Hello Shooters!

June was a month full of state shooting!  We stared with the High School League State Shoot the first Saturday.  Attendance went from 380 last year to 537 this year!  Huge jump in attendance and we're expecting the same kind of growth (if not more) for next year!  Josh and Beth Baker did an awesome job for their first year as AIM Directors.  We ended up having 321 shooters this year, putting us up about 40 shooters for the event!  The Singles Champion was Landon Dent, who broke his first 200 straight!

The ISTA State Shoot was down a bit in attendance, but still ended up running smooth despite the weather for the week.  Dennis Baker did a great job as President for the State and now Mike Dennis will be our ISTA President.  As usual, we had several firsts.  Kyle Fabisiak broke his first 100 straight as the age of 11!  What a feat!  Alex Miller, Boedy Baker and Justin Cavett broke their first 100 straights in Singles!  Jim McCammon broke his 100,000th Doubles target!  Moving onto the big winners for the weekend:  my squad mate, Mike Jordan, won Singles Champion after a shoot off against Mike Hathaway with a perfect 200.  The Doubles Champion, after a shoot off with Hayden Hemrich and Jeremiah Schultz, was Bill Grill, with a score of 98.  Handicap Champion, after a shoot off with Mark Fielder, was Hayden Hemrich, with a score of 98.  The All Around winner, after a shoot off with Hayden Hemrich, was Chase Horton, with a score of 392.  Chase also won the High Over All Champion outright with a score of 1153.  Congratulations to all of the winners!  Everyone who won Champion or Champion of their categories are eligible to shoot in the Champion of Champions event at the Grand American. 

We are still looking for donations to start building the new building for the Illinois Hall of Fame.  Every little bit helps, so please contact Dennis Baker or Bill Duncan, if you are interested in helping get the process started.  If you didn't see the tentative blueprints at the State Shoot this year, you can see them any time at the current Illinois Hall of Fame at Brittany Shooting Park.

Please feel free to contact me with any comments/suggestions for what you would like to see next year.  Thanks for all your support this past year and am looking forward to a good 2020 target year as well!

Lauren Mueller, ATA Delegate

Hello Shooters!

Hope you all have a great time at the Open, the AIM State shoot and the ISTA State Shoot!  Make sure after you win a trophy that you get a picture taken!  You may see it in Trap & Field!

I went down to San Antonio for the Southwest Grand and saw several familiar faces there.  One that really stood out was Garrett Helms.  He managed to win Champion in 4 of the 5 events!  He lost the Singles, then proceeded to take event Champion in the Doubles, Handicap, High Over All and High All Around!  Very impressive shooting!

We had our first annual Texas-Illinois Challenge Cup.  The weather didn't cooperate with either club, but I'd say we had the worse end of it.  Randy Miller won the Doubles Champion between the two clubs, but Waco managed to take the other disciplines.  We'll have to come back next year with a vengeance!  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank White Flyer for their generous donation.  We look forward to working together in the future!

We are still looking for donations to start building the ISTA HOF building.  It will have a beautiful display of our history and function as a place to make it more efficient to hand out trophies at the State Shoot.

See ya on the line!

Lauren Mueller

ATA Delegate

Hello Shooters!

The Spring Grand just finished in Tucson, AZ, and a few shooters stood out among the crowd!  It sounds like it was kind of a bummer..  Going down to Arizona to escape the cold, just to get snowed on down there as well ha!  Elise Baker went down for the first time and took home 7 trophies!  Randy Miller won the Pleasant Valley Handicap event with a 98 and Adam Fabisiak was the high score in the Prescott Handicap with a 97.  His son, Kyle, won the Sub Junior Champ in Handicap the following day!

 The IL Hall of Fame building is ready to be built!  We are just looking for donations to get the process rolling.  We are trying to reach $130,000 and have quite a ways to go. Any donation will help!  If you haven't seen the floor plan in the ISTA building at Brittany, we are going to have an addition to the ISTA building for the Hall of Fame, as well as our trophy room.  That should help with picking up trophies at the end of the day.

 If you missed the Northern Zone shoot at Downer's Grove, you can still make the Central Zone in Peoria or the Southern Zone in Rend Lake.  Both shoots will be held on Memorial Day weekend (May 25 & 26).  Remember, you do have to shoot all 400 targets at a zone shoot to qualify for the state team.  Our state shoot will be held June 8-16. The 8 and 9 will be our AIM state shoot, the 10 will be the marathon day to get any targets in that you are short for penalties, and the 11-16 will be the main week of the shoot.  If you are wanting to camp, I do have a large wait list, but contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will get your name added.  If you camped last year, you have until May 1 to mail me your check (11374 Prairie Dell Rd, Bunker Hill IL 62014) or to contact me and let me know you still want your spot. 

Lauren Mueller
ATA Delegate