ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Community Sports
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS STAFF WRITER
Don't tell Dr. David Skewes competition has an age limit. Skewes turns 66 years old today, less than a month after capturing five awards at the National Sporting Clays shooting competition in San Antonio, Texas.
Included in those awards is a national championship in the prestigious "Champion of Champions" competition which unites all state champions from around the country in one event. Skewes captured the title in the veteran division, which includes those age 65 and up.
"I had last year's Texas champion on my left and one of the top shooters in the world on my right, so I had to shoot good," Skewes said. "I won the veteran division and my head got so big, it was like one of those balloons filled with hot air. Winning that got me pumped up for the remaining competitions."
Next for Skewes was the pump gun competition, an event in which Skewes had to borrow a gun to compete. He hit 46 of 50 targets to again take first in the veteran division.
"By this point my head was awfully, awfully big," Skewes said with a laugh.
Last on his list of competitions were the 5-stand events, where the clay pigeons are tossed from eight different stations and shot at with different gauge weapons. He took first in the 410-gauge (the smallest shotgun and subsequently the most difficult to shoot) and in the 28- and 20-gauge events as well. The main event in the 5-stand competition, the 12-gauge, was spoiled by a passing hurricane. Lightning struck one of the three metal towers used to toss the clay pigeons causing all three structures to tumble to the ground.
"The hurricane knocked out part of the field too, but I was so excited about winning the other three events I didn't even care," Skewes said.
Skewes got his start shooting skeet in 1946 when his father opened the Triangle Gun Club in Bluefield, Va. Skewes later followed that same path in his adopted home town of Dublin, opening the first sport shooting facility of its kind in 1971. He later opened a second field, this one in 1978, on the David Bell farm. The field is still open today and houses two skeet fields, a trap field, a 5-stand field and a sporting clays field.
Skewes competed in skeet shooting until 1986 when he says he needed a change. It was then he moved to sporting clays.
"I got into shooting skeet because I wanted to be a better [hunter]," Skewes said. "But in 1986 I got tired of skeet and moved to sporting clays. Just in the last three years the game of sporting clays has become the fasting growing shooting event. And you can't believe the number of women and children out there. They're really interested in it and they will definitely get out there and kick your butt."
As for this old-fashioned doctor, he says he will continue making house calls to see his patients and competing in shooting competitions, well ... for many years to come.
"I'd like to do it until I'm 85," Skewes said. "There's a lot of sports you can get into that when you get a little age you're limited. But in this sport, the only limit is me."
If you have an idea for a story or note about recreational sports, call Angie Watts at 381-1672 in Montgomery County or Radford or 1-800-346-1234, extension 672 elsewhere or fax to 381-1656.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB