Shooter sets one-hour clays record

OUTSTANDING – As lightning slashed through a darkened sky, Dave Miller provided fireworks of his own last month at the Heartland Trap and Wobble Skeet shooting range in Harrisonville, Kansas.

Firing a shotgun from the hip at a steady stream of blaze-orange clay targets, he steadily shattered most of them. An hour after he started his trapshooting exhibition, the mark was recognized by the Guinness World Records.

He broke 3,653 targets in 60 minutes – one target every .82 of a second – before several hundred spectators and sponsors cheering.

As Miller lifted his shotgun in triumph, Guinness adjudicator Alex Angert made it official.

“This is awesome, but I am worn out,” said Miller, 41, project manager and pro shooter for CZ -USA guns. “Endurance is definitely a factor in something like this.

“About the 40-minute mark, I was tired, hurting. But I got a shot of adrenaline and I kept going.”

Guinness recognizes other shooting records, but this was the first of this type. Now others will be aiming at Miller’s mark.

For Angert, it was just another day in an interesting life. Lately, he has certified records for the largest gathering of people dressed like Madonna and the most pounds of pudding eaten in three minutes.

“It’s all about ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” he said.

Miller enlisted a large team of helpers in an orchestrated effort. He used 30 CZ shotguns and 24 volunteer shell loaders.

The semiautomatic shotguns were modified to hold 16 shells. As he emptied one gun, he was handed another loaded one and he kept shooting. Pheasants Forever, a national conservation group, collected pledges on Miller’s performance, raising $80,000 for its youth programs.

Nisbet: naturalist was mountaineer

OUTCLIMB – Scottish naturalist David Douglas worked climbing adventures into his quest to document plant species, such as the Douglas fir, says Jack Nisbet, Spokane author.

Nisbet will elaborate in a free public presentation, “David Douglas the Mountaineer,” at 7 p.m. Monday at Mountain Gear headquarters, 6021 E. Mansfield.

The program is one in a monthly series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Spokane Mountaineers.

“Douglas was known as an active man, and during a series of visits to the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii 1825 to 1834 he managed to ascend or attempt an assortment of well-known peaks,” Nisbet said.