By Chris Erwin
Back in the 70s and early 80s I was all into trap and skeet shooting every Friday and Saturday night. I would pack up all my gear and head somewhere to kill a bunch of clay pigeons. While many of my friends back then would head to a bowling alley or a movie theater, for me and my wife Linda, it was loading cases of shot gun shells, a few snacks, and then off to a shooting range.
Back then a family by the name of Queen had a shooting range off route 3, just passed the Lawrence County line. It was a typical trap range with cement pads for shooting stations. It had an in-ground trap box. The first row was 16 yards from the shooting box, and it had five stations across the front. Then it had five backward positions in line with the front pads with distances ending at 24 yards from the shooting box.
His matches were set up so you shot twice at each position across the front. If no one missed a pigeon, you moved back to next position and shot another round. It was set up so ties and shoot offs would be from the 24-yard pads. However, many of the nights I shot ties from the parking lot a long distance from any of the regular shooting stations.
His range was lighted much like a football stadium so many nights the shooting went on until long into the night. With all this shooting and I’m talking a couple of cases of shells a night, for any of you that hasn’t shot much. They are 20 boxes of shells in one case. That is 500 shells per case.
That could get pretty expensive if you were buying new shells. As it turns out Linda and I, both managed to win enough to keep us in shells if we reloaded our own.
This is when I met Bud Stevens for the first time. He had a shop out on the corner on Route 3. He had all the reloading gear I needed: powder, wads, shot and the Pacific Progressive Reloader, which I still have today. I found Stevens to be a friendly, knowledgeable guy who always had good advice.
I stopped in to see him this past week because I wanted to highlight some of our local business that supplies outdoor gear; and we had a chance to reconnect. He has a good supply of all of your gun needs, and I can tell first hand they are very few people that have his long term experience in all things related to shooting.
As I looked around the shop, I was impressed with all the supplies he had in stock from hand guns to long rifles, including shot guns, scopes and accessories. If you happen to be interested in a concealed carry permit, Stevens has a list of contacts and phone numbers to get you one your way to getting that accomplished.
I asked him if they were anything he would like the public to know about his place that might not be evident just by driving by. He said, “One of the things we are noted for is we like to trade guns, old one for new ones and even trading two for one and sometimes the other way around depending on what you have.”
If you are looking forward to purchasing a new gun or need advice on a gun. Stop in and say hello to Bud Stevens. I’m sure he can help you fill your shooting needs. His shop is located at 7128 US Route 60 Ashland KY his phone is 606-928-8936.
I have purchased a few guns from Bud @ Steven’s Gun and Pawn And have been very Pleased with all transaction’s including the staff.Thanks Bud