The ATA target year closes Aug. 31, which means most shooters have one good week left to fix whatever their averages have been telling them since September. Stockdale Gun Club offers a generous one. Ackley, Iowa, hosts the 19th Heartland Grand from Aug. 17-23, a full Satellite Grand American thrown entirely on White Flyer pitch targets, and the schedule runs 21 events deep before the last shooter drives out Sunday afternoon.
High Over All racing starts Wednesday and covers 1,100 targets across events 7-9, 11-13, 15, 16, 18 and 21, presented by White Flyer. High All Around opens Friday over 400 championship targets in events 15, 18 and 21, presented by Kolar. Championship weekend belongs to the ATA Browning Singles Championship on Saturday, 200 16-yard targets with a bank swap at the halfway mark, and the ATA Winchester Ammunition Handicap Championship on Sunday morning. Friday stacks the ATA Doubles Championship alongside the Caesar Guerini Preliminary Handicap, so anyone chasing the all-around has a long day ahead of them.
What makes the trophy race here different is what sits at the end of it. The Stan Baker family and the Rackett Grange and Sporting Preserve award a five-day, four-night trophy deer hunt to the winner of the High Over All shoot-off, an award the program values at roughly $25,000 depending on the animal. High All Around shoot-off winners take home a two-person, two-day guided pheasant hunt with dogs, meals, lodging and bird processing included. Both shoot-offs run doubles first, then singles, then handicap, with a one-minute call to the trap and no patience for anyone still digging through a shell bag.
Richard Marshall, Jr., of Lincoln, Nebraska, swept both last year, posting 1078 for the High Over All and 392 for the High All Around. Whoever wins the HAA also books a seat at the Kolar Satellite Grand American shoot-off during the 2027 Grand American, where the national satellite title pays $1,000 to the champion and $500 to the runner-up.
Then there is everything that happens after dark. Monday night brings the White Flyer WODS buddy-buddy shoot, where two shooters share a post and try to break three birds with four shots from 22 yards while the crowd calls the score out loud. Tuesday is the third annual Fast Eddie Slider, 100 targets with $2,500 added to the calcutta, an auction beforehand and a hard cap near 120 entries. Wednesday’s SOS Silver Shootout runs off a $10 option played in any of that day’s three events, with 20 names drawn for a 10-target shoot-off, a 10-ounce silver bar to the winner and a five-ounce silver shotgun shell to second. Thursday Night Lights closes the week’s night program with 25 wobble targets and $100 added to the Lewis purse.
Tuesday also carries the week’s most personal event. Stockdale has added $1,000 to the Pat’s Auto Salvage doubles in memory of Ken Brandt, the multiple-time Iowa state champion and Iowa State Trapshooting Hall of Fame member who died last October. Brandt completed his ATA Grand Slam at Stockdale with a 100 straight from 27 yards and spent years working the club’s classification and squadding desk. High gun takes it, paid 50-30-20, with ties carrying over until somebody wins outright.
Saturday’s 200 Singles Championship carries a gift of a different kind. Ben Brush of South Haven, Michigan, is donating an ATA life membership to one sub-junior shooter, drawn during the event. Brush received the same gift from Bill Hunter years ago as a young shooter and decided to hand it forward.
Entry is $49 per 100-target event including ATA and ISTA daily fees and Iowa sales tax, and $44 for sub-junior, junior and junior gold shooters. Events start at 9:00 a.m. daily, and entries close at 1:00 p.m. Sunday. SOS Clays handles pre-squadding at $2 per post through Aug. 14 at 7 p.m., and its $60 annual app membership folds in free pre-squadding along with live scores and OnDeck status.
Anyone wanting a running start can arrive early. Harlan Campbell, Jr., runs a two-day instructional clinic Aug. 14-15, and registered doubles follow Aug. 15-16 with $200 added each day. After that, a cookout runs every night of the week, free to that day’s contestants and their guests, capped by the Fareway Meats steak fry on Saturday. That one costs $20 and requires a signup by Friday noon, and Heartland regulars will tell you it is the single easiest decision on the program.
Learn more about the 2026 Heartland Satellite Grand and the Amateur Trapshooting Association.
