A Taste of Heritage in Sporting Clays: A Comprehensive Review of Ball and Buck x Ranger Collaboration

Bottom Line Up Front

 

If you give consideration to exclusive and unique products, then you’ll enjoy a look at this collection. However, if you do not care about aesthetics then this fashionable collection is not for you. If you like the products that Ranger already provides for the clay target industry, then you are going to like what they’ve done here. The Ball and Buck™ x Ranger Edge LE are the exact same frames I personally enjoy competing in on a weekly basis but now they’ve really got some character. The lenses they provide are not the highly impressive RIACT A.I. ™ lenses but they are their high-quality lenses that also don’t come at the cost of RIACT A.I. ™ lenses. As an elegant touch these do have the signature Ball and Buck™ Logo. The Active + Field Shirt is super comfortable but make sure it fits your style. I don’t think it’s designed for your average shooter, but those that like to spend some time in the field wing-shooting, it won’t disappoint. Personally, I can’t wait to wear it during the next Upland Hunt I take the wife out on. These products are not cheap…but in any industry, when you mix high-quality products with fashionable heritage, the word “cheap” is no where to be found.

Photo Credit: Ranger

Background

 

In the world of sporting clays, tradition meets innovation with the collaboration between Ball and Buck™ and Ranger. Two Massachusetts-based brands, deeply rooted in American heritage and craftsmanship, have joined forces to create a collection tailored for enthusiasts who cherish the timeless pursuit of clay target shooting. Having received a demo version of the products, The Clay Lab had the opportunity to experience firsthand the synergy between Ball and Buck™ and Ranger in crafting premium eyewear and apparel. Here's a detailed and expanded review of the Ball and Buck™ x Ranger Edge LE, Ball and Buck™ x Ranger Lens Kit, and the Active+ Field Shirt.

Photo Credit: Ranger

Ball and Buck™ x Ranger Edge LE:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆

 

The Edge LE eyewear capsule is a masterpiece of design and functionality as it has been from the start. Crafted with the discerning shooter in mind, the gunmetal frame exudes sophistication and durability, while the Whiskey Tortoise Windsor rim adds a touch of timeless elegance. What sets the Edge LE apart is its aesthetic appeal, some people really are just looking for something they know performs but want to stand out a bit. The HD Medium lens is Ranger’s top-selling lens for a good reason, it offers a high level of clarity, allowing shooters to see targets with confidence. Additionally, the inclusion of a cognac camo case and camo cleaning cloth adds a touch of sophistication to the overall package.

 

One minor drawback of the Edge LE may be its price point, considering you receive only one lens with the set of frames. Of course, it's important to note that the quality and craftsmanship of the Edge LE justify its cost and the fact that you can utilize any other Ranger Edge lenses you may already have or plan to get in the future. As such, for those who prioritize both style and performance, the Edge LE stands out as a premium choice in the realm of shooting eyewear. You are getting Ranger’s Top of the line frames and lens, mixed with the elegance and traditional touch of Ball and Buck™.

Photo Credit: Ranger

Ball and Buck™ x Ranger Lens Kit:

⭐️⭐️⭐️☆

 

The Lens Kit complements the Edge LE frame perfectly, providing shooters with more choices in lenses depending on the varying shooting conditions. With the inclusion of Dark Purple and Max Light lenses, shooters can adapt to different light conditions with ease, ensuring optimal performance in any environment. Besides the elegant touch of the Ball and Buck™ Logo, this lens kit comes with a camo scratch-resistant lens carrying case which offers protection while adding a stylish touch that aligns with the overall aesthetic of the collection.

 

Priced at $248, the Lens Kit offers value for money considering the quality of the two lenses and accessories included. One drawback is that you cannot choose the lenses you receive in this package however, the Dark Purple and Max Light lenses are among the most highly chosen sets since their release. This is of course for those who place aesthetics and fashion relatively high on their list when considering their choices in shooting since what makes these lenses special are the laser engraved logo and beautifully designed accessories.

Active+ Field Shirt:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, the Active+ Field Shirt exemplifies the marriage of style and functionality. Constructed from Brushed Duck Canvas and adorned with Alcantara patches, the shirt not only looks the part but also delivers in terms of performance. The gusseted back panel provides freedom of movement, allowing shooters to swing their guns with ease, while the large shell pockets offer convenience during shooting sessions.

 

These shirts are handmade in Boston, the Active+ Field Shirt is a testament to American craftsmanship and quality. With a hefty price of $298, it may have to be considered an investment, but the durability and longevity of the shirt will likely justify the cost for those who are both active on the range and in the field with wing-shooting. This doesn’t fit into my fashion style; however, I will happily be shooting in it when it’s time to getting out and hunting.

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Overall Impressions

 

The collaboration between Ball and Buck™ and Ranger represents a celebration of the sporting clays lifestyle. Each product in the collection reflects the shared commitment to excellence, craftsmanship, and innovation. While there may be minor drawbacks such as pricing and exclusivity, the overall quality and performance of the products outweigh any concerns.

As The Clay Lab, I encourage fellow enthusiasts to share their thoughts and experiences with the Ball and Buck™ x Ranger collection below. Together, let's continue to elevate the tradition of clay target shooting with these exceptional offerings.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Ball and Buck™ x Ranger collaboration sets a new standard in the world of sporting clays when it comes to collaborations. With premium eyewear and apparel designed to enhance the shooting experience, enthusiasts can embrace both tradition and innovation in the field and on the range. As two esteemed brands united by their passion for the outdoors, Ball and Buck™ and Ranger have delivered a collection worthy of noting.

 

Experience excellence firsthand and join us in celebrating the spirit of sporting clays with these exceptional products. Whether you're a seasoned shooter or new to the sport, the Ball and Buck™ x Ranger collection offers something for everyone. Embrace the heritage, craftsmanship, and performance that define the sporting clays lifestyle, and elevate your shooting experience with these exceptional offerings from Ball and Buck™ and Ranger.

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Shooter Spotlight: Gage Yarborough of South Carolina – A Balance of Priorities; School, Sporting Clays, & Living Life

Gage Yarborough is a tenth-grade honor student at Chester Senior High School in Chester, S.C and a member of the Lewisville High School Sporting Clays Team. He is also an active member of the Beta Club. At just sixteen years old, he has competed in numerous competitions.

 

His love for sporting clays began in 2020. After being quarantined at home for so long during Covid, his parents encouraged him to take up a sport to get out of the house and be more active. He had already tried baseball, soccer and karate but never had the passion for any of them. He has always enjoyed hunting (deer, ducks, turkey, quail, etc). After finding out there was a local sporting clay team, his dad reached out to the head coach to get the details. Gage attended one practice to see what it was all about and the rest is history. He now competes year-round, not only in youth events with his team (SCYSF, SCTP, and SCDNR), but also in registered events such as NSCA, NSSA and ATA. He shoots all three disciplines of shotgun sports Skeet, Trap, Sporting Clays, and recently tried FITASC for the first time.

Photo Credits: Sarah Whitesides Photography, Little Trapper inc., Brian and Sherri Yarborough, and Tracey

One of Gage Yarborough's favorite quotes... “It’s hard to beat a person that never gives up

-Babe Ruth

He started his first year shooting a Beretta A300 but decided he wanted an over-under before his first Junior US Open event that summer. He moved on to a Beretta 686 silver pigeon which he put several thousand rounds through until he recently got a Krieghoff K-80 Sporter for Christmas this past year. Gage’s journey to finding his long-term competition gun came slowly. He had spent time demoing the well-known brands and models like the Beretta DT-11, Blaser F3, and others. While in Texas at the National Sporting Clays Championships, he demoed the last gun he would need to for a long time, he picked a Krieghoff K-80 Sporter and knew after the first event he shot with it that it would be the tool he wanted to continue his shooting journey with. Upon return from Texas, he linked up with Mike Luongo of Rocky Creek Sporting Clays and Gage had one in his hands before Christmas that year. Along with his Rhino chokes and Remington Nitros, he has made great strides in competition. Some of his most recent accomplishments include:

Youth Events

2023 SCTP Nationals - JV 3rd place sporting clays and All-State team member

2023 SCDNR - Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays state champion

2023 SCYSF - JV state champion

2023 SCTP – cumulative overall champion (Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays)

2022 & 2023 SC/GA Border Skirmish - cumulative champion

2024 SCDNR - SV trap champion

 

Registered Events

2023 ATA – sub-junior SC state trap champion

2023 Gator Cup – second place sub-junior prelim and third place A-Class super sporting event

2023 SC State Championship – third place sub-junior

2023 NSCA Nationals – 3rd place sub-junior AA-Class

2023 SCSCA – overall points champion

2023 NSCA – all-state team member

2024 Seminole Cup – AA-Class champion, second place sub-junior, and 20 gauge sub-junior champion

2024 Gator Cup – second place sub-junior main event, second place sub-junior FITASC and 20 gauge HOA champion

2024 Southeast Regional – fourth place sub-junior, 20 and 28 sub-junior champion and top ten AA-Class finish

Photo Credits: Sarah Whitesides Photography, Little Trapper inc., Brian and Sherri Yarborough, and Tracey

Gage is also a three-time SCTP all scholastic team member and part of the Rhino Chokes Influencer Program. Gage loves Jesus, his family, and his pets. Always smiling, Gage is a compassionate, hard working and humble kid who is always ready to help others. He has made many friends in the sporting clay community throughout these last four years and always enjoys meeting new people. Although he knows he has been blessed with a lot of natural ability, his parents point out that his determination and work ethic on the course is what’s helped him to excel. Besides a busy competition schedule and practice regimen, he also maintains a 4.87 GPA, which is amongst the top in his class. 

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You will also often find him working part time at his home course, that he loves, Rocky Creek Sporting Clays, where he is always ready for advice from his mentor, Mike Luongo, who has taught him much about this sport. Gage would like to thank everyone who offers him support including, Rhino Chokes, PMS Firearms, BAREPELT, Cole Gunsmithing, and Rocky Creek Sporting Clays and the many people who have helped him along the way. Gage points out that none of this would be possible without the support of his parents. He thanks them for fully supporting and backing him on this journey.

Photo Credits: Sarah Whitesides Photography, Little Trapper inc., Brian and Sherri Yarborough, and Tracey

“G” is always looking forward to his next big event !

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Shooter Spotlight: Turner Parcell of South Carolina – Rising Above The Challenge and Building A Future In It

Turner Parcell has begun an awe-inspiring career into the world of sporting clays. He has participated in youth shooting sports on the local, state and national levels; local, state, regional and national NSCA tournaments; and has competed internationally as a member of the USA Sporting Clay Junior team at World English in Great Britain, and will represent the USA Sporting Clay Junior Team again this year as an alternate at the World Sporting Clay Championships. The most impressive of all, he has made this happen in 6 years, all while being a full time college student.

 

Turner was born and raised in the small town of Swansea, South Carolina (SC). He became interested in the sport of shooting after he attended competitions that his older brother, Cody, participated in. With a love of all sports, Turner became passionate in the sport of shooting where at the age of 13, he began to try his hand at youth competitions as a member of the Mid-Carolina Youth Shooting Team of Orangeburg, SC. Here, he began to shoot trap, skeet, and sporting clays. He enjoyed all three disciplines, finding success in each one. 

“Send It!”

-Turner Parcell

Turner met several influential people who helped him set goals for the year, one of those being his fellow youth shooting team member and friend, Madison Sharpe. Madison encouraged Turner to register for NSCA competitions to help strengthen his youth clay game. So with a plan in mind, Turner set out to obtain the goal of participating in Nationals in San Antonio that same year!  

 

Within a few weeks he shot his first registered competition, and a few months later he was competing at his very first regional event, on his way to Nationals. He pushed through many adversities that year including a broken thumb of which he had his cast shaped to fit his stock so he could keep on shooting. His drive never swayed. Sporting clays comes second nature to him. 

 

The excitement of being at Nationals enhanced Turner’s love for the sport. His desire to improve his game and compete drove him to keep going back onto the course. He continued shooting skeet and trap while sporting clays became his passion.

While he was on the youth shooting team, Turner won multiple SC state Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP), South Carolina Youth Shooting Foundation (SCYSF), and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) titles in skeet, trap, and sporting clays. During his youth shooting career, he won the National SCTP Intermediate HOA title and was a 2x National SCTP Varsity HOA Runner-Up. Turner was honored to be chosen to represent the SC 4-H program at the National competition. He is the first SC youth competitor to win an individual 4-H National HOA title which led his team to be the first ever SC team to win the HOA team award.

 

In NSCA, he is a 5x All-American, and is a 2-time member of the USA Sporting Clay Junior team. NSCA blasts titles include 2022 Caribbean Classic HOA, 2023 East Coast Championship HOA, and state titles including the 2023 North Carolina (NC) State HOA and South Carolina (SC) State Champion. 2024 is off to a great start with a Master 1st finish at the Caribbean Classic, Jack Links, Seminole Cup, and Master 4th finish at the Western Regional, and Gator Cup Junior 2nd with a positive mindset moving into the next set of upcoming competitions. 

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While he travels and competes, he is a freshman at the University of South Carolina majoring in Business. His goal is to continue his shooting career focusing on sport management, course setting, coaching, and of course continuing with his competition shooting. You will find him practicing at his home sporting clay course of Rocky Creek Sporting Clays in Richburg, SC, with his mentor and longtime coach Mike Luongo. Shooting with Mike has propelled his technical skills while building his confidence to break the clay. You name it pull away, sustained lead, or swing threw, any shooting method is the name of the game. 

 

Fun facts about Turner is he is right- handed; however, he is a southpaw shooter. A Tristar was his first gun. He shoots a Krieghoff Parcours X. Remington Nitros is his shell of choice. When asked how many times he practices a week, he will tell you he likes to practice at least three times a week, sometimes more. He was the youngest member of the inaugural 2022 NSCA Supersquad. In 2019, he made history as the youngest competitor to win the SC State Skeet HOA. Turner represented SC at the first ever NC vs SC State Grudge Match as the youngest competitor, and helped lead SC to win as the top shooter on the team, and has participated in the grudge match every year since then. He approaches each event to just ”Send It”.

In his free-time, Turner loves to hunt, play pool, bowl, video game, lake life, snowboard, and work out at the gym.

 

Turner is on the Pro-staff of Krieghoff International, Barepelt Pro- team member, and is on the Pro-team for Rhino Shooting Sports. He is also sponsored by Remington, PMS Firearms, Electronic Shooters Protection, Rocky Creek Sporting Clays, and Bankair Charter.

 

Six years after breaking his first clay, Turner at 19 years old is a well known name and face to watch in the sport.

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Shooter Spotlight: Blaize Whitehead of Pennsylvania – Skills Founded in Commitment, Opportunity, and Support

It all started in 2013 at a fundraiser shoot, he was so excited to be with his father at Leigh Valley Sporting Clays. They competed in shooting that day for the purpose of raising money for those with cancer; this was his first exposure to the sporting clays world. He had always been around guns and bird hunting throughout his whole life but this was the first of many sporting clays events to come. They continued shooting that fundraiser until 2015. He loved competition and was driven to see how many clay targets he could hit. Shooting for competition lit a spark inside him that turned to the purest of fire that no one could take away. He was so glad this fundraiser started his journey into the sporting clays world. This shooter is none other than Blaize Whitehead. Don’t forget the name because you are very likely to see it at the top of many leader boards.

His father has been a major influence into his sporting clays journey. He supports him in the decisions he makes into how to best shoot this game and handle the stressors of competition. In 2014, at his first National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA) registered tournament in PA, he meet and shot with Shawn Kemeter. Little did he know at the time, that this would be the birth on one of his greatest friends. At this time, Shawn had a drive for the sport that was very similar to Blaize’s. They hit it off and to this day, they are still friends that travel the country shooting and competing at major shooting events together. 

Blaize Whitehead

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

Blaize6

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

“I would like to thank my parents for without them I would not be in the position I am at today, I’m working to make 2024 my best shooting year yet!”

-Blaize Whitehead 

Blaize Whitehead additionally credits one of the greatest in this sport for his successes, Anthony I. Matarese Jr. who has been his shooting coach for over five years. He has helped him through his shooting journey more than anyone. He credits Anthony Matarese as the reason why he’s shooting at the level he does today. He taught him his style of shooting and has helped him through many challenges of competing in this sport. He was a huge influence on his shooting career and couldn’t be more thankful of the time, commitment, and expertise Anthony shared with him about this sport.    

In Blaize’s senior year of high school, COVID impacted the nation. Not sure what to do for a career, he decided not to go to college. Although accepted into several schools, he chose to take the year off. He approached his father to see if he could follow him in the construction field which would give him time to see where his passion for sporting clays would go. To this day, he still working for his Dad which enables him to compete in the largest tournaments across the country on a regular basis. He appreciates all that his father has done to mentor him in the Electrical Trade. Accepting the world and the opportunities provided to him, he is still thankful as without COVID, he may not have had this opportunity to pursue his dreams.

Blaize1

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

Blaize2

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

Blaize Whitehead currently shoots a Beretta DT-11. This DT-11 came to him as a surprise when he won it at the first ever Jack Link’s Cup hosted at Quail Creek Sporting Ranch, Florida. For eyewear, he chooses the Pilla x7 frames paired with three different lenses. One of the lenses is a dark purple lenses which he uses in bright light conditions, second he uses a clear lens with a tint of green which is great for shooting at night, and lastly he uses an orange lens for use on cloudy days. His favorite go to shell is the Winchester AA 1oz 1290fps #7.5 shot. For ear protection, he uses Electronic Shooters Protection Elite Digital Ear Plugs that he was lucky to win at the 2024 Gator Cup hosted at Backwoods Quail Club, SC. For chokes, his choice is a pair of extreme twenty chokes which him emphasizes patterns great paired with his Beretta DT-11. In 2022, Blaize became part of Team BAREPELT and he proudly sports their custom vest. 

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Blaize Whitehead’s Accomplishments

PA State 5 stand HOA 2022,2023

PA State FITASC HOA 2022,2023

NY State FITASC HOA 2023

Western Regional 5 stand HOA 2023

Ohio State Main Event RU 2022

High Volume shooter 2022. 2023

Thanksgiving shoot M&M FITASC HOA 2023

Winter Blast M&M Main Event HOA 2023

Delaware River Classic M&M FITASC HOA 2022, 2023

Seafood Blast M&M FITASC Prelim HOA 2023

Seafood Blast M&M FITASC Main Tied HOA 2023

 

Team Memberships Earned

All American Team FITASC

2023 Junior Team

2024 Open Team

All American Team Sporting

2021 Junior Team

2022 Junior Team

2023 Open Team

2024 Open Team

Blaize3

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

Blaize4

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

Blaize5

Photo Credit: Blaize Whitehead

Chamberlain and Diaz Real Estate Team is one of his sponsors that he is thankful to have. Additionally, he would like to give a huge shout out to BAREPELT vests for sponsoring him since 2022 and making sure he shoots in a top-of-the-line vest out on the course. Blaize is also sponsored by Taconic Distillery as of 2023, who always makes sure he has bourbon on hand to make connections and celebrate life with friends.

New this year, Blaize has recently received a sponsorship through Promatic Traps and Kids & Clays. “They provide me with the finest equipment to practice with for the upcoming shoots to make sure I am at the top of my game.” 

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