By Stephen Delaney Hale
Correspondent
Article dated Oct. 25, 1995

AIKEN - After encountering as many obstacles as a cross country course, the prospects that Aiken may host practice sessions for several foreign Olympic shooting teams are on track again.

Rich Sherman, owner of the South Carolina Outdoor Shooting Center east of Montmorenci, announced Monday that he has secured an Olympic-level bunker trap machine that will give teams the same conditions they will face in Atlanta next year.

On the same day he said he received a reservation from the British Olympic Shooting Team to practice here on Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 1-3. The British team will return for several stays next year, Sherman said.

Larry Leatherman, owner of Parker-Boss, manufacturers of the $70,000 piece of equipment, verified from his Wichita, Kan., headquarters that his company will be installing the bunker trap before the arrival of the British team, but the exact date has not yet been set.

Sherman said a previous commitment from the Canadian Olympic shooting team is still in force, but they have not yet contacted him for range reservations. He said he has also had varying degrees of interest from the national teams of Italy, Japan, Korea, Czechoslovakia, Australia and Germany.

He said the trap-shooting members of the French team, who are committed to training at Pinetucky Gun Club near Augusta, have shown some interest in using the bunker trap when it is installed.

Few Olympic bunker traps are available to the public in the United States, Sherman said. One is in West Palm Beach, Fla., and others are at U.S. Army bases, most notably Ft. Benning, Ga., but foreign teams do not always have access to those facilities, he said.

``Until targets start flying out of that machine, this place is no different than any other good shooting center. The day that targets start flying, we will put out the word to shooting teams all over the world,'' Sherman said.

He said he will work with the Aiken and Augusta chambers of commerce to put together a guide to the amenities of the Aiken-Augusta area to send to all of the major teams.

``It will have an effect on the entire area economy,'' he said. ``We only have one shot at this. It will not be back in my lifetime. We have to grab this Olympics while we have it.''