ESPN Hunting

Photo courtesy Jody AllenTexan Charles Allen, shown here with his bird dog Tess, ran the wingshooting table last month in Enid, Okla., to claim the 2008 Grand National Celebrity Quail Hunt championship. The title was his third in the past four seasons.

Last month, Allen once again ran the proverbial wingshooting table in Enid, Okla., and in doing so, took the top shooting honors at the 2008 Grand National Celebrity Quail Hunt. Some four decades old, the annual hunt is a Sooner State tradition, established in 1967.

Today, participation is by invitation only from the governor, with all hunt proceeds going to fund wildlife habitat acquisition, bobwhite quail management and ongoing research for the popular upland bird species.

As president of the Denison, Texas, based DiamondBlade LLC and Knives of Alaska, Inc., Allen fits right in with the field of 400, which includes Hollywood celebrities, sports figures and business leaders from across the country.

The former wildlife director of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department also produced the first synthetic rattling horns on the market, and owns the Alaska Expedition Company outfitting service near Cordova, Alaska.

While he knows his way around a boardroom, Allen is most comfortable in the wild, utilizing skills he learned growing up hunting and fishing in North Texas. He's a licensed Alaska bush pilot who also guides fly fishermen and big game in the Last Frontier.

While Allen's shooting skills are considerable — he has stared down a brown bear charge caught on film for a television episode — he is perhaps most at home with a shotgun in his hand.

Specifically, a .20 gauge over/under Beretta 687 shotgun, the same scattergun that Allen has shouldered to win each of his three Grand National titles.

This year's two-day Grand National shooting event, a competition of hunting wild bobwhite quail behind bird dogs in northwestern Oklahoma, allowed participating hunters the opportunity to collect six birds each day.

Hunters were scored by a combination of the number of shots they had fired, missed, and if any doubles had to be taken.

In the November 2008 competition, Allen shot a perfect two-day score with no misses and one double to take the top shooting honors for this year's "Master's Class" competition.

Prior to competing in the Masters Class, a hunter has had to win the "Top Gun" award, which Allen successfully did in 2005. Allen also won the Master's class event in 2006, making him one of the finest wingshots around.