Music and shotguns brought in more than $300,000 for Special Ops Xcursions (SOX) last month. Singer Tim Montana, and a long list of well known friends, came together for the sixth year to raise support for the nonprofit. A group of Green Berets and their hunting buddies created SOX to benefit active-duty Special Operations Forces members and their families. Its mission is to take them from “Fight to Field One Hunt at a Time.”
The "excursions" include hunting, camping, and fishing trips, and range time, as well as family time. Special Ops Xcursions began by aiding eight people in its first year. Today, it helps more than 1,000 spec-ops personnel annually.
Montana & Friends American Thread Concert 2025
The festivities in Nashville began with the intimate Montana & Friends American Thread concert and auction at the City Winery in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Hochstadter’s Slow & Low, one of the event sponsors, greeted guests at the doors with their Proper Old-Fashioned and their Coffee Old-Fashioned cocktails.
I can tell you that if you love an espresso martini you are in for a treat with the latter. The other sponsors included ColorBurst's Landscapes, Brassfield & Gorrie, Nashville Gun Club, Centurion Stone, Pit Viper, Timberwolf Archery, Miller Scribante, Tomahawk Solutions, Whiskey Bent BBQ, Boswells Golf Cars, The Beached Pig, Future Shirts, Geissele and more.
The event that evening intertwined musical guests and auction items that would have you wishing you were there. Scotty Hasting was the opening musical guest.
He spoke of his time in the Army, including the story of how he was shot 10 times while fighting for his life in Afghanistan. He said music was therapy for him and played a huge part in him making it to where he is now.
Colbie Caillat then took the stage, singing favorites like “Falling For You” and “I’m Here.” She also signed up to skydive in exchange for 100 dives being donated to SOX. Her lyrics left a few tears in the room.
Accomplished singer Craig Morgan, who currently serves in the Army Reserves and is a U.S. Army veteran, came on stage with his wife to accept an award from Brig. Gen. Travis McIntosh: the Order of Saint Michael-Airborne Award.
Auction Benefitting Special Ops Xcursions and More Music
John Hargrove from Whiskey House in Kentucky joined Tim Montana on stage to auction off not one, but two whiskey barrels filled with the winning bidder’s choice of whiskey! The audience went wild bidding until the very end, with the winner donating $21,000 to Special Ops Xcursion. What a win!
Tyler Farr jumped in singing a few of his favorite songs like “Guy Walks into the Bar.” Elvie Shane from American Idol (2016) also joined in to sing one of his hits, and a favorite of mine, “My Boy.”
The auction items also included a machine gun, with ammo, and a suppressed mini gun! Plus, a few great hunts were donated to the auction from local supporters and by Slow & Low.
Michael Ray, Jerrod Niemann, and Rome Ramirez lent their voices to the cause and Kenny from Big & Rich filled the stage with his presence supporting the Red, White and Blue with his song “The 8th of November” and rounded out his set with the ever popular “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
Gavin DeGraw sang “I Don’t Wanna Be” and sang a beautiful duet with Craig Morgan. The lyrics from Craig Campbel’’s “The Outskirts of Heaven” painted a view we all wanted, before he moved on to “Fish” and made everyone laugh.
Tim Montana himself got on stage for the big finale of the evening, along with his goof friend Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. What a night! And this was just the beginning of the two day event.
Day Two: A Day at the Clays Range
The American Thread Sporting Clay Shoot began the next morning — with music of course — at the Nashville Gun Club. Silent auction items for the day were at the ready and included everything from celebrity items from Charlie Sheen, a signed Hulk Hogan rookie card, a Browning rifle, Magpul stocks, a Montana Knife package, a Big Green Egg grill, and so much more.
The 18 shooting stations on the course were set up for the day and outfitted with Fiocchi shotgun ammo. Military Black Hawk helicopters (Sikorsky UH-60s) from Fort Campbell flew before skydivers graced the blue heavens with the American Flags flying for all to see. Lunch was provided for all by the The Beached Pig, which is quite famous here in central Tennessee.
All the shooting teams, some with celebrities from the evening before joining them, including Tim Montana and the Slow & Low crew, made their way to the course and had a blast. At the end of the competition, awards were given for top team and top shooter!
The event, in total, raised more than $300,000 for SOX, bringing the organization’s total amount raised for spec ops personnel to $1.8 million.
"We're incredibly grateful for all of (Tim Montana’s) efforts to pull this enormous event together and everyone who stands behind our mission in providing support and relief for those who have sacrificed so much for us," said Scott Graves, founder of Special Ops Xcursion. "I want to especially thank all of our sponsors for their generous support—we couldn't have done this without you all."
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