More Steps: Different Guns, Some Techniques, and Reloading

    Welcome back!  As I shot different courses with different people, I became envious of people who could shoot different shotgun gauges and still shoot very well.  It is embarrassing when someone shooting a smaller gauge still beats you.  I was still in the Tim the Toolman mindset that "more power" was better.  Baroom!  Louder, sorer shoulder, throbbing headache, and the "f-word"; flinching.  So, over the period of  two years, I purchased a  Browning Ultra XS 12 gauge, two 20 gauge Storger Condors, a Browning 28 gauge, and a Stoeger 12 gauge - 20 gauge combo.  Phew!  I was really searching for a better way to improve my scores without improving my shooting skills.  I relied on my equipment rather than on my technique.  Men do have their toys.

    As you notice from the above list, I had graduated to over-unders.  I will be the first to admit that my scores did improve by 8 to 10 birds per round, but I was still very  inconsistent.  I also graduated to riding in a golf cart with a friend I had met while shooting.  However, he warned me that I would have to walk and carry my ever larger shooting bag if I beat him!  Ha! 

    Have you ever heard this?

• Locate and visualize the breaking point for the target and place your feet in that direction.
• Hold the gun tightly against your shoulder and point your finger of the nontrigger hand down the forearm of the gun toward the target in a natural pointing manner.
• Keep both eyes open, take a relaxing breath, and swing back to where the target is coming from.
• Crouch slightly and lean forward, but relax.
• Call for the target and swing the gun until you get just ahead of it and pull the trigger.

    I thought this was a simple sport!  As I observed some of the different shooters, I noticed that none of them did all this consistently.  Also, it is difficult to go through this list when a second target is thrown.  Sometimes, shooters will shoot the "show pair" without seeing where the targets are going.  Did you ever notice that they break both targets the first time, but not the next pairs after seeing where the targets are supposed to go?  Humm... maybe this instinctive shooting thing has some promise.  Realizing this has improved my scores and made me a more consistent shooter.  I guess what I want to say is to do what works for you.  I'm sure Joe Expertman or Icabod the Instructor would have heart failure or a brain cramp with this idea.
    By the way, I did keep the sweet Browning Ultra XS and 1187.  I sold and traded all the rest (Not because they were "bad" guns.) and now play occasionally with a 12 gauge Stoeger Competition, a 20 gauge Stoeger Competiton, a 410 Stoeger Condor ("eek!", some say), and my hunting gun, a 16 gauge Stoeger Condor.  More about the Stoegers in a later post.
    So, what is a logical progression for a former science teacher?  I started reloading my shells.  I told my wife I could save money by reloading and have more consistent loads.  Sounds like a good excuse, doesn't it!  Reloading has opened up a new set of variables.  Using the Interent, I studied the different types of powders, wads, shell casings, primers, and reloaders.  All clay shooters who reload have their own favorite recipe for their pet reload.  I do follow manufacturer recommendations exactly, but have settled on Unique powder as the propellent so I can reload 12, 16, and 20 gauge with the same powder. (I don't reload 410 shells....yet!)  I have stayed with MEC reloaders because of their price and availability.
    Some questions for you to think about:

1. Can 7/8 ounce or 1 ounce loads break targets as well as 1 -1/8 ounce loads?
2. Can you decrease the amount of powder you use slightly (or use Lite powders) and still break the same amounts of targets?
3. Why don't more shooters use a 16 gauge?
4. Is changing choke tubes over-rated?
5. Besides hitting most of the targets, can you make a list of what acts or actions make a good shooter a great shooter?

    Enough of my teacher ramblings!  Ha!

   Finally, my pet peeve of the day.  I have read and researched a lot about shooting different types of clays.  I am amazed how arrogant some writers are about the guns they use, the proper ammunition, or the "accepted" techniques shooters must follow.  I guess there are elite thinking, over-bearing people in every walk of life.  Are  we just looking to have fun or is having fun an excuse poor shooters use as a rationalization?  What do you think?
    Come back.  I'm sure you've had many of the same experiences with shooting sporting clays that I've had.

Still a Sporting Clays Newbie

    Hello again!  After shooting at the same club for several months, I had many ups and downs score-wise.  What was I doing wrong?  How could I improve my score?  By now, I had met with and shot with some very good shooters.  They made it look so easy and I didn't appreciate getting smoked each time I shot.  By now I had learned some important and not so important items about shooting sporting clays:

• Ammunition should be 7 and 1/2 to size 9 shot and target loads, not field loads.
• You were allowed to premount your gun and experiment with shooting with both eyes open.
• Some targets required a lead to actually consistently hit them.
• A pump gun was not exactly the easiest gun to use when shooting at multiple targets.
• Some shooters are obnoxious and didn't particularily like to shoot with us poor rookies.  They didn't like anyone talking or laughing anywhere on the course.  Each one of their misses was accomplished with a lengthy "post mortem" about what they had done wrong.  They were quick to give crazy advice, but didn't listen to mine.  I decided that if shooting was that serious, I'd find some other fools like me to shoot with.
• Many shooters were picking up certain spent cartridges and keeping their own.  At first, I thought they were making those Christmas decorations with light bulbs in them to put in their man cave.  Oh, you can reload?

    So, being an old science teacher, I began to experiment.  I bought an autoloading Remingtom 1187 Premier and began changing chokes like some shooters did at each station.  After all, golf players think new golf clubs would make them a better golf player.  In the end, my scores did improve somewhat, but I was still very inconsistent.  Like a football player, I thought practice, practice, practice was the answer.  I would stand in my basement and repeatedly mount my gun over and over to become more consistent.

    Next, I bought different shells: Premier Nito Sporting Clays, AA Sporting Clays, el-cheapo Federal Walmart specials, Gun Club, and even some Fiocchi shells called spreaders.  Does more power mean more hit targets?  I may have had the loudest gun out there but still didn't hit targets consistently.  Why did my gun not break targets when I made the pattern as wide as possible and switched to 8's and 9's shot to get more lead to the target.  Maybe it was the jerk on the gun and not the jerk of the gun!
    At least I looked better.  (So I think!  Ha!)  I purchased labeled shirts, a Browning shooters hat, a shooting vest, over-priced sunglasses, and learned to say things like " I flinched" or " I shot over the target" or "I couldn't catch up with the crossing target" or "who set up this course?" when I missed.  I was into the lingo, but I would rather hit more targets and say " the course was easy today, wasn't it?" 
    I tried using shoulder shock absorbers, fancy clip-on barrel sights, gun stock cheek pads, and special padded shoes.  ( I learned to kick the ground after I missed and wanted my toes protected...ha!)  I scanned the Internet for advice on shooting clays and became more and more confused.  It seemed like everyone was selling a book, a certain gun, a certain reload, a certain technique, or an attitude that they were the only good expert shooters in the good old USA.
    What's a guy to do?  In my upcoming blogs, I will attempt to discuss more of my endless experimentation and tribulations.
    On each post I would like to list a few pet peeves I've developed while shooting.  Here's the first one:  People who ask for shooting advice, then let you say 3 words and go ahead and say the same thing you've heard many times before.  They seem to look right past you and belittle your thoughts.  What are some of your shooting pet peeves?
    God bless and good shooting!

Sporting Clays Novice

     I grew up on a farm and loved to shoot guns and hunt.  I considered myself somewhat familiar with shotguns and could hit a can thrown in the air.  How could I possibly miss a clay target with a shotgun that could throw such a wide pattern?  I had been invited to a church activity at a local sporting clays site and was ready to show off my skills.  I picked up my dad's old 12 gauge pump and three boxes of #6 high rim field load from Remington.  When I arrived at the site, I noticed a church member clad in shooter"s slacks, a Remington shooting shirt, and vest with at least 10 shooting logos on it, and a double barrel shotgun with the barrels on top of each other.  He was changing the lenses of  his sunglasses for what I thought was to be more fashionable.  He wore ear protectors that could be turned up or down for comfort.  (Or was it music?) He had open boxes of shells attached to his vest, and a hat that came directly from Cabelas.
        Uh oh, I thought.  I had coached high school football for 27 years and was still quite competitive.  My muddy work boots, paint splattered Ohio State sweatshirt, old coaching shorts, and five dollar sunglasses looked pretty lame next to this "expert".  I needed ear plugs?  Another shooter gave me some rubber things that looked like he'd let his dog chew on them.  Now, how do I carry 50 plus shotgun shells full of lead?  I looked in the back of my truck and secured a somewhat wet carpenter's nail apron and dumped the shells into the pockets.  I tied the apron on and walked confidently for 10 feet before the apron started pulling my shorts down to my knees!  Walking with a shotgun in one hand and lifting your shorts with the other hand is an acquired talent. 
    Now, we arrived at the first station and the rules/procedures were explained to us by a bearded, cross-eyed, tobacco chewing, limping old guy.  He explained he was our thrower and to yell "pull!" when we were ready to shoot.  I was third on the shooter's list and felt ready to compete.  I said a quick prayer (we're Baptists, you know.) to not be humiliated and lined up to watch the first two shooters.  The old guy disappeared behind a wooden fence and and the first shooter yelled "pull!".  Two targets flew with great speed from right to left about 10 yards away.  The guy didn't shoot, explaining they were a "show pair". How could that old guy do that with a single hand thrower?  I peeked around the fence and saw a mechanical thrower.  Yes, I was a true rookie! 
    The first two shooters hit several, but missed the second of the pair with regularity.  Phew, I thought....at least I had a chance.  Now it was my turn.  Hoping my prayer had worked, I put two shells in my pump gun and yelled "pull!.  I aimed down the barrel like shooting at a sitting target, pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.  I almost fell over the front of the shooting station and to my embarrassment had forgotten to turn the safety off.  Five guys laughed and I was as red as the shells I was shooting.  I turned off the safety and yelled pull again.  I shot where the targets were and broke both of them with one shot.  Wow, this sport is a piece of cake!  I reloaded the gun and noticed a hot feeling on my upper arm near my shoulder.  It hurt!  Old coaches don't show pain!  I did hit one of the remaining two pairs and felt somewhat successful.
    Now the sportily-clad guy stepped in the box.  I watched closely, hoping to get hints on how to shoot successfully.  He missed all six targets and I felt better!  To make a long story short, I broke 22 of the 50 targets over the whole course.  The Cabelas fashion model hit only 6!  I discovered he had borrowed the gear from a friend and was as much of a rookie as I was.  To this very day, I have never seen someone miss the targets as far as he did.  He didn't have a clue.  He even swung his loaded gun around one time toward the waiting shooters to ask a question.  It looked like World War II with guys jumping on the ground it all directions.
    I found out later when I arrived home and looked at the huge bruise on my shoulder and arm that I had been pulling the shotgun away from my shoulder when I pumped in the second shell and shot.  This must not be a sissy sport!  No one else had complained, so I gutted it out as a "real" man would.  My dad would have been proud!
    So, this is how I got started in this sport.  You might imagine that I would quit after that first experience, but I wanted to get my brother-in-law into it so I could teach him to be as good as a shooter as I was!  Ha! 
    In future entries into this blog, I will discuss how I have evolved into a better shooter and some of the perils I have been through with shooting techniques, gun purchasing, reloading, and acquiring great friendships.  I do have some complaints to air also.  After all, I am dealing with people who all have their own opinions about shooting sporting clays.
    Is all you've read true?  Yep!  Only the names have been left out to protect me from physical harm.