OT - YOU GUYS LIKE THE SHOTGUNS SPORTS..SKEET, TRAP, ETC?

[RIHMFIRE]

LOOKS LIKE THIS YEAR I AM GONNA PICK-UP MY SHOTGUNS
AND SHOOT SKEET TRAP AND SPORTING CLAYS...
THEY JUST OPENED A BRAND NEW RANGE 4 MILES FROM MY HOUSE..
WHEN I GOT OUTSIDE THIS MORNING I COULD HEAR THE SHOOTING
AND IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG BEFORE I WAS IN THE TRUCK TO FIND
OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON....NEXT THING I KNOW I'M SHOOTING SKEET
WITH A BORROWED GUN AND SHOT 22 OUT OF 25...
I'M HOOKED AGAIN...IT WAS TONS OF FUN!
ITS BEEN ALMOST 2 YEARS SINCE I USED MY SHOTGUNS...
CANT WAIT TILL NEXT WEEKEND

[crs]

Yes, I shoot sporting clays and skeet when I have time. Great sport when there are no open hunting seasons.

[Paul105]

Started out with skeet, then trap, then international skeet and international trap then sporting clays. Sporting clays is just plain addictive. Jeez, that was 15 years ago. Don't have local access, or would still be heavily involved. Love the shotgun sports, especially sporting clays. It does get expensive though.

Paul

[Griff]

Enjoy almost all the shotgun sports. But, cowboy action takes most of my free time. I'm sitting here cleaning my side by side, '73 rifle, 51 Navies and watchin' Comanche Moon with my bride of 37+ years at my side; ain't life GRAND!

[LeverBob]

Go get em' pard...clays don't cook up as well as a live bird, but to a dedicated shooter, they barbecue just fine!

Shot tournement skeet & trap in the 70's & 80's. Got bored shooting American skeet after shooting so many 100 straights in all guages (no brag, just fact). (Wayne Mayes has over 150 tourney straights in .410 alone). That tells me that Robert Stack was right, Amer. skeet is watered down.

Started shooting international with my 3200 1 of 1000 after seeing what Matt Dryke did at the Olympics. Now that is a challenge!

Took a year to finally begin to shoot a straights in internat. Box birds over the border is something else again. What fun.

Trap is fantastic. I get out to shoot trap whenever I can.

LeverBob
After all, it is deflection shooting...right!!!

[TedH]

I used to shoot on a Sporting Clays league. Haven't done much shotgunning lately though. In fact I'm down to only two shotguns at present.

[Haycock]

Sure do! I've introduced more non-shooters to guns using a side-by-side (completely un-scary to most folks) and a skeet-chucker than any other way. Great way to pass the time...

[Ram Hammer]

I shot skeet for the first time in nearly 20 years a few months ago and had a great time. I used a 20 ga O/U that day and since have a line or a Beretta at a good price in 12 Ga. This will definitely be my off season shooting pass time.

[C. Cash]

Yes, always when I can. It is great stress relief. Just like with my Turkey hunting, I enjoy showing up with an outdated single shot and the bare basics and watching the reactions. The tweed/stiff neck crowd doesn't know what to do when they see trailer trash going 48 for 50 with some beat up clunker single shot. Ok sometimes I've missed 48 out of 50 but who's counting?

[Slick13]

I shoot mostly trap, but get in a few rounds of skeet and sporting when I can. I got into the sport several years ago because I was looking for something to do, now between two summer leagues and shooting registered ATA targets, it has become one of the dominate things in my life.

Be prepared to spend some $$$. Shells, lead, and reloading components have all gone up over the past two years. Premium 12 ga. target shells are closing in on $9 a box, and the cheapo Top Guns and Gun Clubs are over $5 a box. Lead is over $50 a bag in some places, so it's tough to keep reloads under $5 a box when reloading 1 1/8 oz loads.

~Michael

[Pete44ru]

Nope, I'm what you'd call a participant in "blood sports", and only use my shotguns on live game and felonious morons.

[RIHMFIRE]

I shoot mostly trap, but get in a few rounds of skeet and sporting when I can. I got into the sport several years ago because I was looking for something to do, now between two summer leagues and shooting registered ATA targets, it has become one of the dominate things in my life.

Be prepared to spend some $$$. Shells, lead, and reloading components have all gone up over the past two years. Premium 12 ga. target shells are closing in on $9 a box, and the cheapo Top Guns and Gun Clubs are over $5 a box. Lead is over $50 a bag in some places, so it's tough to keep reloads under $5 a box when reloading 1 1/8 oz loads.

~Michael

YEP I KNOW...
I HAVE RELOADED WELL OVER 100,000 ROUNDS
LEAD AT ONE TIME WAS $8 A BAG...
THIS COULD GET EXPENSIVE...
BUT INSTEAD OF SHOOTING 200 ROUNDS A DAY I WILL HAVE
TO SETTLE FOR MUCH LESS...
WE ARE SENDING ALL OUR LEAD TO CHINA
AND THEY SEND IT BACK IN OUR KIDS TOYS...
LEAD BASED PAINT...
CHEW ON THAT FOR A WHILE!

[Slick13]

BUT INSTEAD OF SHOOTING 200 ROUNDS A DAY I WILL HAVE
TO SETTLE FOR MUCH LESS...

Invest in 7/8 oz wads. That's more than enough shot for skeet, and I ran my first 50 straight at singles trap with 7/8 oz loads. Gets you 450 shells per bag of shot vs. 350 when reloading 1 1/8 oz loads. Heck, if you're not shooting an auto loader shotgun, you can use those 7/8 oz wads, adjust your press, and load 3/4 oz loads for skeet (still plenty of shot).

~Michael

[longhair1957]

I used to shoot Sporting clays a couple times a week out at the Ben Avery Target range here north of Phoenix. I started shooting a little skeet and trap but found it too boring and too easy to shoot clean scores. But my Passion was always with the Sporting Clays! at this range they would change the stations every week and their were about 12 staions to make up your round of 100. The designers were great with the creative ways they would set the traps. everything from coming right at you over your head fast to straight up teal shoots, crossers, doubles, mini's you name it they had it...all with nice electronic traps.
I started having some small and some not so small strokes and lost my right eye domination sometimes. (sometimes it is there sometimes not) my scores dropped from mid to high 80's to 60's. I quit going ....now I dont know if I can even afford to do it, the shells I used to get for $4.99 a box are now $10.29....
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... t=11082005

and Here is the Beretta that I shoot them with when I can.!

[Slick13]

I used to shoot Sporting clays a couple times a week out at the Ben Avery Target range here north of Phoenix. I started shooting a little skeet and trap but found it too boring and too easy to shoot clean scores.

I always chuckle when I see sporting shooters call skeet or trap "too easy". Running a field or two during practice is completely different from having to must run those same two fields under league or tournament pressure.

~Michael

[longhair1957]

I used to shoot Sporting clays a couple times a week out at the Ben Avery Target range here north of Phoenix. I started shooting a little skeet and trap but found it too boring and too easy to shoot clean scores.

I always chuckle when I see sporting shooters call skeet or trap "too easy". Running a field or two during practice is completely different from having to must run those same two fields under league or tournament pressure.

~Michael

Hey Slick,
Who said anything about a a field or two??? Not knowing me you would have no idea how many I have run!!!

I said that I found it too boring ...if you dont then thats fine.... I found the constant change in the sporting clays course more to my likings.

By the way my daughter and I went to the sporting clays course with a friend who is a national champion level skeet shooter and his son who was also a top level competitor. My Daughter and I kicked their butts!!! They could not get used to the clays being in different places at different speeds all the time. You get so used to the clays going at the same speed and they always go right through were the calibration hoop is set-up that they now where the clay will be just from when they hear the trap throw!

Thats just my experience sorry if you feel different.

[Slick13]

I used to shoot Sporting clays a couple times a week out at the Ben Avery Target range here north of Phoenix. I started shooting a little skeet and trap but found it too boring and too easy to shoot clean scores.

I always chuckle when I see sporting shooters call skeet or trap "too easy". Running a field or two during practice is completely different from having to must run those same two fields under league or tournament pressure.

~Michael

Hey Slick,
Who said anything about a a field or two??? Not knowing me you would have no idea how many I have run!!!

I said that I found it too boring ...if you dont then thats fine.... I found the constant change in the sporting clays course more to my likings.

By the way my daughter and I went to the sporting clays course with a friend who is a national champion level skeet shooter and his son who was also a top level competitor. My Daughter and I kicked their butts!!! They could not get used to the clays being in different places at different speeds all the time. You get so used to the clays going at the same speed and they always go right through were the calibration hoop is set-up that they now where the clay will be just from when they hear the trap throw!

Thats just my experience sorry if you feel different.

I don't know how many fields you've run in a row, or how many you've run in your career. And I'm not trying to convince you that one sport is better than another, or more difficult. I think all the shotgun sports are great, and you must participate in all to be a well rounded shooter.

That being said, I hear from sporting shooters on a regular basis (in person and on the net) about how trap or skeet are easy or boring so they don't shoot it. That's makes me laugh. Partly because trap establishs a mental game and focus that is needed to be successful in all the shotgun sports. I also laugh because if the targets were sooooo easy and the sporting clays shooter could run trap targets at will, why aren't they out there picking people's pockets? You can make thousands shooting trap. I was at the Ohio State Handicap and the top shooter walked away with over $13,000 that day (if I'd have picked up 4 targets, he'd have had to split that with me), and probably over $20,000 for the week. A couple weeks before that he probably made $40,000 at a large handicap shoot in Utah that had over $250,000 in the calcutta.

If I shot trap as well as many sporting clays shooters claim to, I could double my annual income off of options and calcuttas. For that I could live with boring and easy targets.

~Michael