Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Taking a shot
Sporting clays humble shotgunner
LONOKE — The new sporting clays course at Remington Gun Club builds you up just to break you down.
I shot the course shortly after it opened last fall and was sorely disappointed with my performance. I am decent at trap and better than average at skeet, but I have never been very good at shooting sporting clays. I wasn’t surprised to do poorly at a new course that is rated as high-intermediate level. It’s unforgiving to new and inexperienced shooters, but it is challenging to average shooters.
I shot the course originally with a Remington V3 12-gauge with a skeet choke. A skeet choke is too open for many of the shot presentations at Remington’s course, but I really put myself at a disadvantage by aiming at break points instead of following and swinging through targets.
This tendency was very much at the forefront of my thoughts when I visited the course again Wednesday with Bob Rogers of Maumelle. Rogers has recently fallen in love with sporting clays after having acquired a pristine and stunningly beautiful Winchester 101 Pigeon Grade 12-gauge. It has fixed improved cylinder bores, which are just about right for Remington’s course.
I brought a very old Browning 20-gauge over/under that I thought had fixed improved cylinder and modified bores, a perfect combination for sporting clays.
Rogers and I prepared for our round of clays by shooting two rounds of skeet at Remington’s skeet range. I haven’t shot a formal round of skeet in a long time, so I wasn’t surprised to break only 17 targets in the first round. I broke a more respectable 22 in the second round, and I did not miss a target until Station 5, where I missed the low house target, and then missed it again on the option. I then missed the low house target on Station 6.
However, I was thrilled to smoke the 8 and 9 station targets, which had given me fits in previous outings. Breaking those targets was an even bigger deal than I thought for reasons that I noticed later.
With 50 rounds under our belts, Rogers and I moved to the sporting clays course, a 100- target affair divided among 13 stations. We crushed the first three stations. There, you get four report pairs, which means that the trapper releases the second target immediately when you fire at the first target.
Rogers and I felt pretty good about ourselves until the fourth station. It was harder than the first three stations, and the course got progressively harder. The flight paths of many targets pass behind obstructions. That sometimes tricks me into thinking the target moving is faster than it really is, and that causes me to either rush my shot, delay my shot for too long or, as mentioned earlier, to aim at a break point and wait for the target to arrive. Shotgunning is not an aiming game, and my score started to plummet.
By far, I have always had a hard time hitting high, arcing presentations. Conventional wisdom preaches hitting such a target at the apex of its arc, but anticipating the target’s apex often causes me to aim at the apex instead of following the target upward and swinging through it. That also means that I then have to begin swinging on the second target from a fixed aim point on the first target, so I can’t ever catch up to the second target. You have to swing through both targets.
On the first rabbit target, I also noticed my footwork was wrong, and it had been wrong since we started. I am meticulous about my footwork when shooting skeet, but not as much when shooting sporting clays. With my score already in the tank, I made the necessary footwork adjustments and started hitting targets again.
At least, I hit them for awhile. At some point, fatigue set in, exacerbated by the sharp blows the 20-gauge had administered to my cheekbone. Rogers thought this was very funny.
On Station 11, I looked at the markings on my barrels. The top barrel had one X, and the bottom barrel showed XX. One X designates a full choke. Two Xs designate a modified choke. A full choke is too tight for sporting clays, and modified verges on too tight for most presentations. Rogers thought it was an incompetent oversight, and he found this to be very funny, as well.
“Dude! To hit 22 of 25 skeet with full and modified? That’s freaking awesome!” I gloated.
Because ultimately, one must claim victory wherever he can find it. Like an affronted cat licking its paws, I simply refused to acknowledge that the sporting clays fiasco even happened.
Rogers thought this was funniest of all.