I went skeet shooting today!

[BedroomHowitzer]

Fun times had for sure! I had never been before, and got grouped up with a couple others who were regulars. They explained the ropes to me and whatnot, and I went two rounds with my New Haven 12 gauge pump without a buttstock pad before my shoulder started to tell me to ease up. I shot 23 out of 48 clays, had the hardest time hitting from positions 3 and 5, and never missed from position 4--weird. Anywho, I will definitely be going again soon, but after I invest some padding...LOL

[Blaine]

That's pretty good for a first time, Bro....

[Griff]

Always ask to see one from each station the 1st round. Ir's a huge boon!

[RIHMFIRE]

you go a couple more times and you will be hooked.....
love the game...trap, 5 stand and sporting clays too!

[Chuck 100 yd]

Stations 3 and 4 are the hardest for me.
I got 84/100 the first time out using my 30" Remington 1100 full choked gun.
From station 1 I called the low house target and smoked it 10' off the trap opening.
Every guy on my squad knew then that I was a TRAP shooter.
They all had a good chuckle over that shot!!

[6pt-sika]

Always ask to see one from each station the 1st round. Ir's a huge boon!

Stand behind the lead off shooter and watch them all , then you don't need to waste targets .

Most clubs I shoot or have shot skeet at are a little funny about just throwing targets away like that .

A high and a low from all eight stations are obviousely 16 birds , thats almost a whole round . At both the clubs I am a member thats $3.50 for a non member .

[6pt-sika]

Stations 3 and 4 are the hardest for me.
I got 84/100 the first time out using my 30" Remington 1100 full choked gun.
From station 1 I called the low house target and smoked it 10' off the trap opening.
Every guy on my squad knew then that I was a TRAP shooter.
They all had a good chuckle over that shot!!

I used to have a 1930's vintage Winchester Model 12 16 gauge with a solid rib and a 28" full choke barrel . Gun was just a field gun nothing special except the rib .
Back when I had the gun I competed at skeet and trap . So when I felt like playing at the club to let of steam so to speak I'd use that model 12 . Some of us used to on sunday shoot 50/50 . 2 rounds skeet and 2 rounds trap . Anyway I've used that 16 gauge and gone straight on the skeet field then step back to the 27 yard line on the trap field and shoot 22 or 23 . But again thats when I shot somewhere every weekend in a match and practiced two or three times during the week .

[6pt-sika]

you go a couple more times and you will be hooked.....
love the game...trap, 5 stand and sporting clays too!

Skeet and trap are fun , crazy quail is fun , jap trap is fun , rabbit targets are fun at sporting or 5 stand .

But I have no desire to EVER compete at Sporting Clays or 5 Stand . After shooting trap or skeet for many years , doing some 100 straights and watching my averages . Sporting or 5 Stand are an excercise in futility

[MrMurphy]

About ten years ago just for fun I shot skeet with an 18.5" cylinder bore 870.

Missed a lot but it broke the gun in nice.


One day I run into a kid age 15. His dad's a lawyer and they shot skeet to the exclusion of anything else, 2-3 runs a day one day per week every week. Kid regularly broke 75 straight. Dad was even better. Once kid was more or less full sized, dad invested $15,000 in a Krieghoff for him, fitted to him. By that time he'd been shooting skeet every weekend for five years and worked his way through a couple of his dad's other guns.

I had a VERY good round, and he had a very bad one (for him).

I had a $300 combat shotgun and got 19 of 25, he had a $15,000 custom-fitted skeet gun with the appropriate chokes and all the gear and got 21. I had 8 years in age on him and $14,700 less shotgun and 10" less barrel.

I did mention to him that if he'd ever shot full auto at moving targets, shotgunning wasn't THAT hard......

He was not amused.......


Glad you liked it. Just remember the typical 'serious' skeet guys I ran into had around a grand (in 2002 dollars) or more into their basic shotgun, usually a Beretta O/U if they were planning on competing. If you're just killing clay, anything works.

[BedroomHowitzer]

The two guys i was shooting with had very nice O/U's they were using. I didn't catch the manufacturer of either, but they were impressed with my use of the pump so effectively especially on the doubles. I really liked using the pump. It made it more challenging, but I had a great time! I did walk off of almost every station the first round with the action closed....just wasn't used to having to the leave it open after only two shells....mine holds 5+1.

[RIHMFIRE]

The two guys i was shooting with had very nice O/U's they were using. I didn't catch the manufacturer of either, but they were impressed with my use of the pump so effectively especially on the doubles. I really liked using the pump. It made it more challenging, but I had a great time! I did walk off of almost every station the first round with the action closed....just wasn't used to having to the leave it open after only two shells....mine holds 5+1.

I love shooting skeet with my old 870 wingmaster with an open choke....
much more challenging....
I also shoot international skeet style, which the only difference is not mounting
the gun...When i first started, I found some people have a little trouble pushing
the button when you call pull, and would get sometimes a long delay...
more than 3 seconds....and I would have to stop my swing....
wait for the darn target to come out...and then chase the thing down...
So to fix that...i quit mounting the gun and use both sustain lead
or pass though...and my scores went up...my average is about 95/100...
Ya might think that score is pretty darn good...but one of my shooting
buddies recently went to a tourney...and if you did not shoot a perfect score
you didn't even come close to the podium....the guys in the shoot off, 410 to 12ga,
all had shot perfect scores...incredible..

[BILLYDIXON]

It was really nice to hear of Skeet shooting. I shot a lot of skeet starting 25 years ago. When everything was a lot cheaper. Shot was $9.00/bag by the ton delivered if you ordered at least 3 tons. I shot a Remington 3200 with briley tubes. Also a Remington 1100. I bought a Berreta 682 trap gun with choke tubes I used for skeet, trap and sporting clays. I used a Mec 650 12 and 28 gauge loader. I also have a Mec 20 gauge Grabber and a PW 900 .410 loader that will crank out over 600 shells a hour. I shot 1000 practice targets per week. Mainly 12 ga. The shells last longer and I started loading 7/8 ounce which actually saved a lot of lead. The 650 Mec could load 500 rounds/hour. I started using a 5 gallon bucket to collect shells. I went to the World Skeet twice in Savannah, Ga. But after 92 they stayed in San Antonio, Texas. Along way to drive. So I shot until 97 and started driving to South Dakota every year for Pheasants. I used 2 Win. 97's. The best time was there was 20 of us with 2 dogs shot 60 birds in 2 hours. Never did that again. After 98 I had to go back to regular work. I don't like to toot my own horn but it was the skeet shooting days that brought it out. i was in Gander mountain not to long ago and they wanted $50/bag sure won't be able to load 12 and 20 ga. I couldn't believe that buying loaded shells was cheaper than reloads. I still load .410 ever once in awhile.
BD

[6pt-sika]

It was really nice to hear of Skeet shooting. I shot a lot of skeet starting 25 years ago. When everything was a lot cheaper. Shot was $9.00/bag by the ton delivered if you ordered at least 3 tons. I shot a Remington 3200 with briley tubes. Also a Remington 1100. I bought a Berreta 682 trap gun with choke tubes I used for skeet, trap and sporting clays. I used a Mec 650 12 and 28 gauge loader. I also have a Mec 20 gauge Grabber and a PW 900 .410 loader that will crank out over 600 shells a hour. I shot 1000 practice targets per week. Mainly 12 ga. The shells last longer and I started loading 7/8 ounce which actually saved a lot of lead. The 650 Mec could load 500 rounds/hour. I started using a 5 gallon bucket to collect shells. I went to the World Skeet twice in Savannah, Ga. But after 92 they stayed in San Antonio, Texas. Along way to drive. So I shot until 97 and started driving to South Dakota every year for Pheasants. I used 2 Win. 97's. The best time was there was 20 of us with 2 dogs shot 60 birds in 2 hours. Never did that again. After 98 I had to go back to regular work. I don't like to toot my own horn but it was the skeet shooting days that brought it out. i was in Gander mountain not to long ago and they wanted $50/bag sure won't be able to load 12 and 20 ga. I couldn't believe that buying loaded shells was cheaper than reloads. I still load .410 ever once in awhile.
BD

You and I musta run across each other once or twice !

I Quit in 1991 or 1992 . Used to shoot The Great Eastern , The North South , shot Bruce Evans Mayberry Shoot in Winston Salem a couple times also , all at Frericksburg , Fairfax , Arrowhead and the Richmond Gun Club . Also shot some in the early days at my home club Piedmont . But later when I got what i thought was decent I wouldn't shoot targets anywhere I didn't think I could get All American points .

I started with a Citori 4 barrel set , then went to a 3200 with Purbaugh tubes and the last competition gun I had was a Krieghoff K-32 with a 28" skeet barrel and Kolar AAA tubes . Gun had a Bavarian Grade K-80 stock with a monte carlo so I could shoot it in trap also . So I had a pair of barrels for trap as well a K-80 Unsingle for 16 yard and handicap as well as a 32" O/U barrel for trap doubles . My averages in both games went up to AA/AAA once I went to the same gun concept .

I started reloading thru shotguns with Ponsness Warren 800B and 800C loaders in all four gauges . Also had a PW 375 for the 10 and 16 . When i stopped shooting skeet in 1992 I sold all the presses and now I have rebuilt with MEC600JR's in 10 , 12 , 16 , 20 and 410 .

[BILLYDIXON]

Never shot the North South but National Capitol was my club I practiced at when I lived in Maryland. I ran a 100 straight 12Ga with 7/8 at my first registered state shoot in 89 at NC. I also shot practice at IWLA out side Poolsville, Md. $2.00/round. Had lights use to shoot till midnite. I started out with a Citori with Briley tubes. My mentor shot 3200's Bill Murphy.
BD

[6pt-sika]

Never shot the North South but National Capitol was my club I practiced at when I lived in Maryland. I ran a 100 straight 12Ga with 7/8 at my first registered state shoot in 89 at NC. I also shot practice at IWLA out side Poolsville, Md. $2.00/round. Had lights use to shoot till midnite. I started out with a Citori with Briley tubes. My mentor shot 3200's Bill Murphy.
BD

If I not mistaken your "mentor" as you called him is a big Parker collector . IF he's the guy I'm thinking of he usually has a table at the Baltimore Gunshow with another guy and they put up some sort of Parker related display each year .

[BILLYDIXON]

Yea that's him. He said one day while shooting you want to learn how to shoot skeet. I thought I'm shooting skeet no one taught me. So we either shot in the morning 7-10 am or 6-12 pm at nite. I think I shot 30,000 practice targets in 89. I loaded 700X when they came in 12 pound cans. I have two that r filled with dead primers. I just couldn't throw away those copper cups.

[piller]

We do it for fun after church. SightHunter just started to break in her new Yildiz O/U 20 gauge. She couldn't be happier with it. We are all just out there having fun, and no one is any sort of club member. We do have a few who can go 25 for 25 when they are having a good day.