Shotguning

First off, I break out the old shotguns maybe twice a year at the most. But everytime I do, I have a lot of fun. I usually don't have anyone to work the clay thrower, so I will screw it down to my rifle bench and work it myself. It's been a LONG time since I have done this, as I have been working on building a house. And, I am just not a shotgun guy, I love shooting revolvers mostly. Today I decided to have a go at it, and brought along 3 shotguns. I have nothing fancy, just a Mossberg 500 12 gauge, a New England 20 gauge, and a New England .410 bore. I got a JC Higgins 20 gauge bolt action too, but I seldom ever shoot it. Anyway, I did pretty good for me with the Mossberg, I only missed twice out of 25 shots. When I switched to the 20 gauge it kind of threw me as it is so much shorter than the Mossberg. I missed two, hit 3, and the last shot the shell stuck. I figured it would it was kind of hard to get it to chamber. Didn't have anything to knock it out with so I was done with the 20. The .410 is full choke, and I knew it would be super hard to hit with and only hit 1 out of 5. I stopped because the shells are so flipping expensive I didn't want to waste any. Anyway, I do this so seldom I just thought I would post about it, and tell everyone to dust the old shotguns off every now and then and have some fun! (The 20 gauge shell popped right out with a cleaning rod when I got it back to the house by the way.)

*gunning

I had never shot clay pigeons but last November a friend of mine asked if I would be interested in shooting shotgun at a sporting clay course. This is something that I had never done before. I used one of the club's shotguns as I don't own one. The club has 15 stations that you shoot from, three shots each. I was shooting with my friend who's also a novice but has shot the course several times and three other gentleman who were fairly well experienced shotgunners. I managed to hit 17 out of 45 clays. The most clays hit by anyone was 27. It's pretty challenging as you don't know when or where the clay pigeons are coming from at any station. Some of them were even rolled on the ground, simulating a rabbit. All in all, a fun afternoon.

Like you, I don't shoot shotguns much. But, also like you, I think it is fun.

I love shooting clays, I enjoy all of the different disciplines but found 5 stand is the hardest for me and don't know why. I finally bit the bullet and bought a very nice sporting clays gun a couple of weeks ago and wish I would have done it long ago. It is a pretty addictive game and has great potential to empty your billfold on a weekly basis, but it sure is fun making smoke puffs of those little orange buggers!

Would like to shoot clays more often than I do also. Yep price of shells has put a damper on my Sunday sport lately. $12 a box is pretty steep from the $6 or 7 I paid 4 years back. only guys at my club that reload their own show up every Sunday lately. Using an 1100 the past 30 years that is more capable than me but I try my best.

I've shot clays a couple of times with my buddy. Mostly with my Gold Label, once with my 20 Ga. Red Label. Not very good, but sometimes surprised myself. I guess that's why they call it golf with shotguns. I also Shot two Tower Shoots for Pheasant with the Gold and Red Label. Those were fun, both in winter with snow, But my shoulder took a pounding with about 4 boxes of 12 Ga. high brass with that 6 pound Gold Label with a solid butplate. I have a Mossberg 500 for turkey, slugs for deer and home defense. I also have a flintlock 20 Ga. French Fusil that I built, and took a wild turkey with it. That was a thrill.

I was gungho for years shotgunning. It started with a "FREE clinic" at a local range where I did terrible at skeet but smoked trap birds, soon after I got a MEC hydraulic press and after doing well at trap, soon I "got" skeet down (and a few specialized skeet guns) but soon tired of the slow poky birds and moved to international skeet and 5 stand. There I stayed until the prices of shot and primers got silly and nowadays the shotguns sit in the safe :-(

I don't shoot skeet or clays as often as I would like. When I do it always seems like I shoot everybody else's gun better than I shoot mine. I'm not sure why...lol