I should write something this month.
It's a busy month for me.
I visited my godparents for the first time in 12 years last week. They live just outside of St. Paul. My godfather is an avid sportsmen. In the past he has taken us fishing on the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers and Lake Elmo. He had always wanted to take me shooting but that had never happened before.
However one of the things I have wanted to try is trap shooting. It just so happens that my godfather is the treasurer of a local gun club, so this past trip was a perfect opportunity to shoot.
My godfather has quite the gun collection and unbeknownst to me when we went to a local sporting good store he had to actually by another gun for trap shooting. I got to see all the paperwork needed to purchase a gun legally. He doesn't mind the process and neither do I.
On a Monday morning we drove about thirty minutes from where they lived and went trap shooting. He had arranged to have the director of the trap shoot there to give me some lessons and also the director of media for the club to participate as well.
Safety was extremely important. I had to wear goggles, headphones and keep the gun pointed down and unloaded until I was at the station to shoot.
Having only shot a gun before once I thought I might have some difficulty. As it turns out once I yelled pull, which was the signal to send a clay out, I enjoyed beginners luck and hit the first target.
Then my luck ran away as I struggled to lean far enough forward, holding the gun properly, timing and focusing on the target, I ended up hitting an embarrassingly low 3 of 25 targets. I had a tendency to shoot high.
The next round I got more instruction from the trap director. He helped me a lot with my timing and stance. I also got instruction from the media director. She was awesome at trap shooting. I needed to follow the clay disk until I covered it up with the barrel of my gun.
As I got started I ended up getting great help with my timing. I followed the clay disk and then my trap director would tell me when to fire. This helped with my timing. I hit all but one of the times when he told me to fire. I started to really get the hang of it. I had 7 of my first 20 targets hit, including two in a row going into my last station. Sensing my improvement the director of media challenged me to hit the last five at my station. (Five stations with five shots...sort of like around the world in basketball) I hoped to hit a few but those words really worked for me. All by myself I hit all five targets and ended up hitting seven targets in a row and 12 of 25 of my shots were hits. Not bad for a beginner, although unfortunately it turned out to be a high water mark.
The next two times I went I hit 8 of 25. I got a little out of form, a little tired and a little less focused I guess. Doing so well can just mess with your mind. You start thinking you have it and then you miss a few and put pressure on yourself. The disks were also coming at a different trajectory on one of the rounds, throwing my timing off.
The last 25 shots I used the trap directors gun, which I needed to be very careful with since it was apparently a $3,000 gun. It was a double barrel shotgun, the one that breaks in half in order to load. It was a bit heavier than my other gun and took some getting used to, but I loved using it.
All in all I had a great time. My instructor, Ted, who had been a past state champion in trap shooting I believe was a great teacher who helped me start to find a rhythm. I had so much fun trap shooting. It's challenging and I would love to do it again. I need some more experience in order to get that timing down!
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