So one evening I got a text message from a family friend. He invited me to go to the skeet range with him and his sons boy scout troop in exchange of me letting his son use one of my smaller shotguns. I gladly accepted. Although I've shot for years I've never been to the skeet range. I've shot clay pigeons before but never in a very organized manner. It's always been just my Dad and I shooting out at my grandpas. One of us will shoot while the other will throw the targets and we switch of every now and then. Also on Thanksgiving every year it's become a tradition in the recent years to shoot clays with the rest of the family. We usually will have four or more people with guns in a line. When everyone is ready a fifth person will throw a "bird" into the air and we race to see who can get it first. This creates a fun and slightly competitive atmosphere that's hard not to love. Everyone is very involved and it's just great fun. But the range is a completely different atmosphere. This I learned quickly. It's serious but at the same time it's fun. The Boy Scouts were all fairly nervous or so it seemed to me. They were all pretty good shots even if some of the guns were a little to large for them. We only shot at one of the stations. But in full blown skeet shooting there are eight stations. You are permitted to shoot 25 shots. So if you score a 25 it's a perfect score. The eight stations are set up like a half circle from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock. And they are numbered from left to right one through seven. The eighth station is in what would be the center of the circle. On stations 1, 2, 6 and 7 you shoot four times. And on stations 3, 4, 5 and 8 you shoot twice. There are two "houses" they are really more like towers that house the machines which throws the clays out of the house. On the left house there is a window at the top of the house. This is called the high house. The high birds come out that window. The opposite house is the low house. The window is about waste level from the ground. So on the stations that you shoot four shots you shoot two singles and a double. So say your on station 2. You will shoot one shot at a high house target if you are on the left side of the field. Then a low house and finally a double. On a double the target is launched out of both houses simultaneously. The first one you shoot depends on which side of the field you are on. If your on the right side you would shoot the low house and then the high and you would do the exact opposite on the left side. You are given one optional. Which means that if you miss a target you get to reshoot at another from the same house and from the same station. You only get one of these for the whole round. If you get to the eighth station and hit both of your clays on number eight you get to shoot at a third which gives you the opportunity to get a 25/25. So those are the basics. It might be a bit confusing but it's not that bad.
Anyways on with the story. One of the guys who runs the club, a guy named Wade in about his early 70's, took notice of me. Since I shot a 21/25 now granted those were all going away shots on station 7 which most people say is the easiest shot on the field. He said that was quite good and he introduced himself. I might or might not have smarted off that I should have gotten all 25 on that station which he quickly assured me I was a long way from shooting a 25. So after most of the scouts left the range I went for another round. When he saw me lay my gun on the rack he jokingly said "Well if it isn't hotshot!" Hotshot huh? I thought to myself I wasn't incredibly fond of that but I could deal with it I assumed. We started off shooting the same shot we had been. After he realized that these were not any sort of challenge he said "Ok now your gonna shoot a high house which will be coming towards you. Let's see what you got Hotshot" I yelled "Pull!" And the target released from the window gliding towards me and to my right. I swung with the target leading it by only half a foot or so to compensate for the travel time of the projectiles and squeezed the trigger. The clay vaporized. He then said "Alright let's see you shoot a double. Shoot the low house and then the high house." So I loaded my shot gun, aimed at my hold point and gave him the cue. A clay soared out of both houses. I shot the low one at about the center of the field and it exploded into fragments. The second clay impacted some of the shrapnel and started to wobble but it kept it's course. I blasted it. Wade yelled "We got a club shooter!!" Which have me a good laugh. We shot for another half hour or so. Wade challenged me more and more with each shot.
It was a great experience and I went back the next day even. Ever since I've been so busy that I've only been able to go back once but I'm still into it nevertheless. I'm really excited about getting into it this summer. There's no real lesson I learned from anything it was just something awesome that I wanted to share. Thanks for reading, I love every single comment all of you leave or any type of input just gets me excited so keep it coming if you feel like you want to input at all and as always I've included some photography that I've been working on lately that I'm quite proud of(:
-Willis
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