[UnderOver]

When I left off, on TFL as BostPan, my Lanber 87 was sitting in the FFL's gun safe for it's 10 day nap and I was looking forward to trying it out.

The gun looks like this:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid45/p8ec507346626a9bdd22eb116b238ae25/fcd60ebf.jpg


Here is a detail shot of some of the engraving:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid45/p4274c148c4241192fed19aa9577713c7/fcd60eb8.jpg

I was going to try it out ASAP but...

then the SO flew into town, which put things on hold for a few days...

which led up to the Christmas holiday, which put things on hold for a few days...

which led into the SO coming back into town and us getting out of town for a few days, a little "post-holiday pre-holiday get away from family for a few days to relax" actual *holiday* holiday, which put things on hold for a few days...

then New Years happened, which put things on hold for a few days...

But now, finally, there is time for the post-post-holiday review! I got to shoot a box of enviro-clays from foot-operated traps a few days ago, the first time I have ever shot at clays. Then I collected the hulls, reloaded them on my new Load-All II, another first, and shot another box of enviro-clays this afternoon. Why I waited so long to do something that involves a) things that fly, b) things that make loud noises, and c) breaking things, I'll never know.

The gun has 14.5" of pull, a 0.5" rubber recoil pad, and a straight comb, or so the brochure tells me. Being new to all this, and having read Dave McC's tutorials on stance and mouting, I can say that it fits pretty well to my 6'2" 200# frame. I could use a bit of a taller comb, or a slightly larger right cheek, I think.

I was shooting Winchester light target loads, 1 1/8 of 8 2 3/4 dram equiv., with a combination of modified and improved cyl. chokes, engaging singles and doubles at 15-30 yards. My reloads were 1 1/8 of premium 8 over a Claybuster wad, over 21g of Universal Clays, over Winchester primers. This combo shoots pretty soft and pretty dirty. Next time I'm going to use regular Clays and back off the load to an even ounce.

Being a rank novice, there's not much about this gun that I can tell you people. None of my reloads went "bloop!" or "KaBoom!", most of the clays broke, and my sholder is not purple after 270 rounds in a few days. The gun requires some effort to open, the safety resets every time you break it open, and the ejectors try to shoot spent hulls into my forhead whenever possible. Other than that, I like it.

I'm going to shoot some trap at another range tomorrow morning, will have another mini-review tomorrow.

-UnderOver out.]

[HSMITH]

Way to go bud!!! When you start something you are not fooling around are ya?:D Shoot shoot and shoot some more. Get a video or pop for a lesson, save some of the heartache of not being able to hit them all as soon as you think you should. At any rate, keep shooting and thanks for the update!!

[Dave McCracken]

Very good!! I definitely approve of your well thought out approach.

Right from the Hodgon manual, use 16.5 gr of Clays, NOT Universal Clays, for about 1150 FPS from those components you list, assuming you use the CB clone of the WWAA12SL wad. With 8 1/2 shot, it's my trap load.

HTH...

[UnderOver]

Back from the trap range...

I shot four rounds, my scores were 14, 11, 16, and 16. Most of my missed birds came from stations one and five, where I was shooting either below or behind the crossing birds. Next time out I'm going to start off from station five so I can focus on my trouble shots at the start of the round. My personal mantra for Monday's novice league shoot wil be "More lead, more lead, more lead, Pull!".

Oh yeah, sound activated traps are cool!

One big difference that I noticed between the people shooting 24 or 25 each round and everyone else was that the very good shooters were hitting birds much closer to the trap house. For these shooters there almost no delay between the "Pull!" and the sound of the shot. I need to work on that.

Mr McC,

I wanted to get regular Clays, but my supplier was out. Universal works okay, the load I'm using feels a little softer than AA Light Target loads. When I finish out this can I'm going to stock up on 8 lbs. of Clays. Do you think that there is an advantage to using 8 1/2 shot over 8?

-OU out.

[Dave McCracken]

Good start. Grind out a few thousand targets and watch those scores climb. With a bit of work, and thought, you'll be running them within a year.

I use 8 1/2s instead of 8s because my TB is very tightly choked. An oz of 8 1/2s has about the same pellet count as 1 1/8 oz of 8s, and the smaller pellets open the patterns. It's hairsplitting, anything from 7 1/2s on up will work at trap.

One thing, 8 1/2s are NOT for game, not even quail. They work for trap, but lightly hit clay targets do not suffer.

As for the folks who know taking their targets closer to the house, that comes with repetition. Shoot enough with good form and fit, and speed will come.

BR, Dave, not Mr McC....

[UnderOver]

Mr.... ah, Dave,

Thanks for the advice. There's a big show out here in a few weeks and I'm going to load up on shot and powder, I'll grab a couple bags of 8 1/2 to experiment with.

If I can find a gun/load combination that the SO is happy with Monday night trap might get to be a tradition around here. ;-) Got my fingers crossed on that one.

-Shane "UnderOver" Glynn.

[sm]

Congratulations.
Sounds like your on your way--and having fun to boot!

[iamkris]

...I'm glad to find this site. FInally a great replacement for TFL (tried a bunch of others and they are poorly attended, nasty attitude or both).

Congrats on your Lanber and great to hear you're enjoying the shotgun. I just bought a 2097 off of Gunbroker for (what I think is a good price) of $380. Not quite sure why it was that cheap but it was New from GunFinder.net so I'm hoping it'll be a-okay.

It is "in transit" according to UPS Tracking so hopefully I'll be able to fondle it in the next few days. Then it's off to the range (when job, kids, house projects permit.) I'll let you know how that goes. I haven't shot clays seriously since college (was on our skeet team) and 20 years takes a toll on technique.

Nice SKB takedown bag, by the way!

[UnderOver]

Kris,

You got a great price, CDNN lists the 97 for $499.

The SKB bag was suggested to me by another trap shooter who lives in downtown San Francisco. He does not have parking at his place and sometimes has to walk a block or two from his front door to his car. (Usually not a problem because he only uses his car once or twice a week.) He got plenty of odd looks and questions by the police using a regular gun bag but the SKB looks enough like a messenger bag to not be noticed.

-U/O.

[PJR]

U/O

Those are very respectable scores for a first outing. Congratulations.

I'd go through the Universal Clays quickly and switch to a different powder. There are better choices for 12 gauge target loads for example, Clays, American Select, Red Dot or 700X all of which are faster burning than Universal. I'll repeat this advice if you haven't recieved it already. If you are loading get a proper powder scale and a loading manual. The powder bushings do not always drop the charge weights listed in the manuals. Don't skimp on components particularly lead. Cheap, soft lead doesn't pattern as well as the premium brands. For loads, search the various powder company websites for the latest recipes or pick up the Lyman Shotshell Reloading Handbook.

The Lanbers are good guns. They aren't common in North America but are quite common in the UK and more than one big name shooting school uses Lanbers as their instruction guns because they are durable and reliable.

Paul

[UnderOver]

I went to the local Monday night league shoot tonight. 20, 17, and 20 in low key, unscored practice. Not too shabby, I got a few pointers from the guy who runs the league, and then...

Stepped up to the league rounds and got a 21 in the first round and a 23 in the second, shooting my reloads. First time ever shooting for score, second day on the trap line.

This is *so* much more fun than bullseye. I think that I'm an addict.

-U/O.

[Dave McCracken]

Congrats!! Very good scores.Adjusting my estimate of time frame of your running 25 downwards.

Concentrate on the fundamentals. You're still getting your form down, don't ingrain bad habits now.

Sounds like the Lanber fits,please keep us posted on your progress...

[9x19mm]

Yep, keep us posted about the Lanbers folks ;)