[Dave McCracken]

The little 28 gauge Huglu(Pronounced Hooloo) O/U looked pretty, but the owner wasn't hitting much besides air. He was no expert, but an avid shotgunner finding out what his new toy would do. Or not.

We were up on range 10 at PGC today, an ATA event precluded shooting wobble on 7. Meeting by chance, we had shot three rounds together. I doubt he hit 20 birds combined. We took a break while some other folks shot, and naturally we talked shotguns.

He had swapped chokes and loads. Nothing seemed to work and he was saying something about perhaps trap singles were too much for the 28. I wanted to vary the shooting a bit anyway,so I suggested we shoot a flurry. After my explaining what a flurry was, he was game for it.

Here's what we did....

We stood on a standard trap setup at Post 3, he a hair to the left and I to the right. Using the Canterbury voice mike to launch, we loaded, mounted, called for the target and shot as fast as we could, alternating shots so we had an equal number of targets. Sometimes we called so fast the trap hadn't time to reset.

I used Frankenstein and 7/8 oz pet loads. I kept it mounted for about the first 15, ejecting the empties and letting them fall on the ground.Then, I shot from a freshly mounted gun for the remainder of the round.

As the bits from my last shot fell to earth, we turned to each other and grinned.

"Wasn't that fun?" sayeth I.

"Oh yes", quoth he, "And I hit a lot of them. Why?"...

He had hit many more that round than those before, even though those were less stressful. We racked our guns, leaned on the fence and I explained my theory.

"We miss sometimes by over-intellectualizing. We're thinking instead of just shooting. Flurries leave time to shoot but not to think about adding another bit of lead,etc. The angles at Post 3 are not radical, the need for speed means we take our birds closer to the house so the pattern density is up there enough to really shatter the birds. Seeing them bust into flinders showed you that it could be done and the confidence gained meant you kept on just shooting the things".

Some other shooters arrived about then and we shot a standard trap round. He hit lots more than he had before the flurry. By no longer trying to "Make certain", he improved his shooting and score.

Those who recall the threads by dghboy 315 and proven will know I've done this before at both trap and wobble. In all cases, it's helped for the reasons given.

It helped me too. I RAN that flurry.....

[TrapperReady]

A great way to get hone your skills!!

My wife and I have some good friends we shoot with once in a while. If we have the opportunity, we'll shoot some wobble trap and call for clays about as fast as we can. It's funny... for the first round or so it feels too fast and I'm rushed. We still hit most everything, but I don't normally find a rhythm.

However, during the second round, everything starts to pull together and everything that goes up gets broken.

By the third round, I'm still in sync, but even more relaxed, and feel "ahead of the game". Then, if a clay isn't dusted, the larger chunks get pummeled as they descend. The difference is that the mind isn't occupied with the mechanics. Reloads are done without fumbles and without looking at the gun. There is 100% focus on the target. I find that my mental attitude changes dramatically. When I shoot, I KNOW that the clay is going to shatter.

Now, when I'm shooting a regular round of trap or sporting clays, I've got enough time to think about each shot (or pair). All of a sudden, that sense of KNOWING a target is going to break is replaced with a DESIRE for the target to break. It's a subtle thing, but means that a bit of doubt has crept into my head, and that's not good when you're keeping score.

[JNewell]

Nicely made points, Dave. My younger son and I were shooting skeet today. They had the machines set on wobble, and the gang we were shooting with were doing the second clay on report. I definitely noticed the benefit from thinking a little less. :D

[Dave McCracken]

Thanks, folks. It's not just me...

A couple variations I'd love to try, and these would have merit for training besides being great fun...

Doubles, and/or following and report pairs.

Shooting from other stations or improvising a station. Just moving back to the 20 yard line changes things.

Those of us with repeaters can shoot a flurry while keeping one shell in the shotgun at all times until the very last bird. Start with two in the shotgun. Shoot one, load one.

Of course, absolute devotion to The Four Rules is mandatory.

[sm]

I like flurries :D
I haven't done this from a dedicated trap field.

Variations I have participated in :

5 stand , two or 3 man teams .
Skeet, two or 3 man teams.
Sporting clays , two man team...trees will close in on you if not careful :p
Some other varioations as well...and ...and...

And a little "old" variation called Step and Fetch.

Hard to explain...Imagine Crazy Quail at Warp Speed, two man team though you are scored separate and against each other , total score and best time wins for the team. Only seen this down here in the South. Might be called something else - elsewhere.
Sometimes only pump guns, WE allow more than 2 shells to be loaded. Sometimes no mag plug . You'd best know how to keep a gun fed.
Oh yeah...if a green and /or white target is mixed in...penalty or bonus pts depends on color thrown.

Sneakiest ...didn't tell us a hand trap hidden behind low house...where'd that come from???

:D :D :D

Most fun one can have with clothes on.

[Norton]

What Dave is describing is what is known in the performing arts world as paralysis by analysis. It is the act of thinking so much about a piece of music, for instance, that you end up not only producing a sterile rendition of the piece at best, but in all likelihood making many more technical mistakes.

Musicians strive for an "unconscious" state where the muscle memory, woodshedding in the practice room and the right side of the brain overcome the analytical, thinking aspects of music making.

Talk to any really good brass player for instance and ask them what they do to get better, and invariably it will have something to do with singing parts, and buzzing music on the mouthpiece alone. The idea being that removing the mechanical (the instrument) and replacing it with simple artistic endeavors like singing will encourage that unconcious state. You no longer become a trumpet player, tuba player or clarinet player......simply a musician. The tool that you use to express that musical idea is secondary to the artistic intent. I personally spend at least as much time doing things without the horn on my face as I do with playing the instrument.

A lot of correlation with the shooting sports. Must control the tendency to over analyze (is it the ammo? the choke? the sights? aim? trigger pull? grip?) and encourage the unconscious (grip, point, shoot). If you have, as musicians call it, gone to the woodshed and put the time in.....the primitive part of the brain will overcome the thinking part and you will find success.

Suggestions for further reading.....Song and Wind by Arnold Jacobs, Inner Skiing (forget author), Zen in the Art of Archery.

Sorry for the ramble....but this is something that I've done a lot research and practice on as a professional musician. Perhaps that is why I like the shooting so much....a lot of carry over as far as the "zen" part of it. Take a little piece of lead and make it connect with an object 200 yards away.....take a 28lb piece of brass and coax beautiful music out of it.....:D

[Dave McCracken]

Thnaks for the responses.

sm, you have GOT to get to MD sometime. Much fun to be had. Bring lots of ammo.

Norton, thanks for the explanation. Back when I scratched out a living with an ES 335 and Telecaster, I noted there were two kinds of musicians.

The first kind would say something like, "The limitations Western Music imposed on itself by adoption of a twelve tone scale instead of using an infinite series of microtones...."

The second," I dunno about that $%^&*, I just get up there with my ax and play"....

Both kinds produce great music.

Maybe I'm advocating Zen Shotgunning. It seems to work,,,,

[sm]

Norton-
I like your explanation! Great !

I still couldn't carry a tune if it had handles on it tho'...

Dave-
Someday I may just have to do a MD visit. One of the few places none of my multiple CCWs are not legal.

See I have this "stuff" I gotta do. I'd rather go take road trips and play.

I could spend a year traveling and visting folks from THR/TFL that have said "c'mon". Chris in PA, Tuner in NC, Folks in TN, KY, VA....

Then I have folks in TX ...I gotta real good idea Smoke and I would really stir up up stuff in TX.:D

Art of course...then on out west to UTAH ( Correia just wants me to babysit)AZ...never been west of wherever I was in west TX that night.
Need to head down GA, LA and FL way ...
Then there are folks I don't know where they are...but I'm supposed to say hi if I show up. :p

Dave, perhaps some day some lanky fella with mustache and wearing a bandana, 10x shell pouch and maybe and old faded gray shirt with " I can do it 25 times in eight different positions" with a southern drawl will show up..." fellas got room for one more on this squad?".

That'd be yours truly. :)

[Norton]

Dave.....we'll have to hear some of those guitar stories sometime.....I suspect there's some good things to be shared there;)

Analyzing music is good....analyzing the physical production of music is bad when it gets time for the performance. Much like shooting.....studying ballistics, choke patterns, effects of different styles of sights are all good things BEFORE you go to the shoot.....but that all becomes suppressed when the rubber meets the road. Don't think.....act....

The fact that Hindemith was a neo-Baroque composer who invented his harmonic vocabulary and made liberal use of screens of sound undulating over blah, blah, blah.......has nothing to do with what he was trying to say musically. When it comes time to play....just play.

Good discussion.....I finally feel like I have something to contribute rather than asking questions!!:p

[Norton]

sm.....doesn't matter if you can only play the radio....music is there for all to enjoy, whether on the production or receiving end.

I like the analogies between the two disciplines......

[sm]

Norton,
You went right over my head!
I took Art and Theatre appreciation. I like Art and I liked the young cutie that taught it. I like live Theatre...I again choose a cutie for a research partner. [ Hey I know how to pick college courses]
Music appreciation I didn't take. I didn't have to , I'd satisfied those credits...I was probably trying to blow up somethng in Chemistry Lab that time of morning.

So like the Artist whom begins with palette and canvas , but the brush and paint takes a canvas and utilizes shading, hues, tones and colors produces a work of Art.

Or the Theatre where the audience without knowing has interacted with the stage, and The Roar of the Greaspaint and the Smell of the Crowd , is as real as being afraid of being the next Victim on the ]Orient Express . Like that?

Brister and Isleng spoke of shooting as "painting them out of the sky". :)

Did I mention how cute the Instuctor and Research Partner were in respective classes?:D

[Norton]

It's amazing how having an instructor who is easy on the eyes can make the class more interesting. I see it in our classes all of the time (not with me teaching of course). We'll have some young college student come in to do an internship and it's amazing how interested my guys become in the finer points of musical technique:p

[sm]

I would not know anything about that. *ahem*

I was thinking back...ahh yes...reflecting...

I Instructed a young lady who was a musican. Ladies make great students. This one was schooled in classical music, played the violin. Now she later took up the drums and guitar. She could put buddy Rich to shame, and go from Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix.
She looked so ...innocent and homely.

She used a 20 ga 1100 and was very "fluid and smooth". She progessed very quickly. She just had the ability to learn anything she undertook.

Her persona if you will:

Skeet = violin/classical
Doubles= Drums / Rich
Flurries = Rock-n-roll / Hendrix.

Darn right ...she'd hit those "All along the Watchtower":D

[Dave McCracken]

The parallels between music and shotgunning are eerie.

Back then with the Deluxe Reverb cranked up and the Gibson singing, I felt like what was coming out was past analysis, that it was language "Spoken" honestly. No games or showing off, just what I felt being transmitted in the audible range.

Shotgunning is like that, completion of an act without thought or preparation. See the bird, shoot the bird.

An update.....

Shot 4 rounds of flurry wobbles today with a fairly new shotgunner met at PGC. His name is Mike.

I had shot a few rounds of trap prior with scores of 21-23.

We shot wobble from Post 3 as mentioned, then a few from odd posts, like 10 feet left of post 1 and right of Post 3. The last one was from the 25 yard line with the Light Full tube in.

I then shot one last round of standard trap with my last box of shells and still having that tighter tube in.

Ran them, most targets were crushed. Flurries and wobble aid focus, and the stress involved helps me "Get into the gun". Very Zen.....

[anapex]

By any chance are you going to be over at PGC on Sunday Dave?

[Dave McCracken]

Regretfully, no. I'm pulling a double shift due to a call in, 2300 to 1500. Should be sleeping now, but I slept out. Lots of coffee in the near future.

Sorry...

[anapex]

That's ok Dave it'll save me some embarassment until I can get the BPS in a little better looking shape.

[Dave McCracken]

Far be it from me to condemn an honest shotgun for honest wear. Or haven't you met Frankenstein yet?