Is it that bad? Trap and skeet people..

[Vicious-Peanut]

Some of you may have read my other thread about having shot skeet for the first time and having a blast. I went with a group of friends and no one pestered, ridiculed or harassed anyone. While researching to make sure I had the rules and etiquette down I noticed quite a trend of stories about not so pleasent experiences on the fields. Are the majority of guys shooting this cranky? I don't want to show up with my pump gun and be ostracized because I am not an old pro if you will. Toss in being 23 and a fair number already cast you off. Is there anything I need to be sure I know before heading back? I'm safe, and know about the obvious unspoken rules like no talking while others are shooting and whatnot, but anythig else?

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I thought they would be a bunch of high minded snobs but a friend talked me into going once in the Army. We were in England and as it happened, his pal who hosted us was an English Olympic coach and even in that rarified air we had a great time. Over the years since then, I've shot both on and off bases and just like playing golf there's no telling what attitude surrounding fellow devotees might have so I've decided to have fun regardless of attitudes or comments. This includes scenarios like playing golf in jungle boots (it's what I had - not a statement) and shooting with repeaters - I only bought my very first double just last month!

'sides - you'll have hearing protection on.

 

[Inebriated]

ApacheCoTodd hit it.. It's exactly like golf. I'm young too (20), and I'm sure I stir up a few people when I go to expensive courses with a flask and listen to music, just like when I go shoot skeet with an 18" 870, but overall, it's positive. As long as you've got a good attitude, everyone else will have a good attitude towards you.


But don't show fear. Old folks can smell it on you. lol

 

[BigN]

Up here it depends on the range you go to. I find that one of the ranges here is filled with gun snobs and obnoxious folks (doctors, lawyers, and the like) who pull the Perazzi out of the back of their Mercedes and make sure everyone within earshot knows how much they paid for it. 5 miles the other way is a range that is filled with guys like me, working stiffs who like to go blast some clay birds after work with the guys, have a few laughs and enjoy themselves.

 

[melt]

Who cares...

what they think....I've seen folks show up with an expensive o/u and couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and the average joe with a basic pump dust every clay.

It's those pretentious wanna be's that never will be that try and run you off.

I love to bring out all of my old and ugly, vintage shotguns to the disbelief of all of the elitist's who paid through the nose with the latest and greatest tech purchases. I guarantee you my A5 shoots as well as anything new, shuts 'em up really fast.

We have a great range here in Southeastern, Pa. thats been around since 1928, outdoors in the heart of Bucks County. For $15.00, you can shoot all day, rifle, pistol, clay. A bunch of cranky, ugly barn cats will greet you, completely uneffected by the noise...always an awesome time...have fun.

 

[btg3]

...shuts 'em up really fast.

Apparently attitudes and snobbery abound.

 

[single stack]

Vicious-Peanut,

I haven't any suggestions for more to know other than to be safe and have
fun.

Gun ranges aren't very different from anywhere else folks may gather.
Shopping center or shooting range, there will be plenty of snobs and clods,
hopefully both in small numbers.

Texas is a very rich clay target environment. If you are turned off at
one place there is usually another.

BigN,

When I'm in NY I have to drive south to Hudson Falls or Albany to shoot
skeet or five stand. I've looked at claytargets online and find nowhere
to shoot in the southern Adirondacks. Where do you shoot?

BTW, the last time I saw a Big N, it was in Rotterdam.


SS

 

[Virginian]

And if you show up with a chip on your shoulder, because you're young and think you have to prove something to the world all the time, that is also pretty obvious and doesn't give everyone else a warm fuzzy feeling either.
BTW, I'm old, and I shoot repeaters or SxSs because I want to. What anyone else shoots is their business. Unless of course they plan to shoot an 18" barrel or anything ported near my dog.

 

[Milkmaster]

I agree. Show up with the willingness to learn and take your turn as it comes. I guarantee there is always someone there who knows more than you. Just have a humble attitude and take things in stride. Enjoy yourself and quit worrying what others think. You will learn with time. Patience my man!

 

[oldguy870]

If you are doing well, what can they say or think?

I can't tell you how many times I have shot with people using my 870 and did better than those with $3K guns.

Doing well shuts up the gun snobs.

 

[DAP90]

You’ll meet all types. Some of those types will be jerks; others will be friendly and helpful. Whether or not they can afford an expensive gun has nothing to do with it.

I don't want to show up with my pump gun and be ostracized because I am not an old pro if you will.

Even old pros shoot pump guns if they want to. I shoot with a pump all the time and have never been ostracized. I’ve had a single comment about how my SuperNova looks tactical. I shrugged and said it’s a hunting gun but I didn’t feel like paying the extra $$ for the camo version. Couple of rounds later and he wanted to shoot it.

 

[oneounceload]

As long as you are safe and abide by any rules particular to the club you are at, you'll be fine.....regardless of what the wealth-envy posters seem to think. We have all types at our club, and don't care what type of gun you shoot as long as you are safe and the gun itself is safe, you use the proper ammunition, and you show respect towards all. That will get you help and advice if you need it, and most folks do not have an issue with letting someone try their gun, even if it is an expensive Perazzi or Kreighoff

 

[GoWolfpack]

If you shoot sporting clays you get to leave everybody else behind and just have fun in the woods. No peanut gallery to follow you around.

 

[drsfmd]

As long as you are safe and abide by any rules particular to the club you are at

+1

Of course, therein lies the problem... the guy (and I'm not saying our current OP) who shows up with a box of #4's gets mad when he's told he can't shoot those here and declares everyone to be "snobs". The guy who wants to shoot his doubles reversed and endanger others gets mad when the RO tells him no and he declares them to be "jerks". The guy who is jealous of the Merecedes and the Krieghoff dismisses those who own those items as "elitist" without ever speaking to them.

 

[Cuzzin]

At the club I now belong to they are the best bunch ever - hands down!! No one is going make fun of your gun nor your skills. An invite to join a group on an adjoining field is the norm. I shoot o/u's and there is one guy that shoots for fun that brings an old, old, side by side 12Ga choked full full with a metal buttplate, that regularly runs the round. That being said - I get a little annoyed when we are competing in club shoots and the team draws a young person that really does not shoot well, checks their iphone between stations, and leaves the cue to go discuss something with a parent.

 

[cleardiddion]

Seems like in every sport or hobby you're always going to run into snobs whenever everyone has a get together.

With stuff like pracitical rifle you get mall ninjas and with skeet/trap you get the snobs.

Sure they may look down on me when I roll up but it's always fun to outshoot them with my 'peasent pheasent gun' (Mossberg 500).

Basically, go out and have fun!

 

[drsfmd]

Sure they may look down on me when I roll up but it's always fun to outshoot them with my 'peasent pheasent gun' (Mossberg 500).

I see class envy comments like this almost every day on the Internet, but I never actually see it happen on the skeet fields... why is that?

 

[cleardiddion]

I see class envy comments like this almost every day on the Internet, but I never actually see it happen on the skeet fields... why is that?

Depends on where you go and who shows up I guess.
I spent four years in Northern Florida where a lot of patrons of club were doctors, lawyers, leos who looked at us college kids as one group amongst the many 'unwashed masses'.

 

[Pete D.]

snobbery

How people at a particular range act toward you or me depends a whole lot more on how we act than on what kind of gun we shoot or how well we shoot it.

don't care what type of gun you shoot as long as you are safe and the gun itself is safe, you use the proper ammunition, and you show respect towards all. That will get you help and advice if you need it, and most folks do not have an issue with letting someone try their gun, even if it is an expensive Perazzi or Kreighoff

+1 about that. Most of the men that I know who own and shoot Kreighoffs, Perazzis, Lujtics are working class guys who have put together the money that they need so as to have the best tool that they can afford for a sport that they are devoted to. It's not - expense wise - any different than the dedicated deer hunter who owns two 4x4s and a trailer to carry them (gotta be ten grand there before even picking up a gun.). Do we criticize that expense as elitest?
Pete

 

[oneounceload]

Depends on where you go and who shows up I guess.
I spent four years in Northern Florida where a lot of patrons of club were doctors, lawyers, leos who looked at us college kids as one group amongst the many 'unwashed masses'.

I have been living and shooting in north central/northern Florida for almost eight years now and have NEVER run into any group that acted like that -and most of the folks I shoot with ARE doctors and lawyers and a lot of retired folks from all walks of life - most of whom have been shooting for going on 70 years or more.

As I said earlier, if you are acting unsafe or similar, no matter your age or wealth, you will get talked to by EVERYONE in the vicinity. If you act in a safe manner and inquire about someone's new Kreighoff, odds are they'll hand it to you with a few shells to try it out this is especially true on our 5-stand and FITASC fields, where a friendly good-natured ribbing for missing the easy target will be forthcoming......

 

[cleardiddion]

As I said earlier, if you are acting unsafe or similar, no matter your age or wealth, you will get talked to by EVERYONE in the vicinity.

I was not acting unsafe and being the former vice president of my university's gun club I doubt they would've let me get away with such behavior if I was being such

I realize that many others have had much more positive experiences than I have, but I'm just stating my time at a particular range. I'm actually hoping to try out the local range here in Cheyenne but I haven't yet since the wind lately hasn't been too kind on much of anything. I have the utmost enthusiasm that a positive experience is in the near future

 

[Winchester101]

When I first started shooting trap, I learned the basics and etiquette before I ever went to a trap range for the first time. I showed up at a local range for my first few practice rounds and most of the guys there were old hands shotting some REALLY nice guns, Perazzis, Berettas and so forth. I had a low end CZ O/U made in Turkey by HULU.

While no one really gave me an attitude about my gun, there was some good natured ribbing about it and comments that if I stayed with the game I would probably want to step up to a nicer gun. Which turned out to be true, but just for pride of ownership, not because the CZ didn't work.

All the good natured ribbing went away when I started consistenly breaking 24 with enough 25s thrown in that they weren't unusual.

Turns out the trap range was just like any other place where people gather, there's good, bad and ugly. A lot of how you're treated depends on how you come across to other people. Not saying that I've NEVER ran into an a-hole at a trap range, of course I have, but I've also ran into them at pistol ranges, bars, gas stations and grocery stores too.

Just get out there and have fun. If someone wants to give you grief or make fun of you, take it in stride. You'll probably make some good friends at your local range.

W101

 

[sohcgt2]

My experience is you get back what you put out. If you show interest in the "snob's" Perazzi he will probably share the back story with you and may offer to let you shoot it. On the other hand if you whisper and exclude him because his shotgun was more expensive than your first car, he won't be inclined to share his story with you. I used to shoot at Cherokee Rose in Ga. The lady that owns and operates the facility has custom made guns that cost a small fortune, but, she is as kind and helpful as any shotgunner you will ever meet.
Enjoy the sport and others who are like minded will enjoy shooting with you regardless of what they spent on their equipment.

 

[kbeck76]

Turns out the trap range was just like any other place where people gather, there's good, bad and ugly. A lot of how you're treated depends on how you come across to other people. Not saying that I've NEVER ran into an a-hole at a trap range, of course I have, but I've also ran into them at pistol ranges, bars, gas stations and grocery stores too.

+1. No matter where you go or what you do there will be some a-holes. I've shot clays for about 20 years (Skeet, Trap, Sporting Clays, etc.) and I can count the a-holes on one hand. Be safe, have fun, and ignore the snobs and a-holes and enjoy the company of the other 99% of the people you meet.

Kevin

 

[Vicious-Peanut]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I don't have a chip on my shoulder, I just want to make sure I know of any unspoken rules since the only time I've shot was with a group of friends and the next time will likely be with strangers. I just don't want to jumped on for something that likely wouldn't even occur to me, some sports have pretty odd rituals for some people.

Thanks