Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
I had a great time at the range today. I shot not well at SC due to lack of practice, but I made some friends, got two new shotgunners started, and had a beautiful young lady sit in my lap.
Maybe I should start at the beginning.....
A few weeks back I met a young man at PGC. Kevin was just getting into shotgunning and was doing quite well. We struck up a friendship and we arranged to meet today and shoot something. He advised me that a friend was wanting to come along and try clays also. I decided to bring Frankenstein along for the friend to save the cost of rental.
The aforementioned Frankenstein has a couple things going for it as a shotgun for new shooters. The trigger's great, the 26" LC barrel and corncob forend make it a little lighter than most pumps and it has a fairtomiddlin' pad on a standard LOP stock. It handles well and fits a fairly large range of people well enough.
And Frankenstein has soul. Call it good Karma if you want. But, a lot of folks have shot my junkyard mutt of an 870 and done better than expected. It happened again today.
Kevin's friend, shooting shotgun for just the second time, is Oralia. She is good looking enough I found myself holding my stomach in when I talked to her, and I'm old enough to be her granddad. IOW, a world class knockout.
And that would make me old enough to be Lila's Great grandad. She's Oralia's daughter, in first grade, and just as pretty.
So while Lilah sat out the first part, Oralia, Kevin and I went on a skeet field, took up a position at post 7, and Oralia shot at low house birds going away enough that she was getting 3 or 4 birds straight between misses. Then, she tried some high house incomers. When those started busting, we were ready for a round of sporting.
I use a golf cart these days, and an inquiry revealed that Lilah had never DRIVEN a golf cart. That was soon remedied and oft we went to Station One.
There.it turned out that Lilah had never shot a shotgun,and she was all of 7. SO, after reflection, I purloined a trio of battues from a launcher, spread them on the berm at about 8 yards and positioned my newest and smallest student carefully. She's a sprite that weighs about what a case of low brass shells does, and I was worried she'd get rocked.
Frankenstein was placed on the rail of the station horizontally, and loaded by me.I maintained a grip on the forearm for safety and to soak up a little kick. We used my 7/8 oz creampuff loads.
Lilah stood behind the gun, took up a good shooting position with some coaching and lined up on the first clay.
Bang. A little left.Reloaded. Bang. Disappearing Battue.
The grin on Lilah's face was worth a day's pay. She then did it again. Same result, bigger grin.
That was enough for starters, and we were off to a series of droppers, crossers,incomers,outgoers, rabbits, teal and the Dreaded Station 13.
Oralia shot well for her first time, and said she was enjoying it as much as shooting an AR.
Before we parted, I offered to load up some ultra light 3/4 oz starter loads and bring Son's little NEF single next time. It has a Syms pad and a 12.5" LOP more suited to pixies.
All in all, a great day. Three young shooters, two brand new, and lots of good done....
Maybe I should start at the beginning.....
A few weeks back I met a young man at PGC. Kevin was just getting into shotgunning and was doing quite well. We struck up a friendship and we arranged to meet today and shoot something. He advised me that a friend was wanting to come along and try clays also. I decided to bring Frankenstein along for the friend to save the cost of rental.
The aforementioned Frankenstein has a couple things going for it as a shotgun for new shooters. The trigger's great, the 26" LC barrel and corncob forend make it a little lighter than most pumps and it has a fairtomiddlin' pad on a standard LOP stock. It handles well and fits a fairly large range of people well enough.
And Frankenstein has soul. Call it good Karma if you want. But, a lot of folks have shot my junkyard mutt of an 870 and done better than expected. It happened again today.
Kevin's friend, shooting shotgun for just the second time, is Oralia. She is good looking enough I found myself holding my stomach in when I talked to her, and I'm old enough to be her granddad. IOW, a world class knockout.
And that would make me old enough to be Lila's Great grandad. She's Oralia's daughter, in first grade, and just as pretty.
So while Lilah sat out the first part, Oralia, Kevin and I went on a skeet field, took up a position at post 7, and Oralia shot at low house birds going away enough that she was getting 3 or 4 birds straight between misses. Then, she tried some high house incomers. When those started busting, we were ready for a round of sporting.
I use a golf cart these days, and an inquiry revealed that Lilah had never DRIVEN a golf cart. That was soon remedied and oft we went to Station One.
There.it turned out that Lilah had never shot a shotgun,and she was all of 7. SO, after reflection, I purloined a trio of battues from a launcher, spread them on the berm at about 8 yards and positioned my newest and smallest student carefully. She's a sprite that weighs about what a case of low brass shells does, and I was worried she'd get rocked.
Frankenstein was placed on the rail of the station horizontally, and loaded by me.I maintained a grip on the forearm for safety and to soak up a little kick. We used my 7/8 oz creampuff loads.
Lilah stood behind the gun, took up a good shooting position with some coaching and lined up on the first clay.
Bang. A little left.Reloaded. Bang. Disappearing Battue.
The grin on Lilah's face was worth a day's pay. She then did it again. Same result, bigger grin.
That was enough for starters, and we were off to a series of droppers, crossers,incomers,outgoers, rabbits, teal and the Dreaded Station 13.
Oralia shot well for her first time, and said she was enjoying it as much as shooting an AR.
Before we parted, I offered to load up some ultra light 3/4 oz starter loads and bring Son's little NEF single next time. It has a Syms pad and a 12.5" LOP more suited to pixies.
All in all, a great day. Three young shooters, two brand new, and lots of good done....
