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Skeet shooting revisited
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Earlier this year, I wrote about the challenges of skeet. Some may remember that my scores were less than desirable. Being a glutton for punishment, I gave skeet another try this summer.
I coerced my cousin, Mark Jensen, into joining me. We met one Sunday afternoon at the Heartland Public Shooting Park for a slice of humble pie.
The games begin
Mark started out by missing the Station 1 high single, followed seconds later by a broken low target. On doubles, it was another miss at the high target and another connection with the low. Redemption came when he took his option and hit the high bird.
Not wanting to be a copycat, I hit both the high single and high double, and missed both low targets.
Mark swept Station 2's singles, and connected on the low portion of the doubles. Skeet, as you may remember, features targets that fly out of both high and low towers, and are shot at from eight different positions, or stations. I connected on the low single at Station 2, and only the high target in doubles.
Goose eggs were recorded by my cousin at Stations 3 and 4, while I managed to at least hit the low targets. Counting Mark's option, we were now each tied at six hits apiece, although I still had my option shot left to shoot.
Around this time, after going 0 for 4, Mark turned to me and said, "This is just stupid!" I bust out laughing, because I knew exactly what he meant. The targets were flying so fast, we didn't have a prayer.
At Station 5, Mark pulled ahead of me, connecting on both singles. He'd lamented earlier that he'd been basically just waving his gun in the air and shooting. However, his trap discipline finally kicked in, and he started focusing on the target, and not the bead, the sky, or anything else.
Being consistent, I missed the high bird and hit the low one, just as I had at the previous two stations.
At Station 6, things fell apart. Neither of us hit the singles, although we each managed to hit the low bird only on doubles. At Stations 1 and 2 doubles are shot at the high bird first and then the low. At Stations 6 and 7, doubles are shot in the reverse order.
You have to hit (or at least shoot at) the low target first and then the high. This is done to make the shots more difficult, and they are.
I remember shooting at one low bird, either at Station 6 or 7, and instead looking at the target, I picked out a cloud and shot at it. Honest.
The skeet targets were flying so fast, my brain temporarily shut down. Skeet requires quick reflexes, which I lack.
Mark did well at Station 7, sweeping the singles and connecting on the low double. In a feat of remarkable inconsistency, I hit the high single and low double. It was here that I finally exercised my option, connecting on a low single. The score now stood at eleven for me and a dozen for my cousin.
That score wouldn't change. We both walked over to Station 8 with a fair amount of trepidation. The goal is to shoot both the high single and low single before they cross over the center plane. It was zeros all around.
Skeet targets are close range, almost point-blank, affairs. I was shooting a 12 gauge Remington 11-87 with a Carlson's skeet tube - a more open constriction designed for this game that allows the shot pattern to open up quickly. Mark was shooting a 20 gauge 1100 with a fixed skeet choke.
We debated shooting another round. After some discussion, it was decided that would be an exercise in futility and a waste of our money, so we called it quits for the day.
Negative thinking
For whatever reason, I couldn't get skeet off my mind. They say there's a fine line between love and hate, and it's that way for me with skeet - I dislike it so much that I actually like it. Insane, yes, but no one ever said the shooting sports were for the rational.
The following day, I called Chuck Boswell at Kick's Industries and ordered a negative Smoke competition choke tube.
No, it's not a choke with a bad attitude. The negative connotation indicates a constriction more open than that of the shotgun's inside bore diameter. This means the shot pattern opens up very fast, providing better odds of hitting targets at close range.
Negative chokes are designed specifically for skeet, and skeet shooters should take note.
Early the next Saturday, I was out at Heartland again for another round of skeet. Unable to talk any of my cousins into sharing the pain, I again conscripted my wife into service as score keeper and button pusher.
Armed with the negative choke in my trusty 11-87, I hit - get this - all of the first eight targets. Thinking negative allowed me to make a positive sweep of all the targets at Stations 1 and 2. It wasn't until my ninth shot, the high target at Station 3, that I finally missed.
Another hit followed, on the Station 3 low. It was the same performance at Station 4. The negative choke may have actually hurt me on the rather far high targets at both those stations. Regardless, I swept Station 5 with a pair of hits.
As before, things fell apart at Station 6. I missed both singles. If I were to become a serious skeet shooter, I'd have to spend some serious time practicing this station's angles.
On doubles, I missed the low bird but chipped the high one.
Station 7 featured misses at both the high single and high double, but hits on all low targets. Again, I exercised my option here, nailing the low target.
It's my performance at Station 8 that I'm most proud of, where I smoked the high target. At the last instant, just as it neared the center line, certain that I'd shoot behind it, the negative choke provided enough spread to evaporate the clay bird.
Connections like that were made during the whole round. Although my shooting or reflexes hadn't really improved, the negative constriction, used in conjunction with No. 9 Remington STS shot, compensated, proving the power of negative thinking.
As for the low target at the final station, well, I just took a stab, and not even some magic choke could perform supernatural miracles.
But, I finished the round with a respectable 17 hits, a vast improvement over my previous skeet performances. While I'm done for this season, I'll give skeet another try next year.
On the way home, we stopped at Cornhusker WMA and pulled out my tire-mounted target thrower. After two initial misses, my wife finally managed to break an airborne target on her third try, using her 20 gauge Mossberg youth gun.
By improving her stance, keeping her head down and eyes open, lining up the beads, and swinging ahead of the target, she hit it, proving that anybody can get involved and do reasonably well in the shooting sports!
Jarrod Spilger of Grand Island writes an outdoor column for The Independent.
