Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
Between shooting with proven last Saturday and some followup stuff on Sunday, I shot 15 rounds of 16 yard trap and wobble. A few rounds were shot as flurries, but most followed ATA rules.
Frankenstein now has one of my homemade recoil reducers installed in the mag tube. For those coming in late, two trash hulls filled with shot and crimped shut firmly nestle in between two halves of a spare mag spring and two extra followers. This soaks up recoil energy and releases it after the main pulse has passed by, giving the feel of less kick like a gas auto does. The system weighs 7 oz and costs about $6, maybe $8 with a new spring. The extra weight brings Frank up to about 8 lbs, not heavy by gamer standards.
The Morgan adjustable pad on it has neither a soft nor large pad on it. Despite this, I suffered no soreness nor bruising while firing those 375 shells. Good fit, decent form, and lighter loads are the reasons.
Loads included factory stuff. I splurged and bought a case of the 1 1/8 oz low recoil STS shells with 8 shot at a printed 1100 FPS. Some of my reloads were 1 oz of 8s at 1150 FPS exterpolated from the Lyman book and others were 7/8 oz of 8 1/2s at 1200.
I went straight, 25/25, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. There were 3 or 4 24/25s, and the rest of the scores fell between 20 and 23. Good shooting for me.
A couple of rounds were shot on the wobble course from non standard points. I worked on crossing shots,since I feel I'm weak on those. My skeet scores corroborate that.
I used the same choke all the way through, Modified. That gave me 18.5 POC.
The straight on Saturday was with the 7/8 oz loads. Sunday's was with the STS LR 1 1/8 oz. Breaks looked identical, most disintegrated or disappeared.
Some conclusions....
One. Most trapshooters use more choke than needed. Chokes from Light Mod to Improved Mod work well, depending on load.
Two. Centering a bird with any shot cloud gives about the same results as long as density is up there in the one pellet to 2 square inches Zutz talked about if energy is sufficient.
Three. Like most of us, I don't get enough shooting in to reach my personal best.
Four. The lighter loads will work, the weakest link is us.
Five. Once fit and form are OK,the key to better shooting is indeed, BA/UU/R....
Frankenstein now has one of my homemade recoil reducers installed in the mag tube. For those coming in late, two trash hulls filled with shot and crimped shut firmly nestle in between two halves of a spare mag spring and two extra followers. This soaks up recoil energy and releases it after the main pulse has passed by, giving the feel of less kick like a gas auto does. The system weighs 7 oz and costs about $6, maybe $8 with a new spring. The extra weight brings Frank up to about 8 lbs, not heavy by gamer standards.
The Morgan adjustable pad on it has neither a soft nor large pad on it. Despite this, I suffered no soreness nor bruising while firing those 375 shells. Good fit, decent form, and lighter loads are the reasons.
Loads included factory stuff. I splurged and bought a case of the 1 1/8 oz low recoil STS shells with 8 shot at a printed 1100 FPS. Some of my reloads were 1 oz of 8s at 1150 FPS exterpolated from the Lyman book and others were 7/8 oz of 8 1/2s at 1200.
I went straight, 25/25, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. There were 3 or 4 24/25s, and the rest of the scores fell between 20 and 23. Good shooting for me.
A couple of rounds were shot on the wobble course from non standard points. I worked on crossing shots,since I feel I'm weak on those. My skeet scores corroborate that.
I used the same choke all the way through, Modified. That gave me 18.5 POC.
The straight on Saturday was with the 7/8 oz loads. Sunday's was with the STS LR 1 1/8 oz. Breaks looked identical, most disintegrated or disappeared.
Some conclusions....
One. Most trapshooters use more choke than needed. Chokes from Light Mod to Improved Mod work well, depending on load.
Two. Centering a bird with any shot cloud gives about the same results as long as density is up there in the one pellet to 2 square inches Zutz talked about if energy is sufficient.
Three. Like most of us, I don't get enough shooting in to reach my personal best.
Four. The lighter loads will work, the weakest link is us.
Five. Once fit and form are OK,the key to better shooting is indeed, BA/UU/R....