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Skeet
Skeet was born in Massachusetts in the 1915, when grouse hunter Charles Davis invented a game he called "shooting around the clock" to improve his wingshooting. He put a portable trap on the ground at six o'clock on an imaginary clock face 25 yards across and shot targets from each "hour." Skeet lore has it that the neighboring landowner objected to the patter of shot on his chicken house roof, so Davis cut the circle in half and added a second trap facing the first.
Outdoor writer William Harndon Foster played the game with Davis and wrote about it often. "Clock shooting" caught on quickly and became extremely popular. The name "skeet" (a Scandinavian word for "shoot") was coined during a contest to re-name "Shooting Around the Clock".
During the Second World War, aerial gunners took skeet training to learn how to lead targets and after the war ended, these gunners came home and bought skeet guns. Skeet was originally shot from the low gun, but in the 1950s the National Skeet Shooting Association did away with the low gun start and the variable three-second delay, ushering in the era of perfect scores and endless shoot-offs.
The Game
The targets emerge from a high house (10 feet above ground) on the left and a low house (3-1/2 feet above ground) on the right that face one another 40 yards apart. Legal skeet targets travel between 60 and 70 yards and pass 15 feet above a crossing stake set 21 yards from the shooting stations, which are arranged around an arc running from one house to the other.
A round of skeet consists of 25 shots, beginning with a high-house bird at station one, then a low house bird, then a double at one, two, six, and seven.
You shoot high and low birds beginning at station one (which is right in front of the high house) and proceed on through eight, always shooting the high house target first. To make a round of 25, you shoot an "optional," either immediately repeating your first lost bird, or, if you don't miss, shooting the last station--low 8--twice.
Skeet Tips
If you decide to get serious about shooting good skeet scores for their own sake, you'll imitate the tournament shooters who use a mounted gun, a sustained lead system, and calculate their forward allowance to the millimeter. Many top shooters time their swing with their call and break targets automatically.
Champion shooter Fred Missildine is said to have actually hit skeet targets blindfolded that way. You'll get better practice, however, shooting skeet with a low gun and using whatever system--pull-away, move-mount-shoot, swing-through--you like for sporting clays. Try to take the outgoing targets as near the center stake as possible but let the incomers to cross it.
Aim your feet past the point where you want to break the target to assist your follow-through, just as you would on a sporting clays station. With most skeet stations you can take the high and low birds without shifting your stance between shots. Many shooters, however, move their feet slightly between birds at stations three and five, which are pure 90-degree crossers. By shifting your feet in favor of more follow-through on each bird, you'll have an easier time dealing with these stations, which demand the longest leads on the field.
In skeet doubles, a high and low house bird are launched simultaneously and fly right at one another. You have to shoot one target, then swing back in the opposite direction to catch the other. Skeet doubles are invaluable teachers of the bedrock rule of all doubles shooting: watch the first target break.
At all four stations, you shoot the outgoing target first. Make sure of it, and don't panic if you lose track of the second bird; simply look up and to your left at stations one and two, to your right at six and seven, and you'll find it.
The real trick shot in skeet is station eight, where you stand out near the target crossing stake and shoot birds screaming virtually right over your head. Beginners fear and miss station eight until they learn that it's the easiest bird on the field. Then they love vaporizing the target a few feet from their gun muzzle.
Rather than try to break station eight over your head with a pattern the size of a golf ball, hold even with, and to the outside of, the trap opening, so you have a good view of the target the instant it appears. Then swing up to blot out the bird as soon as it emerges. That way, you'll have the advantage of a larger pattern spread to work with and the shot becomes that much easier.
Equipment
Skeet is a short-range game. Most skeet targets are broken within 25e yards, and many are taken at half that distance. You break low 8 at four yards. A skeet choke is ideal, cylinder and IC will both do.
For years, skeet guns had 26-inch barrels, period. In recent times, thanks in part to the lessons learned by sporting clays shooters, skeet barrels have grown to 28 and 30 inches. Most skeet targets are falling slightly by the time you shoot, so a gun that hits dead on works better than a high-shooting gun. Most sporting guns will work perfectly fine for skeet shooting.
Size 9 shot is the standard skeet pellet, but there's no law against shooting the 8s or 8-1/2s you load for sporting clays. You'll find, too, that an ounce of shot is more than enough for skeet, and even the 3/4 ounce 28-gauge load will shatter targets impressively. Back to Top
Sporting Clays
If you enjoy swinging a shotgun, chances are you've had a go at sporting clays, the game in which clay targets are released through the woods, over water, and from high places in such a way as to simulate field shooting.
Surveys from the National Shooting Sports Foundation boast that well over one half million shooters now log over 25 days a year sampling targets called "minis," "midis," "battues," "springing teal," and "rabbits" from sporting's testy menu.
In fact, growth of this exciting game has been so dramatic that a newcomer, eager for a first taste of sporting clays, can easily feel a bit daunted by all the in-group stuff and nonesuch: hard-core target sharks who break amazing scores and spout the most dazzling ballistic jargon; sporting-specific guns with innovative stocks, locks, and barrels; an incredible array of new target ammunition; the inevitable ephemerata of fashionable clothing and accessories ranging from electric-choke tube wrenches to the latest in leather-trimmed vests and luxury golf carts.
Not to worry. The beauty of the game lies in its tremendous flexibility. It is, at once, the perfect tool for introducing the novice to wingshooting and the consummate test of the competitive shotgunner's skill.
In sporting, the bird hunter finds an off-season reason to shoot his pet smoothbore; others simply enjoy the "hunt" from stand to stand, each clay target a bloodless parallel to catch-and-release angling.
Savvy promoters have struck a chord with sporting as alternative corporate entertainment. More than any other target activity, the game serves as an appetizer to the wingshooter's smorgasbord of fine firearms, good gun dogs, and wild game in pretty country.
Really all we need to begin enjoying the game of sporting clays are (1) a mechanically sound shotgun that will cycle two shots in rapid succession and (2) a clear understanding that everyone, everyone , misses sporting clays targets.
Check your ego at the door, fill your pockets with shotshells, and come join the fun!
Grand Beginning
To understand sporting clays, we ought to begin at the beginning, over 100 years ago, on shooting grounds maintained by the best gunmakers in Great Britain. Never forget that this game began as the gunfitter's test track and an important teaching tool for better game shooting.
As early as 1835, London gun makers used a special firearm called a try gun with jointed fixtures for shaping gun stocks to a customer's dimensions. Under the watchful eye of a master gun fitter, a client would fire this try gun at a specific point on a thick metal shield called a patterning plate. Where the shot printed relative to an aiming spot was noted before an assistant whitewashed the metal backstop for another round.
Since the gun stock aligns the shooter's eye with the barrels, adjustments to stock dimensions, even as little as 1/16 of an inch, alter shot placement. As the client continued to shoot at the patterning plate, the gun fitter would manipulate the try gun's stock until shots consistently hit where the shooter was looking. Since how the client mounted the gun influenced where the pattern struck the plate, the gun fitter also offered tips on technique as he worked the try gun into the configuration that gave the most consistent results.
From the try gun template, the gunmaker would fashion a custom-fitted firearm. After the gun was finished, the best British houses made certain that the client was thoroughly schooled in a safe, effective wingshooting method. Suitable targets were always a problem.
Nineteenth-century marks were pigeons, sparrows, starlings, or tower-flown pheasants. Given the expense, hassle, and capricious flight of live game, any number of manufactured "birds" (including feather-filled glass balls) were tried before an enterprising American invented the clay target disc. Gun fitters and wingshooting instructors could then efficiently design releases miming driven red grouse, bolting hares, high pheasants, or courses which kept clients on the move while surprise clays were tripped from every conceivable angle.
That competition would grow out of these school courses was inevitable. The first British Sporting Clays Championship was held in 1925. The Orvis Company's Houston facility hosted the first U.S. championship some 60 years later. Entries in the current National Sporting Clays Association championship will total over 1,000 shooters!
The Game
Whether it be the national title course at San Antonio or a small public range outside of Anytown, U.S.A., expect sporting's ever-popular "golf with a shotgun" analogy to hold true. A "round" is generally comprised of 50 targets distributed over any number of stations.
Like golf, each course takes on the character of the terrain, or tradition, in a particular area. Also like golf, where tee or pin placement has a great deal to do with a hole's degree of difficulty, the arrangement of the shooting stand relative to where the clay is launched and obstacles such as foliage or brush piles determine how tough a particular shot can be.
Clay targets and machines to throw them have been ingeniously modified for these simulations. Tiny targets called mini's hurtle high overhead, representing fleet doves. Thin, flat battues whirl away like little Frisbees, slowly turn, then drop like wood ducks careening in to feed. Resilient rabbit clays scuttle and bound along rubber mats, while targets tossed at extreme, vertical heights produce what the trade calls springing teal.
Clays can be released up to three seconds after the shooter calls "Pull!," and can be thrown in any combination, from singles to a simultaneous covey of several birds, from which the shooter must bag two. Some covey stations include an off-color target as a poison or hen bird; break that one by mistake, and a target is deducted from the score!
One club owner highlights what he calls a coot scoot, a target thrown top-side down across a pond so that it skips like a stone. Another range has their trappers feed a clay target into a wooden chute set on a hillside. The resulting skidding, sliding target is called a groundhog. Presentations are limited only by safety and the course designer's imagination.
Gunners generally walk, or ride, the course in squads, shooting in rotation so that nobody has to be first to shoot every station. On the carry, firearms are always empty and actions open; loading is strictly limited to two shells once the shooter is positioned within the safety cage.
Besides the aforementioned shotgun, a jacket or vest with a slick, unlined gun pad and pockets to hold just enough shells for one station is a convenience. A shoulder bag to carry remaining ammunition, empty hulls, a water bottle, a towel, and a scoring clipboard is another nicety.
Nearly all ranges require ear and eye protection for participants and spectators; those that don't, should. Buy a good pair of glasses designed for shooting and either learn to properly insert ear plugs, or purchase a tight-fitting pair of muffs. Better yet, put muffs on over the plugs for maximum protection.
Equipment
Sure, there are "sporting clays" shotguns from nearly every manufacturer in the business. But never apologize for going to the sporting clays with the shotgun you brought to the hunting field the autumn before.
Small-bore enthusiast? You'll love the challenge of marks you never get to see over your pointing dog. Diehard pump gunner? You'll find out just how well you can shuck 'em when that first true pair splits the sky.
Magazine gun or double barrel, the shooter with a gun that fits will enjoy greater success, and not just because the firearm prints an effective pattern where the gunner is looking. An ill-fitted gun, especially one stoked with heavy-duty cartridges, will likely rap you in the face or bruise your shoulders, arms, or chests with every shot.
Recoil is the number one detriment to shooting pleasure and effectiveness, making you lift your face from the gun stock and cultivating a flinch that won't let you pull the trigger when your brain says, "Now!"
Certainly one solution is a properly fitted, gas-operated autoloader, like the good Remington, Beretta, Benelli, and Browning guns that are fast becoming the firearm of choice among many elite sporting clays competitors. Gasses from the shell combustion are absorbed with operating the gun's action, hence reduced felt recoil and less shooter fatigue during a long round of targets.
When properly maintained, such guns are extremely reliable. In barrel lengths of 26 or 28 inches, they point naturally and swing beautifully, especially with a little weight added in the fore-end. No other design serves better as a school gun for the novice shooter, particularly young adults or smaller-framed women.
Long-barreled autoloaders can pull yeoman's service in the dove or waterfowl blind, can be fitted with a second, shorter barrel for upland game, or even big game, and are generally available for about half the price of an entry-level over-and-under sporter.
Best of all, given the incredible varieties of sporting ammunition, the single barrel with one choke is really no disadvantage; if a particular station offers the first target at some distance and the other one in our face, we simply load a shell designed for long-range efficiency in the chamber and a fast-opening "spreader" round in the magazine.
You can help relieve the recoil effect of any shotgun simply by turning to softer-shooting "super-lite" or "extra-lite" loadings offered by almost all of the major ammunition companies. In general, look for 2-3/4 dram equivalents, with 1-1/8 to 7/8 loadings in the traditional target shot sizes of 9, 8, or 7-1/2.
With quality components, such cartridges shove, rather than kick. They generally feature shorter, lethal shot strings and smash clays at unbelievable distances. Mainstream shotgunners are gaining more experience and confidence in these deadly little gems, especially Fiocchi or Estate's 7/8-ouncers or, for reloaders, some of the terrific recipes from Ballistic Products of Corcoran, Minnesota. Such cartridges easily make the leap from the sporting clays range to dove, quail, and woodcock, too.
With experience, we learn what loads are best in a particular firearm. Part of this has to do with matching the choke of a gun to a specific cartridges. Rule of thumb? Less is more, not only in lighter shot charges, but also in terms of bore constriction. If they have their druthers, most savvy recreational shooters will want gun barrels choked no tighter than improved cylinder. Skeet or even cylinder might be better, given the conditions.
But even with a fitted, open-choked gun fed premium ammunition, let's face facts. Shooting a conventional field gun at targets that closely resemble wild bird scenarios, the average shooter will likely mark...an average score. Maybe even less than that, depending on how self-conscious he or she is shooting in front of others.
Lots of shooters have an inflated notion of their gunning prowess because so few of them tally more than a sloppy record of actual shooting percentage in the field. The sporting clays scorecard doesn't blink, and for some, that's an eye opener.
To survive such a reality check and actually enjoy shooting sporting means keeping the game in perspective. No field gunner brings to bag every bird that flies in range; nobody breaks every sporting target, either. If the scorecard shifts undue emphasis on body count as opposed to "Did you learn?" or "Did you have fun?", simply leave the clipboard at the clubhouse.
Approach the game this way: given targets staged in realistic settings at appropriate size and speed, a well-fitted gun will perform as well as the shooter shoving it. From there, any rise in the learning curve means seeking instruction, investing in quality practice, and gradually adding equipment that can make the most difference once fundamental technique is in place.
The first impulse with most field gunners bitten by the sporting bug is to hustle out to fondle the long line of shiny new "sporters" filling gun shop inventories. Wallets open, bank accounts groan, credit cards sweat. But their itch begs the question: Will we break more sporting clays targets with a sporting clays gun?
That depends.
Certainly the game of competitive sporting clays has bred waves of technical targets thrown at extreme distances, speeds, and in extremely small windows of shooting opportunity. The world's best guns built for the game--those from Krieghoff, Perazzi, the better-grade Berettas and Brownings--are aimed at just such nasty targets and are constructed to absorb the thousands and thousands of rounds needed to become a truly proficient competitive shooter. They match this durability and weight with superb triggers, exacting stock fit, barrel modifications for more efficient patterns, and dynamic weight distribution for maximum dexterity.
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Upland game and Pheasant Guns
For those who hunt many of our most popular upland gamebird species--for example, ruffed grouse, woodcock, and bobwhite quail--the choice of a shotgun is dictated far more by personal preference than by the nature of the birds themselves.
The three species cited are what I call one ounce birds. An ounce (or even less, in some cases) of shot is sufficient for any of them, under virtually any conditions. With one ounce loads available in everything from 28-gauge on up, the choice is up to the hunter. Doubles, pumps. and autoloaders all work perfectly well.
Pheasants are a different story. In addition to your own taste in guns, the bird itself should have an impact on your choice of weaponry. There are several reasons for this. First, except for sage grouse, the pheasant is the biggest upland wingshooting target in the country. Second, the birds are not only big, but they are notoriously hard to kill. Finally, they may lie right under your pointing dog's nose until you boot them from cover, or they may flush far out of range.
Shotshells and Chokes
Let's start with the first two points--size and toughness. Although pheasants are not easy to kill cleanly, they do not require a load designed for turkeys. A good quality, one ounce load of 6s is effective out to 40 yards, which is about the range at which most of us should hold our fire rather than risking an unrecovered cripple.
An ounce, you say, is a pretty puny load. Doesn't that make the 20-gauge--and even the 28--an acceptable choice for pheasants?
It would, as long as your gun has an honest full choke. The kicker when using loads this small is that you have to have a tight choke in order to give you enough pattern density on long range shots.
Most pheasant hunters I know, myself included, would rather go to a heavier load in a more open choke, leaving additional margin for error. Move up to 1-1/8 ounce of 6s and a modified choke should be good for 40-yard shots. That's a standard 16-gauge load, and it was my favorite on pheasants for years. It is also available in a short magnum configuration for the 20-gauge, with copper-plated, buffered shot. That's the load I recommend to those who use a 20-gauge for ringnecks.
The standard 12-gauge load of 1-1/4 ounce of 6s is effective in chokes as open as improved cylinder. The ability to use a more open choke because of the heavier shot charge explains why the 12-gauge is so popular among pheasant hunters. You have plenty of knock-down power coupled with the greater margin of error provided by a wider pattern.
Of course you can go also shoot 1-1/4 ounce loads in a three-inch 20-gauge, although I'm not a big fan of that combination. Federal makes an excellent 1-1/4 ounce 16-gauge load, and it's a good choice when the shots are on the long side. As for the 12, you can go to much heavier loads if you wish. Under most circumstances, however, a good 1-1/4 ounce load is all you need.
Although most pheasant hunters choose 6s, some favor larger or smaller shot sizes. 7-1/2s give excellent pattern density and are good on those in your face flushes, but they come up short in the penetration department much beyond 30 yards. Size 5 shot penetrates very well, but you need a full choke with a 1-1/4 ounce load to provide enough pattern density; 6s strike a nice middle ground.
Now that we've had a general discussion of gauge, chokes, and loads, we need to discuss other variables that you should consider.
Where Do You Hunt?
One of the most important is the kind of cover you hunt. Generally speaking, pheasants tend to hold better in heavier cover, and run more and flush wilder in lighter cover. A gun for heavy cover birds, therefore, could be a smaller bore with a more open choke, throwing lighter loads. (Remember, however, that cripples will be harder to recover in the heavy stuff. You don't want to go too light.)
In more open cover, where shots will be longer, a bigger bore, tighter choke and heavier loads would be a better combination.
Thanks to screw-in chokes, the same gun can work in both situations, simply by changing tubes. Hunters with fixed-choke guns also have a solution at hand: use different loads. While one ouncers may be fine if the birds are holding tight, it's nice to have a few heavier loads in your vest as well, in case you encounter less cooperative roosters.
Dog Considerations
Your dog is also a variable to be considered. How wide does he work? How much experience does he have on pheasants? Do you get a lot of shots over solid points, or does he get too close and cause nervous birds to flush?
Finally, how well does he work cripples? If you have confidence that your canine will trail a wounded ringneck to the end of the earth, you're more likely to take longer shots. If you fall into that category, then you should be prepared for long shots with heavier loads and a tighter choke.
Using pointing dogs for pheasants also requires that we make a critical decision: which birds do we shoot? From my observations, those who shoot only over points are a fairly small minority. However, if you're in that group, then you can choose the smaller bore/lighter load/open choke combination.
Most of the pointing dog hunters I know, myself included, will take just about any bird in range as long as the dog did not intentionally flush it. This includes birds the dog is working that flush before a solid point is established, as well as wild flushes that occur nowhere near the dog.
Nearly 25 years' worth of hunting notes tell me that, playing by my rules, I shoot about half my birds over points. Also, shooting roosters that weren't pointed has never seemed to decrease my dogs' staunchness when the birds are holding.
Pump, Auto, or Double?
As I mentioned earlier, either a repeater or a double will work for pheasants. Let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of the various actions.
Pumps and autoloaders both offer the advantage of at least three quick shots. Gas-operated autos have very mild recoil, for those who are sensitive in that area. Anyone who's seen an experienced hand at work knows that the pump doesn't really take a backseat to the auto when it comes to speed.
Like anything automatic, an autoloader is somewhat more likely to malfunction than is the hand-powered pump. Between the two breeds of repeaters, I see it pretty much as a question of which advantages (or disadvantages) are important to you.
Screw-in chokes, as mentioned earlier, make repeaters significantly more versatile. Giving a bit of forethought to shell selection--lighter load in the chamber backed by heavier loads in the magazine--makes a lot of sense in the event you don't bring the bird down on your first shot.
The big disadvantage of a double is that it offers only two shots. Admittedly, I've had plenty of roosters in front of my gun, still unscathed, after I've dumped both barrels. On the other hand, if I've already blown two shots at relatively close range, I don't know that a third would do me much good either--or that I deserve it.
Putting aside that hard to define sense of feel and balance we double gunners tend to tout so much, the remaining advantage of the double is that it gives you two different chokes. Not only can you go to a heavier load for the second shot, but you'll also have a tighter choke. This increases your long range effectiveness significantly.
But let's say that rooster jumps at 35 yards. You'd like to use the tighter barrel first. Some doubles, equipped with single, nonselective triggers, won't allow this. The "selective" device on other single triggers requires two actions--flip a button and then push a safety, for instance--to accomplish this. Highly unlikely in the heat of action. It is possible with those guns that have a safety that slides up and right for the open barrel, up and left for the tighter one--if you're used to the gun, and if you work at it.
The Old-Fashioned Option
My own choice is the old-fashioned one. I use double trigger guns. Nothing easier than to slide my finger back to the rear trigger when a bird jumps at long range. Because pheasants are so capricious, sitting right under foot one day and offering few opportunities in range the next, I think that instant choke selection only makes sense. In a typical season, I'll consciously opt for the tight barrel first at least a dozen times. That's far more often than I'd need the third shot offered by a repeater--especially when I remember to take my time on the first two.
Although I'll admit that nostalgia plays a role in my preference for twin-trigger doubles, I also find them to be the logical choice considering where I hunt, how I hunt, and the dogs with which I hunt. In other words, it works for me--consistently.
If you can say the same about the gun you use on ringnecks, then regardless of gauge, choke, or action, you've got a winner. If not, changing guns may well make you and your dog a more effective pheasant hunting team.
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