Last week’s entry was about functional fitness. I feel more like functional sickness lately. That being said, it was the monthly trap shoot last weekend. I took a picture of my range bag dump to show what I lug around to these things.

Starting at the bottom

  • The black thing (not a great picture) – that is a shell caddy to hold a box of shotgun shells and all the hulls if your firearm doesn’t fling them out.
  • 100 rounds of ammunition – I take double what I plan to shoot, being that I am the only one that brings a 20 gauge, I can sell it all
  • Shooting muffs – I always carry extra
  • Stapler – that is for stapling targets, not trap
  • Safety glasses
  • Range finder – this is to get an accurate measurement of distance
  • A bag of binder clips, clothes pins, small bolts with wing nuts – this is for attaching targets to stands
  • Binoculars – these are for looking at targets, I frequently don’t carry a spotting scope unless I am doing rifle range work
  • Masking Tape – Also for putting targets on stands
  • Avid multi-tool – this has a choke wrench, pliers and bit drivers for that quick range adjustment
  • Range bag- for holding everything

I typically take another old shopping bag that holds targets, extra muffs, garbage and/or brass to take back home. I have experimented with taking cleaning supplies and other things before, but I have kind of settled on the fact that if something goes really wrong, I probably need to stop and fix it at home rather than keep going.

I have also found that all this gear starts to really add up in weight and bulk. There is the rest, weights, spotting scope, lights and more tools like a drill. It starts to get overwhelming just loading the car, so I try to keep it paired down when I can.

I would be interested in hearing what your essential gear is. Thanks for reading.