It has been described as golf with a shotgun. This is the game called Sporting Clays. Every year, after the trap season is over, we do a fun shoot at a local facility.

Pretty good shooting from one of the coaches. At each station, there are two possibilities. One is called a report pair. The shooter says pull, the launcher fires one target and after the shooter shoots, the second target is launched and the shooter tries to shoot the second target. The second type is called a true pair. With that, two birds are launched at the same time.

The targets are different at each station. Sometimes they even come in behind you. It is a game that more closely mimics bird hunting where you don’t know where the target is going to come in. We shot fifty shots. That is like the nine hole golf equivalent. Official events would be 100.

It still took us three hours to finish. That was with five shooters and walking the whole time. So, you do have to allow some time, plus one hour there and back each. It is a commitment.

Most of us team members are not members at this particular range. I say this because 50 targets cost $26. Members get a better deal, but you do have to shoot quite a bit to break even because the membership is $125/year. One particular thing about this range is a pretty nice pro-shop. If you ever wanted to see a $20,000 shotgun they got them. You can rent shotguns too. I think if I was going to spend $3000 on a shotgun, I would want to see how it goes first. Rentals are $20-30 per session.

I shot very poorly. I did not get a good sight picture. Possibly something is going on with my eyes. I am right eye dominant and that doesn’t seem to be a problem with rifles. But, when I get a proper mount and open my left eye, I am no longer looking down the barrel, but the side of it. I need to do some experimentation with one eye. Or, it could be that I don’t have proper cheek relief.

I say this because I shoot my air rifle almost every day. And, I shoot with both eyes open. But, it does have a scope, so maybe that helps. I was trying to figure out what was going wrong as I was cleaning my shotgun yesterday and I figured out my sight picture was not what it is supposed to be. On Saturday, I thought that maybe my earmuffs were preventing my gun mount properly, but now I think something is not quite right with my eyesight. I will talk more about determining eye dominance next week.

End Your Programming Routine: I shot 5/50. That is pretty bad, My kids shot 15/50 ish and the best in our group shot around 25. I think last time I did this, I shot around 15 and I didn’t notice this problem. I had a lot of fun despite that and it is something to work on. So, looking forward to trying again. I think I will suggest it for a belated father’s day.