Tag: Trap

June 15, 2023 – Learn Your Variables

June 15, 2023 /

We all have heard the saying that ‘ignorance is bliss’. There is also a point where you can know enough about something that there is conflicting information. What I am talking about today should not be the case.

As a trap coach, I have literally observed thousands of rounds of ammunition shot in a season. I see different equipment and I see different brands of ammunition used weekly. Traditionally, our team secures an ammunition grant which we provide to the team for practice and games. Each shooter needs to provide their own ammunition for the scored rounds.

As such, the ammunition that we use for practice we have a periodic failure to fire. I am not sure what the problem actually is. But, it has happened with nearly every shooter. We could say that there is some variable with that particular brand that is a problem.

In the great ammunition shortage that we have been in for the last couple of seasons, it has been difficult to consistently obtain shotgun shells. I participated in a bulk buy of some Italian ammunition that my kids have been shooting through. Two of the three shotguns that we have been using have shot it just fine. One was having misfires every three rounds.

This particular shotgun is what I would call my ‘back-up’. It is one that was fitted for my son on his first season as a 8th grader. He shot all fall and some into the spring with no problems. He decided to purchase his own shotgun by the end of the season and so I put it away.

Meanwhile, I bought an adjustable stock for my primary shotgun so that my younger son could shoot in the fall. I only brought out my backup because I was having problems keeping the adjustable stock tight. This is when the problems started happening with the Italian ammunition.

One coach was saying the firing pin spring, so I took it all apart. I saw nothing wrong, but I cleaned and lubricated everything and went to try again. I had the same problem. I watched some videos and again saw nothing wrong. But when I was reading problems on forums, I saw something that caught my eye, an out of tolerance chamber.

For those that don’t know, a chamber belongs to a barrel. I purchased this barrel for my backup shotgun because my shotgun only came with a fixed choke, 18″ barrel. It was not suitable for trap. And, not only that but this was an aftermarket barrel that I only paid $70 new. A factory replacement is $250, nearly the price of a new shotgun.

I surmised that the problem was this ammunition with this barrel. I took it to the range last weekend with the original barrel on it and fired five different brands of ammunition without fail. It is definitely the chamber. It seems to fire fine with certain brands of ammunition but not the stuff that I have cases of. So, now, I am not really sure what I want to do.

Clearly the best resolution would be to get a factory replacement barrel and move on. Do I really need to do this? What if I just stuck to brands of ammunition that worked consistently? And, this is a back-up shotgun, do I even need to do anything? For now, the season is mostly over and I am going to do nothing at the moment.

End Your Programming Routine: The reason that I bring this up is that you need to know the limitations of your equipment. Failures in the trap field are frustrating and embarrassing. Failures when you life is on the line are deadly. I only gained the knowledge that I did by being around a lot of different variables frequently. To solve problems, you have to start eliminating variables in a controlled manner. I feel confident that this shotgun is reliable, just not for trap with the ammunition I have and the barrel that I have.

May 19, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

May 19, 2022 /

The league trap season is over. There is the state tournament remaining, but unfortunately, we will be on our way home from Spain, so we will miss it. We have another sporting clays event for fun coming up in the next two weeks. I am pretty sure that I will talk about sporting clays after we do it but today I thought I would talk about my son’s first season.

I think it is starting to sink in. Getting the stock to fit was the foundation, coaching, experience and consistency were the building blocks. On the first day of practice, he shot a 2 and a 7 (out of 25). Yesterday, he shot two 17s. I think another season and he will be shooting in the 20s. That is a pretty good bench mark and will put him in the upper echelon of shooters at the state tournament.

The previous years, I was a parent and didn’t hear all of the coaching. This year, I paid attention to what they were saying to the kids and I learned quite a bit. I learned that body position at your station is important. For instance, you want your body positioned for hard lefts on station 1. That means your core is angled away even though your shotgun is positioned pointed at the left corner of the trap house.

I heard a podcast recently from a (Olympic level) shotgun shooter. It was her contention that trap shooting was relatively easy because there are only so many variables unlike skeet or sporting clays. She said, it is easier to make a good all around shooter a great trap shooter then to go the other way around. What was being encouraged is to shoot the other disciplines to get more experience.

To a large degree, I think all of that is true. Muscle memory is the number one factor for success. Further to that point, I can hear all of the coaching tips and tricks but if I don’t apply them, I don’t see the feedback. With that, they are already better shooters than me and probably always will be. Only having an interest and never any coaching, how could I possibly get better?

Two years ago, spring trap was cancelled (because of Covid). Last year, we had a total team size of seven shooters. Most of them are back this year. But, the daily average score started off around 10 and by the time the season ended it was more like 18. This year, I would say that we started off at 15 and now averaging 19. This is a total team composite, so some are averaging much higher, while others are much lower.

End Your Programming Routine: With everything else going on and the weather being poor all season I am glad that we are coming to the end. I really do enjoy the game and I find being a coach rewarding as well. That being said, the 10 weeks of commitment certainly cuts into the other things that I want to do. It’s difficult to sit around and watch week after week as well. We did usually get a chance to shoot each week, but we always had something more pressing to do. I am looking forward to go back to the rifle range as well.

March 24, 2022- ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 24, 2022 /

My gunstock came last Friday as expected. Today I will talk about my first impressions and thoughts of the Boyd’s At-One gun stock. My son will get fitted on Sunday with the first trap practice starting. Mine is made of solid walnut (which I had to pay more for) in an attempt to not have to also swap out the fore end.

First, I will talk about cost. I paid $160 for this shotgun in 1992. Before Remington went out of business, I think the 870 Express was going for $300 – $350 new. My lightly used 20 gauge I paid $200 in 2020. This stock cost $220. What I am trying to say is that this is a significant upgrade relative to the overall cost of the firearm.

I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect that all of these are the same for whatever shotguns they fit. They use an aluminum block to connect the firearm to the stock. So, the stock can fit a number of models, the aluminum block is the part that is specific to mating to a shotgun.

At first blush, the thing is ugly. It is angular and chunky. It is certainly no upgrade in the looks department. The fit an finish is OK. It is clear that this is made in a mechanized way, like CNC. The fitment of the rubber/plastic to the wood is a little sloppy particularly around the palm swell. It looks like the wood was dipped in water based polyurethane and there is some bubbles in the finish as well.

Despite reading the instructions, I didn’t know what I was doing when I was trying to mate the wood to the block. I say that because the bolt and washers fell out when I tried to put the bolt back in, I didn’t realize that the palm swell cross bolt was blocking the reinsertion. I lightly tapped on the bolt because the hole is curved, I thought it was getting hung up trying to make the angle. The tapping wedged the hex key into the wood and broke a chip out. I was trying to be gentle but I was looking at the hole for the bolt exit, not the entry when it happened.

Knowing what I know now, this would never happen again. None of that was in the manual. I think I would have shipped it without the grip swell on the stock to eliminate this potential.

End Your Programming Routine: This is an American small business. The materials appear to be quality, it is just that that the execution was poorer than I would have liked for a $200 item. The truth is, none of this really matters. What is important is how it works in fitting to the shooter. Trap guns are in general ugly I think. The high rib is meant to help with aiming and getting the target in the middle of the pattern. So, this is just another variation in the group.

March 17, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 17, 2022 /

Trap season is about to start, at the end of next weekend. I will have two boys in the program this year. When my oldest son started two years ago, he made the decision to buy his own shotgun. The most important aspect of shooting well is having a shotgun that fits well. Consequently, I decided to cut some length off of his shotgun to get an appropriate length of pull for a 13 year old.

Last year, I had to add that length back as he had grown significantly. Now, I have another son starting trap. He has decided that he doesn’t want to buy his own shotgun for now. Now, I am in a bit of a conundrum. I don’t really want to cut my stock stock down and deal with the back and forth of growing. I decided to solve the problem definitively. I ordered an adjustable stock.

This can get a little technical, but length of pull is the measurement from the trigger to the end of the butt stock (including the pad). A stock that is too long makes the gun difficult to mount and shoot well. A stock that is too short risks significant recoil pain. I have had weeks of bruises from shooting slugs out of a youth sized stock.

The cheek mount is critical for sight alignment. My own shooting experience tells me that most factory stocks do not get the shooter in a good position and most people would benefit from some additional rise. I shoot better with the shotgun that has an aftermarket pad applied than one that does not. Youth with smaller faces need more rise than the available thickness pads. The thickest one I have found was 1/4″.

I wanted to write about it today, but I don’t have it yet. So, that will have to wait until next week. I can show a picture of what it looks like.

It is not cheap, but it is going to be a lot easier to adjust throughout his growth than other options. I am also excited to try it myself, but once setup for him, it wouldn’t be prudent to diddle around with it. So, I will have to give up my shotgun for the season. I have others so if I want to shoot, I may end up doing it with my 20 gauge since my other 12 gauge has a red-dot sight on it. I am completely fine with that other than the ammo crunch has forced the team to standardize on 12 gauge.

My other fear is that this looks bulky and probably heavier. That is something that I will have to wait and see. Ultimately, I might want to get a second 870 that is better suited to leave setup for games rather than field work. For now, this will get the job done for this season.

End Your Programming Routine: A dedicated tool is always the most efficient way to do a job. That also comes with it’s drawbacks, like it is less useful in other situations rather than the specific job. The jury is out on where I am at this point. It would be unfair to judge until I get it, install it and get it setup for my son.

March 25, 2021- ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 25, 2021 /

I have shotgun shells on the brain. Getting ready for the upcoming Trap season, I and some of the coaches were trying to get our strategy together to keep the team supplied with enough ammunition to do the five weeks of competition.

The first order was ‘you have to supply your own’. Even with me having some and buying a little, I cant find it reliably and in adequate quantity. The second idea was to try and buy reloading components. I wrote about that last week. When we were getting the club ready, we found we had a whole bunch of reloading components, but not everything. So I went down that rabbit hole of looking up loads that would work for the components we have and what that would cost. Finally, I have been working on a bulk buy of shotgun shells for the team and managing all of the moving parts that go along with that.

My contact that I have been working with said that he provided another local team with a pallet of shells. That is over 100 cases, in which there are 10 boxes per case and 25 rounds per box. That is over 25,000 shotgun shells. He was pretty sure that he could get us what we needed. I found some random picture of pallets of shotgun shells for perspective.

Needless to say, I am in the midst of negotiating a deal between the supplier and our teams’ board of directors. I still have on my long term goals to learn how to reload. I have a line on some powder, so I have all of the components I think I need for personal use.

You would be surprised at the dizzying array of component combinations for shotgun reloading. Not every primer, wad nor even hull combination allegedly can be mixed and matched. The thing about reloading is that chamber pressure is king (think safety), then accuracy. However, it seems that there is discrepancy between the flexibility of the plastic material in the wad and ambient temperature. Flexibility drives sealing and sealing drive pressure. Some hulls are tapered, some are not, so not every wad fits into every hull (properly).

All the component combinations have little known impact on the shot pattern. Every shotgun will perform slightly differently with every combination. For reloading, it is literally a matter of trying the different combinations until something works. As you can imagine, this can get expensive and time consuming.

I suppose I can talk about this some more some other time. Especially when I get more knowledge on the subject. My last item about shotguns is that I am planning on going to the range this weekend. I have a red dot sight that I want to get sighted in at 50 yards for slugs and then I want to test buckshot. I want to see the difference between what a field barrel will do and what a self defense length barrel will do. I may even try different chokes. I can’t get too fancy because I am only bringing 30 slugs (that was $100) but I would like to see the impact of different setups.

The point being that I want to be able to ensure the sight is somewhat accurate in case I ever needed a self defense tool. Just like shot pattern, every brand and weight, etc will perform differently with sight accuracy. What is dead on in one scenario may be six inches down and left in another. Looking forward to that.

March 11, 2021- ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 11, 2021 /

I am already feeling the pull of the weekend, wishing it was here, longing for more freedom. I would rather be doing something else than reserving time from 4:30AM to 3PM for working. I know that even when I was at my last job there were times when I was engaged and happy to go to work and there were times that I was disconnected. I suppose when a human is in this position, it is a natural tendency. Even though the way I was working, of course not financially, felt more right. You do things because you have the opportunity or it absolutely needs to be done, not just clock 40 hours or more a week because you are expected to.

Regardless, that is not a Tacticool topic. Today I was going to write about what happens when my son is part of a trap team and there are no shotgun shells to be found. Typically there is a fee that covers shotgun shells or at least they are available for purchase through the team. This season it is bring your own. Irrespective of all the details, I need a minimum of 14 boxes of shotgun shells to make it through the season.

I suppose the good news is that I had six boxes already from last year and I just remembered that I have six boxes of steel shot for a specific fish and wildlife range. Plus if I really got desperate I have 20 gauge as well. I don’t really want to shoot it all up though.

I went to the local gun store here in town and talked to the owner. He is one of the coaches on the team anyway. He told me that he is buying shells at Walmart to sell at his store and that he can’t get any either. I asked about buying online (at four times what we were paying last year) and he said that even though inventory is showing in-stock, there is a high likelihood that it really isn’t and that it would be backordered. Shoot, my two best ideas were already dashed.

We went to a local box sporting goods store on Sunday. They did have some inventory. It wasn’t my preferred load but hey, we can’t be too choosy at this point. The biggest problem and the reason they still had inventory is that I could only buy two boxes at a time.

My next great idea was to reload. I already had primers and hulls but I didn’t have shot, wads or enough powder. I was able to get shot and wads but I still need powder. Looking online at auction sites, powder is going for $100/lb or more. When I do the calculations, 1 pound should yield at least 300 shells. When I do the math, for everything not including the primers I already have it is going to cost $10/25 to make. I paid $7 per box at the store last weekend.

Looking at the optics of the situation, reloading might be a position of having versus not having. I already have enough shells to barely finish the season and I am not sure that I want to commit to $100 worth of powder yet. Even though reloading is on my long term to-do list, that is why I didn’t have what I needed I don’t think that I can justify the cost at this point. The truth is, reloading shotgun shells has not been economically feasible in the recent past either.

  • 25lbs of shot
    • 25# = 355, 1 1/8oz loads/bag
    • $42 per bag = $0.11 per load
  • 1lb of powder
    • 7000grains/lbs = 466 loads/lb @ a nominal 15 grain charge
    • 7000grains/lbs = 280 loads/lb @ a nominal 25 grain charge
    • $100 per pound = $0.21 – $0.36 per load
  • 500 wads
    • $12 per bag = $0.02 per load
  • 1000 primers
    • $35 = $0.04 per load
    • Note: this is the price I paid, not the current price. I have seen 1000 primers going between $100 and $150
  • Now the truth
    • ($0.11 + $0.21 + $0.02 + $0.04) * 25 = $9 a box at the low end
    • ($0.11 + $0.36 + $0.04 + $0.15) * 25 = $16.50 a box at the high end

Shooting trap at this level, we are buying the cheapest thing we can get. Last year, I paid $5 a box on sale and $6 a box regular price for run of the mill target loads. There are other grades of shells however. I think Remington STS was more along the lines of $8 a box. I really don’t know what the true difference is but I heard a podcast about shot makeup and supposedly the alloy makes a difference in how many pellets deform leaving the barrel which in turn impacts patterning. In theory, reloading could make a more premium product at an affordable price. I just don’t think the trap season is the time to experiment yet.