Letters

Firing Off on Skeet & Sporting Clays
Michael McIntosh’s January/February Shooting column, “Whatever Happened to Skeet & Sporting Clays?” generated plenty of feedback. Following is a sample of the correspondence.

Mr. McIntosh’s recent article was right on when it comes to the declining numbers at our clay target ranges. All too often hunter/novice shooters are intimidated by local competitive shooters and end up shying away from the shooting sports. Let’s face it: A 32" competition over/under with a “bridge to nowhere” rib and a stock fully adjustable for length, height and cast, not to mention a space-age hydraulic recoil reducer, is a sight to be frightened by when all you show up with is Dad’s old pump or Gramp’s vintage side-by-side.
    For years I invited my hunting brethren to “shoot some targets,” never specifying skeet, trap, 5 Stand or sporting clays. The answer I received nine out of 10 times was: “I’m just a bird hunter, not a competitive target shooter.” So more than 10 years ago I had an idea: Start a shooting league that meets once a week for five or six weeks late in the summer prior to the opening of bird season. Call it the “Bird Hunters League,” and market it as a way to practice on targets that emulate shots at doves, ducks, quail and other local gamebirds. And have dinner, beverages and camaraderie afterward, just like you do on an afternoon of hunting. But most important: Make it fun! (All targets would be hittable by an Improved Cylinder 20-gauge shooting those crummy “dove and quail” loads.) In reality, it was simply a modified sporting course set up to take advantage of our local club’s skeet, trap and 5 Stand fields.
    Since its inception, the League has grown to be a great success, so much so that today we have to turn away participants due to space and time limitations. Last year we had slightly more than 100 shooters—I mean “bird hunters.” It has been a win/win for the club and local hunters who otherwise would never come out to shoot. Many have decided to join the club and make shooting a year-round sport with their families and friends.
    If anyone would like to contact me to find out more about our club’s annual event, call me at 210-912-9771. I would love to visit with you about it.
    Mark B. Hickey
    San Antonio, Texas

Insulted? Yes, I am!
    “Whatever Happened to Skeet & Sporting Clays” has no socially redeeming value and certainly should not have taken up space in your publication. In short, Michael McIntosh is certainly entitled to his opinion, but he should not heap his angst on your readership. Believe it or not, skeet ranges are still being built. Why? Simply because there continues to be a demand throughout the US. As many of us know, that in itself is no simple undertaking. Recreational skeet is still thriving. Leagues and fun shoots are still well attended. Competitive shooting is holding its own.
    Sporting clays is unique in that the majority of sporting clays ranges are run as businesses. Skeet ranges have a history of being run by volunteers. Sporting clays ranges have a clientele to satisfy if they want to survive. That means they have to cater to beginners, bird shooters, recreational shooters and competitive shooters. Each and every sporting clays range I have visited has been set up to satisfy each category. Many have had certified shooting instructors to start young or novice shooters or to improve the skills of intermediates. Certainly, if you attend a competitive event, the targets are set with the necessary degree of difficulty to sort out a person’s skill level relative to the other competitors’. Then there is FITASC—the challenging gun-down, delayed-target-release, fast and long-range clay target game from Europe that is popular with competitive shooters. By the way, NSCA (National Sporting Clays Assoc.) membership is still growing.
    Wonder who I am? I am a 50-year-plus skeet shooter, a 25-year sporting clays shooter, and a 15-year certified shooting instructor who has shot skeet and sporting clays from California to Maryland and from Montana to Florida.
    Mr. McIntosh needs to expend his ink writing in a more positive vein.
    Bill Harder
    Lincoln, Nebraska

Kudos to Michael McIntosh for his column on skeet and sporting clays. Watching shooters grind out hundred-straights with pre-mounted 12-gauges in American skeet ranks right up there with watching cement dry.
    If you shoot 23 out of 25 with an eight-pound, pre-mounted 12, you won’t get anywhere in a registered shoot. On the other hand, try shooting the game low gun with a 51/2-pound 28-gauge. As Michael points out, you’ll be getting valuable gun-mounting practice, in this case with a gun you intend to use afield. It’s the kind of practice for which the game was originally intended, and you’ll learn a lot about how the gun handles.
    And if you can break 23/25 regularly doing it that way, you’ll almost certainly be a respectable shot on game.
    Larry Brown
    Via e-mail

Michael McIntosh’s Shooting column painted a bleak picture of the current skeet and sporting clays experience. While much of what he said was true, the tradition of shooting skeet and clays as a way to prepare for an upcoming season is not dead yet. Many of us Northeastern hunters continue to shoot skeet with our side-by-sides from the low-gun position. And if the different stations get routine, I suggest that hunters use a technique I learned from my friend and SSM Contributing Editor Bruce Buck. During one-on-one training preparing for a grouse hunt, Bruce took to walking inside the skeet field radius to make the angles more variable and help speed things up. (Warning: Only do this when you are alone with a trapper.) And to make things even more challenging, he would have the clays launched without warning.
    This definitely spices up a skeet round while simulating true field situations. And obviously it’s not about scoring. Grouse don’t keep score; they play for keeps. The only thing positive about McIntosh’s observations is how entertaining it is to watch shooters take their high skeet scores and pre-mounts into the field and be humbled like the rest of us by real-life game situations. It’s endless fun watching them miss over and over again.
    John M. Lucarelli
    Greenwich, Connecticut

“Whatever Happened to Skeet & Sporting Clays?” was right on! The idea of starting with a mounted gun took out an essential element of shotgunning. If one wants to start with a mounted gun, take up rifle shooting. If the idea is to raise scores, slow down the birds and make the presentations easier—but start with the gun below the armpit. Scores aren’t as important to me as having fun and learning to be a better field shooter, so I guess I will have to suffer the humiliation of lower scores.
    Mark Turula
    Via e-mail

In Praise of Women
Let me open with my congratulations. Your publication is simply the best of its type (including the English offerings). I look forward to reading each and every issue. I also would like to praise Ralph Stuart for his January/February editorial regarding women in hunting and shooting. I agree with his comments wholeheartedly, and they are what prompted me to send this email—the first I have ever sent in support of something I have read.
    Here in Australia we, too, are fighting to maintain shooting numbers due to various lobbying groups and government decisions. This is occurring in the competitive environment (trap, sporting clays and so on) and even more so in the field. A lot of men I speak with believe that juniors are the answer, ignoring the fact that about half the population (the female half) tends not to shoot. If we could get both parents shooting, it would be reasonable to assume that the juniors would naturally follow.
    Phil Rowe
    Australia