Three officers, three members, one guest, four sons (eleven total participants) had a great time at the 10/21/06 Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoot. We shot the corporate (hunter) course. It was the second easiest course that we have shot. Tim Price came in first place with 43/50 (tying his best and the Club sporting clays record for the third time). I, Randy Rowley, came in second with 40/50 (my third best). Kenneth Kidd came in third with 39/50 (tying his best). He was followed by Joe Schram with 38/50 (his second best), Isaac Price with 30/50 (tying his fifth best), Regina Kidd with 27/50 (her best ever by far, her old record was 17/27), and Tyler Price with 21/50 (his fourth best). As a group we shot 238/350 (.680). Tim, me, Joe, Isaac, and Tyler shot 185/250 on 10/22/05. The same five shooters shot 172/250 today (Kenneth and Regina did not shoot on 10/22/05).
The first station had a high, moderately slow crosser from right to left followed on report by a lower moderately slow crosser from left to right. The second station had a teal that came towards the shooter and sloped to the right. We had a new experience on the on report bird - self defense sporting clays! It was a low bird that went three to five feet left of the shooter, waist high. If you missed you might get hit and if you hit it you did get hit by pieces. The trick was to make smaller pieces. We did rather well - not much blood and no bandages were observed. We shot it about 10 - 15 yards out. I got hit hard on my leg and Isaac got hit in the face. We had them adjust the trajectory after we finished. The third station was the only true pair. One bird was a high, close, and left to right. The other bird was further, left to right, and dropping. The fourth station had a far fast right to left angled bird that gave us the most trouble of the day. We went combined 5/35 (.143) on it. This target kept Tim from breaking the record (he went 1/5 on it). It was followed on report by a high right to left bird that was dropping slightly. The fifth (last) station had two close birds coming from right to left, angled towards the shooter. The first bird was typically shot about 10 yards away. The shooter then had to quickly shoot the following bird at about 8 yards away.
Tim, Kenneth, Joe, and I had a very good competition. Tim started things off with a bang, going 10/10. Kenneth and I followed him with 9/10 and Joe shot 7/10. On the second station Kenneth tied Tim, going 10/10 (Tim went 9/10). I went 8/10 and fell two birds behind but Joe went 10/10 and was now only two birds behind. On the third station Tim and Kenneth remained tied, going 9/10. Joe and I went 8/10 and fell to three birds behind. On the fourth station Tim and Kenneth remained tied, going 5/10. I caught up two birds, going 7/10, and was now only one bird behind. Joe went 3/10 and fell five birds behind the leaders. On the last station Tim went a perfect 10/10, not given me a chance to catch up. I went 8/10 and ended up three birds behind him. Kenneth had trouble with the first bird and went 6/10, one bird behind me. Joe shot 10/10 and ended up one bird behind Kenneth. This was the closest competition that we have had since 10/22/05, when I shot 42/50, Tim and Joe shot 41/50, and Bret Mercer shot 39/50.
Zach and Brad Kaufman also shot a round of skeet. Mark Dillow was the instructor.
We all had a great time. The weather was good and the course was not as challenging as past ventures (except for the self defense stations).
Check out the Clay Target Shoots Scorecard for history, finishes, and averages.