A recent situation I described elsewhere where a friend inherited a bunch of guns got me interested in shooting in general. I asked you all about buying a shotgun for defense and learning to use since I know nothing about firearms. One of you suggested learning to handle a basic shotgun on the skeet range rather than taking any kind of tactical training.
I went out to a local club today and asked if I could take lessons. They said I could take them privately, but there was nothing like simply shooting to get started.
20 minutes later, they had loaned me a Remingtom 870, sold me a couple of boxes of shells, showed me how to load, how the voice operated launching system worked and turned me loose. Now I have a slightly sore right shoulder and big smile on my face.
I'm not sure you can call what I did "shooting skeet" because they set me up on the center spot, up at the front, and set the machine so it only launched the target straight ahead. The kid (he couldn't have been more than 18) very politely gave me the basic ettiquette and saftey instructions and told me to make the front sight "disappear behind the rear sight" and to pull the trigger when the flying clay was covered by the sights.
What a kick!
I broke 37 of my first 50 clays. I hesitated 3 times and did not fire at 3 targets, so I missed 10 times when I actually fired the gun. The kid helping me out said that was pretty decent for my first time. I'm pretty sure that this success rate was a combination of beginner's luck and a function of only shooting at targets that were relatively close and only moving straight away from me. It also seemed as if the targets were launched on the same arc every time, but I am not certain.
Anyway, I had a great time and will defintely go back and do this some more!!!
I went out to a local club today and asked if I could take lessons. They said I could take them privately, but there was nothing like simply shooting to get started.
20 minutes later, they had loaned me a Remingtom 870, sold me a couple of boxes of shells, showed me how to load, how the voice operated launching system worked and turned me loose. Now I have a slightly sore right shoulder and big smile on my face.
I'm not sure you can call what I did "shooting skeet" because they set me up on the center spot, up at the front, and set the machine so it only launched the target straight ahead. The kid (he couldn't have been more than 18) very politely gave me the basic ettiquette and saftey instructions and told me to make the front sight "disappear behind the rear sight" and to pull the trigger when the flying clay was covered by the sights.
What a kick!
I broke 37 of my first 50 clays. I hesitated 3 times and did not fire at 3 targets, so I missed 10 times when I actually fired the gun. The kid helping me out said that was pretty decent for my first time. I'm pretty sure that this success rate was a combination of beginner's luck and a function of only shooting at targets that were relatively close and only moving straight away from me. It also seemed as if the targets were launched on the same arc every time, but I am not certain.
Anyway, I had a great time and will defintely go back and do this some more!!!
