Skeet Report

Or is it trap? The innernetz can be cloudy on which is which. I think it's trap shooting, properly, what we were doing. Single thrower, no flight pattern changes.

Anyway, MBtGE, his missus, Trollop, and I went to Clark Brothers to shoot pistol and shotgus.

You have to buy their ammo, but the range fee is $0. The trouble is, they have the ammo shortage problem everyone is having. There was no .45 ACP to be had in anything other than $40 a box self-defense ammo. So the .45's stayed in the bag. Shooting the .40 and .22 worked fine. MBtGE put a red-dot scope on his suppressed .22, so it is even more better!

The good news is, the proprietor of Clark Bros. (Mr. Clark?) said he is starting to see a turn around on the dearth of ammo, and it will start to be more available soon. You heard it here first, folks. If he is wrong, forget I said anything...

Anyway, on the clay breaking. It's just the one thrower next to you, and it throws the pidgeon straight out. I'm happy to say, I went 5 for 5 on the first set out of my Remington Model 11 wih the new barrel. Yay.

Beginners luck.

After that I went all to pieces. 1 for 5, 3 for 5, 2 for 5, maybe. So, there is something wrong with my technique, but you'd expect that with rank beginner at the clays. Still, not shabby. That first 5 made me happy with my shotgun purchase.

It did FTF a few times, but the action was bone dry. I learned not to put my right thumb up to clear it. OW! Like M1 thumb, but with a shotgun. Ow! Blood everywhere. The REAL fix is just a pull back on the 'bolt' handle and it all falls into place. The shell was hanging just a bit on the lower lip of the chamber, like the little doohicky that raises the shell into position before the bolt slams it into battery isn't quite fast enough on the uptake. I'm hoping the thin film of Break Free fixes it in the future.

While cleaning the barrel after I slammed my uninjured left thumb into a sharp arris on the barrel and there was blood everywhere again. Plus solvent to make the pain really fun. Don't let anyone ever tell you that the shooting sports is injury free.

And I managed to get the friction ring and bronze piece off the tube, and don't know the order it goes back on. Luckily, there is a manual for this model, online, to guide me on proper re-assembly. Plus Remington sent me a paper copy of their manual in the mail, and I have it around here somewhere. It's for the Browning Auto-5, but it's the same as Remington Model 11. You know who designed this model, right?

Trollop love recoil, and maybe got one clay in a dozen. She did like the noise making, and preferred MBtGE pump action to my semi-auto Remington. Pump action doesn't waist the recoil on working the works, so she got the full treatment of the boom on her shoulder. As she prefers. She is an odd one, that way. I'm not discouraging this, though.

MBtGE missus just shot the heck out of .22, but tried the .40 because she hadn't before. Both Trollop's XD and my Sig.