Trying this lighter shade of blue. Will see whot the dark moder's say. It may be not so hard to read & provide better contrast. Call it a trial balloon. New site does not have the old font I preferred as an option. This one is okay, just not as light-hearted. the other was 'comic'.
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Great pic's, Don, cow & 92! That Easter goose looks like it had been goosed... or had a very strong incentive to get out of Dodge! Can easily tell in the others that it's been a very special and fun day, one to be treasured.
Ours was as well. Spent the majority ofvit at the club. Bride & I had a fine brunch, bud that was going to come out to shoot wasn't able to make that a reality, but the light was weird, the winds were strong & gusty, and it remained overcast until well into the afternoon and even then, there was a distinct haze present, comprised of pollen and dust for the most part. I got in several boxes at sporty clays w/a ancient AL-2 12 ga Beretta semi-auto stocked in the 'bleached blonde' French Walnut that was used in some of those guns when they were first introduced. Striking, against their gloss-black finished alloy hand engraved receivers. It has a 71cm [that's within a gnat of 28"] fixed choke 'MOD' bbl. that throws near hunnert percent full choke patterns @ 40 yds. w/the 7/8 oz reloads I was using. Not much room for error inside that range, but impressive 'ink spots' to north of 35 yds. ...when the target is well centered. Figured out how to correctly shoot a screaming rt. to left and outward moving target presentation that had previously stumped me last Wednesday. Only way to break that thing before it went into the brush along the left side of the 'window' about 40 or so yards out was to 'spot shoot' the darned thing; meaning to pre-mount the gun, hold near the point where it disappeared into the brush and take your vision back to the right to see the flash as it sped toward safety. The instant you could pick up that target's flash, pull the trigger! I could break it every time doing that, and not at all trying to shoot it any other way. Had quite the feeling of accomplishment figuring out what I had to do to hit it consistently. Missed it twice trying the old way first w/gun down. There simply wasn't time, w/my reflexes, to do more than shoot behind it. It's not a shot you would ever take in the field, as the target was low. Some sporty clays presentations have little to nothing to do w/field shots and if you wish to post good scores it is necessary to learn how to break them all. I B trying. Actually, shot well above my norm for the first ten stations and was only three targets down at the end of the second box. After ten stations, I was getting a bit tired, and the temps had increased considerable w/the overhead blanket's thinning to high elevation stratus. I think all the junk in the air was also irritating my eyes. In any case, I wasn't quite as lively or quick to make good target acquisitions and dropped a few targets. The 13th station proved my Waterloo. It was a true pair of crossing floppers traveling rt. to left that had little spring on them and tho both were traveling in the neighborhood of 35 yards when they crossed paths visually at about 20 yards out it just played havoc w/my ability to track either well and I was left with hitting one or none. And it pulled my score down to the high 70% range for the day. Background on that station was treed and brushy and neither target ever had any sky behind it at their peak. My poor performance there was due to two things, I was getting tired, and I was shooting above and behind the ill-defined [fuzzy, rather than having a clear hard focus on my part] targets. Still, it was a fine afternoon to be out traipsing around looking at all the flora bursting out with new foliage. Returned to the clubhouse around 4 and chilled a while, where a number of the usual round-table suspects had gathered. Some had been shooting skeet and others helice and some were just there because like TWH, it's where they hang, most afternoons. There was some ensuing conversation about the need to make more NRA-ILA donations and writing our Senators and Reps expressing our on-going concerns and too, the lack of components and general ammo shortages, inclusive of target ammo for shotshells was given some discussion. A few other non-firearms/shooting related grouses had volleys fired across their bows as well. No feathers were ruffled. It's a well weather-hardened crew w/much time at the helm in times of turbulence. Learn the ropes or perish. Plenty of prior combat duty was present. We had some popcorn to gnaw on as subjects were gnashed and some deviled eggs that Luca had prepared. They bore (use?) only their regular colour, but they ate gud. No one thot to ask when an opinion was being expressed if they had Czech'd w/Martha. Such is the nature of that group that that type of thinking/questioning is not considered good etiquette. Heck, it's not considered good for anything, if ya wanna B honest about it.
Looked at the posted results from last Wednesday's beginning week of the sporty clays league. Our squad is in 4th, but only one point out of first. It's a great start and I think we might could win this one. This coming Wed. we shoot ten stations on the orange course. It was the 'green' course's first ten stations last week. Life in the fast lane, eh? It could get rained out, but I'm putting my money on any rain coming being done before we have to shoot. Tuesday afternoon and night will likely be wet.
'The Metropolitan' is next weekend. I've no plans to shoot in it but could waffle come Friday and sign up at the last minute. It won't be sold out this year. It's four guns only on Sat. & Sun. No Friday events or doubles this year. I'll go out regardless, at least on Sat. afternoon just because I know many, if not most, that will be shooting. Find myself lacking the passion I once had for shooting registered skeet. Still love the game and have made many good friends and acquaintances thru the years doing it.
I'm fully paid and signed up for the State FITASC championship that was cancelled and then postponed last year that will be coming up shortly. My time practicing right now is better spent in that direction. I won my class in the inaugural one, had it in the bag on the 2nd one, only to have my wheels come off on the last day and choke to death w/some weird vision bad mojo that I've never come to fully grasp/understand. Finally marked it up to 'stuff happens' and have now moved on, tho have to admit it did linger... for a while.
Skeet was never shot at the White House, contrary to whot some said at an earlier time tho it might well should have been. Shot low gun, it is still the best form of practice that I know of... for a bird hunter.
I think sporty clays can be and FITASC is better suited to dove hunters.
I'm going back to bed. C ya.
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