Shotgunning : Skeet Adventure

By Gabby

My friend BJ and I went skeet shooting a few weeks ago. Neither of us knew much about it, but he'd just bought a new shotgun and we were up for an adventure. BJ called the day before from a certain big box retailer, to say that he was picking up shells. You will recall from our Shotgun discussion, that you can get shells filled with different types of loads.

Shot that is made for sporting clays has a number of specific features. It does send out fragments like hunting loads but unlike hunting shells, these fragments are not lead. The lack of lead makes this sport surprisingly environmentally friendly. To that point, the Tom Lowe Shooting Grounds, that BJ and I visited is actually part of a state park.

We got to the park early and were quickly out on the skeet field*, attempting to appear knowledgeable. Our puller, Jay, seemed brusk but I soon re-assessed him as verbally-efficient. He pointed out the low house and the high house*1 and how we would start at one house and move in a semicircle around the field. At each box*2, we would shoot 2-4 rounds at clays flying from either high or low (openings) in the two houses on either end of the field. When we got to the other house we would have attempted a total of 25 targets.


For Your Information it's pretty tough to remember proper form, a smooth trigger press, aiming, tracking the clay and shouting “pull” all at once! From my first experience with shotguns, I knew how important it is to keep the stock pressed tightly into my shoulder. Not doing this is the cause of most shoulder bruises in women. Obviously, this was not my top priority when the time came...

Other advice I received sounded like:

• Place your head on the gun (also hard to remember since this feels very different from the positioning one uses when shooting a more tactical long gun.)
• Aim one and a half clay lengths ahead of your target (if you’ve never shot at a moving target, this is even harder than keeping your front sight on the clay as it flies through the air)

More advice came as our errors were realized:

• Error #1 BJ’s new shotgun is a tactical tool. It has a 20 inch barrel, pump action and adjustable stock. Great for the bad guy on your front porch, terrible for clays.

The shorter barrel makes this gun far less accurate at skeet shooting range. Also, it’s lightweight, causes more felt recoil, and the pump action tires the shooter out faster and makes maintaining a good sight picture harder.

We ended up renting an over/under Barretta, with a heavy wooden stock*3, 28” barrel and no pumping required. This should have been done before we had shot the first set of 25 (each), because I could already feel the bruise forming when I finally shattered my first clay.

• Error #2 BJ had bought a few boxes of 12ga shells, in preparation for our adventure.

It turns out, the shells at the range are equally inexpensive and not as packed with unnecessary powder. The extra powder in the rounds we were shooting, definitely shared the blame for my bruised shoulder. I also believe they shortened my stamina and our skeet shooting experience.

• Error #3 12 Gauge

This point is not a matter of ability, so no need to comment about women and “weakness”. I am strictly pointing out that given the option, I believe a 20 gauge shotgun would have been far more enjoyable and allowed us to shoot longer.

The beautiful day that BJ and I spent Skeet shooting, was a great opportunity to get out of the concrete box (ie indoor range), and learn a new shooting skill. After all, when the time comes to pull your gun, what are the odds that your target will just stand there and take it?

* The difference between Trap and Skeet? - Trap clays are released from a central house and move away from the shooter. Skeet clays criss-cross from 4 different openings in two different houses, sometimes moving toward the shooter, sometimes away. (Don’t worry, skeet targets are pulled one at a time, for us beginners.)
*1 See the brown buildings in my drawings and notice high and low windows in each. It is from these windows that the clays are released.
*2 The red squares in my skeet drawing are “boxes” that tell the shooter where to stand. Loaded Guns are only allowed within these squares.
*3 Just as with pistols, a heavier gun will help with felt recoil.

©2013 ArmedCandy,LLC