April 14, 1917 Sporting Life
SELECTION OF TRAP GUN AN IMPORTANT POINT by T. A. Marshall
One of the essentials to be taken into consideration by anyone who would become a good trap shooter is the selection of the right gun one that fits the shooter and has the proper weight, drop, thickness and length of stock, trigger pull, etc. All of these things naturally depend upon the individual requirements of the person using the gun, therefore no set rules can be laid down.
An expert might do excellently with a gun unsuited to him because his knowledge how to shoot would compensate to a certain extent the ill-fit of the gun. A beginner, on the other hand, would be hopelessly handicapped under the same conditions. It is to be remembered that a clay target .must be hit solidly in order to break it, hence a close-shooting gun is a practical necessity. Generally speaking, a 12-guage gun weighing somewhere between 7 1/2 and 7 3/4 pounds is just about right for trap shooting. Experience has shown that guns of lighter weight are apt to give too heavy a recoil, or kick. Whether the gun be a single shot, a repeater or a double barrel gun, of course, is a matter of personal taste, as is also the make or style of the gun, although this fact must be borne in mind: Doubles cannot be shot with a single-barrel gun. The drop, thickness and length of the stock are features that from a personal standpoint demand serious consideration. In trap shooting experience has shown that the straight stock one that has very little drop is to be preferred. As to the matter of thickness, the main idea is to choose a stock that permits the shooter (when he puts the gun to his shoulder) to look comfortable and straight down the rib to the sight. If he cannot do this the gun does not fit him properly and a tendency to cross-shoot is very likely.
The length of the stock from the trigger to the center of the butt depends upon the length of the shooter’s arm; obviously a long-armed man necessarily must have a longer stock than the man with a short arm. Perhaps the simplest way to ascertain whether the gun is of proper length is to put the gun to your shoulder with your finger on the trigger as if about to shoot. Then with your finger still on the trigger remove the gun from your shoulder and let the butt lie in the hollow of your arm. If no change in the position of the trigger finger or the grip hand is required, it is safe to assume that the stock fits your arm, in so far as the detail of length is concerned.
Now to come to the trigger pull. This term applies to the amount of weight in pounds avoirdupois which is necessary to pull tho trigger when the gun is cocked and held in a perpendicular position. Due to the element of individuality that enters here, there can be no hard and fast rule regarding the proper amount of pull. This feature is governed by the shooter’s own requirements. On the whole, however, a trigger pull of from 4 to 4 1-2 pounds may be taken as about right for the average shooter.
Without growing too technical, the writer has in a practical way tried to touch on the more salient features in the proper selection of a gun for trap shooting, and, as we have stated before, much depends upon the individual and his personal requirements. If one is thinking seriously of purchasing a gun for trap shooting purposes, perhaps one of the best methods to adopt would be to try any gun that one’s trap shooting friends might care to lend for a temporary trial. In this way one is almost sure to find some particular gun with which he can do better work than with others, and thus he will naturally arrive at a definite basis from which to make a final selection.
Incidentally, here is another tip: Don’t show any hesitancy in asking the advice of the more experienced and expert trap shooter. Trap shooters as a rule are the most democratic of sportsmen and glad to help their fellow-trap shooters in every way possible. And this is especially true of expert professionals. Some of these latter gentlemen are equipped with try guns of especial design. These guns have stocks which by a simple arrangement of jam screws are a practical guarantee of true gun fit, because they admit of the gun stock being carefully adjusted in every respect to the individual shooter’s requirements.
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05-10-2011, 12:13 PM
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