Usefulness of #9 shot

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Stan Hillis

I am friends with a former GA State Ladies Skeet Champion, several times over. First time she and her husband tried sporting she shot something in the neighborhood of a 37/100. Her husband shot even less. He stomped away muttering that there were targets out there that could not be possibly broken with a shotgun. My buddy had just shot a 96 on the same course. They were badly embarrassed.

I've shot two 100 straights in my life, at sporting, numerous 99s and 98s. A young man just shot a 100/100 at Super Sporting at the "Turkey Shoot", at The Meadows in Forsyth, GA last weekend. He also shot a 50/50 on the competition 5 stand. This wasn't a charity shoot, but real tournament quality targets.

There's a big difference in learning the lead on hundreds of presentations, and being able to put it there, and in memorizing it on a handful that are not over 21 yards. I've shot enough skeet and trap to appreciate the mental focus that is necessary to run long straights. It's not for me, it's boring, but at least I recognize them as legitimate clay target games.

I shoot sporting clays and don't find it boring. My only complaint is that a lot of sporting clay shots don't mimic field hunting. There are sometimes a lot of dropping birds that are implausable in the field unless you are shooting ducks over decoys. Also, all the sporting clays shooters I have seen shoot from a gun brought to the shoulder before the pull. Not good practice for field shooting.

I shoot low gun and generally take a 12 bore DHE for the longer shots and a 20 bore PHE for the shorter shots. Sometimes my small gun is a 28 bore Holland. I've been using the 28 bore for low gun trap shooting using the left full choke barrel. I'm the only one I have ever seen shooting trap low gun with a 28 bore. I'm always in the 20's with that gun shooting low gun. It is a real kick for me and gets people's attention.