My mentor in the game was John Sands.
My introduction to pigeons, and lifelong friend was PGCA member Chuck Altenburg.

Always contemplating. Quail would be much easier to acquire than pigeons. And I have the box traps I got from Murphy several years ago. What’s the rise? 18 yards? 30 yards?

Where I shoot we start at 32 yards after three straight step back a yard .

I’d love to go to Madrid for the Kings Cup once just so I could say I had and had shot there . I’ve never done a shoot that was thirty birds box or Colombaire it’s always been 15 or 20 .

Sure sounds like fun.
You are right on about the mental game when shooting. Years ago I shot serious skeet competition and you can't win without really a really good mental game. I can assure you I was nervous when shooting the US Open many years ago

I have found in trap that once you have the basics down and your fundamentals are solid, then it’s 99% mental.

It's like that in any sport John.

This past Saturday was the boxbird quail shoot think there were 18 or 19 shooters twenty birds each shooter . These were some of the strongest flying quail I’ve encountered in the ring . So out of four races per man there was only one 5 straight . Lots and lots of birds knocked down that fell just outside . I brought home a decent pile of quail for the table . John I meant to take some pictures of the boxes for you but it slipped my mind . There’s talk of another before the Southern if so I’ll try and take a few pictures for you .

Sounds like a fun day. Maybe a full choke should be used? Thanks for the update.

I think I recognize that dog.