Now what?? Anyone know a good counselor?

[Richard Flanders]

I’m in Denver on a short break from the Fairbanks winter and my host and I snagged his gun-laden neighbor and headed to the local trap range to burn some powder. I knew John had a nice 20ga Citori so wasn’t worried about shooting too foreign a gun. It was cold so we were pretty bundled up. Well, his neighbor offered me a nice Merkel 20ga S/S so I tried that first. It felt a bit awkward but not that bad and I think I hit 13 or something. Then he pulls out this very nice O/U 12ga trap gun and tells me to try it…. It felt absolutely awful. Heavy, the LOP felt like it was 16” with all the clothes I had on. Big wide and tall vent rib sticking up…Single trigger…very flat stock…. I thought this is going to be really bad and very embarrassing, but I dutifully took my place on the line and away we went. This gun felt to me like a piece of sewer pipe mounted on a hunk of firewood to mount. Every mount was different and it seemed I was looking down the side of the barrels half the time, but for some strange reason, every time my head came up after the shot, all I could see was black dust in place of the clay that seemed to me to disappear from sight at some random and varying point in my awkward and clumsy swing. Halfway through I swore a rash was developing all over my body and all I wanted was one of my Parkers. The pain and misery continued to mount as the round progressed and clays for some reason, that seemed to me to have nothing to do with my efforts, continued to die. After all that, I ended up powdering 18/25 clays, which is likely the best score I have ever managed at such a game, and with the most uncomfortable gun I have ever shot in my life. Go figure. Next round I figured I had it all figured out and went back to the Merkel 20 to redeem my self respect and to get rid of the rash and I think I hit only 5/25! And I thought I knew what type of gun I shot well and not so well…. These trap shots seemed easy too. I figure I would have shot 20+ every time with my Remington hammer gun or even my DH12. I feel like I'm having some 'back to the drawing board' moments and figure I’m going to need some serious counseling after this experience… I hope my PGCA card won't be summarily burned by the BOD after such a performance....