[j1b]

I dipped the toe in the water today.

Shot my very first round ever of skeet today with my old trusty 11-87. Shot 20 birds, which I didn't feel was too terribly bad.

Then shot two rounds of trap, a 22 and a 20 there.

I had fun. The game was fun. Tomorrow the club is having a tournament and I think I'll go watch.

The over/under is a point of inevitability now. Just gotta decide which one.

Next tournament they have I'll play in. Tomorrow is about seeing how things work.

I barely gave up dipping four months ago or so. Apparently my body needed something else to substitute for a money grubbing no return can't be good for you addiction.

Thanks for all advice given thus far. Looking forward to more!

J

[Irishlad]

Great shooting.

Someone forgot to tell you trap is a bit harder than skeet.
Looks like you'll be on to sporting clays in no time.

[j1b]

Thx.

To be honest I've gone through this series of highs and lows the past few days. Yesterday was cool, and fun.

They had their club championship today and I decided to swing by and watch. 12 shooters showed up. 12. I was like WTF???

So I come home and decide I'll check the NSSA's web site - see how decent the local competition is. At our AR STATE chamionship ly 19 shooters showed up.

I really thought this thing was much bigger than that. A bigger sport than IPSC. It looks like a ton of fun but if there's only two tournaments a year and only 20 shooters will show up that doesn't really fit into what I was planning. I was looking for MORE competition, and a new shooting sport to have fun with.

Frustrating.

J

[Seth]

I love shooting sporting clays. Its a great sunday morning for a handful of my friend that prefer it to golf. I shoot a Beretta 370 that does the job reliably without issue. Its a nice walk in the woods for guys that don't hunt.

[Tangram]

You might want to see what is happening with Sporting Clays in your area.

http://www.claytarge...com/list.php/AR

From my vantage point skeet is in a slow spiral of doom. Trap has it's devoted fans and holds on. Sporting is growing. However, I rarely get out of the Northwest so this may be a regional thing. I am not making any comment on the merits of the games. However, I shoot sporting matches but use the skeet and trap fields for learning.

[Irishlad]

Must be regional.

Our state championships have around 200 skeet shooters.

Oddly enough, I think skeet and sporting have a similiar numbers of members, around the 15,000-20,000 range. Trap usually had around 50,000-60,000 members.

Sporting is growing though, or was. I think it might be tough for any shooting sport to grow in this economy now, prices, etc....but!

[MarkS_A18138]

The turn out at 75% of the skeet tournaments are very low. We have a big shoot down here every year and about 20 people show up.......Now sporting clay shoots can range from 65 to 100 just for monthly matches!

This post has been edited by MarkS_A18138: 27 October 2008 - 06:14 AM

[Tangram]

Irishlad, on Oct 27 2008, 04:33 AM, said:

>SNIP<

Sporting is growing though, or was. I think it might be tough for any shooting sport to grow in this economy now, prices, etc....but!

I know that I will be shooting many fewer shotgun shells because of the threat of our new economy. I was shooting 15,000+ shells. .... been thinking about getting a DryFire system for form of cheaper practice. Reloading with 7/8 oz of shot perhaps.... Heavens I might join the ranks of the gainfully employed.....

Sorry for topic drift but I'd like to feed this addiction.

This post has been edited by Tangram: 27 October 2008 - 11:30 PM

[Irishlad]

I think you pick up about 100 shells per 25lb bag using the 7/8oz(24 gram) load, instead of 1 1/8oz.

Shot prices are coming down, slowly.

That's good news at least!