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Casa de Campo has a distant sounding ring to it, but it can be as close as three hours away or less. It’s located on the south shore of the Dominican Republic outside the town of La Romana which also has an International airport. Atlanta, New York and Miami are three of the major jumping off places. Casa de Campo features what any Caribbean destination resort has to offer and much, much more on their 7,000 acres. They have three award-winning golf courses like Teeth of the Dog, which is world renown, and it has spectacular views of the sea and surrounding terrain. The management at Casa de Campo is currently finishing a $20-million-dollar renovation to create 78 new Elite rooms and suites, along with a new, contemporary main hotel area. 
Casa de Campo. Over the years I’ve heard about and seen articles on Casa de Campo and I was impressed with what they had to offer. Now, I’ve had a chance to experience the resort. They have the world’s largest sporting clays facilities with over 200 stations and the tallest tower in the world. At 110 feet, it throws targets in all four directions from three different levels. They also have three lower towers on site. In addition, they have three trap fields; one for regular and handicap; one for trap doubles; and one for wobble trap. They also have a single skeet field and two Barnaby pigeon rings. Since I didn’t have my own gun with me because I flew into Santo Domingo (for the shorter time in the air and the nicer terminals), so I used one of their Berettas. They have a large selection of shotguns you can use and they are primarily 12-gauge Beretta field guns with a manual safety. They also have guns in the four different gauges. I decided to shoot a couple of rounds of skeet to see how their Berettas would handle. The barrels felt a little heavier than my Browning, but the gun seemed to handle about the same. I only dropped a few targets so it wasn’t bad. The distant horizon was great for seeing the targets on the skeet field as well as the trap fields. If you want to bring your own gun it can be easily done by filling out a gun permit two weeks before you depart and fly directly into the Casa de Campo/La Romana Intl. Airport (code: LRM) where the resort has good working relations with the authorities. You may encounter problems at the other two airports at Santo Domingo and Punta Cana, which are both about 90 minutes away. The following day I went out with Shaun Snell, the manager of the shooting complex, to shoot the sporting clays field. I let him pick out the stations and I went after the different presentations. There was a nice selection of targets with what I would call normal type presentations All of them were doable, but I still could miss one now and then. It was fun shooting incomers from one of the two grouse butts on the course. I found the presentations off the top of the tower the most difficult, never having seen targets like that. They were so fast that you couldn’t pick them up until they were about 10 to 15 yards out and had slowed a bit. Be prepared for the unexpected and a good amount of fun. The next time I go back I hope to shoot all 200 plus stations. 
The sporting clays tower at Casa de Campo. You could spend 14 days there shooting 14 stations each day and you would not have shot all the sporting clay stations they have to offer. There is a great diversity in the presentations, which will challenge you as hard as you’d like to be challenged. Some stations are on the soft side and are used for instruction. In years past the shooting focused on sporting clays, trap and live bird shooting with top competitors coming from Europe and South America. Some of the live bird competitions are still held there but not with the same frequency of years past. Over the years things have changed as has the interest in the different disciplines. Seven years ago Shaun, who is from England, took over the management of the shooting complex and started to make some changes. They have a clubhouse where the pro shop and office are located along with the Safari Club restaurant and bar. It’s a great place to relax with a soothing drink after a day of shooting or hunting. Under Shaun’s management the focus has turned to upland bird hunting and waterfowl hunting. Casa de Campo is the only place on earth where you can do bird hunting 365 days a year. There are no licenses to buy, no bird limits, just great outdoor experiences. They have over 10,000 acres devoted to hunting upland birds and waterfowl. They have developed their own kennels and have an active breeding program which is operated by Shaun’s wife. The dogs that were used during our upland bird hunt were outstanding with pointers locating the birds and other dogs to flush them out. Our upland hunt started after lunch on an average day. It was warm but pleasant and included about a 40 minute drive to the hunting property. The dogs were excited and anxious to get to their task. The terrain was on the flat side with some low hills and gullies and grass that was a little higher than normal. There were pockets of thick brush throughout the area that provided great cover for the birds. It wasn’t long before one of the dogs was on point. Another dog was released that flushed the birds and three partridge were flushed. With two guns shooting all three partridge were taken. Over the next few hours we were able to get 51 birds that included quail, partridge and pheasant. It was an exciting time with some great hunting and dogs that really knew their stuff. The following day we went out early in the morning to the area where the duck hunting took place in lush terrain with many ponds and streams and bigger hills. Some small blinds were set up for the three shooters. It wasn’t long before ducks came over the hill to land in the pond behind us. At first it was one, two or three birds, but later the ducks came over in larger groups. The shooting was fast and furious and by the end of the morning each shooter had about 48 birds. 
The ducks kept on coming. The largest shoot they have at Casa de Compo is the Sugar Invitational. It is a private shoot that takes place in April. Every year there are some changes to the format as it includes a few hundred clay targets and live bird shooting in different events. The shoot is normally conducted over four days. (For more information on events at Casa de Campo you can contact Shaun at the shooting center at 809-523-3333 ext. 5145.) The accommodations at Casa de Campo vary from large villa homes to a variety of hotel rooms including the new Elite room and suites, with all the amenities of a large resort. My hotel room was larger than most hotel rooms and comfortable and had a covered balcony on the back side with nice views. Although my room wasn’t one of the newly remolded rooms it was more than ample and came with a well-stocked mini bar and great air-conditioning. The Ivory colored sand beaches and palm trees are just beautiful. Since I was pretty busy on this trip, I only had one afternoon to spend at Minitas Beach to soak up the solar BTU’s and sip on a few margaritas. It was glorious. This resort covers 7,000 acres and so each room is provided with a golf cart to get around in. And it is really handy. 
One of the lovely beaches at Casa de Campo. There are many other things to do at Casa de Campo. They have over a dozen tennis courts and several of them are lighted for play in the evening. The courts looked new, but it’s just that they are so meticulous in their maintenance. The La Terraza Tennis Center has been dubbed the “Wimbledon of the Caribbean.” At the equestrian center you can ride out on a large selection of trails on either an English or western saddles, but if you want to ride make sure you bring long pants. I didn’t so I couldn’t ride. Less than 100 yards from the stable is a polo field where a match was taking place the day I was there. I had fun capturing some action shots of the game. There are other activities at Casa de Campo as well. There is deep-sea fishing, sailing, kayaking along with snorkeling and diving as well. You can also take an excursion or one of the many tours available or just rent an ATV and explore on your own. There are also spas where you can relax or get a massage which I did and felt totally renewed. They also have a fitness center where you can work out like you normally would at home and stay in shape after eating all those grand meals every evening. You can also rent a bike if that is more to your liking for staying in shape. The nine restaurants in the resort’s inclusive package are simply great, with one of them being in the five- diamond class. At the restaurant at the Marina my dining partner and I ordered a large Man-O-War, about 20 inches in length and eight across, with its decks awash with sushi, sashimi, wasabi, sliced ginger and other delights. I never thought we’d finish it off, but we did such a grand job of clearing the decks, any good admiral would have been proud of our efforts. My favorite appetizer that was available at two different restaurants and prepared a little different at each restaurant was tuna tartar. I had it just about every night. The restaurant that would easily win a five-diamond award is Le Cirque, which is located by the beach. The food there was really outstanding as was their selection of wines. The ambience of the restaurant was superior to what you would normally expect. And you could look out over the beach and barely hear the surf pounding on the shore. Whatever your taste in food is you’ll find something there to suit you. And there will soon be the new La Cana Restaurant and Lounge by Il Circo in the main area too. There are art galleries and a museum on the property along with its own large shopping area. You can also visit and explore Altos de Chavon, an area where everything has the look of a few hundred years ago that also has some shops and restaurants on the Casa de Campo property. You’ll feel at home even though you’re away from home at Casa de Campo, because of the great staff. Jerry Sinkovec is a freelance outdoor and travel photojournalist who writes for over 45 different publications nationally and internationally. Jerry is also designing shooting clothing and accessories for Wild Hare Intl. He is the shooting and travel editor for Outdoors Now. He is also the director of the Instinctive Target Interception Shotgun Shooting School headquartered in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He has been teaching for the last 20 years, and has been endorsed by Browning in Utah. He conducts classes in all the western states. His address is: I. T. I. Shotgun Shooting School, 5045 Brennan Bend, Idaho Falls, ID 83401. He can be reached at: 208-523-1545, or online at itishooting@msn.com or http://www.itishooting.com. For more information on Casa de Campo you can contact: Casa de Campo DirectP.O. Box 140, La Romana, Dominican Republic Phone 800-877-3643 or (809) 523-8698
Instinctive Target Interception…… or the way to consistently smoke clay targets or hunt upland birds Author: Jerry Sinkovec 208-523-1545 photojournalistjerry@msn.com Every time I go to a shooting club or public range I see the same thing happening time and time again. People are struggling with trying to break some targets and develop a shooting style. All to often some well meaning friends are trying to help them with some outdated shooting techniques, which have a very narrow scope of application. The friend ends up trying to teach techniques he or she learned twenty or thirty years ago shooting trap or skeet and feels that’s the way their friend should shoot. Shotgun shooting sports have been changing and evolving over the years and so has the techniques as well as the guns and other equipment. I have seen long time good shooters get frustrated at always missing a certain type bird on a trap or skeet field. I have seen them so frustrated that they sold their $10,000 shotgun and ended up buying a less expensive gun that they felt better with, thinking it was going to solve the problem. They ended up shooting worse with the new gun than they did with their old gun and they still had the same problem. What does that tell you? Obviously, it wasn’t the gun that was the problem; it was their shooting technique. More precisely, it’s what they were seeing, and what their eyes were telling their brain to do. It also probably had something to do with how they set up for the shot. If you have a gun that fits, stick with it, don’t start buying and selling guns to solve the problem, unless you have unlimited funds. And don’t start modifying the gun until you’ve had someone who knows how to fit a gun look at you and your gun to see what the problem is first. If you have a gun that isn’t balanced for the way you like to shoot, that’s a different problem and could require a gun change. What most people fail to do when shooting or hunting is trust their instinct. To many people ride the target or try to measure it, that’s when problems start to develop. If you develop and trust your natural ability, you’ll be a better shot in the shooting sports and while hunting, and have more fun. In 1995, prior to getting certified, I attended a very prestigious shooting school held at the Vail Rod & Gun Club. It was an excellent one-week course with most of the top instructors in Britain and America teaching for the school. But they were still teaching, pull away, swing through and maintained lead, all which have a certain limited application for certain type shots. But they weren’t teaching “Instinctive Target Interception” at the time, something I had been doing for a number of years, but hadn’t quite put the finishing touches on as yet. The British are just now starting to teach what they call, “Merging With The Target”, a very proper sounding name for “Instinctive Target Interception”. I.T.I. can be used in sporting clays, skeet, FITAS, 5-stand, trap and hunting in the field. It’s one style of shooting which can be applied to any situation. It’s like the saying; “Beware the shooter who shoots only one gun for all types of events, and hunting for that matter”. The same can be said for the style of shooting. The idea is to simplify, and become one with your gun. I don’t believe in having one gun for trap, another gun and different sight picture for skeet, another for sporting clays and yet another gun and different sight picture for hunting. If you get a gun, which is balanced well and fits you, and you learn how to use well, there is no reason you can’t use it for any application, and do well, including hunting. I see shooters coming out to the gun ranges with a different gun every week, sometimes a s/s, than a o/u, than an auto, sometimes a 26” barrel, next time a 30” barrel, sometimes a six pound gun than a nine pound gun, and they never seem to shoot well. I think you can see why. My personal choice for shooting any type of event or hunting is the Browning Ultra Golden Clays in a 30” barrel, which is just a little heavier than the Browning Ultra Sporting due to the density of the wood. It’s a medium weight gun with most of the weight from the receiver back, which makes for a fast easy gun swing. It is an important element in I.T.I. Once you find the right balance and fit in a gun, stick with it and work out the bad habits you’ve probably developed over time. If your a new shooter or not sure what your problems are, try to find a good instructor who will teach you what you need to learn, not what they want to teach, to help you develop your shooting skills and instinct. Avoid a gun that has heavy barrels, or with the weight out in front of the receiver, because the gun is harder to start to move and requires more energy for movement and to make minor adjustments at the last second. It tends to make the shooters arms tired quickly, and leads to lost birds. A Browning Ultra Sporting or Browning XS for a medium weight or a Beretta 391 Sporting for a lighter weight gun will work very well. There are many other makes, models and styles to choose from, just make sure what you pick isn’t to heavy in the barrel area. I would suggest staying with 28 inch or 30 inch barrels for any type of serious shooting or hunting. Avoid 24” and 26” barrels, as they are too whippy and lead to lost birds or targets. You want to develop your swing and shooting speed, reflexes and kill ratio, and to do that you need a shotgun without much weight out in front of your hands. One thing I’ve noticed in most of the gun shops as I travel around, is that the person buying the shotgun comes in to purchase a gun that he wants to buy regardless if the gun fits or not. Most people buying a shotgun don’t know if a shotgun fits them properly or not. I don’t think they realize that buying a shotgun is totally different from buying a rifle where the fit isn’t as important. And most shops never check to see if the shotgun fits the person they are selling the shotgun to, or they don’t know how. I think it’s imperative that the person buying a new shotgun makes sure the shop employee checks them for a proper fitting shotgun. And the buyer should keep an open mind as to the gun he’ll end up buying, so as to get a proper fitting shotgun. And if the gun doesn’t fit, the shop should advise the buyer what may be involved in cost and modifications in getting the gun to fit properly. If the gun doesn’t fit you properly, you’ll never become a good shot. It’s imperative in low gun shooting and hunting, that the shotgun fit properly, so it will mount to the same position each time consistently. Instinctive Target Interception is a series of elements which when put together and executed properly will allow you to see the target quicker, shoot the target quicker, hit it harder, feel less recoil, and feel more comfortable and relaxed while doing it. It’s a natural way to shoot that will enhance your enjoyment in shooting and make you a better shooter and hunter. It’s low gun shooting that allows you to be natural and relaxed and react to targets instantaneously and successfully. Since your going to be shooting with a low gun, a gun being held below the armpit in the ready position, I recommend a continental style-shooting vest, which has a full-length pad for the gun to slide against. The new Chimere shooting vest or the Bob Allen Continental vest are a few that fill the bill nicely. And they’ll work fine for hunting as well. An alternative is a good shooting shirt with a long pad that isn’t baggy in the armpit area. Anything that has too much fabric or folds in that area will probably cause the gun butt to snag or foul with the material and cause a poor gun mount and a missed target. Be sure that what ever you use fits snug and allows for a smooth movement of the gun to the shoulder. Above all, don’t wear a shirt with a pocket on the right side, as the butt of the gun will surely snag on the flap. If the gun seems to drag or catch on whatever your using, try putting some clear fingernail polish on the top and left side of the recoil pad, that will eliminate the drag problem. Another detail that might need attention is the butt pad that has sharp edges. I found taking a Dremel tool to the left edge of the pad and putting a slight radius to it reduces the drag and helps in a smoother gun mount. What you see and how you see it is probably the most important thing in shooting. For it’s what you see that puts the whole thing of shooting into motion. The proper shooting glasses and color are as important as the gun. How many times have you heard a shooter say he never saw the target leave the trap? That can be due to several different things, but the proper glasses assist you in picking up the bird and focusing on the bird. First, never wear bi-focal or varifocal glasses when shooting or hunting, they will only confuse the brain when the eyes see two different images. You only need to wear your distance prescription since the target is at a great distance from you. You aren’t supposed to be looking at the rib or beads when you’re shooting, so why would you need that ability in the first place? Color is very important in clay target shooting and even hunting. I would stay away from the Yellow, Vermilion or Red colors unless you’re shooting in heavy overcast conditions with low light. Yellow allows in to much light in bright light conditions and can cause stress to your eyes and even cause a condition very similar to snow blindness, if worn for to long a period of time in bright sunlight. Red or Vermilion creates tension in the human eye and causes early eye fatigue in shooters. Some of the best colors to use for shotgun sports and hunting are Purple, Rose and Hot Pink. They have been proven to be the most relaxing colors for the shooters eyes to use all day. The colors are more efficient and function better when they are molded into the polycarbonate lenses, than glass lenses, which are dyed. What these colors do is make the background colors blue for the sky and green for the vegetation darker, while making the target colors, orange, red and lime almost go bright neon. They create more contrast and give you better definition in the subtle grays and browns, the color of game birds. Rose has the most contrast and light reduction with Purple having less contrast and light reduction, but is probably the best all around color to use for 90% of your shooting. Hot Pink makes things brighter just like the Yellow lenses do, but still does what the Purple and Rose do in regard to contrast and target colors. The color you decide to use for most of your shooting should really be determined by the weather and light conditions you normally encounter where you live and shoot, not what is fashionable or the in color for the year. Opti-Sport probably makes the best polycarbonate lens shooting glasses with the three colors mentioned above which they supply, and there are a large variety of shooting lens suppliers who can dye the glass lenses pretty close to what you need. Opti-Sport has come closest to the proper colors of any of the suppliers I’ve had run some tests on glass lenses. Most of the purple glass lenses I’ve seen at the various shooting matches the last year or two tend to be on the light side and don’t really have the same effect as the darker colors do. Be sure and shop around before you by any expensive shooting glasses and get the right colors, which will work to your advantage. As was mentioned earlier, Instinctive Target Interception is a series of elements which when put together and executed properly will allow you to see the target quicker, shoot the target quicker, hit it harder, feel less recoil, and feel more comfortable and relaxed while doing it. We’ll start with the feet placement and body position, and work our way up. Whether shooting skeet, trap or sporting clays, the feet should be placed with the toes pointing to either side of the point of where you’ll break the bird, with the upper body facing that point (the neutral position), or the center stake in the case of a skeet field. With this foot position and stance, you’re in a natural relaxed position. The feet should be no farther apart than your shoulders, be natural and be relaxed, just as if you were walking. There is no need to put one foot out in front of the other, to bend over or to crouch or hunch over. Stand erect as though there was someone speaking to you in front of you. If you create any unnatural body contortions while standing, you create tension in the body, which leads to tired muscles, unreliability in movement and lost birds. If there is a report pair and the first bird comes from your right and the second bird comes from the left your going to be in a neutral and comfortable position to take either bird with ease. If there was a simultaneous pair with the first bird coming from your right and the second from your left, you would stand a little off center to the right, since you would be catching up with the second bird later. If the pair was reversed, you would stand a little more to the left of center where you would be shooting the second bird. You always want to be in the neutral position, or a close to it as possible, when shooting the bird as it allows you to be accurate because there is no tension in your body at that point in your swing. You want to use your skeletal structure to support your body, not your muscles as they will tire and not perform as expected. When you know where to stand and at which point to face, you now have to turn your upper body at the waist to the direction where the bird is coming from. You usually don’t have to turn much; just enough to allow you to hold the gun at the proper hold point for that presentation. The head may be turned a little further with the eyes looking to the point at where they will first see the bird. You don’t want to hold the gun where your going to break the bird because you won’t have any gun swing and you’ll either miss it or shoot it very late. Neither do you want to hold the gun at the point where you’re looking with your eyes. If the bird was close in and fast you’d have a hard time catching up with it. You want to hold the gun between the point where your looking with your eyes and where you plan to smoke the bird, with it being a little closer to where you’ll first see it. If the bird is coming from behind some trees to your left with little open spaces, don’t try and pick up the bird while it’s still behind the trees, you may miss it. Wait until it emerges from behind the trees to pick it up with your eyes. Have your eyes focused on the area just in front of the trees. Holding the shotgun properly for a fast easy mount is simple but important. Again, no unnatural positions with the arms as it will only lead to problems. The forend should be grasped in a comfortable manner with the left hand and index finger pointing forward along the forend on either the side or bottom; whichever is most comfortable for you. It is the left hand that directs the movement of the gun to intercept the target, not the right. The right hand assists the left in bringing the gun to the shoulder and assures a smooth mount. If your right hand is used to strongly in mounting and pointing the gun, you’ll probably miss the target. The mount must be swift, but smooth and to the point. It takes lots of practice, and a gun that fits. The barrels should be pointed to the right of where you’re looking for the target with your eyes on a left to right crossing target. The barrels should be pointed below the anticipated flight path of the target. If they are held above the flight path or at to high an angle, with the gun butt to low, you’ll end up using your right hand to much to move the gun and end up bringing the barrels below the flight path, which means you’ll have to make a correction. The gun should not have a seesaw action while it is being mounted, it should slide upward smoothly till the point when it touches your cheek. Both hands have to work in unison, with the left hand doing all the work. If the barrels are held to high they will also block your view of the target. When you see the target, you should start your mount. Your body and gun are moving at the same time to get the gun in front of the target on it’s flight path. The barrels will sweep up into the flight path of the target and intercept it. When the stock touches your cheek the gun should be in front of the target with the right lead and you should pull the trigger, and keep the gun swing moving. You have to learn how to trust what you’re seeing and not ride the target. If your eyes are focused on the target, you will smoke it. If the target is a rabbit you must keep the barrels below the rolling/hopping path of the rabbit and bring the gun up to your shoulder and the path of the rabbit to intercept it. The one time you don’t want to mount the gun right away is when you have an incoming target where it has a long flight time and you have plenty of time to read it’s path. Read where it’s going and where and when it’s going to do something. You usually have a few options as to when you want to take the target. Mount the gun just before you plan to shoot the target. Don’t ride the target with the gun mounted to your shoulder, as you’ll tend to make a mistake and miss the target. Mount and shoot, don’t ride the target. Word count 3263 Bio on the author: Jerry Sinkovec is a freelance outdoor writer/photographer who writes for over 30 different publications. He is also the director of the Instinctive Target Interception Shotgun Shooting School located in Albuquerque. He has been teaching for the last nine years and has been endorsed by Browning in Utah. He teaches in the western states as well as Albuquerque. In June of 2003 he will be operating two schools in the Idaho Falls, ID area as well as Sun Valley, ID. His address in Idaho will be I. T. I. Shotgun Shooting School, 5045 Brennan Bend, Idaho Falls, ID 83406. He can be currently reached by calling: 208-523-1545, or contacting: itishooting@msn.com WEB ADDRESS www.itishooting.com
Grey Cliffs Ranch It was one of Montana’s best kept secrets nestled away in the hill country along the Madison River. The ranch opened to the public back in 2007, but it didn’t hold its grand opening until early 2008 when all the finishing touches were completed. The ranch is a 5000 acre deeded property with about an additional 2000 acres in leased land. Some of the land is farmed, only about 1500 acres, but the majority of it is in a natural state for wildlife. There is fishing on the ranch which is catch and release but you also have the Madison River only a few minutes away. There is upland bird hunting on the ranch with Pheasant, Chucker, all native Hun’s and Sharp-tail Grouse available. They also have deer and elk hunting available on a limited basis. There are many others things to do on the ranch including hiking, horseback riding and wildlife watching and wildlife photography. It’s not unusual to see herds of several hundred deer or elk on the ranch. In winter you can snowshoe or cross country ski. When you get into the high country you can see the four mountain ranges that surround the ranch area. It’s a beautiful area where you can truly relax and unwind. The majority of the people that come here are the residents of Bozeman, Montana area who want to get away from it all and relax in an Idyllic atmosphere. I always thought if you lived in Bozeman you already got away from it all. But you could also find a couple from Atlanta or Zurich Switzerland enjoying the atmosphere of the ranch and the lodge that is really outstanding. This is a really unique ranch with a totally different outlook about it being a place to stay. It can be a Bed and Breakfast, or it can be a hunting lodge, or a fishing lodge or a dude ranch. It can be anything you want it to be. And it can be all yours. They aren’t trying to keep all the rooms full all the time, just the opposite. It’s what they call low impact lodging. They want you to have a really unique experience while you are there for whatever reason. You can be by yourself or just a couple. The lodge will hold about eight to twelve people depending on the mix. And it can be all yours for a day, a week or a month, it’s up to you. The lodge is really a work of art, from the timber and glass exterior to the hard wood floors, marble counters, luxurious furniture and game heads from around the world adorning the walls. It really reflects the personality of its owners and is one of the finer places I’ve ever had the pleasure to stay at. You can pick one of their guest packages to stay there or design your own. They are very flexible. Instead of the typical B&B package which includes your breakfast, you could do your owning cooking of dinner in their fantastic kitchen that is state of the art or have their gourmet chef come in and cook your dinner right before you every evening. I don’t think you’ll ever find another place like this where they consider your experience as a greater value than having all the rooms full. My first experience there in 2007 after it just opened was a real surprise. I came up from Idaho to do some bird hunting and met several hunters from Bozeman that I hunted with and had a great time. They were there for the day just to bird hunt while I was going to be spending several days there and doing several different things aside from bird hunting. We had a fun filled day with some great bird hunting. We also had some good laughs about the birds we missed. We had a Pheasant that was hit hard, but not dead and all four of us were looking for it very intensely as were the two dogs. Something caught my attention and I looked up at what I thought was a large flock of song birds, they didn’t look that large. Someone else also saw them and didn’t think anything about them as well. When the birds were right in front and above us, we realized it was a huge covey of Hun’s. All the guns started to move and there was a lot of gunfire, at the going away birds, but not a bird dropped from the sky. We all looked at each other somewhat dumbfounded and burst out laughing. It took awhile to get over what had just happened. We did finally find the one we were looking for. We all ended up with a good mix of birds. Each one of us had either three or four birds. The next time I was at the ranch was early in January of 2010. We just had over a foot of snow in Idaho Falls and a few days of single digit temperatures and when I got up to around Ennis, MT the temperature was 34 degrees the skies were clear and the roads were clear and dry. I was expecting a foot of snow or more at the ranch and the ground was basically clear and dry. After a quick small lunch, Chris the ranch manager and I headed out to one of the hunting areas along with his dog Katie. In the time between when I was here last, Katie had matured into a first class hunting dog. We headed out to one of the areas that had very deep cover for the birds. After some walking, Katie went on point as Chris and I walked a little closer. The cock finally couldn’t take it any longer and tried to make his escape while Chris and I started to mount our guns. Chris got the first shot off and hit the bird but it didn’t go down and when the bird got clear of Chris I took my shot and hit the bird as well but it still kept going. We saw where it landed and backtracked to where the bird was and Katie quickly got the birds scent and went on point. When the bird took off it looked like it was just hanging there and when I shot the bird it took a couple of somersaults in the air before it hit the ground for the last time. During the rest of the afternoon hunt I got three more birds but one got away. It was hit hard but managed to maintain some gliding flight for awhile. We went to look for it and could not find it after seeing where it landed and searching for some fifteen minutes. After we started back to the truck Katie picked up a scent and took off on a diagonal run while Chris and I stayed on track to the truck. When Katie got to the base of the hill we saw her pick something up and then drop it and then came running back to us. Chris and I both thought the same thing. The bird we were just looking for didn’t go into the heavy cover where it landed; it doubled back to the hill close to where I shot it and died there. Thanks to Katie, I ended up with the four birds I shot. Being that I was the only guest at the ranch I decided to soak up some of the ambience of the lodge and get some writing done. The chef was coming in that evening to cook dinner for Chris and I and I knew it was going to be a grand and memorable dinner. Chris himself is an excellent chef as he has a cooking background as well, so when “the chef” comes in you know it’s going to be even more impressive. I was not disappointed. Tiffany started us off with a delicious squash, carrot and potato soup that was out of this world. Our salad was light and very tasty with some citrus that was a delight. The entrée was Pheasant with a red wine and fig reduction glaze and Polenta that was without a doubt the very best Pheasant I ever had and Chris agreed. And I have a few good recipes for Pheasant myself. The desert was as exceptional. It was a roasted pear sorbet which I have never had before and will never forget it was so delicious. The following day Chris and I went out to shoot some clays. They have five automatic Promatic Traps set up in some interesting terrain. They have a formal shooting station for each trap, but Chris and I tried to make it more interesting and fun. We also shot between two stations so we could shoot report and true pairs off of two stations. On stations four and five we had the most fun. Standing ten yards above Sta. Four that was a fast left to right quartering bird that you couldn’t dally on. Station Five was a high incomer arching right to left that was always in transition. Four was the harder bird to hit so we tried report pairs to start and we both accomplished getting the pair. Then we went for true pairs and we both accomplished that after a few misses. Then we got ridiculous. We shot them in reverse. There were a lot of misses but we were able to get a pair and Chris’s second bird, the one quartering away looked like it was in China, and he still got it. We sure hoot and hollered and high fived on that one. Grey Cliffs Ranch is a great experience in itself, but when you add the outstanding food served there by either Chris or Tiffany it really becomes a truly grand and memorable event. To book your fun experience or adventure call 406-285-6512 or go to: www.greycliffsranch.com 1664words Author: Jerry Sinkovec
Best of the Best On a rare occasion such as this, I have the opportunity to review several different products at the same time. And, as you’ll find, these three products are some of, if not the best products in their field. Precision Fit Stocks made in Pueblo, CO, solve several problems in different applications. In running the I.T.I. shotgun shooting school in NM, I see that over 80% of the people coming to learn to shoot better come with guns that don’t fit them. That’s a major problem for any student and for the instructor as well. If they can’t mount the gun to the proper and same point each time they aren’t going to hit anything very often. Eye and proper gun alignment is essential to becoming a consistently good shot. Some shooters come with guns that fit pretty well and enable them to shoot fairly well. I can show them what the proper sight picture should look like and help them make adjustments to shoot well. But sometimes, the shooters come with guns that don’t even come close to fitting them properly. I had a couple from a nearby state come to me this spring with guns like that. At that time, I wish I had a Precision Fit stock for one of my guns so they could have used it and shot better than they did. Precision Fit has solved the problem for me with students that come with guns that don’t fit them properly. I had a Browning receiver that I wasn’t using since it was left over from making a carrier barrel for one of my Browning competition shotguns for shooting the sub gages in skeet. I just removed the wood stock from the receiver and mounted the Precision Fit to it and it only took a few minutes to complete the operation. Then I made all the necessary adjustments for the stock to fit me properly so I could test it. The stock has many features, which make it ideal for shooting a pre-mounted gun or low gun. It works fine for teaching a child or an adult, as the length of pull can be adjusted considerably. Another important feature is the weight of the stock can be changed to fit the shooter as well. There is a 6 oz. weight already mounted on the stock, which I leave there for my own personal shooting. But if a smaller or lighter weight person is using the gun or a child is using the gun, all the additional weight can be removed or a 4 oz. weight can replace the heaver one. What’s nice about having a stock that will fit several barrel systems is that I can have a person shooting a 28” or a 30” barrel. I can also have an adult or child shooting a 12 Ga. or any sub gage in the carrier barrel, which keeps the guns weight down for smaller people who might need to shoot a smaller gage because of the reduced recoil they produce. This makes it a perfect tool to have as a part of any shotgun shooting school. No instructor should be without a system like this. Another useful feature Precision Fit provides is that once you have custom fitted the gun to the student, and he is shooting well with it, you can then take the measurements off the stock and give it to him so he can then have all the necessary information for a gun fitter to fit his own gun to him. It’ll save the student and the gun fitter a lot of time and money. Just about every adjustment you can think of can be preformed on the Precision Fit stock. You can adjust the comb for height, lateral adjustment, rotation adjustment, angularity adjustment, cast adjustment, tilt adjustment and it can be moved forward or back. The comb can be set up as a Monte Carlo, straight, sporting or field stock. The length of pull can be set anywhere from 13” to 16”. The stock can be weighted to fit the shooter, be they child, teenager or adult. The butt plate can be adjusted side to side, cast on or cast off, along with up and down heel and toe adjustment. You can even adjust the amount of felt recoil. Combined with a KickEez recoil pad, you can shoot 500 rounds in a half-day and never feel a thing. If you’re a shooter that can’t take a lot of recoil or if you’re a shooter that gets chopped in the cheek from your gun, this stock will eliminate the problem for you. If you have a gun you love, but it doesn’t fit you properly or your having a hard time shooting it because of the recoil, than Precision Fit Stocks has the answer for you. I’ve had three different adults use the system recently because their O/U didn’t fit them properly. Every one of them loved what I was able to do for them because they noticed how much better they shot and more targets they broke using a gun that really fit them along with the proper instruction. They also loved it because they didn’t have to deal with recoil as well. One pre-teen has used the system as well shooting a 28 Ga., and his parents were amazed as to how well he was shooting for the first time. Precision Fit stocks solve a variety of problems for the shooter. It enables the person to become part of the gun while at the same time being more comfortable while shooting. If you have a fitting problem with your gun or a comfort problem because of recoil or cheek chop, Precision Fit will eliminate the problem for you. You should investigate their stocks to make your shooting more enjoyable and successful. If your going to be using the stock as an additional stock for an existing gun you’ll want a case for the stock, fore end and the extra parts and tools for making adjustments. SKB makes a great case as shown in the photos that is # 3616 that will also hold two sets of barrels as well. It has plenty of room to handle and hold everything you’ll need to use it in conjunction with another gun. Comp-N-Choke of Sylanvia, GA produces some of the best looking and most effective choke tubes in the industry. Over the years I’ve shot a lot of different factory and after-market tubes, but nothing has impressed me as much as the Comp-N-Choke tubes. Not only do they come in a variety of finishes/colors to compliment your gun, they are the most effective as well. In just about any type of competition be it skeet, trap, or sporting, I like to shoot 8.5 size shot rather than just plain 8’s. I believe in pattern density, and you get around an extra 60 (7/8 load) to 80 (1 1/8 load) pellets by dropping down a half size. In real competition I’ll shoot Fiocchi 1 1/8 oz loads of 8 ½’s. In practice, I’ll shoot reloads of 7/8 oz., 1 oz., of 8 ½’s depending on what I’m shooting. The reason I shoot lighter loads in practice is the less recoil and the smaller kill zone and shorter shot string you get by reducing the load by 1/8 oz. of shot. By dropping down 1/8 oz of shot you reduce the kill zone by about 2 to 3 inches in the diameter and shorten the shot string. So if you had a kill zone of 24” with a specific choke constriction at a specific yardage with 1 1/8 oz of shot, it would be reduced to 18” with only 7/8 oz. of shot. What might have been a chip with 1 1/8 oz. would be a clean miss with 7/8 oz. Its just good training. It requires that you really focus on the target. Then in competition, in the heat of battle, if you are just a little off, you’ll still get a chip rather than a miss. So what has all this to do with Comp-N-Choke? Well, I’ve never seen choke tubes give such consistent patterns right out to the edge of the kill zone as what theirs will do. No little holes where a mini could sneak through or an on edge crosser or going away standard target could slip through. Real uniform pattern density whether it was reloads or factory ammunition. On a real windy day I might be forced to shoot some 8’s or 7 ½’s, so I checked out some different shot sizes as well and they preformed as well as the smaller sized shot. Their chokes have a little longer area of constriction that most other chokes and I think that helps in giving the uniform patterns along with the fact that the slots in the choke are designed to slow down the wad to remove it from the shot string more rapidly so it isn’t driven into the shot string. This eliminates your flyers and makes a much denser pattern. The slot porting helps reduce the felt recoil and reduce the muzzle jump as well. All that and great looking chokes as well. If your gun has some gold accents or inlay, you’ll want to get their Gold Titanium Nitride coated chokes, as they’ll really dress up your gun. They also have them available in Stainless Steel, Black or Camo. Slip 2000, which is made by Superior Products in CA, has changed my shooting life forever. I typically shoot 3,000 to 5,000 rounds before I really clean any of my shotguns. I know some of you are aghast at such a statement, but it’s the truth. I like to shoot guns, not clean them. The only time I might clean one of them sooner is if the wind was really blowing and the opportunity of sand or grit getting into the action would concern me. Well, several months ago I received some samples of Slip 2000 to evaluate. About every two or three weeks the owner of the company would call me to find out what I thought of the product. I told him I don’t clean my guns that often and he was going to have to wait. Well, after about eight or ten calls all getting him the same answer he stopped calling. He probably thought I was never going to test the product or that I didn’t care or that I didn’t like the product. Wrong! I eventually called him to tell him of my findings and he was quite surprised at my call. I assume he never thought he’d hear from me. I had my own system of cleaning shotguns that took less time and yet got them very clean. It’s different than what most people will tell you what to do. But what surprised me about Slip 2000 is that it took less time the more I used the product. My new choke tubes, the Comp-N-Choke built up plastic and carbon fouling just like any other choke tube, so I decided to use Slip 2000 on them to see what kind of difference there was in using their product over my traditional methods. Well, I kept getting surprised. The first time I applied Slip 2000 and shot a few thousand rounds, the plastic build up came out a little easier, but I wasn’t really impressed at that time. I then reapplied the Slip 2000 and shot over another thousand rounds. This time the tubes hardly needed any soak time and all the plastic came out the first time I pushed the tornado brush through them. It was still hard to get the carbon fouling on the outside of the tube because I had never applied it there before, so I coated the exterior as well with Slip 2000. The next time I looked at the tubes was when I had already shot over 500 to 600 rounds, and I didn’t see any plastic build-up, just a little carbon fouling on the interior. I was amazed! I continued to shoot without doing any cleaning to the tubes until I had well over a thousand rounds through the tubes. The interior was still pretty clean; yes there was some minor fouling but no major plastic build-up like before. The exterior of the tubes cleaned up more easily as well, and with a second coating on the exterior they cleaned up even easier. It seems that you need about two applications of Slip 2000 before you really begin to see terrific improvements in the clean ability and ease of cleaning. Never, has anything made gun cleaning so easy and fast as Slip 2000. Yes, I’m impressed and a confirmed user of Slip 2000. I can actually clean my guns a little more frequently now and it still doesn’t take the time it used to. Now it’s only a matter of a few minutes to get everything clean rather than a half hour or more. You have got to try Slip 2000, just go to your gun shop and see if they have some of the small trial packets, which are free, and you’ll convince yourself in no time. If you don’t, you’re missing out on the best thing that’s happened to shooting in ten years. Your guns will clean up easier and faster and at the same time you will not get the accumulation or build-up that you would normally have using other products. Contact Information: Precision Fit Stocks Attn: Vern Brown 511 West Archer Dr. Pueblo, CO 81007 1-719-547-4432 Comp-N-Choke Attn: Charlie Boswell 925 Waynesboro Hwy. Sylvania, GA 30467 1-888-875-7906 1-912-829-4614 Superior Products Attn: Gregg Conner 4697 Fairway Dr. Rohnert Park, CA 94928 1-888-243-6725 SKB Corp. 1607 O'Donnell Way Orange, CA 92867 1-800-654-5992 word count 2287 Author Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Idaho Falls, ID 83401 208-523-1545
Cabels’s Sportsman’s Quest Cabela’s Sportsman’s Quest is a new sporting clays series, which is in its third year and growing. It’s called North American Sporting Clays. It attracts a variety of shooters for a variety of reasons. You find registered shooters there from SCA and NSCA along with shooters with no affiliation to any shooting organization, all competing in the same events in an equitable manner. They all compete in the same events by using a unique classification system that has merit and should be considered for use in registered events held by SCA and NSCA as well. No one is forced to shoot in a class that is well above their ability just because they have no track record. They actually produce a record of their ability prior to the day of the shoot. The mix at this particular event was pretty well evenly spread out between the three categories of shooters, one third being NSCA, one third being SCA and the balance being shooters not affiliated with any shooting organization. Events are held throughout the U.S. during spring, summer and fall. Currently, they have four events scheduled each year that are held at different locations in the U.S. These locations change from year to year, and they are considering adding additional events in the future. I’m sure that as the size of the turnouts increase, they’ll be looking at more events and locations. These are great events to shoot and compete in because they are well run events and offer a variety of shooting opportunities on two different courses and on 5 stand. I happened to attend the event that was held at the Ozark Shooters Sports Complex at Branson, MO this past May. The facility had great views of the surrounding countryside, being that it was located atop one of the highest points in the area. The terrain and vegetation allowed for some interesting presentations and made the courses fun and challenging at the same time. They had two courses set up on some great hilly terrain. The Main Event course was set upon a high ridge with a variety of vegetation and trees for obstruction, with long open views, and provided a challenging course for classification day. The Sportsman’s Course was set up in heavy timber on rolling terrain and was available for practice prior to the shooting of either event. The course was completely changed prior to shooting for score in the competition. They also had a 5 stand competition set up close to the club house. The Main Event course presentations were entirely changed for the second days shooting. Approximately 215 shooters of various levels of ability with different affiliations from around the country showed up to compete in one, two or all three events. The 5 stand competition required the shooting of 100 targets over the course of one or two days with no classification involved. The sportsman’s event required the shooting of 50 targets on either day with four classes and two divisions. The classes were divided up into; Semi-Auto, Double Barrel (O/U or S/S), Pump and Ladies. The two divisions were registered and non-registered targets. The Sportsman’s Event was designed to draw in the shooters who were not normally competing in registered competitive shoots affiliated with one of the shooting organizations, and might feel a little intimidated by competing in the Main Event. Many of the competitors in the main event also shot the Sportsman’s Event as well. The Main Event required you to shoot a qualification round of 100 targets for classification. Of the ten stations you shoot, five stations are picked at random by the computer for classification. The same five stations are used for all competitors. There are four classifications in the competition, Platinum 50 to 45 targets, Gold 44 to 40 targets, Silver 39 to 35 targets and Bronze 34 targets and under. Your score at the five stations of fifty targets picked by the computer determines which classification you shoot in. Lets say you shot a total score of 70 out of 100 targets, but the computer picked five stations in which you only hit 39 targets; that would put you in Silver Class. That score of 70 targets would be recorded for your first day total of 70. When you compete on the second day in the Silver class your score would be added to the first days total. Let’s say you shot a score of 80 of 100 targets on the second day. Your total score would be 150 for the two days. That would be your final aggregate score (150) for the competition. If no one shot more than the 150 in Silver Class you’d take first place in class. This system of classification seems to eliminate the sandbagging possible in other methods currently being used and the inequities as well. We all have our ups and downs in the course of a year of shooting, nothing ever remains constant. The variables we experience throughout the year on the long term and the weekly and daily changes we experience are always considered when using a system of this type. Because your classified on a day before you shoot for score, your ability that particular week may be different than what it was six months earlier, for any number of reasons. The system of classification is always current, because your classified by what you shot the day before, not how you shot six months ago or by the classification from your last shoot. Some people’s scores may be on an upward trend, while other people’s scores may be on a downward trend. There are subjective and objective considerations that come into play in this method as well. We all have our mental and physical ups and downs, be they short or long term. Some of the subjective considerations are; how we feel on a certain day or week, did we get a good nights sleep, did we drink to much alcohol the night before the shoot, did we eat the wrong food for dinner last night, are you allowing yourself time to relax before a shoot, how we see the targets on a certain day or week various from time to time as well. The objective considerations that can determine how we may shoot are; geographical location, weather, temperature, humidity, wind, terrain, shotshell recoil, altitude, and target presentations. All these things influence the way we shoot on any particular day, location or time period. All these things affect our scores in one way or another. Why not use a system that is always current and up to date and applicable to the event and location rather than a system that rates you by the way you shot a year ago or several months ago. This system doesn’t require you to shoot 300, 600 or 800 birds in the course of a year. It doesn’t require you to shoot in a class that is way above your ability just because you have no track record. It doesn’t require you to carry a card around showing what your classification is or the number of shoots you’ve done in a certain period of time. It just requires that you have two days of shooting fun rather than one. It eliminates a lot of record keeping and it’s easier to handle for range owners when conducting a shoot. And it really eliminates the sand bagging found at so many other of the clay target shooting sports. Cabela’s should be commended for running a fun series of shoots that allows anyone to compete in an equitable manner without requiring a complicated classification system. For information on dates and locations of the Cabela’s North American Sporting Clays Sportsman’s Quest Series contact them at: 800-224-4990 or NASC, One Cabela Drive, Sidney, NE 69160. And for you shooters with hunting dogs, they also have an event that involves them as well. word count 1316 Author Jerry Sinkovec 2915 Estrella Brillante NW Albuquerque, NM 87120 505-836-1206
Color Fatigue and the Shooting Lens Colors Color Fatigue Some colors have actually been proven to have a negative effect on the human psyche. Although yellow is the most visible of all colors and the first color the eye notices (yellow road signs with black text), bright yellow is the most fatiguing color of all. More light is reflected by bright colors, causing the eye to work harder, thus, actually becoming an eye irritant. Research has shown that babies cry more in yellow rooms and couples fight more in yellow kitchens. Bright red, while great for highlighting words and getting attention can also be irritating. Of the 250,000 cones in your eye that decode colors, 83,000 are needed to decode the color red. Looking at red too long or in any great volume causes your eyes to work to hard. Use red sparingly to command attention and avoid using red text too much in documents. Regardless of the bright colors you use, use them sparingly. Bright colors are known for causing eye fatigue that can translate into headaches, general fatigue and overall discomfort. Try using more pale variations of the same colors. If contrasted properly, they may help you achieve your desired effect. You don’t want to be wearing a gray, brown or green sunglass when target shooting. Shooting ColorsThe reason I’ve brought this to your attention is so you become more aware of what you should use and buy in shooting glasses. Many shooters have complained of their eyes feeling tense or tired after a day of shooting. It didn’t happen after shooting, it happened during shooting. And it also probably affected their scores. Two colors to stay away from in general shooting on bright days are yellow and red, sometimes called vermilion. And I must also state that no two yellow, orange, red, purple or tan shooting glasses are alike. Each manufacturer uses different dyes, and coatings to achieve their desired affect. So, even thought you can look through two different pair of purple shooting glasses, the end affect can be different. It is more likely to happen if you buy some colored glasses that are made by someone who doesn’t cater to the shooting industry. Most shooting industry lens manufacturers use special dyes and coatings to achieve their desired affect. But even in the shooting industry there is quite a bit of difference from one manufacturers purple or other shooting color shooting lens to another’s or one orange shooting lens to another manufacturers. The most important thing to do is to try looking through the colored lenses your interested in buying before you do purchase them. Make sure they really do what you’re looking for in a shooting glass. I’ve seen some orange colored lenses make the orange colored targets bright orange and another manufacturers orange lens make it white. Not all same color lenses are alike. Make sure you know what a particular lens color does for you before buying it. It’s highly recommended you buy your shooting lens from a shooting industry supplier. Your regular optician can make great regular lenses for driving and reading, but they don’t have the special dyes and coatings to achieve what you’re really looking for. Recently, I had a student who was wearing dark brown sunglasses and when I suggested he get different glasses that would help him see targets better, he wanted to look through mine. He was amazed at what my Opti-Glow shooting glasses did to targets and backgrounds. He wanted to have his local optician make some lenses for him. I suggested he use a shooting sports lens supplier, but he wanted to have his optician do it. I gave him an old scratched lens for his optician to match. Well, his optician matched the color al right, but it didn’t have the desired affect on targets and backgrounds. Color Applications And UsesNever wear yellow lenses on bright sunny days. It’s like standing on a snowfield on a sunny day; you’ll be putting to much sunlight into your eyes. You’ll end up feeling like you have sand in your eyes because you’ll be creating a condition very similar to snow blindness. The other color to avoid on bright sunny days is red. Some firms call it vermilion, but be very careful if you decide to use such a lens color. It can cause your eyes to tire very easily and cause eye tension. That creates lost targets. It really irks me to see so many shooting equipment ads showing someone shooting wearing yellow glasses in bright sunshine. The yellow lenses should only be worn on dim or dark days with a heavy overcast where the light is flat. They are also great when shooting indoors or driving at night. The ColorsThe following should only be used as a guide for determining that proper color for the shooting conditions you encounter the most. Be sure the colors do the job you want them to, especially if you’re ordering from a company that does not cater to the shooting industry. The best insurance is to view the target and background colors through the colored lenses before you buy them or have a prescription made. Purple Makes the background colors blue sky and green vegetation darker while making the orange target colors go neon, or very bright. The best bright sunlight color for target shooting since it enhances the contrast of the scene. It also gives you more definition and color separation in the browns and grays, which enables you to see game birds easier and quicker when hunting. Rose First developed by Uvex for ski glasses and also called Psycho, this color is similar to purple but gives you the maximum contrast, more so than any other shooting color. Orange Is best used on dark or cloudy days as it enhances contrast Opti-Glow, Desert Glow Different Manufacturers, different names; it tends to be a hot pink, or Fuchsia color. It performs very much like a purple lens yet it has the light gathering power of a yellow or gold lens. It’s an ideal lens to wear when shooting in heavy timber where you have bright sunlight and heavy shadow conditions intermingled. It also works well in bright sunlight and doesn’t have a negative affect like the yellow lens. Yellow & Gold Allows more light to enter the eye and is best used on dark and cloudy or flat light days. It’s also ideal when shooting rifle or pistol indoors. Tints You can get any of the colors in different density of color. The lighter the color, the more light that is allowed to enter the eye and the less contrast that the lens gives. Word Count: 1119 ã Author Jerry Sinkovec
Crow’s Nest Ranch Crow’s Nest Ranch, just an hour and a half west of Idaho Falls on Highway 93 north of Arco, offers some of the best bird hunting close to town. It’s a beautiful setting nestled at the base of the Lost River Range snow capped mountains. Accommodations are in some brand new rustic log cabins if you would like to stay overnight. I can attest to the excellent food served as well, which includes delicious buffalo burgers. If you haven’t shot in awhile, they have a skeet field where you can warm up for the bird shooting. A basic package of five pheasants or seven chukars includes a round of skeet. They have shooting instruction available. You can bring your own dogs or they have dogs and handler available. On the morning I arrived the air was cool and brisk, perfect for walking through the grass and grain fields looking for pheasant and sage covered hills looking for chukars. We started out for pheasant and in an hour and a half I had four birds. As we were standing and talking about the geology for several minutes, there was a commotion behind us and to our surprise the black lab had kicked up three cocks about 15 yards from us. I dropped the last departing bird, which filled me out. After a little refreshment, we headed out for some chukars in the foothills behind the main lodge. It wasn’t long before we were into a covey. The birds were faster an a little harder to hit, but they normally went down with a single shot. We found five different coveys with little effort. Of the seven chukars taken, all were wild birds. The planted birds are all banded so it’s easy to distinguish between the two. There are hundreds of other chukars waiting to be taken. After four hours of hunting, I had both bags filled. It was a pleasant half-day of hunting in wonderful surroundings. What impressed me most was the fact you never had the feeling of hunting just planted birds. And the chukars weren’t, they were wild birds that offered a lot of excitement. The pheasant as well, had been released weeks earlier and had been missed by other hunters. They offered a true hunting experience with magnificent scenery and impressive hospitality. In addition to the bird hunting, they offer trophy elk hunting and have excellent fly-fishing on the 1000 acre deeded property. For a memorable hunting experience close to home give Crow’s Nest Ranch a call for additional information, rates and availability. Only a limited number of fly-fishermen or hunters are allowed on the ranch on any given day. Call 208-588-2468. 447 Word Count Jerry Sinkovec, Author 208-523-1545
Falcon’s Ledge A Romantic and Idyllic Sanctuary The lodge is situated in a shallow, long narrow valley about twenty miles north of Duchene, UT, and about 2.5 hours from Salt Lake City Airport. It is located in the southern foothills of the Unita Mountains, the only east/west mountain range in America. Eight large ponds where fly fishermen can test their skill against the swift and able trout ring it. It’s an idyllic and tranquil setting far away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. The lodge has a contemporary southwestern look to it on the exterior that juts out from the surrounding terrain and a southwestern country look to the interior. It’s all very pleasing and very comfortable. The eight private bedrooms each have a different décor from southwestern to pure country, and each is a different size with different sleeping accommodations. The lodge has two lounge areas, one on the upper floor and another on the main floor and both have large TV’s to watch satellite or a video from the large collections. Falcon’s Ledge was the dream of an outdoorsman and it exists today for outdoorsmen that enjoy falconry, fly-fishing, bird hunting and clay shooting. It is an Orvis endorsed fly-fishing lodge. There are two types of fishing available at the lodge. You can fly-fish any of the eight ponds, each containing different species or mix of trout. Or you can fish any of the five freestone streams only a short drive away. Some of the streams offer some beautiful scenery along with great fishing. It’s really a fly-fishermen’s paradise. Only twelve fly rods are allowed at the ponds on any given day. Hunting with Falcon’s is also a common activity at the lodge. In past years national and international competitions have taken place there and will be held in the future. Most hunts are conducted with Mallard Ducks specifically raised for the events. In competition, they use specially raised pigeons that are more difficult for the Falcon’s to get. Falcon’s Ledge is one of only two places in America you can experience this. Wing shooting season starts October 1st on the 3,000 + acre preserve located about 40 minutes from the lodge. You’ll hunt wild, early release, and preserve pheasants and chuckars sneaking along the edges of grain in cattails, creek banks, Russian olives trees and tall grass. They have a single stack trap machine and six different shooting stations that allows you to shoot incomers, over head outgoing targets, left to right crossers and right to left crossers at different distances. They have obstructions to shooting like trees and shrubs that makes it more like hunting. I showed them how to use it like a quail walk and to throw targets when you didn’t know when they were to be thrown while you were walking in the area. Everyone seemed to enjoy that more than shooting at a specific station. They are thinking of putting in a sporting clays course, and if they do they’ll have a honey of a course with the interesting terrain and obstructions they have. They should do quite well with it. Comfort and relaxation is what Falcon’s Ledge is all about. There is a hot tube located outside the lodge building where you can soak and relax all your cares away. Close by is the pro shop where you can find anything in fly-fishing you should need; from insect repellent clothing to the latest hatch fly. A huge balcony surrounds the front of the lodge where you can relax with a good book and enjoy the fresh air and tranquility. Be it breakfast or dinner, you’ll always be surprised by the excellent food being served at the lodge. Breakfast could be traditional or southwestern. The dinners were always luxurious with fare like salmon to steak and desserts that would have you asking for more. Everything was done to perfection. You’ll never leave the table hungry; I guarantee it. The whole experience will keep you coming back. Certified and experienced fishing guides are always available to take you to the hottest spots in the area. Wing shooting guides are also available in season. For a unique experience in fly-fishing or just getting away from it all and relaxing, you have to spend so time at Falcons Ledge. For information, brochures or reservations contact Falcons Ledge at: 1-877-879-3737 or via mail at Falcon’s Ledge, 3593 S. 4840 W, West Valley, UT 84120 Word count 741 Jerry Sinkovec
A Soft TouchFEDERAL GOLD MEDAL INTERNATIONAL PAPER The Federal Gold Metal International Paper shotshell is a pleasant and effective shell to shoot for both the first time shooter and the competitive shooter. It’s also available in plastic, but the paper has advantages. At a sporting clay class conducted by the late Ed Scherer, we measured the recoil of many shotshells on his recoil gauge in 20 and 12 gauge, both reloads and factory. To our amazement, the Federal Paper International came out with the lowest recoil, even lower than the 20 gauge plastic shotshells, which most people tend to use to introduce new shooters into shotgunning. The secret is in the paper hull. The paper absorbs some of the recoil/shock as the gas expands, and the result is lower felt recoil on the shooter. The Federal load NR. N119 is for a 2 ¾” shell with a 3 ¼ Dram Equiv., and a shot charge of 24 grams (just a few pellets less than a 7/8’s load). It leaves the barrel at 1325 FPS, which is legal for all shotgun sports. It’s available in both 7 ½ shot, which is copper plated and 8 ½ size shot. Remember the physics phrase, “For every action there is a reaction”? Well, the less shot weight you have to push out the barrel, the less recoil there will be on your shoulder. At the Holland & Holland School at Vail, Colorado the only 12 gauge shells used were the Federal International Paper. That was my introduction to shooting paper hulls along with 8 ½ shot and 24 gram loads. 24 grams is just a few pellets lighter than a 7/8 oz. load. Their reason for choosing the shells was that fact that the students would be shooting over 250 rounds a day and they want to minimize shooting fatigue. I was impressed by the lack of recoil and the effectiveness of the shells. As an instructor myself, I recommend to students shooting a lighter load in training sessions. There are other reasons as well for shooting a lighter load. On the close in targets and the medium range targets the 24 gram loads with 8 ½ shot just smoked the targets when you were on them. It was impressive. I wouldn’t have thought that such a light shot weight could do so well. What was really impressive were the long distance crossing targets. At fifty and sixty yards, the targets looked like they were in slow motion. When we found the right lead the targets were hit hard, they were crunched. Here is the kicker, throughout the whole course; none of us changed our choke tubes. They told us to leave whatever choke tubes we would normally use in our guns in. Everyone was either shooting skeet or improved cylinder choke tubes throughout the whole course, regardless of the distance to the targets. I should point out we were shooting at an altitude of about 8,500 feet, so the pattern won’t open up much because of the thinner air. The skeet chokes were effective at sixty yards with 8 ½ shot and 24 gram loads. That was amazing. At one point, on the last day of the course at Vail, after I had already fired over 250 rounds, Keith Davies, one of the instructors from Holland & Holland in England, had me shoot over 100 rounds in less than a half hour at a series of targets. I was amazed at not feeling any the worse for all the rounds I had just fired. If you have a young person or a women who hasn’t fired a shotgun before, the Federal International Paper would be the ideal choice for them to begin shooting with, even better than a twenty gauge, which most people tend to use. For the competitive shooter, the same load is ideal. What is so good about it is that it helps you find the proper lead on targets. Why, you ask. With the shorter shot string and the narrower effective cone of destruction (with each 1/8 oz less of shot you use, you decrease the effective hit diameter by two to three inches) you learn very quickly what the proper lead is and the relationship of the clay bird to the barrel. As you go up in shot size, you also reduce the effective hit diameter by one to two inches. 7/8 oz of 8 ½ ‘s puts more pellets in the shot string than 1 oz of 8’s. This is why I feel 8 ½ shot size is the perfect size to use for all clay target shooting. Since the Holland & Holland school I reload all trap, skeet and sporting clay loads with 8 ½ shot. The only time I use 7 ½ shot is for long distance rabbit targets. When you can smoke targets in practice with 24 grams of 8½ size shot regularly, you’ll be much better able to kill those sporting clay targets in competition with 7/8 oz. or 1 oz. loads, or even 1 1/8 oz. loads if you really feel it’s necessary. It’s also been found that in a 1 1/8 oz load, on an average, only 20 % of the pellets actually come in contact with the target. That makes for a lot of wasted lead out there. In England, where many of the competitions require that you shoot only a 7/8 oz. load, they found that scores went up. The change was that shooters were dealing with less recoil, and were better able to deal with second shots and had less shooting fatigue that would reduce their ability to react to the targets. I see a lot of shooters using 1 1/8 oz. loads and chipping the targets more often than hitting them solid, or smoking them. Their shooting is probably suffering from the amount of recoil their dealing with in shooting 1/18 oz. loads and some bad technique. It’s been found that scores have gone up when competitive shooters started shooting 7/8 oz. loads over 1 1/8 oz. loads. If shooters started using 24 gram loads, they might be missing a lot of targets to start with, but it would help teach them proper leads and to focus on the target better. Then in competition, they could go back to a 1 oz. or 1 1/8 oz. load that would give them a little more of an edge, if they felt they needed it. Try a case or a couple boxes of the Federal International paper, I know you’ll like shooting them, you might even decide to make them your regular shell for practice or for competition. And if you’re introducing someone to shotgunning, it’s the only shell to use. For further information on Federal shotshells write: Federal Cartridge Company, Anoka, MN 55303 or call them at 612-323-2300. Jerry Sinkovec is a freelance photojournalist that writes for over forty-five different publications and is the director of the Instinctive Target Interception Shotgun Shooting School located in Idaho Falls, ID www.itishooting.com Please include bio at the end of the article. 1171 word count Reviewed by Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Idaho Falls, ID 83401
The Guns of Ferlach A 446-year Tradition
In 1556 Charles V abdicates and assigns the Holy Roman Empire and Austria to his brother, Ferdinand I. In 1558 Ferdinand assumes title to the Holy Roman Empire, and in that same year requested that gun makers from Holland and Belgium come to Austria to start a gun works. Two Schaschl brothers left Liege, Belgium and settled in Ferlach to start a gun factory, which was in operation until 1818. A few years later their descendants started a gun-manufacturing co-op, which is still in operation, and is owned by the fourteen master gunmakers. Over eight generations later, there are still Schaschl's who are engravers and custom gun makers in Ferlach. Some of the people work directly for an individual gun maker, while others work in the Co-op, which produces barrels and some of the other parts for the gun makers. Still others work out of their home and do engraving or other work for individual gun makers or private clients. Around the turn of the century, there were a few Schaschl’s who left Ferlach and came to the United States and operated gun making and repair businesses in the Midwest at which they were quite successful. One operated in Flint, Mich., and the other was Ferdinand Schaschl, a famous gunmaker and gunsmith in Chicago until the 1970’s. Since they have passed on, no descendants in America are carrying on the rich Ferlach tradition. It is a three-year apprenticeship for students at the co-op school for those that wish to carry on the gun making tradition. For those who wish to become engravers, the schooling is four years. Most of the students have a father or relative who is a gun maker or engraver, and they are very proud to be able to carry on the rich tradition of their forefathers. The size of the business of each of the master gunmakers varies greatly. Some are a father and son operation, most have around six to ten employees, with the largest having over 150 employees. Today, there are fourteen master gun makers in Ferlach, who along with their 200+ employees, produce about 500 guns a year. This is in contrast to the 16,000 military pieces produced annually in the 1750's for the government. Many of these weapons are now on display in the national armory in Graz, Austria, which has over 25,000 weapons on display along with suits of armor. The prices of a Ferlach gun start at $25,000 and go up to $500,000. Each piece of the gun is carefully and lovingly hand fitted to produce a superb firearm that is often embellished with delicate engraving and inlaid with gold or silver. The average gun produced by the Ferlach gun makers cost $50,000 - $75,000 and takes six to ten months to produce. There were two very expensive guns made in Ferlach some years ago, each costing over $1,000.000.00. They would never reveal who purchased them, but after several days of persistence they advised that one went to Argentina and the other when to Iran. Seventy percent of their production now goes to Germany, which has the gun makers concerned. If the Germany economy takes a turn for the worst, what will happen to their 446 year old tradition? Only Beretta has been making guns longer than Ferlach and is still in business. Many of their guns can be found in museums and private collections around the world, and Ferlach has an excellent museum detailing the rich history of gunmaking in their town. Royalty and presidents from many different countries are proud owners of Ferlach guns. Hunters and collectors, who desire the best, come from all over the world to the town of Ferlach to order their custom made guns. You can spend several days there and visit with each of the fourteen master gunmakers to determine who you would like to build you a drilling or vierling. They also will build you a standard bolt-action rifle or over and under or side-by-side shotgun with exactly the features you desire and any degree of engraving or inlay work. There isn’t an action or feature, which they can’t produce for you. Each of the master gunmakers does some things a little differently from the other and they might also offer some things, which the other gun makers do not. They tend to be a little secretive about some of their processes and methods of manufacture, even from each other. They are very proud of what they offer their clients and the tradition, which they are continuing. There is also a firm in the United States which will assist you in ordering a custom made gun without having to go to Ferlach. This small industry brings in $8,500,000 to $10,000,000 to the town of 7,000 annually. But the hard working Buchsenmachermeister are concerned about their future. To much of their product goes to one country. Some of the owners have no sons to take over their business, and their daughters are not interested running the business. Even the employees at some of the gunmakers, who have been offered to buy the firms, are not interested in taking over the business, because they already know how much harder and longer the owners must work to keep their business profitable. It’s difficult for them to compete in a highly automated world where guns can come off an automated production line at 1/10th the cost. Others see changes in society, which will lessen the demand for their type of product. Whatever the future holds, they are determined to produce only the finest for their clients. They hope the art and tradition of fine gun making will continue for another 450 years. There have been a few German master gun-makers who have moved their operations to Ferlach because they know just by being in Ferlach, they will increase their business because of the number of people that go their to have a custom gun made. Mountain Adventure Sports, 5045 Brennan Bend, Idaho Falls, ID 83401, 208-523-1545 is a firm in the states, which can have a custom Ferlach gun made to your specifications. The owner is a descendant of the Schaschl’s who started the gun works. If you decide to visit Ferlach to have a gun made, allow yourself a week if you haven’t already picked out a gun maker. A lovely Gasthof in Ferlach with outstanding food and relaxing rooms is: Gasthof Jurkele Outschar-Ebner, Josef-Ogris-Gasse 23, A9170 Ferlach, Karten, Austria Tel 04227/3377 The following are the master gunmakers of Ferlach: Ludwig Borovnik KG Bahnhofstrasse 7 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2442, 2249, Fax 4349 Fanzoj Gesellschaft m. b. H. Griesgasse 1 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2283, Fax 2867 Wilfried Glanzning Werkstrasse 9 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2639, Fax 4851 Hambrusch Jagdwaffen Gesellschaft m. b. H. Gartengasse 4 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2262, Fax 4106 Karl Hauptmann Bahnhofstrasse 5 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2263, Fax3435 Jagdwaffen G. Juch Inh. Mag. H. Grund Pfarrhofgasse 2 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2256, Fax 2256 Josef Just Hauptplaz 18 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2273, Fax 4284 Jakob Koschat 12 November Strasse 3 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2390, Fax 2278 Johann Michelitsch 12 November Strasse 2 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2391, Fax 2868 Johann Outschar’s Sohn Inh. Walter Schaschl-Outschar Josef-Ogris-Gasse 23 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2377, Fax 2998 Herbert Scheiring Klagenfurter Strasse 19 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2876, Fax 2876 Benedikt Winkler Postgasse 1 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2261, Fax 2969 Josef Winkler Neubaugasse 1 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 2285 Peter Hofer Jagdwaffen Franz-Lang-Strasse 13 A9107 Ferlach, Austria Tel (04227) 3683, Fax 3683 Josef Schaschl * Karawankenzeile 16 A9170 Ferlach, Austria * Engraving, Gold and Silver inlay embellishing only. Words 1315 Author Jerry Sinkovec Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Ammon, ID 83406 208-523-1545 1315 Words
Fort Bliss Rod & Gun Club Fort Bliss Rod and Gun Club is the model club all other gun clubs should try and emulate. If they did, memberships at clubs would be growing and there would be larger turnouts at shoots. All to often in various publications I’ve read about people being snubbed, not talked to, ignored, never invited to shoot with other groups, and the like. It’s a real problem at too many gun clubs, and a reason why some clubs just aren’t growing, and why the shotgun sports are suffering as well. I’ve experienced it myself at a few clubs I’ve visited in my travels. It just doesn’t happen here. They have one of their regular employees, Carlos, whose many duties include noticing if there is a new face at the shooting facility. If there is, he introduces himself to the stranger, gets to know him, and then introduces him to other members of the club. You don’t feel like a stranger for long at Fort Bliss. In a few minutes, I felt like I was an old member of the club and proceeded to shoot some skeet with friends I’d just made. What a wonderful policy! Why other clubs haven’t established such a policy is beyond me. Most clubs tend to be very cliquish, no matter what part of the country your in. What a pleasant surprise this was. It was the first time I had encountered something like this. But there is more to the club. Since the club is on a military base, they also have military people stationed there from other countries as well, who are members. They seem to add to the vitality of the club because of their different culture and their relationship to the shooting sports in their own countries that they bring to the Fort Bliss club. They also add uniqueness to the many different types of shoots they have at the club. One thing about this club that also stands out is that the members are there to have fun shooting. This was apparent from the many members that I met and from the types of shoots they like to have and participate in. I found it refreshing change. On my first visit to the club I shot skeet, continental trap and 5-stand. I found the continental trap challenging, since I shoot it with a low gun and since I normally don’t shoot much trap. It had one of the most difficult presentations in 5-stand operations set at a level three I had ever shot, and which I enjoyed. The 5-stand had a couple of hard shots, which took me a few misses before I figured them out. It’s fun to find presentations you haven’t dealt with before, that make you work. It was while I was there during my first visit that I heard about a shoot coming up in three weeks. I realized I’d be coming back from Arizona that week-end and would be able to attend the shoot, which I decided to do. The shoot was their annual German American Day Shoot, which entailed shooting 25 targets on 5-stand, skeet and continental trap for a total of 75 points. You also had to shoot 5 rounds of 22 rifle at 50 meters at three different targets for a total of 150 points. The three targets were imported from Germany and were of a Gemsbok, a Boar and a Red Fox. At 50 meters you could not see the faint lines of where the bull’s eye and other rings were on the targets, you had to estimate where they were. It was a challenging fun shoot all around. After the shooting was over everyone enjoyed some good German food brought in for the shoot and great German cakes and pastries baked by the wives of the German soldiers. After the awards were given out, we engaged in preserving some traditional German hunting drinking customs along with some fine tunes from the hunting horn. It was quite an experience and a lot of fun. They also have many other different events like their Top Gun, which requires shooting pistol, rifle and shotgun. Just about every month they have some great shooting events no matter what your discipline.
The club is located on a military facility, but is open to the general public six days a week, they are closed on Mondays. They have four skeet fields; four trap fields, one of which is a continental trap and one 5-stand operation in addition to various pistol and rifle ranges out to 1000meters. Some are dedicated to 22 cal. only and others to center fire only. They regularly have competitions in cowboy action, IPSC, and other pistol and rifle shooting sports. They also have frequent innovative shotgun and rifle/pistol competitions in addition to the registered skeet and trap shoots. They have an enormous and beautiful natural stone clubhouse that contains a pro shop, cocktail lounge, restaurant (they normally serve three meals a day), and party area. Range officers are always on duty to ensure safety procedures are always followed. Range fees are moderately priced. The area around I-10 and the Airway exit in El Paso has many nice hotels to stay at and a great variety of restaurants to choose from. It also gives you a quick and easy access to the shooting facility from the south via Airway and Airport Blvd. When you go in this way, go straight to the main gate and get the directions from the guards the shooting complex. If you’re ever in the El Paso area, be sure and have your shotgun with you so you can enjoy the fine facility and the camaraderie. You’ll never feel left out or unnoticed at their club. Fort Bliss Rod & Gun Club Railroad & Deer Roads PO Box 6118 Fort Bliss, TX 79916 915-568-2983 Words 974 Author Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Idaho Falls, ID 83401 208-523-1545
Great Shooting Getaways In my travels through the west I’ve come across some unique and interesting shooting facilities, and some which are great fun. I almost always travel with a shotgun packed away in my vehicle, so I can enjoy clay bird shooting wherever I may be traveling. No matter how good your shooting skills, they can always be improved upon. The only way to stay proficient in any shooting sport, is to practice. The most unique facility I’ve ever visited is the Greystone Castle Sporting Club located west of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. As you drive west on I-20, and approach the Thurber exit, you’ll see an imposing sight. Sitting atop a twelve hundred foot high hill overlooking the whole area is this medieval structure called Greystone Castle. It’s the centerpiece of a 4,000 acre shooting facility and hunting preserve. At the base of the hill they have a complete gun shop where you can purchase shells, clothing, guns or other accessories, and where you have to check in before proceeding up the hill. It’s highly recommended you make reservations for shooting or hunting at the facility. The castle creates a memorable setting for individuals or groups in search of a exciting sporting adventure. The castle provides sleeping and eating accommodations for up to thirty people, while it’s courtyard can easily seat larger groups. They have two sporting clay courses which I had the opportunity to shoot. The manual course is spread out over a large area, and your driven around in a jeep to the different shooting stations. It’s a very enjoyable course of moderate difficulty, with the presentations being very realistic of typical bird flights. The automated course is set up very close to the castle, and some of the presentations even come off the castle walls and towers. This course is more difficult and the birds are faster. This course is much more difficult and challenging, and your score will reflect that. The crossing birds are seen only briefly as they come out from behind some trees and disappear behind another set of trees. The overheads drop quickly into trees that are constantly being pruned by the shooters. They also have a unique 5-stand setup which they designed. It consists of a normal type 5-stand operation, but you end up standing at different elevations at the five different shooting stations, which changes your angles on the birds. It makes it a little more interesting. They also have a combined skeet and trap facility to round out the shotgun shooting possibilities. Aside from the great shotgun shooting available, they also offer a variety of hunting. There are Upland Game Hunts October through April (Pheasant, Chukar and two species of Quail), European Style Driven Pheasant Shoots, Flighted Mallards in addition to big game hunting and fishing. They also run special hunts from time to time such as horseback wild boar hunting along with duck and geese hunting. Greystone Castle would be a great place for a corporate retreat, conference or sales meeting. You should call or write for information on the various activities and rates. Also in the Dallas area, Sporting Clays International of Dallas is situated just 15 to 20 minutes north of the metro area. They advertise their facility as shooting Pheasant like the British, Red-legged Partridge like the Spaniards, Grouse like the Vermonters and many, many more. They do have some great presentation which are very realistic. They also have some very unusual presentations which will tax your shooting ability. One combination I wish I could forget was a battue and regular bird thrown nesting together on the vertical rather than on the horizontal. They split apart each going their own way, with the battue dropping very rapidly. A very difficult pair. Most of the presentations they threw were interesting and very challenging. A nice place to spend an afternoon shooting. They have two sporting clay fields along with a trap field and a five stand field. It has a comfortable club house and small shop for shooting supplies. The Silver Lake Gun Club is centrally located and only four miles SW of the DFW Airport. They have one 15 station sporting clay field, one trap field, two skeet fields (lighted), a five stand field and a wobble trap. They have a nice club house and offer formal instruction. You really get the feeling of being out in the boonies at times, with a lot of the presentations being over or near water. They threw some interesting presentations that required quick reactions along with some typical duck and geese overheads and landing incomers and crossers. A great place in San Antonio is the San Antonio Gun Club. They don’t have a sporting clay field, but they have one of the best five stand operations I’ve ever seen. They also have five trap fields and eight skeet fields. And it’s very convenient and close to the metro area. The five stand threw everything from mini’s to battues which is the first time I’d run into that. I thought it was quite impressive and challenging. It’s a very friendly club with a lot of the shooters shooting all three disciplines. They have a great native stone club house with all the facilities, supplies and conveniences you could think of. A very nice and impressive shooting facility, one you shouldn’t miss on your next trip. Shooting Getaways Information Greystone Castle Sporting Club P.O. B. 158 Mingus, TX 76463 800-399-3006 817-672-5927 817-672-5971 Fax. Hours 9-4, Closed Monday Reservations strongly recommended Sporting Clays International of Dallas Rt. 1, Box 118 Allen, TX 75002 214-727-1998 Hours W-F 11-dark; Sat/Sun 9-dark Reservations not required Silver Lake Gun Club 3300 Euliss South Main Euliss, TX 76040 817-355-1311 Hours W/F 12-dark; Sat 9-dark, Sun 9-6, other days by appointment. Reservations are recommended San Antonio Gun Club 928 E. Contour San Antonio, TX 817-355-1311 For additional information on lodging, restaurants and other shooting facilities contact the following: Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau 1250 East Copeland Rd., Suite 650 Arlington, TX 76011 800-433-5374 Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau 3333 N. MacArthur, Suite 200 Irving, TX 75062 800-247-8464 Sherman Convention & Visitors Bureau POB 1029 1815 S. Sam Rayburn Fwy. Sherman, TX 75091 903-893-1184 San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau 121 Alamo Plaza San Antonio, TX 78205 800-447-3372 For Flight Information: Southwest Airlines Reservations POB 36611 Dallas, TX 75235 800-435-9792 or 800 I FLY SWA 1070 words
Author: Jerry Sinkovec 208-523-1545
Keeping Your Cool in Competition Staying comfortable in competition is one of the hardest things to do even for the top competitors. Dressing properly to stay comfortable in the hottest temperature situations is something that can be accomplished by carefully selecting every article of clothing you put on including weather you use a shooting vest or not. Fabric choice is the most important thing along with fabric weight in selection, then design and features in the items you select. Being in hot and humid situations during a shooting competition is something I’m sure we have all experienced, and I’m sure you’ve felt your energy and enthusiasm drain out of you as the temperature got hotter and the humidity got higher. I had it happen in the 1998 Texas Sporting Clays Championship being held near South Padre Island. On the day before the shoot in May, a practice day, it was a pleasant 85 degrees. On the day of the shoot the temperature soared to 105 degrees with very high humidity. People were dropping like flies. The owners of the Rio Grande Shooting Center were running around with ATV’s delivering iced water bottles, soda and chilled bananas to the shooters. They did an outstanding job helping the shooters dealing with the heat that caught everyone by surprise. Until last year I always shot with a shooting vest on because of the pockets for shells, hulls and other accessories. The big problem in wearing a shooting vest in real hot weather is it just makes you warmer than you need to be. The tighter fitting the vest, the warmer you’ll feel. By eliminating the vest in real hot weather, you’ll feel much more comfortable and shoot well and won’t feel drained during the day. The product that changed what I wear on hot shooting days is the Cabela’s half vest. It’s a half vest made of a tan polyester mesh and cotton fabric with leather trim around the double fabric pockets on both side along with an empty hull pouch on the back with a zipper on the bottom for quick emptying. It comes supplied with a leather belt that keeps the pockets open and separated. It also has a loop on the backside for hanging up the vest when not in use. It also has two D rings attached on either side for towels or stuck wad removers or whatever else you feel necessary to carry. The RN# is 5683520304. It is excellently made and designed and functions perfectly for those very hot days. The medium I was supplied fit well but the belt supplied with the unit is a little short because it’s being worn over other clothing. If they added a few inches to the belts in each size because they are being worn over other clothing it would be perfect. Pavilion Shooting Clothing also makes a half vest as well. It’s constructed out of a cotton fabric that is available in several colors rather than a mesh, but the empty hull rear pocket is mesh with a zipper on the bottom for quick disposal of the empty hulls. It comes supplied with a nylon belt with a Fastex closure and each of the three pockets are independent of each other. The only problem with that design; the fabric and belt combination is that the individual double pockets on either side and hull pocket seem to slide or gather together with weight in one of the pockets and it makes it a little hard to get your hands into the pockets at times. Otherwise it’s a great value for the money. In talking to the manufacturer, they indicated they are looking at supplying their system with a leather belt as well and/or making their pocket assembly a one-piece design so they won’t move around on you. I hope other vest manufacturers get on to the bandwagon and start producing half vests which make shooting in hot and/or humid weather much more comfortable. I’m sure one will come out with some great innovations as well. Shooting with a half vest and a good shooting shirt really lets you feel ten degrees cooler than with a full vest on. The following evaluations were conducted in New Mexico in dry hot heat conditions and in hot and humid conditions along the Rio Grande River in heavy timber. There were several days of 102-degree temperatures along the river that allowed for ideal testing conditions. On one day there was no wind and on another there was a slight breeze. There were three experienced shooters involved in the testing to determine if all the conclusions were going to be the same or if there would be any difference of opinion about certain products. For your information, all the testers basically came to the same conclusion about the products. There were some very minor differences noted in the different models in the traditional cotton shooting shirts, but other than that it was pretty unanimous about who had the cooler and more comfortable shooting shirts. There were a variety of fabrics that were tested and a variety of cottons that were tested as well and they all gave different results. There are basically three different types of cotton fabrics available in shooting shirts from manufacturers. The Lewis Creek cotton shirt is made from a very tight and dense weave cotton fabric that doesn’t breath as well in the hotter temperatures, but will probably out wear most other shirts. The majority of the shirts tested fell into the second category that is the traditional cotton fabric found on a variety of cotton shirts, in slightly different weights (4oz. to 5oz.cotton fabrics), not just used on shooting shirts. The third cotton fabric tested was a very loose weave made from very soft and supple cotton strands that was used in the construction of the Browning-shooting shirt. But cotton did not win the most comfortable seal of approval; a synthetic took the top honors. The most comfortable shooting shirt in the marketplace today came from Beretta. It was due to an excellent choice in fabric and in design. The fabric is a loose weave of 85% Polyester and 15% Rayon and it has a RN# 10833. It feels cool to the skin and allows the fabric to pass air easily. It has a mesh back and the mesh is incorporated into the two vertical slits on either side of the back panel with a pleat in the mesh (keeping the back panel open) allowing the air to pass through easily either from body movement or a slight breeze. It will actually catch the breeze and pass it along your back. This design of a vertical slit below each shoulder made a major difference in the comfortableness of the shirt. It also allowed for unrestricted arm movement. The traditional cape back with one horizontal opening just does not allow the warm body air to escape from the shirt that fast or easily. The fabric was a blue check pattern with button down collars, a button flap pocket (with the Beretta logo) on the left side and long sporting clays lightly padded shooting patch on the right side. The other attributes of the shirt are that you can hand wash it and hang it out to dry and it will dry very quickly. You can be wearing it while the cotton shirts are still dripping water. If you wash it in a machine and partially dry it in a dryer or fully dry it and take it out right away, you won’t even have to iron it. It required the least maintenance of all the shirts evaluated. A true winner for the traveling shooter or the person that doesn’t like to iron shirts. It showed excellent workmanship throughout and is designed to wear in or out of the trousers or shorts. I would like to see it in some plain neutral tan or traditional green colors. My hat is off to Beretta for producing such an outstanding comfortable hot weather shooting shirt. Browning came in second with a shirt made from 100% cotton and a polyester mesh back called the Super Naturals. It came in a pleasing tan color that almost looked like a corduroy fabric but was a very soft and open weave that allowed the shirt to breath easily. It also had a button down collar, a button down flap pocket (with the Browning logo) with a slit opening for a pen on the left side and an extra long lightly padded shooting patch on the right side. There was extra gusseting under the armpits for freedom of movement. This shirt also had the vertical slits below each shoulder on the back that proved important, but the mesh was not attached to the back panel with a pleat, which help keeps the vents open as on the Beretta shirt. It had a soft comfortable feel next to your skin and showed quality workmanship. It ironed easily but did not dry as fast as the Beretta shirt. Columbia Sportswear Co. makes a large selection of clothing for the fishing and shooting sports and has a shirt that did pretty well. It’s RN# is 68724 and is made from a traditional medium weave cotton fabric. It comes in several natural colors and has an open pocket on the left side and a small shooting patch on the right side that should be longer for low gun shooters. On the backside it had a polyester mesh panel, the two vertical slits under the shoulders along with the horizontal cape being open on the bottom as well, but it was tacked in the center to hold it in place. It provided better ventilation than most shirts but still tended to be a little warmer because of the fabric. It also required normal washing and ironing. What is disappointing about Columbia is that several years ago they used to make an excellent shooting shirt from Supplex nylon that really kept you cool. They discontinued because they said no one wanted to buy them. I find that hard to understand. 10X also made an excellent nylon shirt that was much cooler than even a cotton T-shirt, but it’s no longer available as well. 10X no longer makes any shooting shirts according to their marketing dept. Lewis Creek makes an excellent cotton-shooting shirt that most people including myself think is the best looking shooting shirt in the market. The shirt has classic and distinctive styling. Even though it has a cotton mesh back panel, and it has the vertical slit below the shoulders on either side and it has a cape style opening on the back it still tends to be rather warm because the vertical slits tend not to stay open as with most of the other shirts as well and allow air to pass across your back. I think the cotton mesh might also have something to do with it. That, combined with a very hard tight weave fabric that doesn’t breath well tends to make to shirt too warm to wear in the hottest weather. It has button down collars, a button down flap bellows pocket on the left side and a long lightly padded shooting patch on the right side. There are two special shot shell holder pockets above the main breast pocket that are trimmed in a faux leather material. It’s available in a few natural colors. This fabric took the most ironing to get it looking good. The shirt shows quality workmanship throughout and an eye for detail. A really great looking shirt with pants to match that convert to shorts. They manufacture a very comprehensive line of shooting clothing. Look for a new hot-weather shirt from them this summer. Pavilion also has a medium weave 90% cotton 10% polyester 5 oz. cotton fabric shooting shirt with a button down collar available in tan and blue. The polyester in the fabric makes the ironing a little easier and it doesn’t wrinkle is easily. It has a cargo patch pocket with their logo and a button flap on the left and the longer low gun shooting patch on the right. The patch also has a little more padding than the rest of the shirts. It is vented on the back below the shoulders and at the bottom of the cape and its bar tacked in the center. It had quality workmanship throughout. Bob Allen has an all cotton 4 oz. medium weave shirt with button down collars and a bellows pocket with a button down flap with their logo on it of the left. It has the small shooting patch on the right that is lightly padded. It is vented on the back below the shoulders and at the bottom of the cape and its bar tacked twice off the center. It had quality workmanship throughout. Any shirt can be converted to a shooting shirt if you supply a shirt to Linda Shick Shooting Shirts. She can take your favorite shirt and make a shooting shirt out of it by applying shooting patches, etc at a reasonable cost. It cannot have a pocket on the gun mounting side. She has a source for shirts constructed from either a 5oz. fabric of 50% Rayon and 50% Polyester in a mini hound’s-tooth design, style 858 or a 5.4oz. fabric of 70% Polynosic and 30% Polyester, style 850. Both styles have pleated backs with loops. She attaches a quilted padded shooting patch to the inside of the shirts that adds comfort while shooting. The shirts do not have any back openings with mesh but are a lot cooler than the traditional cotton shirt of the same style. They are available in a variety of colors. Cabela’s shooting shirt is also made from a traditional medium weave cotton fabric. It has a patch pocket on the left side without a flap but with a button to help keep things in the pocket. It has a small shooting patch that should be longer. It had no openings on the backside or mesh panels to help with cooling. It showed quality workmanship throughout. You’ll have to check with the different manufacturers to see if they make left handed versions of the shirts. Their contact information is listed below. Beretta 1-800-528-7453 Browning 1-800-234-2069 Bob Allen 1-800-685-7020 Columbia 1-800-547-8066 Cabela’s 1-800-237-4444 Lewis Creek 1-800-336-4884 Linda Schick 1-877-254-3806 Pavilion 1-877-643-9910
2407 words article not complete Jerry Sinkovec 2915 Estrella Brillante NW Albuquerque, NM 87120 505-836-1206
Nobel Sport Sub-gauge’s For Hunting and Target Shooting Over the past three years there have been a number of different lines of shotshells being brought into the country because of the exchange rate on the dollar. Most of the different brands are rather limited in the selection of shot shells available in terms of their speed, amount of shot, shot sizes, variety of gauges offered and other qualities such as low recoil shells. Most of the lines being brought in are shells that were developed in Europe for European shooters. All that has changed since NobelSport has been brought into the country by Zanders Sporting Goods of Baldwin, IL. They offer the most complete line of shotshells being brought into the country that rivals the selections of the three major shell manufacturers in the U.S. Most European shotshell manufacturers want to sell what they produce for the European market to the U.S. market, but that isn’t the case with NobelSport. All the different shotshells offered here in the United States by NobelSport were specifically formulated for this market. Special care was taken in selecting clean burning powders and having soft shooting shotshells that both men and women could shoot all day and not feel any adverse affects. In some cases, special wads were developed to produce low recoil shotshells. They even developed the first photodegradable wad for their sporting clays line of shotshells, which will disappear a lot faster than the biodegradable wads currently being used by other manufacturers. Special care was taken with each component selected for the American market line of shotshells. Even the primers used in the shotshells are identical in every way to the Winchester 209 primers. Dimensionally, they are the identical. The burn rate and pressures developed are identical. And in the real world of shooting they burned all the powder as clean as the Winchester 209 and the speed variations were in the 4 to 6 FPS as were the Winchester 209 reloads. The only real difference is that they are substantially less expensive. All the shells brought into the U.S. by Zanders are produced by NobelSport-Martignoni located in San Giuliano, Italy. They have been making shotshells since 1830 and are now known as NobelSport Italy or NSI. They have three different plants in Italy; one for producing primers, a shotshell hull production plant, and finally the shotshell loading plant. All these plants were remodeled a few years before they entered into discussions with Zanders for production of shotshells for the American market. All three of the plants are as modern, efficient, and safe as any of the top facilities in the U.S., which translates into high quality production for the demanding American market. Having shot and tested all their competition loads and some of their hunting loads I can tell you I came away impressed with the consistent quality in patterns, and velocity along with the clean burning properties of their powders. All their shells were comfortable to shoot and I especially liked shooting their paper skeet and trap loads along with their low recoil loads. Their shotshells rival anything produced here in the U.S. What also impressed me was the extensive line they were bringing into the country. In 12 gauge they have 30 different loadings and in the sub gauge they have 34 different loadings for target shooting and hunting. In sixteen gauge they have four different loads at 1 1/16 oz. in Nr. 4, 6, 7 ½, and 8. In twenty gauge, they have three hunting7/8 oz. loads in Nr. 6, 7 ½, and 8, and two target loads with Nr. 8 ½ and 9 shot. And in 1 oz. hunting they have 6, 7 ½ and 8 in high brass and low brass. In twenty-eight gauge hunting, they have three ¾ oz. loads with Nr. 6, 7 ½ and 8 shot and six 1 oz. loads with Nr. 4, 5, 6, 7 ½, 8, and 9 shot. In target shooting the have two loadings with ¾ oz., 8 ½ and 9 shot. In 410 bore for hunting, they have two loadings with ½ oz. of Nr. 4 and 7 ½ shot and five loadings with 11/16 oz. of 4, 5, 6, 7 ½, and 9 shot, and two target loadings of ½ oz. of 8 ½ and 9 shot. All the 28 and 410 loadings are Max. loadings. Having been out hunting pheasant, chukars and sage hen with my favorite 28 gauge I can attest to the knock down power of their shotshells. With 1 oz. of 7 ½ or 8 shot, every pheasant went down with a single shot, while some of the chukars needed a second shot. The much larger sage hens went down with a single shot of 1 oz. of 5’s in most cases. If the shot string is placed in the right place, these shells will do the job wonderfully. I’ve been shooting skeet, trap and sporting with all the sub-gauges and they have preformed well. I particularly like shooting their sub-gauge loadings in 8 ½ size shot because you can use them for trap, skeet and sporting clay shooting. They’ll get out there and break 50 and 60 yard targets just like the big boys, and they’ll smoke any target at closer ranges. One other shell they are bringing into the country is an English 2 ½ inch 12 gauge low recoil shell. They offer it in a 1410 FPS of 1 1/16 oz. of 6, 7 ½ and 8 and a 1365 FPS of 1 oz. of 6, 7 ½ and 8 shot. They also offer a very complete line of 12 gauge selections for hunting and target shooting. To find out who your local dealer or distributor is and where they are located give Zander’s a call at 1-800-851-4373 or contact them at: Zanders Sporting Goods 7525 Highway 154 Baldwin, IL 62217 Word Count 981 Author Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Idaho Falls, ID 83401
One-eyed Jacks One-eyed shooters are supposed to be at a disadvantage when shooting, and that is true if you don’t know the tricks to overcome the problems inherent in shooting with just one eye. In reality, a one -eyed shooter can be just as good a shotgunner as someone shooting with two eyes open. But as with anything, you have to start from the ground up to make it all work. If one element is missing or not executed properly, it all begins to fall apart. The same is true of two-eyed shooters as well. I see two-eyed shooters missing targets every day, which they shouldn’t. It usually boils down to just one or two small things as to the cause for missing the target. Any one of the following could be the cause, or a combination of them; lack of concentration or mental focus, not focusing the eyes properly, not focusing on the target, standing improperly, not holding the gun properly, looking back at the rib or bead, not mounting the gun properly and not relaxing. The eyes are what tell the brain what to do. The brain then transmits electronic commands that make our muscle’s react to the input. It is the visual input that is all critical. If you wear prescription glasses when shooting, be sure not to wear bifocals or varifocals. You’re not interested in seeing your sights; you must focus only on the target. Only wear your distance prescription when shooting or hunting. If you wear eyeglasses with a dot or tape on the left lens, take it off. Your better off without it. One of the secrets to being a good one-eyed shooter is starting with two eyes open and then closing the left eye once the target is acquired, you’ll have much better luck. The reason for starting with two eyes open is that you acquire the target much faster, your field of vision is much greater and you have depth perception when you need it most. For the purpose of illustration, I’m going to be relating things to the stations, and positions on a skeet field. Most shooters would agree high station two and low station five are the two hardest stations on a skeet field. When I started shooting skeet in earnest in 1985, I was shooting high gun, i.e., the gun mounted at the shoulder. I now shoot all shotgun sports, including trap, with a low gun i.e., the top of the butt of the gun below the armpit. I’ll explain why later. The problem was, that if I held the gun barrel parallel to the side of the high house like your supposed to, I couldn’t see the high house. If I held the barrel closer to the high house, I could see the house and window, but when I called for the bird, the bird would end up being way out in front of my gun barrel before I started my swing, and I would catch and pass the target late, past the center stake and end up shooting it late. A bad situation to be in, especially when you’re shooting doubles. Also, when your shooting one-eyed high gun and you wear glasses, your nose bridge on the glasses will block your view to the left if you’re right handed and shoot with the right eye open. I found I had a slight advantage when I switched to a single wrap-around lens glass, it gave me better vision to the left, but it wasn’t the solution. Always wear protective glasses when shooting. After struggling with it for a few months, and trying different things, I finally realized what was necessary to overcome the problem of picking up the target immediately as it left the window of the house, and smoking it before it reached the center stake. It was a two-part solution, but there were many other related things, which contributed to success. Another important point is that the gun must fit. Many new shooters are unaware if their gun fits them properly, and if you shoot low gun, it’s imperative the gun fit properly. You’ll never succeed in being a good shooter if you don’t have a properly fitted gun. Before you buy a shotgun, make sure the gun shop checks you for gun fit and that they know what they are doing. The two most important things for a one eyed shooter are, shoot low gun in any type of competition, and start with both eyes open. Back to high station two. With your gun below your armpit, your face isn’t married to the stock. You have freedom of movement with your face and can look in any direction. The gun should still be parallel to the side of the house, with the top of the barrel pointed just below the flight path of the bird. The fore end of the gun should be cradled in the left hand with the index finger pointing forward on the left side of the fore end, or under if that is more comfortable. Your now free to turn your head in the direction of the house. You don’t look at the window; you look at infinity just in front of the window. You create a soft focus with your eyes on clouds, blue sky, trees or whatever is in front but past the house window. If you focus on infinity, your eyes only make one movement to come inward and pick up and focus on the moving target. If you focus on something closer than the house window, like the rib or sight on your gun, your eyes will have to make two movements to catch and focus on the target, which is a micro second delay. You don’t want that. You can even miss seeing the target leaving the house if you’re looking at the rib or bead. Eyes or eye should always focus on the target, nothing else. Speed and proper eye focus is essential. When you call for the bird, both eyes are open to enable you to acquire the bird instantaneously. When you first see the bird in your peripheral vision, your starting your swing and closing your left eye simultaneously (this takes some practice). Your swinging the gun at the same speed the bird is traveling or slightly faster, and your right eye is focused on the bird. When the gun comes to your face, the gun should be in front of the bird with the proper lead prior to getting to the center stake. A soon as that happens, you should be pulling the trigger. The target should be smoked at or before the stake. Most skeet shooters and even trap and sporting clay shooters tend to ride the target. They fall in love with it and tend to miss it. You have to be instinctive in your shooting and react to the target quickly and instinctively. You have to trust your eyes, or eye, and pull the trigger when it first looks good. You have to learn to trust yourself, don’t think about or measure the target, just do it. You have to develop and trust your natural instinct. It’ll work for you every time. With practice, you should be able to smoke the target twelve to fifteen feet before the center stake. It can be done, you just have to believe it can be done, and consistently while smoking the target, not just chipping it, and you will do it. ^*****Part one word count 1249*****^ Low gun shooting allows more freedom of movement, which means smoother gun swing and a more relaxed stance and mental attitude. If you feel any tension prior to you calling for a bird, just exhale. You’ll feel your body relax as you do it. Be sure you have the proper mental and visual focus. Don’t go up to a station and hold the gun at the ready position for 30 seconds or up to a minute while getting ready and then call pull because your arms will get tired and create tension that will cause you to be slow or jerky on the swing. Have the gun under your shoulder or at arms length and relaxed. Do your mental preparation, load the gun, bring it to the ready position, exhale if necessary, and then call pull when ready. Don’t stand there all day with the gun in the ready position before you call pull, it’s a big mistake many shooters make. I see a lot of shooters all in different stances, and most of them are creating some tension in some part of their body, because of their stance. Some of them look like they are preparing for a tank to run into them, or if they’re trying to hold up a wall. It isn’t necessary to take such an unnatural stance to be successful in shotgunning. All that funny stance stuff developed from trap shooting where it really isn’t necessary either. The important thing is to be natural and relaxed. The more you are, the higher you’ll scores will be and you’ll bring home more birds from the hunt and smoke more targets on the course. Do what is comfortable and natural for you. If your taking instruction, listen to and do what the instructor tells you, but after the course, feel free to make slight modifications that make you feel more relaxed and natural, and see what happens. But don’t return to your old self-defeating bad habits. Earlier, I said you have to start from the ground up, and I mean that. Lets take station two high again. Your feet should be planted under you, no farther apart than your shoulders and either foot should point to one side of the center stake, or where you intend to break the target. Your stance should be natural and comfortable. Your upper body should also face the center stake and be erect. Do not bend over, or hump your shoulders. You rotate your upper body at the waist to a point where the gun barrel is parallel to the house. You are now like a coiled spring with stored energy, waiting to uncoil. You rotate your head to a point where your eyes are looking right in front of the high house. Your eyes are soft focused on infinity a foot to the right of the front of the window. You exhale, relax and call pull. Your eyes pick up the target, as you do, the gun is coming up to your face; your rotating to the right at the waist, and your left eye is closing or now closed. Your right eye is focused on the target, not the sight or rib, and its relationship to the left edge of the horizontal centerline of the upper barrel. The gun is next to your face, you see the right amount of space between the target and the barrel, and you pull the trigger. The target is smoked before the center stake. It’s all very natural and instinctive, and that’s what shooting has to be, in order to be successful, consistent and fun. If you were shooting station two low house, you would not change your foot position. Your upper body would rotate slightly to the right and the barrel of the gun would be just in front of the low house. You should break the target before or at the center stake. Do not ride the target past the center stake, be instinctive, and shoot the target as soon as you get the right lead. You’ll learn the right lead by taking instruction or by trial and error. I’m not going to tell you, you need three or four foot of lead, because that doesn’t mean anything to a shooter. Everyone’s reaction time, swing speed and moment of inertia are different, so obviously the picture (barrel and target relationship) is going to look different to another shooter. Whether your shooting skeet, trap or sporting clays, your routine should always be the same. Start from your feet and work up to your eyes and brain and make sure everything is in the proper place and order and that you have the right mental and visual focus. Perform a mental checklist at every station for every target presentation regardless what shotgun sport your shooting. Feet - always pointed to either side of where you’ll break the target along with the centerline of your upper body pointed at the point where you will break the target. Upper body – erect, and rotate at the waist to the hold point in front of where the eyes will first pick up the target. Gun muzzle held just below anticipated flight path of bird. Be sure your holding the gun properly. Head - rotated further to the eye focus point where you’ll first see the bird. Eyes - soft focused on infinity in front the area where birds will first appear, with both eyes open. Relax - softly exhale just prior to calling for the bird. Brain - be sure it is clear, and focused on only one thing, the target. Call –Exhale, relax and call pull. Eyes - picks up bird in peripheral vision and focus on it, the eyes will do it naturally. Left eye is closing, gun is swinging and coming up to cheek, gun touches cheek and the correct lead is established, trigger is pulled and gun swing is followed through, and another bird disappears. It could be aliens, but you know the real cause for the disappearance. It all becomes very natural with a little practice. If you feel you have a vision problem, and would like to know what can be done to correct the problem, you should see a doctor of Optometry. Linda Joy, the top female shooter in the United States, attends eye-training sessions held by Doctor Richard Glonek in Scottsdale, AZ. She attributes her success in shotgunning to what she has learned and practiced at Dr. Glonek’s facility. I also attended a one week course, and came away impressed and with improved eyesight and reaction time. I was given a training regimen to continue at home. A worthwhile investment. For information on their programs or for an appointment, contact Inez Connor at the facility. It’s located at 10505 North 69th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85253, Tel 602-483-0711 Skeet is a good way to learn leads, holding points, gun swing, etc. Anything that is learned on a skeet field can be applied to a sporting clay field. With novice shooters, I let them learn the basics on a skeet field, and once they are smoking targets pretty consistently, I’ll take them to a sporting clay field so they can learn more difficult presentations. It has worked very well. Some of my one eyed shooting students have been shooting less than a year, and have taken only six lessons and are shooting sporting clays in the mid-seventies. Jerry Sinkovec is the director of the Instinctive Target Interception Shotgun Shooting School headquartered in Idaho Falls, ID. It’s a Browning endorsed shooting school. He can be contacted by writing: I.T.I. Shotgun Shooting School, 5045 Brennan Bend, Idaho Falls, ID 83406. E-mail: itishooting@juno.com. Tel: 208-523-1545. He is opening two new school locations in the Jackson Hole, WY area as well as Sun Valley, ID. Classes are also conducted in New Mexico and at Rancho Caracol in Mexico. Words 2562 (1313 words part 2) Bio. on author: Jerry Sinkovec is an international outdoor/travel writer/photographer who resides in Idaho Falls, ID. He has written for over thirty-five publications and newspapers, and has become our shooting and travel editor. Some of his photographs and articles have won national awards. He has been instructing in the shotgun sports since 1994 in New Mexico and is the director of the Instinctive Target Interecption Shotgun Shooting School. Jerry has also taught skiing, winter survival, rock climbing and ice climbing at several colleges and universities in the Midwest aside from operating his own climbing school. AUTHOR Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Idaho Falls, ID 83406 208-523-1545 word count 2668
Rancho Caracol A Premier Bird Hunting Hacienda The three-hour drive from the Brownsville, Texas airport passed quickly as we drove through interesting countryside and a few small towns. As we started the upward drive in the hill country to the ranch proper, Dean Putegnat, the owner and General Manager made a radio call the ranch headquarters in Spanish. He then asked each of us what we'd like to have as a refreshing drink when we arrived. There was a beer, a Margarita and a diet coke. As we approached the huge compound we could see it below us as the road twisted and turned in the verdant hill country. The ranch is located in the best wild quail country in all of Mexico. The large wooden gates appeared around another corner and an elderly gentleman, who greeted us warmly, opened them. As we pulled up to the main lodge building another one of the staff greeted us and handed us the drinks we had ordered. What service I thought, and we’ve just arrived. After we checked into our large comfortable rooms and had a hearty lunch we headed over to the shotgun shooting facility to try out the Beretta O/U and automatic shotguns we’d be using over the next few days. Dean had a nice modified five-stand set up for guests to try out their own guns or the guns he supplied at no extra charge. Since he had 20 gauge O/U’s I thought I’d just use his rather than bring my own down and save the $350.00 the Mexican government now requires to bring a shotgun into the country. The gun fit me well and I smoked most of the targets. I would strongly suggest you plan on using the guns they have there for you to use as they have a good selection and are expanding on the selection. You can bring your own dogs to Mexico, but again, you’d be better off utilizing the more than sixty dogs they have available. Their dogs are excellent at pointing the birds and retrieving them as well. They also just finished a second five stand shooting facility with great views of the countryside. Shooting instruction is also available from Instinctive Target Interception for groups coming to bird hunt. Shooting instruction in either the morning or afternoon and bird hunting in the other part of the day packages are available. While we were shooting clays, Dean had the hunting guides and the dog handlers ready one of the vehicles for us and we headed out for our first of eight great hunts during our stay. On our first hunt we hunted on the 11,000-acre ranch proper for the native and wild Bobwhite Quail, and we were hunting in a few minutes. It was a matter of minutes before one of the pointers was on point less than twenty yards in front of us. As we approached to within ten yards, the covey of more than twenty birds broke and angled off to our left. I fired twice and two birds fell. Other shots were taken and another two birds went down as well. One of the guides saw where they landed and we went after the same covey again. They broke from their cover a little farther away this time and went straight away from us this time. Four more birds went into the bag. We decided to go after a different covey next time and in less than ten minutes we were knocking down more Bobwhite Quail with our twenty gauges. We located several more coveys, and in less than three hours we had several brace of birds between us. I had never experienced such fast and furious shooting of quail before. I’ve hunted quite a few of the premier hunting facilities in the United States and the action here was totally different. I was already looking forward to our other hunts. I think this is what hunting was like back in America during the middle eighteen hundreds. I had never seen so many large coveys of 20 plus birds in such a short time before. All these birds are wild; no pens raised birds that are released six months earlier, etc. And are they fast. If you hesitate for even a fraction of a second, you’re going to miss your bird, and they just disappear. This is where instinctive shooting really comes into play. These wild birds are much faster and a little smaller than any of the Bobwhite I’ve shot at in the U.S. and they are tougher to bring down. With out a doubt, it’s the best quail hunting I’ve ever experienced. I can see why Rancho Caracol is one of the few Orvis endorsed hunting lodges and why it’s the only one in all of Mexico. The excitement and quality of hunting and service is far superior to anything I’ve experienced in the past in America or Mexico. The next few days were just more of the same. On the all day Bobwhite hunt the two of us brought back plenty of quail, which is typical. I have never seen so many coveys of quail in my life. You can expect to flush twelve to twenty-five coveys a day. Each half day or all day hunt ended with us returning to the lodge and being greeted by one of the staff handing us our favorite cooling refreshment as they opened the vehicle door for us. When I returned from the morning hunt on the second day, I noticed all my dirty laundry had been done at no extra charge. And it was done by lunch every day, it was just part of the great service that you received while at Rancho Caracol. It also means you can travel lighter than you normally would. On one day we hunted Bobwhite in the morning and Morning Dove in the afternoon. I ended up with a few brace of Bobwhite in the morning after hunting them in knee high grass. Some of the other areas we had hunted earlier the grasses were very low, only an inch or two high. Every day brought different terrain and different hunting environments. It was interesting, beautiful scenery and challenging hunting. After another delicious lunch we headed back out for the dove. We each had our bird boy, comfortable chair and a cooler with refreshments. Within about twenty minutes the dove started coming in. They seemed to have their own pre arranged routes to the fields and at first most of them were coming in just a little to far to my right, so I moved in that direction about fifteen yards and ended up being right in the center of their flight path. The shooting was fast and furious. There were quite a few that got away as well. It might have been better to have an automatic that held more rounds than an over and under. Every evening started out by meeting with some of the other hunters that were at the hacienda and relating our hunting experiences of the day over drinks. It was the third time at the lodge for the other group; they obviously enjoyed it. There is a very nice bar area between the main dinning room and the lounge area where everyone meets. All your drinks before/after and during dinner at the lodge are included in the package price. What I found interesting is the nice collection of Tequilas that was available for sipping before or after dinner. Fine Tequilas are as grand as fine Cognacs. Dinner was always an exciting adventure with a fine array of foods that are offered every evening. The menu varied from fine U.S. steaks, and real Mexican dishes to a wild bird game dinner that included dove, quail and goose all on the same plate prepared in delightful ways. The chief also produces some outstanding deserts that will have you asking for seconds. Rancho Caracol is an outstanding and unique experience in bird hunting. They offer so many other little services that are included in the package that aren’t found at other facilities. Their staff are always making sure your glasses are full and are attending to whatever your needs are. They don’t miss a thing. It’s the best service I’ve found in all of Mexico in over thirty years of travel there. There are many other activities such as fishing and sight seeing, photography, etc, that there is always something to do in case someone isn’t interested in hunting. The accommodations are very comfortable with a variety of lodging available depending on what your group’s requirements are. There are lodge rooms that can accommodate two to six people along with Casitas that are around the main lodge building. The whole complex with its yellow stucco exterior, open design and foot thick thatch roofs has you feeling that you’re in Africa. It’s a very pleasant and fun experience that you’ll never forget. The facility can accommodate groups as large as 36 people. They offer Whitewing Dove shooting August through October and Quail and Morning Dove hunts November through February. For a really great experience in bird hunting contact Rancho Caracol at 888-246-3164 and tell them Jerry sent you. For first hand information on the experience, actual hunting videos or with questions call 208-523-1545. The ranch can provide you with all the necessary documents for hunting in Mexico along with bringing in your own gun or dogs into the country. You might also want to contact your local Mexican consulate or embassy. 1572 word count Photos are available from me, and the lodge as well. Jerry Sinkovec, Author 208-523-1545 Bio on the author: Jerry Sinkovec is a freelance outdoor and travel writer/photographer who writes for over 35 different publications nationally and internationally. He is now the shooting and travel editor for Outdoors Now. He is also the director of the Instinctive Target Interception Shotgun Shooting School now headquartered in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He has been teaching for the last nine years in New Mexico and has been endorsed by Browning in Utah. He teaches in all the western states as well as Albuquerque, NM. In spring of 2004 he will be operating two schools in the Idaho Falls, ID area as well as Sun Valley, ID. and Jackson Hole, WY. His address in Idaho is: I. T. I. Shotgun Shooting School, 5045 Brennan Bend, Idaho Falls, ID 83406. He can be currently reached by calling: 208-523-1545, or contacting: itishooting@juno.com
The Crow and the Camo Fall had arrived and I was eagerly getting my hunting equipment together for the antelope hunt an hour east of Albuquerque. A friend was to join me but had taken sick with a bad case of the flu and didn’t feel up to the task. It was a disappointment as we both enjoyed this type of hunting and the camaraderie around the campfire in the cool evenings. I was rather excited; as this was the second year in a row I was lucky enough to get drawn for an antelope hunt in eastern New Mexico. Last year I drew for an antelope around Fort Sumner and got a nice sized buck at a little over 300 yards. This year the area I was drawn for was rather close to Albuquerque, so I decided to check the place out a week prior to the hunt and see if I could spot some good areas to work over. When I got out to the designated area I stopped at the home of a small rancher close to where I was going to be hunting. The Hispanic rancher was very gracious and offered me a lot of information including telling about a spot where a large buck always beds down and watches over his domain. I thanked the elderly gentleman for all his information and proceeded to scope out the area I was to be hunting in a week. As I approached the area where the buck was to be, I stopped the truck and proceeded to the crest of the ridge by foot. Sure enough, as I came up to the fence line atop the ridge I spotted the buck with my field glasses. He was larger than the average buck; it was obvious even though he was bedded down. I watched him for several minutes and then decided to stand up and move along the fence line for a few feet to see what he would do and which direction he would take off in. After a few steps he picked me up and was erect and alert. After a few moments he headed off to the west down the grassy drainage. There were other antelope in the area and it offered some great hunting. There were a few small rocky outcrops in the area and a few small wooded areas that would all work to my advantage on opening day, otherwise it was typical antelope hunting terrain, rolling grassy hills. The day before the hunt started I loaded up the Montero with all the camping gear and my Ruger Nr. 1 rifle in 25.06 caliber and headed out to a campsite I had picked out on my earlier trip to the area. I also packed my new two-piece camo clothing with matching hat and gloves, which hadn’t been used as yet. It was something new called a Diamondback pattern, which looked interesting. It impressed me, I thought it was unique and did a good job, but I was hoping it would not impress the antelope, that they wouldn’t even notice it. That evening I enjoyed the solitude of the open spaces and had a good bottle of German White Mosel wine with dinner and some classical music playing softly in the background. It was a glorious evening with all the stars dancing in a sea of indigo ink. Before sunrise I was awake and finishing off a breakfast of bacon and eggs with some strong coffee to get me going. There is nothing like the smell of bacon and coffee brewing in the cool of a morning in the great outdoors. I chambered a round into the Ruger, put on my Diamondback hat to match the rest of my outfit and headed south to the ridge where I hoped to spot my buck. I walked about a mile and I started up the gentle slope to the top of the ridge where I last saw the buck. It was still too dark to make anything out so I waited at the fence line while the sun got a little higher and illuminated the grassy bowl in front of me. When it was light enough to glass the area I looked over the entire bowl but couldn’t spot my buck anywhere in the area. I was a little disappointed to say the least. I decided to check out some other areas close by and walked over several rolling hills and glassed different areas hoping to see my buck or at least some other almost as large. I heard some shooting far to the west a wondered if they were shooting at my buck or some other. I spent a couple of hours walking through some nice country and spotted a couple of antelope a few times at ranges over 600 yards. They didn’t look that big, but of course at that distance it’s pretty hard to tell as well. I stuck fairly close to where I knew the large buck liked to spend his time bedded down and continued to check out different areas. After a couple of hours of slowly walking and glassing out different places I decided to sit down, relax and see if some of the other hunters in the area would end up driving something to me. I picked a spot with a small tree behind me, some high brush on either side of me that I could see over. I rested for about twenty minutes and heard some gunshots again in the distance but didn’t see anything moving. I had been sitting perfectly still. I was getting ready to start moving again when I heard this, whoosh, whoosh, and whooshing sound directly about my head. I had no idea what it was. As I tilted by head back slowly to see what was making the noise, I was amazed to see a large raven with it’s claws extended about to set down on my head. I don’t know who was more surprised, the raven or me. As he realized his error, he tried gaining altitude as fast as possible, but he hung there for a moment before he could really get away. My rifle was being held in the vertical position in my right hand with the butt resting on the ground and was a mere few inches from his breast, but I didn’t have the where-with-all at the moment to blast him out of the sky. Slowly he gained altitude and sped away. Probably, the most surprised and luckiest raven that ever lived. Obviously, I have complete faith in the Diamondback camo, and that it does a real good job if it can fool a raven. It was hard to believe what just happened. I chuckled many times over the event that day. As I finally got up to leave, I heard more shooting coming from the west again and proceed up to the fence line and headed west along it. I heard more shooting, again to the west and this time a little closer. I decided to hold my position behind one of the fence posts to wait and see what happens. Sure enough, a few minutes later here came the big buck I had been looking for all day. He was the one everyone had been shooting at earlier that morning. When I first spotted him he was still at a full run, but he slowed down, as he got closer to his favorite spot to oversee everything. He was feeling secure. I gave him plenty of time as he was moving in my direction, but he was still to far away to take a shot I felt. He continued coming up the shallow draw into the grassy bowl, but then something caught his eye. I don’t know if he spotted me or someone or something else, but he came to an abrupt stop and just looked. I knew then I was going to have to take my shot or loose my chance of ever getting him. The rifle was already resting atop the fence post, and I only had to make a little movement to get my eye to line up with the scope. I found him in the scope and brought the horizontal crosshair to the top of his back as he was still quite far away. Then I decided to put the post to the top of his back and squeezed off the round. When I looked up from the scope I couldn’t see anything out there. At first I thought I missed him, but then realized he couldn’t have run out of sight that fast, and was pretty sure I got him. I took over 45 minutes before I could find him in the high grass. I walked past him several times being only feet away. He was a huge buck and a tremendous trophy. When I paced off the yardage from where I dropped him to the point from where I shot him it turned out to be 460 yards. It was a day of unusual and happy experiences that would never be forgotten. Word count 1521 Author Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Idaho Falls, ID 83406 208-523-1545
The Desert Classic The Desert Classic offered shooters unique shooting experiences in an outstanding setting with two out of three days with great weather. Friday, the first day with the preliminary and sub gauges being shot could be best described by cold, windy and pouring rain. No matter, the shooters were out in force with the better shooters scoring as they normally would. I asked Jon Kruger what he did to stay focused in such terrible weather and shoot a 99, and he replied, “I try and ignore the cold and rain and carefully focus on what the wind is doing to the targets”. Some shooters had more trouble with the rainy weather that effected their scores. The Desert Lake Country Club offers a spectacular sporting clays shooting environment with the course set at the base of the Highland Mountain Range to the west, Desert Lake to the South and exciting views to the East and North. The course is set in the rolling foothills amongst rock outcroppings, narrow gullies and hills that includes a great degree of change at all of the twenty shooting stations in the mile long meandering circular course. A great deal of landscaping has been done with drip irrigation that will provide even greater vistas and challenges once the plants mature. The course and the magnificent 6,500 square foot lodge style clubhouse are only two years old and covers over eighty acres of high desert terrain. It’s truly the premier sporting clays facility in Nevada and the surrounding states. It is a place you must visit and experience, you won’t be disappointed. They also have two excellent 5-stand facilities, one of which is atop a hill where all the targets are presented below your feet, including a rabbit about fifty yards out and below you. It’s the most challenging 5-stand I’d ever shot. The course for the three days was set and changed by Steve Patterson of Desert Lake Country Club, who did an excellent job. I marveled at the easy looking targets that were hard to shoot. The better shooters caught on to what he was doing, but many shooters were caught off guard. The course could be best described as soft, slow and targets that were close. Just about every station could be shot with cylinder and cylinder and 81/2 or 8 shot. There was not a target presentation that could be called difficult or impossible, or that someone could complain about. I never saw so many shooters walk away from just shooting a station with their jaw open and an astonished look on their face…I can’t believe I missed those targets. It was all a matter of speed or the lack of, and timing between the report and true pairs that tended to be longer than usual. It was also the excellent use of the terrain that enabled the course setter to try and deceive you as to what was really happening. It was fun and interesting because that isn’t what you’ll usually find at many competitions, but you had better pay attention, or else. All the targets in the sub gage, 5-stand, and sporting courses were White Flyer Bio targets. What impressed me most was that even in the heavy rain on Friday you would see white puffs of smoke when the targets were hit properly. I always thought targets were harder to break when they were wet, but that isn’t true. Even the 28 gauge would crush them whether they were wet or dry. The first day of the main event, most shooters shot their normal scores, but on the second day most shooters scores when down any where from one to twenty birds. The lower the class of shooter the greater the difference between the two days. It was all due to the subtle changes and the slow pace and nearness of the targets along with the excellent use of the terrain by the course setter. He presented you with targets that required close and good interpretations of the flight path in relation to the terrain and deep concentration. All the presentation looked easy to hit and not that hard, and that’s how he got many of the shooters. David Shaw who is the President of DLCC and Vice President of PMC Ammunition said after the shoot, “we are looking forward to welcoming over 300 participants at the Ducks Unlimited Shoot next month”. Shoot ResultsMain EventHOA Jon Kruger 199 RU Floyd Hartlage 191 M1 Mark Helmick 185 AA1 Bret Gera 185 A1 Craig Buchanan 174 B1 Zach Azevedo 183 C1 John Keaton 178 D1 Larry Wengert 167 E1 Tom Harris 155 Hunter Jerry Brown 175 Super Vet Norman Smith 173 Vet Floyd Hartlage 191 Junior Bret Gera 185 Sub Junior Theo Ribbs 120 Lady Stephenie Hyer 171 Prelim HOA Jon Kruger 99 Small Bore
20 CH Mark Helmick 45 28 HOA Jerry Sinkovec 46 410 CH Joseph Kennedy 44 Word count 822 Author Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Ammon, ID 82401 208-523-1545
The Presentations No, we’re not talking about the Oscar’s, Emmy’s or Grammy’s. It’s the target presentations you see at sporting clay events. Every presentation entails different problems, be they visual or mechanical. The problem is, if you don’t set up properly, you’ll make the shooting of the presentation harder for yourself than it has to be. The knowledge of how you are to set up for each presentation to make it easier is what’s important to remember. Often, I’ve been out at a course seeing people shooting at a station knowing not what to do or how to set up for that particular presentation, or any other station for that matter. I’ve shown, demonstrated and talked to people about what they were doing wrong and how to do it properly, and seen them make the change and start hitting targets hard. Two weeks later, at the next shoot, I’d see them making the same old mistakes again by not setting up properly and feeling frustrated again. It appears that people don’t seem to retain information for a long period of time, especially if they are out on a course supposedly having fun. In reality, they aren’t having fun. They are flustered, frustrated and not happy with what they are doing. Why these casual tips don’t seem to be retained I think stems from the fact that the shooting environment is not part of a classroom session where certain information is reinforced with other information, which helps the student retain the information given. In other words, classes and coaching really make a difference in the learning process rather than casual tips in the field which never seem to be retained I’ve seen many a shooter go out to the local trap and skeet range and blow hundreds of dollars on targets and shells and rarely ever hit a target. They would never think of taking a lesson. They are either too macho, proud or think people would think them pretty stupid or incapable if they had to take a lesson. But that’s life. Setting up properly includes how and where you place your feet, how you stand, the direction you face with your body, the direction you face with your head and the location of your eye focus, and the hold point of the gun along with the elevation and angle of the gun. Every station and/or presentation requires something a little different from the last. Knowing this and making the necessary changes will determine how well you will shoot the course. Two of the most typical mistakes I see made most often is where the person faces, looks, and holds the gun. Most people make the bad mistake of facing the direction of where the target is coming from with their body their face and gun hold point. That always puts them behind the target; they never seem to catch up with it, and they also will run out of lateral gun movement before they have a chance to shoot the target. Most of the other shooters face and look approximately where they expect to break the target. Either one of two things happen. Either they bring the gun up when they see the target coming into their visual area and shoot at the target without any or little lateral gun movement (they poke at it), or when they first see the target coming into their visual area (lets say on a right to left crossing target), they swing the gun and their head to the right, passing the target, moving in the wrong direction, then play heck in trying to catch up to the target, after they realize they did something wrong. In some cases they never realize they did something wrong, because they keep doing the same thing again and again. In both cases, they almost always shoot behind the target, never getting in front of the target in order to smoke it. And they almost always set up the same way for just about every station. There are some very basic rules for shooting sporting clays, and if you remember them and apply them well you’ll be a much better and happier shooter. Since we can’t cover all the different presentations and all the subtle differences, we’ll concentrate on some of the more common presentations your likely to see at a sporting clays course. The FeetIt all starts with your feet and where and how you plant them. You should stand in a natural relaxed position, just as though you were talking to someone. You feet will naturally be splayed apart ever so slightly. The area between where your feet are pointing is where you should be planning to smoke the bird, directly in front of you. You should not bend over, crouch, or create any exaggerated body position. Stand comfortably and naturally, and then you won’t find yourself so tired at the end of a day of shooting. The Superstructure The upper body should be erect, no bending over or hunching of the shoulders. Again, the arms should be relaxed while holding the gun. Obliviously, most targets come from one side or the other. This entails that you may have to rotate the upper body at the waist to enable yourself to see the target as early as possible. The degree of rotation depends on the presentation and your flexibility. If the body rotation isn’t enough, then you can rotate further at the neck with the head. Or you can rotate at the neck as far as you can and then rotate at the waist. Do whatever is comfortable for you, but make sure you can see the target as early as possible, and always end up facing where your going to break the target. Now if the trapper and trap is visible, never look at them. Look at an area in front of the trap and at infinity. If you look at the trap and/or arm, you may miss the release of the target because of its initial speed. Always make sure the barrel of the gun is below a point of where you’ll first see the target. The gun should come up into and in front of the target on its flight path. The length of the gun should be somewhat level, never hold the gun at too steep an angle, as this may cause you to overreact/overpower the gun with the right hand. The EyesNot enough can be said about the eyes, as nothing can happen properly without their proper use. The two most important things are: Never be looking at the rib or bead on the rib when you call for the target, if you are you’ll never see the target or you’ll see it late. With low gun shooting (not pre-mounted to the shoulder), you can’t be looking down the rib to start with, a definite advantage. The eyes should be soft focused at an area more distant or beyond where you’ll first see the target. If you are looking at an area that is closer to you (the rib or bead) than where the target will appear, the human eye will have a more difficult time seeing or picking up the fast moving target. When your eyes are soft focused beyond where they will first see the target, the human eye only has to make one movement coming in to the target. When the human eye is soft focused at an area that is closer than where the target will first appear, it has to make two movements to get to the target. That is why many people say they never saw the target, because they had their eyes focused on something or an area, which was much closer to them than on an area that is beyond where the target will appear. If you don’t soft focus your eyes properly, you’ll never hit the targets properly. A good thing to practice anytime you’re shooting, be it skeet, trap or sporting, is to soft focus in the proper area when other people are shooting, and catch and track the target with your eyes until it’s hopefully smoked by the shooter. It’s the cheapest and best training you can give yourself. When you do that all the time, you’ll find your eyes will stay focused on the target more readily, and not jump back and forth between the rib/bead and the target. You have to train the eyes just like the rest of your body. Everything has to become an instinctive natural reaction without any thought involved to become a good shooter. That’s what makes Instinctive Target Interception really work. The RabbitLets say the rabbit will cross from left to right at about twenty-five yards from the shooting cage. It’ll come out from behind some high bushes, which are about twenty yards away. There is a fairly wide-open expanse in front of you in which to take the target with some minor obstructions. There are some mixed shrubs and trees at about forty yards out. Your eyes should be soft focused at the most distance area, the trees and shrubs at forty yards, just about a foot or two in front of (to the right of) the shrubs at twenty yards. Don’t try and look at the line of where the rabbit will come out on the ground, look beyond it at the distance shrubs. Your gun should be held to the right of where your eyes are, and below the level of where the rabbit will come out from behind the bush. Never hold the gun above the line where the rabbit will come out as two negative things happen if you do. One, you can block the view of the target with your gun barrel, and lose sight of the target and miss. Two, you can end up jerking the gun to your shoulder, because you started with the gun butt to low and the barrels to high. It also causes the gun to seesaw when you are mounting it, which takes longer to correct for and leads to a lost target. One of the worst habits you can form is trying to move the gun to strongly with the right hand. The left hand should do all the work with the right hand just assisting. When the target comes out your eye will automatically go to the moving target. At that moment, you should be starting your gun mount and swing, bringing the gun in front of, and pulling the trigger with the gun barrel moving on a horizontal line in front of the target. Your exact hold point for the gun to the right of your eye hold point will depend on you. From experience, you’ll find your sweet spot for the gun hold point. Every shooter has different muscle strength, toning, reaction times, moment of inertia, etc. So each shooter will have to modify the hold point for their ability. So you will have to try different hold points and see what works best for you. A good place to experiment with hold points is on a skeet field. The Fast, Close In CrosserDepending on your natural speed and reaction time there are two possibilities. It will be a fast crosser from right to left. Let’s say there are trees immediately to your right extending about three or four feet in front of you. About fifteen yards in front of you are a dense row of trees. Off to your left there are some additional low shrubs with additional high shrubs about thirty or thirty-five yards at the end of the clearing. The target will come out from behind the trees at your right at eye level. Your body would not be facing the trees directly in front of you; it would be angled to the left or down range slightly as would be you feet. You would rotate your body slightly to the right and maybe even your head a little. The eyes would be looking at the trees across from you with the gun pointed down range slightly. The degree the gun is angled down range again depends on your reaction time and speed. If you’re very fast, the gun can be parallel to the trees on your right along with your eyes. The gun should be almost level, with the barrels pointing up ever so slightly, but below the flight path of the target. When the target is first seen, the gun should be swung into the flight path and in front of the target while at the same time the gun is mounted. If you stay focused on the bird, you’ll be in front of the target when you pull the trigger and smoke the bird. You must remember, the gun always has to move as fast as or faster than the target in order to kill it, depending on your hold point, reaction time and speed. The IncomerUsually, with this presentation you have plenty of time to take the shot, and it’s a matter of when you feel most comfortable taking the shot. Obviously, you’ll be facing the incoming target. You should not mount the gun until your ready to shoot it. Watch and track the incomer and determine when you’ll shoot it. Some people will choose to take it while it’s still coming in with some speed, others will choose to take it when it stalls in the air before it starts dropping, and others will choose to take it as a falling target. The main thing is to not mount the gun until just before you shoot it. Never track the target with the gun mounted, as you will have a tendency to slow your gun swing down and fall behind the target. The Overhead, Going Away In this case, you can’t see the target until it passes over you head going away from you. Again, you want to face where you’re going to break the target. You want to see the target as soon as possible, which means you want to tilt your head back and look up in the sky. The gun should be at approximately a 45-degree angle or whatever is comfortable for you to hold. But never go above a 45-degree angle, as it requires too much movement of the stock with the right hand, which you don’t want to develop into a bad habit. I use this same method for shooting high one on the skeet field, and you can normally shoot and smoke the target much quicker than the guys shooting the mounted gun. Because you can see the target earlier, you can shoot it quicker, which generally means it’s still a going away target and easier, rather than a falling target and harder. All to often I’ve seen shooters face directly in front of themselves and never look up in the slightest, as if it was cheating to look up, and never see the target until it was way out there and falling and being played with by the wind. Naturally, they missed. If you learn how to set up properly for each presentation, your going to have much more fun, and smoke more targets and be a happier person on top of it. Remember; think of what you’re going to do and how you’re going to set up before you ever step into the shooters box. And once your in the shooters box, make sure you do set up properly, and if after the first shots you find you miscalculated, change your set up so you can be successful on the next pair. Word count 2607 Author Jerry Sinkovec 5045 Brennan Bend Ammon, ID 83401 208-523-1545
Three Day Siege at the TA The smell of gun smoke was in the air, and you were surrounded by the sound of gunfire. Bullets were flying and the targets were dropping. No, the targets weren’t human they were steel SASS targets. It was the second annual Three Day Siege of the TA Ranch, which reenacts the three-day siege, which took place there in 1892. First, a little history. The ranch was the site of the Johnson County Wars that took place there in 1892. All the hired killers that were employed by the cattle barons, who felt they owned all the land, were holed up in the barn when they were surrounded by the citizens of the town of Buffalo; small ranchers, squatters and presumed rustlers who they were sent to kill. A gunfight ensued that lasted three days. The bullet holes are still in the barn as are the gun ports cut out by the besieged and the gun skirmish pits dug by the townspeople. The gunfighters were eventually saved by the Calvary from a near-by fort. The War changed the way cattle ranching was conducted in the western US. Research is still being done, artifacts are still being found at the site. There are now plans in the works about doing a three-hour outdoor reenactment of the event, which would be a great show to experience either as a spectator or a participant. Two great movies were made about the war, “Shane” and Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate”. There are a dozen good books also available about all the events that led up to the war and the war itself. The ranch is rich in history, and has most all the original buildings. The lodging facilities, which have been recently remodeled, are still in keeping with the feel of the 1890's. The rooms are well appointed, roomy and comfortable. The kitchen, lounge and dining area are all roomy and comfortable. Dozens of old photographs from the period of the Johnson County War adorn the dinning room walls. Delightful Mexican fare, traditional steaks, and a variety of food dishes left nothing to be desired while dinning at the ranch. The portions were ample, excellently prepared, and a delight to the taste buds. It would be easy to put on some weight if you spent too much time at the ranch. Recently, the Frank Canton house was dedicated at the ranch. Frank Canton was one of the figures involved in the Johnson County War who worked for the cattle barons. His homestead log cabin, which was quite large, was falling apart and almost in complete ruin. The descendents of Frank Canton decided to do something about it. They donated the building to the TA Ranch, which then took the structure apart log by log and then reassembled it at the new location on the ranch and completely refurbished the interior in period decor. The disassembling, moving and reconstruction and decoration cost the TA Ranch over $100,000.00 to preserve the structure. Everyone felt it was worth it to preserve a piece of history as important as it was. The first day of the shoot-out, which is usually Thursday, is all long-range rifle shooting or bushwhacking to be more precise, of which there were several stages. One of the stages on that day recreates the shooting of Isa Dart in the back by Tom Horn. A 250-yard shot that dropped Dart in his tracks. Some of the targets were out to 350 yards, and at various distances, which made for some interesting shooting. The course could be shot three times, each with a different rifle, which would put you in a different class. There was a single shot rifle class of any caliber, a 30-30-lever action rifle class, and a cowboy caliber lever action rifle class. There was also some additional rifle speed shooting competitions where you had to knock down all the targets in the fastest time possible. There were man-to-man speed shoots; long-range pistol shoots along with other side events as well. It made for a full well rounded day if you competed in all the events, which most people did. On the second and third day, there were five stages each day that were shot with all three weapons. Each one of the stages was designed around an actual event in Wyoming history, and was meticulously recreated with great effort in location at the ranch and construction of building fronts, forts, cabins and other props. The local shooters under the direction of Ron Faircloth deserve a lot of credit for what they accomplished. They were the best-designed stages I’d seen anywhere. The first of five stages on the second day were; TA Siege Shootout, Nettie’s Place, Attack at Fort Phil Kearney, The Hanging of Cattle Kate, and The Jail Break. On the third day, the stages were; Gunfight in the Occidental Saloon, The Wagon Box Fight, The KC Cabin Shootout, Branding the Maverick and The Hole in the Wall Gunfight. At the Hole in the Wall Gunfight stage, a site was chosen on the ranch that was almost identical to the actual Hole in the Wall except that it was smaller in scale and the earth was gray rather than red. If you want to live and experience the history of Wyoming, this is the time and place to be there. When you sign up for the event, you’re given a booklet, which describes each of the stages and the history behind each stage. You’ll have a lot of fun and meet a lot of interesting people as well. And I do mean a lot of fun. I never laughed so hard at any shooting event as I did this one. Our team was serious about their shooting, as a matter of fact one member came in second, but we approached each stage with a little humor and entertainment in mind. As an example, The Gunfight in the Occidental Saloon required that you tip over a table that you would use for protection and hide behind. Now if you were interested in getting the best possible time and a good score, you would come out from behind the table and shoot your five shots. Not our team members. They would take a shot at a target and then duck back behind the table for protection just like they did in the old westerns. Then they would pop out again to take another shot. Obviously, it took a little more time, but it sure got plenty of laughs from all the other shooters ands spectators. That’s how we approached each stage and why we had so much fun. You’ll also find a mercantile; vendors and sutlers there to sell you all types of old time goods for reenacting. This years,“Siege At The TA” will be held June 28th, 29th, and 30th 2001. On Friday evening, one of the highlights of the event takes place in town at the Occidental Saloon, which has recently been refurbished to its original glory and allows you to relive a little bit of the old west. There is a social that begins at 6:00 PM where all the attendees in period attire are allowed to wear their guns as long as they have been unloaded. Naturally, all this has been cleared through the local sheriff who approves as long as no new holes are added to the ceiling or any of the attendees. A variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks as well as food are available for all to enjoy. You have the option of staying at the ranch or camping at the ranch depending on the size of your bankroll. If you stay at the ranch, you’ll have a chance to experience all the delicious food they serve, otherwise bring your cast iron skillet and coffee pot. For this year’s event, they are developing a special place to put your campers or RV’s. You can also stay in Buffalo, but that means driving a little over 15 miles each way. New this year, the TA Ranch is going to make the ranch and shooting facility available to groups of SASS shooters. Your group will be able to spend four, five or six days at the ranch practicing your fast draw for your next gunfight. Shooting instruction in pistol, rifle and shotgun will be available for those individuals or groups who request it. Now you can combine horseback riding, SASS shooting, and sight seeing in one of the more historic areas of the west. For information on the shooting packages which can be customized to fit your needs contact: Ride The West, 2915 Estrella Brillante NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120 or call at 505-836-1206 or e-mail at, itishooting@msn.com. There is a good book out about SASS, the equipment, clothing, safety, etc. For those of you who haven’t gotten into SASS shooting as yet, or those of you who are looking for some good information on what SASS is about, or if your looking for information on the manufacturers and suppliers to the SASS shooters along with reloading information, rules and all the other aspects of SASS shoots, contact: Wolfe Publishing Co., 6471 Airpark Rd., Prescott, AZ 86301 and order a copy of, “Cowboy Action Shooting”. For information on the ranch, their events, SASS Shoots, or the area, the following numbers will be of help. TA Guest Ranch 800-368-7398, 307-684-5833 P.O. Box 313 Buffalo, WY 82834 www.taranch.com web site Taranch@trib.com e-mail Buffalo Tourism Area 800-227-5122 Wyoming Tourism 800-225-5996 SASS HQ. in Buffalo 307-684-7058 Ron Faircloth Mike Malone Hats 817-737-3481 Words 1594 Jerry Sinkovec, Author 5045 Brennan Bend Ammon, ID 83401 208-523-1545
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