Saturday, February 1, 2014

Breaking Clays

I got out of skeet shooting (mumbles) years ago simply because there was nobody to go with who enjoyed the sport. But last week I got back in the game and broke the first four clays in a row just because...then I went to pot. 

To me, the one type of (legal) firearm that you can spend more money on than any other is a competition shotgun and ever the perfectionist, who would want to shoot skeet/trap if you couldn't break every single clay pigeon? 


In the old days when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, I used a Krupp 16 ga. shotgun (side-by-side) for all bird hunting. Mine was built circa 1930, before WW2 in Germany. Some people think that modern shotguns are better, but shotguns haven't changed much in their essence in a very long time. Still, there are devices that make you a bit more accurate in this modern era. (in much the same way that a Kimber .45 Gold Cup is an improvement on the venerable Colt 1911 A1)

Today I use my father's old Browning Lightning Broadway (photo above). The Lightning is a very quick, easy to point, shotgun. However, a fully customized shotgun would be even better with a release trigger rather than a pull trigger, etc. There is almost no end to customizing to make every shot slightly more accurate. But how much is too much? Particularly when your shooting partner is upgrading their gun?

The Browning Citori XT Trap Gold shotgun (w/adjustable comb) can be had for a mere $5,000.00 (plus tax)


6 comments:

Race Bannon said...

I've never been into clays. Nor shotguns for that matter - though I've only shot the 870, I guess it would be more fun with a better gun.

LL said...

An 870 open cylinder works better for 00 Buck and slugs since both rounds would wipe out the choke on a gun designed for sporting clays...

Sporting Clays offers a chance to shoot moving targets and tune your eye for that. When you consider that most people spend their shooting lives shooting at static targets (that don't reflect reality), the clays are an alternative.

Spec Ops training involves CQB in shooting houses and that's far more realistic, however, once separated from service, my access to that went away. This is a relaxing, competitive alternative and keeps skills tuned.

Opus #6 said...

Citori? I think they misspelled that.

Brig said...

SWEET...

WoFat said...

BANG! OK, Yee Ha. What's next.

Euripides said...

In my book, getting a good cheek weld is the key to consistency with a shotgun. The Browning's adjustable comb and trigger make it a great starter for competition. It also handles the recoil well for skeet. You could do worse....

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