Winter 2008

Fall 2010 Trap Shooting St. John's Rod & Gun Club:

This past summer I finally purchased my first Firearm, a Benelli Super Nova, 12 gauge Pump Action Shotgun with a black synthetic stock from the awesome crew at Complete Gun Repairs. Benelli makes top quality products with many unique features such as their recoil absorbing Comfortec stock, a release button so you can empty the chamber while not picking up a new shell from the magazine (so you can then side load a different shell perhaps a steel shot for Ducks), changeable choke tubes, and it takes all 12 gauge shells 2.5"-3.5" long.

My preliminary use for the Benelli was small game hunting, but also French and I decided to try out trap shooting at the St. John's Rod & Gun Club, a well renown clay target shooting sport. The club holds trap shooting events on Sunday afternoons throughout the spring, summer and fall.

Trapshooting consists of 5 stations in a semi circle set back 16 yards from a automated trap house centered in front of you. Each round of shooting consists of 25 clay targets, 5 per station with the thrower randomly throwing to the right, left or center (your target presentation is also affected by what station your standing on).

My first event was the Ducks Unlimited Shoot on September 29, 2010. This was a trap and sporting clays event where we shot targets on the trap field followed by a totally different setup on the sporting clays range up on the hill. This shoot even featured a rabbit thrower which sent targets horizontally along the ground at very random heights and paths. Needless to say I shot poorly landing mostly in the single digits our of 25 targets, but for my first time out I was not discouraged.

French and I did not miss very many weekends this past fall, and my shooting got better with every event. The turkey shoot in November was a huge success and a lot of fun. The next weekend, Peter Tucker found why I was missing so many targets, my gun was shooting very high! That week I changed the shim in the stock and that made a huge difference in breaking targets. Now my average rounds are 17-20 out of 25 targets, where previously I was hitting 10-15 at best, often worse.

French started off the year using his Benelli Super Black Eagle II, which is an inertia driven Auto Loader, a beautiful shotgun. Once he got into trap shooting, and trying a couple members over/under trap guns, French ordered a Beretta 686e Sporting over/under shotgun. This is a beautiful firearm, and French is quickly getting used to his new shooting stick.

I have to say that the regular trap shooting crowd at the club are fantastic to shoot with. Many are very experienced and are always willing to offer advise to help with your shooting, but also to have a chat and lots of laughs. I cant thank Elliot, Andrea, Peter, Troy, and Monty enough for their advise which has helped me improve and thoroughly enjoy the sport.

French, Monty and I made quite a few trips to the club late November and into December, sometimes shooting with only 3-4 people. We had a lot of fun, and fired quite a few rounds, and I look forward to some winter shooting with our spring loaded thrower. Overall I'm very happy with the fit and finish of of my Benelli, and it's still looking great and working great 1700 rounds later!

Cheers, MIKE