Fallen Fighter Skeet Shoot

      On March 9^th I attended a charity skeet shoot for two fallen firefighters in Salisbury NC. I’m a retired firefighter as well as a member of a motorcycle club made up of past and present firefighters and EMS workers called Fire & Iron MC. So we got a group of members up and joined the charity shoot. We know going into the shoot that we flat out sucked. But we didn’t join the shoot to win, only to show our support. We had a great time shooting and at the end of the day our group shot 41 out of 125. The event was a great success in raising a lot on money for scholarships for the two fallen fighter’s families.  

Quail Hunting

     Over the last weekend I went Quail hunting with a couple of good friends. Our quest took place at Quail Haven in Harmony, NC (North Statesville) on a hunting preserve. Accompanying us was a german shorthaired pointer named Oscar. The neat things about most preserves are they raise their own quails for the hunting season. We did a half day hunt and that included 30 birds. It was a great and successful day with only letting a couple get away. 

(Oscar: If you look close in the bottom right corner you can see the quail)

Reloading Shotgun Shells

     Over the last few weeks I’ve been having difficulties finding shotgun ammo. It seems like everywhere I go they’re out. So I’ve decided to start reloading my own shells. Along with the reducing the cost per box (about $2 per box) I can make custom loads. The neat thing about making custom loads is tailoring my ammo for the sport I'm shooting. For example in Trap I can make a heaver load so the shot can reach out there for long distances and lighter loads with less recoil for Skeet.

     Below is a Mec reloader I've found on a local firearm forum. It comes with 1000 spent hulls (spent shells) and looks like a good deal, wish me luck on getting it.         

 

Fallen Firefighters Skeet Shoot

There’s a big Skeet competition coming up March 9^th so I’ve been practicing my shooting. It’s a benefit for two fallen firefighters and all the proceeds are going to their families. The Skeet shoot looks like it’s going to be a big turnout involving over twenty teams so far. It looks like most of the teams are made up of Fire and EMS personnel along with a couple police departments. Any one is welcome to join. Here is a link for all the info. http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20130127/SP01/130129739             

 

Tools for clay target shooting

This week I’m going to talk about the tools used for clay target shooting. There are three must have things. You need a good pair of safety glasses, hearing protection and a shotgun. One misconception is you need a high dollar shotgun to shoot clay targets. Not true, someone with a $10,000 shotgun and miss or hit the same amount of targets as someone with a $300 gun. I was lucky to find a great deal from a gentleman that was upgrading to a higher end firearm. Below is a photo of my shotgun, it’s a Beretta 686 over/under. The neat thing about my shotgun is that it came with an extra trap barrel and a full set of tubes.

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 Tubes are basically metal tubes you place into the barrels that let you shoot different gauges all in the same gun. For my gun I can shoot 12ga, 20ga, 28ga, and 410. In a skeet competition you are required to shoot all four gauges and by having tubes you don’t need to have four different shotguns.

  

The trap barrel is a little longer than the sporting barrel to help with the long distance shots you encounter with trap.