Second time to shoot Trap tomorrow.

[Desert_Rat]

So last Thursday I shot three rounds of Trap at the Taft Sportsmens Club. I used my old beat up rusty and trusty Mossberg 88. I shot a 20 and 21 with it. When I shot my brothers Winchester Super X, I shot a 16.

So tomorrow I'll be bringing the Mossberg only. I expect to hit a 25 tomorrow

Any other Trap shooters here? Any tips on technique or equipment one would care to share?

[Thefeeder]

><

Stay clam and loose

Mount and grip your shotgun the same way each time.

Concentrate only on the clay your about to break.

Don't anticipate the direction of the clay.

Don't keep score in your head.

To break 25 straight...... shoot for a 50 straight

[hcbr]

while i can't offer any tips since i too am a novice trap shooter, I will say you should try going to oak tree gun club, great place to shoot trap, and alot of competitors there that had given us alot of great tips! If you ever come down this way, you should definitely check it out!

[runway1]

When you feel you-d'man..try skeet. Then...

When you feel you-d'man..try 5 stand. Then...

When you feel you-d'man..try sporting clays.......

Aside from that - sure is fun, huh?!! Keep up the good shooting!

[Desert_Rat]

I just got home from outing #2.
1st round I missed the first shot, then went for 24 straight. Not too shabby.
2nd round I screwed the pooch and came up with only 17.
3rd round I did OK and got a 22.

not stellar, but fun for sure.

I'll have to wait til next Thursday to get that 25.

[Thefeeder]

><

Your right there on the brink! Don't know what other advice to give ya.

What other shotgun back ground do you have?

[Desert_Rat]

Dove and Quail hunting.
3 Gun.
DMG

[Thefeeder]

><

Seems your well versed in wingshooting.

One of the signs of inconsitance is the mental part of shooting sports. Try to stay clam and focus on the task at hand. Also as I stated earlier, you need to hold and mount the shotgun the same way each time.

You may want to pattern your shotgun @ 35 yards (asuming your shooting from the 16yard line) with the same shells and see if there are any holes in the pattern that a clay can pass through.

Many of the popular shotguns will not pattern many loads well. An aspect that is never mentioned or discussed on this board. But bad patterns will add to missed targets

[Desert_Rat]

Good point. I'll need to pattern this shotgun at 35 yds. I am shooting from the 16yd line.

A few years ago I patterned it at 25 yards with the same choke (mod) and all shot was inside an IDPA target. I put butcher paper all around the IDPA target and none of the shot hit the butcher paper. 25 yds was the limit of the indoor range.

I did notice that ammo is the key. When I shot 24, it was with Remington Premium Gold 7-1/2's and the other rounds I was shooting a hodgepodge of wally world federal 8's and 7-1/2's. I'll be shooting the same shell consistently from now on.

[Meety Peety]

Now try it on a 410! Lol, just kidding. It is fun though, I was halfway serious. You did very well for a first time trap shooter, I've brought people out that are pretty decent all around shooters that struggled to get 10-15 the first few times.

The best advice I can offer is basically what most other people have somewhat mentioned: Don't count. Once the thought crosses your mind that you are "20 of 20 and only 5 more to go" etc, you can almost count on a miss. I also like to go out to BLM land with a buddy and a couple boxes of clays and just test my limits. We'll go 2 and 3 thrown at a time as far as the thrower can send em and just see what we can hit, and have gotten very consistent with it. It makes most setups at a commercial range pretty simple. Which of course takes a lot of the fun out of it.. especially when you're having to pay laughable prices per set to shoot fish in a barrel. That's when you bring a 20/28/410 and start all over I guess. Or just make the move to sporting clays/5stand.

[Desert_Rat]

They only charge $4.00 a round.

I keep score like this in my head. I start with 25, then after a miss it's 24 then 23 and so-on.

[Meety Peety]

$4.00 a round is cheaper than most places by a buck or two, but when you consider that a box of 110 bio's is 10 bucks, that's where my comment about the prices came from. I'm not really the type of person to only spend an hour at the range either though, so my case is a bit different I guess. I used to shoot 2-3 times a week (2-4 hours each), with at least one entire session dedicated to trap (Cheap and fun) so as you can imagine, doing such a thing at a commercial range would get awfully pricey. To each their own I guess.

[Desert_Rat]

Week three tonight.

I shot a 21-22-23-then moved back all the way to the second from furthest line and dropped a 20.

This is way more fun to do than it looks when just watching.

[bug_eyedmonster]

man, Desert Rat, I'd have to buy you a beer or something. I have been getting into trap shooting when I can, and I must look like a total fool. I only wish I could walk on and shoot as well as you!!! We (my girlfriend and I) have been slowly learning how to shoot trap. I do surprisingly well with my shot barrelled shotguns compared to the longer barrel things, but recently, I've been trying to use a friend's longger guns to blend in better.

Jerry