Shooting @ a lousy field screws up my game

Well, guys everyone has been reading about my episodes of shooting at club that stinks.
It stinks for the following reasons:
1) lousy background
2) the trap house is surrounded by a hole in the ground
3) a battery powered Pro-matic Matrix machine
4)hand pulled targets
5)no way of regulating target speed or angles

Well went to RR yesterday great targets, found myself pushing past right hand targets

Feel I'm building up bad eye-muscle memory.

 

I wouldn't waste my money and ammo if a club is that bad. I would take my toys and find a nice club! I have a club 5 minutes from my house, went there once and have NEVER gone back. There are too many good places to shoot.

 

Sounds like you have a "BIG FISH IN A LITTLE POND" mentality - learning to shoot in different environments are what great shooters do.

 

What I'm getting at if you drill @ one field 4 days a week & the field is messed up, IMHO imagine a TJ wall chart & all the targets and points are way off & you practice on it a lot & you go to a field that throws real targets--do ya think there would be a problem

also, I'm 77--my days of great scores are over

 

Can you take a picture sometime of this field ?

Inquiring minds might like to see where $50,000.00 has gone.

Last time I was there, it was mostly a mud hole with a trap house in it, but that was a couple months ago.

People who donated sure got their money's worth ~~~~~

 

I'll take a picture and fwd it to you--you are my picture posting GURU, it will have to be next week--they're shut down for maintenance

 

I've shot a helluva lot of hand pulled targets in my life. Most were good, some bad. One of my clubs has the trap house on the edge of a hill, throw across a valley. Neat but wind can create some strange targets but I like the challenge.
They do not throw registered targets so it is all just fun.

 

BPD20,

I have to say that the young gal who is doing the pulling at this club is EXCELLENT, and most times you can't tell the target release from a voice call.

Now, here is the rub with this trap. I have sat and watched her pull (push the button) and she is spot on, BUTTTT the trap sometimes gives a momentary delay in sending the target out.

Whether this is due to a weak signal going to the trap release (wireless remote), the 12VDC system, or what, we just don't know.

Being privately owned, we are not allowed in the trap house to check things out, and as Phil and I were both told, MASTER TRAPPERS have set this field.

I have set many traps and fields for shoots, along with doing a lot of maintaining of traps over the years, (Retired industrial machine mechanic) so I do have some knowledge of what is expected of the traps, and target settings.

Now MASTER was a term I had never heard for a trap shooter, but then again the guy who told us that is a Clays shooter where I believe they refer to the best as MASTERS. So who really knows.

It does get ones attention when these delays occur, and sometimes shows people that they are moving the gun before they see the target.

We were sort of wishing that they would get the voice calls hooked up so we could see if that would make a difference since they are the wired kind, and not relying on a "Signal"(wireless) microphone.

We sort of have been put on the back burner with this Combo field, but unfortunately that is the way it goes.

And the multiple heights and flippers we get is good practice for those windy days when you have to shoot. LOL

It is what it is.

Time will tell ~~~

 

BPD20,

The valley you refer to sounds like a club we shot at in upstate NY for many years. Sunday morning pancake breakfasts, with one trap house. FUN place to shoot for sure, and we had a GMV Super Star trap with hand pulled targets. Those were certainly fun times.

 

I offer this advice for consideration for any shooter who thinks any of the above challenges "screws up my game."

Try viewing challenges such as hard targets, difficult backgrounds and inclimate weather in a positive way. Train your mind to adopt the attitude that you can break any target that comes out of that trap house under any conditions. It will make you a better shooter.

I used Terry Jordan's wall chart in hopes that it might slow me down. I shot too fast all my life and I was not consistent. The chart worked for me and I obtained a more controlled swing which caused me to say "I can break anything coming out of the house" which increased my confidence. On windy days, I shot because it was time to shoot, not because I was on the target. That method only allowed me to shoot well a couple time a year, not every week.

Though I was very skeptical at first, I credit Terry's chart for getting my AA-27-AA pin.

I shot a league shoot one year. The final 50-bird event was on a windy day. I was 49 straight. My 50th target quickly rose several feet higher due to a gust of wind. I held my trigger, followed it up and broke it. I was the only one with a straight that day. I have no doubt that it was the wall chart that allowed me to do it.

Personally, I think the more varieties of targets you shoot, the better you will become. Practice drills are more difficult than targets in trap events. That's why the top guns practice.

I'd also like to leave readers with this thought. Trap was not created to be an easy sport. In the beginning, it was a difficult game. Legal targets were set at 45° angles on each side of the center stake with another 20° on each side beyond that. That's a legal target area of 130°. As proof I offer the ATA Flights & Angles diagram from the 1931.

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Today's shooters cry for perfect target setting. The game was not designed to launch perfect targets.

That 45° (90° total) desirable angle setting was reduced to 22°, (44° total), then to 17.14° (34.28° total) and today just 17° (34° total) with an extra 10° outside the left and right angle setting. .

So, the maximum legal target angles went from 130° to 54°.

Do you think it's possible that this is a factor that has caused less interest in trapshooting?

I do. Also, the emphasis of straight scores instead of a high winning score but not straight score are two major factors I feel have not been good for our sport.

Remember, if you think you can break any target out of the house and you do your job. All the other shooters have to try to catch you.

That's the attitude you must have.

I wish I could have had it a lot more than I did. I was just glad to be shooting with my friends and didn't put in the time and effort necessary to be a good shot. For some reason I lost that "King of the Mountain" attitude shortly after I started shooting and only saw it appear a couple times again. If you want to win and/or shoot better, you need that attitude.

Just my 2 cents, and hopes it helps you.

HB

 

Learn to shoot and work on your mental game