Busting Clays

Even though it isn’t politically correct to a lot of people these days, I grew up around guns and was taught to shoot at a very early age. But not before I was taught gun safety. Besides being an excellent shot, my dad was a hard taskmaster when it came to carelessness with firearms, and the first time you did something wrong would be a long time you ever held a gun around him again.

I’ve enjoyed the shooting sports for a long time, everything from formal target shooting to informal plinking to shooting trap. Unfortunately, there aren’t many places to shoot around here except indoor ranges. So when we went to see our son Travis and his wife Geli in Alabama, we took a few shooting irons with us since they live out in the country, and there are plenty of places to do it safely.

Shooting trap has always been one of my favorite sports, and we took a bunch of clay pigeons with us. We stopped at a Walmart and bought a target thrower to use when we were doing it, and at the house, it took Travis and Terry an hour or so to put it together. Yes, some assembly required.

Then we went up to the back 40 and started busting clay pigeons. This was the first time to try out my Charles Daly over and under twelve gauge, and it is definitely a sweet shooting gun.

But it was kind of embarrassing that Travis, who has never had an interest in shooting, busted more clay pigeons with it than I did by a wide margin. Terry said he’s a natural, but my ego demands I think it was beginner’s luck.

The ladies got in on the action, too. This was Geli’s first time shooting a shotgun, but she took right to it.

I bought Terry a Remington Model 1100 semi-automatic twelve gauge at a gun show a while back, but it doesn’t fit her well, so we will be looking for something more suitable before our next shooting session.

Even though the shotgun wasn’t a good match for her, she still smoked a few clay targets. Then she showed that she’s no slouch with a handgun, either, trying out her new Ruger LCP Max .380 pistol.

Unfortunately, the cheap Walmart target thrower broke the second day we used it, so I returned it for a refund. Then when we got back home, I went to see my buddy John at Edgewater Gun Shop and got a good deal on this much heavier, well-built model. It’s sitting in the garage, waiting for our next trip to Alabama.

Congratulations Steven Tiefel, winner of our drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day. We had 26 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Who says librarians don’t have a sense of humor?

Thought For The Day – Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.