By Capt. David Bitters

It’s nice to be detached from the world now and then, and I think that’s what a whole lot of hunting and fishing is all about. It’s a chance to jump off the highway of life and take the country way home.

Country ways can lead to a lot of magical places. Sometimes it’s just breathing fresh air and lying on the bank watching a trout rise. Other times, it’s the last seconds of silence in a duck blind, as the black ducks cup their wings and turn into the blocks… Or maybe it’s the rush of seeing the ghost buck appear and disappear in the mist, or nearly jumping out of your skin as a grouse thunders out of the thicket you just walked past…

When the world seems to be flying by, falling down or building up all around you, its time to jump off the highway of life and take the back roads for a while. Take a good look at where all the other people are rushing off to. You may wonder that where they are going is not going to bring them the happiness they think they will find. Money, power, and fame, those great robbers of joy in this life, have a way of taking away the simple pleasures from a man.

I have a wall framed with some of my pictures of my hunting and fishing trips. Eiders on the bay, grouse and woodcock in Maine, deer in Vermont, turkey in the Berkshires, pheasants, largemouth, stripers, snowshoe… but one photo stands out from them all. It’s a photo of me and dad, a beat up old 12 gauge, and a pheasant-beagle dog. We are standing on the front lawn of our house, overgrown with weeds, and all five years of me is holding a big cock pheasant. Dad and I are both grinning.

This was my first hunt with Dad and I remember it well. We left the house and drove down Temple Street in Duxbury to the cranberry bogs. I’m sure Dad knew there were pheasants there. I remember walking through a field with him and stopping to watch a red fox saunter past right in front of us, by a big cedar tree. The image of the fox’s thick fur, fluffy tail, dark paws and eyes, as it trotted past without a care in the world, is still with me forty years later…Suddenly, three cock pheasants burst into the air and Dad’s gun spoke like thunder, as I ducked and covered my ears.

Sadly, that field and meadow by the bogs on Temple Street is covered with houses today. I still drive by and sometimes stop and stare for a moment. The cedar tree is still there, and if I look and then close my eyes, I can see a little boy, five years old, holding his Dad’s hand. They are walking through the field, Dad is carrying his 12 gauge and the little boy is carrying a big, stunning ring-necked pheasant. There is great wonder and excitement in the little boy’s eyes, and a peaceful contentment in the man’s…

Dad turns ninety-two this year and he is the last one left from his graduating class. He always liked to take the country way home. And on that day of my very first hunt, he showed me some of the wonder of it all and pointed the way.

This story originally appeared in Shotgun Life, the first online magazine dedicated to the best in wing and clays shooting. Capt. Bitters has a column called Your Monthly Dash of Bitters, which you can read at www.shotgunlife.com.

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Many of you have probably paid a lot of money over the years for skeet-shooting lessons. But what if you had the opportunity to shoot shoulder-to-shoulder with the best skeet pros on the planet? Shotgun Life Publisher, Irwin Greenstein, managed to make that very dream come true thanks to a new program from the National Skeet Shooting Association. If you can qualify, the NSSA and other sponsors of Shoot with the Stars waive entry fees plus provide you with free ammo. For Greenstein, this all sounded great, but when he got there something unexpected turned up the drama. How about shooting skeet in 40-mph winds?

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This tutorial originally appeared in the free weekly e-letter distributed by Shotgun Life. To subscribe, please visit http://www.shotgunlife.com.

By Jack Bart

One of the best-kept secrets about successful trap shooting is that the game only has three primary shots.

Regardless of which way the targets come flying out of the trap house, there are just three ways to crush it. This gets even easier when you begin to understand that each of the three ways is determined by which station you’re on. Stations 1 and 2 use one shot; station 3 is a different shot; and Stations 4 and 5 comprise the third shot.

The best way to optimize this 3-Trap Shooting Technique is in your set-up. Rather than just stepping up to the station and calling for the target, there are few things you need to do first. By taking a moment to allow yourself the proper set-up, you almost guarantee that you’ll break the target based on the 3-Trap Shooting Technique.

The set-up consists of the hold point (where you point the muzzle before shooting), foot position and where you place your eyes. For our purposes, the information that follows is geared toward right-hand shooters.

A quick note before we proceed….When I say that your feet should be parallel, I’m referring to the leading edge of the concrete border on the station. Therefore, when I say parallel, it means your feet should be parallel to that edge; it’s our baseline for foot position.

Station 1

On Station 1, you should be standing so that your feet are nearly parallel, pointing toward Station 5. Your left should be almost touching that concrete edge. Your right foot will be back 2-3 inches – so that the toes of your right foot are at about at the ball of your left foot. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart.

Now you mount the gun. Your hold point is 1 foot to the right of the front left corner of the trap house. The reason for this is that no target (either left for right) will cross the gun barrel and get blocked from your view. By giving yourself the advantage of a full downrange perspective, it helps reduce that sense of urgency when you find yourself chasing a target that was momentarily obscured by the barrel. This hold point helps you maintain a calm demeanor so that you can concentrate on breaking the target rather than chasing it.

In terms of the horizontal axis, you’re going to hold the gun at the height approximately where you’re going to break the target. That could vary depending on how the target is flying in the wind. For example, if the wind is blowing toward you it will drive the target high. Shooting into the wind means that you would hold the gun higher than the normal position of parallel with the ground.

Still concentrating on the set-up, your eyes should look beyond the gun to the front edge of the trap house – allowing you to see the target immediately after it’s thrown.

As the target leaves the trap house, do not move the gun. Send your eyes to the left edge of the target. When you have the target well in focus, then move the gun directly to that left edge and shoot. There’s no lead necessary. Just shoot the left edge. Gun speed will create the necessary lead to break the target every time. Even with the right hand target from Station 1, you should break it on the left edge. Do not follow the target; go directly to the left edge and pull the trigger. The target will break every time.

The left edge is one of the three shots that I was referring to in the 3-Trap Shooting Technique. As you’ll see in a moment, you’ll also shoot the left edge of the target on Station 2.

Station 2

Everything is the same as on Station 1, except that you turn your body a little more to the right. You’ll find that this slight variation will also move your right foot about 2 inches further back than on Station 1.

Your hold point is half way between the center of the trap house and the left hand corner. You’re looking at the front edge of the trap house. You’re going to hold the gun at the height that you intend to break the target. Again, shoot left edge of target. Don’t try to figure it out. It works if you go directly to the target. If you track it, you’ll miss the target.

To recap, Station 1 and Station 2 should have the targets broken on the left edge. This left-edge approach comprises Shot 1 of the 3-Trap Shooting Technique.

Station 3

Turn another couple inches to the right. That will move your feet about 2 inches further back. Your feet are shoulder-width apart.

Hold the gun at the height where you’ll break the target and 1 foot to the right of center of the trap house. The reason to hold the gun right of center is that if you held the gun dead center on the trap house, a target could actually get under the gun and you wouldn’t be able to see it because the gun would obscure the straight away target. Thus holding the gun 1 foot to the right allows you to immediately see any target as it leaves the trap house.

Keep your eyes at the front edge of the trap house, looking for the target as it’s thrown.

Shoot directly at the center of every target. For example, if you get a straight-away targeting flying at 12 noon, you would shoot the target at 6 o’clock, which is dead center.

This 6 o’clock point of impact is the second shot of the 3-Trap Shooting Technique. It is unique to Station 3.

Station 4

Turn another 2 inches to the right. Your right foot will move back commensurately. Your feet are still shoulder-width apart. Your hold point is half way between the right front corner of the trap house and the center. The height of your hold point will be approximately where you’ll shoot the target. You are looking at the front edge of the trap house.

Now we come to the third shot of the 3-Trap Shooting Technique. On Station 4 and on Station 5 you will shoot every target on the right edge. Move directly to the target. Do not chase it. As they say in the old Westerns, head the target off at the pass. Even if you get a left crossing target, break it on the right side. Don’t think about it, just do it. You’ll smash the target every time.

Station 5

Turn another 2 inches to the right, which will put your feet about 45 degrees in relation to the front edge of the station. Look at the front edge of the trap house. Your hold point is 1 foot in from the right front corner of the trap house, at a height of approximately where you’ll break the target. After you’ve established the target with your eyes, go directly to the right edge of the target and pull the trigger. The target will break.

Conclusion

The 3-Trap Shooting Technique basically gives you three different shots for five stations. On Stations 1 and 2, you break the target on the left edge. On Station 3, you break the target in the center. On Stations 4 and 5, you break the target on the right edge.

This method gives you the ability to know exactly where you’re going to shoot at the target before you even establish the target with your eyes.

Always move directly to the target. Do not follow it. What you’ll discover is that you’ll almost forget the target is moving. Your only job is to go directly to the target as though it’s simply hanging out there.

Everything that we talked about is written in stone, except the height that we hold the gun in relation to the trap house.

In terms of the height, that is dictated by the wind conditions. Here’s a tip to help you determine your vertical axis for the hold point…

In any windy situation, the targets are always changing. You can use this to your advantage. I call it “playing the wind.” When it’s my turn to shoot, I hold the gun at the highest point of the target flight, based on where I saw the target fly as I watched the shooter before me. Always watch the target of the shooter before you to determine your vertical hold point.

I am constantly changing my vertical hold point to the highest point of the target flight. The wind will dictate this. It could be very high or very low. Occasionally the hold point is low enough to be, on the trap house.

On a calm day, you don’t have to change it. The target will go to the same high point, every time. That’s when you can really get in a groove. It’s so easy, it’s almost like stealing.

Always look down through the gun in order to see the target as it approaches your gun hold point. As you see it moving below the gun, move the barrel left or right to meet it. Your barrel only has to move horizontally, and often only a few inches, or not at all. If you do it correctly, It really does look like the trap machine  is throwing the targets at your gun.

REMEMBER: NEVER HOLD HIGHER THAN THE HIGHEST POINT. THE TARGET WON’T MAKE IT TO THE GUN. IF YOU’RE NOT SURE HOLD A LITTLE LOW.

If you can master the 3-Trap Shooting Technique, you be amazed at how it seems that the trap machine is throwing the targets directly in front of your gun.

Jack Bart is a professional shotgun shooting instructor, master stock fitter and owner of Bart’s Sports World in Glen Burnie, Maryland.  His phone number is 410-746-3232. Please visit his web site for guns, accessories and shooting instructions at http://www.bartssports.com.

Who are these women?

Elizabeth Lanier is at it again in one of the most hysterical columns she’s ever written. Check out her Shotguns and She-Nanigans at http://www.shotgunlife.com.

This article originally appeared in the free, weekly e-letter distributed by Shotgun Life. To subscribe, please visit http://www.shotgunlife.com.

By Irwin Greenstein

The week between Christmas and New Years is prime time for a sporting-clays marathon in the Baltimore area. There are at least six great places to shoot within an hour’s drive or so, and a ready group of friends that make it easy to pull together a pick-up squad with a few emails.

One morning, about seven of us drove down to beautiful Pintail Point in Queenstown, Maryland, in the shotgun playground of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Sporting clays, waterfowl and deer are in abundance and many shooters who are born on the Eastern Shore never move away.

That morning, I had packed my Caesar Guerini Magnus 20/28-gauge combo with 32-inch barrels. I shoot 20 gauge for sporting clays and 28 gauge for skeet. It’s a marvelous shotgun. It’s well-balanced and easy to befriend — the kind of shotgun that can boost your confidence.

When it comes to chokes, I follow the rule of thumb that suggests Improved Cylinders for sporting clays. It’s a good constriction for just about any presentation, especially for a shooter like me who doesn’t change chokes from station to station.

For ammo, I prefer the Remington Heavy Sport Load (Dick’s) or the Winchester Texas Heavy Dove & Quail Load (Bass Pro). Both are 1-ounce 20 gauge packed with No. 8 shot. And as you’ll see later, both are also capable of breaking very long targets.

The temperature that morning hovered in the 40s. The wind was calm and the sky was so brilliant that when you smashed a high target it seemed like a spray of fireworks — the effect you get when night-shooting under the lights.

Our trapper was a champion sporting clays shooter and he knew us well. There were no bad pulls, bad advice or bad attitude.

In short, aside from the bulk of my jacket, there were no excuses that glorious morning at Pintail Point.

I started missing the easy targets early in the round. At first I couldn’t figure it out. And the unspoken rule in our group that no advice is given unless asked for.

The thing is, I knew what I was doing wrong; I just couldn’t get myself to fix the problem.

I kept shooting over the targets because rather than cock my right knee and lean on the ball of my left foot, for some darn reason I kept leaning back. I started complaining that the stock was too long with my jacket on, that 20-gauge was too small for some of the targets, and on and on and on…

By time we hit the last station, I was seething — ready to trade in the gun for a 12 gauge and a custom-fit stock. The scores were tallied up and I came in dead last with 53 out of 100.

The guy with the highest score at 86 was Rick Cundiff. Rick has shot hundreds of thousands of rounds of sporting clays, in addition to thousands of rounds in wing shooting. His gun of choice that day was a Caesar Guerini Summit 12 gauge — the best that the company has to offer.

Just a note about Rick. Whenever we shoot sporting clays, I notice that he uses Cylinder and Skeet chokes — maybe occasionally going to a tighter constriction for a station or two. I simply figured that Rick was such a good shot he could do whatever the heck he wanted — and wrote it off to that.

After Pintail Point, we stopped at Annie’s Steak and Seafood House on the Kent Narrows — our usual place to grab a spectacular burger, fried oyster sandwich or the meat-loaf blue-plate special. We talked about shooting and other things, but as lunch wound down I suggested that we shoot sporting clays again the next day at a different place: Central Penn Sporting Clays in Wellsville, Penn. (call me a masochist). Central Penn was about the same distance as Pintail Point, but due north.

Everyone thought it was a great idea. After the rush of enthusiasm, most of us realized we had dentist appointments, dates, work — you name it. That is except for Rick and me. It was set then, Rick would meet at my house the next morning and we would make a bee dive to Central Penn.

As usual, Rick arrived promptly on time. Driving up there, I lamented my horrible scores at Pintail Point. Rick said “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”

During the drive up to Central Penn, Rick suggested I swap out my Improved Cylinder Chokes for Cylinder and Skeet. I figured, Cylinder and Skeet with a 20 gauge?  Fat chance. But I did it anyway — otherwise Rick would make me drop and give him 50 push ups.

Weather.com predicted 40 mph winds that morning with gusts up to 60 mpg. We drove through a snow squall but otherwise it seemed like a calm day — until we stepped out of Rick’s SUV.

Almost on cue, a razor-sharp wind kicked up the leaves and shook the trees. Inside the club house, Maryanne sat bundled up. A squad of shooters had just returned, and man were they glad to beat the wind. Determined, Rick and I were ready for 100 targets. It was going to be sporting clays boot camp, with Rick as the drill sergeant.

Central Penn makes no pretense. It’s a local club with new machines, cheap prices ($25 for 100 targets for non-members, $20 for members) and the very nice Stoneberger family runs the place. Given the time of year, and the weather forecast, there weren’t many shooters — giving us plenty of leeway for help from Rick.

Invariably, when I shoot at Central Penn I think about the Charlie Daniel’s song, “Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Instead of the devil daring Johnny the fiddle player, he went down to Wellsville and taunted the guy who sets traps at Central Penn. And just as in the Charlie Daniel’s song “The devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat” but this time it was in Wellsville.

“Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.”

Rick decided we should go down to the last stations, which are set in the woods. Most of the course is shot in open flat land or over corn stalks, and the woods would give us a fighting chance against the wind.

He pulled a couple of left-to-right low sweepers and watched as I missed them. Then he made a brilliant suggestion. Rather than hold the shotgun down at around my rib cage in a low, ready mount, I should place the stock on my shoulder. This would accomplish two things:

1. I wouldn’t have to deal with the bulk of my jacket during the mount.
2. I wouldn’t constantly rush my mount because the stock would be closer to my cheekbone.

By holding the gun closer to my face (but not pressing the stock against my shoulder), he believed that it would smooth out and slow down my mount and give me more time to focus strictly on the target.

Sure enough, he was right.

My mount was consistent, deliberate and confident. And combined with the wider chokes I just started crushing targets. Loopers, sweepers, dropping incomers — it didn’t matter. If it flied, it died.

At Central Penn, there is a teal in the middle of a corn field that’s set about 80 yards away from the cage. The trap machine is in a grove of trees. It throws the bird some 20 yards over the tree tops, peaks and then drops like a comet. Now imagine shooting that target in 40 mph winds.

My inclination is to shoot teals just when they stall. I tried that approach on this target and missed it.

The second time, though, I decided to hold my gun lower and swing up through the target, giving it about a 20-yard lead. Starting my mount on my shoulder, I executed a smooth and deliberate upswing. Now remember, I have a 20-gauge shotgun and my bottom barrel (the first barrel) is choked Cylinder. I called for the bird and then pulled the trigger according to plan. Rick and I watched that tiny spec soar above the tree tops, when suddenly the thing smashes. We look at each other in amazement.

Was it a lucky shot? Neither of us thought so.

We didn’t keep score that day in Wellsville, but I’m willing to bet the Devil it was the best round of sporting clays I ever shot.