UplandFeathers

The NWTF will host the World Wild Turkey Still Target Championships from October 2 to 3. It is a completion consisting of one shooter, one shotgun and one shotshell. The winner will be determined by the most shotgun pellets within a three-inch circle on a paper target from a distance of 40 yards. Back in the day we used square card board cards with a fine line “x” drawn from corner to corner. The winner was the shooter with a pellet closest to the intersection of the “x.” Winners had a choice of a turkey or a canned ham. Somehow a “canned ham shoot” doesn’t have the same ring as a turkey shoot. There was one participant with an old Mossberg goose gun—you know the old bolt actions with a 34-inch barrel—who won more turkey and ham than you could shake a 12-gauge shell at. That old Mossberg was banned from completion to level the playing field. That was some canned ham gun if you ask me.

Posted by SwampYankee at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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A few months back Ms. Deborah and I played snowbirds and flew down to FL to beat the cold in CT and start on our summer tan. While Ms. Deborah started on her tan, I used the trip to decompress. I was also in the mood to exercise the Ruger Red Label on sporting clays. At the outing with my brothers-in-law, I did more instructing than shooting. Ms. Deborah kindly agreed to be my trap girl for the outing at Deer Creek Sporting Clays outside of Tampa. I have busted clays at a number of ranges and Deer Creek is one of the nicer ones. They describe the courses by the relative distance to the target at the break point: White targets are 30-35 yards away, Blue are 40-45 and Red has targets out to 70 yards. The White course is best described as a hunter’s refresher. It was a real ego booster for me. Roger, the manager of the course, describes the White course “if you hit the first target at the sweet spot, the second target will almost magically appear in front of your gun. On the other two courses, this is not the case – you have to adopt a strategy that smoothes out the transition from the first to the second target. The first target may fly higher than the line of the second target, the best way to deal with this is to dismount and re-mount between the shots.” By the third station

Continue reading "Florida Sporting Clays: Deer Creek Sporting Clays" »

Posted by SwampYankee at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Jon Michael McGrath is 17-year old with golden aspirations for the 2012 Olympics, but with the cost of travel, ammunition, training, and more are smoking those aspirations just like what McGrath does to clay pigeons. To defray the cost, Fish and Hunt the World is hosting an Upland Hunt this October in Nebo, IL. The event package costs $1,813 and includes 3-nights lodging at the Orvis-endorsed Harpole's Heartland Lodge, all meals, 2 full days of limitless birds, a round of sporting clays, all applicable taxes, and the opportunity to hunt with Jon Michael McGrath. McGrath holds 14 Junior World Skeet titles and 4 U.S. National titles. He currently holds the 2008 United States National Champion International Skeet title, which earned him a spot on the U.S. National Team. If you would like the opportunity to support this young Olympic hopeful contact Fish and Hunt the World at 918-407-2586.

Posted by SwampYankee at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Last month at the 30th World F.I.T.A.S.C. Sporting Championship in Limassol, Cyprus, Beretta Team members Richard Faulds captured gold using a Beretta DT10 with a final score of 198 out of 200. Silver went to his fellow Beretta Team Member, Anthony Matarese, Jr. Not to be out done by their team mates, Joe Cantey shot to gold in the Super Vet category with Larry Farrow taking silver. I could go on but Team Beretta is just smokin’ the clays and that’s just the men. In the Women's Category, Team Beretta's Diane Sorantino gained silver wielding a Teknys Gold Sporting.

Posted by SwampYankee at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Nora Ross of Kentucky recently won her 115th trophy by winning the Grand American Handicap Lady title. Ross, who is a Winchester Ammunition Team Member, has been shooting trap for more than 35 years. She says: "For many years, I never broke a 100 straight from the 27-yard line, but when I started shooting Winchester shells, I broke 100 straight within the first five months." Sounds like a blatant product placement if you ask me. Remember those "Eat your Wheaties" commercials. Perhaps Winchester should start a new ad campaign: "Shoot your Winchesters." Or maybe Winchester shells are just that good. I’ve tried most brands and as expected some I shot some better than others. My guess is it is the person behind the shotgun rather than the shells. Regardless I’m going out and buy a box of Winchester’s and I may just might win the Grand American next year.

Posted by SwampYankee at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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I guess the clue was too easy in the Sarasota Sporting Clays posting: Il fucile da caccia è inceppato or roughly translated from Italian to English: "The gun for hunting is jammed" or "The shotgun is jammed." Sorry my Italian is rusty. I recieved emails with the correct brand and a few with the correct brand and model, and I would like to award a prize to those who responded, but I don't even have a blaze orange UplandFeathers.com cap to give away. For those of you who didn't guess right or are just wondering, the culprit shotgun was a Beretta Silver Pigeon II. It should be no surprise to those of you who hunt and shoot regularly. Gear breaks. That's why they make spare parts. Shortly after arriving back in CT from FL, I contacted Beretta Service Repair and crossed my fingers. Customer service departments can make or break a company. I don't even want to start in on a mega-size home improvement store I've had dealings with. Beretta's service department asked me to put my problem in writing and ship the note along with the unloaded shotgun to their repair facillity in MD. While they were at it I asked to have the trigger pull weight lightened. You can see the letter below. Come back to find out what the oldest maker of firearms in the world had to say about their shotgun and the type of service I recieved.

Posted by SwampYankee at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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It was a sudden-death duel in Bejing in Men's Skeet--Norway's Tore Brovold against Vincent Hancock of the US. It seemed Hancock was sure win during the early stages of the final, but he dropped a target and Brovold took advantage. Brovold and Hancock tied, requiring a shoot-out to determine the winner. For the shoot-out, each competitor was required to fire at a pair of clay targets. Neither Brovold nor Hancock missed the first pair, but on the second pair, Hancock broke both targets. Brovold didn't. Hancock took the gold medal and took it by setting a new Olympic record by shooting 121 out of 125 possible targets. He also set a US record. This is only the second gold medal in Olympic history for the US in Men's Skeet. So what shotgun did Hancock use? A straight from the box Beretta DT10 Trident Skeet, the same gun he used win other national and world titles. No modifications. Nothing customized.

Posted by SwampYankee at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Not only did we win gold medal, we also set two Olympic records in the Men's Double Trap competition. The credit for “we” really goes to Glenn Eller. The final round of competition Eller dusted 190 targets, setting an Olympic record and taking the gold. Francesco D' Aniello of Italy won silver with 187 targets, and Hu Binyuan of China captured bronze with 184 targets. In Women's Trap, Corey Cogdell won bronze with Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela taking gold with an overall score of 91 targets, and Zuzana Stefecekova of Slovakia placing silver with 89 targets. David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic claimed gold in the Men's Trap with Giovanni Pellielo of Italy taking the silver and Alexey Alipov of Russia winning the bronze. Italy's Chiara Cainero won the gold in Women's Skeet besting Kim Rhode of the US, who won silver, and German Christine Brinker cleaned up with bronze. Vincent Hancock took gold in Men's Skeet after a shoot-off with Tore Brovold of Norway. Anthony Terras of France took the bronze medal. For complete results go to the official Beijing 2008 Olympic Games website.

Posted by SwampYankee at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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What really rubs my fur the wrong way are home buyers who purchase a house near a shooting range and after they move in they complain about noise, toxic lead and whatever else their lawyers dream up. You read here recently about a range in NY and one last year about a range in VA, and about how these ranges struggled or continue to struggle to stay open. Well the NSSF has announced a new program designed to help local public and private ranges increase participation in the shooting sports, which might help to keep the clays flying at places marked for closure by the anti’s. The Range Partnership Grant Program isn’t just for clay shooting either. It’s for any type of shooting sport. The NSSF has $250,000 per year allocated for projects that specifically address one or more of the following objectives: recruitment of new shooters, reactivation of lapsed shooters and increased opportunities for active shooters to try another discipline. Eligible organizations are limited to public or private ranges and clubs, or educational institutions with hunting or shooting sports curriculums and faculty. The NSSF is especially interested in new, creative approaches. In fact, forget about delivering a plate of cookies or a bundt cake to your new neighbors, hand them a pair of ear plugs and invite them to the range to bust a few clay or punch holes in paper.

Posted by SwampYankee at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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In Sarasota in the spring the polo season begins, the tarpon start to run and the sun allows you play through the mid-day heat. Ms. Deborah and I took a diversion from the beach, golf and stomping divots to break some clays this past spring at the Sarasota Trap Skeet and Clays. This facility has every type of clay shooting you could want: trap, skeet, 5-stand and sporting clays. We had started out with intention of a quick round of clays and then lunch on the beach. I was anxious to break in a new over and under 20 gauge. Well a lot did break, not so many clays though. Here’s what happened. As we rented a golf cart, the proprietress explained that the sporting clay stations wrapped around the trap and skeet fields between the fields and a canal. Maybe you’ll get to see the resident gator, she offered. Where I come from we measure reptiles in inches not feet. I made sure Ms. Deborah was well acquainted with the cart’s controls. The first station was a report pair, simulating crossing quail. As Ms. Deborah manned the trap control the first pair went off without a hitch. Pull! Boom. Boom. The second pair is where the breaking started to begin. Pull! Boom. Click. Click? Yes click. I broken open the over and under and tried again but the trigger was frozen and safety was musher than a rotten apple. Anyone care to guess the manufacturer of the ill-fated over-and-under? Here’s a clue: Il fucile da caccia è inceppato. Riding back to the clubhouse, we rented a 20 gauge since I had boxes of 20 gauge shells. I opted for a Beretta Urika. Driving back to the stations, Ms. Deborah’s gave me her impression of Mister Toad’s Wild Ride. The spiny palmetto scratching as we whizzed to station 2. Pull! Boom--ouch. Pull! Boom-ouch. The semi-automatic worked like a dream but the stock was short and the recoil jammed my thumb into my nose on each shot. I needed to figure out a way to stop rapping my nose with my thumb. On to station 3 the cart died like a cell phone when you really need it. We had to go back to the clubhouse again. Fortunately two gents who had caught up to our movable feast offered their ride to return to the clubhouse. The two wore dungarees held up with suspenders. Pith helmets topped their heads. With their beards they looked like protégés of the Duck Commander or two members of a ZZ Top cover band. One’s beard tapered to a point and tickled his belt buckle while the other’s was cut off straight so that every time he turned his head from side to side he brushed off his belly. I can only imagine what Ms. Deborah and I looked like to them. I thanked them and warned them about the canal and gator. They smiled. They could tell we were out-of-towners. Back yet again to the clubhouse, where the proprietress eyed me like a troublemaker. She was quick to find another cart and get us on our way. So back to the Duck Commander crews with a thank you and handshake. On to station 4 with me hanging on to the cart’s handgrip, dodging the palmetto and wondering when the gator would appear. So I would like to end this post by saying the gator bite the golf cart tire. Or I broke a clean 100. But the Urika coughed out the last empty and Ms. Deborah remarked: Now didn’t you make that look easy.

Posted by SwampYankee at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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The International Shooting Federation (ISSF), in Munich, Germany, governs Olympic shooting sports. They recently ranked the top three skeet shooters in the world. American Haley Dunn ranked the number one in the world, followed by Ning Wei of China ranked 2nd, and Christine Brinker of Germany 3rd. Smells like Olympic gold is in store for one of these shooters.

Posted by SwampYankee at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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A few week ago at the 2008 ISSF World Cup for Shotgun in Suhl, Germany, Australia's Michael Diamond (two-time Olympic gold medalist) broke 145 targets for the gold medal; Bret Erickson of the US (Don’t Mess with Texas) claimed the silver with 144; and the bronze went to Russia's Alexey Alipov, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, with 143 targets broke. Italy's Daniele Resca finished in fourth. Bostjan Macek of Slovenia and Marian Kovacocy of Slovakia tied for fifth with 141 targets each and in a shoot-off, Macek bested Kovacocy and took fifth while Kovacocy finished sixth. It looks like Erickson is a real contender for trap gold in China this year.

Posted by SwampYankee at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Newsday recently reported a Yaphank shooting range is under attack by local activists who want it shut down. For two years the activists have been fighting to close the facility and they recently persuaded the town to try to use state laws to close it. They cite the range is a noise disturbance and a threat to water quality. The range has been in operation since the 1960s and in the past few years has had different vendors running the operation. Some of the activists content it’s “new development in an environmentally sensitive area, and therefore must be closed.” The town shot down the “new development” strategy, however. Other activists say the range is dangerous because lead could leach into drinking water. The range paid the county more than $43,000 in fees and revenue in 2007. If that’s not a good neighbors, what is? One of the skeet-shooting enthusiasts had a great observation: "What about the people who live near the railroad station? Should they move the railroad station?" It baffles me at times that home buyers complain after they sign the mortgage documents. Perhaps the simple, low-cost solution is to provide new home owners with ear plugs?

Posted by SwampYankee at 05:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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Here are a few names to watch this summer in Bejing: Erickson, Cogdell, Hancock and Rhode. Vincent Hancock earned a trip to his first Olympic on the Men’s Skeet team by finishing with a total score of 511 targets. Hancock was the 2007 World Cup Italy Champion/world record holder and 2007 Pan American Games gold medalist. Kim Rhode bested the field to earn her berth on the Women’s Skeet team. Rhode is a three-time Olympic medalist (1996 and 2004 gold medalist, 2000 bronze medalist) and this is her fourth consecutive time on the team. She finished with a total score of 497. Bret Erickson won his slot on the Men’s Trap team. Corey Cogdell was selected for Women’s Trap. And Glenn Eller (a two-time Olympian) and Jeff Holguin are representing the US in Double Trap. These are only our top shooters, there are many others on the US Shooting Team that need our support, too. I wish I had the time to list them all. Many athletes are training in Bejing to acclimate their bodies to the pollution. I don't know what the US shooters plan on doing, but I wonder if all the pollution in the air will slow down the clays?

Posted by robert at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The big guns in shotgun shooting will converge in Texas from March 8 through 16. Shooters will be vying for spots on the 2008 US Olympic Team and will be selected based on the aggregate score from the Fall Selection competition, which was held last August, and this shoot. Only eight spots are available: two for Men’s Skeet, two for Men’s Trap, two for Men’s Double Trap, one for Women’s Skeet, and one for Women’s Trap. No doubt the