My sister is married to a great guy who did 32 years in the USAF and now that he's retired all of us feel he is in need of a hobbie to get him out in the sunshine. Turns out that Lexington, Va where they live has a Shooting Clays range that he and my nephew went to an had a blast. Since I visit every summer I figured I'd pick up a decent O/U to take along with me to spend some time breaking clays with him.

Final choice was a CZ USA Teal which is a Cabalas specific version of he Redhead with a black chrome receiver and a squared off pistol grip. It's a bit tight but works well and the pattern testing showed nice even patterns without any "holes". Chose the 20 gauge for the lighter weight, less swing weight and because at 63 years old I don't think I would enjoy 50 rounds or 12 gauge for a round of Clays. Another factor in the choice of a 20 was due to the fact that my local Cabelas had lots of cases of 20 #8 Target but the only 12 gage #8 was individual boxes of Winchester or Federal with Steel shot at 9.99 per box. So, I get 20 for 8 bucks per box instead of 10 and it's gold old lead shot that I can actually shoot at an indoor range. While it may seem odd shooting bird shot at an indoor range I've found doing this is helpful in refining my sight picture and mount.

Anyhow as a total newbie to this type of shooting I would appreciate any tips that come to mind from those who have been enjoying this activity. Fact is that videos I've been watching on youtube have me thinking this is going to be lots of fun.

quote:

a Shotgun Sub forum

I would recommend this book for some very excellent info concerning shooting shotguns. It helped me immensely when I was having issues.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com...FEAQYASABEgKacPD_BwE

One of my buddies was very successful at trap and skeet. He told me that one of the mistakes most people make is not having their shotgun "fitted" to them. He claimed it made big difference in performance.
I would guess that most people wont shoot enough to go to this time and expense, but it bears some thought. He also said that like fly fishing, a shotgun shooting instruction course was money well spent.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
One of my buddies was very successful at trap and skeet. He told me that one of the mistakes most people make is not having their shotgun "fitted" to them. He claimed it made big difference in performance.
I would guess that most people wont shoot enough to go to this time and expense, but it bears some thought. He also said that like fly fishing, a shotgun shooting instruction course was money well spent.

agreed, with a caveat,

how far do you want to go?

got a gun, ammo, clays and a thrower,,,
then
random club events, do well

move up to
member of club and shoot all events, (scores getting even better,

then you find yourself traveling and competing every or every other weekend,
moving up from a 'starter' to a Kreighof or better, fitted etc etc, custom this or that

classes always help the beginner,

The shotgun subforum has been discussed before, but it was decided against by Para and the staff. Probably not gonna happen.