Impressive Debut: My Son’s First Clay Shooting Outing!

[cdo_karlos 29]

Hello folks,

Wanted to share my son’s recent dive into clay shooting. He decided he wanted his own hardware and picked up a Bakial 27E for £80. I wasn't to sure on his choice for a first-timer with it being double trigger, however his first idea was a SXS.

We both when over to The Spitfire Shhot (Stockbridge). And what do you know? Within 10 minutes, he’s nailing shots. Singles, pairs, teal, driven pheasant, bolting rabbit, crossing pigeon, dropping duck he was loving it. Seems like he’s got a knack for it, a real natural talent.

Gotta admit, I’m pretty chuffed. He’s taken to it like a fish to water. The way he’s handling the shotgun, you’d think he’s been doing this for ages. It’s not just about the hits, though; it’s about the discipline and focus it takes to get it right.

If any of you seasoned shooters have some pointers for a rookie like my son, feel free to share your wisdom. 

Here’s to more clay-crushing sessions ahead for the young gun!

Best regards,
 

Karl.

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by cdo_karlos

[philpot 4,967]

Sorry to pick this thread up so late however, I am delighted to see another young person enter the world of clay shooting. I have watched the clips a few times ans thanks to your slow motion, I can see he is preparing for the shot perfectly. The gun is what is often called ' A tractor gun' in my neck of the woods and that is not to say it a crappy gun but that they are built to last. Most of them have 1/2 and full choke (fixed choke) so my suggestion would be to introduce different cartridges.  For example, I use for sporting  28gr  7 shot for long range targets,  7.5 for medium and rabbit targets and 9 shot for as many targets that I can, the logic behind my thought is that when I used to be in the North of England team many many years ago, there were very very few guns with changeable chokes and my Beretta 680 was such a gun soooooo I carried all sorts of cartridges to tackle the targets end even though my guns have interchangable chokes I tend to leave them at light half and half choke but vary the shot size.   To give you an idea, there are approx 180 more pellets in a 9 shot compared to a 7 shot so by using the 9 shot where possible, you are improving the density of the pattern and in doing so increase the chance of better breaks.

One day while my wife and I were shooting some trap targets, I gave her the wrong box which was some 8 shot of mine, these cartridges really produced better kills when shot quickly but she went back to her chosen shells as she was very used to them but it showed me that things are not set in stone and to that end on another day I tried a box of 9 shot on the same DTL targets which were really well broken or powered however I shot the targets very fast to get the results I did.

I think introducing a different shot size into your son's shooting may be a serious benefit and if he can afford it, try Eley Superb in either 24gr or 28gr loads as they are without doubt one of the best all round cartridges that money can guy.

I wish you and your son much pleasure shooting together and let me know how he went on if you decide to try out what I have suggested.

Phil