Yesterday at Buffalo Gun Club's National Trapshooting Day I experienced a surreal weather experience while shooting doubles! Our line consisted of Coach, myself, a gentleman from Manitoba, Jake (one of our youth shooters), and a buddy who had never shot doubles before but is an avid hunter.
We step to the line and brace ourselves against the 30mph wind and, as soon as the first call for 'pull' is made, the weather really starts to take over. Wind gusts over 50mph, five foot leads on the right target, one foot leads INSIDE the left target because it's going right soon after leaving the house, people in the background hanging onto trees and benches to keep from falling over from the wind and their laughter, spotters calling 'INCOMING!' when boxes and various tree limbs zoom across the field while we're shooting! Ever been on a line where the birds shoot straight up, higher and higher, until they're overhead and going backwards? Or take off like little orange UFO's, back and forth, following the wind like they have minds of their own? Whenever any one of us hit the pair (rare, let me tell you) we all cheered! At one point Jake turned to me, biggest grin I've ever seen on the kid, and said, "I just saw two trees fall down by Trap 1. This is AWESOME!"
I'm not a good doubles shooter anyway but my 63 yesterday was inconsequential--we had FUN. By the time we got into the clubhouse our cheeks and sides were aching from laughing. I would have loved to have gone back out again and given it another try just for fun but others were lined up behind us to take advantage of the gale force winds and the experience of trying to hit doubles with rockets on them. It was one of the best times I've ever experienced, shooting or otherwise.
As a new shooter I'm sure this has happened to all of you before, and would love to hear your stories. I'm still grinning ear to ear today!
CSJ
PS. WS, I KNOW you took some pictures yesterday of the wind storm. Can you post some?
We step to the line and brace ourselves against the 30mph wind and, as soon as the first call for 'pull' is made, the weather really starts to take over. Wind gusts over 50mph, five foot leads on the right target, one foot leads INSIDE the left target because it's going right soon after leaving the house, people in the background hanging onto trees and benches to keep from falling over from the wind and their laughter, spotters calling 'INCOMING!' when boxes and various tree limbs zoom across the field while we're shooting! Ever been on a line where the birds shoot straight up, higher and higher, until they're overhead and going backwards? Or take off like little orange UFO's, back and forth, following the wind like they have minds of their own? Whenever any one of us hit the pair (rare, let me tell you) we all cheered! At one point Jake turned to me, biggest grin I've ever seen on the kid, and said, "I just saw two trees fall down by Trap 1. This is AWESOME!"
I'm not a good doubles shooter anyway but my 63 yesterday was inconsequential--we had FUN. By the time we got into the clubhouse our cheeks and sides were aching from laughing. I would have loved to have gone back out again and given it another try just for fun but others were lined up behind us to take advantage of the gale force winds and the experience of trying to hit doubles with rockets on them. It was one of the best times I've ever experienced, shooting or otherwise.
As a new shooter I'm sure this has happened to all of you before, and would love to hear your stories. I'm still grinning ear to ear today!
CSJ
PS. WS, I KNOW you took some pictures yesterday of the wind storm. Can you post some?