Markham Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays
Markham Park Gun Club Open for Practice Trap, Skeet, 5-Stand and Sporting Clays Registered Shooting And Youth Program Still on Hold
South Florida Shooting Club ATA Trap Saturday July 11th NSSA Skeet Saturday July 25th 1
Club News - Magazine Review
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For Sale
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PRO SPORTING GOODS
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Club Calender
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Palm Beach Trap/Skeet Pro Shop—Sporting Calender
20-21
Sporting Clays Program and Re- 22-23 sults 24-25 Skeet Program and Results FSA Skeet Calender
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Trap Program
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Trap Results
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Youth Program
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Contact info: Markham Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays 11873 NW 30th Street Coral Springs, FL 33065 954-857-5278 · ·
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Next General Meeting Thursday September 3rd Starting at 7:00 PM
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Club News
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Magazine Review ClayShootingUSA – May/June 2020
This magazine has a new editor, Dana Farrell, who has a nice handle on what shooters want in their publications. There’s a new gun manufacturer from Italy, Bettinsoli USA making sporting guns for the market. They’re aiming at the shooter looking for an O/U at a reasonable price ($4,799) with their Grand Prix Delux and at the beginning shooter and/or Youth market with their Omega ($2,599). Matthew Gay does an efficient yet detailed review of these guns. Bruce Buck reviews a Turkish gun the Pointer SCT Deluxe, a basic O/U that retails for between $959 and $1,199 depending on the features. This could be another good option for the beginner or Youth shooter. Bruce liked the shootability and feel of the gun and thought it compared favorably with other more expensive ones. In the NEWPRODUCT section there’s a new tool on the market to help cross-dominant shooters. The SP is an interesting and novel device. It even gets an endorsement from Chris Batha which is quite a statement! The device is simple and easily installed. It’s similar to the bead on your rib but is taped about one inch from the end of your barrels on the right side of the gun between your barrels for righthanded shooters. The theory is your right-eye will detect it in its peripheral vision and will allow your shooting eye to dominant when looking down the barrels. At $50 it’s worth a try for shooters with dominance issues.
Dana Farrell worked overtime and presented four articles. There’s one on stock checkering, the GLADIATOR Series of custom engraved shotguns from Perazzi, TSK adjustable gun stocks, and Briley’s new 360 CLICK choke tubes. All four articles are well written and quite informative. Louise Terry wrote a wonderful life history story on Wendell Cherry in this month’s issue and Jessica Barrett also wrote a nice overview of FITASC rules. Bill Elliot interviews Derrick Mein, Anthony I. Matarese Jr., Brad Kidd Jr., Wendell Cherry, and Ashley Little, presenting their views on the sporting game. This is an excellent article with five renowned shooters. There’s a great deal of information on ammunition, chokes, style of shooting, and practice regimens. I highly recommend this article.
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Magazine Review ClayShootingUSA – May/June 2020 Cont’d Gun movement efficiency is the subject of Tom Mack’s article this month. He reviews how beginner and intermediate shooters mount and shoot a target then gives us his take on how a Master Class shooter does it. Mount to the bird, match speed, swing to the lead. A simple formula, like Move, Mount and Shoot. On doubles move to the lead, shoot, then move to the lead for the second target and shoot. Tom is a maintained-lead shooter so he isn’t big on follow-through, just finishing the shot as needed. Finally, he likes to set his hold point halfway between the break point and his focal point.
“Consistent concentration and focus can overcome an inconsistent gun mount and other command shooting faults.” John Shima gives us an article this month on concentration and focus breaking down his ideas into mechanical, visual, and mental components. I agree with John that good shotgunning technique starts with a swing from the ankles up. Synchronize your whole body with the gun and target’s speed. He mentions something I’ve never read before on this subject, rotation of the lower body with the target gives a shooter a better feel for the target’s speed, angle, and direction. Synchronizing your body to move with and to the target also aids in keeping visual focus on the it when the whole body is involved, rotating with it.
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The visual game can be summed up by paying heed to the “Quiet Eye” research of Joan Vickers. The idea is to allow the eyes to “quiet” before calling for the target. Going into the proper soft focus at the focal point for any sport will heighten your peripheral vision and as John’s corollary adds, it also quiets the mind. Proper “Quiet Eye” usage prepares the peripheral vision to pick up the targets and permits the mind to empty itself of anything but seeing the target appear. This allows for quick transition to hard focus and concentration solely on the target and nothing else. John breaks the mental aspect into a training, practice, and competition mindset. Training means mentally you are evaluating your shooting and making changes to hold point, focal points, break points and swing techniques to improve your game. A practice mindset is applying those changes, so you are ready for a competition. Finally, a good competition mindset is a consequence of good application of your shooting regime during practice sessions.
In other words, building confidence in your game through good practice. John doesn’t like the use of the word confidence. Confidence is vulnerable to doubt. He prefers trusting your game and your ability to perform unconsciously. Watch the target break and eliminate the desire to break it. Trust is immune to the vagaries of uncertainty. Correct visual focus is everything. Most high 2’s in skeet are missed for this simple reason and none other. Relax, go into good visual focus and the target seems to crawl to your barrels, mess up the soft focus and you’re chasing the target. Look above and beyond the gun to activate good visual soft focus. Focus through and beyond the target path to get the most out of your peripheral vision. Also like good wingshooting, you focus on a specific part of the bird. In wingshooting it’s the beak or bill in clayshooting it’s the leading edge of the target. 7
Magazine Review TRAP & FIELD – June 2020
Dealing with downtime is a discussion point for the interesting times of COVID-19. Jim Blevins weighs in with some ideas. Do some reloading, prep and clean your equipment, and revise your goals. Once you can get back out to the range, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Start out slow by playing some games like Protections, Annie Oakley’s, Killers, etc. Also try Wobble trap or Doubles from the 25-yard line. Handicap Doubles got consideration as an event at one time. Bottom line, don’t get your expectations too high after the long layoff. I’ve always believed in using contraction in my writing and in teaching Shotgunning not Trapshooting, Skeet, or Sporting Clays. This means you learn one form of lead as your go to method then add other methods as needed. Everyone has one method they prefer, be it Swing-through or Sustained-lead. Every other form of lead is a slight variation of those two. Intercept is related to Swing-through and Pull-ahead is a variation of both. Even “Move, Mount, and Shoot” is a variation of Swing-through or Pull-ahead. Regardless of the method you prefer at some point you must learn how to transition from a first shot to a second if you are going to master using a shotgun. I encourage my students early on to shoot single targets then shoot pieces as in Wobble trap.
skeet and suggests 3.5’ lead is required. In his words “I am not a physics teacher” and says you can’t shoot right at any target whether it is in skeet, trap, or sporting clays. Barrel speed determines lead Ian. If you have the correct barrel speed you can shoot directly at any target and break it. Simple physics in the time required to pull the trigger, the shell to ignite, the shot to travel down the barrel, and the shot to fly to the target. This is about 0.085 seconds. About 4’ of lead if the barrel isn’t moving. When moving at the right speed no lead is seen. This is the whole philosophy of the Churchill Method and Move, Mount, and Shoot. I do not see any lead on a left or right angle in trap. When I shoot low-gun in skeet, I don’t see lead. Beware of talking about lead unless you are matching speed with the target. Then you can talk about lead.
It’s a natural way to learn transitioning between the first shot and the second. Doubles targets in trap and skeet then become easy to learn. True pairs in Sporting Clays can be learned just as easily. Ian Darroch believes as I do, shooting all three of the clay target games makes you a better shotgunner or in his case a better trapshooter. Any shotgunning game that helps you with your transition between shots will help you overall. It trains you to stay with and visually lock onto your target. How can that not help? Ian gets into talking about lead on a Station 4 in
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As if we don’t have enough advice on our Social Distancing environment, Bob Palmer also adds his two cents. How do you keep your motivation while waiting at home for your favorite club to reopen or for it to continue with Registered shooting? Stay in touch with your shooting companions and partners. Talking about shooting keeps your mind involved in the game and thinking about competing. Get some exercise, stay in shape for when you can get out and shoot so you’ll be ready when it happens. Keep training mentally. You know that means visualization when the advice comes from Bob Palmer. Visualize the successful events you’ve had this year. Do gun mounting practice. Spice it up by buying a wall chart or get a penlight for your barrel. In that vein video yourself doing this dry-firing and mounting and send it to your coach to evaluate. A conversation with your coach by phone or by video call are also great. Maybe you can dry-fire a whole round of shooting, video it, review it with your coach. Pay attention to your attitude as you shoot your round. Be aware of where you look. Keep you eyes on the horizon, through your look point. Set goals for all these suggestions: social, physical, mental,
and technical. Set them, then follow through with your commitment to them.
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Magazine Review Shotgun Sports – June 2020
We learn in ratios. At first we learn by huge leaps and bounds. We start out shooting somewhere between zero and 10 out of 25 and rapidly jump to breaking in the high teens with a little practice and dedication. If you shoot 100 or more targets a weekend, you can get to 20 to 21 out of 25 consistently in two or three months. After reaching this plateau your learning and improving will slow down and only small increases in your
scores occur over longer periods of practice. A 10% increase in your score isn’t based on that 20 or 21 out of 25 it’s based on those last four or five targets. Now a 10% improvement is only a half a target. That’s the law of improvement by ratios. You only improve on the margin of error you have left. Michael J. Keyes, M.D. cautions how we may reach a point in our training where additional effort may not be worth it for the limited improvement we see. This is assuming you don’t change the way you are practicing. Introducing new training regimes and programs should get you past a plateau and on to the next one. Sometimes an equipment change, improved gun fit, new glasses, new techniques, etc., will also trigger a boost to that next level. Regardless, something needs to change to keep the progress moving forward.
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I’ve known Dean Townsend since 1974. Strange how I’ve been close with two of Chairmen of the Handicap Committee, Dean and Ray Dome, but I have. This month Dean gives advice on learning how to coach and teach Doubles Trap. There’s some good advice here, like shooting lighter shells on the first target such as one ounce or 7/8’s ounce loads. It’s a good idea setting the trap to throw a single target to emulate the first target from Post 1 or 5. This allows the student to learn how to break the first target correctly and taking the second target out of the equation helps.
target and teaching them how to first. Then move onto changing the POI by adjusting their comb. Personal opinion, that’s all. Dean also suggests having the student watch where the shooter to the left of them breaks the first target. This could also have dire consequences. It’s like cheating off the dumbest kid in the class during a Chemistry test. Teach a consistent hold point, individual to the shooter. Don’t cheat off the guy next to you.
Another good idea is dry firing some targets. The move to the first target isn’t or shouldn’t be the same as moving to a straight-away at 16 yards or Handicap. The correct move uses a minimum of movement from the hold point to the break point. I tell students they have to give yourself permission to shoot this target in a way they may have never tried before. It goes against good clay target shooting principles but cheating on this target allows for a better transition to the second target and saves precious time for that move. Dean is correct with his advice on the first target: “THE LESS MUZZLE MOVEMENT, THE BETTER!!” He does leave out the ancillary clause to that statement: YOU MUST MAKE A MOVE TO THE FIRST TARGET. Trapping the first target without making a move to it produces dire long term consequences. Always move to the first target, the least movement as possible, but by all means, make a move. If the first target isn’t breaking solidly, Dean suggests changing the comb height by adjusting the comb on the gun. Some people freak out if you do this. Changing stacked beads to a sighting plane where they see rib between the beads may blow some shooters’ minds. I would suggest they may not know how to truly break a
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Magazine Review Shotgun Sports – June 2020 Cont’d
ean and I have some issues with his advice on Post 3. Leo Harrison III always shot the first bird, the right one, on Post 3 using Sustained-Lead. This means he started to the right of the target, moved with it, and shot. I use an Intercept move, moving diagonally to the front of the target, using muzzle speed to allow for lead. In both instances we moved to the target. Dean suggests using a dead gun and letting the target come to you. He called it a timing shot. This is not a good idea. A Diminished-Lead shot would work better. At least the shooter is moving the gun. Trapping this target, of all targets, is a personal choice and not one I would ever teach. One more issue on Post three. ALWAYS, regardless of right or left-handedness, take the right bird first. Sometimes the right-hand target comes
off the trap arm with less spin or slides off the arm. You now have a target that’s sliding to the right, slightly canted, and slicing downward. The left target always comes off the arm straight as an arrow and never does this. You just shoot right at it. Don’t shoot the left target first on Post 3. Dean finishes by advising you never chase the first target and with a promise to give us a secret in the next installment. There is one Golden Rule for Trap Doubles, stay under the second target. The Silver Rule is always make a move to the first target. Beyond that, there is a perfect break point for each first bird that’s individual to each shooter. Your break point won’t necessarily work for me. I may need to take the target sooner or later than you to correctly transition to the second target. Let’s see what the second installment has to offer.
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The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I've always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It's been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It's a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game. Michael Jordan
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Beretta 682 Golden Skeet 30� barrels excellent condition Stock has a high gloss finish done by Pedro Bernal asking 3,500 Give a call to: Phil Keagy 954-258-0085 15
10704 Wiles Road, Coral Springs, FL 33076 954-846-2336
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive. Arnold Palmer
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Calender of events: Gun Shows:
Miramar National Guard Armory July 11-12th
Skeet this month: Palatka Markham
July 3-5th July 5th
Polk County
July 17-19th
So. Florida
July 25th
Trap this month: South Florida Markham
July 11th July 26th
Sporting This month: Vero Beach OK Corral
July 4th July 5th
Markham South Florida
July 11th July 12th
OK Corral
July 17th
Quail Creek
July 25th
My concentration level blocks out everything. Concentration is why some athletes are better than others. You develop that concentration in training and concentrate in a meet. Edwin Moses
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6 Youth Night
7 Skeet Night
8 Trap Night
9 10 Sporting Clays
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13 Youth Night
14 Skeet Night
15 Trap Night
16 17 Sporting Clays
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20 Youth Night
21 Skeet Night
22 Trap Night
23 24 Sporting Clays
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26 27 28 Memorial Skeet Trap Tourney Day Night Closed
29 Trap Night
30 31 Sporting Clays
Skeet Tourney
Sporting Tourney
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3 Skeet Youth Tourney Night
4 Skeet Night
5 Trap Night
6 7 Sporting Clays
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10 Youth Night
11 Skeet Night
12 Trap Night
13 14 Sporting Clays
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17 Youth Night
18 Skeet Night
19 Trap Night
20 21 Sporting Clays
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24 Trap Youth Tourney Night
25 Skeet Night
26 Trap Night
27 28 Sporting Clays
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Sporting Tourney
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PALM BEACH TRAP/SKEET PRO SHOP FIREARMS ALL NEW FIREARMS WHOLESALE PLUS 10% TRADES INS ACCEPTED
AMMUNITION AMMUNITION WHOLESALE COST PLUS $2.00 PER CASE WITH 10 CASE ORDER $4.00 LESS THAN 10 DELIVERIES TO Ft Lauderdale/Miami CONFIRMED WITH ORDERS
CALL FOR CURRENT PRICES ON FIREARMS/AMMUNITION
561-793-8787 THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR BUSINESS JOE FORDHAM 20
2020 Schedule of NSCA Sporting Clay Tournaments
Saturday - Jan 18
Snow Bird Open
Sunday - Feb 2
Honest Abe's Birthday Bash
Sunday - Mar 15
St. Patrick's Day Open
Saturday - Apr 25
CANCELLED
Sunday - May 17
Memorial Day Open
Saturday - Jun 20
20th Annual Sunshine State Classic
Saturday - Jul 11
Super Sizzle Open
Saturday - Aug 8
Summers End Open
Saturday - Sept. 12 Markham Fall Fest Shoot Sunday—Oct. 11
Pumpkin Blast
Sunday - Nov. 1
Richard Merritt Memorial
Saturday—Dec. 26 Bud Wolfe Classic 21
SPORTING CLAYS PROGRAM
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Lunch will not be served. COURSE RULES: All shooters and spectators are required to wear ear and eye protection on the course. MAXIMUM LOADS PERMITTED: 12GA, 3 DR EQ, 1 1/8 oz. Shot 7 1/2.
For additional information contact: Greg Ritch (561) 271-5319 email: gregsritch@gmail.com
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SPORTING CLAYS RESULTS
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MONTHLY SKEET PROGRAM Price per 50 targets includes $5/100 NSSA/FSA Fee
.410 gauge 28 gauge 20 gauge 12 gauge Doubles
50 Targets 50 Targets 50 Targets 50 Targets 50 Targets
$20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00 $20.00
Shoots usually held the first Saturday of every month. Gauges may be shot out of sequence with the permission of management. More than one 50 target program may be shot in the same gauge as a preliminary event.
AWARDS Break a 50, 75, or 100 Straight and get one of these guaranteed awards! 50 Straight Kennedy Half Dollar 75 Straight Eisenhower Dollar 100 Straight Morgan Silver Dollar 50 Straight Doubles Liberty Silver Half 24
Skeet Results
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Trap Program: SPECIAL NOTICE
Trap Tournaments are usually the fourth Sunday of the month.
100 target 16 Yd, Hdcp and Doubles events. First 100 targets. $40.00 (Includes ATA and FTA daily fees)
ATA SHOOT SCHEDULE 2019-2020
Additional 100 target events.
October 27th
$32.00
November 24th December 22rd January 12th February 23rd
See Joe Loitz for details: 954-857-5278
March 29th April 26th May 24th June 28th July 26th
August 23rd
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WEDNESDAY NIGHT SHOOTING IS STILL POPULAR WITH THE SHOOTERS. SIGN UP WITH STEVE NORRIS AND THE REST OF THE REGULARS AND TRY YOUR SKILL AND LUCK AT ALL THE GAMES.
Come out and join the fun!
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TRAP RESULTS
16 Yards
Trapshooting Tournaments are suspended until further notice.
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Handicap
Doubles
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Youth Program
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SPONSORS Professional and Industry Vendors
We are going to update this section of the newsletter on a continuing basis as requests come in. If you would like to sponsor our newsletter: contact me at: jloit@bellsouth.net Joe Loitz at 954-857-5278
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