Markham Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays
Markham Park Gun Club Re-Opening Coming Soon!
May Sporting Clays and Skeet Shoots Cancelled 1
Club News - Magazine Review
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For Sake
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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
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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 June 4th Starting at 7:00 PM
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Club News - -
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Regional Hunter Safety Coordinator
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
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Magazine Review Ducks Unlimited – March/April 2020 Preparing for the shot as a bird comes into your decoys or nears for a passing shot is crucial to your success as a hunter. Phil Bourjaily tells us how to prepare correctly in this issue. Like all shooting sports, create your own “trigger thought”. When hunting, look at the bill or head is as good as any. Have someone be the one to call the shot if you aren’t hunting alone. If alone, set markers at range points so you can tell when “in range” is reached. Phil suggests “Get up fast, then take your time.” I like the “take your time” part, but what does getting up fast do you? Does it save one tenth of a second? Get up in rhythm with your mount and swing and I think you’ll get better results. He likes a threestep process: get up, find and focus on a target, mount and shoot. I think seeing my target, focus, mount, and shoot are all pieces of one move. Getting up is the first step but the other four happen as one. Pick one bird and stick with it until if folds, then find another and move
to it. Phil says shooting is all about timing. It’s rhythm not timing. Standing up, focusing on a target, mounting and shooting occur in a rhythm not a timing. A nice slow smooth mount that doesn’t interfere with your focus on the target is the way to go. Slow and smooth in rhythm with the target is the way to a full limit. 5
Magazine Review Shotgun Sports – May 2020 Let me start by saying shooting clinics and individual instruction are different animals. Now, let’s further stipulate, I’ve watched a few individual instruction sessions and didn’t really see any individual instruction either. Guess you could say I’m a little jaded on the topic of shooting clinics. They’re good for the intermediate shooter who wants exposure to ideas about their sport they wouldn’t usually get from books or articles. That being said, Mark H. Taylor gives his opinion on shooting clinics in this month’s article. Every good instructor should check eye dominance and gun fit before starting any instruction. Know that if your clinic doesn’t start by checking eye dominance or gun fit you aren’t going to be getting much in the way of individual instruction. It’s a seminar and not much else. Some clinics are specifically to teach how the organizer shoots. These instructors will rearrange your shotgun to fit the instructor’s ideas about their sport. This may be totally at odds with how you shoot. You signed up to learn a new shooting technique, give it a shot before judging it. You’re going to be doing a lot of shooting and you’re going to get a large volume of information. Take notes, take pictures of white board illustrations, and take video when you can. If the instructor has a DVD, buy it and study it before you arrive at the clinic. You’ll receive drills to learn the concepts the clinic organizer believes in. Practice the drills and know that a different set of drills will have to come from your own understanding of what was
taught when you want to master the new techniques. Clinics aren’t about individual instruction. Don’t expect these instructors to fix your problems. That’s not on the agenda. Don’t expect the revelation of any magic bullets or secrets. Shooting is about learning good fundamentals and applying them when you shoot. You may hear something that suddenly clicks for you, but don’t expect it. Finally, at the end of the clinic get feedback and ask questions. Personally, one day clinics beyond three or four people in size teach the instructors ideas and nothing else. Remember, individual instruction is to fix you, clinics are to learn new techniques. 6
How do we learn to enter the zone at will? Michael J. Keyes, M.D. discusses the idea of the zone and how to practice getting there this month. The zone is an altered state of consciousness not unlike hypnosis. It’s a state of “general unfocused alertness”. How do we get there when we need it? Michael suggests practicing breathing exercises like meditation or centering. Centering is a focusing on your breath in a specific way. “Take a breath and let it out in a controlled manner while focusing on the breath itself and visualizing it going to your center of gravity.” My best shooting has always been when, between shots, I concentrate on my breathing. It does center your concentration, minimizing background distractions, preparing your quiet mind and quiet eyes routine. Now the trick is being able to do it in a stress situation. First learn to control y o u r breathing is a nonstress situation. Take it to a competition and see if it works.
Between shots find a rhythm to your breathing and use it to center yourself around your pre-shot routine. Good Luck!
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Magazine Review
TRAP & FIELD – April 2020 How do you beat a slump? Ian Darroch highlights four areas to concentrate on in this issue. There are only two alternatives for breaking the cycle: continue shooting or take a break. Ian doesn’t believe in taking a break unless the gun is hurting you. If it is, step away from shooting for a few weeks until you figure out why the gun is bucking you in the face (It’s almost always pitch.). He suggests shooting your way out of it using self-analysis to figure out your problem. Later he suggests getting a coach to work with you. It’ll save money and time. Also, while you are wasting time and money shooting your way out of it, you’re drilling in the mistake until you
figure out the problem. Not a good idea, find a coach.
Not all bad scores are a slump. Unless poor scores persist over several weeks don’t assume you’re in a slump. Sometimes it’s just bad weather or background at a club you’re unfamiliar with. Let it go and move on before taking drastic action. Next, it’s usually a technical issue: quiet gun, quiet eyes, change in hold point, change in focal point, change in mount. Go back to basics and see if you don’t’ discover the problem. Finally, don’t be afraid to make changes: POI, gun fit, hold points, look points, etc. You can always go back to square one after a change. Maybe making the change and going back fixes the problem. You start paying more attention to fundamentals and in doing so your slump goes away. Good luck!
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Keeping a shooting log has always been a foundation of good training and planning for your shooting season. Jim Blevins presents us with ideas for our log this month. Start with your goals and use that a planning tool for the year. What do you record about your shooting? Scores of course but be specific. Jim is talking about trap, so he wants the event score such as 22-25-2523. Yes, these can show trends, but it’s better to record which targets were missed and the post you were on. More detail is better. Weather conditions are good metadata for each day’s scores. Were the targets high or low? If you found a way to deal with the conditions, write it down for later reference. Compile data like this in a separate page for quick reference
otherwise it’s just buried data. Important information needs to be quickly available under a heading for quick reference. Jim finishes by throwing out advice for windy days. Slow down, don’t speed up. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve given that advice to be ignored. Jim believes he’s commiserating with us when he laments how scores are lower on windy days and we should accept their likelihood. I don’t accept that and you should never compare your scores to others on the field. The game is between you and the target not the rest of the field. The sooner you realize that the sooner you’ll truly become competitive. 9
Magazine Review CLAY TARGET NATION – April 2020 Driving a car isn’t the only place blind spots exist, we can also experience them shooting. John Shima points out three circumstance where they can occur: Actual, Perceptual, and Psychological. Actual blind spots come from real physical disabilities or other physical interference such as background, shadowing, clouds, and the sun. Any of these affect your ability to pick up, lock on, or follow the target. Perceptual blind spots come from mental miscues. Your pre-shot routine should prevent holes in your target preparation, visually and mentally. Don’t follow your pre-shot routine and visual disruption oc-
curs in your soft focus at the focal point. Ignoring your pre-shot routine also means you have less mental acuity anticipating the target’s appearance. Either of these cause a disruption in your usual shooting rhythm leaving you behind in your pre-planned move. The same effect as an actual visual blind spot.
Psychological blind spots are the point of John’s article. These are knowledge, experience, or understanding a shooter lacks yet needs to deal with an emotional situation (read that as a concentration or focus limiting situation) or a field condition that demands a higher level of concentration or awareness from the shooter. His solution here is a four-step plan. 1. What’s the primary goal? List what you need, thoughts and emotions, to reach the goal. 2. What thoughts and emotions arise while you shoot that interfere with reaching your goal? Again, make a list. 3. W here are these thoughts and emotions rooted? Write down why you think these ideas are interfering with the goal. 4. These competing thoughts are your blind spots. Again, what is the goal? Maybe your concern with score is where your thoughts are misplaced. You should be putting your concer n on lear ning to break every target expertly. You can’t master the score you can only master the sport.10
shooter (more lucky), change is the only way you are going to get there.
This change needs to be in both your technical and strategic approaches to shooting and in your mental state. As to mental state, hope is the belief that success is ri ght around the corner. Studies have shown, hope is more important to success than perseverance. Perseverance implies plodding without changing the characteristics of the process. Hope implies the willingness to change to get where you hope to be. Perseverance also implies trying to control the outcome rather than being open to change to get to a better result. Optimism means a great deal to being successful and hope is part of that mental strategy.
How do you make luck happen? John Shima lays out ideas about getting lucky that seem to be in line with the Roman philosopher Seneca who said: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” According to research lucky people are more relaxed and open to pursuing opportunities than unlucky people. Unlucky people are prone to be more tense and anxious. John believes if you want to get lucky you must be willing and open to change. If you want to become a better
Trust your process and allow yourself to watch the target break rather than trying to control the outcome. If you shoot as a mindful shooter you are grateful (lucky) every time a target breaks because you let your preplanned move happen without conscious effort. With no conscious effort the target “magically” breaks as if a supernatural force is involved. John calls this the Shooting Self, the egoless shooter. The Mindful Shooter feels lucky every time the target breaks and expects to be lucky on every shot. Let go, let the process happen, and you’ll become luckier as a shooter. 11
Magazine Review Shooting over a target is the most common error in shotgunning. Proper shot planning can remedy this especially on the second target in a pair. Clayton M. Rue
recommends always moving your barrels upwards on both targets of a pair. I suppose there’s an exception allowed for falling second targets. Plan your pairs, visualize the shot taking each target of the pair first, then choose the visualization where both targets require an upward move. Don’t choose a situation where moving to the second target places you over it’s line. The root cause of swinging over a target isn’t the planning phase. Most shooters spoil the line due to technical problems in their mount and stance not poor planning. Poor gun fit is another great candidate for spoiling the line. If shooting over targets is your main mistake, you should see a good instructor. It may tur n out the root cause is something you do wrong every time you mount the gun! 12
According to Paul Giambrone III, the standard break zone for an outgoing or crossing skeet target is 15 to 20 feet before the center stake. The blame for shooting them outside that area could be a poor setup, poor start, or the shooter’s riding the target. Setup issues will affect your visual acquisition and your body rotation. Don’t fix a poor setup by shooting faster. Alter your stance, focal point, and remember to rotate with the swing. How do you train yourself to break a skeet target in the standard break zone? Paul suggests marking your hold point with a stack of targets or orange cone at 21 feet from the house. You could go one better and also put a stack at 15 feet from the center stake. Get yourself on video making your move. Video tells you volumes about what you really do when you shoot. Check the height of your hold point. Always start under the bottom of the window on the High house target and don’t go much above the top of the window for the Low house. Your focal point should be halfway back to the house from your hold point. Personally, my eyes are in front of the window on 3, 4, and 5. I always thought halfway back was only for 2 and 6. Training yourself to rotate from the ankles up on the flash of the target is the next big issue. Moving on the flash from just the waist up is common, but
it’s exceedingly more efficient from the ankles up. John Shima’s incomer drill is great training for body rotation. Shoot three or four incomers on every Station, concentrating on a full body swing for each target. Moving on to an outgoing target drill afterwards makes remembering to rotate with the target much easier. Drill it in and shooting in the break zone before the stake isn’t as difficult as it was before. 13
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi
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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
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. Abraham Lincoln
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I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something.
Neil Gaiman 17
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4 Youth Night
5 Skeet Night
6 Trap Night
7 8 Sporting Clays
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11 Youth Night
12 Skeet Night
13 Trap Night
14 15 Sporting Clays
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18 Youth Night
19 Skeet Night
20 Trap Night
21 22 Sporting Clays
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24 25 26 Memorial Skeet Trap Tourney Day Night Closed
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28 29 Sporting Clays
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1 Youth Night
2 Skeet Night
3 Trap Night
4 5 Sporting Clays
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8 Youth Night
9 Skeet Night
10 Trap Night
11 12 Sporting Clays
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15 Youth Night
16 Skeet Night
17 Trap Night
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22 Youth Night
23 Skeet Night
24 Trap Night
25 26 Sporting Clays
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29 Trap Youth Tourney Night
30 Skeet Night
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Skeet Tourney
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
It's always nice to be on the practice field because, ultimately, practice is the most important thing other than the game because that's where you gain your confidence; that's where you get your fundamentals. Julian Edelman
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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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