Next General Meeting
ON REQUEST FROM SECRETARY
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Lunch will be provided by CHICAGO ME UP food truck for the Sporting Clays event this month. I still haven’t shot a registered event since I got my shoulders done last year and looks like I’ll be missing this shoot because of a prior commitment. I really wanted to see what CHICAGO ME UP had to offer!
Love a good Chicago Hotdog!
Trap was off last month, only 13 shooters attended, shooting 1,500 targets. The skeet shoot was still disappointing this month with only 3 shooters and 250 targets. Sporting Clays was up with 58 shooters last month. Guess lunch does draw people in!
a Monday night and get the paperwork started.
If you know someone who would like the newsletter, forward them a copy and tell them to email me so I can add them to the list.
Attendance on Mondays continues to be excellent.
Most nights we have 12-15 shooters. If you are interested in Youth coaching or just getting experience as a coach, come and see us on
There are some nice Ruger shotguns for sale on page 12, also a Browning Citori. Check them out.
Joe Loitz 954-857-5278
jloit@bellsouth.net
ClubNews
SHOTGUNINSTRUCTION BEGINNER,INTERMEDIATE,ANDADVANCED TRAP,SKEET,ANDSPORTINGCLAYS JOELOITZ 5-TIMEALLAMERICAN CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR NRA ATA NSCA NSSA 954-857-5278 JLOIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
CLAY TARGET NATION – May 2024
Missing isn’t affected by the ammunition you use or your gun’s choke. If you read this month’s issue you will come away from the article on George Digweed knowing full and full fixed chokes will break any target they throw, including skeet. Don’t think for one minute using a more open choke will get you an extra target. It may, but what did it prove, instead of a 70 you broke 71. Working on your mechanics, visual game, and mental game will get you to the stage where choke and ammo doesn’t matter.
JohnShima confronts missing this month
and breaks the solution into three components: mechanical, visual, and mental. Improve any one of these components and your scores will improve. John’s emphasis is always on the visual game and he’s not wrong. I’ve found however, most people have never improved their mechanical game enough to where improving their visual game will have a long-term beneficial effect on their overall game. Same is true with the mental game. If your mechanical game is flawed it’s hard to implement a good visual or mental game.
The mechanical aspect of the game is the gun mount, foot position, and the actual swing mechanics. Proper gun mount/stance will keep your head on the stock, create a smoother swing, and creates an athletic move to the target. Poor mount/stance prevents a proper integration
between the mechanical and visual games. If your mount/stance isn’t correct you’ll lift your head either as soon as you see the target or as you swing on it, or you will lean back to move the gun, which causes spoiling of the line and a swing over the target, or you will swing the gun up first before swinging towards the target, now you’ve lost sight of the target and have to reacquire it, or you may swing in a banana shaped swing, because physically it’s easier to swing the barrels up than swinging parallel with the target’s flight path. If your stance was proper you wouldn’t do this.
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MagazineReview
What I’m getting at is, most people think they swing the gun just fine in perfect coordination with their visual lock on the target. They don’t. Like John says, there are shooters who have 100% visual lock on the target and then there are those who are visually aware of both the target and barrels as they swing. This is like looking at your racket, bat, or golf club as you hit a ball. Your swing will never be perfect until you fix this visual dependence on the barrels and part of the problem is that poor mount/stance worsens the issue, preventing
you from visually locking on the target and swinging freely.
Get help on your mount/stance and swing mechanics before trying to improve your visual and mental games. Get an opinion from a qualified coach, then start working on the more advanced items. If your mechanics are messing up your visual and mental game what good does it do, trying to improve them before fixing the real problem, your mechanics.
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Shotgun Sports– June 2024
Mindsets are “a set of core assumptions about the nature of the many things we encounter and how processes appear to work.” Without mindsets our brains would be overwhelmed by the amount of information we have to process each day. Mindsets allow us to predict how we should react to this huge set of information we receive every day. Unfortunately, mindsets are hard to change.
Michael J. Keyes, M.D. walks us through how to change our mindsets to improve our game this month.
How do you change your mindset?
Change-up your practice routine by varying intensity, changing focus on different aspects of your game, and taking time off. Wayne Mayes, one of the greatest skeet shooters of all time credited much of his success to an intense period of shooting early in his career. As I recall he shot something like 5,000 targets in a month and it forever changed his game, obviously, to the better. Changing focus on different aspects of your game can be something like working only on right to left, left to right, straight-away, dropping, or incoming targets for a whole weekend. Or work on your transition between doubles/truepair targets. If you take time off, do it for a reason. Maybe you’re moving too
soon on targets before you get true visual lock on them. Concentrate on the issue by visualizing what you want and take some time off to let the idea sink in.
Michael ends this missive with stress and its effect on the mindset. He says stress itself isn’t the problem, but how we view stress. Studies show that people who view stress-is-enhancing are more successful in their efforts than people who view stress-is-detrimental. If you succumb to a negative view towards stress, your efforts to improve will be less effective than if you embrace the stress as part of the process of improving.
MagazineReview
While Matthew Gay’s article’s focus is on our northern brethren and off-season drills, there’s some good advice to be found in his article. Foot position is something that comes naturally to me, but it doesn’t for many shooters. Always check your foot position whenever you step up to a post or station. Are you setting up so your foot positioning leaves you in a comfortable stance at the break point? Many shooters just walk up to a post or station and assume the rifleman stance and foot position, lead foot at 12:00-1:00 and trailing foot at 2:003:00 (right-handed). Left-handed would be 11:00-12:00 and 10:00-9:00. This is great if the target’s thrown straight-away from you but is problematic if it is an extreme right to left target for a right-hander or extreme left to right target for a left-hander. Always set your feet for the break point of the extreme target or second target in a pair.
Some drills Matthew suggests can be done all year long. Practice mounting your gun 50-100 times a day isn’t a bad idea
It builds consistency and strength. The caveat is that your gun should fit you properly. Before practicing your mount it’s a good idea to get an opinion on how your mount looks. A trusted, knowledgeable shooter or instructor is the opinion you’re looking for. Speaking of second opinions, if you are a lowgun shooter, have someone watch your mount to the target. Do you move with the target, bringing the gun to your face as you near the break point? Or do you call for the target then immediately mount the gun to your face before you move to the target. If you do this, you’re doing it wrong. Finally, review your pre-shot routine. Is there more you could do to clear your mind and enter soft focus for the target. Visual focus on the target is paramount to a successful shot. Be sure you are fully invested visually on the target as you shoot. Be mindful of this and “watch” yourself shoot on some easy quartering targets. You may be surprised by what you see.
9 ClayShootingUSA—January-February 2024
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12 FORSA.LE
ROYAL SPORTING ARMS
located in Davie, FL right on I-595 and 5 Minutes From Markham Park Trap Skeet and Sporting Clays Club. We are open year round to serve you at our FL Location.
Here at Royal Sporting Arms we are excited to help you with your next gun purchase.
We
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carry new
used Beretta, Perazzi, Rizzini, Krieghoff, Blaser, Syren, Fa-
are a full service shop, offering Fine guns, Ammo, stocks, over and under Barrels, gunsmithing, Gunstock work, recoil pads etc
Pay TOP DOLLAR for your used guns and also take firearms on trade / consignment! We are excited to see and work with you! Please contact our team to make an appointment or to stop in! FLORIDA /USA: (954)-676-0714 / (954)-394-5134 Federico Ramirez Royal Sporting Arms Phone: (954) 394-5134 Email: royalsportingarms@gmail.com Website: https://www.royalsportingarms.com
and
barm, Caesar Guerini. We
We'll
17 FLORIDA / USA: (954)-676-0714 / (954)-394-5134 Federico Ramirez Royal Sporting Arms Phone: (954) 394-5134 Email: royalsportingarms@gmail.com Website: https://www.royalsportingarms.com
MarkhamSkeet,Trap&SportingClays ATATrapshoot Sunday,June23th Signupstarts8:00 ShootingStartsat9:00 10016Yardtargets 100Handicaptargets 100Doublestargets $42first100targets $36foreachadditional100 AdditionalShootDates SeePage38
TrailTrap&Skeet ATATrapshoot June15th Signupstarts8:00 ShootingStartsat9:00 10016Yardtargets 100Handicaptargets 100Doublestargets $40first100targets $34foreachadditional100
Saturday,June8th
50targets12gauge
50targets20gauge
50targets28gauge
50targets.410gauge
50targetsDoubles
$22each50targets
MarkhamSkeet,Trap&SportingClays NSSASkeetTournament
Signupstarts8:00 ShootingStartsat9:00
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Program Night Night Clays
Program
Tourney
Trap Youth Trap
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 Skeet Tourney 7 8 Youth Program 9 Skeet Night 10 Trap Night 11 Sporting Clays 12 13 Sporting Tourney 14 15 Youth Program 16 Skeet Night 17 Trap Night 18 Sporting Clays 19 20 21 22 Youth Program 23 Skeet Night 24 Trap Night 25 Sporting Clays 26 27 28 Trap Tourney 29 Youth Program 30 Skeet Night 31 Trap Night
26 When you walk on a court, clear your mind of everything unrelated to the goal of playing the match as well as you can. Stan Smith 954-846-2336
2024 Schedule NSCA
Sporting Clay Tournaments
Date Tournament
Saturday Jan. 27th Snow Bird Open
February No Shoot in February
Saturday Mar. 30th St. Patrick’s Day Open
Sunday April 14th Gerry Stumm Memorial
Sunday May 19th Memorial Day Open
Saturday June 22nd 23rd Annual Sunshine State Classic
Saturday July 13th Super Sizzle Open
Saturday Aug. 10th Summers End Open
Saturday Sept. 14th Markham Fall Fest Open
Sunday Oct. 20th Pumpkin Blast
Sunday Nov. 3rd Richard Merritt Memorial
Sunday - Dec 22nd Bud Wolfe Classic
SATURDAY JUNE 22ND
Registration: Opens 8:30 a.m. and will close at 10:00 a.m.
All scorecards must be turned in by 1:00 p.m. in order to be posted.
Entry Fee: $80
No Scorers or Trappers will be provided.
Shooters will be asked to squad themselves into groups of at least 3 and designate a field judge to verify scores for the squad. Tiebreaker station rankings will be posted during registration.
Lunch will be served.
COURSERULES:Allshootersandspectatorsarerequiredtowearear andeyeprotectiononthecourse.
SPORTING CLAYS PROGRAM 23rd Annual Sunshine State Classic
100 Targets Shot over 14 Stations
N.S.C.A.,
Hunter,
SubJunior, Junior
$80
$60.00
MAXIMUM LOADS PERMITTED: 12GA, 3 DR EQ, 1 1/8 oz. Shot 7 1/2. For additional information contact: Jon Roberts (786)-210-9448 email: MarkhamSportingClaysClub@gmail.com Please Preregister using: scorechaser.com
\CONCURRENTS SPORTINGCLAYSRESULTS 2024MEMORIALDAYSHOOT HOA58ENTRANTS CHJUANJARAMILLO 95 RUALEXRIERO 90 M1TEDGRAY 83 M2LUISHERRARO 82 M3DONOVANAMRITT 81 AA1MATTHEWDANIELS 80 AA2GREGORYMORISSET 77 AA3EDWARDLEE 77 A1FERNANDOALVARADO 82 A2DANIELNARANJO 75 A3TOMDALY 75 B1JAMESBALDWIN 84 B2DAXDAMENA 77 B3ALLENFURIA 69 C1ANTHONYBALSAM 84 C2MIKEBARANET 79 C3RICHARDWILLIAMS 74 D1EROSCOLLAZO 82 D2LUISRAMOS 81 D3OSWALDOBETANCOURT 80 E1GEORGECAMPBELL 67 E2AUSTINSWEENY-HENLEY 65 E3PATRICKBROOK 62 LADYCHRACHEL 24 SUB-JRCHDAMIENCRELLER 68 SUB-JRRUPATRICKBROOK 62 JRCHJOSEPHMARLEY 69 JRRULIAMMARLEY 63 VETCHTEDGRAY 83 VETRUFERNANDOALVAREDO 82 VET3RDWAYNEAMRITT 81 SVETCHALEXRIERA 90 SVETRUEDWARDLEE 77 SSRVETCHALLENFURIA 69 SSRVETRURICHARDREBER 69 SSRVET3RDELIOCIOCCA 62 HUNTERCHBARRYCORWIN 75 HUNTERRUPERRERENAUD 70 HUNTER3RDRACHELGONZALEZ 69
Price per 50 targets includes $5/100 NSSA/FSA Fee
.410 gauge 50 Targets $22.00
28 gauge 50 Targets $22.00
20 gauge 50 Targets $22.00
12 gauge 50 Targets $22.00
Doubles 50 Targets $22.00
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
32 MONTHLYSKEETPROGRAM
