Markham Park Gun Club
Youth Program Mondays 6-9
NSSA Skeet Saturday, October 5th
ATA Trap Sunday, September 22th
NSCA Sporting Clays September 14th
Volume 14 Issue 09 Trail Glades
Trapshoot September 21st Skeet shoot September 28th
Next General Meeting
ON REQUEST FROM SECRETARY
ClubNews
Congratulations to Jake Hooper of our Monday night crew, who you see on the cover! He came home with two trophies from the Trapshooting Grand American shoot in Sparta, Illinois. Dax Demena also won at Sparta, winning Class C Champion in a Doubles event!
Markham is now renting golf carts for the sporting clays course! They are $25 for three hours.
Lunch will be provided by CUBAN PRESS—Magic City Cuisine food truck for the Sporting Clays event this month. The last Sporting Clays Tournament saw 43 shooters in attendance.
Trap did well again last month with 16 shooters attending and 2,100 targets thrown. The skeet shoot was still disappointing this month with only 2 shooters and 200 targets.
Attendance on Mondays continures to be affected by rain cancellations. We are still getting 58 on the advanced field and 4-6 on the beginner field. If you are interested in Youth coaching or just getting experience as a coach, come and see us on a Monday night and get the paperwork started.
See you at the club.
Joe Loitz 954-857-5278 jloit@bellsouth.net
CLAYTARGET NATION – September 2024
Tim Short gives instruction on the High 8 skeet targets this month. There are some good incites here and some things needing clarification. As to Hold Point, he suggests holding four feet to the right of the window. Hold Points are simply a suggested starting point. Take his four feet suggestion and play with it. Start at four feet then move out to five feet or further. I hold closer to eight feet o. the window. He also holds at the top corner of the window. I hold at the window’s bottom corner. The golden rule of all shotgun sports, if possible, hold at a point where the tar-
get comes out over your barrels. I feel holding at the top corner causes the target to enter your field of vision below your barrels. Always keep the target above your barrels, especially on a fast, short window target such as High 8.
Break the High 8 at half or two-thirds the distance to the center stake makes good sense to me. He backs this up with logic, your pattern is wider at these distances than later in its flight. Many people break the High 8 just before the center stake. The breaks are usually spectacular black clouds of smoke! The longer swing, however, introduces a good chance you could spoil the line or lose visual lock on the target. Shorter swings means less chance of error.
Tim uses the word “tracking”when he talks about the visual lock on the target. Tracking implies a relationship between the target and barrel. See the target and go directly to the sight picture, which in the case of the High 8 means seeing the target and barrels meet. As to stance I like how he doesn’t suggest squaring o. to the window, which many shooters do. He likes using the Modern Stance, lead leg slightly bent, shoulders relaxed. Finally, keep your head on the stock as you swing. He wants us to let our forend hand guide the barrels movement. Be careful with that suggestion. It’s easy to let the forend hand overpower the swing, burying your face in the stock, entirely losing the sight picture. Shoot some High
8’s and let me know what works for you. Clayton M. Rue reminds us to keep a positive attitude this month when we step into the box. He gives us the usual mantra, concentrate on the process, not the results. Execute the shot plan with confidence. Don’t let negative fears creep in to sabotage your shot. Not really a fan of the Lanny Bassham mental positivity doctrine. Concentrate on the process and try to break each target perfectly. As John Shima says, “watch the target break”. Concentrate on that and your scores will take care of themselves.
CLAYTARGET NATION – September 2024
If you’ve followed me over the years you know I’m a swing-through advocate. Personally, I think it’s the more athletic approach to shooting a target. Probably biased by the fact I learned shotgunning as a trapshooter and hunter where the target flies a constant speed and flight path. Ducks don’t lose power as they fly by at 3050 mph and trap targets aren’t shot as they drop. Not true of many sporting clay shots where maintained-lead is an advised technique. Regardless of my preferences, I truly enjoyed George Digweed’s article on his use of swingthrough. His explanations should quiet any beliefs that it is a blind slashing at the target as many believe. A practiced athlete like George champions the subtle control obtained by the correct use of this method. Swing-through has the advantage of seeing the target in front of the barrels, eliminating errors that can be made if the target jumps or drops. If the
target varies from the line of flight, adjustments can be made as needed, just as a tennis player adjusts his swing if the ball takes an odd bounce. Much harder to do if your barrels are out in front of the target. As to the sight-picture and shot, George doesn’t go “ripping through the bird.” He moves just fast enough to accommodate the speed required to get in front of the target, then he uses his hands and eyes to fin-
George likens his technique to Anthony Matarese Jr.’s pull-away technique. Anthony mounts his gun on or slightly in front of the target, George mounts behind it. Both use their eyes and hands to adjust to the target’s speed and trajectory to finish the shot when their sub -conscious tells them they’ve acquired the correct sight picture. Obviously swingthrough isn’t the technique to use on dropping targets. George admits to using maintainedlead or a slight pull-away method on these targets.
I like his use of the “invisible box on flat, fast chandelles. The target enters the top corner of the box and he shoots it at the opposite bottom corner of the box. “It’s almost as if the target is falling into my shot string.” Gotta say, this is the same feeling I get when I shoot
those targets. Of course, he breaks them more consistently than I do.
He reminds us to be relaxed and comfortable at the break point, even if that means he is slightly uncomfortable at the hold point. He hints at a whole-body rotation to the target as he brings the gun up behind the target. George holds hard focus on the target just long enough to feel he’s in control of the shot. On long crossers he may run with the target before taking the shot.
Finally, George feels that maintainedlead or pull-away shooters never build a natural relationship with the rhythm of the target and their eyes. He says he never talks about lead. Focus, feel, and being smooth are what matters in a shot.
MagazineReview
SHOOTING SPORTSMAN – SeptemberOctober 2024
We have a nice article on shotgun ribs this month from Delbert Whitman, Jr., a gunsmith from Michigan and Reid Bryant, simply referred to as an Editor at Large. They put together a very comprehensive review of di.erent shotgun ribs and their origin and the theory behind them. For instance, Robert Churchill created the “Churchill rib” which featured tapering from the receiver to the end of the barrels to make his short-barreled (25”), side-by-side shotguns seem longer. Rib preference all boils down to a personal opinion. I’ve shot all sorts over my life as a target and game shooter. I prefer a high, tapered rib with two beads. I cannot tolerate the view of a Browning Broadway rib or those hideous fluorescent beads. Other than that,
I’m good. My hunting guns have one bead, my others have both beads. I like beads, don’t care what you like. If you want to shoot without them or just a middle bead, good for you. It’s a personal choice. Del and Reid end their review by stating, “the rib and bead should become nearly invisible when the gun is mounted and fired.” This is predicated on a well-fitted gun, which most people don’t have. I’m big on gun fit. Most shooters either don’t hold the shotgun correctly or the stock is too long, incorrectly pitched or cast, or the comb height is wrong. Can’t tell you how many times people mount their gun, right after stating, “I just got it fitted” and I wince at how badly it looks at their shoulder. If the gun doesn’t feel athletically comfortable, it doesn’t fit. Like most major medical events in your life, get a second opinion or third before deciding on getting a stock/gun fitted to you.
NSSA-NSCA Target Talk LESSONS
There are two articles, one by John Shima and one by Clayton Rue, that together paint a good picture of how the head and body need to work together as you follow and swing to the target. John talks about how asynchronous movement between the head and gunstock causes interference with the shooter’s kinetic reflexes and their visual pursuit of the target. Clayton chimes in and talks about tracking the target across the sky with your head, but the barrels remain stationary at the hold point.
athletic response to the target, i.e, you lose athletic rhythm with the target and you won’t swing naturally or freely.
The thrust of John’s article is about proper head placement on the stock, eyes level with the barrels throughout the shot. Head tilt or following a target with just your eyes can cause a disconnect with your natural
Clayton discusses a similar asynchronous visual situation where the shooter follows the target with their head without also following with the barrels. This sounds like a long crosser or incoming target. Regardless, he gets into stance and how the head should be centered between the feet and your stance should be neutral. I don’t know any sport where you swing a club, racket, paddle, or bat where you don’t lean into the shot. It is more athletic to move from the ankles up, swinging with the target instead of swinging from just your waist. He is correct, do not shift weight from on foot to the other, but the athletic move is to place more weight on the lead foot as you rotate.
An athletic stance creates a more natural synchronicity with your visual lock on the target and as John says creates a freer kinetic response to the target.
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
Saturday,October5th
Signupstarts8:00 ShootingStartsat9:00
50targets12gauge
50targets20gauge
50targets28gauge
50targets.410gauge
50targetsDoubles
$22each50targets
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Registered Shooting and Events in South Florida
Gun Shows
Miramar National Guard Armory September 28-29th
Skeet
Markham October 5th
Trail Glades September 28th
Trap
Palm Beach September 14th
Trail Glades September 21st
Markham September 22nd
Sporting Clays
Markham September 14th
South Florida September 15th
Vero Beach September 19th
Quail Creek October 6th
OK Corral October 12th
what you should have
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 SEPTEMBER 14TH
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.
and eye protection on the course.
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
Skeet Results
Markham Skeet, Trap, & Sporting Clays
“Don’t mistake activity for achievement. To produce results, tasks must be well organized and properly executed; otherwise, it’s no different from children running around the playground—everybody is doing something, but nothing is being done; lots of activity, no achievement.”
JohnWooden
Trap Program Trap Program:
Trap Tournaments are usually the fourth Sunday of the month.
SCHEDULE 2024-25
October27th
November24th
December22nd
January26th
February23rd
March9th
April27th
May25th
June22nd
July27th
August24th SPECIALNOTICE
100 target 16 Yd, Hdcp and Doubles events.
First 100 targets.
$42.00
(Includes ATA and FTA daily fees)
Additional 100 target events. $36.00
See Joe Loitz for details: 954-857-5278
WEDNESDAY NIGHT SHOOTING IS STILL POPULAR WITH THE SHOOTERS. SIGN UP WITH THE REST OF THE REGULARS AND TRY YOUR SKILL AND LUCK AT ALL THE GAMES.
Come out and join the fun!
MarkhamSkeet,Trap, andSportingClays
Handicap
