2020 March Markham Skeet and Trap Newsletter

Markham Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays

Sporting Clays March 15th Trapshoot March 29th Skeet Shoot March 7th

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Club News - Magazine Review

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SOUTHEAST REGIONALS AND FOR SALE

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Calender of Events

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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 May 7th Starting at 7:00 PM

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Club News

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Magazine Review Trapshooting USA – March/April 2020

Doubles seems to be receiving a fair amount of attention lately. Sean Hawley chimes in with his advice this month. He starts with information on how to adjust a Pat-Trap if you get to a field and your targets aren’t set properly. I’m not going to go into that. If you need to adjust the trap, ask management. What I do like is his description of what a good Doubles target should look like. You should be able to stand between Posts 1 and 2, call for a pair, and the right-hand target should be a dead straight-away. Same is true for the left target.

Stand between Posts 4 and 5, call for a pair, and the left target should be a straight-away. If the targets are nowhere near being a straight-away, ask your squad leader to get them adjusted.

If the targets are only slightly off dead straightaway, I suggest adjusting where you stand on the Post to accommodate these small variations in the first target. Move to the right or left side of the Post to get the look you want on the first bird. The rules require one foot be on the imaginary centerline for the Post. This means you can stand to the right or left side of the Post as long as you keep one foot on that imaginary center line. If this makes the first target more suitable to your tastes, do it.

Sean and many other writers talk a great deal about how to stand on the Post. Some people need a slight adjustment to favor the second target is all I’m going to say. Shift to make yourself comfortable. He also likes his weight forward 60-70%. I agree. Weight forward and use your whole body to swing to the target.

Hold point is a very personal choice and comes from how you see the target and where you need to be to make your best move to the first target. Sean presents his ideas and I don’t disagree with them.

The simple solution is, on Post 1 hold to the left of where the first target comes out, on 2 hold to the right, on 3 always shoot the right bird first and hold

off the right corner of the house. On Post 4 hold to the left of where the left target appears and on 5 hold to the right of the left-hand target.

Height over the house is dictated by what’s comfortable and what’s the best setup for moving to the second target. Shooting the first target too quickly can sometimes trigger you to shoot too soon on the second target. Shooting the first target too late can destroy your rhythm on the second shot. Shoot some practice rounds and you will understand what I mean.

There are some other good articles in this issue.

The interviews of the All-American Captains by Jacque Snellenberger is one of those. I really enjoyed Al Hague’s interview with Steve Carmichael. I shot with Steve at the 1976 Grand and hung out with him at the Grand whenever I got the chance. Super nice guy! He knew everyone in the sport and had a great career. Give it a read, you’ll enjoy it!

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Magazine Review

imize your breaks. Now add 3/8ths of an inch to the comb, then go out and shoot a round. This is to cement what “too high” looks and feels like.

Of course, take the extra height off the comb after the round.

One thing he doesn’t mention, don’t adjust your sight picture to accommodate the changes. Consistency is vital on each target. Each shot’s sight picture must look the same. Some people will unconsciously modify their sight picture to center the adjusted POI on the target. This means if the POI is too low, they will cover the target to get it to smoke. Shoot like you normally would, accepting the weak breaks and misses. Instinctive shooters can “feel” where the gun shoots and on an easy straight-away they will adjust their sight picture to accommodate where the gun shoots. The sight pictures must be consistent regardless of where the POI is.

TRAP & FIELD – February 2020 Phil Kiner on the other hand has a great deal to say about setting up a shotgun’s Point of Impact (POI). I won’t go through all the article other than to give the key points. If you think you could improve your shooting by experimenting with your POI, consider what Phil has to say. He does go about it scientifically. Set a trap on dead straight-away from Post 3. Add a 1/16th of an inch to your comb and do some shooting. If the targets aren’t turning to smoke, add another 1/16th. Keep adding until you stop seeing smoke.

Now dial it back a 1/16th of an inch at a time until you find your POI sweet spot.

Shoot some targets on Post 2 and 5 to confirm your findings. For some reason he suggests adding or subtracting a 1/16th of an inch on Post 4 until you get solid smoke. Now shoot 25 targets, five on each post. If you keep getting solid results, set the trap to oscillate and shoot a normal round. Adjust the comb for comfort and to max-

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Bob Palmer wants beginning shooters to be aware of some common issues surrounding the learning curve for those new to shooting. First, everyone goes through the pain of being a beginner and learning a new sport.

Persist, practice, and allow yourself to learn your way out of beginner status. Two, create a vision of success and keep it in view as you progress.

Three, we all know how to learn and as we get better the learning will be more fun.

Four, find role models to emulate on your path to learning. Five, create a strategy to reach your vision of success. Six, you need to be excited about learning and feel engaged with the process. Seven, let your failures go and keep moving forward. Missing is good during practice. It means you’re pushing the envelope and you’ve just learned where the outside limit is.

Jim Blevins continues with his discussion on adjusting your gun. Nothing really exciting in the article. Raise the comb is you want your gun to shoot higher, move the cast on your stock in the direction you want to shoot.

That’s it.

ClayShootingUSA – January-February 2020 Nothing to report on the instruction scene in this issue. I do however enjoy the reporting on the major shoots in this magazine. There is also an interview with Joe Fanizzi. If you don’t subscribe to this magazine, you should.

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Magazine Review CLAYTARGET NATION – February 2020 Misses for intermediate and advanced shooters occur for totally different reasons than misses for the beginner. Detecting the causes for those misses is much more complicated than a simple technical mistake. John Shima lays out a five-step process to get to the root causes of your shooting problems. First, prioritize your goals. Big goals come after small ones.

Complete the small goals and the big one will take care of itself. Small goals like polishing and improving one aspect of your technique add up to the bigger goals. Improve your visual, mechanical, or mental game to set yourself up for the big goal.

Second, identify your problems. John believes mechanical issues are usually seated in the mental game. Improve your mental game and your visual and mechanical discipline will improve. Third, find the root cause of your problem. Are you more concerned with breaking the next target than you are with how you’re accomplishing the shot. Watch the target break, as John would say. Find the deep-seated issue stopping

you from performing a perfect shot and you are on the way to better scores.

Fourth, mentally program your game through your pre-shot routine. As part of that routine you should use a few key words to remind you to focus your attention. To wrap up, the root cause to many misses is a mental issue that needs resolution. Find out what it is and fix it.

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Clayton M. Rue reminds use to shoot defensively on technical targets: slow movers at distance, transitioning targets, off-speed targets, and second targets that are different speeds than the first bird. Shoot offensively on fast crossers and short window targets. Attack these targets quickly so they don’t affect your success on the second target.

In Sporting Clays should you dismount between targets? For a report pair you may want to, depending on how close the second target’s appearance is to the break point of the first target. When there’s distance between birds, dismount. Don Currie recommends you stay mounted on fast traplike targets and short-window, second targets. Otherwise, feel free to dismount if you’re more comfortable going to low gun.

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Magazine Review CLAYTARGET NATION – February 2020 When you step to the line you need a routine and plan for each shot. Doesn’t matter is you’re stepping to Post 1 in trap, Station 1 in skeet, or into a Station in sporting clays.

You need to know where to look for the target, where to hold, where you want to break it, and how you are going to swing to make everything happen. Todd Bender reminds us a pre-shot plan and a pre-shot routine are critical on each shot this month. Without these two components you can’t hope to ever be disciplined or consistent. Every shooter needs to create and follow pre-shot plans and routines if they want to be able to repeat a successful shot.

Next Todd slips into the mental game and attaching importance to the outcome of any shot. Focus on breaking each target and let the score take care of itself. Let your conscious mind be absorbed by the process of breaking the target. Outside distractions disappear if you concentrate on the simple act of shooting the target in front of you.

When confronted by a distraction, look at it, recognize it, and move on to shooting the next target.

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John Shima’s article is a compendium on self-coaching. Effective self-coaching needs to be positive. You really can’t selfcoach without using self-talk. Self-talk needs to be motivational and positive. Reinforce the correct behaviors and don’t criticize. Don’t use your self-talk to remind yourself of things you should avoid. Next, create a well-designed and personalized Pre -shot plan and Pre-shot routine. Get some help from a shooting coach if you don’t have either of these.

I’m going to relate the rest of the article as a stream of thought on things to improve your game. Things that you can self-coach yourself through. Determine a goal and create a plan to get there. Get coaching help to assist you in getting to your goal. If possible, gather a group of like-minded people around you help achieve your goal.

When you go to shoot, do so with a purpose. Pay attention to what your task at hand is for the day. Your pre-shot routine is there to help you stay focused when the outside world intrudes on your plans.

Vision is crucial to your success. Get your eyes checked regularly and be aware of the importance of your peripheral vision when you shoot. Don’t overwork yourself when practicing and don’t get upset over missed targets during practice. You’re supposed to miss when practicing. It’s part of learning.

There are no quick paths to perfection. Incremental changes produce the best longterm results. Stay positive. Set short-term goals for every training session so you have something positive to reflect on when the session is completed. Remember, karma is part of a good positive attitude. Treat oth-

ers at the range with respect and show grace and gratitude to your shooting partners. It will pay itself back tenfold.

There will be setbacks. Have the grit to accept them and work out how to get back on track. Short-term failure is a form of helpful feedback. Accept it and move forward. Don’t wallow in it. Stay positive, take a step back then move on. Boost your self-confidence. Avoid too much constructive criticism. John says use five positive reinforcing statements for every constructive criticism.

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Magazine Review Shotgun Sports – March 2020 Michael J. Keyes, M.D. continues his journey, learning how to shoot trap. This month he talks about watching YouTube instructional videos. Viewing the videos only confused him and messed up what basics he thought he had a handle on. Videos aren’t a quick fix solution. The knowledge doesn’t naturally osmose through your eyes into your muscle response.

You need a certain level of shooting ability before videos can be of any instructional use.

If you don’t have enough shooting experience to empathize with what is going on in the video, you won’t get anything out of them. At this stage of Michael’s development, videos are a waste of time.

Later, as a shooter progresses, videos can be very beneficial. Even then, only by shooting and working out what the video is telling you in real time with a real gun and targets can you get anything out of videos. Shooting targets and practicing the principles in the video creates a physical and emotional connection to what the video is professing. Until you’ve actually shot targets, you don’t have enough physical and emotional connection with

shooting to tag the video advice to what you already know. That was Michael’s problem.

He didn’t have enough experience as a shooter to relate correctly to the videos.

As an aside Michael talks about visualization for the beginning shooter. The beginning shooter doesn’t have enough practical experience with a gun, sight picture, and a target to use visualization effectively. Intermediate and Advanced shooters benefit greatly from visualization, beginners, not so much. And since I tend to believe Michael on this subject over other dabblers, Gil, Vicki, and Bob, need to fine tune their efforts to the correct target audience, not beginners.

After the video viewing fiasco, Michael narrowed his practice focus. He bought a laser shotgun kit to practice his mount and hold points, he decided to use the same ammo every time he shot, and he chose one video to follow. He set a goal to always set a good visual pick up point on each post and to use a smooth swing on each target.

He improved considerably the next time he shot. Narrowing his focus to just a few key ideas helped considerably.

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Check-in 8:00 am – 10:00 am Scorecards must be turned in by 1:00 pm

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Help a guy out. He’s moving to California and wants to get rid of this Beretta A400 20 ga.

Lightly used.

Give a call to: Randall Craig 561-573-4590 15

10704 Wiles Road, Coral Springs, FL 33076 954-846-2336

“Worry more about your character than your reputation.

Character is what you are, reputation merely what others think you are.�

John Wooden,

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Calender of events: Gun Shows:

Miramar National Guard Armory Feb. 29th-Mar. 1st.

Skeet this month: Markham

March 7th

Trail Glades

March 14th

So. Florida

March 29th

Trap this month: Gulf Coast

March 8th

FL State

March 17-22nd

South Fl

March 28th

Markham

March 29th

Sporting This month: Quail Creek

March 8th

Gulf Coast

March 1st

OK Corral

March 6th

Vero Beach

March 7th

OK Corral

March 14th

Markham

March 15th

South Florida

Mar 18-22nd

Vero Beach

March 28th

Gulf Coast

March 29th

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to selfconfidence is preparation.

Arthur Ashe

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Sporting Tourney

Trap Tourney

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Youth Program

Youth Program

Youth Program

Youth Program

Youth Program

Skeet Night

Skeet Night

Skeet Night

Skeet Night

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Trap Night

Trap Night

Trap Night

Trap Night

Sporting Clays

Sporting Clays

Sporting Clays

Sporting Clays

Skeet Tourney

Skeet Night

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Skeet Tourney

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Trap Tourney

Youth Program

Youth Program

Youth Program

Youth Program

Skeet Night Skeet Night Skeet Night

Skeet Night

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Trap Night

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Trap Night Trap Night Trap Night

Trap Night

Sporting Clays Sporting Clays Sporting Clays

Sporting Tourney

Sporting Clays

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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

Gerry Stumm Memorial

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

CONCURRENTS

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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

"I don't think about the miles that are coming down the road, I don't think about the mile I'm on right now, I don't think about the miles I've already covered. I think about what I'm doing right now, just being lost in the moment."

Ryan Hall, U.S. Olympic marathoner.

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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

February Shoot Cancelled

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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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