GLF GROUP

We enjoyed a great day of golf and welcomed many new members back in January at Cove Cay Golf Club. Congratulations to our winners this month:

- Closest to the pin: Jeff Marion, Mel Weinstock, Bill Protz, Bud Ogle, Pat Kaufman and David Bowers

- First Place: Tom Ritschel, Martin Morris, Dom Vazzano and Karen Brine

- Second Place: Kimberlie Bowers, Bud Ogle and Jeff Marion

- Third Place: Bekah Rush, Paul Murray, Gina BowdenPierce and Mike Kontopidis

The Passport Club invites all SPYC Members & their guests who are frequent or frequently-aspiring travelers who share our mission. There are no dues - just sign-up! Have a travel program you want to share? Contact: patsywarmack@tampabay.rr.com

by Rich Treinen

Along with the joys of shooting shotguns there is that basic need all serious hobbyists need to manage. Where do you keep all your stuff? For most of us, it’s tucked into a corner of a closet. In sport shooting, as it is with other hobbies, it starts out simple then grows, sometimes out of control. Without a good measure of selfcontrol, whether true or forced upon you, it can get unwieldly.

For most of us we start off with one gun. With that one gun you need shotgun shells. Shells come 25 to a box. For each of our weekly shoots, you need 4 boxes. Buying 100 shells every week turns out to be a lot of trips to the store. Nobody wants to hunt down shells every week, so we buy in bulk. A case has 250. Four cases are a thousand which is about right. Sometimes there’s a good bargain and you haul home 10 cases. All those shells go in a closet, next to your gun. You also have a day bag to carry your weekly 100 shells and other necessities: a few gun parts, ear plugs, eye protection, shooting vest, gloves and a tool or two. Everything is ready, all of it in your day bag, to go out the door. You put that bag in the closet next to your gun and that supply of shells. When you return home, you need stuff to clean the gun: cleaning solvents, gun oil, gun grease, rags, rods with brushes to scrub the barrel and to push a rag soaked with solvent through the gun barrel. You also need little brushes to clean the other parts of your gun and the special tools to take the gun apart. You might also have a silicone matt to protect the dining room table. You keep all this cleaning stuff in a tackle-box-looking thing. You also have that extra stuff that came with your gun, spare parts. Those parts you’ll never use. They go in the tackle box looking thing too. The tackle box looking thing is stored in the closet next to your gun, your cases of shells and your shooting bag. This is the simple one-gun case which would be the beginner or that rare shooting enthusiast with self-control. However, most of us are not happy with just one gun.

When self-control goes out the door, another gun comes in. This second gun is usually of a different gauge. It’s frequently a 20 gauge to go along with the first gun which is most often a 12 gauge. Since you can’t use a 12 gauge shell in a 20 gauge gun, you need a thousand 20 gauge shells too. The second gun could be a 28 gauge or a 410 or a different style of shotgun. There are single shot, pump, semi-automatic and double barrel (both side by side and over under) types. Most of us have multiple second guns. All your guns pile up in the closet with the particular essentials that are needed with each gun. If you also hunt game that closet is asked to swallow even more stuff. Those 1000s of target shells already in the closet, filled with smaller target-size-lead pellets, do not work for most hunting needs. Wild game shooting generally needs shells with bigger lead pellets. Shells for migratory birds, geese and ducks, are even more different. They must be shot with non-toxic pellets. In the closet you’ll need additional lead shells with game-sized-lead pellets and migratory bird shells with steel pellets. And there’s hunting clothing side too: camouflaged vests and hats with a splash of high visibility orange, brush pants, boots and waders to handle the wilds of hunting grounds. You might even need to add a camouflaged hunting gun or two so the birds won’t see you or your gun.

It's usually not long before the closet runs out of space and either the shooting stuff or the vacuum cleaner needs to go. I have never heard of a case where the vacuum cleaner did not rule the closet. Then again, a dose of self-control could have maintained harmony in the closet. Like minded SPYC members wishing to join the Wing Shooters Society are encouraged to contact Grand Marshall Frank Robinson at: fhr506@gmail.com.

by Kevin Cross, Fleet Captain