Disc Golf

My First Clay Pigeon Shooting Experience – Now I’m Hooked

Although it wasn’t perfect, I feel that I must share my first clay busting experience; looking back it was great fun, at the time I had my doubts. I confess to not ‘busting’ as many clays as I would have liked first time out, but that was not strictly all my fault. You see, things went wrong right from the word go! I hadn’t heard about topshotsecrets coaching and support website at that time, which I’ve since seen is great for beginners and novices, so I was really starting from scratch.

Anyway may I take you back…it all started when I was invited to go clay pigeon shooting with my workmate Dave, on a very cold Sunday morning last winter, and was totally ill-prepared to have my bones well and truly frozen. I had somehow managed to squeeze myself inside a thick but too small sweater, wrapped a scarf, pulled on a white woolly/fleecy jacket and hoped for the best.  Not the best country style but I was going for warmth and comfort.  Thinking ahead, I thought that wearing my wellies would be an extremely clever move, but on reflection, how could a slither of rubber, and a pair of golf socks, possibly keep my feet warm, standing in frozen grass?

Personal comfort aside, I was as keen as mustard to ‘bust-up’ some clays, so after a mug of steaming hot coffee, and half a bacon buttie, we were ready to rock! Dave put what seemed like several kilos of shells or ‘squibs’ as he called them, into my pockets, and off we went. At the first shooting stand, I was given cool cap, a pair of protective glasses and a couple of what looked like’ lime chewits’ and told to force them in my ears, I was then thrust into the shooting cage and handed a huge shotgun, which seemed to weigh a ton.

Dave showed me how to open it, then told me to ‘stuff’ a couple of squibs in it, and shoved into in my shoulder. We were going for a dry run. “Watch over there” Dave snorts, A tiny wasp like thing went flashing by about ½ mile away, “Right” says Dave, “get on it, then give it some lead.” What?  “Aim in front of it” What?  Now I know that most sports have peculiar phrases, but it seemed as if Dave had been speaking another language from the moment we arrived at the club. I reckon it must be something similar to rhyming slang or Nokia speak, so that an outsider has no idea what they are on about. “And lean forward” says Dave. “And try and relax”, yeah, right!

Now at this stage, something was telling me, that relaxing and leaning forward, with a hundred weight of shotgun in my hands, might be just too much for my skinny little arms to bear.  Suddenly someone shouted ‘Pull’, so I pulled the trigger – seemed logical. I don’t exactly know what happened next, but it somehow reminded me of mis-catching a medicine ball at the gym, and I didn’t even hit the damn clay. I could hear Dave yelling “pull doesn’t mean shoot, it means release the clay” okay, I’d got that and we moved on.

At each new stand, “pull” sent tiny black discs flashing across the skies, no way was I going to hit any of those. But I kept plugging away and managed to connect a few times; it’s a great feeling when that happens.  Things were getting better and more fun.  More good news, my body was starting to warm up now, well, one side of my face was, in fact it was rather pink to be precise.  Bad news was dave was still in full flow: “you’re lifting your head”, “and you’re over the top”, I been accused of that before and nothing to do with shooting.

By this time, judging by the sheer volume of squibs I had fired, I must have hit something, other than the trees, and Dave confirmed that I had!  “You’ve done well”, I was told, when we had finished. “8 out of 50 is pretty good going for a first timer” At least I understood that bit!  I somehow managed to drag myself back to the warmth of a hut full of jubilant, seasoned shooters, swapping stories of how some of the clays had minds of their own and dodged out of their aim at the very last second.

One whiskered old fellow was moaning about missing 8, which was a bit of a blow to me, as I only hit 8.  After chatting to the old buzzard for a while, I realised that my first crack at clay busting had not been ideal but he wanted to help me improve. Before I knew it, a really tall bloke called Nobby was summoned over, and after a few minutes I was ushered outside for a’ proper lesson’. Nobby showed me how to stand and hold the gun, (at least Dave got the ‘lean forward’ bit right), and that felt much better straight away. Nobby then explained a few things about clay shooting which Dave had mysteriously omitted, and things started to make a little more sense.  Like:

• Pick what you think is the easiest place to bust that clay, and decide how you will achieve just that;
• Foot position is fundamental to the whole body’s ability to perform a wide, smooth, swing and follow through.
• Balance, stability and rotational flexibility will only be achievable with correct footwork.
• By placing the leading foot to point just past your ‘kill’ spot, and the other, set slightly back, and shoulder width apart, you will be at your most comfortable and relaxed position when you take the shot, and will still have plenty of flexibility left to follow through with the swing.

All good stuff and although I was physically drained by now, I agreed to have a few more shots with Nobby. I busted the next 4 out of 6 clays and immediately had a crush on Nobby, and almost asked him out on a date.  Everyone was so friendly and helpful. I was invited to come back again when the weather was little better. Goodbye’s and thank you’s were exchanged. 

As I headed home, I suddenly realised, that although I was a little bit battered and bruised, had a red face, and frozen half to death, I had actually enjoyed myself very much indeed!  Since last winter, thanks to the guys at topshotsecrets.com website, which I have now joined, I have learnt a lot from the experts online and found another great shooting instructor.  I have been out shooting clays on several occasions, each time better than the time before, and am now awaiting my certificate.

If I could leave a footnote to anyone wishing to have a go at clay shooting, it would be…although I probably had the worst possible start, it doesn’t have to be like that!  There is plenty of professional help out there to point you in the right direction. It’s a great sport and I’m definitely hooked.

About the Author

For more information and advice on shotgun shooting visit: http://www.topshotsecrets.com/ . It’s the friendly, interactive online community of like-minded, shotgun shooting enthusiasts created to improve shooting performance and enjoyment.

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